Success!

Growing up, we would always eat Thanksgiving dinner with grandparents and cousins on Thursday and then my mom would always make a Thanksgiving dinner for our own little family on Sunday, just so we could enjoy all the leftovers. The year that my mom died, I decided to try to follow her tradition and I made the whole meal. It went well but I just decided to leave it to the grandmas every year after that. Well, this year I thought that I'd start up the tradition again with my own little family. I am really not a good cook, and I don't really enjoy cooking very much. (I've always followed the motto that "quick, cheap, & easy" is the best way to cook/eat.) Anyway, I just followed a recipe in my good old red&white checkered cookbook (the classic one that we all have...) and the turkey turned out so yummy! Tess said "this is the goodest turkey I have ever had!" So, I consider that a success. And now we have enough turkey leftovers to get us through Christmas!

(Bryan wants me to add that I forgot to take the gizzard and giblets out of the bird, so they sat in there the whole time it cooked. Oops. I told you I'm not a good cook!)

Jolly

During October, Tess liked looking at all the spooky houses. Near our house there were 3 in a row that were very decked out with monsters, headstones, etc. We would reference them to help her know when we were close to home ("We're almost home; look, there are the spooky houses.") So, now that Halloween decorations are gone and Christmas ones are going up, Tess has been asking about the spooky houses again. We had to explain that they're not spooky anymore. She asked "if they're not spooky, then what are they?" And Bryan replied, "They're jolly." So now cute Tess is always commenting as we drive: "look! There's a jolly house! Oh, look, another jolly one. Hey-that one's really jolly!" It's very sweet.

Tonight we had our monthly "Family Date." (Bryan & I have dates 2 weekends a month and then we all go together for a family date once a month.) We went down to Temple Square (while listening to the tragic end to the UofU/BYU game on the radio. Poor Utes--it was SO close!). Anyway we drove to Salt Lake and had a really great time looking at the jolly lights. My favorite part is seeing the international Nativity scenes. (They're quite jolly!) Tomorrow we will put up all our Christmas decorations and I'm really excited to figure out where to put everything in our new house. (Last year we moved in on December 20, and I just didn't have the motivation to unpack AND re-decorate for Christmas...I guess our house was not very jolly last year!)

And on a tangent: Miles has started talking a lot, and it's really fun to hear him. He's been saying "Hey, buddy" for a while now, and it has always sounded like "Hey, bubby!" But now for some reason it has changed into another, equally cute (if not more so!) mispronunciation: "Whoa, buddy!" is now "Whoa, bye-o!" I love it.

"I love brother, he loves me"

My kids are at a really fun age. Tess is definitely the ring leader and tells Miles what to do all the time, but Miles is little enough that he doesn't mind and big enough that he can actually DO the things Tess wants to do (usually.) It is so much fun to see the two of them play together and actually really enjoy each other.

Their two favorite games are: 1-pulling all 6 pillows off the couch and pretending the couch is their trampoline/gymnastics mat. They do flips and somersaults and belly-flops onto cushions and occasionally crash into each other. The other day, within a time span of about 3-4 minutes, each of them had fallen off an arm of the couch onto their heads on the floor. But, they're tough, and they have fun, and I love it. 2-running through the family room, into the kitchen, around the island, around the kitchen table, and over to our bedroom door. Rest, repeat. (about 100 times.) They usually choose this one when I'm making dinner/setting the table, which makes it exciting for me, and it works out great because they're usually pooped enough that they sit still and actually eat a pretty good dinner! :)

Frosty

We made our first snowman of the year on Saturday. Last year we really didn't let the kids play in the snow, because we just had dirt in our yard and I didn't want to see the kids make "mud angels." So they were very excited to go out and build a snowman and make snow angels.

Miles' coat is really big because we're hoping he can wear it for 2 years. The hood seems extremely big and it looks really funny on him. It would look a lot better if he'd let us velcro the bottom part of his hood under his chin, but he doesn't like it...so he just looks kind of dorky (but cute!)

Miles' ABCs

OK, so this post is just me bragging about my 1-yr-old kiddo Miles. He knows all of his ABCs--not the song, but actually putting a letter name with its correct symbol. I'm pretty amazed. I wish I could say that Bryan or I taught him that, but, nope--I owe it all to Alex & Leah. Here's a video of it.

Halloween fun

We did all the usual Halloween festivities last week: pumpkin carving for Family Home Evening, costume party at school, and of course Trick or Treating. We had a lot of fun in our new neighborhood. Tess was dressed as a cheerleader and Miles was a firefighter. Tess literally ran from house to house with her two cute neighbor buddies, Jaxsen and Forrest. Miles toddled along with me for the first 10 or so houses, and then he was content to just ride along in the wagon, holding his pumpkin bucket on his lap. I don't even know if he realized there was candy in it!(on a tangent, Miles has become completely obsessed with "Signing Time." He would watch 4 or 5 hours a day if I'd let him. It's like his new binky or comfort object; if he falls down or gets hurt, he'll tearfully ask for "Sigh-nimuh." Anyway, in this picture he and Tess are showing the ASL sign for "scared.")