Thanksgiving 2017

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving! Kerri and Chris came down as well as Grandma and Grandpa Christensen! Wednesday I felt like I was cooking all day between getting Thanksgiving food prepped,  salad swap for friends, regular dinner, ha but Casey was home so it was much more enjoyable!

Thanksgiving morning came and it seemed like the family was coming later in the day and since we had REALLY nice weather we went for our own little family turkey trot up and around the neighborhood! The boys rode their bikes a ton (the twins getting on and off when they felt like it of course) Max the whole time, and Easton in the triple stroller. Casey listened to music. The parent not pushing the stroller was in charge of encouraging the twins to keep going, haha. It was so much fun to be out and active with our little family! Every time I said "turkey time!" the kids were supposed to come back to me and go "gobble gobble gobble" in a circle, it was pretty funny. We ran a little over 2 miles all together. I'm grateful for an awesome husband who gives into my silly antics and traditions :)

We got ready and loaded in the car to go over for Thanksgiving! There was SO much food it was crazy! They must have been cooking all yesterday and today it seemed like! The sides are always the show piece in my book. Brad made a great stuffing, Tayli did a million rolls, Derek and Karlee did the green bean casserole, I did the sweet potato casserole, there were so many delicious side salad type things and so many pies! Mostly all store bought but still really good! I made a really yummy cookie pie and a chocolate pudding cream pie! Both were favorites for us all! They also made the strawberry pretzel jello casserole thing and that was SOO good!

We all went to Harrison park (the special ed one that is super fun for the kids) we all walked there because truly the weather was amazing! And played for a really long time! Took some silly videos and pictures and even the adults played on a couple silly contraptions. There were so many great conversations had all day with all the adults around. The kids were pretty good at playing with each other a lot of the day and it helped that Grammie bought a new really hot wheel toy that they all played with.

It was just a genuinely happy Thanksgiving day all together!

The next day was Grammie's Christmas party which is always so fun for the kids! I think it's a lot of prep for Brad and Nan and their family but it's meaningful to the kids and I think they'll remember doing it year after year! Afternoon came and there was still lots of playing outside time! All the kids went in the hot tub with Derek (the previous night it was Casey and all the kids), just lots of great sitting and chatting. Dinner was delicious leftovers from Thanksgiving our favorite! And more PIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE

Saturday morning I had my Santa Photo shoots that all went well. The Price's came for the last session of the day. All my boys went to Home Depot for their craft, we try to always go to those and it's so much fun for the kids every time. I'm so very grateful they put those on! I honestly can't remember much of the day. A Christmas movie perhaps? I know I made Hawaiin haystacks for the gang. More hot tub but this time I got in with Easton and then Grammie and Kerri followed us out to with Evie, it was a party indeed!

Being around family at the Holidays is just so special. That's what they holidays are for family time! It's a lot of effort for everyone, ESPECIALLY the main mom in charge but I'm so grateful for Nan's efforts and my own mother's efforts all these past years. I only have good memories of Thanksgivings!


We also did a thankful tree in our home with the boys! We tried each day to write things we were thankful for on leaves and tape them up! It was sweet to hear it all. Here are what our leaves said this year:

-daddy and his job and mommy (B or Q?
-scriptures, church, calling, visiting teaching, Bryson (K)
-for Jesus creating all of us (M)
-milk and naps (E)
-mommy cleaning up, daddy getting a motorcycle (Q)
-daddy unplugging the toilet, a family forever (M)
-birthday, Maxons, TV, pictures, doors, donuts (B)
-healthy family, CHM, vaccines (K)
-pictures on the wall, beds God made us, preschool, nathan, Dax, Brylee, Aidyn, Hendrix, Katherine (M)
-Jim and Jan and new clothes (B)
-Casey's job, Rock Springs, Overland ward (K)
-daddy building a bench (M)
-halloween stuff in the house (B)
-milk and Sippie cups (Q)
-food (M)
-facetiming, Granny Woodruff, Grammie Cutler (K)
-clothes (M)
-Heavenly Father gives us a sister (M)
-daddy goes to work and earns money (B)
-Atonement and Eternal families (K)
-night nights, beds, blanket, room (Q)
-Jesus and the gospel (M)
-Jesus, sports, and job (K?)
-diapers, washing machine, diaper cream, soap, tooth brushes, tooth paste (K)
-Jesus built our homes (M)
-coloring books, crayons (B)
-Jesus gives us families and the whole world and temple and churches and food (M)
-Mrs B. (M)
-library, gymnastics, race center, good friends (K)
-Granny and Papa, Grammie and Grandpa Cutler, FaceTime (K)
-dad make the trampoline, heavenly father let plant grow in the summer and rain and we clean up the yard
-Casey, Bryson, Maxson, Quinn, Easton (K)
-Mom, dad, settlers, married (M)
-mommy and daddy (Q)
-Maxson helps me (B)
-Amazon, instagram, smiths (K)
-Bob and owning our house (K)

