Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. For the whole month we added things we are grateful for to our mantle. We also did some fun Thanksgiving activities.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our family here in NC. Ryan took it on herself to help Emmett find trouble. He especially loved the game of throwing pennies down the stairs. (Another reason I'm so glad we don't have stairs!) He also played outside a lot with Papa Steve. (He calls him that because he looks so much like Papa, my dad!)

Family Time

For the whole 3 days we were in Utah, we ran around visiting family. It was crazy, but wonderful. Everyone got to meet Susie, and Emmett had so much fun with his cousins.

The first time that all 5 new baby girls have been together. (Susie never cries, so of course she cries for this picture)

With Grandpa

The whole family

With my Grandma

With my Grandpa

With his birthday buddy - two years apart to the day. They were laughing so hard!

Picking up apples - I had to teach him not to eat them straight off the ground!

Fun in the backyard

Pretending to be a dog.

This night, E had us all dying laughing. Here he was pretending he had a microphone. He knew he was the star of the show!

E's first football game!

With his cousin Jacob, who had some great plays in the game!

Miss Susie, always smiling!

Asheville Part 2

We stopped at the Western NC Nature Center to let the kids run around and see the animals. It was a really nice place and just the right size for our crew.

I love this picture. Trying to get more than one kid looking at the camera was a joke!

These two were very well behaved!

Roar!

This sign was by the bear area...

Apparently Cam's hands are the size of a bear paw.

The petting area. E was ok with the goats this time.

Checking out a turtle.

I told you they were inseparable. Four strollers weren't enough - M hitched a ride with E! 

Asheville Part 1

My sister and her family came up to Tennessee for her husband's family reunion, and they met up with us in Asheville so we could visit for a day. We had a great time, and the kids loved hanging out. Even the babies! Here are a few fun shots.

At the McDonald's by Biltmore. Fancy Shmancy! E loved the player piano!

I love that they're posing exactly the same!

 

These two were thick as thieves!

The only picture of all six kids. Chaos!

Spring Break Vacation 6

Friday was a fun day with a picnic at the park. The whole family invaded Castle Park, and we had a blast. Again, E was all worn out. We're playing HARD on this trip!

That night, we had a surprise dinner to celebrate Grandma's retirement. It was a dinner without kids, and it was fun to have a quiet evening with just the adults. I don't have any pictures from the rest of the trip (actually, I have a ton, but I'm trying to limit how many posts I make!) We had family pictures and dinner on Friday, so sometime I'll have those to post. Saturday was just filled with conference, packing, and saying goodbye.

One more picture - a random shot of E playing.  It's my favorite. I love his grin!

Spring Break Vacation 2

Saturday was all about Easter. Cam's sister was kind enough to pull the egg dying stuff back out so E could have that experience. We were cracking up, because he only wanted to use his hands, which made for a messy time. He loved it though!

After that, we had the big Easter egg hunt at Grandma and Grandpa's. I think there were about 25 kids total running around, and each kid had an assigned color of egg to find. E's was green. He had a blast until he discovered that there was chocolate in the eggs. The problem was that it was a hot day and the chocolate melted, which meant that mean mommy wouldn't let him have any!

After the hunt, he enjoyed swinging like a big boy.

Then he found some of Cam's old tractors in the garage. He seriously played for about an hour in the dirt. So happy!

Mega Road Trip - Mon., Tues., Wed.

All Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we all just spent time together. We played in the backyard, went out to eat, had a fire in the backyard, took family pictures (to come later) and had a marshmallow gun fight. Lots of fun memories!

Couch bums!

E and M hit it off! They loved playing together!

Willie's has a huge sandbox. The kids loved it!

Busy.

Thank goodness Papa has a swing!

I absolutely love this picture. They were SO happy.

Craft time with Grammy - oreo turkeys!

Told you they hit it off!

Roasting marshmallows

G was telling us a ghost story. I love how E is snuggling with Papa!

We were laughing SOOOOO hard.

So much fun!

Mom says they're still finding marshmallows!

E mastered the stairs really quickly. But we still didn't let him go up and down alone. His favorite thing to do was go halfway up and sit and wait to get caught. Then he'd giggle and get that mischievous grin.