Can you believe I didn't even bring my camera to Thanksgiving dinner? Yep. Sad, but I was getting 4 kids in the car after making rolls that morning to bring for dinner. I just plain forgot!Dinner was great and the company even better. We were at my mom's house this year and everyone in my immediate family was there... and Steve's little brother, James, as well! Lots of food, pie, chatting, and football. Just how it should be.Friday morning my sister and I went out to catch a few Black Friday deals... we were only out by 6am though (not with the crazies at midnight or 3 or 4am). We decided there was nothing worth missing our precious sleep for. ;) We did meet up with Alex and my mom, Grandma Deanna, and Aunt Susan at Pizza Factory for our annual lunch. A good way to end the shopping day.That night the kids watched A Christmas Carol together before bed because my sister and her family moved over to stay at our house from my mom's.
How cute is Cole and Cohen in that first picture hugging? I didn't even notice that until I uploaded my pictures.Saturday was a pretty relaxing morning with Pumpkin Spice pancakes for breakfast and hubbies off playing basketball. Mical did her daughter, Callie's, hair all cute with pin curls and Scarlett was dying to get in on that... So Mical was kind enough to try even with her baby fine hair.
And the finished product...
It fell flat fairly quickly, but was darling until then.We headed up to Salt Lake City to see the lights at Temple Square as is our tradition on the weekend of Thanksgiving. It was freezing, but was beautiful. I took lots of pictures and joked that I was making up for forgetting my camera on Thanksgiving. ;)Here are all the cousins - minus Kelan because he was snugly bundled in the stroller asleep.
The whole group - minus me and Kelan. Someone's got to take the picture!
My little family... too bad you can't see Kelan. He is in the stroller pictured on the left. 
Here's the proof. :)
My sister and her family.
Trevor and Alex
A few pretty pictures...
My family all together. Not sure if my parents know how lucky they are to have us all together at least 2 times a year. :)
Kanyon and his cousin Caden... man these two love each other. 
Scarlett with her Uncle Troy and Grandpa.
I think the cold was making the kids a little crazy... Here is my nephew Cole.
Callie and Scarlett - also little bestie cousins.
My niece, Maddi, enjoying some hot chocolate... don't you love the mittens? Pretty sure they were worn by all my brothers when they were little. Maddi was thankful for them though since she lost one of her gloves that night before we got there. 
Alex, Trev, my Mom, Troy, my Dad, and Trent
Cohen wasn't being very nice to Steve up on his shoulders and after a few warnings not to hit him with his gloved little hands... he sat on timeout at the infinity pool there. :) It worked and he was a nicer little boy afterwards. So glad he's old enough now to understand timeouts! We laughed that one day we could be telling him this story on his wedding day if he chooses to get married in the SLC temple. ;)
This little munchkin woke up just before we left. He didn't make a peep, he was such a good little babe. When we got him out of his warm clothes to put him back in the car, he was really toasty! I was so glad because I had worried about it so much!
I have so much to be thankful for and I'm reminded of it all during this holiday. Especially for my 4 perfectly healthy little children and my wonderful husband. I'm so blessed and couldn't possibly ask for more.
The countdown to Christmas begins! My little children remind me of it daily. ;)
Hope you had a Merry Christmas!
Be back soon with some updates on how ours went!
Love Thanksgiving...It means my sister and her family up for a long weekend and a morning out shopping with just the girls.Steve requested this year that I make a Thanksgiving dinner Wednesday night so he could have leftovers all weekend. He misses that since we always have dinner at either my mom's or my grandma's.So, I did it! I was pretty proud of myself... turkey breast in the crockpot (so good and moist), mashed potatoes and gravy, homemade rolls, fresh cranberry sauce... and stuffing and mini pumpkin pies provided by my dear friend Jen. Kind of last minute, we did a little impromptu Thanksgiving dinner with our friends, the Birds. Always better to enjoy good food with company! How often do you have a Thanksgiving dinner with friends anyway? It was so fun.
I'm sad to say I didn't get many photos of our actual Thanksgiving dinner with all the family... but I find that lately I've been just enjoying being there instead of documenting every second. It's nice. :) This is about the only photo I have of the day...Cohen checking out his Uncle Ryan's facial hair. We don't have much facial hair in our house! ;)
Mical and I did get out and do some "light" shopping. Ha! Yeah right! ;) No really though, no 4am or even 6am doorbusters for us this year. We sent our mom to do that fun task in our place while we slept a little longer and went out around 7am. As tradition, we met up with my mom and Grandma as well as my sister-in-law, Alex, at the Pizza Factory for salads and breadsticks and shared war stories of our shopping so far that day. Love that the guys always are so willing to watch the kids while we do our thing. This year though, Steve was the best and offered to watch all the kids while Ryan and Trevor went golfing. How sweet is he? I even came home to a very clean house. It was great.We went up to Temple Square in SLC to see the lights on Saturday night. It wasn't too cold, compared to previous years and the kids really enjoyed it.We took some pictures while waiting for my parents and brothers to meet up with us.All the cousins, minus Cohen.
Scarlett and Callie
Caden, Kanyon, and Maddi
Cole and Scarlett
My sister's family.
Our family.
The lights at Temple Square.
The nativity scene.
More lights.
My parents with all their grandkids... once again minus Cohen. He was sleeping in the stroller at this point. :)
Scarlett
Steve and my brother in law, Ryan.
This is a fun tradition that I hope we keep doing. The kids love it... especially the hot chocolates that they get for the ride home. ;)
