Happy Thanksgiving!!!

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving was a pretty day with blue skies.  Our front maple tree was filled with about 8 Robins which is very unusual for this time of the year.  However by the time I got my phone, most of them had flown away.

Jessica, Elessia and Liam headed up around lunch time and we began a busy time of chopping and assembling some freezer meals for upcoming Baby Zander's arrival.  I made 5 for us as well so that we are covered during these last two weeks of the school semester.  Crock pot meals are great for cold winter days when you have homework to do. 

Jena wanted to make cookies with Scarlett and Liam so in the evening, we rolled out cookie dough and frosted cookies.  As you can see, they were hard workers with a little help from their moms.

The cookies were great!

It was fun having Jessica. Elessia and Liam spend the night.  It made it even more like a holiday.  And it came in handy, as Gary and I woke early to go down to Provo to visit Ben and then pick up our niece Anna at BYU and bring her back for a couple of days.  Jessica was here to put in the turkey and we were able to play a few rounds of dominos as well (while Liam was sleeping).

I had found this picture of our first Thanksgiving with Scott.  This was exactly 30 years ago and Scarlett is the exact same age as Scott was in this picture (well plus a few days older.)

This picture was taken on the front porch of our home in West Jordan.  Notice on the front row Scott and Jessica are the ones with bare feet.  The back row is Jake Bird, Christie McKinney.  Front row Carmen McKinney, Jessica, Chera Bird and Scott.  Arms are my sister-in-laws--Chera Bird and Vonette Kerr.

I had to remind our children that we didn't take 100 pictures of the same shot to make sure everyone is looking in the right direction and don't have their cookies in their mouths.

No pictures from Thanksgiving day but it was nice to make things together with Anna, Jessica, Elessia and Jena.  My dad and Karla came for dinner as well as Scott, Chantel and Scarlett.  We missed Ben and Tosha, Austen and Niki.  We did all get to facetime with Tosha and Niki.  We passed the phone around the room and everyone got to say hello and enjoy seeing her and Niki.

Friday Jena, Anna and I headed off to the bowling alley for some practice.  Anna is taking bowling at BYU so we thought we should keep her in practice.  Gary missed out because he was taking Allan out to lunch at KFC because he had gotten 4 strikes in a row during bowling on Wednesday night.  That was Allan's tradition with his wife so Gary thought he would honor that.

NOw he needs to take me to KFC (not soon, we still have too many leftovers!).  I had the highest game I have ever bowled in my entire life during our third game.

our bowling selfie

Hard to see but it was a 193!!!!! I could have broken 200.  However after I got a strike in the 10th frame, I was walking up to bowl my first extra ball and thought to myself, if I do well in these two balls I could get 200...and I promptly hit my leg with the ball and got a gutter ball. Oh, well--shows that thinking does not help my bowling!!

Anna Giberson and Jena

Of course I had to print it off to prove to Gary--so it is hanging on the fridge where all such accomplishments end up.

We got home in time for my sister, Valerie and her husband Lance to arrive with my dad and the serious game playing began.  We sat downstairs in the game room and went from one game to another only breaking for snacks, water and food.  It was so fun.  However as they were getting ready to leave, Valerie and I sat down in the family room and began to quickly try to catch up.  In all of our game playing, we didn't get much conversation in.  I missed that and we will have to get together to catch up another time.  Thank heavens for phones.

After spending three days on fun, food, and games, Saturday began real life again as I spent the entire day working on homework and doing laundry.

Those piles of papers are the research I have done for my paper.
Let me say that it is much easier to do research online than
making a trip to the university library.
Technology is so useful.

Yoga pants and my "This is My Lazy Day shirt"--
perfect for a day when I must stay home and do homework.

I love school but the last two weeks of the semester can be brutal, especially if you are a bit behind on major projects.  Fortunately, I made great progress on everything yesterday and feel much better about what I have left to do.

Doesn't that look interesting!!!?????

Two weeks and two more semesters left until I am done with school!