THANKSGIVING!

We spent a lovely Thanksgiving in Green River, WY with Casey's family. We had plans to drive to Utah Thanksgiving day to be with Casey's dad's side of the family but there was a lot of snow the night before and a little more that day so sadly we didn't end up getting to make the drive. I wasn't disappointed to miss out on 6 more hours of driving with my kids that day but I am sad we didn't get to meet up with Casey's cousin, Kayli, who has twin boys 5 months older than mine, it would have been a riot with all our boys together!

Grammy and Max made these little sugar turkeys, Max ate so much of the candy, frosting, and cookies during it that I hoped so badly he would get a tummy ache and realize the consequence of his actions. Watching them do that activity and constantly telling Max not to continue eating it all reminded me why I don't do fun activities like that with him yet, ha, as mean as that sounds. I try to avoid any and all power struggles of candy and other things with that boy. I'm glad they had fun.

Here is their pointers win/fail, I thought it was hilarious.

Snow! We got to play lots in the snow that day, it was Maxson's first snow of the season and it's so fun to see the excitement in their discovering it all over again.

Quinn was terribly upset that he couldn't come outside with us. Grammy helped him touch the snow, I took a video of it too and his little giggle when touching the snow is adorable.

You can always find these grandparents on the ground with little ones. Poo Grandpa's back though, Max just dines't know how to be careful around him.

We got to happened to come in the night of Karlee's 16th birthday celebration, I just cannot believe that girl is 16, so crazy!

How teenagers spend Thanksgiving day/prep apparently, ha.

A nice quaint little crowd.

Post Thanksgiving dinner = sleeping, except for the children apparently.

We worked real hard on coloring some music books Casey wanted for our family.

His inner artist came out.

Oh and back to Thanksgiving dinner, I did the rolls, stuffing, a sweet potatoes this year. Not my best rounds but still good.
And here's Casey helping me scout out locations for family photos :)

Thanksgiving 2k14 with los Bundys

We were lucky enough to be invited to Thanksgiving dinner with pretty much the coolest family in our ward. Seriously I love the Bundys. Allison, the mom is one of my all time favorite people. Their family is hilarious and lively. It was just a wonderful Thanksgiving we were lucky enough to spend with them.

 Each year they add what they're thankful for to this tablecloth. I absolutely loved it. They started it back in 1999 I think and they're still going with it! We got to add ours to it too!

 The wonderful dinner. Max ate 1% of what was given him and 200% of the "juice"/sparkling cider that was given to him, blah.

 The group

 They actually have twins too! Jake and Sam are 10 years old and I got to be their scout leader for awhile. Super funny boys and it was cute having the twins hold the twins.

All day long Casey and I kept talking back and forth about what we were thankful for, big ones for me for this year included

-my wonderful little family: Hardworking Casey, hilarious Maxson, and 2 new healthy babies- Quinn and Bryson

-health insurance

-good friends

-blogging

-my Savior Jesus Christ

We have been oh so blessed and are ever so grateful for what we have been given!

Happy late Thanksgiving!

THANKSGIVING

thanksgiving was wonderful.

we had the fullest house i think our house can handle.

and actually our house didn't handle it, my saintly neighbor let us use her house while they were gone and it was the saving grace of our thanksgiving weekend.

