Thanksgiving in America

Here is our Thanksgiving this year up at Grandma Jill's and Grandpa Don's. This was Effy's first big holiday in America and also the biggest eating holiday of the year, so I wanted to make sure that even though she is a vegan, she still experience some of the flavors of thanksgiving. She and I made a vegan pumpkin pie, that had tofu and pumpkin in it. And then we also made rice pudding with rice, cinnamon and soy milk. Everything was really yummy. The kids did the traditional gingerbread houses. It is unfortunate though, there is never enough candy at that house! Cute Kira posing with her house.

Brynn was the queen bee cousin as always. What would life have been like if she hadn't come 4 years earlier than the rest of them? We were lucky enough to have some of Cheryl and Rex's grand kids there too. Most of the day they were playing some undercover spy game, because they were crawling on their hands and knees behind Brynn underneath tables, around chairs...totally invisible to the grown up world for sure! Thanksgiving was yummy and then the next day we went down and stayed at Grandma Margret's house in Manti so we could cut a tree up in the canuon. I love it when that house it busting with family. It doesn't seem to matter who shows up, there always seems to be enough room for everybody. As we drove up the canyon in the Land Cruiser the next day the exhaust system completely fell out from under the car. So while the kids and I went up the rest of the way with grandpa, dad waited another 2 hours for the tow truck, uhh! It wasn't nearly as much fun picking a tree without him. But we do love getting our natural tree each year. And that is one of my funniest christmas memories now. I was out shopping and I called home to Effy to see how everyone was doing and she said everyone's fine, but, "the whole tree just fell down". She said the baby was playing with it a bit and it just fell right over. "Don't worry though, it didn't fall on Alayna!"

Helloooo.....

"Here, the phone's for you!"...or is it? These girls are always on the phone. Real phones, toy phones, old cell phones. But, there are never enough! There is always a fight to be had over a phone:). Let me give you the chronology of these pictures. The top photo Alayna is watching on in jealousy as Anastyn watches Dora on Brandalyn's new I phone. Next photo, Alayna needed my phone and wanted to "watch Dora" on it too. Third photo, she is sadly disappointed at her mom's inferior phone capabilities. Now that Brandalyn has had her phone for a while it doesn't seem to be as big of a novelty, but I would still like a phone with the internet. Watching Dora while running errands could be mighty nice!

Girl's Trip!!!!

 

Well this post is LONG overdue, but I couldn't pass it up. Back in November we all had a trip down to St. George and Las Vegas planned. The sad thing was, I had a certain date all penciled in my head and even told Mary that date, but that was not even close to the date that everyone else was planning on. How did I get all this wrong you might be asking yourself? Who knows...but I remember one Sunday Seth came home from church and told me that Gordon said that he should be ready to watch the kids that coming weekend. I told him Gordon must be confused. But much to my dismay, I was the one confused! I thought we were leaving on Nov. 23rd, but really we were leaving on the weekend of Nov. 5th. Ahhh! I really felt like throwing up...I thought for sure the trip was ruined because of my stupidity. But, thanks to Seth's sweet mom and sister I was able to go knowing the kids safe and happy and Mary found arrangements for her kids also. I really like writing things on my calendar now!!! 

In the picture above we are at the Tanger outlets in Las Vegas. In the Quicksilver store we found hoodies on sale and we quickly decided we all needed one because it was rainy and so chilly outside. Soon into our looking Brandalyn thought it would be great if we all got matching jackets, you know like the pink ladies on "Grease". Sadly, a few of us diverged to other colors and styles, but a few of us were twiners. You can find Brandalyn and I sporting matching jackets from time to time back home. The picture directly above us was taken in some high security store, where we were asked not to take any more photos...it was against their store policy, whatever! And... gotta have yummy Olive Garden to finish off a few hours of tough shopping. what fun though! I love being in dressing rooms with these girls trying on jeans, when there are about 30 pair floating around and lots complaints about our bodies, but lots of reassuring friends to let you know that no matter how long it takes there is the perfect pair in that stack somewhere for you!

This trip came to a close way too fast! We ended up staying at my mom and dad's house, which was great because it was free( thanks mom and dad!) and we could all bunk in the same place. I loved getting ready in the morning and having my hair done. I hate to do my hair! It takes too long and these girls can make it look so much better than I can. I think another reason why these little getaways are so much fun for me is I have never had a sister and sleeping over, watching girly movies, doing hair and make up, that was just not what my brothers were into...weird, I know! I watched way too much Rambo and Rocky growing up:(. 

We did venture out into the hot tub, even though it was not that warm. I would've wimped out and stayed in had these girls not pushed me to get out there. But once we took the dip, it was so nice! Brandalyn was very persistent in trying to get the perfect picture of all of us. Too much steam kept clouding up. Thank goodness she won't stop until she gets the right shot! And then this picture of Lawni and Brandalyn, I love it! It is exactly how I feel about these girls. All of them! A couple ladies flew the coop and moved away, but we will just have to keep this girls' trip tradition alive. I can't tell you how much I loved it! Friends are rare gifts and I'm pretty lucky to have these ladies:)