Thanksgiving

This post is about 2 holidays late, but that is the way we roll...
A few days before Thanksgiving, we made these funny little turkeys. I had the kids write (or tell me to write) some of the things they were thankful for on the feathers and I thought they turned out cute. It was funny to see what different things the 2 kids came up with. We had recently written our Santa letters, so Rylee included things she had written to Santa for as her blessings. If you can't tell, Rylee's feathers say: Baby Dolls, Avery, Logan, Princess Stuff (that was in her letter to Santa), Family, Jesus and House.

Here is Logan's - He wrote a lot of his himself so it is a little harder to read. His feathers say: Jesus, Family, Rylee, Christmas, turkey, School and Aggie Games. I thought it was so funny that he said turkey! They did a little unit on turkeys at preschool and Logan knew all about them and was SO excited to eat it on Thanksgiving. He even told Grandma Pat that she made the best turkey in the world! I love my little turkeys!

Here is Rylee all ready to go on Thanksgiving morning. We spent Thanksgiving with the Webber side of the family this year, so we had a 2 hour drive to get there. I knew that Rylee's hair would be a mess so I made her take a picture before we left the house. Sure enough....5 minutes into the drive and her hair was all over the place! Isn't she cute? Here is proof that I do acutally do her hair - it just never lasts!

Rylee was SO excited to go to Grandma's for Thanksgiving and to see her cousin Raegan that lives in North Carolina!

Here are 3 of my greatest blessings!!! I love these cute kids!

Avery doesn't look like she is enjoying this too much.

Avery and Rylee in their cute little hats.

Avery had croup the week before Thanksgiving so we weren't too sure if we should go to Thanksgiving dinner. We decided that it wasn't fair to keep the other kids away and we didn't want to split up for Thanksgiving since it was far away, so we decided to just all go and keep her away from everyone. You would have never known she was sick - She was as happy as ever and rarely coughed, but when she did it was so yucky! So, we spent a good part of Thanksgiving upstairs in Grandma's craft room hanging out by ourselves away from the other kids. I got bored so I took a few pictures of Avery on her 1st Thanksgiving. She ended up sleeping for a LONG time after dinner, so I was able to go and visit with everyone for awhile then.

Me and Avery hanging out in Grandma's craft room

Rylee at dinner - I think she was the last little kid at the table! She ate and ate and ate!!! We ALL sat at one huge table - well a couple of tables pushed together - I wish I would have taken a picture. It was pretty insane! There are 7 kids in Darren's family and each has a spouse (or fiance), plus Darren's parents and 18 grandkids and 2 guests. That is a grand total of 36!

Logan enjoying his turkey. He asked Grandma for more turkey because it was the best in the world! He was SO excited for this dinner all week and eating turkey...especially because it meant that Christmas was next!

We took dessert, so Darren made some delicious pumpkin pies and I made these funny little turkey cupcakes for the kids. I thought they turned out kind of cute for being thrown together at the last minute.

Rylee and Raegan. She LOVES when she can play with Rae! They played so cute together all day!

Cute Avery on her first Thanksgiving

One without the hat - I love all that hair!

I finally found Logan and made him get a Thanksgiving picture, too. I didn't notice until after that he must have had a bloody nose earlier....

At dinner, Darren's family has a tradition of going around the table and saying what they are thankful for. The first year I went to Thanksgiving with his family was right after we were married and I bawled like a baby. Since my brother-in-law Cory was on his mission (he is the one to cry in the family), I was the ONLY one to cry, so I felt pretty dumb! This time, I was determined NOT to cry! When it was my turn, I just said "Family" and stopped so that I didn't cry, and even that was a close call! Then everyone else went on for quite awhile and I was just about the only one to NOT cry this time. Who knew? I really am SO grateful for my family and I think that from them come most of my blessings! We are so grateful to be close to our family and have so much great support. I am especially grateful for our little family and my wonderful husband and 3 amazing kids that make me laugh and smile everyday and make life so worthwhile! I love them so much! I am grateful for the gospel which teaches us about the importance of families and helps us be closer and also together forever! We have so much to be grateful for!!! Especially this year for a new healthy baby who is so sweet and special!

The day after Thanksgiving is one of my favorite days ever! I love it! I spend weeks preparing for my Black Friday shopping spree! I actually didn't even go to sleep that night. My mom and I made a late night run to Walgreen's for something at about 10 pm Thanksgiving night. When we got back, it was pretty late, but we found some Black Friday items from Toys 'R us and Walmart online, so we did some online shopping and by the time I was done, it was around 2 or 3 am. Avery woke up to eat and by the time I fed her, it was about 3:30. We were supposed to leave at 4:30, so I didn't think there was any point going to sleep and just stayed up for another hour. That morning we hit Walmart, The Children's Place and Crazy 8 and then ran home to feed the baby and went to Target, Shopko, Michael's and walked in and back out of Kohl's. (Their lines were CRAZY!) We were home again by eleven or so. It was great! I got most of my shopping done and scored some awesome deals and had lots of fun with my mom and sister and new sister-in-law. Sadly, no pictures! We were going to make matching Black Friday shirts or wear some football helmets to initiate Laura to the madness, but we didn't get it done. Maybe next year. Later that afternoon, my cousin Rikki was in town from Californina visiting and came over with her kids. We attempted a little craft and got a rare picture of the kids together. We are missing one - My other cousin's little boy wasn't there, but it is pretty amazing to get this many together! They aren't smiling, but what can you expect? Here are Ben, Maddie, Rylee, Bella, Ethan, Avery and Logan

I was the one who pulled an all nighter, but Logan was pretty exhausted, too! I thought it was so funny that he fell asleep like this watching TV with Grandpa. What a pose.

Sweet boy! I love his lashes! If you can't tell, we had a great holiday and wore ourselves out! We were also getting SO excited for the holiday season to come and CHRISTMAS! Hopefully, I can get those pictures posted soon!