THANKSGIVING

This year, my family (minus my two brothers, who we really missed!) all got together in Cokeville. This was the first time in a LONG time that we had all been together, and it was fabulous!

The first day, my brother's friend, Michelle, took our family's pictures. She had them back to us by Friday, which I was thrilled about! They turned out so great! I already have one as my blog header, and new pics of the kids on the sidebar, so I'll spare you the entire shoot and leave it at that.

In addition to a fantastic feast on Thanksgiving Day, we also had fun playing basketball (although us has-beens got pretty sore), coloring and crafting, playing cards, sledding, and decorating cookies. The cousins all got along great. I can't wait to all get together again--hopefully sometime soon!

The kids showing off their fun snowman cookies

Climbing up Test Hill can be a pain . . . (although Mariah was really a trooper!)

. . . but it's totally worth the ride down!

Sisters!

The weekend before Thanksgiving, my sisters and I got together for a fantastic weekend! We did a little shopping, had dinner at Olive Garden, then headed to our hotel suite for "spa night", complete with lots of laughing and reminiscing. The next morning, we enjoyed the hot tub and hotel breakfast, then hit the town for some more shopping.
After we were all shopped out, we headed to the BYU campus where we saw a wonderful production of "White Christmas." All the kids in the play were very talented, and we had a great time there. We then finished off the weekend with some dinner at Cafe Rio--Yum!

I feel so blessed to have so many sisters! (And a wonderful mother as well, who, if you don't look closely enough, just blends right in and looks like another sister.) Like the song in the play . . . "Sisters, sisters, never were there such devoted sisters." I've had that stuck in my head periodically ever since!

"Bah-la-bah"

Translation: VOLLEYBALL

Today Mariah wanted to play some "bah-la-bah." It was so funny to see her interpretation of the sport. Of course, she was very concerned about having some time-outs: "You gotta say, "TEAM!" Then go to the sides and listen to the coaches. Then you run back out!"

And her favorite thing to practice was the sprawl: "When you trip, then you gotta get the ball up." Very true, although it should be slightly more graceful than tripping!

And for you volleyball players/coaches/fans who understand a bit about the game, you gotta love the work on transition and approach in the next clip. Made my day!

Define WEIRD

Yesterday was our stake conference. Of course, two hours for kids can get pretty long and boring. But Connor stayed busy doing several pages of this:

Aside from the fact that these are football plays, can any of you other moms understand this?

Last year, Tony worked one on one with a kid in Connor's classroom for a little while. One day, he told me he thought all the boys in Connor's class were really weird. He went on to explain how they are all really into strange cartoons, superheros, and making weird noises. I came back with, "If you think they are ALL weird, maybe Connor is the weird one!" And here is further evidence of that fact.

Workout Buddy

Normally, I get up at 5:30 and Tony and I work out together. But today I slept in and worked out after Tony and the kids had left to school, so this was my workout partner:Getting a drink is probably what she is best at. We did a little insanity, and here she is doing some switch kicks!
And if Team Beachbody wants to pay me pretty well, I may let them use this pic for their next ad campaign. I mean, wouldn't you love to have calves like these?!?