Thanksgiving

We had a great thanksgiving with the Taylors in Cedar City. My whole family was there except Andy's family. We missed them terribly. But the rest of us gathered and had a fabulous time eating A LOT, visiting, and playing. It was a crazy house with all those rowdy kids running around--9 in all. We had the best time playing games after 8 p.m. when the kiddies were asleep. Ahhh, bedtime. Anyway, Tige deep-fried the turkey and my mom went all out with the fixins and pies as she usually does. We ate fabulous meals all weekend. My mom is amazing. I didn't end up with a lot of great pictures--I guess I was busy playing--but here are a few so I can remember the holiday. Kason came home from school Wednesday with this "Indian" outfit and another "Pilgrim" outfit that they made in kindergarten. Holy moly, I'm glad I'm not a kindergarten teacher.

Tige holding the babies. I didn't get to hold any babies all weekend because I had a cold so I tried to stay away. Tige, Kason & Abby all have colds too. Not how we hoped to spend the holiday.

David & Clark and their new babies.

We had Jeff's family to give gifts to for Christmas this year. Since we'll be with the Hazleton's for Christmas, we exchanged presents at Thanksgiving. I made 2 years of their blog into a bound book for them. I was so excited for them to open it. I think they really liked it. I'm excited to put my own 2009 blog into a book once the year is finished (as I did last year).

Little Adam got a new hat I made and a color-wonder book.

The siblings went in together to get my parents a fancy popcorn popping machine for the theatre room at the cabin. They were very excited when they opened it.

Kason and the other 2 nephews got these rocket balloons from my parents (the ones that squeal when you let them go and they fly all over the place). We went down to my dad's school one afternoon and let them run around and set off their squealing rocket balloons.

The 5 oldest grandkids loved having bedtime stories from their favorite Auntie Julie. There are 5 more little grandbabies who are too little to have experienced my talent for reading books.

Kason & the girls got to go to the Heritage Tree Festival (while the other boys were getting Christmas Trees on the mtn). The girls were so excited to see Snow White. I'm not sure Kason knew who she was.

On our way to the North Pole at the Tree Festival. He got to talk to Santa, and I already can't remember what he asked for for Christmas, but he changes his mind daily, so I suppose it doesn't matter.

Family pics

The other day we went with Clark's family, and I took some pictures of them, and Clark took some pictures of us. So I thought I'd post a few family shots. I've decided it's pretty hard to get a good family picture with a wiggly 14 month old.

Soccer

Soccer season is finished (finally)! It has consumed our every Saturday since the middle of September, so we're a little glad it's over. Kason was on the "silver sharks" team (guess who named them), and had a great time. He scored at least 1-2 goals every game and was definitely a star player.

His team: Junior, Dusty, Kason, Talon, Nathan, Thomas

I love the look of pure bliss on his face.

Birthday Boy!

I can't believe my boy is 6 years old! He had a great birthday yesterday. With parent/teacher conferences at school this week, he didn't have kindergarten. So he got to open his presents from us in the morning, and then we had a birthday party in the afternoon with 6 of his friends and cousins (Taye, Nathan, Brock, Paige, Jeremiah & Jacob). It was a "penny carnival" theme. Then we went out to dinner. It was a fun day.

Kason was thrilled about the Scooter he got for his birthday. He's been riding it on our back patio ever since.

He was also very happy about this 3-D chalk set he got. Hope it works!


Balloon around the ankle pop.


Penny games at his party. They had to drop the pennies from waist height and try to fill all 12 egg carton slots. Kason was a cheater and kept bending down to drop his penny.

6 pennies in the spoon race. This was rather hilarious as the kids couldn't keep 6 pennies in their spoon even standing still, much less while they were racing.

Penny toss--trying to get one in the circle. They loved this.

Penny tower stacking. After the penny games, they all got a "medal" that I'd made out of ribbon, felt, and pennies. I'm not sure my hard work was completely appreciated.

Little blow toys. All fun and games til someone gets poked in the eye!

Blowing out the candles. The cake was a gumball machine with a penny on it. Turned out pretty cute.

Cake & Ice Cream.

Dinner at Texas Roadhouse, where they put Kason on a saddle and had the restaurant big him a big birthday "Yee-haw!"

By the time the day was over, I was soooo exhausted and ready for bed. Birthday parties are tons of work. My mom reminded me that she only gave us parties every-other year. Perhaps that's a very good idea!

Missing Daddy

Tige has been working out of town this week, and we've been missing him fiercely! We can't wait until tomorrow night when he's back. I thought I'd post a couple of pictures I took of him and the kiddies last week. Drive home safe daddy. We love you!

Early birthday

Tige is out of town this week, so to break up our long week, we drove up to my parents house today. My mom made a fabulous "asteroid" birthday cake for Kason with ice cream in the center so we could celebrate his birthday early with them. They gave him a tennis racquet and a ocean sounds book that has sound bites of the ocean, dolphins, whales, etc with each page. He already loves it. Thanks mom & dad for making him feel special for his birthday.

Happy Halloween

The afternoon of Halloween we headed over to Clark & Char's house to attend their neighborhood party. Abby had just woken up from a nap, and as you can see, she was NOT happy to be posing for a picture. Char made her kids costumes from scratch (Tigeress from Kung Fu Panda and a Bionicle). She seriously makes the rest of us look bad. Kason wanted to be spiderman for the second year in a row, which was FINE BY ME!

Flower Abby. Right after the above picture. Just needed her daddy to hold her.

Out trick-or-treating. Abby was so good in her stroller (with cheerios) as Kason collected TONS of candy. He loved it.

Earlier on Saturday, Kason had a soccer game. This is Abby's cute Halloween outfit, complete with a candy corn bow.

Carving pumpkins earlier this week. As you can see, Tige always makes good use of his drill when carving his (Kason's) pumpkin. I carved the happy face for Abby's, and mine was finished before Tige hardly got started.

Last year Kason hated digging the guts out. He remembered how much he hated it and didn't want to get his hands messy. But we forced him to help, and he decided it wasn't so bad this year.