Early December and bits and pieces

So, first I have to address the elephant in the room- me and Eric's phones totally skipped Thanksgiving.  Not that we didn't care about it, but it was kind of a last minute idea to drive to St. George just 36 hours after getting home from our cruise. Mainly we didn't want to do Thanksgiving by ourselves, and felt bad for the kids if they didn't get to go anywhere while we went on an amazing trip. :)  So...we went to St. George with Eric's parents and Ryan and the girls.  It was fun!  But Eric and I were all pictured out apparently.  So I had Katelyn and Whitney look back in their phones and see if they took any pictures at Thanksgiving.... Katelyn just had this picture of how nicely Grandpa had made our bed after he slept in it while we were gone, so cute!  But funny that THAT is the one picture katelyn had from Thanksgiving time!  Luckily Whitney came in clutch with these 3 gems LOL.  Her beautiful plate at Thanksgiving dinner:

And 2 silly pictures of Emma and Cleo when we were eating pie. Haha!  At least we have some proof we were in St. George??  We also saw Katrina and their house that is under construction, yay!

Right after Thanksgiving we took the youth to the Open House of the new Orem Temple (Grammy took Owen, Maris and Emma the week before, yay! See pics at end of this post.)

Beautiful Cherry blossom window!  And a sweet note Emma gave to her friend Charlotte after her mom texted me that they were not getting along.  It was pretty much a miscommunication, but it was good that Emma had a chance to think about how her behavior affects her friends.

Whitney and I were introduced to an amazing phenomenon, upscale used clothing stores with booths!  We got these amazing matching Nike crewnecks for only $10 each.  We have since enjoyed several great experiences with Indie Clover or Preloved! And here's the November calendar for your enjoyment. 2 trips to St. George and a cruise, wow. 

Just some cutie facebook memories from Nov/Dec years ago.  

One Friday when All the other kids went skiing with Eric, me and Emma went ice skating!  It was fun.  She did learn to ski really well this winter.... more on that later.

Maybe this should have been under Christmas activities..... too bad. It was a party the youth had for the Primary kids, so their parents could do Christmas shopping or wrapping. 

Each class was in charge of a station. It was a little nuts.

But I think everyone had fun.

Even the Bishopric. 

Here's my kids doing karaoke. :) Owen's last activity in Primary!

Whitney discovered her love for this type of salad!  It's a big part of her diet now, and I love them too!

And last but not least, here's the kids at the temple with Grammy!

And riding the golf cart shuttle to the car. So glad she could take them to do that, since we had just done the Saratoga and St. George ones and didn't need to go again as a family.