Thanksgiving 2010

For Thanksgiving this year we decided to go down to Atlanta, Georgia. Bill and I both have some family that live there that we haven't seen in a long time, and we decided that since we might not live this close to them for much longer we might as well take advantage of it. So we packed up our family and started the long 10-hour drive.

Everyone did great (mostly thanks to some fun books on CD), and we arrived at Bill's cousin's house on Tuesday afternoon. We were pleasantly surprised to see his aunt and uncle there - it's actually their house, Bill's cousin and his family live there for the time being - because we thought they'd be in Houston. Having them there made things even more fun.
The next two days were full of lots of laughs, cooking, playing, and just a lot of fun. We took the kids to the park




Took a quick tour of the area

Random house surrounded by gorgeous trees

Atlanta Temple. If it wasn't being renovated we might've thought about doing a session.

But mostly we stayed at the house and had fun together.

Kayla spent a lot of time analyzing their video selection and playing with that big toy sitting beside her. They even had an extra one that we were able to take home with us. One Christmas present down!




Will and his 2nd cousin Jefferson. These two are about 6 months apart in age, and they had a fabulous time together.

Kolson, Will and Jefferson. These three were always running around the house or the yard, so when they finally sat still we had to record the moment.

Three handsome soldiers

Thanksgiving Day we had a lot of fun. Everyone pitched in with the cooking


While the boys made gumdrop turkeys with Bill's cousin Tom





The table right before all the food was spread out



Yummy


Kayla was ready to say a prayer and dig in

After dinner the boys played a few games. It was really funny to watch them play Twister.



I think the only one who didn't enjoy Thanksgiving completely was Kayla. She didn't get a nap that day, so by the end of the day we got this


Which eventually led to this


And I had to take some pictures of their cute house and beautiful backyard. I had never been to this part of the country before, and I definitely wouldn't mind visiting again.







Tom, Jen, Hyrum, Jefferson, and Kolson

Our last stop before going home was to see my uncle John and his family. Their oldest is on a mission and their second oldest is attending school at BYU-Idaho, so we weren't able to see them, but we saw their other two kids, Megan and Ryan. Ryan is an amazing photographer already, and he was nice enough to take some pictures for us.





We had such a fun time and it was so hard to leave everyone. Thank you to Ray, Kay, Tom, Jen, John and Chris for making our trip so awesome. We will definitely be coming back soon.

Sorry Santa

Someone else is comin' to town first - The Tooth Fairy. Will lost his first tooth tonight. Technically it probably could've stayed in for a while longer, but we had some minor drama that caused it to come out now. It was funny seeing Will's reaction. Obviously when everything first happened he got a little scared and worried. I mean, wouldn't you if your loose tooth started bleeding, then fell out a few minutes later? But after a minute or two he thought it was the coolest thing and he wanted to show all his stuffed animals and toys. So now we've experienced another first in our house. I wonder how much the Tooth Fairy is charging these days.


(Sorry the first picture isn't so great. I'm not very good at figuring out the best lighting)

Cake and Carving and Costumes...Oh My!

It's been an eventful, fun-filled week. It all started with Will's 5th birthday on Monday.


I made him a special breakfast. He looks thrilled, doesn't he?

Later that day we had his birthday party. There's just one word I think best describes the event - CHAOS! Which is, of course, completely understandable when you put 10 kids, ages 3-5, together in a huge room that has an echo. But the kids all seemed to have a fun time, so that's all that matters, right?


These two girls are probably two of the sweetest, most adorable girls I've met in a long time.


Here the kids are playing "Simon Says". My favorite part of the picture is that it looks like Kayla is the one being the leader, even though it was actually Bill.


Will's monster truck pinata after being destroyed. None of the kids were able to make much of a dent, so after all the kids got a turn, Bill took a few whacks at it. After HE was unable to crack it open by hitting it with the bat (I have never seen a sturdier pinata) we had to resort to throwing it on the floor as hard as we could. It was really funny.



Will blowing out his candles. Bill and I spent most of our Sunday night putting his cake together. Basically we made it look (as best we could) like the board from a Candyland game. I think it's the most candy-filled cake I've ever seen, but it ended up looking pretty good.




Will opening presents. I think I'm going to have to give away some of his old toys just to make room for all the amazing things he got for his birthday this year.


The whole group enjoying cake and ice cream. Will has some fun friends, and we're sad that we'll be losing some of them in the next year or so.

Later in the week we carved our pumpkin. Bill and I did most of the work




I love Will's face in this picture, like he's saying "Daddy, don't hurt the pumpkin!"


The end of the week was devoted to all things Halloween. Will and Kayla were dressed up as characters from Dr. Seuss. Can you guess which ones? (Ok, so Will's is obvious, but what about Kayla?)



On Friday morning we went with Susan and Robert and a few other friends to a local nursing home for a short costume parade. Kayla wasn't too excited about it.


Friday night was our ward Halloween party and Trunk-or-Treat.


From all the parties and other activities during the week they both have WAY too much candy. But they had a fun week. Hope you all did too.