Thanksgiving Week Fun

We've had a wonderful Thanksgiving week! Grace and Bethany's vacation started Wednesday, and Travis was off of work Thursday and Friday, which meant lots of fun family time.

 

Bethany had a "Thankful Celebration" at preschool on Tuesday, where the class read the story of the Little Red Hen and made corn muffins together. They also got these adorable headbands, which I thought looked SO cute on her! I'm so grateful for the wonderful teachers my girls have at both school and Church. We truly are blessed by their loving care!

Since my parents were in Texas earlier this week, we decided to postpone our Thanksgiving dinner until Saturday so we could celebrate with them. So on Thanksgiving day, we took it easy, played at Fair Park, and had a family pizza party, then joined some friends (the Tippets and James') for a dessert buffet. We had a great day, and loved spending a lazy day together with family and friends.

On Friday, we took the girls to Chuck E Cheese to redeem the tokens they had earned during the summer reading program, then out to lunch at Burger King (their favorite). When we got home, we decorated the Christmas tree while Kaylee and Cambree took a nap. Grace and Bethany loved helping decorate! When I asked Grace a couple weeks ago what she was most excited about for Christmas (traditions wise), she had said "Putting up decorations." ;) And while we were decorating, she exclaimed "It's so fun to decorate with my family!" It truly was so nice to be doing it together, and brought a sweet spirit in to our home.

Bethany really got into it this year for the first time:

Hanging up many of her homemade ornaments from the last few years:

Travis and Grace listening to our Charlie Brown Christmas ornament:

 

 We had more of our yummy pizza for dinner, then drove to Kirtland to see the tree lighting for the opening of the historic nativity display. They began the night with a message from a member of the Stake Presidency about how Christ is the light of the world, then we all gathered around the Newell K Whitney store to count down to the lighting. It was fun to count down together, and magical to see the trees light up one by one.

I was blessed to get this shot--I loved how the lights danced so brightly on the wet ground, like a neon Jackson Pollock painting.

 

 

Then we headed inside for hot cocoa and candy canes, and let the kids play in the kids room while we took turns admiring the nativities.

My beautiful Grace angel:

 I thought it was so sweet how the holy family was wrapped up together in this display, cradled so warm and close.

Another beautiful nativity. There were almost 1,000 on display this year!

This one was my favorite. I just love the way Mary is tenderly holding Jesus' hand and foot, and the reverent way that Joseph is gazing and acting towards Jesus. So tender and loving.

 

 It was a beautiful reminder of our Savior--who He is and ALL He has done for us.

 

 

It was a fun day and a great way to kick off the Christmas season.

 

Saturday morning, we went to one of our favorite holiday events--Christmas at the Mill.

 

 

A highlight of the event is always a visit with Santa Clause.

Kaylee and Cambree were a little unsure.

 

We love to listen to the local musicians play each year as well.

It was so fun to play the bells and sing along to the music with them--definitely a holiday moment.

And of course, admiring the crafts made by local artists and eating a freshly roasted chesnut--yum!

 

 

Saturday night, we ate our long-awaited Thanksgiving dinner with my parents and the missionaries, Sister Pound and Sister Blackner.

New and old favorites: Texas Roadhouse rolls, Boston Market sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, and Holloway fruit salad, plus mashed potatoes, stuffing, and homemade pumpkin pie and cookies.

It was wonderful to enjoy yummy food with our family and friends and recognize how very much we have to be grateful for. We truly are SO blessed by our loving Heavenly Father with everything we enjoy, especially the gospel, family, and friends. We feel very lucky this holiday season, and hope that this spirit of gratitude can live in our hearts all year round.

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Bethany's 4th Birthday

Since Bethany's birthday fell on a Sunday this year, we decided to spread out the festivities and make it a birthday weekend!
On Friday, I got to take her on a special birthday date.
Bethany wanted to have her birthday lunch at Burger King, where she picked chicken nuggets, apple slices, and apple juice for her kid's meal.


A big ice cream lover, she then chose to trade her toy in for an ice cream cone, and happily savored each delicious little lick and bite. ;)

We had a lot of fun talking, wearing crowns, dancing to the music, and playing in the play place.

 

These curls. Perfection. I hope she always loves her beautiful hair as much as everyone else does.

After lunch, we headed to Target where we cruised the isles and picked out some party favors for her to share with her preschool friends the following Tuesday.
Then we went to the mall, where she got to choose her first birthday present--an outfit for her build a bear. It was a tough call between a super girl outfit and Elsa, but Elsa won out. ;) She had fun picking out her dress, crown, and sparkly purple shoes.

Matching Bethany and bear Elsas. Sooo cute!

Saturday morning, we made her long-anticipated birthday breakfast of cinnamon rolls, bacon, and banana. (For months now, she's been so excited for her birthday cinnamon rolls and cinnamon roll cake. ;) )

While Kaylee and Cambree took their nap, Travis got his turn for a date with the birthday girl, and took Grace and Bethany to the dollar theatre to watch Inside Out (a movie that all of us have been eager to see.) Wearing her new birthday outfit (a Princess Sophia shirt and her favorite jeggings):

While they were gone, I decorated the house...

(the girls all had fun with the balloons)

...and prepped Bethany's birthday dinner. Travis decorated the kids pizza with a B for Bethany:

 

We all enjoyed her yummy dinner of pizza (alfredo, BBQ, veggie, and cheese), fruit salad, broccoli, Doritos, and gold fish.

Then she opened up a couple presents. Bethany's favorite toys right now are Little People princesses, so we got her Aurora and the good fairies to add to her collection. :)

Sunday morning poor Bethany woke up sick, which made me very grateful that we did most of the celebrating early! She tried to eat some breakfast, but ended up spending most of the morning and afternoon lying on the couch watching movies with Travis while I took the rest of the kids to church. We all felt so bad that she was sick for her birthday. Sweet Cambree even tried to comfort her before we left for church. :)

Feeling some better after we got home, we all had yummy leftovers for dinner with my parents, then had cake and ice cream. It was a princess themed party, so I Grace and I made a cinnamon roll cake (as requested), then decorated the cake with Frozen decals.

Enjoying her "birthday cake" ice cream. :)

Grace happily did "heavy heavy hangs" for Bethany with her presents.

Grammy and Poppy got Bethany her own set of Little People princesses which she has loved playing with since.

She also got a few other presents, including some new dress up clothes for our dress-up loving girl:

And then we just enjoyed playing before bed. Kaylee and Cambree loving on Poppy:

Poppy and Cambree:

Kaylee and Grammy:

Bethany, at 4 you like to eat Honey Bunches of Oats, chocolate chip pancakes, cinnamon toast, strawberries, Club crackers, pizza, chicken nuggets, broccoli, pears, cookies, and m'n'ms. You love to play with Little People, Lego people and dogs, dress up, write letters, and play pretend. You love the color purple, dogs and other animals, colorful leaves, and watching Wishenpoof, Wonderpets, and Blues Clues. You're a good singer, love to read books with mom and dad, like to help cook, and love to snuggle. You're getting better and better at expressing yourself and seem a little older every day. But most of all, you are such a sweet girl and we love you with all our hearts. Happy birthday big girl!