Thanksgiving Week

We took a trip down to Austin, TX for Thanksgiving this year to see Trent's sister and her family.  We left the Monday afternoon before Thanksgiving and drove halfway to Wichita, KS, where we stopped and stayed for the night.  We got up bright and early the next morning and drove the rest of the way.  I found I would much prefer to get all the driving done in one day.  Splitting it up into two days just seemed to prolong the agony.  We got there safe and sound Tuesday evening and went to Steph and Ryan's for a BBQ so the kids could see their cousins.  They were ecstatic to be able to see them!

On Wednesday, we had the wonderful opportunity to drive down to the San Antonio Temple and witness the sealing of Teague to Ryan and Stephanie.  It was such a special day!

Here's Teague getting all dressed in his whites.  He was so happy for the whole sealing.  He just kept looking at his parents, smiling and saying, "Hi.  Hi dad."  He is such a sweet, precious little boy.

What a beautiful family!  Steph, Ryan and their kiddos Tate, Trey, Taryn, Teague and Tristan.

All of the family.

I love Taryn's pose in this one.  That girl is such a ham!

Tristy and Ryan.

Tate, Steve, Trent, and Sean.

Sure love this cute girl!

Janet, Grandma Chapman, Steph, and Tristy.

After the temple and some lunch, we all headed over to a park over by Steph and Ryan's.  Taryn was so nice to push Jilly in the swing.  It is Lou's personal favorite.

Vivi, Peyton, and Taryn.  Vivi was in heaven being with her cousins.



Teague snuck in a few lollipops.  ;)

Jilly and Taryn.

Noelle and Teaguers.

While at the park, we got to see Jeremy take flight with his latest toy.

Watching him suspended in the air like that was enough to give me an anxiety attack!  I am not a fan of heights though.

On Thanksgiving day, we went to the park in the morning and let the kids play for a bit.

 Jilly, chillin' in the barks chips.

 Jilly and Mea.  Cute little friends!

Cousins Vivi, Taryn, Emily, and Ellie.  What a cute bunch of girls!

Vivi and Ellie holding hands while swinging.

After the park, we all went and got ready for Thanksgiving dinner.  Since there were over 50 of us, we ended up having dinner at the church.  It was perfect!  We had tables set up at one end of the gym, and the kids (well, everyone) could play basketball at the other end.  :)  After dinner, there was a gingerbread house decorating contest.





















There is some serious concentration going on here.

Here is each family's house, ready to be judged.

And here are the judges, deliberating.  :D


There were also some turkey crafts for the kids to do afterward.



Teague was totally happy with his box of Reeses Pieces.

On Friday we hung out with all the family some more.  We all went to see the movie "The Rise of the Guardians".  Such a cute movie.

 That night we went out to Ryan and Steph's new property and roasted marshmallows and hot dogs over a huge fire.

The next morning we got up super early and got ready for a 16 hour drive back home.  We had such a fun week visiting our family.  Especially since we don't get to visit them very often.

Random Pictures

Here are a few happenings from the month of November:

 The big boys' favorite new homework spot; my bed.  They crack me up!

 Snuggles with my Buds and his bear, Chaucer.

 Preston came up to me one day, holding a pencil in his hand, and said, "Mom, there is something that I've always wanted to try.  I'll just have to take my glasses off to do it."  Then he removed his glasses, and put the pencil behind his ear.  He informed me that he saw he preschool teacher, Miss Jen, do this all the time, and he thought it was really cool.  I sure do love this kid!  He is always making me laugh!

 On November 17th, we had the opportunity to go to a CU game with Vivi's class.  Her teacher, Mr. Kennedy, got free tickets for his class members and all their families, along with free kids meals.  It was such a fun day!  Mr. K is the best!

After a long and busy day, (doing I don't remember what) this girl completely crashed.  We got home, carried her inside, undressed her, changed her diaper, put her pajamas on, and laid her in bed, all without her waking up even the slightest.  That's when you know she's tired!

Vivi's Baptism

We have a tradition in our family that the week before someone gets baptized, they get a "special" cookie for each day of that week. The first day is a "B" (for baptism) cookie, and we talk about what baptism means. The next day is an "A" cookie, then a "P" cookie and so on. Doing this has given Trent and I a great opportuniy to talk with our kids about the importance of baptism before they get baptized.

"B" is for Baptism.

"A" is for Atonement.

"P" is for Priesthood.

"T" is for Testimony.

"I" is for Immersion.

"S" is for Sacrament.

"M" is for Missionary.

Getting ready.  Buds was so sweet to help Vivi get her dress buttoned up.

