Black Friday

Happy Black Friday! This is the first time in a few years that I stayed home and enjoyed my warm bed. It was lovely. We had our shopping done before today (except for the jammies I mentioned a bit back), and I didn't see anything that even tempted me. I saw some things that would be fun to get, but not enough that I'd want to go out in the cold ...

Our Thanksgiving was wonderful! I feel blessed beyond measure for my wonderful husband and great kids (who I haven't messed up too much yet :). I love my parents and appreciate the great example they have given me for years. I love my siblings and their kiddos even more. And I'm grateful my kids have cousins who aren't weird. ;) Most of all I'm grateful for the Plan of Salvation and that I have been blessed to have the fullness of the gospel in my life. What an awesome opportunity to know so much about the Savior and to have the gift of the Holy Ghost in my life to help me be the best wife and mother I can be. There aren't words enough to describe what a sacred blessing this is in my life.

Anyway, I love spending time with family, and we got to spend Thanksgiving with my parents, one sister's family and my two younger brothers and their families. I didn't even get pics of Ryan's cute girls since one was sick and another is shy enough I didn't want to scare her away from playing by snapping pics. We did, however, get a picture of Austin with his newest cousin James:


We also got a picture of their older cousin Kylen when he stopped by for a short time. I thought Rebecca would appreciate this picture of Austin trying to get Kylen's ear:

(And no, this isn't why Kylen is crying -- he just didn't want to sit down for that annoying camera lady!)

Anyway, Shayla and Zachary came home with very cute Thanksgiving day crafts from school. Zachary made this great turkey (which was supposed to be the T-day centerpiece but his ditsy mom forgot to grab it as she said she would):


Shayla made these cute things at pre-school:


(She went back and forth between wanting to show this turkey to everyone and eating it immediately! :)

And in the midst of this wonderful holiday, my baby turned 8 months. Here he is with his buddy Austin:


Last weekend provided the first really good snow. Shayla was thrilled and got her snow clothes on immediately. Zachary and Tyler were too busy playing in the basement to care. That made me sad to see they're old enough that they have lost some of their excitement. But then when Shayla went out Zachary quickly joined her:


BTW, that carrot is from our garden. Funny, huh, that we have a garden carrot to plant in the snowman?!?

What did Austin think of his first snow (which you can see in his hair)?


And on to the fun of this weekend -- it's rivalry week! This is the week BYU versus U of U, and we're hoping for a big win! It's the last time the two teams are in the same conference, so we'd like to end it on a high. Last weekend when Paul said he was going to watch the BYU game Shayla said, "I better get on my BYU clothes!" She definitely makes the cutest cheerleader BYU has:


Go, Cougs! We'll be cheering for you even if we miss the beginning of the game (due to a baby blessing in the morning).