Thanksgiving 2011

This year, Thanksgiving was at the Dawson's. Courtney, Ryan and their boys, us, and Larry and Sharla were the only ones in attendance. It was kinda nice having a smaller group this year because it was a quiet and relaxing day. We had so much good food, drank lots of sparkling cider, we (me, Sharla, and Courtney) played LOTS of games with the kids, and we (Ben, Ryan, and Larry) took naps. We all went around the table and said what we were thankful for.... Family, the Gospel, Jobs, temple marriage, warm Houses, and Fisher's was my favorite, he said, Jesus. I'm thankful for such an awesome family to spend Thanksgiving with! Here's some pictures of our day.

(Abigail made Dawson pose like this)

pigtails

Finally... pigtails! I have been looking forward to Hailey's hair being long enough. It's my favorite hairdo on little girls, I love seeing her big blue eyes stand out with no hair in the way.

Halloween

We had a great weekend filled with tons of Halloween fun. Luke's school had a fall festival that we went to, we had the trunk-or-treat, trick-or-treating, and our family party. The kids were worn out by the time Tuesday rolled around.

The kids got their faces painted at the fall festival

Our neighbor set up an awesome graveyard

Carly liked the skeleton best

The costumes were so easy this year, Carly and Hailey wore witch costumes I made 2 years ago for Carly and Abigail. Abigail borrowed a witch costume from our neighbor. Someone at Ben's work knew how much Luke loves Star Wars, and offered their Obi Wan Kenobi costume.

Larry and my Dad at our after trick-or-treating party

4 beautiful witches

Obi Wan and Grandma Sharla

UEA weekend- Saturday

On Saturday, we had a pumpkin carving/birthday party at the Dawson's. We went and picked out some pumpkins... being so close to Halloween it was definitely slim pickins. Luckily the kids didn't care, they just picked the biggest ones, and it was fun to see them try and heft their pumpkins to the cash register.

I caught Carly throwing woodchips at Fisher

she said she was sorry

carving and painting

a few of the pumpkins

Hailey liked to escape down the sidewalk

Hailey was so tired, so Grandma Sharla took a nap with her

Kaitlyn and Fisher both turned 8 in October. Fisher picked out the cakes and we had a party. It was so much fun being all together for a weekend.

UEA weekend- Friday

We had another fun filled day on Friday.
Lola, Grandma and Grandpa Dawson's new dog, needed a bath. The kids wanted to go to Pet smart to watch her be groomed, and to pick out the color of her toe nail polish. The kids loved it, and came home with a list of animals that we could get for pets.

Lola's the white fluffy one
Hailey LOVES Lola, and was trying to get to her

checking out the turtles

I never knew that the kids would be so entertained at pet smart

Later that evening, we had my niece's baptism to attend. Ben's brother, Fred, and his family live in Indiana, and came to Utah to baptize their daughter. The kids were so excited to be around cousins that they don't see too often.

Porter and Carly were running and standing in front of the vacuum while Grandpa was trying to clean up.

Luke and Fisher really are the best of buddies

Abigail was so excited for her girl cousins to come and visit.

Logan, Grandma, and Abigail

Luke, Fisher, and the newly baptized, Kaitlyn

more kids wanted in on the picture

Hailey was loving all the excitement and just followed the herd of kids around the room.