Thanksgiving in the Sunshine Part 1

We headed down to sunshine and blue skies in Arizona for the week of Thanksgiving. Not only was half of my family down there, but half of Ryan's family.  It was great to be with everyone.  Heidi and Travis hosted the big dinner in their beautiful home.

Thanksgiving morning...here we are finishing up breakfast and gearing up for the big day.

Luke

Thanksgiving morning is particularly stressful for the kids. They played wii in their PJ's and watched movies.  Little Avery is hanging out with the boy cousins...she came up from Califonia for the big weekend.

I love these pictures of James and Nic...oh, the concentration! 

You know when James is really tuned into something because out comes the tongue!

Love that toothless smile, Michael!

After lots of work in the kitchen we were finally ready for prayer.  Uncle Travis requested that Aunt Heidi do the honors.  (Which she thought was unfair since she had the honor of cooking all day.) Here she is telling me, "Okay, put the camera down, time for prayer!"  

My cousin Rebecca took so many pictures and these following ones of the food are some of my favorites.  You know I love food.  I made these sugar cookies.  We also had pumpkin pie, banana cream pie, apple pie, chocolate cream pie, and pecan pie.  Not to mention cheese cake, caramels, and fudge.  We decided next year we should just stick to sugar cookies.  They seem to be a bigger hit around here than the pie.

I insisted on making cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes.  NO ONE around here eats cranberry sauce...what!?  I have to admit I like it better the next day with cold turkey.  But it was pretty much just the cranberry sauce and me.

Aunt Heidi makes some YUMMY mashed potatoes.  They are creamy and not too "heavy" (you know what I mean?)  I wish I could grab a spoon and dig into this pot!

Aunt Carly made a boat load of rolls in Califonia before she came and they were DELICIOUS.  We had to hide a few bags from the kids!  :)  These rolls are my mom's famous rolls, and they are hard to live up to, but Carly delivered!

Chloe and Sophie

This is just a shot of a busy kitchen.  Aunt Heidi's house is great for hosting a large crew.

The boys table.  If you are wondering what Michael has, it is a turkey bone that has been licked clean.  He has a fascination with bones. I often find frozen bones in the freezer. ???

 I thought this was so funny.  Aunt Carly served Pierson his plate of food and then put him in the dining room at the "adult table". However, the adults were taking a long time getting their food, so little Pierson just sat all by his lonesome...just him and his turkey.

Rebecca took shots of us eating at dinner.  I am eating how I usually do, with a baby on my lap.  Does holding a baby stop me from eating, no sir.  Wondering what Ryan is doing?  Describing the delivery of his 6th child, Sophie. Before you think we are totally crazy...Priscilla (Travis's cousin) was at our table and she was due to deliver a baby ANY MOMENT.  So, crazy as it is to be discussing at Thanksgiving dinner, we were swapping birth stories.  Appetizing, huh!?

I love this picture of the little kid table.  Annie's face is especially funny.

Little Pierson, Aunt Carly, Uncle Michael, Jarret, Priscilla, and our famous photographer and cousin Rebecca.

Ryan was exhausted after all that cooking.  (hee-hee)

Nana, Papa, Uncle Dane, Aunt Melanie, and Great Grandma came over that night for dessert.  It was such a treat for us to have Great Grandma down from Canada. She is one hopping Great Grandma! Here is is holding Sophie, who is very happy after her nice nap with Dad.  Annie was not very ethusiastic about taking a picture-she needed a nap!

The older kids played football all afternoon.
 

Holden and Joshua-check out that green Arizona grass!  I love it.

 Thanks again, Rebecca, for getting these shots.  I think I was inside eating pie. I know the kids had a great time.

It was a GREAT Thanksgiving!  Big thanks to Heidi and Travis for opening their home, and all the yummy food, and great company.  We made lots of great memories.  Stay tuned for Thanksgiving-Part 2 tomorrow. (If I get a chance...my Christmas Cards just arrived so I think that will keep me busy!)

AHHHHHH!!!!!

