Halloween Fun

The Saturday before Halloween the ward held the annual Fall Festival and Trunk-r-Treat.  SM was over the games that the YW and YM  were helping run.  This is the board that Jeremy and I made.  He also made a couple corn hole games, a ring toss, a cake walk game and pumpkin bowling.

L went to the event as Tigger.  He was so cute.  He loved the outfit.  We found it at a consignment sale a month or so ago.  I thought it was pretty big and would be big for him.  But he grew a lot in that month because the Tigger costume fit him perfectly and if he had to wait a couple more weeks I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have fit him.

L is growing so much and from this picture you can see that his hair is also growing like crazy.  This kid is so awesome but is growing too quickly for me.

Yep, he still likes to eat leaves!

Yep, those are my boys!  Love them tons!

I love that little Tigger!

L loving a little Japanese Maple leaves!  This tree is so awesome and looks amazing in our front yard.

And one of my favorite photos!

New Years Eve

We spent New Year's Eve at SM's brother's house.  We had a fun evening of games and food.  Several of us took short naps so that we could make it until midnight.

Some of the kids at the party!

Cute couple!

Brothers!

My sister-in-law put her hair in a mohawk just for me.  So, does that mean next year I wear the mohawk?  Maybe I'll just have my baby wear a mohawk!

Christmas Day

Christmas morning presents...we didn't bring presents with us but we did buy a few things while we were visiting.  You'll notice that I forgot to bring Christmas stockings and so SM volunteered a pair of his exercise socks and we stuffed them full of fun Christmas treats.

Christmas afternoon two of SM's brother's and their families joined us for games and food.  Above is the kids play Just Dance 4 on the Wii.  They played together so well.

We start training the kids at a very young age.  They loved this game called Spot It where they had to look at their circle in front of them and then compare it to the circle in the center.  If they found something that matched the two circles, they shouted out the matched pair and whoever did that first, gained the circle card.  And whoever had the most cards at the end of the game...won.

And the guys played Race for the Galaxy...a game that us girls don't like to play very often.  There were other games played by all.

And back to the presents that I opened on Christmas morning...and don't forget my stocking (hee, hee).

SM's brother is counting up his points to see if he won.

 

Look how beautiful the snow is outside on Christmas morning.  What a wonderful day!

Christmas Eve Dinner

Christmas Eve Dinner is a family tradition.  The dinner is lit with candle light, we eat turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, and some kinds of salads.  My sister-in-law and I made some fun table lanterns...and then I didn't get a photo of them.  I also forgot to pull out the camera and get photos of the dinner.  Oh well...maybe next year.  Above is a photo of cousins that are also friends.  They sure look alike in this photo!

After the very yummy dinner, we clear out the chairs and tables from the family room and gather as a family for a program.  My father-in-law puts the program together each year.  We usually read several Christmas stories, sing some Christmas hymns and share our thoughts or testimonies about Jesus Christ.

Sometimes it's hard to be the youngest family member.

And I know this is an awful photo but I wanted to share that my husband doesn't like to get his photo taken and he always tells me that he gets that from his mom.  What do you think?  Does he get it from his mom?  Perhaps...

Beignets

During the holidays, the family got together to celebrate all December birthdays...which happens to be only one, and just to be together.  We celebrated by eating beignets, which are like square donuts but are light and fluffy that are covered in powdered sugar. They are yummy!

The kitchen is the place to be...could it be because the beignets are almost ready to eat?

SM's oldest brother was the one who made the dough...he did a great job!  

I know this picture shows that the kids are eating the beignets, but the adults were eating them just as often and frequently.

My sister-in-law is shaking a beignet or two in a bag with powdered sugar...and below is a picture of her daughter eating a beignet (pronounced ben-yay).

Happy faces!

Three cheers for yummy beignets! (and cute nieces and nephews)!

Thanksgiving in the Outer Banks

For the week of Thanksgiving we drove to the Outer Banks and met up with three other families.  We all rented a beach house together and had a fabulous week together.  One of the things we did was visit the Bodie Island Lighthouse.

As you can see in the background, the Bodie Island Lighthouse was having a  facial.  Luckily, I have been here a couple of times and have better photos of the lighthouse.  This was the first time my friend had ever been.  Hopefully she'll come back another year and get a picture without all the scaffolding surrounding the lighthouse.

We had a house full of fun kiddos.  We had eight girls and one boy.  Luckily the boy was one of the younger kiddos and so he didn't mind hanging out with the girls.  We also took turns each evening cooking a meal.  Yum!

And we played games almost every evening.  The kids usually jumped into the hot tubs in the evenings and since they didn't need all of the adults watching them, we'd enjoy some fun game playing.  We taught our friends to play Seven Wonders and I think they all enjoyed it.  We also played Dominion with the final expansion, Dark Ages.  

The weather didn't cooperate too much while we were in the Outer Banks.  The first four days were full of lots of wind and sometimes rain.  But we did sneak in a few trips to different locations.  Here I am at the Wright Brother's Memorial.  We actually stopped by here three or four times because we didn't have enough time to do everything or I was too tired to see everything.  But since after the first time we didn't have to pay an entrance fee, it was really easy to do several short visits.

One of the first days of sunshine had us out and visiting the Currituck Lighthouse.  We took the opportunity to see it with friends and even hiked up to the very top to look out on the beach town below.  This was the last time we saw the sun that day.  By the time we made it down to the bottom of the lighthouse the clouds had moved in and it was windy and cold again.

SM pulled out Axis and Allies, a game he used to play in high school with one of the guys in this picture.  I had heard the stories about how long these games could go and so I declined the opportunity to play.  And it was a good thing I didn't play.  I think it took them around four or five hours to play the game and they didn't finish until midnight.

We filled up all these places with great friends and their kiddos.  We took an opportunity for everyone to share something they were grateful for that Thanksgiving.  I just wept the whole time...I'm blaming pregnancy hormones on that one.  Anyway, it was a wonderful Thanksgiving with lots of good memories and good food.

We deep fried two turkey, had mashed potatoes and gravy, apple cider green beans, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, rolls and lots of different kinds of pies and cakes and don't forget the Old Dominion Rootbeer.

The Friday after Thanksgiving was the first time I ventured to the beach.  The sun finally came out and the day was mild.  While at the  Outer Banks I reached the 30 week mark in my pregnancy and I was still feeling great.

What a wonderful week! (Sat. Nov. 17- Sat. Nov. 24, 2012)