To Grandmother's House We Go

We spent Thanksgiving at my parents house in Twin Falls. I love it there... good food, good company, and good fun!

The kiddos enjoyed the big balloons in the Thanksgiving Day parade.

Cousin hugs! All dressed up for the big day.

We always have dinner at Grandma Showell's (mom's mom). There are 6 little girls between the ages of 1 and 5 and they had a good time together.


Grandma has some fun toys. Maddie and Emrie really enjoyed each other. They are getting old enough to play independently, although we have to check on them often, especially when they get quiet!

My mom worked hard in the kitchen. Because we had turkey dinner at my Grandma's house, Mom made her own feast and put it in the fridge so we would have leftovers! She claims she doesn't like to cook, but boy, she is good at it.

Em & Ren were cute little chefs with their aprons on. :) The boys were great help and often did the dishes!

My girls got loved on a lot. Which they loved.

Little Ella fits perfectly on Dana's belly perch! Too cute. Dana's baby is due on Christmas Eve--the countdown is on!!!

More hugs and kisses.

The kids adore Ozzie the kitty, although I can't say the same for her. She gets a little tired of the harassment.


Maddie helped Grandma set up her Christmas village. Maddie remembers the church from last year! Her memory is astounding sometimes. Emily and I also put up Mom's "downstairs" tree with all the kid ornaments from years past... wish we had taken pictures. It was fun to get in the spirit!


Upon looking back at the pictures, I just have to laugh at how physical the family is! When we are all together, tricks and competitions are inevitable.

Grandpa and Maddie did the wheelbarrow (my dad did this starting as early as I can remember!)

We bowled down the long hallway.

Zak did some weight lifting.

Mike and Landon had a stick pulling contest.

Emily dominated in the leg wrestling, beating Noelle and I... but then Mom and Ren got her! Noelle beat everybody at arm wrestling right-handed, but I got her left-handed! :) (I carry my kids on the left side!) The boys had a long jump contest--Zak won, but I have to give Landon the award for best form!

I believe I can fly!

The girls also went to aerobics together and the guys played about 10 games of racquetball! We soaked in the hot tub to ease our sore muscles.

Happy Turkey Day!

Cutie Catch-up

I guess this post is mostly to document how cute my girls are. Shameless, I know.

Ella found herself in the little mirror-thingy.

Maddie loves play-dates with her friends. We caught story time at the library and then made play-dough turkeys and had lunch.

Gobble Gobble.

What a weirdo.

Maddie is a monkey! She loves to hang from anything!

Playing with Daddy--a favorite pastime.

Ella loves peekaboo!

She's also into sticking her tongue out. She sounds like she's saying "ahhhhh" for the doctor.

We had a reading party on the stairs. Sometime doing the same ol' thing in a new place makes it more fun!



My girls looked so pretty for church today! Unfortunately I couldn't get a good pic of them together...



Maddie is already geared up for Christmas. She has been talking for weeks about how Santa is going to bring her candy canes. She didn't feel well the other day so to cheer her up I told her to look for candy canes under the bed (maybe Santa hid them for her). She was ecstatic to find one and thought it was pure magic! This morning she found another one in the cabinet under the sink. This is her report:

Fashion Show

Maddie loves to try on weird things lately.

My pajama pants as a bodysuit.

A Christmas sweater as pants.

My boots.

An old sundress.

Crazy combo--80's style.

A sheet.

BYU shirts as nightgowns. With silver duct tape to hold them on (by Mike).

What next?

Thanks and Giving

You may remember last year when we did these Thanksgiving Trees. Every day we put a leaf on each one: one for something we are thankful for, and one for something we do to give to another. Doing them this year has been so fun because Maddie really understands and contributes! They are a lovely daily reminder that we are very blessed, and that we must look outward and share it with others.

A few silly examples...

We are thankful for food! Maddie got this little trick from Grandma Marcia... "eat it" by putting it "in your belly."

She got so full she exploded!

We are thankful for clothing. :) For some reason, Maddie wants to wear everyone's pants but her own lately! Here she is trying to sqeeeeeze into Ella's...

... and drowning in Daddy's!


Ella is thankful for books.

A special "thanks" to Dana and Landon for "giving" so much! They came over last week to babysit while Mike and I went to the temple, put the kids to bed, and left us with the most divine cinnamon rolls known to man! Now that's service!


Maddie and I had a great time making turkey prints. She loves few things more than a paintbrush and a big sheet of paper!


We are thankful for family and music. These next few shots are from the music night at Grandma Andrews'. She teaches most of the grandkids piano lessons and we have periodic recitals.


Here is Maddie playing the grand piano! We can't wait to get her started with Grandma when she's old enough!

If you've made it this far, you won't mind watching a few darling videos of my Ella-smartie-pants. I just had to capture how cute she is! (She just saw this screen shot and started making monkey sounds!!)/.

That's all for now!