Sibling Thanksgiving

All my siblings gathered at my place for Thanksgiving this year.  We had the best time!  I hope we can find other reasons to gather together as siblings in the near future.  My kids all seem to know each Aunt and Uncle by name and face very well now and that alone made the hecticness of hosting that many people totally worth it.

Kylie, Nathan, Benazir, and I all ran the Thanksgiving Point Pilgrim 5K run the morning of Thanksgiving.  They gave us all pilgrim getup to wear as part of the race.

 It was hilarious to see all these "pilgrims" running around.  We pushed the kids in strollers which turned out to be quite the feat since the course followed the golf cart path at Thanksgiving Point, and it was very steep and hilly.  Carter got cold and cried for the last mile or so of the race and then a half hour after until he finally warmed up.  (He always seems to be more sensitive to the cold than my other kiddos).

Then, we had a fabulous late lunch. I did almost all the cooking (which I didn't mind at all...kind of really enjoyed it actually) while everyone else entertained my kids.  I started the night before Thanksgiving, and it continued for most of the next day.  We made Mom's famous stuffing and cranberry sauce (with probably half the sugar and all of us agreed we like it that way much more).  I brined the turkey overnight (something my Dad put me onto a few years back) which really seemed to keep it moist and give it great flavor.  The rest Kylie was pretty much in charge of googling and shouting out ingredients and instructions to me as we went.  (Everything except the green beans--so all the most important stuff).

 I sent Derek and the kids off to his family's celebration after our dinner, and my siblings and I enjoyed some kid-free game time.  In fact, all weekend we spent lots of tine playing games.  We had a blast.  We went for a hike in Rock Canyon one morning since the weather was in the 50s! 

We did attempt to see the lights at Temple Square.  Please remind me never to try that again on the first Saturday they are turned on especially when there is a jazz game the same night.  Too much traffic, no parking, and waaaay too crowded to enjoy.   But, overall we had just a fabulous time.  It was so nice to spend quality time with my siblings.  Love you all so much!

Novemever Museum of Natural Curiosity Visit

My good friend and old roomate, Ashley found herself in town the week of Thanksgiving.  And since, I knew my week would be packed with all my siblings coming for the holiday we decided to meet her at the Museum of Natural Curiosity the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.  And we didn't decide this until 15 minutes before we left.  I was quite impressed that I got myself showered and dressed and everyone else dressed and ready to leave for that outing in 15 minutes!

I'm not gonna lie, I always get a little panicked at that museum with all my kids and do not like to go alone.  I decided I'd try it since Ash and her husband Josh were going.  At one point, a museum worker got after me about my kids not wearing shoes and that it was museum policy that all kids wear shoes at all times.  I kinda wanted to give her a piece of my mind because at that moment, the fact that my kids did not have shoes on was definitely the least of my worries.  But instead, I smiled and said of course and made all 3 kids put their shoes back on and continued on my merry way trying not to to lose one of them in the chaos. 

A few pictures from the day. 

 They had this magic section and the kids could put their heads in this "mysterious floating head display."  On the outside you appear to be walking past a magic shop store window when all the sudden a light pops on with a head floating above a table.  It was hilarious, and Liv got a kick out of that.




And as you can see, she is thrilled with delight about getting to pet this bearded dragon:

The Usual Miscellaneous

First kid black eye.

 Carter walked behind Liv swinging on the swing set and she plowed right into him.  His eye was good and purple for a couple weeks.

Liv's birthday dry erase board and markers have been banished to her room, but the boys frequently break in there and emerge with all kinds of body graffiti.  This was one day right before we needed to hop in the car to take Liv to school.

Yeah, instead we threw all the kids in the bath real quick, got everyone dressed again and then zoomed off to school.

Camden making out with a doll in the doll stroller.  He gets around.
Carter has become quite the daddy's boy.  He frequently cries for daddy and only lets daddy brush his teeth, get him dressed, hold him all that sort of stuff.  I love it!
My chef Camden:

And the breakfast he made me one morning.


We hit up Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point one more time during the last nice week of the year.

All the kids of course loved the pony rides.  I let the boys ride around all by themselves without spotting them for the first time mostly because I didn't have any other option.

Derek left me alone with the boys one Sunday to get ready all by myself while he set up chairs.  This was just one of the many disasters.

 (Camden covered in my mascara).  At some point both boys got naked and were running all over the house threatening to pee on the floor.

I passed my board re-certification exam.  I was so relieved!  It was hard.  And, so hard for me to try to study with all these crazies running around all the time.  Glad I don't have to do that for another 10 years.

The kids at the window the morning of our first snow this year.

They just called me to be the gospel doctrine teacher in our ward.  It's Old Testament year.  AHHHH!  Honestly, besides being called to be the Relief Society President, I can think of another calling I would fear more.  My computer desk permanently adorned with old testament commentary books, my phone logged into the institute lessons on the gospel library app, both sets of scriptures...

Liv has been attending BYU games with her Dad.  Yeah it's that season of the year again.  Here they are freezing at a football game.

The Boys Turn 2!

Yeah I can't believe my boys are two.

Stats from the recent well-child are as follows:

Camden- Weight: 25.5 lbs (18%), Height: 32 3/4 in (17 %), and his second toe lies on top of his third toe of each foot which the pediatrician informed me will likely need surgery at age 4!!!  (Was not prepared for that).

Carter- Weight: 25.25 lbs (12%), Height 32 3/4 in (17%).  No surgical concerns, doesn't talk as much as Camden, but he does have a whole lot more teeth.

They received a package from Poppi and Grandma Nadine and Uncle Mitch on the same day.

So much excitement and so much styrofoam popcorn all over my house.

 It felt like Christmas they got so much stuff and everyone sent stuff for Liv too.  One such thing was this Olaf whom Camden has taken and interest in.  This is him sitting next to Olaf and trying to share some of his birthday cake with him.

The Carolyn cake.  It was so cute.

My least favorite toy- only because it has gotten caught in a neighbor girl's hair, Liv's hair, London's hard, a little pony's hair.

 It has finally run out of batteries and I like it a lot better.  I don't think I will replace the batteries.

We had a big family dinner with cake and ice cream the Sunday night before the boys' bday.  They shared the occasion with their Grandpa.  Carter is very good at blowing out candles.  Camden  not so much.  He's 0/3.  We usually end up blowing it out for him before he burns his face on them.  That's right 3 cakes!  One from Carolyn, one from Diane, one from their nursery leader.

 On Monday night (their actual) birthday we took all the kids swimming at the Orem rec.  I wish I had pictures or videos or something, but I was too afraid of bringing my phone near the water.  All the kids loved it!  Now Liv says she wants to go swimming on her birthday next year.  The kids were crazy in the water.  Our little Carter was shivering the whole time- always does when he gets in the water, but he loved it nonetheless.  They have put in a huge tube water slide and we could do down it with all the kids.  The only problem was there was only two of us and three kids that were not big enough to go down alone.  We took turns staying with two kids while one of us went down with another one.