2 bathrooms, 2 fridges, 2 ovens, 4 bedrooms, 2 living rooms, 2 sets of baking dishes, 2 bread machines, and all the suitcase mess next door where we weren't all gathering constantly.

THANK YOU KATIE!

now onto thanksgiving!

pre-thanksgiving morning, i made pancake batter and tayli cooked all the pancakes

a. grandpa rocked it all weekend by entertaining the little ones while we cooked.
b. our thanksgiving outline/shopping list. they were gone for almost 2 hours shopping for food and other little things. i got to stay home while maxson slept. funny miscommunication: i wrote down 15 bananas on the shopping list, 2 people picked up bananas, so we had thirty bananas, crazy thing, we ate them all!

thanksgiving eve we made 3 homemade pizzas, and they were TASTY!
by far the best one was the chicken caesar salad pizza, it's like a copycat of one i've had in arizona at sauce and it was MARVELOUS. most definitely everyones favorite.
we also made the cheesiest of pepperoni pizza and, not surprisingly, a hawaiian one.

a. maxson and jaden had matching pj's!
b. karlee was a doll and did tons of dishes thanksgiving morning while lots of cooking and dirty dish making was going on.

grandpa entertaining those wee ones. we all love him

kimber, tayli, camille

a. casey cut his first turkey! (with the expert father overseeing) man those electric knives are bomb.
b. so many gloriously yummy side dishes. (best part of hosting thanksgiving, i get the left overs!!!!)

derek, cody, camille, brielle, tayli, maxson, karlee

i convinced tayli to sport my red lipstick all weekend.
sure looked good on her!

pumpkin pie making

our thanksgiving dinner in our tiniest of little places.
the memory of being squished in our home for thanksgiving will forever live.
(ps- how do people do real plates for thanksgiving? uh, paper all the way over here folks)
i should probably invest in some nice table cloths...

our first family of 3 thanksgiving. maxson downed all the food, he's like an endless eating tank.

more beautiful people at our thanksgiving table

the cody cutler family

post thanksgiving: everyone deciding they should be in the kitchen at once for various reasons.
even the 3 children are in this room i believe.
you could pretty much only move inches!
ha, what a joke, and cody is trying to open the fridge on top of it all, good luck with that.

exceptional car driving skills by the youngins

maxson took a nap on brad the dad aka grandpa, it was so sweet.
soon after this picture brad fell asleep himself and it was just tender.

we were lucky enough to get some warm days while everyone was here and played outside a few times.
these kiddos love to swing and slide!

mr. jaden and mr. maximus

gearing up for family pictures (for another post)

a. all weekend maxson would walk up to people in the kitchen, raise his arms up at them asking them to pick him up, so cute.
he just wanted to be involved and see what was going on and i loved watching him fearlessly love these new people.
maxson had just woken up from a nap and although he was groggy, made the choice to be happy since he could watch/help grandpa wash dishes.
isn't his bed-head hair stellar?
b. getting some christmas lights out brought sheer amusement to maxson.

post thanksgiving evening pie hangover

thanksgiving night we played a myriad of fun silly games.
the animal sound game (everyone was laughing so hard during this game)
can you pass the roll spoon game
and actual spoons.
i've decided i was meant to marry into the cutler family for they are the prefect group to satisfy my desires for constant family game playing.


other events not pictured: the boys played basketball at the church for 2 hours thanksgiving morning and another 2 hours of football after that, they were sore to say the least.

it really was a most splendid weekend.
everyone helped out so much with cooking, cleaning, and baby caring.
we love out cutler family!!!!!!

squirrels and pumpkins

hey mom, remember when you said you think the gajillions of squirrels all over are yard are cute?

this is 1 big reason to show you how cute they are not.

this is was out turkey/thanksgiving pumpkin

confound it squirrels!

everyone in our neighborhood doesn't put their pumpkins out on their porch until halloween night or else they get devoured.
last year my thanksgiving pumpkin was protected all november long somehow.
they must have been full from halloween.
this year at exactly 2 weeks after halloween night they began devouring mine. less than a week after they dug the first hole, the whole front side was gone, the back pumpkin has a huge hole, and they are finally in the trash (thanks missionaries for throwing them away for us:)