Thanksgiving Turkeys

We enjoyed a LOVELY Thanksgiving this year thanks to my Parents again for all the help. We did the traditional meal and I'm getting hungry just thinking about it!

20lb Turkey basted in a butter/white wine sauce

Mashed potatoes- thanks Dad

Sausage stuffing- thanks Dad

Cranberry salad- thanks Dad

Fresh veggie tray- thanks Mom

Sweet potatoes- thanks Mom

Homemade rolls- thanks me (and Jenny Jarvis for the YUMMY recipe)

Fresh green beans- thanks me

Gramma Jarvis' lemon pie- thanks Mom

Dad's famous pumpkin pie- thanks Dad

WOW... I HARDLY DID ANYTHING!! We would've had a pretty pathetic dinner if my parents didn't come! I feel really dumb now. Well, I learned alot from those 2 cookers and maybe one day Mia will let me help her make an amazing Thanksgiving feast for her family and share the love. Te Amo Mama y Papa.

What a good big brother! Micah loves his animal books.

Here's my helper Jake shoveling snow into piles on the deck. Not sure if he removed any snow but it looks like he's having fun anyway!
Here's Mia making some sugar cookies that my Mom helped them make turkeys out of! (pictures to come) Notice the GAP in her mouth where her 2 front teeth used to be. The tooth fairy is a frequent visitor around our house these days.

Here's Luke with the cute stuff his Kindergarten class worked on in November. The Turkey was a project the teacher asked us to do at home and it was a blast!

Halloween 2010

What a blast! I hate to say this but there was a time in my life when Halloween was my VERY LEAST favorite holiday. I HATED IT!!! I swore up and down that my family would NOT take part in this Pagan Sugarfest
.....and then
.
.
.
I had kids.

My whole outlook changed. I found myself looking at costumes and daydreaming about kind of facepaint I could put on my kids and buying wigs and candy and pretty soon I realized that Halloween is pretty friggin fun! My kids love it and I now look forward to it every year. I am SO grateful that we can enjoy the holiday at our annual church Halloween party instead of going door to door in the frigid Montana fall weather. Here are this years costumes (ALL purchased LAST YEAR at Target a couple days after Halloween for 75% off.)

Happy Big 1 Micah!

1 year old. Can you believe it? 1 year old?? Isn't he still just a tiny newborn? Wasn't he just barely smiling and trying to crawl? I'm crying. How does that make you feel, Micah? You made your Mama cry!! I love my babies but boy they don't stay babies for very long. POOR!

My Family's BFF.....THE TRAMPOLINE!

I love our trampoline more than I love our dog. The kids have so much fun and it still isn't old. If it's hot...the sprinkler-under-the-tramp saves a trip to the pool and the pictures are SOOO hilarious!

latest family pics

Well, these aren't super great but we've decided that will never happen with 4 kids so we just take what we can get.

"Ok kids, I'm just gonna take a few pictures really quick so look nice, ok?" This is what I get to look at and laugh at every day...jealous? You can't really tell but Mia's wrists are pretty much backwards. I don't know what she's doing but it scares me!

"NO! Seriously..can't you just smile? Jake, get your finger outta your nose! Luke, quit saying "cheese" like the guy from Wallace & Grommit - it's getting annoying! Mia, you're gonna drop him..look out!!"

"Finally! Good thing we have a digital camera and can go through the 25 pics I just took to find 1 semi-decent one. 'K kids go tell Dad it's his turn to join us."

That's Luke's version of "Blue Steel" from Zoolander. He looks pretty good, I think!

February in St George = HEAVEN ON EARTH

We decided to escape the awful gloom and snow and have a mini vacay down South. We got there just in time to share some birthday cake with Sayde Kay (I can't believe she's a teen!). The red rocks were so lovely and it was so warm we wished we had brought the shorts and flip-flops. I love the Lee's location...the cliffs behind there house are so fun to explore. These pics are crappy because I took them with my phone but this is our favorite hike to "Cave Town". St George, I love you.

Mini "Hole in the Rock"

I did not in any way tell the kids to pose like this...they just did when I counted to three...what NERDS! It reminded me of Rocky at the top of those stairs.

I love premade fondant!

So here's the next cake adventure Britt and I embarked upon. Cecilee requested a bday cake for her husband's surprise party and we were more than excited to try! I think it turned out pretty good for our first 2 level cake. We spent way more on the tools and supplies but we look forward to making more in the future.

LUUUUUKE - - - I AM YOUR FFFAAAATTHHHEERR

No surprise--Luke wanted a Star Wars party but that was too expensive so we went with a Space party with a couple of fun Star Wars thingys thrown in. My BFF Brittany helped me create this Solar System that was TOTALLY EDIBLE! We just let each kid pick a "planet" they wanted to eat and I fell in love with Fondant. So fun! Happy 5th, Lukie!!

December pics

Here's this year's tree. Isn't it lovely?? It's from Home Depot and a zillion needles would fall off if you looked at it wrong. I say next year we save our pennies for a fake one.

Mia's school did a Christmas Program and it was absolutely adorable. I was so glad the school was not afraid to sing actual "Christmas" songs! They did "Away in a Manger", "Santa Clause is Coming to Town", "Two Front Teeth", "The Snowflake Song", "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer", and a couple others. Mia was hilarious! She was the only kid who took a HUGE bow after each song. (all the kids were supposed to bow when they were done singing all their songs.) Oh no, not Mia...she's such a drama queen. :)

BABY MICAH'S HHHUUUUNNNNGGGGRRRRYYYYY. GIVE ME FOOD, MAMA!!