Cute siblings.  Preston was so excited for Vivi's special day.  He even let me comb his hair, which is almost unheard of.

 The big day!  Vivi was supposed to be baptized the end of September, but we wanted to make sure all the grandparents could be there, so she ended up being baptized on November 3 instead.  We were so excited Great grandma Chapman could come!

 My girl and her daddy.

 Vivi had lots of people come to support her on her special day.  From left to right we've got Janet, Steve, Kristie, Sean, Grandma Guercio, Vivi in the front, Dustin, Jilly, Trent, Grandma Chapman, Colson, Jan, Trenton, Mike, me and Preston.

Jilly's favorite part of the day; dessert.  It was such a wonderful day.  We are so grateful for our sweet Vivi, and for the wonderful decision she made to be baptized.

Birthdays

My brother and mother-in-law both had a birthday a couple of months ago.

 For my brother's birthday, my mom made an amazing caramel apple cheesecake.  It was so delicious!

 I have been horrible lately about remembering to bring my DSLR with me, so all I've got are a lot of fuzzy cell phone photos.  I guess it's better than nothing!

 Preston just can't help himself.  If there is a present around, he has to get his hands on it and open it!  I love the look on my Dustin's face here, as Preston helps himself to opening my brother's present.  Does that look say "get your hands off" or what?!  Ha!

 Dustin reclaimed his present.  :D

 Happy birthday bud!

A few days after celebrating my brother's birthday, we got together to party for Janet's big day.

Another blurry cell phone picture.  We had pie to go along with that big tub of ice cream, in case you were wondering.  ;)  Happy, happy birthday Janet!

Halloween

Here is the crew, ready for some trick-or-treating!

This year we've got Calvin and Hobbes, Psy, a bumblebee, two cute ghostsies, and Trent was a burglar.  I forgot to have him put his beanie hat and jacket on before we took the picture.

Here he is with all his gear on.  Can you see him?  :D

 Preston couldn't wait to get into his candy.  He went into his candy bag head first, searching for his favorites.  Between the ward trunk-or-treat and trick-or-treating on Halloween night, the kids got gobs and gobs of candy.  We usually ration them, but I was too lazy for that this year.  I think the boys ate through all of theirs in less than two weeks.  Vivi still has almost half of hers left, almost two months later.  It was another great Halloween!

Little Climber

Jillian loves, loves, loves to climb on the table, any chance she gets.

Little monkey.  

Day At The Zoo

During Vivi and Preston's Fall break, we spent one of the days at the zoo.  (They are so lucky to have two weeks of Fall break instead of just the one week the boys get.  But the boys get extra time off in the summer so I guess it's a fair trade.)  Anyway, we chose a really good day to go.  There was hardly anybody there that day.  It was at the end of October, and there was just a slight chill in the air.  We were plenty warm though with just a light jacket on.

I think it was the first time, in all of our years going to the zoo, that the kids didn't have to wait 10 minutes for a turn to get a picture with the bronze hippos, or have to wait in line forever to see how far they could jump.  We got to take our time with everything.  And there were tons of animals out and about that day.  The best part was getting to have a fun, wonderful day with my three littlest kiddos.  :)

Prestonisms

There are so may things I love about my sweet Preston, but one of the things I love the very most is his curious nature.  I often wonder what is going on in that head of his.  Sometimes his curiosity is enough to drive me to drink (if I drank that is), but it really is one of my favorite characteristics of his.

As we were out driving one afternoon, Preston was looking out of the car window and said, "Mom, how can the sun and the moon be up at the same time?!  That is so crazy!"  He is always full of such questions and statements.  I love the wonder and curiosity in that boy.

As I said, I would love to know what is going on in that head of his most of the time.  As I was snuggling with him before bed one night, we were chatting about our day when all of a sudden he said, "Mom, I wish I had your bum."  I couldn't help myself, I burst out laughing!  All I could think of was his skinny little five-year-old body with my bum in place of his.  He would never be able to get up!  Hahaha!  That boy... He is such a corker.

I love when kids try to repeat a saying, and they just don't have the wording quite right.  Well, a couple of weeks ago, the big boys were doing something to annoy Preston, and he yelled, "Stop! You're raking on my nerds!"  It definitely lightened the mood.  We all started laughing hysterically.

One of my favorites sayings of his is how he says the words "each other".  He used to say it their-chother.  Recently he has changed it to arch-other.  I hope he doesn't say it correctly any time soon because it's too cute!  I just love that boy to pieces and am so grateful for the amazing, curious, goofy,  wonderful kid he is.

Lashes

I think my little Jillybean should trade eyelashes with me.

Lucky girl!