Annual Gingerbread House/Sister Gifts

Every year since I can remember we would get together as sisters, sister-in-laws and my mom and make gingerbread houses. We would usually do this the Saturday after Thanksgiving to kind of kick start the holidays. We also exchange gifts and have lunch. This year we wanted to wait for my mom to come home to do it, so we did it yesterday. I feel extra busy this year with stuff so i bought one of those kits, but instead of a house i got a gingerbread tree kit. It was much easier to do and it didn't require too many creative juices, which was nice. It was also a nice break just chatting and relaxing. When we were done, we headed over to The Cobblestone Pizzeria for lunch, and of course my dad came along too! It is so fun having them back!! The only thing that would have made it better would be if my sisters Nancy and Ashley could have been there!

Ward Christmas Party

Saturday was our ward Christmas party. They have a Christmas breakfast, so we had to wake up early on a Saturday morning, which isnt our favorite thing to do, but Tyler still likes to go and sit on Santa's lap, even thou he knows this year that he isnt real. Josh didnt make it, he slept over at a friends house of course they couldnt wake the boys up to get them to go. Here are some pictures from that morning, you can tell i am not quite awake yet!!

MY PARENTS COME HOME!!

Last Thursday afternoon, my parents came home from their mission to Australia for a year and a half. We checked the kids out of school and waited for them at the airport, my kids were so excited to see their Grandma and Grandpa again! I am happy to have parents again, it has been so nice knowing that they are around, I forgot how fun it is to hang out with my Mom and Dad!

Thanksgiving Dinner

Sorry it has been over a week and I haven't posted about our Thanksgiving dinner. We had Jason & Rachael and family, Jim & Melissa and Family, Jeff & Kelly and family and Julie (Melissa's Mom) over. Which added up to 21 people! Some of you know that a couple years ago I had thanksgiving at our house and we did it in our garage because we didn't have enough sitting space for everyone. Well I decided to do that again, I feel bad doing this, I know everyone thinks I am a psycho doing it, but really I don't have enough room in my house without rearranging all the furniture, plus the tables would have to be set up over carpet. Now if it was 21 adults i would be okay with that, but since we were out numbered by the kids, I just couldn't do it. So I spent the whole day before trying to make my garage presentable. It turned out good, Everyone brought over more than enough food. We had a great time. I love getting together with my brothers and families, It is sad we all live so close but rarely get to see each other, so that was nice. I now want to make sure the next house i buy has a room big enough to host a dinner for a large group, cause I feel really stupid making everyone eat out in my garage. but when cleaning up after everyone had gone, i did have some gravy and potatoes on the floor which i was very grateful wasn't on my carpet inside my house! Here are some picture from that day, I didn't take very many which makes me sad. Thanksgiving came and went too fast, I just cant believe how fast time is flying by, so now all my focus is getting Christmas ready, which i feel will be here before i know it!