Thanksgiving 2013

For Thanksgiving this year we gathered at my parents' townhouse for the first time ever as an entire family (it's much smaller than the Compound in Freakin Eagle Mountain).

The kids were excited to see each other.

We need to take family pictures before dinner so we hopped into the cars and drove around the corner to try to find a place that wasn't too sunny. 

We found some shade nearby that was backed by piles of manure! It wreaked for sure, but served our purposes and was definitely memorable. We took four shots with the tripod and self-timer.

We had Amy take our family photos (no easy task) and she ended up having to stand in the doorway of our car so she could shoot us from above, it was pretty funny. She also had to work around the trash and manure in the background. Good times.

Back at the house the boys played video games, while the girls played one of Whitney's creative games.

Amy helped Robyn with a photography app for her phone, and Olivia and Megan laid on the floor (which was funny because we hadn't even eaten yet).

We all fit at the same table except for Ashley, Megan and Olivia who sat at a little table nearby.

Andrew made an appearance with his besties.

Tess was in charge of organizing names to be drawn for Christmas gift exchange.

We hung out all day.

Amy was oh so happy to get a little nap in.

And then the M&Ms and games came out.

We taught Randy and Landon how to play Wizard.

I brought Thanksgiving Bingo (which I got from Pinterest) and it went over huge.

I also brought Catch Phrase which meant the kids could all play too. It was pretty funny.

Thanksgiving in Review

On our way to my aunt's house for dinner we had Lori take a few pictures of us in an attempt to get a Christmas card photo and updated family photo for the house (we still have the one from Whitney's baptism 2 years ago on our wall). She took about 6 pictures and then we hustled back in the car and hit the road. The irony our haphazard family photos is not lost on me, but it is what it is and I always feel lucky to have a usable family photo at all; last year's Christmas card was a self-portrait for Pete's Sake! (We didn't coordinate clothing or anything, sheesh!)


It's become tradition for Lori to sandwich herself between the kids to ride with us on Thanksgiving. I'm glad she does this because it's always more fun when she's with us.


I should have weighed my pie, I swear it was 7 pounds or more (the pie plate alone is heavy).


My mom's side of the family always gathers at my aunt and uncle's house, and whoever is available contributes to the meal.


This is Whitney's Thanksgiving feast! She had a roll and two tiny pieces of ham...what the?!

Landon chose more wisely.


This was my plate of goodness.

Lori looked just plain cute eating her meal.

This year my aunt had Lori make cupcakes for the kids, so we ended up with a serious surplus of pie (they could have had pie, but they chose cupcakes instead) which meant my chocolate pie (i.e., slop) didn't really get eaten.

Seriously?! All I could think was "I've done Michelle wrong."

My uncle passed out questionnaires for us to fill out, then later he read the answers and we guessed who said it.

The questions were...
1. What was your biggest event in 2010.
2. What do you have planned for 2011.
3. What is something most people don't know about you.
4. Name something you're thankful for.


This picture is blurry, but I like how it captures everyone laughing at one of the questionnaires. One of my cousins felt uninteresting and hard pressed to come up with something, so she made something up!


Landon M.C.'d the annual Thanksgiving Talent Show. Whitney told jokes, a couple of the girls sang, Robyn's kids read poems, and the tiniest ones danced around.


One of my cousins gathered the kids and gave them puppets to perform a last-minute show of "Old MacDonald Had a Farm".

Landon played a song on the trumpet.

This is the Thanksgiving Bingo Sheet Whitney drew, the 2nd picture over on the top is a picture of my aunt--I think it's hilarious.


After hanging out and getting everything cleaned up we headed out to freakin Eagle Mountain to hang out at my parents' house. Eventually we were ready to eat again and had very tasty paninis.


My mom taught us a new game called Quirkle, which ended up being pretty fun, particularly because Lori, Randy, Landon and I kept using the word Quirkle as a verb. We cracked ourselves up all night long and laughed until we Quirkled.

**How was your Thanksgiving?
How would you answer the questionnaire?
Have you ever Quirkled?
What's your favorite Thanksgiving food?**

Comment Window Tidbit: I went to Michelle's house for Creative Friday today and was super productive. Landon and I were there from 11:30-6:30, woohoo!

Five for Friday--Another Week Edition

1. I helped with another Activity Day outing this week (that's 4 in a row in case you're counting) at Thanksgiving Point. I thought a July outing to the farm there was poor planning (wouldn't September or October have been nicer?) but it wasn't too insanely hot.


2. I used Randy's laptop and wrote the entire Primary Program in the comfort of the cozy the other day. I had my scriptures, the primary outline, the list of songs we're using, and the list of all the kids in the primary spread out beside me. I still need to assign most of the parts (I had started out doing that, but then realized my list of kids is out of date) and tweak of few things but the overall program is written, woohoo! This is my 3rd year in a row writing this program.


3. As I've mentioned before, Landon has taken to leaving us notes on an almost-daily basis. We found this one waiting for us when we went to bed the other night.


4. Landon's self-imposed week of no screen watching has been quite amazing. He has played with a variety of friends and they have managed to entertain themselves with all sorts of board games, soccer and so on. I'm so impressed with his resolve in doing this.


5. We're going cushy camping with my whole family tonight for our 2nd annual Maher Family Campout. I say cushy, because it's in cabins at the church's Girl's camp and therefore is perfectly maintained, has nice bathrooms and showers, and a pebble ice machine at the pavilion! It still involves bringing a ton of stuff with us, but I'm all for it because I love having an excuse to spend time in the mountains.


We're hoping it won't rain, but we're prepared for indoor activities just in case.

**How was your week?
Ever been cushy camping?**

Comment Window Tidbit: This has been the mellowest week of our summer by far.