Thanksgiving

This year Doug's family came down to spend Thanksgiving with us. It was a blast. Here's some highlights from the holiday:

1. Grandma Sue and Papa slept over for a few nights at our house. The first morning, Evelynn got into bed with Grandma (at an unholy hour, but at least it wasn't my bed!) and Papa started to snore. Evelynn asked what that was, then much to Grandma's surprise, Evelynn started to snore just like Papa!

2. We went to the Brick Oven for lunch on afternoon and Evelynn was at her best/worst towards the end of it. To top off the excursion, she got up on the booth and exclaimed loudly "Look, it's Papa! *SNORE! SNORE!*" Oh it was funny.

3. Right before Doug's parents got here, my dishwasher broke and the drains in my basement backed up and flooded the downstairs kitchen. Ok, so this is probably a low light instead of a highlight, but it did happen. I was so thankful that we were not spending Thanksgiving day at my house!

4. We visited the Lehi Rec Center indoor water park and ended up going on the day that was 1/2 price day. So we all got in to swim for $12! Can't bet that in November! The park is really awesome. I would recommend it to anyone living in the area. The had a water slide, 2 huge kids sections, a very small lazy river and a lap pool. But be warned! All kids 3 and under must wear a swim diaper AND a plastic diaper cover. So for two children that ended up being an extra $15, but at least next time we'll be prepared. Evelynn went down all the water slides, even the big scary one! Such a brave kid.

5. Thanksgiving day was pulled off, but barely. We only had one stove and one oven to cook two turkeys, stuffing, two sweet potato casseroles, a green bean casserole, rolls, and 3 pies for 27 people. But we did it! And we had a LOT of food. So much so that we could have done without a lot of the things we made, but oh well. It was YUMMY!

6. A highlight for Doug was his smoked turkey. I must say, if I have the opportunity to do it again, I will definitely get my turkey smoked! A friend from the ward did it for us, and so we dropped it off Sunday night, picked it up Tuesday morning and then we had to reheat it in the oven for 30 minutes and it was ready to eat. Can you say SO EASY? Yeah, and it was stinking delicious.

7. We had our mini Christmas on Friday morning. Doug's parents gave out their gifts to Doug and I and the kids. I didn't think Doug and I were getting anything because they got us All-Sport passes, but they surprised us. Doug got cash (he's saving up for some Lego project he built...updates after Christmas when he gets it) and I got a running watch that will measure not only your time but how many calories you burn and how fast you are going. Cool huh? Evelynn got a scooter with a helmet and pads, and Eloise got a toy train and a pop up toy ( I have no idea what it's called). Both girls were thrilled with their gifts.



8. We went to Salt Lake One afternoon/evening and went to the Church History Museum and then saw the lights at Temple Square. I wasn't too excited about seeing these because the last time I saw them (oh 4 or 5 years ago) I wasn't impressed, but they have come a long way since then! They were spectacular. I wish I had brought my camera, but since I didn't all I have to say is you must check it out. Awesome. Evelynn was in heaven, claiming all the lights as her lights. She had a hard time giving up all the lights to whoever this Christmas fellow was. The conversation usually went like this
--"Look! Evewynn's wights!"
--No honey, those are Christmas lights.
--No! Evewynn's lights! Not Kristen's!
--CHRISTmas lights, not Kirsten's lights.
--Oh, Chwissmass wights....

I still don't know if we got through to her. :)

9. Papa was a big hit this trip because everywhere we went Papa had a large stash of gummy bears and fruit snacks to entice his granddaughter with. I, of course, blindly looked the other way for an entire week and just made sure something besides sugar went into my kids. I can't tell who liked the bribing process more, Evelynn or Papa.

10. This week Eloise finally decided that she wanted to move, move, move, and so she took off crawling. She has been crawling for a while now, but always sporadically and only when she really wanted something. Doug and I were amazed to see her wiggle her way all over great grandma Jacobson's house (which is where he spent most of Thanksgiving break), getting into everything. It was fun to see her little personality come out more and more. I also took her to her 9 month appointment (almost a month late since she's now 10 months) and found out once again that she is tiny. She's in the 9th percentile for her weight, 34th for her height. Translated, that means she's 16.11 lbs and 27.5 inches tall. She's actually up in her curve from the last appointment (she was in the 6th percentile). I laugh at this because this little girl eats double than her big sister in a meal, and probably almost her weight in food each day, and she's still nursing! Doug calls her our little mini cooper, while Evelynn is our tank. Who would have thunk we'd have such opposite girls right in a row.

Well, those are the highlights from the past week. One thing that was definitely NOT a highlight and which I will NOT get into was the BYU vs Utah game.... Yeah we definitely will not go there. So now with the grandparents gone, things are slowly getting back to normal. Of course, it's only 3 weeks and then my parents will be out here for Christmas and we'll be off again. ~Sigh~ and the detox has just begun!