Friday Fun!

We had quite the busy Friday! We started off our day by watching Santa and Mrs. Claus fly in on a helicopter. We do this every year and we love it! The kids were so excited to see Santa, but Tessa was really disappointed that it wasn't snowing. 

She was shivering, but refused to wear her coat because it would cover up her purple ensemble. 

Ma and Gwen

Pa always gets the cutest pictures of the kids!

Tessa was quick to notice the jewelry store across the parking lot. She told us, "Look! There is the jewelry store!" When we asked her how she knew it was a jewelry store, she said, "Because there is a diamond on it and the word Jewelry." Her poor, poor husband!

Santa and Mrs. Claus both thought Gwen was darling. We were impressed that Santa didn't make her cry since all of her Uncle's do.

Adam and Tessa both go to shake Santa's hand! They were so happy to see him!

Mommy and Tessa got to have a special afternoon together. Since Adam has been going to lots of basketball and football games with Daddy, we thought it would be nice for Tessa to do something special. She has been asking to go to Build-a-Bear for years now. Her wish finally came true!

She picked out a kitty cat to be her new friend. 

She helped put in the kitty voice, the heart, and all the stuffing. 

She loved helping make her new friend, Lucky and was dying to hold her. 

She gave Lucky a very good bath and then we picked out an outfit and a kitty bed for Lucky to sleep in at night. 

She was SO happy!!

We got a little treat on our way home. Mommy got a nibble of Tessa's chocolate treat before she shoved the whole thing in her mouth. That's our Princess:)

Adam and Daddy had a super awesome evening! Eric got 2 Jazz tickets from work so they boys headed up to the game last night. Adam was thrilled to find out the Jazz would be playing the Sacramento Kings (Jimmer's team) and their seats were in the 7th row!! Adam was a little conflicted on who to cheer for, so he decided on "GO JIMMER-JAZZ!!!"

 He almost got a high-five from Jimmer when the Kings came out of their locker room. 

The Jazz pulled off an amazing win-thanks to Adam's favorite, Gordon Hayward. They had lots of fun cheering on their team!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day. We spent the morning at home, watching the Macy's parade, having a tea party, building new buildings in Adam's city, doing homework, and making food for our yummy turkey dinner. It was Gwen's first Thanksgiving and she ended the day with a belly full of potatoes and rolls. 

 Our little Turkey

 We spent the afternoon and evening at Mamma and Bampa's house. We had a yummy dinner and had fun playing with our cousins. 

 Adam, Tessa, and Ellie

 Ready to eat!

 Zeke and Gwen

 Gwen did really well feeding herself a roll. 

 We spent the evening, visiting, coloring Thanksgiving pictures, playing basketball, watching "Brave", and we sang Happy Birthday to Mamma. We put trick candles on her cake, so all the kids got to help blow them out. We are so thankful for Mamma and all that she does for us! She's a wonderful Mamma, Mom, and Mother-in-law. We are so lucky to have her!

It was a very nice and relaxing Thanksgiving. Once dinner was over the kids were ready to put up Mamma and Bampa's Christmas tree. They are anxious to get the Christmas season started!

Thanksgiving Countdown

Day 4-Popcorn on the Cob

The kids glued popcorn onto some cob pictures and we were supposed to watch Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, but we weren't able to get it. Hopefully next year. 

 We have been reading all of our Thanksgiving books. I love when I find the kids with a pile of books. Even Gwen loves looking at books. 

 Day 3-Thumbprint Turkey's. 

Adam and Tessa each made a turkey out of their thumbprints. 

 Day 2-Indian Vests

We made our traditional paper bag Indian vests. They both made Thanksgiving hats at school, so we just did the vests this year. Adam filled his vest with Indian symbols he learned at school. Tessa made up her own symbols for things like Squid and Jelly Fish. Creatures the Indians ran into often, I'm sure. That's our Tessa Boo for you!

 We also played a Thanksgiving alphabet game and Pin the Feather on the Turkey. 

They are excited to watch the parade tomorrow morning and spend the afternoon at Mamma and Bampa's house. We are so thankful to live close to our families!

Thanksgiving Countdown

We have had much to be thankful for this week! It has been a busy week getting ready for Uncle Matt's wedding, but we have loved being with all of our family. 

We tried to keep up with our countdown activities with everything else we had going on. 

Day 10-Thankful Place Mats

Adam and Tessa made Thankful Place Mats to use the rest of the month. They had fun cutting things from magazines or drawing things they were thankful for.

 Day 9-Thanksgiving Bingo

On Wednesday we played Thanksgiving Bingo and helped Adam with a special project for school.

Each first grader was asked to disguise a turkey. They could decorate or color their turkey however they wanted to disguise it and then they had to write about why they turkey was trying to hide. 

Adam wanted to make his turkey a basketball player. We made a Kings jersey and basketball for the turkey and Adam colored everything else. For his story, Adam said that his turkey ran into the Kings locker room and put on a jersey so the farmer wouldn't recognize him.

On Wednesday I started baking for the wedding. I realized at one point during the day that it was much easier to cater without a 10 month old "helping" me in the kitchen. Here is a glimpse at Gwen's handy work.  

Day 8-Hand Print Turkey's

Adam and Tessa made Hand Print Turkey's and wrote what they are thankful for on the feathers.

Adam was thankful for Teddy Elephant, food, our family, and basketball.

Tessa was thankful for Gwen, crowns, mommy, and cookies.

 Day 7 was sacrificed to wedding preparations. I catered Matt and Briette's wedding and it went so well! The wedding was beautiful and I got so many compliments on the food. I made 2 flavors of cake balls, pumpkin harvest cupcakes, sugar cookies and had a caramel apple bar. All the work was worth it!

 Day 6 was spent with family-being thankful for our family and thankful for the temple and eternal marriage. We are so happy for Matt and Briette! Their special day was wonderful. Their nieces and nephews adore them!

Poor little Gwen was such a good girl all through the wedding festivities. She did so well considering how busy I was all day. She eventually crashed on Eric's shoulder and got a little nap. 

Day 5-Turkey Pictures

We spent Sunday at Mamma and Bampa's house playing with cousins. We took our activity over there for everyone to do. Each of the older kids colored turkey's and then proudly displayed them in Mamma's kitchen. 

 We love playing with our cousins! We ventured over to the park and had fun on the playground. 

 Zeke, Tessa, and Paige

 Zeke, Adam, and Wynn

 Eric got everyone playing Freeze Tag. 

 We played some Duck, Duck, Goose and then Adam was thrilled to play a game of basketball with Daddy, Big Uncle Ben, and Wynnie. 

It's been a fun weekend and we are so excited for a fun Thanksgiving in a few more days!