Thanksgiving

A month before Thanksgiving I decided it would be fun to go down a little early to spend a little more time with my parents and help with some pre-festivity prepping. Plus it saved me a 10 hour drive with two kids and multiple nursing stops, boom totally nailed it. Until I realize, after the tickets were bought, I would be flying my myself with two kids! Lucikly two weeks before Collette and Justin decided to take the same flight so I had some help getting through security, taking Emerson to the bathroom etc. These two cousins were pretty excited for their airplane ride

Once we were on the plane it was all me, but the kids did great! Even with sitting on the runway for an hour for no apparent reason.

Emerson watched Toy Story and Eliza slept.

Life got a little cuckoo once we landed. We all went to get our bags and multiple car seats. So now we had a baby, two toddlers, three car seats, a stroller, and 4 bags..... Great if you just have a quick walk to get picked up. My parents don't have a big enough car any more for all of us so we all chipped in to get a rental car for the week. Unknown to us the rental place is a 15 minute shuttle ride. So we haul all the kids and luggage to shuttle and load up. Then we unload and haul everything into the rental car place. Stand in line, emergency potty runs, baby getting hungry, restless three year olds -things were getting a little hectic. We finally get the keys and drag this circus into the parking garage, arrive at the car. Its a massive 12 passenger van... we load the gear and children in and I start to nurse Eliza while Collette and Justin run back inside to make sure they have indeed given us the right car? Yep they did, it is the only car left. 2 hours later we finally hit left the airport

As you can see we were all a little done traveling - poor baby. It was a little longer then we wanted with being stuck on the runways both at take off and landing and our unexpected long rental car experience but it felt great to be home when we finally arrived.

These two boys admired grandpas tree and I had major dejavu to when they were little

Ms. Eliza loving some tree lights

Bed time with grandpa - a major favorite

Jail break for Ernie and Caleb - we surprised them and went and picked them up from school early one day. Clearly Eliza is a fan of Ernie

Trader Joes is always a must - even when its a little nuts with a baby and two toddlers. One who has is own cart and doest watch where he is going most the time :)

Eliza was a dropper through all the crazy, hustle and bustle, and throwing a wrench in the normal routine

Claire and Calvin got in Tuesday. It was so fun having them all together at this age. Last time we saw Calvin he wasn't even walking and now he is running and talking up a storm with the older boys. Also I am not sure how Emerson got both cousins to push him around the yard.... He is great at "directing" his peers.

Calvin looooved his baby cousin. He would always run over to where every she was and get in her face or scream "Babbbbby"!!

"Mama we want shark hair" Collette & Justin, brave as they are, took all three boys to the container park downtown for little afternoon fun while Claire and I helped my mom finish up some goody baskets she takes to my dads employees every thanksgiving

Calvin really was next to her all the time. Even when I was feeding her he would come over and lift up the blanket and yell "baby"! Haha

Bellagio gardens and water show with the crew.

Calvin was using Eliza's stroller since she prefers to be near and dear in the SollyBaby. Emerson plopped in the stroller,  and I said Em, that stroller is for Calvin to ride in. If you don't get out Calvin's going to come sit on you. 

Emerson: hmmmm, ok. (Waves Calvin over). Come here, Calvin! Who needs a double a stroller? 

Love this smily girl

A little snooze with Uncle Justin

Happy Thanksgiving! Wobble before the Gobble 5k. Emerson ran the 1 mile this year. Thankful for an incredible family, a wonderful husband, and beautiful kids. Life is wonderful.

Emerson loved his medal

Found these 

Thanksgiving Feast 

Calvin clearly enjoyed his cranberry relish :)

My favorite black friday shopping partner 

My people- we missed Melissa who was recovering from surgery

Mark and Ernie's Thanksgiving project - they took out some old cupboards and built desks for Ernie and Caleb

Christmas Jammies from Oma and Grandpa - this is the best we could get with 6 kids, 4 being three and under

Ethel M. Cactus garden lights 

This boy loves his "sissy", as he calls her

Like a lot a lot. We were packing up and I found these cuddle bunnies together

It took us 11 hours to get from Las Vegas to Salt Lake today. From the traffic, weather, road construction- probably the worst car trip to date. After we realized we weren't making it home we decided to make a family adventure out of it and booked a room by temple square. Then we hit even more traffic and our hopes of taking Emerson to see the lights were gone. But we made it with 15 minutes to closing. It's amazing what 15 minutes can do to change a day around

Love these two.

Emerson loved our impromptu hotel stay and was pretty excited he got the couch to himself and that he could see the christmas lights out his window. We are never driving home from Thanksgiving on Sunday again - it was the worst.

Celebrating Christmas with kids is more fun then I ever imagined. With the excitement and joy they have for the decorations, Santa, and gifts. But what I love even more is watching them understand and learn what Christmas is really about