Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving brought some excitement for us this year.  Though my sister and her family were able to travel from New York to be with us, they sadly brought a bit of a sickie with them.  To play it safe, we decided to avoid sharing germs with the extended family at Grandma's and did our own Thanksgiving feast.  The kids were pretty happy with their themed placemats which they got to decorate and play with.

 

A quick run to the local PickNSave supplied us with a small turkey breast and some rolls, which completed our meal.  Aaron had the honors of 'carving the turkey', as head of household.

LaNita and Josh - SO glad you could come and share with us!

Me and Aaron - just coming down with sniffles.

Cole was content to chase cheerios and pomagranate seeds around his tray.

Before ills befell, LaNita and I, between us, had been in charge of a fruit salad (pomagranate salad), a veggie (broccoli salad), mashed potatoes and smashed roots, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, and a meat/cheese/cracker tray.  With our quick run to get rolls and turkey, we really did have quite a feast.  My sweet next-door neighbor noticed we were home and inquired why, and was quick to share a pumpkin pie, since she said they had several.  We were very blessed!

Cousin Time at the Zoo!

While LaNita and her family were here, we took advantage of our zoopass and we sisters went to the zoo with the four youngest (Evie still had school that day).  What I love about this picture is that the only one looking at the camera...is the baby gorilla figurine. :)

Watching the fish that were as big was they were.

The kids and I almost never see the bears out, but we were SUPER lucky, because nearly ALL the bears were out this day!  Three bears at once, and there were several other photoraphers there (with super awesome cameras and lenses) vying for great shots of the beautiful animals.

Lizzie and Dallas, with a couple of swans in the background - that's the two white dots.

My pretty girl knows how to strike a pose!

Carson Turned Three!

Happy Birthday, Little Man!

 

Carson's in a very happy train phase.  So, naturally, for his birthday party, we centered on trains.  There was a train of food cars - fruits and veggies and pretzels in the 'cars' - going around two sandwich towers and dip ponds.  We were using our imaginations here. :)

 

Grandma B and Aunt Linnea made some cupcakes and decorated them with train tracks and a train.

 

Cute table setup. 

 

We were also lucky enough to have Aunt LaNita and her family join us for the week surrounding Carson's birthday and Thanksgiving.  Here we have the kids, my three oldest and their cousin, Dallas.

 

Our big gift to Carson was a train table.  His face says it all here! 

 

He knew just what to do with it! 

 

He was only mildly interested to see what Grandma's box held - until he saw MORE trains!

 

Daddy got right to helping make the awesome track.

 

Carson loves it!

We also received a belated gift from a friend who couldn't make it - another little Thomas set!  He is loving having so many trains and tracks!

 

Thanks to LaNita, Grandma and Linnea for making Carson's birthday so much fun!

 

Carson's current favorites:

song: ABC's

color:black

food: apples

scripture story: Nephi's courage (uses song)

tv show: Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood

movie: Thomas and Friends

book: Little Blue Truck

game: Hullabulloo

 

Happy Birthday Carson-Man!

Before/After Upstairs Bathroom

Before we began, when we first moved into this house, the upstairs bathroom looked like this:

The problems were as follow: a) the tub had a hard time draining. This was due (as we found when the floor was ripped up) to the distance from the main drain and all the elbow pipes used to get to said main.  b) the toilet was too close to c) the un-neccesary double sink.  This meant our larger bottoms put our thighs right against the cupboard and wall, the toilet paper was at an odd place, and the sink was half-useless. And d) there was an entire useless corner between the end of the tub and the sinks.

 

NOW we have this beautiful-ness!