Thanksgiving 2011

I was sure looking forward to eating a big feast this holiday!  

Because last year I was battling that major breast infection while nursing Frankie and I was on a strict diet trying to get rid of it.  I didn't even get a bite of pie at the yummy pie party:(.

This year I woke up bright and early and hit the gym for a long while.  

I've been getting up at 6:15 everyday to workout since September and it feels great to be back into my routine again!

This year was my side of the family's turn for Thanksgiving. 

My brother in California and Sister in D.C will be out here for Christmas.  

Getting all the kids together for pictures was a headache.  They hated every minute of it.

My Parents, Brother and kids, and us.  

My Brother's family.

Brent, Stacey, Austin, Luke, Kate and Zach

Us.

I love Frankie just hanging out-ah, taking pictures is so relaxing and entertaining. 

See how well behaved the boys were?  Still cute.

I've got the girls TRAINED!

I finally got a little taste of the craft bug again and made these cute Pilgrims and Indian treat boxes for the kids table. 

I got the idea from Pebbles in My Pocket and made them using my Cricut Machine.

I knew my kids wouldn't eat trail mix so I made a yummy treat from the back of the Rice Chex cereal box.

You can find the recipe here.

My parents put on a good spread!  I brought sausage cornbread stuffing and rolls.

We always love the Thanksgiving fish pond!

My mom gave all the kids new jammies to wear for the season.

If we weren't eating or sleeping, we were playing Just Dance.  That is such a FUN game!!  

We loved the new Just Dance 3.  My kids really got into it and so did I!  

Dance, eat pie, dance some more, eat pie. Repeat.

Frankie loved eating all the yummy food.  He has been handling table food really well.  I am thrilled about that!  He's got 3 teeth in the front and 2 molars in the back.  

His favorite toy is a ball.  He loves to pass it back and forth and follow it around as it rolls.  

It was another great year!  Thanks Mom and Dad for having us!  We had a great time!

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The day after Thanksgiving we got to go with Kevin's brother Mike and his family to the temple.  They were sealed as a family forever with their sweet Edlawit. 

Afterward we had dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant in Edlawit's honor.  It was fascinating to see a little bit of her culture.  It was a lot of fun have them in town and a joy to meet their newest of new additions, Sawyer.   

Thanksgiving 2010

Even though Kevin has 6 siblings, we had a small crowd this year.  4 adults and my children.  

Cooking (and cleaning up) a big dinner for the four of us sounded like a lot of work.  

So my sweet MIL treated us to a yummy dinner that the Tuscany.

We were lucky enough to be seated in a small nook with a nice round table, adorable leaded glass windows surrounding us and all the privacy we needed.

So many things to be grateful for this year!

These pictures are just a few reminders of some of the things I'm most grateful for.

This little girl LOVES "pink lenalade" (lemonade).

 I love how the snow is making their faces glow.

Stormy and Karin

Eating out was such a nice treat.  Thank you Stormy!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Pie Party

For Thanksgiving we do the every other year thing.  Since this year was with Kevin's family my mom decided to host a pie party the Sunday before so we could get together for the traditional family Thanksgiving fish pond.  

And eat pie.  

I've always wanted to try to make a pie.  

I made a Coconut Cream pie.  

 Can you believe I was able to resist the pies?  I had a small bite size taste of each. 

Oh, I was missing out!

That pecan crusted Pumpkin Pie (from the Lion House) was delish!

Maybe next year.

I made this fish pond a few years ago (pre-blogging) which has come in handy many times.  

It is made out of felt and the water is a glitter blue felt.  Fun!

Ever since I can remember, we'd have a fish pond on Thanksgiving with my cousins.  I loved it so much because I was excited for Christmas to come and receiving a small toy at Thanksgiving reminded me that it was close!

MaryJane is so sad here.  We took away her (real) Barbie fishing pole that she was so determined to bring to Nana's for the fish pond.  She nearly poked everyone in the eye with that thing.

She didn't understand that we weren't going to use that one.

It was fun to have Alexis and Aunt Cathy stop by just in time for the fun.  

 Each of the kids had to tell us what they are thankful for before receiving their prize.  

The girls got some Squinkies and Cole got a Hex bug.  

  It was great to be with my family on our off year.  A definite repeat!