Turkey day...

Thanksgiving has become a really nice holiday for us. I like staying home instead of traveling. I like cooking and eating all the yummy leftovers. I like shopping on Friday and getting a good deal. I like getting my Christmas decorations up that weekend.

I am thankful for my family and I miss being with grandparents, favorite aunts and uncles and playing with cousins. Wish you all lived closer!!!!

There are some seriously delicious rolls rising under those towels. :)

Real mashed potatoes in the making, courtesy of Grandpa.

And this year, the pomegranate salad featured pomegranates right off the tree in our backyard!

Steve, carving the turkey. Don't ask me why he is wearing that hat, I have no idea.

The girls, getting ready to eat.

Ryder, who passed up Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings for Macaroni and Cheese. Thank you, more for us! :)

And Sawyer who woke up just in time to eat! Along with all the cooking and eating we watched football, movies and played games and relaxed. Steve did get up the next morning at about 7am to do a little shopping and Grandpa and I headed out around 10am. Found some pretty sweet deals without having to get trampled on or staying up all night.

Grandparents Day...

We love that the kids' school does an annual Grandparents Day the Wednesday before Thanksgiving! Grandpa Jerry came down early so he could make it for the 3rd year now. This year he had two girls and two classes!





They had muffins and juice for breakfast followed by a little program. Then they had their picture taken before they split up and headed to class.

Brityn made this "Turkey Lurkey" in class.

Brityn's spot at her table.

Standing in line.

Off to Kendyl's class where they were working on math.

The girls were so happy to show Grandpa around their classrooms at school. Thanks for going!

Caramel apples...

For Family Home Evening last week we made caramel apples. I wanted to try something I saw on Iron Chef America where they used a melon baller to scoop out a section of apple and then dipped it in caramel.


So we scooped out some apple pieces and started dipping. This is actually a genius idea, because when you scoop from the skin, you get a nice flat side to keep your "apple ball" from rolling around!

And it's the perfect size for little dippers!

Bon apetit!

Hair...

I was doing Brityn's hair, and I always start by spraying down their hair with a spray bottle.

Brityn says, "This is like taking a shower with your clothes on!"

Ryder woke up with two little horns. Good thing he is as good as an angel!

Disneyland, day 4

We used our Give a Day, Get a Day vouchers for our last day at Disneyland. With the girls out of school for 2 extra days, we decided to stay and play one more day. It was just our family and we picked all our favorite rides to go on.


The girls definitely liked the rollercoasters this year. We rode Thundermountain Railroad a number of times and Kendyl liked the Matterhorn. And after a while, Brityn finally got brave enough to go on the Matterhorn! When we asked her if she liked it, she said, "There's no monster in there, it's just a big gorilla!"


I think the ride we rode the most was Buzz Lightyear's Astroblasters. Definitely Ryder's favorite and one all the kids enjoyed.

We took a picture with Princess Jasmine and got one last autograph for our books!

We had to ride the Carousel and Dumbo of course.

We finally saw the Street Party at Disneyland. Not quite a parade, but more of a street show. The kids liked waving at all the characters.

Lots of fun days spent together. The kids always love it, and I'm always glad to have the time together as a family without all the distractions. It was a great vacation.

Playing at the beach...

We spent the afternoon at Corona del Mar in Newport Beach. It was cool, but very nice. The kids loved playing in the sand and jumping in the waves. The view was gorgeous.

We rolled up pant legs and warned the girls not to get in too deep. Of course, kids + water, always = WET!

Sawyer didn't mind playing in the sand, we just had to make sure he didn't eat it! We tried putting his feet in the water...

...but he didn't like that at all!

The kids played frisbee and we watched the sunset and then packed up all our wet and sandy selves in the car. Makes me wish we lived closer to a beach! We loved it!!

Temples...

On Sunday, while we were in California, we went to check out all the changes at the Los Angeles Temple visitors center.

They have a beautiful Christus statue there.

The kids had fun playing at this computer station where they could draw and color pictures. And they had several new high tech exhibits that were really neat. Worth a visit if you're ever in the area.

At lunch, apparently, Ryder was just too tired and fell asleep at the table. :)

We then headed towards Newport Beach to see the temple there.

It is smaller, but quite beautiful.

Of course, the kids could not keep out of the water.

It was a lovely Sunday.