I got up early this morning and thought I will finally do a post about Thanksgiving.

My sweet cousin Rebecca took hundreds of AMAZING pictures.

I finally narrowed down what pictures to upload.

I started the long process with my slow computer of loading the pictures.

It was taking so long I started paying bills.

All this with baby on lap and Anne talking my ear off.

I leave computer to make phone call. 

SOMEONE shuts down the page and that LONG process is canceled. 

I have to start over. 

But I also have to take a shower so it looks like my Thanksgiving post will have to wait a little longer.

Sigh.

Michael's Baptism

In our church children are baptized when they turn eight years old.  Michael was baptized on

November 5th, 2011 by his Dad.

Nana and Papa drove 13 hours from California to be there. We had our first real snowstorm of the season.  We wanted to give them a little taste of Idaho for the two days the were there!  They arrived in the wee hours of the morning so it was a great surprise for the kids to wake up and find them here! 

Here is Michael before we headed over to the Church.



We actually managed to get a family shot in before we left.  If only I was knew how to photoshop like my cousin Rebecca...that would be a great skill to have!  My favorite part of the whole picture is James.  It catches a devious smile!

Here is the baptism boy with Papa and Nana.  Great picture! 



Annie and Nana-another favorite!



The girls-Sophie, Mom, Nana and Annie.

Here is Michael with a best buddy.  Love this picture too! 



Grandpa was also at the baptism, and I can't believe I don't have a picture!  Grandma was in Arizona on a trip she had planned a long time ago.  She made her special pillow she gives all the grandchildren for their baptism.  We had Aunts, Uncles,  friends and lots of cousins come. We feel blessed so many people were able to make it!  Everyone gathered at our house after for a luncheon and the kids performed a play they made up.  I was too busy playing hostess to take pictures.  We were sad to see Nana and Papa leave the next morning back to California.  It was a great weekend and we were so happy to see Michael be baptized and become a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! 

Nostolgic Laundry...

I have been enjoying all the pictures around the blog world taken with the instagram app. The yellowish glow brings you back to your childhood and makes everything seem nostolgic, no matter what the photo content. (Especially if part of your childhood was in the 70's) I imagine that when I was a small child in the 70's our home was surrounded by this golden glow at all times.  So if you want to feel better about your life, take a picture of it with the instagram app. Even something as mundane as laundry will make you nostolgic. 

Now that I do up to 20 loads of laundry a week I am embarrased when I think back to my laundry routine in college. I want to write letters to anyone that shared a washing machine with me and apologize! This is what my "routine" consisted of.  1. Wear everything you possibly can in your wardrobe that is clean and put off doing laundry as long as possible.  2.  Finally decide to do a few loads.  3. Load darks 4. Run off to do something way more exciting. 5. Come back and run the darks again since they have been sitting a while and probably need another rinse. 6. Finally put darks in the dryer.  7. Person waiting to use the laundry machine finally unloads your dryer full of clothes and dumps them in a pile.  8. Return to laundry room to gather your pile of cold, wrinkled clothes. 9. Repeat.

Who would have imagined that I would later become the laundry pro that I am?  I actually like doing laundry now, unless I get behind. Then I am doomed.  The thought of piles of cold wrinkly laundry sends me over the edge so I try and fold things the second the dryer beeps. I have changed my "routine" several times over the years.  It seems that someone has an accident and sheets need to be changed just when I think I am on top of things.  Monday and Tuesday are my busiest days and I do at least a load or two every other day of the week except Sunday. I try to take that day off and come Monday every laundry basket in the house is full! I have to admit my kids are the worst when it comes to laundry. They change clothes often and put EVERYTHING into the dirty clothes. (Sometimes even clean clothes I just folded...that one really makes me mad!) We change sheets often too. Now with the pool we have more towels and swimsuits.  This makes for LOTS of laundry.

