Thanksgiving...

This year for Thanksgiving we had dinner at Jamie's since I had to work that day.  Angel, Charles, Leslie and Paul and their gang were all there.  Debbie couldn't make it because she has been fighting a virus for a couple of weeks now and she just wanted to rest.  She wants to be well for when the baby comes.

Here is a picture of Paul opening his birthday present from me  It was a little late in getting here but he was happy with it and that is all that counts.  They are Steelers floor mats for his new truck.

Gunner was so excited about his dad's gift that he came running up to me and gave me a big hug and kiss for them.

Here is a picture of Gunner and Trevon.  I love that they have their hats on the same way.  They are becoming best friend.  They just played together the whole time.

                                     

Paul and Charles talking football.... 

Jax and Angel...

Miss Cambria and her ipod... 

Leslie and the magic pepper shaker.... 

Jamie and Leslie and the magic pepper shaker...... 

Okay, so I'm sure you are all wondering....what the heck is a magic pepper shaker?  Well I'll tell you.  Leslie was busy making her mashed potatoes and she grabbed this pepper shaker out of Jamie's cupboard.  As you can see in the picture it looks like it has pepper in it (and it does but it is stuck to the inside of the shaker).  Anyway she asked Jamie what was wrong with the pepper shaker...Jamie turned it around and showed Leslie that is was actually empty.  The pepper is only stuck on two sides of the shaker so when you turn it around you can see that is it empty. 

So when my girls get together they tend to get a little silly.  They were laughing and showing everyone the magic pepper shaker.  I guess you would have had to be there to appreciate it but they couldn't stop laughing about it.

Here is Cambria and her mom... 

Charles mutilating carving the turkey.....When we asked him if he wanted to carve the turkey he said that he didn't know how.  I told him all that mattered is that he got all the meat off the bones, and that he did... 

Paul and Braxton talking about the Steelers Christmas ornament I had given him..... 

Jax and Angel taking a minute from her ipad to watch the football game... 

Leslie taking a minute to sit and watch the game..... 

Angel playing on Cambria's ipod while Jax plays on Angel's ipad...... 

It was Jamie's first time cooking a turkey and she did a fantastic job.  It was so moist and everyone loved it, in fact I don't think there was any left when we were done.  We also had mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, mac and cheese, green beans, rolls, and your choice of banana cream or razzleberry pie with ice cream.

We had a great time and we all left very full.

Cambria, Braxton and Gunner spend the weekend....

Last weekend Leslie took Paul to the U of U game for his birthday and I watched the kiddos for them.  It also was the day of our first real snow storm.

When the kids come over there are certain items that Grandmas MUST have stocked in the house.  They are macaroni and cheese, hot dogs, noodles (Ramen), cheese puffs and CHOCOLATE MILK.  This last item is non-negotiable. 

So I was fixing mac and cheese and hot dogs for lunch and when I opened the fridge Gunner saw the chocolate milk in the door.  He ran up to me and hugged my legs and said, "I love you !", and then grabbed a bottle of milk.  If  that is what I get for having chocolate milk in my fridge then it is well worth it.

The snow recked my original plan to have the kids help me finish raking up all the leaves but we managed to fill our time doing other fun stuff.

They brought Gunners turtle tent.

Then Cambria and I decided to make some chocolate chocolate chip cookies. The recipe I used was so easy.  You take a chocolate cake mix, a can of pumpkin and a bag of chocolate chips mix it all together and it makes 3 dozen of the best cookies.  You don't even taste the pumpkin and they are moist and cakey.

  Cambria ended up doing most of it. 

Here she is with the finished product.... 

While we were upstairs baking the boys were downstairs playing the Wii..

Look at the concentration on Gunner's face in these pictures.. 

Here's Braxton and Cambria waiting for their turn on the Wii (Braxton is eating an apple) 

Here they are playing "The Michael Jackson Experience". 

You can tell who was being Michael Jackson by who has the glove on... 

Cambria and Braxton dancing to "Dirty Diana" 

This is how Gunner amused himself while they were dancing... 

While the other two were playing Gunner invited me into his tent.... 

We decided to brave the snow and go to Pizza Plus for dinner.  They have the best cheesy bread sticks ever, and their pizza is pretty darn good too.

When we got home the kids decided that they wanted to have a Christmas movie marathon.  So they pulled out all my Christmas movies and put them in the order that they wanted to watch them.  While we watched the movies we had hot chocolate, their favorite is the candy cane cocoa.  They all fell asleep during the third movie.

