Thanksgiving, Swimming, Temple Square

We have enjoyed a great Thanksgiving weekend!  On Thursday we had our feast with Gramma & Grampa Terry and Aunt Rebecca's family.  It was delicious, as always, and the kids always love to play with their cousins. 

That night we planned our shopping for the Black Friday sales.  We thought it might be worth it to look at Wal*Mart for their 10:00 pm sale...Bryan went down around 9:00 just to check it out.  Needless to say, he called me at around 9:20 to say that he was on his way home.  The sea of humanity was just too much for him.  He said that you could not even walk through the store--let alone shop & pay for things--without physically touching people as you walked by...that's not his cup of tea (can you blame him?  I wouldn't have stayed either!)  We decided that it's definitely not worth it just to save a few bucks.

But we DID go out on Friday morning at 9:00 am to Wal*Mart and it was fabulous!  The crazies were all gone by then and it was actually less busy than it is for me on a normal day of regular grocery shopping.  We went to several other stores and got the majority of the shopping done for Christmas.  That's always a good feeling.

Friday night we decided to go swimming.  We have never been swimming with Bree (she went boating with us when she was only 3 weeks old, and she has been to the ocean already, but she's never even had a swimming suit on!)  We weren't sure how she'd like it, but she really did great!  We put her in the water up to her shoulders and she didn't complain at all.  Tess is getting to be a very good swimmer and was able to go down the big slide (and then swim back to where she could touch) by herself!  Miles was just super happy to run and jump into the shallow water over and over again.  (I saw the lifeguards watch him do it and I thought surely they'd tell him the standard "no running" rule, but they never did...so I didn't say anything either because he was having so much fun.)

 Tonight we made the annual trip to see the lights at Temple Square.  Tess remembered it from previous years, but I don't think that Miles did.  It was super crowded and colder than I expected, but I still enjoyed it.  It's just not Christmas until you visit downtown at least once!  While we were driving and searching for a parking space, I loved listening to the kids talk about all the "sky scrapers" downtown.  It's true that they are the tallest buildings they've ever seen, but I don't think that Salt Lake is really known for its sky scrapers! :)

We have had a lovely Thanksgiving break.  I do feel so very, very blessed and truly grateful for all of the wonderful things I enjoy.  I have many more luxuries than I need, a beautiful warm home that is perfect for our family, a husband who supports me and loves me even when I'm feisty, Bryan's job that he enjoys going to each day, and three smart, beautiful, sweet children who still love to snuggle with me and give me smooches.  I'm a lucky gal!

Halloween 2011

We had a really fun Halloween this year.  I had the Joy School Halloween party at our house on the 27th.  We had fun with face-painting, decorating pumpkins and cookies, making ghost crafts, and playing "Pin the Nose on the Jack-o-lantern."  We also went Trick-or-Treating around the house to each of the kids' moms in the bedrooms of our house.  Then on Halloween day we got to go to Bryan's work for a potluck lunch and more Trick-or-Treating to all of the offices.  And then of course the evening Trick-or-Treating around the neighborhood.  The kids loved going door to door with some neighbor friends.  We got a lot of candy--too much, in my opinion, for the kids' teeth and tummies.  So, I told them to eat as much as they wanted to that night and then the next day I offered to buy their candy from them.  They got to choose as much or as little as they wanted to sell.  Miles ended up earning $7.00 and Tess got $5.00 to spend on a new toy at the store. 
This year Miles was a bat and Tess was a witch. Bree was a cute little pumpkin but I could never get her to smile for the camera.    Here are a few photos:

 This next picture is of Bree after waking up from a nap...she must've slept very soundly with her cheek resting on her hand.  I could clearly see her fingernails and even her little knuckle lines on her cheek!