My biggest challenge?  Getting everyone to take their individual baskets of clean clothes back to their rooms and put the clothes away. It drives me nuts. I think it must be sweet justice. I remember when I was about 15 we lived in military housing in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas.  The laundry room was in the basement and my room was 4 floors above that on the 3rd floor.  My mom would do my laundry for me and nicely fold it on a table and all I had to do was go get it and put it away.  One day I remember my Mom telling me she was no longer doing my laundry since I could not even put the laundry she did away. I thought this was mean and unfair.  I felt like my sister and I were persecuted since Mom still did both of my brother's laundry.  I now think-I can't believe she held out that long!  Let this story be a warning to my children about what happens when you don't put your laundry away.  I guess I will have more patience with their laundry habits since I didn't seem to get it down until I had kids of my own seeing how I still didn't get the concept in college! 

Sometimes when I am folding laundry and it seems neverending I think how in a few years I will not have this much laundry. It will just be Ryan and I with a couple loads every few days. I will no longer have little baby sleepers to fold. There will not be any dirty soccer socks.  I will not have five million items of girls clothing since Anne changes her clothes that many times a day right now.  No more Volcom tshirts and matching plaid church shirts from the boys. It makes me sad.  I know I will miss it.

I now have a teenager...a year in review.

Happy 13th Birthday, Joshua!

Turning 12 was big. In our church that is the age that you are ordained to the Priesthood-which does not mean you become a priest like in the Catholic Church-however, you do get certain responsibilities and it is a pretty big deal!  You graduate to bigger and better things. And now THIRTEEN...I officially have a teenager in the house! What?  How did that happen?  Joshua seems to manage to elude the camera often...I think I have the fewest pictures of him out of all the other kids.  I do have some good ones though! Here is a review of the last year starting with a picture of him on his last birthday.

 Joshua always manages to find time to goof around, especially while doing dishes, and having a broken leg didn't slow things down!

 Since the doctor would not let him ski with his broken leg, he resorted to sledding down steep hills.

 Another big change-a new baby sister, Sophie Rose.

 Joshua loves being with his cousins and I wish I had a picture of him with Holden or Chloe too! That will definately be a priority when we come out and see them for Thanksgiving. I was lucky and got to hang out with these three last night and they are a riot!

 I think Joshua will kill me for this one.  I can't help it, I think it is so funny.  They were doing a play at the Pollards house and he is wearing Aunt Jennifer's old prom dress.  Lookin' good, Joshua, lookin' good.

 I have lots of pictures with this face.  He HATES smiling for pictures on demand. 

 (Unless he is with his cousins or friends that is, and for that I am grateful!)

 Another one he will kill me for...don't worry Joshua, about three people read my blog.

 I love this picture.  I had just picked up Joshua from the Trek he went on with our Stake.  He had to wear "pioneer" clothing and they pushed a handcart, slept outside, and did lots of walking. He had  GREAT time.  I was trying to get a picture of his face to show how dirty he was.  He was brown from the sun and dirt and very tired.  (But what a cute pioneer, don't you think?)

 Having fun celebrating his cousin Holden's Birthday. (No, we are not in Hawaii...that is Bear Lake!)

 He had lots of fun at the Cook Family Reunion in Lava Hotsprings.

 Joshua didn't hesitate to jump off the platform high dive...you would not catch Mom doing that! 

 1st day of MIDDLE SCHOOL! 

 Kickin' it at a Hillcrest Football game this Fall.

 I had to put this picture in here, not for Sophie or Ryan, but because Joshua is doing one of his favorite activities, playing games on his ipod Touch. He is most likely planting a garden for his Smurfs or something worthwhile like that.

 Joshua had so much fun this Halloween. He better enjoy it since he is now the big 1-3!

Joshua is a great kid!  I could not be more proud of him.  He does great in school, he always helps around the house.  He is dependable.  He makes me laugh.  He is fun to hang out with.  I love going to the store with him, or just hang out singing with him in the kitchen.  I could go on and on, but I will save it for his journal and not further embarrass him here.  

We love you, Joshua!  Have a GREAT Birthday!

PS I swear it was just yesterday he looked like this-

PPS Most people call him Josh now.  :(