Our Thanksgiving in Arizona

We had such a fun week in Arizona!  We had Grandma's undivided attention, and great food and fun family to play with while we were there!  Here are a few of my favorite moments from Arizona

Grandma took us to the zoo...Max and I used to go to the zoo weekly when we lived in AZ...but Ivy had never been to the PHX zoo...and now they have sting rays!  so fun...that was one of my favorite parts!

 ...and Max's favorite parts, I'm sure!

 It was also really fun to have daddy all to ourselves for the week.

 oh. we saw other things beside the sting-rays...we even rode the tram (which I have never done) but it's a good thing, because the Pregnant lady was DONE FOR by the end of the day.  wow, I'm soooo out of shape!

 Grandma and Grandpa filled in their pool with dirt and they haven't planted grass yet!  There yard is HUGE now...it was before, but without that pool and the fence right there, it's ginormous...and full of dirt, and free range from Grandma to rake, dig and collect rocks to their hearts content (and to ride the pink car around in.)  Grandma paid Max and Ivy 1 penny/rock to collect rocks for her (that kept them occupied while we were trying to cook!)  Max made $5.00   (haha, that's awesome)!

 One day, I think I was sewing in the back room, and Max ran in hollering about something gone awry with Ivy, and using mommy and daddy soap.  Apparently, she decided that she was big enough to start a bath for herself...she found some toys, ran the bath, took off her clothes, and rubbed bar soap all over her body...what a freak!  It was in the middle of the day, mind you.  :)  Just let it happen, I guess!

 Here's us trying to take a Turkey Day picture...ha!

 Ivy enjoyed picking Grandma's flowers...

 while Max got every tool he could think of and stuffed it in his pockets.

 We had such a great time!

And then, we decided to leave on Friday to avoid massive holiday traffic, and take our time on our way (we never do that)

So, we stopped at the robotic dinosaur museum in Cabazon...we've been wanting to stop there for forever, but just hadn't yet.  ummmm...probably won't do it again!  BUT, the kids liked it.

 oh, aren't they cute!

 eek, i love those two!

Hope you had a fun Thanksgiving Break, too!

A Thanksgiving Feast

Today, we were invited to attend Max's Thanksgiving Feast at school.  I love that I'm home, and able to attend things like this!  Ivy and I headed over there to catch Maxer in action.

They had a huge long table set with all the feast necessities.

 The parents all waited  for the kids to walk out in their costumes they had made.  They were able to choose if they wanted to be a pilgrim, or an indian (they made both)  Max was the first one out, beaming with pride at his costume.  

 He sat down at the head of the table, and hollered over at Ivy to come give him a hug.

 This is the back of his darling Indian vest.  He loves to draw and color...

Let the Feast Begin!

 Mrs. Anderson's Class Picture

It was so cute, and I look forward to many more little activities like this!

Max' last football game and TROPHY!

 Max did so good at his last football game!

What a tough guy...I told him I'd pay him 50 cents for each flag he pulled and a dollar for a touchdown.

I owe him $2

He really had fun playing football, and I think it made him feel like a big kid.  

 Hot shot drinking his water bottle:

 All those little guys with their mouth-guards in crack me up.  

and miss Ivy is such a good little fan.  She says: go saints, go saints in her little mini voice.  ps...i love jeggin's on her little body.  hee hee

 After the game Daddy met us in time for the trophy shindig at this really yummy hot dog/hamburger place called PeeWees...YUM!

 Max was thrilled to get another trophy!

Football was fun, but when's t-ball!?!

it's a...!

I had my ultrasound on Tuesday!

Jeff wasn't able to come, which was just fine because they gave us a DVD of it, and we were able to do a little 'gender reveal' party with a bunch of our friends!

So, when it came time to tell what flavor of baby I've been cooking up, the ultrasound tech turned the screen, took her necessary pictures, and put the results in a little envelope I'd brought, and sealed it.  

My friend Tara gave me this fun idea to have a bakery dye a cake either blue or pink, and then frost it so that you couldn't tell what color it was.  Then, when you cut into the cake, you were able to find out what kind of baby you were having...either pink or blue!

So, I handed off the envelope to my friend Jillonnie who offered to be our 'bakery' and we had to wait a few more days to find out what we were having.

So, after church on Sunday, Jeff and I hung up this little banner on our front window:

 We set up a little tally vote, and waited for our friends to come over!

we were both so excited...and the kids could hardly wait to cut the cake today!

 When everyone was there, I couldn't stand it any longer!

 The final tally was in favor of a boy:

 The first cut:

 drum roll, please.....

 ...

 ta-daaaah!

 it's pInK!

 We passed out pink lollipops (no, I didn't have a stash of blue, I had these hoarded away since Valentines day for another project!  (ha, perfect day to get rid of them!)

 and we popped all the blue balloons!

The tie is broken, Girls win, 3 to 2!  WOO HOO!

Thankful!

So we're pretty much all settled in our new apartment, except for a few stray frames and such that still need man-power to hang.  We are so far loving having 3 bedrooms, being close enough to walk Ivy to all of her playgroup homes, and having fun kids to play with outside EVERYday after school...not to mention moving in right across from one of my favorite friends ever!  Life is good, and I'm so thankful!

So, while I was thinking about how thankful I was to be where we are, despite the lack of W/D, we got a knock on the door.  We opened it up to find 2 cute little girlies from Ivy's nursery class and Syd's fun daddy, who all just happen to live here, too. They came over to see if Ivy wanted to go on a ride with them in the coolest wagon I've ever seen.  Ivy was thrilled!  Thanks for the ride, Jeff, Ruby and Sydney!  We're so excited and thankful to have such fun neighbors!

Gosh, we're lucky!

Halloween!

I decided to sew my kids Halloween costumes this year.  I've never done that before, I'm not a pro at following patterns, and it's always just been too much of an ordeal for me...plus, Pottery Barn and Baby Style had such cute costumes all the time...how can you stand to pass them up!?

Anyways, I did it...and I showed them over on iCandy, but I thought I may as well post about our Halloween a little bit, since our month of October and Halloween decorations and festivities were drastically cut short by moving.  But, Davy, Davy Crocket was thrilled to be in his buckskins for Halloween:

and Ivy loved getting to dress up as a princess, get her hair done by Jillonnie (nope, her mama can't french braid like that...my sister wouldn't let me touch her hair when I was younger...or even now for that matter! wink wink, erin!)

It was really fun that they LOVED something that I made them!  they both LOVED them!
sigh
I guess that means I have my work cut out for me next year!
Anyways, we did have a fun Halloween...Daddy went to Hawaii for work (poor guy) but Grandma cam over from AZ to help us celebrate.  The only together picture of the two crazies I got on Halloween was this goofy one...{max, what are you doing?!?)  We always head over to the Albertson's shopping center to trick or treat.  This year, we also hit up Cafe Rio in our costumes took a trip down a scary fairy tale village and trick or treated in my Great Aunt's neighborhood.
HOLY Candy, and a super happy halloween!