The next morning Gunner was the first one up.  I asked him what he wanted for breakfast and out of all the choices I gave him this is what he chose.

Candy cane cocoa and leftover pizza... Side note..he did decide to have cereal for lunch.

When Cambria and Braxton finally woke up they decided that Gunner had made the best choice for breakfast and had the same.  I can't say that I blame them I have always loved leftover pizza for breakfast.

After they got dressed we continued the Christmas movie marathon and then they had ramen for lunch (except Gunner).  While they were eating they decided that since it was Paul's birthday that they needed to make him birthday cards. 

After the cards were done, Cambria and the boys made up a birthday skit to surprise Paul with.  They had fun and he loved it.

Halloween weekend........

Halloween weekend was so much fun.  It started with Saturday morning.  It was Gunner and Braxton's first wrestling matches.  So I of course had to go out to support my boys.  I wish I would have gotten some pictures but at that time the batteries in my camera decided to die. 

This was Gunner's very first wrestling match and it was quite surprising.  Gunner is a rough and tumble kind of kid and he is never afraid and is always attacking and wrestling his big brother and friends.   But today I saw a very timid, nervous little boy.  He didn't win his match but he lost by only a few points, he never got pinned.  Towards the end of his match you could tell he was becoming his old self and getting a little mad about not winning.  His face became all serious and he started throwing the other kid around. 

Braxton lost his first match too, and the same as Gunner never got pinned and lost by only a couple of points.  He fought the good fight though.  It's amazing to see how much better and more confident these kids get with every passing year. 

After the wrestling matches we hopped in the car and headed to Hogle Zoo.

Here is Braxton (the ghoul) and Spiderman (Gunner)...

Cambria, Sadie, and Braxton.. 

Here is Miss Cambria (zombie dancer) and her friend Sadie (zombie prom queen). They did their own makeup and looked quite good. 

We met up with Angel and Jax and Trevon.  Here are all the kids while we

 were waiting for Angel to park her car. 

Here they are again, Braxton the ghoul, Captain Jax Sparrow, Ninja Trevon, Spiderman Gunner, Zombie prom queen Sadie and Zombie dancer Cambria..... 

The zoo was a lot of fun.  After the first candy stop Gunner took off his mask and began eating the candy as soon as it hit his bucket.  Instead of Trick or Treating he was Trick and Eating.  Leslie finally had to take his bucket so he would quit eating all his candy.  We saw some great costumes and I got to see my favorite animal- the tigers. They were outside and one was just roaming around but the other was taking a nap in the sun.  They are such beautiful animals.

After the zoo we went to Village Inn for lunch.

Trevon and Braxton waiting to eat...(aren't they the cutest?!) 

 Spiderman getting a kiss from his Mommy....

Sadie and Angel... 

Cambria and Jax...

When we got back to Leslie's the kids decided that they wanted to carve their pumpkins.

Braxton and Cambria waiting for Leslie to get their pumpkins open.... 

Time to take out the pumpkin guts! Love Cambria's face.... 

Sadie was helping Gunner with his pumpkin.... 

These where big pumpkins with lots of stuff inside,

I don't know if standing on the chair gave Cambria an advantage in cleaning out her pumpkin or not. 

While the kids carved I went through the pumpkin guts and gathered up all the seeds for roasting.  We had enough seed to cover two large cookie sheets.  Leslie found some pumpkin seed recipes on the Internet and she tried two of them   They turned out really yummy.  I took a baggie of each kind home with me.

Here are the kids with their finished Jack-O-Lanterns.... 

After that we took Sadie to her grandma's and stopped at the store to find candles for the Jack-O-Lanterns.  Then I helped Leslie get her goodie bags done for all her nieces and nephews and a few of her favorite kids.

She made smore's in a bag....she took a graham cracker and a fun size Hershey bar and a Halloween peep (she had ghosts and pumpkins) and put them in a bag.  It is a very cute idea and you could do it for any holiday since they are making peeps for more than just Easter.

Sunday afternoon I went to Layton and took Jamie and the boy's to lunch.  They picked Jimmy John's.

I had never tried this place but it was very good. They serve sandwiches and these great giant pickles, YUM!

Me and Jax... 

Trevon and Jamie.... 

After we ate we went shopping for the boy's coats.  I even bought me a few things.  Then I just hung out at Jamie's for a while watching Jax kill zombies and enjoying their company. 

Here is Trevon wearing the hat I bought him....he is just too cute!