Thanksgiving week

We survived another holiday!! SHWOO. And only one month left till Christmas, folks. Let's panic now!

Well, this year we decided to go out to eat for Thanksgiving, since Mark was on call and couldn't leave town, and besides that my parents are moving and everything's in transition. This turned out to be an excellent idea. But since my house looked like ground zero from a month of projects, I still had to stop and clean and clean and clean some more so everyone could come visit afterward.

 

We ate at Garden House, and there was so much yummy food. I wish I was there right now.

And then, (because I seem to be some sort of magnet for unfortunate events), 10 minutes in, Luke ran and shut himself in the ladies bathroom. I went in after him and tried to get him to sit on the potty. He was in a Pull-Up, since he is on a partial potty training hiatus, and also because he still won't go poop in the potty. Sure enough, he had to poop, but he likes to do it in the privacy of a bathroom. I went back out for my purse so that I could then change him.

 I laid him down on the floor, because there was nowhere else to put him, and the jeans he happened to be wearing were tight and didn't have a zipper. So when I tried pulling his pants off, the Pull-Up full of (runny) poo came off with it, and poop got EVERYWHERE. All inside of his pants, on the hem of his jacket, on his socks and allll over the bleeping floor. Of course I didn't have a changing pad with me, or a plastic bag, which I normally do. Nor did I have a clean change of clothes, which I normally would have had if we'd left town. Ughhhhhhh

It took me about a dozen wipes to clean up poor Luke and everything else, and I'm sure the bathroom smelled disgusting after that. So when we finally went back to the table, Luke was like this:

 

Classy!!!

 

At least the other kids kept their shenanigans to a minimum. Aside from running a few laps around the room, they were pretty well behaved...

  

I sat by my one year old nephew Jack, and he was downright mellow!

 

  There's Luke, as cool as a cucumber without his pants. I mean, he prefers to be mostly naked (or just naked) all the time anyway. He tried to undress himself at church today. But I digress...

My mom is in the center, and my brother Kevin and his wife Lori are to the right. Their kids are Hattie and Jack.

 

Here's my cute sister Meg and my folks.

Once we got home, Luke went ahead and finished getting undressed so he could be truly comfortable

Meanwhile, Meg and my mom did some Zumba on the Wii...

The girls worked out an arrangement of  O, Holy Night, which we are singing at a family concert at the St. George Tabernacle on December 30th..

We had some pumpkin and peach pie that Madelyn and I made

Kevin messed around with my stuff like he always does...

 

And then Megan and I flubbed our way through bleaching some geeky t-shirts. Tips on that coming soon!

 Then we raced outside to take some family pictures. Luke and Jack had been taking long afternoon naps, and it was getting dark already by the time we got out there. I'll probably need to attempt a family photo shoot again, since I'm not sure any of these are Christmas card worthy...

  

Well, harsh lighting aside, this one turned out cute!

 Friday was full of bill paying and grocery shopping, and then Saturday we went down to St. George.

 Kevin traded us this big enormous monitor for Mark's old mountain bike. Mark is giddy because now he was finally able to set up the other computer that he bought a month or two ago:

Although we don't have anywhere to really put it....(SMALL DETAIL)

We went shopping at Best Buy, Target and Old Navy for their Cheermageddon sale, which was stupendous. Although it is really hard to buy Christmas presents for someone when they are at the store with you.....

We came back and Madelyn and I made some caramel apples

We made the caramel from scratch, using my favorite recipe. Mmmmm

I forgot to cook at a lower temp, adjusting for our high altitude (can't believe I forgot), so the caramel turned out pretty tough and chewy. Although the flavor was great, as always!

That night, my friend Liz came by to give us our Christmas gift--this awesome giant ruler to measure the kids on. They love it and can't wait till we mount it on the wall.

Last but not least, here's some pics of Luke after he found my secret (well, not anymore) stash of Dum Dums in the glove compartment in my car. Sigh! That boy!!

 

Back to the grind tomorrow!