We have a LOT to be "thankful" for . . .

This little turkey wishes you a Happy Thanksgiving - in fact all of the turkeys below wish you a Happy Thanksgiving :). This is an idea that Emilee got off the Internet (crafty crow) and sent to me so I thought we'd try it. Nellie and I, along with Bailee and Paige's help, tag teamed it and made a ton of turkey cookies. They were a lot of fun to make.

We had a smaller group this year; Kaisa and Billy celebrated with his parents, and Emilee and Paul with his family, so we ended up with 15 people I think. This is our festive table with our sparkling cider all ready to go.

The "turkey bowl" is a big tradition in our family on Thanksgiving. The guys all get together with other guys from our church and have an early morning football game - frost and all. Lee's opinion is that you have to dress outlandish to participate, so here's Tyson in his BYU dredlocks.

. . . and of course my one love in HIS lovely hat ") . He always has to load up on muscle relaxers and pain killers afterwards but it's worth it I guess.

Chad's friend, Josh, is wearing the hat that my Mom made me last Christmas - yes it's pink.

Here's the pre-game "tough" picture: Lee, Tyson, Paul, Chad and Josh

A wacky picture always follows -this shows their true personalities

Sweet baby Abby is thankful for everything

Big sister Summer hearts bananas

A little kickin' back on Thanksgiving

The ceremonial carving of the turkey

and checking out the adds to aid in the "plan of attack" for Black Friday's early morning shopping trip. This was Calley's first year . . . I hope she won't suffer any emotional scars ")

Nellie was just TOO EXCITED

Chad was "all dressed up with no place to go"

Jen brought a gingerbread house for the kids to decorate after dinner, and THEN Calley arranged another very fun activity for the kids.

Tyson played the part of the turkey (fills the bill quite nicely don't you think?). The deal was for him to run around and the kids were to try and pluck the feathers that were taped to his back.

Then it was time to drag out the firetruck.

Summer started out as the driver, but we quickly realized that she didn't have enough experience to drive a firetruck so we switched and Tanner took over.

It was a great day. I LOVE Thanksgiving and feel very blessed.

Emilee and Pablo celebrate 9 years!!

Emilee and Paul celebrated their 9 year anniversary last Wednesday, so they went out on a (short) "hot date". Having a 2 month old baby doesn't allow too long of a date.
Happy Anniversary you two crazy love birds - we love you!!

Nellie says goodbye to her cast

After 6 L O N G weeks of wearing this cast, Nellie finally got it off - it's a good thing because playing basketball was a little difficult with a cast :)

She's still supposed to wear her brace, but she's very happy to have the cast off!!

Girls Just Wanna Have Fu - un!! ;)

We had our VERY fun "Girls Weekend" (minus the "end") this last week - right after my Dad's 80th birthday party. Part of our girls trip ALWAYS includes a stop to Red Robin for some scrumptious mud pie. Here we are ready to dig in!! I'm afraid that I look like I might gnaw through the entire table - EEYikes!! I may very well have done that as we only had pretty much one meal (plus treats of course) each day.
Here's the "after" picture. Tammie was the only one that couldn't finish her mud pie - don't worry, she'll catch on some day :)

Here's Miss Connie coloring Debbie's hair - she just can't get away from her "magician" job ')

Grandma knitting away on Melody's baby afghan

Aunt Tammie all relaxed in her Jammies

Before we leave the last day, we take a "sisters picture". We were using the timer on my camera, which I don't do very often, so I wasn't sure how this would turn out.

a closer look at the "middle aged beauts"

And of course we HAVE to end with a "crazy shot".

I'm so very grateful for the opportunity to "catch up" with my Mom and Sisters, like we can only do on our girls trip. We stayed up till 3:00 AM most nights (mornings), shopped till we dropped, watched movies, did a little VERY hot tubbin'

(something was wrong with the thermostat - OUCH!!)

I love you all and feel so blessed to call you my family. As corny as it sounds "thanks for the memories". I can't wait for next year ")

Some flooding pictures in Carnation - for your viewing pleasure :)

Nellie wanted a picture taken of herself by the "15" sign since that's the birthday she'll be celebrating Saturday :).

Not much clearance under the bridge going over the Tolt River

This is taken on the Fall City side of the bridge going in to Carnation (203)

At MacDonald Park. Notice the sign - I thought that was funny.

Miss Nellie in the parking lot at MacDonald Park

MacDonald Park - this is actually a soccer field

Parking lot at MacDonald Park. Notice the waters current.

You can see the line of leaves - that's where the water HAD been. Notice the toys in the distance on the right - there was someone playing on them when we were there, and they're completely in the water, so they had to get very wet just to get over to them - CRAZY!!

Nellie had a birthday party ;)

Because Nellie's Grandpa's 80th birthday party falls on her "golden birthday", She had a "How to Host a Mystery" party; "Love Potion # 5" LAST weekend. Here's Megan, Linda, Cody and Dallin
Part of Nellie's character was that she was secretly obsessed with becoming a magician

Here's Caren reading one of her clues pertaining to her character

We had a couple of "no shows" so Lee and Emilee had to fill in for a couple of the characters for the evening. Here's Lee/Trusty Campaigning for President of the U.S. (HIS secret "passion")with . . . strawberries

See all the cups of "love potion"? YIKES!

Cody was a great sport and really got into his character - he wanted to be a race car driver

Melissa's secret passion was that she dreamed of lighting and carrying the Olympic torch someday. See her torch?

Dishing up the peanut butter ice cream cake

And a birthday wish to top it off! I think the favorite part of the night was after this when the kids had about an hour to play hide and go seek in the back yard. Yep . . . who knew??