Thanksgiving wrap up

We've had a fun and busy week. Grandpa Thomas came down from Denver for a few days and spent Thanksgiving with us. On Tuesday we all went over to Jon and Misty's for dinner (thanks Misty!!!) and lucky for you Emma was there.

Hard to believe he's her dad isn't it?

Everybody loves Annie.

Ivy and Ella.

On Thursday dinner was supposed to be at our house but Nate and Ivy (mysteriously) came down with the flu, so Jon and Misty were kind enough to let us all invade their house again. We had TONS of food and everyone had a great time.

Grandpa would only have one tiny slice of pie.

Jaidyn and I both hate to have our picture taken. Here we are, making the best of it. She looks a lot happier about it than I do.

Jon got the pants beat off him by Ivy and Ella at UNO attack. Those girls are serious about winning.

This is Ella "hooking" herself. Nice.

This is the picture where the least amount of us looked goofy. Some people do it on purpose (NATE!!!) others can't help it, they just look goofy (me).

P.S. ~I have pictures of Haley's friend Jason. In order to maintain my "Best Aunt in the Whole Wide World" status I have decided not to post them here, but if you e-mail me I might be persuaded to share.

Hey Kyle!

Happy Birthday!

We love you and hope you have a great day!!

T-t-t-t-todd

We Love You!!!

Your weekly update--in 3D

We are going to go backwards so hold on to your hats. 

Yesterday was Heather and Wesley's birthday!!

We celebrated with a delicious chocolate cake from Costco.  Yes, those are kosher hanukkah candles, what of it?!

Here's Wes either hailing the Fuhrer or letting me know it's not picture time.  You can never tell with that kid.

By the way, he's 16 now.  Is anyone else having a hard time with that?

Once we were all sugared up on cake, the wrestling match began.  I don't know if you can tell from these pictures, but Nate's expression does not reflect in any way the amount of effort Eli is putting forth to cause him discomfort.

We pause now to pass along the information that, yes Virginia, you can dye your Vans, and the rubber will dye too.  What a wonderful discovery.

After I sent the WWF to the backyard Scott decided to join them.

That's when Nate pulled out all of the stops and used his best moves.

Amazingly no one got hurt, at least not badly enough to come in crying.  We consider that a success.

No point here except that Emma is adorable so if we have a picture of her we will post it for no other reason than her cuteness deserves to be spotlighted.  Enjoy.

On Saturday morning the girls took care of the Baby Alive.  I'm not the nicest mom ever, so I made them feed her out back.  Notice how Annie is intently learning the ins and outs of baby care (also notice how I let her walk around all morning with her pants twisted like that, she liked it, I swear.)

It's hard work taking care of a baby, just ask Ella.

It seems the Baby Alive people want the food to look as realistic as possible going in AND coming out, so it starts out this LOVELY shade of green.  Surely you can understand now WHY I make them feed the baby outside. I'm not that mean, am I?

Friday night was the Clogging recital.  Sorry you missed it.  Ivy, Ella, and Jaidyn did a great job.

That's about it. 

What are you waiting for?!

Time is running out. If you haven't voted for Sylvan to write this year's Christmas letter, it's not too late. Consider it your gift to me this holiday season.

We aren't that exciting, sorry.

Apparently talking to me on the phone twice a day and coming over to our house once a week is not enough for Scott. He needs more of us, all the time. He's been bugging me to update more frequently, I'm thinking of installing a webcam, so he can watch the kids do their chores and homework 24/7. That should be enough to make him get a real hobby, something unlike his fake hobby, which is tormenting me. But enough about Scott, he has his own blog, he can be famous there. Here's what we've been up to. Hold on to your seats, it's exciting.

Never one to worry about the dangers hypothermia, Ivy loves to hold meetings of her very own chaper of the Polar Bear Club in our pool. I really don't think the water could be more than 50 degrees and her lips didn't even turn blue. Which as everyone knows, is the true test of whether or not it's too cold to swim.

Look at her, she's not even shivering.

Here is Eli with the table he built. He really did most of it himself, Sylvan helped a little. The best part is that there is not a place for it in his bedroom so we "get" to keep it in the family room. Eli also went to the Scout-o-rama last weekend and the word on the street is that his fabulous explaination of solar cooking combined with his awesome people skills were what convinced the judges to give our ward first place in some kind of scout booth competition. I don't understand all of the technicalities, but they announced it in Sacrement meeting and Eli is very proud (and rightly so!!).

At first glance this might not seem like a rocker on his way to a show, but let me assure you that is exactly what you are seeing. Edge's band played at a party last night. I wasn't there, but I have heard them practice and I feel confident saying that I'm sure a good time was had by all in attendance.

Oh, were you wondering what the instrument of choice is for our little rock star? He plays the bells. It is truly the sound that seperates them from other bands.

Lastly, you may have heard that Roxanne was on her last leg, so to speak. Well, we really thought the end was near for her, but it seems that she must have overheard us discussing her demise and has willed herself back to life. The power of positive thinking is an amazing thing. She's as lively(and saggy) as ever and it looks like she's going to be around for a while.

I SWEAR I am posting an update tomorrow....

.....in the mean time.....

I know you've been waiting

I figured election day was the perfect time to do the Halloween post.

I guess the theme at our house was agression.

Here's Eli-

Ivy, the viking queen.

Here she chops a braid to show that she's not one of those vain Norse women.

Eli didn't get the memo that blue vans and a spiderman pillow case are not usually issued to soldiers.

Here we have little Hannah Montana. That's not her real hair, just in case you were wondering.

This times 3.  Good times.----if you're a dentist.

We just let them eat til they're sick.

Or silly.

This is for Jon.  Yes, I dressed up.  As a bee. A worker bee.  Ha. Ha. And I let Sylvan take my picture. Ha. It was hilarious.

Hope you all had a SUPER fun Halloween too.