I thought I was...

I thought I was a hard-core shopper, but I was wrong. Very wrong. We will get to that in a minute though. Happy Thanksgiving!! We had a lot of fun on Thanksgiving and the week or so leading up to it talking about all the things in our lives we are thankful for. The boys were mostly grateful for our family and various toys, Tim was thankful that he was able to watch and attend so many BYU football games, Ashlyn, I am assuming, is thankful for me since I can't get her to take a bottle and she doesn't like baby food so I sustain her life, and I am thankful for these moments when my kids are little and funny and all at home with me almost all of the time.

So, now to my thought-I-was-a-hard-core shopper moment. I have never gone out early on the day after Thanksgiving to go shopping. I love a good deal but frankly I love my sleep more. This year though, I saw a deal I thought I couldn't pass up. Jace has been asking for this Lego castle set for a while and it is normally $100. (We will not even get into the fact that up until a few months ago I had no idea Legos were so expensive. I mean seriously, it is just a bunch of plastic pieces.) Earlier in the week I saw in an ad that it would be at a certain store that claims to have low prices always for a mere $50. I thought, perfect, he will love it and I will save $50. I went to early morning seminary at the crack of dawn for four years so I thought one super early morning was doable. I got up in the dark morning of Black Friday, and made my way still bleary eyed to the store expecting a crowd but what I saw was more than just a crowd. There were people running down the aisles pushing their carts with crazed looks on their faces scanning the displays they pass for the best deals. There were grown women hording 2 or 3 cartfuls of things ready to fight if someone got too close to their stash. A few minutes after I went in and was wandering up the aisle I saw a little girl who was probably 3 or 4 (why she was there at 5 am is a whole different discussion) trip and before she could get up one of the crazed runners ran over her leg with their cart. Yes, you read right, she was run over by a shopping cart. I knew then I was in over my head. I still decided to try and push my way back to the toys and get my one thing and get out of there. By the time I politely made my way to the back of the store the shelves had been ransacked and there were no more Lego castle sets. I decided to ask a woman standing near by surrounded by full carts and boxes, who was discussing inventory on a walkie talkie looking device (which led me to believe that she worked there) if she knew when they would be restocking or if they had any more in the back. She looked at me like I was the crazy one as she informed me she was not an employee. That is when I knew I would never get my Lego castle set since I had not brought my running shoes, my walkie talkies and had not checked my civility at the door. So, I left and that ended my Black Friday shopping career. I know there are many people who love getting up early to fight their way though the crazies to get great deals, and who can do it while still acting like a civilized person, and to you I say more power to you. Tell me all about it when I wake up at 9 am next year : )

Now on to the Thanksgiving pictures. We hosted T-day dinner at our house this year, which meant that I cooked the turkey. I was very thankful that I wasn't pregnant this year since I spent a lot of Thanksgiving last year wanting to puke since I was 13 or 14 weeks pregnant with Ashlyn. Here is our beautiful bird that the boys named Diego.

The stuff surrounding it are apples, onions, rosemary and thyme that I had stuffed the inside with while it roasted.

These were the boys Thanksgiving day craft. They are pilgrim hats made out of cookies, PB cups, frosting and mini M&Ms. They had lots of fun making them and setting them at each place at the table. I think it will be a new tradition.

Here I am with my turkey. It is always a little nerve racking to cook because if you mess it up, thats it. It isn't something that you can whip up a replacement for real quick. I was glad when it was out of the oven without any major disasters.

Here is everyone at the big table L to R, Kellie, Jenn, Tim, Ashlyn, my dad, my mom, Jenna and Brennan. It was so fun to share the day with all of them. We had so much food that even with all these people we had tons of leftovers, which I loved. Thanks to Jenn, Kellie, my mom and Jenna for helping with all the yummy food.

Here is the kids table. And yes those are Maverick cups they are drinking from. Grandpa had taken them earlier in the day to get a root beer while we were still making the food and that is what they wanted with their dinner. I know, we are nothing if not classy.

Here are the kids with about 5 people trying to get them all the smile and take a good picture. Ashlyn would smile every time until the camera flashed and then she would look like she does in this picture. Oh, well, she is still cute to me.

Here is her close-up on her first Thanksgiving. : )

Does anyone remember this game? It is the original Nintendo Super Mario Brothers 3 game. Jace is pretty sure we are the only family in the world that doesn't have a Wii and he is also sure that we are super mean for not getting him one, but maybe I am the only one who thinks that 5 and 2 are too young to be consumed by the video game craze. So, this is the alternative. Tim downloaded some of the original Nintendo games on our old laptop, got a controller to plug into the USB port and showed Jace how it worked. He loves it and now thinks I am cool again because Tyler and I spent many hours of our childhood playing these games and I am really good at them. (okay, maybe not really good but decent enough to impress my little kids)

We decorated the tree the morning of the day after Thanksgiving. We let the boys decorate it themselves first and as you can see we ended up with a lot of ornaments on one corner of the tree.

Lastly, we have had a request for a picture of Braxton in his hat. My boys love to wear their hats anywhere and everywhere. As soon as we got home from church today they took off their ties and put on their hats. I think he is so cute but I do hope that Brax learns a more natural looking smile for pictures soon : )

Also, I have had several people ask and no, I still have not found the missing shoe from the previous post. I think it is gone forever. And to add injury to insult, I broke two of my toes a little while ago and was then forced to wear the brown flats for quite a while until I healed enough to wear anything else. I guess that will teach me to complain about shoes. :)