MMMMMMM Turkey! MMMMM Pies!

For thanksgiving this year we invited some friends over for dinner. We had the Stucki's (family of 8), the Honsingers (family of 5), the Sheltons (family of 5) and of course us (family of 4) Thats right ladies and gents 22 peops at our house but seriously it was so much fun we would do it again in a heart beat! It was so nice to have the basement finished (all except the bathroom) so the kids could have free reign and the best part was that the adults got to just hang out upstairs without having kids standing under our feet the whole time. We usually just saw them when they wanted more food. Which reminds me seriously the food was awesome. We had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoe pie, sweet potatoes, gravy deviled eggs, a relish tray, a tuna salady thing (a must for cami), two types of jello salad (one of which had cheese which I was a little leary of but turned out to be one of the best jellos I have had), apple pie, strawberry cream cheese pie, pumpkin pie, lemon meringue pie, banana cream pie, and chocolate pie. What isn't to love about that menu. Soooooo who's up for next year?
Mike and Caleb playing Rock band

The amazing Trish cleaning up.

The amazing Karie cleaning up (and for some reason not pictured is Cami who also did a major cleanup). These ladies were awesome and actually made cleaning a lot of fun with a lot of laughs!

Oh what a mess! Seriouslywe had so much left over food which of course was totally my fault because I kept insisting we wouldn't have enough.. haha boy was I wrong thank goodness Trish kept putting me in check.

Last but not least these daddies had so much fun playing rock band and seriously cracking us up. I can't believe the talent they have listen closely and you just might hear the next american idol!

Ode to The Elders!

Okay so we have always been that family that has the Elders over at least once a month (if not more) for dinner. Along the way we have found some Elders that we absolutely love. Elder Christiansen and Elder Guyman are part of our Fav 5. They are so funny and my girls can't get enough of them. Zoe's favorite thing to do when they come over is to play pillow fight. You can not get this girl to stop laughing when they are playing until you tell her its time to stop then its instant sadness. Here are some pics of this wonderous event. The funny part is a year ago this chica wouldn't go near these guys she would just stand under my feet in the kitchen while we finished dinner. So needless to say our brainwashing is working we are slowly getting her to realize that missionaries are the only way to go and that if she wants to always have pillow fights she will marry one! haha

The Ever Lasting Pumpkins

So some might think this lame but I personally think its awesome. We never carve pumpkins (unless of course Nana helps us) we always paint. That way the girls can do everything and I can just take pictures! They had a blast this year and here are the pics to prove it!

Christmas in October

Okay so as some of you know my older sister had surgery a little while ago. I went out to help her for a week and when I came back was when I started my whole virally infected state. Since then she has frequently asked what she can do to help which always made me laugh because it would have given true meaning to the blind leading the blind. Anyway she found a way to help and help she did. She sent us Christmas in October which was so nice and the girls were so excited. I tried forever to upload the video I took of them opening them and all the squeals involved unfortunately it did not work but here is the pre opening picture. They were so excited for their presents. Isa got a baby that she calls momma because it giggles and says"momma". Zoe got the new trio blocks and has since built many scary monsters. The girls both loved the baby so much that they kept arguing over who got to play with her so Mike finally went and bought another baby for Zoe. Thanks Aunt BRITT!!! They loved the presents. PS look how nicely wrapped they are I must have missed the gene that gave her the wrapping skills all I got were nun chuck skills!

Whirl Wind of Fun in October!

In mid October we had our stake conference in Bismarck. Mike stayed behind to help a member of the ward finish the roof of his house before the snow hit (what a good guy but secretly I think he planned it to get out of stake conference ;) ). I was asked to sing a solo for the leadership session and a duet for the stake general session so I needed to go (PS throwing up what little you had been able to keep down an hour before you sing in front of the stake is can I just say the last thing I wanted to be doing). I took the girls with me and hit the road. Thank goodness for good friends like the Sheltons! I was still not doing very well health wise and my Karie was like my stand in nanny those two days. It was a lot of fun too because we took all the kids to the pumpkin patch and they had a blast.

They had set up all these cute photo areas but unfortunately this is the best I could get. Seriously Isa had been running a fever for the majority of the day so she was not feeling well and yes I probably shouldn't have had her there but well that was my lemon and this was my lemonade.

Isa and Amelia were so funny with the wagons they would climb in and ride around but if there was ever a pause in motion they were very quick to get out. They also loved pulling them around though we had a few men down along the way when they would run into someone.

There was this tree branch pretty low to the ground in the "Wobbly Woods" that you could hop on and bounce which all the kids thoughtThey had a tractor pulling wooding cars that we got to ride in all through the patch which was great for a moment of down time because the kids were truely just go go go!

There was also this wooden train for the little kids to play in and Isa and Amelia totally took advantage.

In the Hay forts there were tons of tunnels. This is Zoe coming out of one. That when you know your child was meant for the runway is when she looks like this while running, jumping and climbing yet is still 100% girl!

This is Lane and Zoe getting ready to climb up and go down the slide. It was so funny because it was so slick that they would come just shooting out!

Halloween my favorite holiday!!

For halloween this year the girls got to pick what costumes they wanted. Zoe has been telling me for months that she wanted to be an elephant (lucky for me I already had the costume). I took the girls to hobby lobby to pick out a costume from teh patterns for Isa and she said as clear as can be "I wanna skunk!"

So there you have it! This was the first costume I made from scratch and I think it turned out pretty good! Everyone loved her costume and people were constantly pointing her out and smiling. She loved it and every chance she got she said "I be skunk". She still says I wanna trick or treat.

Zoe wore a costume given to us by Aunt Wendy that Christian had worn. It was a little small by the time halloween rolled around but it worked and she loved it. Zoe was having so much fun that when it started to get to cold she kept going with Mike she ended up trick or treating for about 3 hours! Seriously I like candy but not that much. This girl loved it.

The girls got so much candy that it has been awesome for me.......I mean them ;) All in all it was a lot of fun and we didn't even freeze this year!

Zoe-lina Ballerina

Well about a month ago Zoe started Ballet and she is having a blast. She takes lessons from Rinat, I think he is from Russia. He has a very thick accent but he is so good with the kids. Zoe loves learning all the new stuff and can't complain because two of her really good friends are in the class with her. Its funny because before nearly every class she asks me to give her ballerina hair. I can't believe how big she is getting. Its funny because some how her teacher found out that Mike was a dancer and always says she is very good its in her blood. Stayed tuned for future recital posts!