Cousin Time and the Museum

We went to a natural history museum in SLC the day after Thanksgiving.  

My kids loved it.

We went to Litza's Pizza after.  My dad loved that place.  We used to go there any time we had a special occasion in SLC, so it was fun to go there with my kids.

We got home and heard that Barb was in the hospital with an infection.  Some of the kids had a good cry and we prayed for her and Joe.  It was snowing too hard to go anywhere that night, so we tried to enjoy the rest of our time at Grandma's house.

Thanksgiving

We went to Orem this year for Thanksgiving.  My whole family was in town (minus the Georgia family).  It was so fun to have Steve and Alana here.  Most of the family hadn't met Maggie, so it was extra fun to have her in our midst.

The whole day was great.  Dinner was excellent.

  

I loved walking in on this pile of cousins chatting.  They were good to include Jake as the lone boy.

Maggie got unlimited attention too.  :)

It was a total dog party too.  The Colorado Johnsons brought Jack (Blake's service dog) and Coco and we had Charlie.  It was crazy to see big Jack chasing Charlie around and giving him a run for his money.  Charlie thought he was the big man on campus until Jack came around.  Jack would pin him down and put Charlie's entire body in his mouth.  Charlie seriously didn't know what to do with himself.  He's never had a dog want to play with him.  Most of the ones he's met are older and sedentary.  It was funny to see him put in his place.

We celebrated my mom's birthday while we were down there too.  Allie and I made this cake.  It was pumpkin chocolate chip with cream cheese frosting.  So good!

I'm so grateful for my mom.  She is such a fun person to be around and her home is home to me.  I'm so glad we could all come down and be together.  I hope I can be like my mom for my family in the future. She is the best!

Turkey Day Snowfall

 We woke up to some major snow on the day we were going to head down to Orem for Turkey Day.
We had to clear out the snow before we could hop in the car to go down.  It was crazy!

 Nathan plopped poor charlie in the snow and he had to swim for his life.  :)

Pie Night

The night before Thanksgiving, we went to Brian and Tara's house to have pie with the Schwab side of the family.  We went sledding, ate spaghetti, and visited for a while.  It was a lovely get together.

Chef Nathan

I was sleeping in on a lovely Saturday morning and Nathan came in carrying a plate of eggs.  Jake had taught him the week before how to make eggs and now he thinks he's a pro.

 He left this plate on the dresser for Mike to eat when he got out of the shower.

I came in to take pictures of him at work and he proudly said "I stuck my thumb in one egg and it got on the stove, but I only dropped one!"  Luckily the one he dropped was out in the garage and easy to clean up.  I guess we have quite a few professional egg makers in the house now.  You can see why we go through 5 dozen eggs in a matter of weeks.

Hoping for Pumpkins in the Fall

Every year, I buy cute gourds to decorate with.  We always leave them out in the yard and hope to grow more gourds the next year.  We've had success a few times, so we keep doing it.

This year we got three cute white mini pumpkin looking ones and one orange one.  So fun!
So, when we were done with them this year, I sent the boys out to put them in the flower beds so we could hope for more gourds next year.

Snow Cone Season!

Jason loves when the snow starts to fall and he can make snow cones.

I'm not a huge fan of this because he leaves wet plops of snow all over near that sliding door.  He also leaves half eaten snow cones in places and then forgets about them.  Then they leave wet rings on furniture.  Grr.  He's so happy about it though, so I forgive him easily.

An Overnight Meet

Jake had his first overnight swim meet last weekend.  He packed up his bags and took off on Friday morning.

 I'm sure I embarrassed him as I snapped pictures, but I don't care.

On the way to the school to drop him off, I drilled him about putting the dead bolt on the door and reminding his roomies that he sleep walks.  I told him to be on his best behavior and remember who he is.  Then, I sent him off with good luck wishes.
He had so much fun.  He bettered both his times.  50 free was 30.1 and his 100 free was 1:07.  I think that's pretty great for a kid who just started swimming in May.
On the way home, they stopped at Panda Express for dinner and "for the first time in my life, I filled up on orange chicken!"
We're always making him share with one or more people, so he never gets to eat his fill at Kung Foo Panda (as we call it) and it is his very favorite.  So, of course, it was the best trip ever.
I love that he's making these fun high school memories.  Swimming is awesome and I love that he loves it too.

Buddies

We paired the kids up long ago.  Nathan and Jake are buddies and Allie and Jason are buddies.  They're supposed to help each other out with dishes, chores, etc.

Allie and Jason are actually buddies in real life.  

They don't always get along, but for the most part, they do.

Today, they're playing Jenga together and making up dance moves to obscure songs.  Allie is patient with Jason, and Jason is willing to try new moves over and over.  They're pretty cute. 

USU Football

Mike took Allie and Nathan to a USU football game that didn't even start until 8:30 at night.  I thought Allie looked so cute as she headed out the door all bundled up.  I've had that coat for over 25 years.  I hardly ever wear it because it's so warm and I'm never cold enough to be that warm.  :)

I was supposed to go to the game.  Mike had 3 tickets, but Nathan is always begging to do whatever activity anyone else is doing and if it's football, the begging gets amped up to crazy proportions.  

He had a great time.  They all did...even if USU totally lost.

Pomegranate

I bought a pomegranate last year for the first time ever.  I guess they've been something that just intimidates me.  Nathan loved it.  He's begged for another one ever since.  I finally brought a few home this week.  He then began begging me to open it up.  We looked at a video on youtube to refresh our memories and I let the boys do the rest of the work.

 Aside from a few squirts of juice, they did a really good job.

They divided things up and even saved some for Jake because he's away at an overnight swim meet.

 Then they sat around and ate them while Mike told them stories of weird foods he's eaten.

 Allie was sitting with Charlie and I thought he looked like a little old man with his sweater.