Catching Up: Thanksgiving and Christmas Trees

*Pictures Coming Soon!*

So I am WAY behind in updating. Well, maybe not WAY but definitely not up to date. Let's see if I can fix things. I have a bit of a sugar high right now, WAY too many Oreos and yes, I mean WAY too many. So Anyway...

Let's start a little bit before Thanksgiving. My parents came into town for an evening. Luckily I was feeling well enough to go out to a nice dinner with them. They then came over and spent the evening with us. A couple sweet moments I captured in my heart was to see and hear my mom rock JJ to sleep and sing him the same lullaby that she sang to me as a baby, and then to watch Jakob and my dad laugh and work together to put together a picture collage on the computer for school. After the kids were asleep, we watched a good movie and ate more yummy food. Good Times! The weather was bad so they couldn't stay longer into the weekend. But we had a nice time together anyway.

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend! Leif's family came together. We had everyone except Seth and Valen (missed you guys!) I was finally feeling better and Leif and I enjoyed cooking together. Leif;s signature recipe is Blue Cheese Green Bean Casserole, MMM! I made a yummy and pretty Trifle Dessert and a Fruit Salad, oh and good ol' Rhodes Rolls. We had a very yummy dinner. After dinner all of the kids wandered off to play and all of us siblings sat together and ate dessert and LAUGHED our Heads Off! Some of us laughed and told stories more then we have in years!! And to top it off James brought out the Martinelles to sip as we visited. Ahhh, it was one of those priceless moments. Thanks All! As things broke up with all of us silly adults the kids managed to pull uncle Leif and Erik outside to play night games. I know they sure love the times they get to play like the good ol' days.

So, Black Friday. Uhh... yeah... well... let's just say we had a good time. Shopping online is a lot easier then trudging through the stores and fighting the crowds. But, I'm afraid it's A LOT easier to spend money too. I spent the huge majority of the day shopping the deals. And I did find some good deals. And Leif, well... I'm afraid he's spoiled me again this year. I know this because there are a whole lot of presents that I can't wrap. We're finished shopping. Well... Leif is. I made him promise not to buy anything more;) But that doesn't mean I have to stop, Right!? No, I just have a little bit more for him and extended family. So that was our Black Friday fun. Leif and Jakob took a couple of hours and went hiking with the family (minus JJ and I). They hiked Wood Hill. It seems they can hike that a hundred times and still have a great time and manage to bring home a load of neat rocks and fossils. That night we played a few rounds of Dominos with Ian and Molly. So nice to be together!

Saturday morning we all bundled up and then loaded up to head out to the Kiabab National Forest to cut down our Christmas Trees. We went the extra mile this year and started a fire and roasted hot dogs. It was a good thing the fire wood worked because it would have been cold for those of us who stayed in camp while the others found the "perfect" trees. And we all did find nice trees.

I knew that these next couple of months would be busy for Leif. So I insisted on decorating the tree Sunday. My good husband wrapped the tree in several strands of lights. We decided to make our tree a twinkling tree this year. We can't use a lot of decorations because Caleb enjoys reaching, climbing, and pulling them. So It's a pretty tree with ribbon, and some bulbs, and lots of lights.

Jakob and Leif had a special day at school this week. It was called The Daddy Deer Hunt. They played games and "hunted" for the hidden deer that the kids had made. Cute!

I think that gets us up to date. Leif has finals this upcoming week and then he's done for this semester. YEAH! Next weekend we will have our 2nd annual Country Women's Christmas candy making party. I'm really looking forward to it!!

*Pictures Coming Soon!*

Christmas Tree Hunting

We had rain all day on Thanksgiving. The next day was a better day. But Saturday was the Perfect Day! Blue sky, sunshine, and 55+ degree temperatures. The perfect Christmas tree hunting weather. Once everyone was ready we set out for the mountain.

Leif's dad worked for the Forest Service as a career. So he is always our leader. He led us to the perfect spot on top of the mountain. There were plenty of choices and a lot of fun snow to play on. I wrapped Caleb onto my back and packed him as we hunted for our tree. Everyone had plenty of time to play in the snow. Jakob has been looking forward to snowball fights for months. He stayed down and played with Jason and Hannah. He was thrilled to help build a snowman with them as well as pound them with plenty of snowballs.

The rest of us hiked through the snow and looked for trees. This year was the first time in three years that I could actually really enjoy the hunt. I wasn't pregnant or recovering from giving birth. It was Great! After finding several good trees, Leif and I finally decided on the perfect tree. It is definitely the best we have found in the five years we've been married. It's a blue spruce with the perfect round and layered shape. Usually they end up looking a bit wonky and you just have to chalk it up as a sentimental find. But this one really is good.

So, we cut all of the trees down (ours, the church houses', Leif's moms, and Jason and Hannahs.) We took some fun photos to make sure we remembered the fun. Then my family had an idea. They decided they wanted to head up further and go to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. I didn't think it was open, but it was. The unexpected trip took up the time that we would have all decorated my tree together. I was disappointed about that. But it all turned out well.

We had a good time hiking a bit to the different lookout points of the Rim. It was the first time Hannah had seen the Grand Canyon, so overall it was worth the trip. Besides, they got to take Jakob in their car on the drive home. So that alone made it worth it for us.:)

Once we all made it home we called Harmony and Darius back over and we went another round with our Thanksgiving feast. Man! We had some Good Food!

The next day my family headed home and Leif and I started decorating our tree. But that's a different post...