Lots to Be Thankful For This Thanksgiving

I cooked Thanksgiving dinner for the first time this year. It wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. Hooray for that!

John's Dad and stepmom Lurlynn, my sister Megan and another friend of ours joined us for Thanksgiving dinner this year.

It's not Thanksgiving without a football game. We always played football with my cousins and family growing up. With my sister Megan in town, the two of us decided to crash the ward turkey bowl game Thanksgiving morning. We were the only two girls... and with a bunch of missionaries playing, 2 hand touch might have been a bit uncomfortable for the poor missionaries. That might explain why we each scored a couple touchdowns... or maybe we're just good :)

Lurlynn watched Mia and Norah on the sidelines and cheered us on. Mia took the pictures.

Mia loved being photographer. The photo below was taken by her.

John's first time carving a turkey. John's dad had to make sure we were fully prepared to do so and the two of them had to make a Walmart run for an electric knife :)

Love to Kiss Those cheeks!

Norah is such a mellow baby which I am sooo thankful for. She happily tags along no matter what the outing and she'll sleep for a good 7 hour stretch at night. Hooray for that! I sleep WAY better with a newborn than I did when I was pregnant. Haha.

Canoeing

We took our canoe to some nearby lagoons yesterday afternoon. Mia loved using her "controller" (paddle) to help "stir" the water (paddle the boat). It was a blast.

John and Mia paddled to a spot where we could tie up the boat and enjoy some ice cream on the dock. I pushed Norah in the stroller on a path alongside them as they paddled.

Then Mia and I paddled back while John pushed Norah.

Norah snoozed the whole time.

This is the canoe on our new to us 1991 Nissan Pathfinder. (We were babysitting my dad's little red pickup truck while he's on a mission, but it got hit by a drunk driver in the middle of the night while it was parked in front of our house. So we had to find a replacement second car.)

Happy Halloween!

Here's the whole fam right before we went trick or treating. Norah is a little bear (her hood has ears). Mia's a kitty. Mia was a little timid trick or treating at first, but after a few houses she really caught the spirit. She was cutting across the grass and wanted to try every house regardless of whether the lights were on or not. After receiving a treat she'd say, "Thank you! Happy trick or treat!" Mia also wanted to stop and talk to the other kids we passed on the street. Then once we were done trick or treating and I was helping her put on her jammies, Mia heard the doorbell ring and yelled, "Come on in!! I want them to see my room mommy"

We have a whole trunk full of princess costumes that I thought for sure Mia would want to wear one of them for Halloween... but nope, she wanted to be a kitty. So I glued some black fabric to a headband, drew some whiskers on and put a black and pink belt on Mia backwards for a tail. I was pretty happy with the result... especially since it cost us nothing :)


The kitty had to try drinking milk :) I wish I had taken a picture of our dinner that night too... we made jack o' lantern pancakes (dyed the batter orange and made faces out of chocolate chips).


This is Mia's pumpkin. Mia drew a face on it and John cut it out. I love it :)

Uncle David visited us this weekend and got to join in on the Halloween festivities which was fun!

Goodbye Paternity Leave...

We've loved having John home the last 3 weeks and sadly he has to return to work tomorrow. Luckily I have family coming to help with my first week without him, so that'll be great... and then I guess comes the inevitable, I'll have to learn how to care for 2 kids on my own. (If you have any tips... I'd love to hear them!!!) Mia is a big help... she likes to get me diapers and pull out the wipes. Mia's not a fan of the crying though... whenever Norah cries Mia yells, "Mooom! Feed her!"

This was Norah's first time wearing a dress. She wore it to sacrament meeting today which was my first time juggling 2 kids by myself at church (John has recently been put into our bishopric, so I'll be flying solo during sacrament). How does anyone get to church on time with mulitple kids and no husband?





I think Norah's cheeks weigh a pound each! She definitely fills out 3 month clothes and its quite the workout rocking her to sleep. We sure love her!