Wednesday, December 03, 2008


We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, even if I didn't take very many pictures. Oops.

The boys had the whole week off of school, so we went on a nature walk near our house one day. It turned out to be a nature walk up someone's driveway, because at the end of this trail that was about 2 blocks long was a house and that was it. We were gathering leaves to make turkeys that you can kind of see on the wall in the other pictures on this post.
Brandon on the table at the park in his doggy sweater.
Our brother-in-law Charlie came and stayed with us with his two kids Daniel and Emma. They got here Wednesday afternoon and stayed until Sunday. We had a Wonderful time with them and we even got out the Settler's game again for the first time since we got to the states! We also discovered that our house was very comfortable even with 3 extra people. Not the extra room we had in Germany, but it wasn't as bad here as I thought it might be so I am happy. You are all invited to come visit Brooklet now if you have under 4 people with you. :0

So our Thanksgiving was wonderful for a couple different reasons.
1. We had great company. Charlie, and the kids and then we had a friend of Steve's from work named Ian come over with his family. They have two older boys and then they just had a baby boy about a month ago. I totally loved having the baby in the house. I didn't hold him as much as I thought I would, but when I did hold him, I really enjoyed it.
2. We split the Thanksgiving list with Ian's family. So we only had half the mess and half the clean up, but all the delicious food. It worked out perfectly. So perfectly in fact, that my kitchen was mostly clean when we ate.
3. All the food was delicious.
4. We ended the night with a game of Settler's which I won!
Perfection

This is the kids table(s).
Here are the guys at the adult table all sitting on the bench. I don't know how they all ended up here together, but they look cozy don't they? This is Steve, Charlie, and Daniel. (notice the brownish turkeys on the wall. Those are made of crushed leaves. The other decor came from Nathan's kindergarten class.)
On Friday I did go and brave the crowds at Walmart at 6am, but didn't have much to buy. It was still nice to be out shopping with the rest of the world before the sun came up. And I saw the same thing as Laura did out in California. 90% of the people there had a big screen tv or some other big ticket item in their buggy. Where do these people get their money??

Saturday was my niece Emma's 8th birthday. To start the day off I made chocolate IHOP pancakes that were SOOO good. From that experience I woke up to the fact that my kids have a much higher sugar tolerance than other kids. Daniel and Emma made it through about half of their pancake, while all my boys ate every last drop. What am I doing to these kids?

After breakfast and a movie we went to Chuck E Cheese for the kids to play and we had a great time. Then we came home for cake and presents. I think it was a good birthday for Emma and I am happy she got to spend it here with us.

Now the kids are back in school and I am working on boxes in the garage. I was just telling Steve I need to get out the Christmas stuff before we miss too many days of advent. That is next on my list. :)

8 comments:

laura said...

Looks like a great weekend. You asked about your kids sugar tolerance- perhaps you should start by teaching Brandon that your supposed to start your day off with milk, not whipped cream. Those chocolate pancakes looked so good, and reminded me of growing up.

Steve said...

He wasn't sucking it down for the whipped cream. We have a little drug addict on our hands.

Okay, not really, it was for the whipped cream

Olson Clan said...

Waite! We can't come and visit :( That's not fair. Now I am pouting..
We also did the black friday shopping and saw the same thing. Makes you wonder what economy is in trouble?? There were just as many people in the stores as last year and they were all filling up....
We bought Settlers of Zarahemla last year because I remembered you always raving about the game. Sure enough it has become a family favorite.
Awhile ago Ser had a friend over and we watched "passage to zarahemla". She remarked "you mormons have your own movies"? Last weekend she stayed again and we played the game. Her face was priceless as she remarked, "Mormons have their own games too!!" Too funny.

laura said...

I forgot to say that I love your '4 people or less' visitor invite. Brian and I have discussed it and we would be happy to have our FOUR kids stay with you. You can call us at a local bed and breakfast if you need anything.

Oh, and I am BEGGING you not to post pictures of that lame blanket. I will forever be embarrassed by my lack of judgement. I still need to redeem myself- have another baby!

Sue said...

Sounds like a wonderful weekend where you got to do fun stuff, too. Emma's birthday looks great, what a great aunt. I love the chocolate pancakes. I love that you have woods right next to your house. Go up by where the frogs were around the corner and there is a river bed you can follow for aways.

Williams Family Dirt said...

If it were my husband's employer they purchased 3 big screens at Walmart. We didn't win one this year--yet again! We gave up last year, and bought a big TV during the SuperBowl sale at Best Buy, plus our friend manages the store so we got an awesome deal...bye bye tax return. This year we are finishing our backyard--yippee!!

Alicia said...

Aggghh. I've left a comment here a couple times, but we got that horrible virus and it seems to be messing up our computer.

I am so glad that you all had such a great Thanksgiving weekend. It really does look like everyone is having a good time. Your house always looks fun.

And your lucky neice! She got to have her birthday with you. You always know how to celebrate a child's birthday. The pancake alone would make me happy for the day. I love that Brandon is sucking down whipping cream just as you are talking about their sugar intake. I actually considered putting whipping cream in Ava's bottles at one point!

The boys look cute as always. I totally wish we could be with you all at Christmas!

Melissa said...

What happened to KFC? Every Thanksgiving I think about KFC now and want it. Didn't you post about that once? If not just ignore this comment.