Family Festivities

Luke had to work the day after Thanksgiving so Jax and I headed to Idaho to catch the end of my family's Thanksgiving/Christmas party. There was tons of food, we played lots of games, six puzzles were done, and fun was had by all :) A group went and saw Mockingjay one night. Jax was trying to be helpful with one of the puzzles so I took him in another room and turned on some music for him to dance to and pretty soon we were having an impromptu dance party. It was probably the first and last extended family dance party. How can you resist dancing along with our cute Jax? 

 Here are some of us playing the largest game of Phase Ten ever.

 The family Turkey Bowl was short and sweet. It was a super windy day. All three touchdowns were from interceptions. The ball wouldn't fly straight on the long passes.  We lasted about ten minutes before the old guys packed it in. 

The Christmas party gift exchange game. We all draw a number which decides the order we pick presents. You can open a wrapped present or steal someone's opened one. 

 Grayson, Claire, and Jax were really excited by the pile of presents. They were a little less so when we wouldn't let them tear them all open. It's so fun to have babies around.

 Coincidentally my parents both opened cat presents.

 We have so much fun when we all get together. I look forward to this weekend all year!

 Jax was really happy to get his picture taken. Poor Claire was wondering why we were torturing her.

 Glad to be home with Daddy. We missed him! 

The Tale of Three Thanksgivings

This year we had three Thanksgivings. Towards the end of October our friends Brandon and Emily invited us and some other friends over for a pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving. Lots of food and fun. Next, for the week of Thanksgiving, Zach, Jayme, James, and Hayden came to play with us and we loved it. Poor James was sick pretty much the whole time he was here and even had a trip to the ER. I'm not sure he had a great time. One day Luke, Zach, Jayme, and Hayden went hunting and to find mountain sheep while I stayed home and watched the boys. They saw a couple big rams and maybe a dozen 4-point mule deer bucks, they said one was huge.

We all went for a couple walks because James seemed happiest outside. Jaxon decided to try going superman style down the slide (not prompted) and he liked it so much he did it several more times.

  I decided that we should have Thanksgiving on Monday so we could have leftovers all week and there would be less cooking. Jayme made some delicious pies, Luke and Zach cooked a mean turkey, and my rolls turned out halfway decent. Yay for us! 

 On actual Thanksgiving we went over to a friend's house. There was a normal turkey, a deep fried turkey, and a smoked chicken. Eight pies... So much food. Poor James was having a rough day so he and Jayme stayed home and we brought them leftovers.

We are thankful for family and glad Zach and co. came to visit. We hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving. We look forward now to the Christmas season. Time to change the decorations and put up the lights.

It's My Birthday

I had a birthday shout hooray. One year older and wiser too...Since we had just had friends over for a Halloween party we kept my birthday pretty low key. Luke took me out to dinner at the casino (grilled cheese and creme brule) then we came home and opened presents. I got a warm scarf and a flash for my camera. Jax was pretty excited about the scarf. This was my first year without a rainbow chip frosting cake since they discontinued it but Luke made me an awesome better than anything cake that was delicious. Look close and you can see how old I am :) My brother Eric's birthday is the day before mine so everybody went to my parents house to celebrate and have a birthday weekend. The girls got some shopping in while the boys went shooting. Lots of family, fun, and cake to be had. 

Happy Halloween/Harvest Party

Happy Halloween party. Our ward party this year ended up being a Harvest party so we decided to throw our own party so we could wear our costumes. The theme this year was Peter Pan. Can you tell how excited Baxter is to be a crocodile?

I always feel awkward taking pictures of other people so I don't have many from the party. We played movie title charades, ate lots of treats, and had a great time. Our friends the Howells came as black eyed peas and Brooke came as Tinkerbell. 

Jax helping Luke get ready for work. He loves brushing his teeth. Can you tell?

"Yee-haw!" Jax was having a much better time than Baxter while we were waiting for trick-or-treaters. I was trying to get a picture of them sitting next to each other but Jax jumped right on to wrestle that croc. 

Jax was fascinated by all the dressed up kids coming to the door. He kept watching out the window waiting for more to come. 

When Luke got home we headed to the church for some trunk-or-treating.

Mmm. Candy still in the wrapper is the best :)

We came home and let Captain Hook finally get some dinner and continued our tradition of watching the movie Clue to end our Halloween. 

The next night was our ward Harvest party. Enjoying cornbread and chili.

Having fun on a hayride and playing games and enjoying treats. We had a busy, crazy, fun few days. Its the kick off to the holiday season and I love it!

Pumpkin Carving

We finally got around to carving our pumpkins.

Jax was more excited about the large knife than the pumpkins.

 He lost interest after we wouldn't let him play with the knife. Once we got into the slimy stuff he came back to help.

 Both Jaxon and Baxter thought the guts were pretty cool. Bax kept trying to taste them and Jax thought they were hot and kept pulling his hand back really fast.

I carved Peter Pan.

And Luke carved a pirate ship. Then he thought it would be cool to build the ship back together and pin it to the top. Overachiever!

 Can you guess what we are dressing as for Halloween?

A Near Death Experience (for the Camera)

Last week we traveled to Jackson for a follow up doctors appointment for Luke's back. Good news, its healing fine! On the way there we saw a bunch of cars pulled off the road. Good thing about Wyoming is that Wyomingites don't pull over for anything that is not a moose, elk with large antlers, or a bear. This time it was an awesome bear enjoying a feast right off the side of the road. Nature is cool. 

 After the doctor Luke really wanted to go to Granite Hot Springs, not to the swimming pool but along the river next to a waterfall, which is cool in theory not in actuality. It was a little cold outside for hiking around in swimsuits but Jax sure seemed to like it.

 The waterfall and my cute boys. 

 The hot water was coming out of the rocks, of course on the other side of the river, so Luke and Jax went across first. It wasn't very deep but in the middle the water was moving pretty quick and the rocks were super slippery. They made it across without incident, I however was a different story. In hindsight I was not thinking clearly, I blame the cold. Thinking that us sitting in the hot springs with the waterfall in the background would make an awesome picture, I decided to take the camera across, as well as the towels. Halfway across I slip and catch myself not with the arm holding the towels but of course with the arm holding the camera. It got dunked only for a second but I was stuck sitting in the freezing water. It was so cold I just sat there for a minute trying to catch my breath before Luke and Jax came back to rescue the camera. Finally we all made it across. Jax had a great time throwing rocks in the water saying "splash!" For me the experience was a little ruined because I felt so bad that I had ruined the camera. It was a beautiful waterfall and I had a great day with my boys but we decided that we probably wouldn't attempt this adventure again with a baby or a camera. 

 Three deer right by the road on our way home (taken with my phone that didn't get dunked in the river). 

Good news. The camera did survive its horrible experience of a bath.