THANKSGIVING

Rob's Dad, brothers Mike and Larry, sister-in-law Lora, and nephew Brian came for Thanksgiving. It was a smaller crowd than usual, but the food was delicious and the company was even better. Gage was in charge of pictures and this was about the only salvageable one he took. (I will be now cleaning and repainting those cabinets after the camera showed how AWFUL they look!) We are so grateful for our extended family and the relationships we share. We love that our children get excited about family and are interested in spending time with them.

Aaron and the girls (minus Annaliese who was in Las Vegas for a Jonas Brothers concert - lucky girl) drove up Thanksgiving night and stayed the weekend. As usual, we had a ball. One night we turned on music and got silly and danced. You should see Aaron's breakdancing moves! The video below does not EVEN do it justice. That inspired us to play "Thriller" by Michael Jackson (the video is full of breakdancing craziness). The girls and I were trying to remember the dance moves from the video. Then I remembered that awesome scene in 13 Going on 30, where they actually do the dance to "Thriller", so we put the movie in and played that scene over and over until we could do it. SO FUN! You gotta love the 80's.

We went to the Temple to see the amazing lights. Incredible! And how beautiful are those girls? Oh my, Aaron needs to watch out.

SASSY MAMA

Bella, just at the right times, will say, "Sassy Mama" and have this cute little smirk.

She was sitting in her car seat as we were driving around running errands and said, “I yuv you, Mama”. That was the first time she said it without one of us saying it first. So sweet.

She pushes Gage's buttons a lot, but he's the first one she asks for every morning now. And she wants to hold Paisley all the time. When Paisley is napping, she'll say, "Shhhh, Paisley's syeepin". She can't really pronounce the "L" sound and replaces it with a "Y" sound. When she hears the train, which is about 1000 times a day, it scares her for some reason and she'll run up to me and say, "Frain, Mama, frain" with a worried look on her face. She has a hard time with her "tr" sound and she has a serious lisp. I LOVE it!!

GREAT FALLS

We took a trip to Great Falls, Montana, to visit Billy and Alicia and crew on the Malmstrom Air Force Base. Our plane ride was great and problem-free. Of course, the suckers and candy helped. The kids were so excited to see each other and they picked up right where they left off. Bella and Kaytlin got to know each other better and had such fun (when they weren't fighting over the dolls and strollers as every toddler girl should). Gage and Braden bounded around with endless energy playing games, tag, war, superheroes, riding bikes and scooters, you name it. And each night, after the exhausted kids went to bed, we visited, ate yummy desserts, and played games like the old days. Alicia was an awesome hostess with her homemade wheat bread and delicious meals. Paisley and Jacob did a lot of eating and sleeping. Too bad they won't remember any of it!!

The first day we drove about an hour to a ski resort that wasn't open yet to skiers, but open to sledding! Lucky for us, we were the only ones there. It was a BLAST!! Uncle Billy was a trooper and carried Bella up on his shoulders and rode down with her. And again and again. Gage was a champ sledding down the hills, first sitting on the tube, then after getting a little braver he went down head first. I recently mailed him a postcard that had a picture of a young superman and people commenting, "Look at the boy of steel!". I wrote him a little note telling him he was MY boy of steel and that I knew he was brave and strong. He LOVED it and now refers to it in situations that make him scared or nervous (that was the goal!). Gage was tired after carrying the tube up the hill, but was determined to keep doing it. About halfway up, he plopped down in the snow on his knees and started praying, "Heavenly Father, I'm really tired. Please help me to climb up this hill." And sure enough, he did.

The next day we went fishing in the Missouri River. It was beautiful, but windy! Gage and Braden both caught a fish and Bella couldn't wait to get her hands on it! I'm not sure what the kids liked better - catching the fish or eating the marshmallows. Near the river is a park with pine trees and play equipment. Bella and Kaytlin were tormenting a squirrel that ran up and down the tree. And a large buck and deer came prouncing through the park and up the hill. That was so COOL!! Too fast to get a picture. We actually saw a lot of deer as we drove back from the ski resort, too.

The next day we went to this really neat children's museum. It was in this old building and they really fixed it up and had all these creative and fun activities for the kids. The pics show a lot of the different little stations. There was even a paper-airplane making station after which you raced them on a runway. Very clever! We went to eat at a pizza place and I took Gage to the bathroom. He washed his hands and then the paper towel machine was one of those automatic hand sensor ones. He waved his hand in front of it, the paper towel came out, and he said, "Look, Mama! I'm a Jedi!" I laughed and then did it for myself and he said, "Whoa...you're a Jedi too!"

I got a kick out of all the saluting Billy gets. It's very formal and serious and makes me uncomfortable. I would get the giggles everytime it happened. I guess I'm just not used to it and find it strange that people are saluting my brother. But very cool and Gage thought it was awesome.

In the car on the way to the airport to head home, Gage cried and said he missed Braden already. We had a fabulous time and we're already talking about going back again next summer. We miss them so much and can't wait to have them back in Arizona (only 3 1/3 more years)!

A PILGRIM, A TURKEY, AND A COW

So, Bella WAS going to be a zebra until she laid her eyes on this beauty - a peacock costume that my friend Karla brought over. We gave Bella the choice and she picked the peacock, hands down. After all, she was only going to be a zebra by default. Gage was a zebra when he was two (he was obsessed with everything zebra) and he LOVED his costume. He wore it proudly and didn't even mind when all the nice people (and I mean ALL) handing out candy said, "Oh, what a cute zebra! She's adorable!" That's right...SHE! It never occured to me that a zebra might be a little feminine, and so what if it is! We still laugh about that. Well, Rob has just recently started laughing about it.

And I got a replacement hat for Gage's sun hat...a much better fedora that looks WAY more like the real thing. He even had the fake 5 o'clock shadow and a whip! So there we went with Indy, a peacock, and Paisley as a cow - fitting, don't you think? Aunt Alyssa and Uncle Trevor came along for fun. And THIS year's joke was many people thought Gage was a pilgrim and Bella was a turkey. They said jokingly, "Oh, you kids got the wrong holiday....." Come on PEOPLE! I even got him the right hat!! And he had a whip that he was whipping around as he walked up the driveways. Oh, well...something to laugh about.

We then went to our friends' house, The Johnsons, for some delicious food. Bella was on a total sugar rush, it was hilarious. Gage and Lincoln pretended to trade candy. And Kim successfully creeped Rob out dressed as a man.