Birthday Birthday Birthday

When Anna was born, we thought it was so neat that it was only a week after Bevan's birthday!  And then when Drew was born right between their birthdays, I thought, "Oh great!  3 birthdays within a week!"  That 3rd week of November is just extra special for us!  I went through a LOT of cocoa and powdered sugar, that's for sure!  Bevan got his favorite oreo ice cream cake.  We couldn't eat it all (although Drew tried), so a couple days later we took the leftovers to Grandma Christy's for Drew's birthday party.  He shares a birthday with his Uncle Allen so there were multiple chocolate cakes for our large crowd.  Drew did a good job eating MORE cake, but this time, a lot of it went on the floor.  My sweet one-year-old!

Anna's 6-year-old birthday was the largest fiasco by far!  We had ANOTHER chocolate cake (no complaints here) made by Grandma Christy at her house on Thanksgiving evening.  By this time, Dallin was fed up with all these birthday parties that were NOT for him!  He started emotionally cracking and I knew that Saturday would be the breaking point.  Anna invited a dozen kids over to our house for a huge party!  What could I do with Dallin?!  Luckily, Grandpa Chuck came to the rescue and took both him and Drew to Dairy Keen and the park for 2 hours during the party.  Hallelujah!  As far as birthdays go, we are done for a while.  Good thing slices of cake freeze well!

A Day of Thanks!

I love Thanksgiving time!  Not just for all the many birthdays in our family, but for Thanksgiving itself!  It was always the biggest deal in my family!  I remember as a kid going to grandma and grandpa Allen's house and seeing my many cousins.  Then, when our extended family got too big, we started having it with just our family.  The cabin came along and it was the natural place to hold Thanksgiving dinner.  It's been that way ever since.  There's no "on-year" or "off-year", it's just whoever can come is welcome every year.  We had Nora, Vanessa, Allen, Paul, and my family and it was quite the crowd!  Nora brought crafts, woven placemats, which were a huge hit!  I hardly saw Dallin, he was busy with the boys.  Occasionally, kids went outside to sled, which made for a huge collection of snow gear in the greenhouse.  The food was amazing, of course, and I especially loved Vanessa's turkey veggie tray.

After dinner, Mom, Vannessa, and I went to hike the loop.  I underestimated how much snow there was at the top and after a while, it became quite the donner-party-like trek!  I think I burned off my dinner by the time we were done with the 6 miles.  I love that loop!  Such amazing views!  We moved the party to Mom and Dad's house for pie and birthday cake for Anna.  There were also pumpkin rolls and ice cream.

The next morning, we loafed around, ate leftovers, admired the black-friday deals from Nora and Vanessa's 6am shopping trip, cleaned up, and waited for Bevan to get off of work.  He had to go in for half-a-day, but got off in enough time for swimming at the rec center in Kamas.  Vanessa's kids swam with us, which was good for needing extra hands.  As it turns out, Dallin and Anna are pretty independent at swimming pools with their puddle jumpers.  Dallin even snuck off to go down the BIG slide by himself!  Several times!  That kid is fearless!  I wish we had a pool like that near us.  Oh, well!  It makes it all the more special when we DO make it there.

A warm November!

Not a lot happened the first part of November.  The weather stayed beautiful and I kept on working twice a week.  All of park city was on edge, waiting for it to snow!  Or at least, get cold enough so they could MAKE snow!  Nothing happened and landscaping just kept rolling right along.  The ski resorts had to put off their opening days as the warm winds kept things unfortunately pleasant!  Oh well!  One particular Saturday, Bevan headed off to Provo for a BYU football game and I was determined not to let another beautiful day go by!  We went to the "big park" in Heber and had a blast.  I had to keep a close eye on Dallin, to keep him from wondering across to Dairy Keen by himself (he's been known to almost make it!) We did eventually drive to Dairy Keen for overpriced kiddie ice cream cones and camped out there for another hour or so.  How long can this awesomeness go on?!  December will be here before you know it!