Thanksgiving at our house!

It was our turn to host the Gordon Thanksgiving.  Merril thought of a way to use the pool table as a gigantic dinner table.  It ended up being the exact perfect size!  I can't believe how huge it ended up being.  It took 3 pieces of wafer weld board to fit everyone.  I think we sat 23 or 24 people around it.
He did a great job!

JoLyn, Mike, and Merril.

Mitchell and Brooks.

Luke, Jo Anna, Boyd, Mom.

Mark had a great time feeding Wyatt pie.

Everyone loved the pies.  Or maybe just whipped cream.  (Max, Grant, Jack, Juliet)

Just before Thanksgiving, I read this horrible article about how we build up holidays in our minds and then are completely disappointed because family can't behave and adults end up arguing and ruining the event.  Our family get together was the exact opposite.  Stories were shared, people laughed, there was great food and plenty of it!  I had a great time and loved having my whole family here to share.

Making a mantle...

I've been thinking about mantles for about a month, watching YouTube videos, and drawing sketches.  With Merril's experience and my research, we started building a mantle for the basement.  The mitered corners were the trickiest part but we got pretty close to perfect.  I'm air nailing the mantle together.

We learned how to make pocket holes on the top of the mantle to secure it to the studs.  The mantle is completely removable and doesn't alter the stone in any way.

After we got it up there and knew it would work, we pulled it off for stain and polyurethane.  

I went back and forth over the stain.  I wanted it to match the rock but at the same time wanted it to stand out.  Merril wanted something lighter.  In the end, I went with this reddish color because I loved it.

After it dried, Merril secured it to the wall and I think it looks great!

I can't believe the effect it has on the basement!  It really makes the room look complete and clean!  I love it so much!  The goal was to finish it before we host Thanksgiving.  It ended up being perfect!

Veteran's Day Programs...

Normally I don't remember doing hardly anything for Veteran's Day but this year Maxine and Mikayla both had programs.

Maxine, along with a boy from the school, were asked to sing our National Anthem at the Intermediate School's Veteran's Day Program.  That's a hard song and she was nervous but did great!

Mikayla's preschool teacher, Ms. Slack, organized a huge Veteran's Day Program.  The little kids were adorable waving flags and singing patriotic songs.

Mikayla is just right of center in this picture.  She participated like a champ and was super cute.

A blanket of memories...

I have stacks of baby blankets.  Girl and boy and gender neutral ones.  I had a nice mix of colors so I decided to back the quilt in yellow flannel so it would be cozy.  I could only find lime green flannel at Walmart so I decided that would work just as well.

I wanted to go really easy and just did 12-inch blocks.  Rotary cutters are a dream.  After standing, moving and trying to figure out a pattern, I ended up doing a green/yellow, blue, pink/purple and repeat.  It worked out for the most part.

Working with so many different fabric types was the biggest challenge.  The fleece would stretch like mad but the flannel and 100% cotton would not.  It doesn't quite match up on all the corners but it was close enough.  Eh.

I laid it out on the floor and safety pinned the middles of the blocks.  I purchased a free-hand quilting foot for this project so I could make this design we call a "snail."  These are nicknamed by Mikayla.  She had a stage when she drew on walls and couches constantly, no matter how much we would remind her not to.  Her shape of choice?  Snails.  She called them snails.

We would find "snails" everywhere and I thought it would be a cute design to remind us all of these types of stages when the kids were little.

Mikayla was the first to snuggle in the quilt.  I finished it while the other kids were at school and Mark was asleep.

I learned how to mitre the corners of the binding, something I've always wondered about.  It turned out great!

It's safe to say that it's the new favorite blanket in the house.

Jack's 10th birthday...

Jack had the family party this year.  It was just a quiet celebration at home with his favorite dinner and chocolate cake!

He had to take a big breath to blow it out.  Maybe not that big but whatevs.

His grandparents gave him a kendama and a nerf gun.  We gave him a Lego set.  Of course.

A few tidbits about Jack: He still loves Legos.  He will only build the original instructions one time and then he creates his own trucks and cars and whatever else tickles his fancy.  He does well in school and is crazy good and multiplication in his head.  I need a calculator but he can just figure it out in his head.  He's taking guitar lessons and still loves mud and hates showers.  He's got a tender heart and absolutely loves his brother Mark.  

What did Juliet find?

About a year ago, my good whisk went missing!  I figured Mark had tossed it in the trash when no one was looking because we've found a lot of stuff "accidentally" thrown away.  I lost my good can opener that way.  I've looked in kids' toy bins, under couches, under beds, hoping to find it.  I have another silicon whisk, which isn't nearly as good, but it was enough to keep me from buying another one.

Fast forward to today!  Juliet was helping me decorate for Thanksgiving and opened the box of decorations and guess what she found!?!  It's my good whisk!!  Yay!  Yay!!

We still figure it was Mark that accidentally packed it away in the Thanksgiving box.  Now if only she could find my good can opener.

Maxine turns 13, omigoodness...

I knew it was coming.  It's been coming for a while now.  I'm the parent of a teenager.  Holy moly.  Really, she's a good kid.  She mostly does was she's told and babysits a ton for me.  It was her turn to have a friend party and we decided to have a lateover.  The girls wanted to watch Napoleon Dynamite.

How did this happen?

Ever since she's started Young Womens, she's been looking so much older.  She's getting tall: about 5'3" and wears a size 8 1/2 shoe!  

It doesn't seem like she's going to stop any time soon.  Wow!  She said her birthday was awesome!  

Halloween 2015...

I have wanted to be a 1920s flapper for a number of years.  I would've just purchased a costume but a modest flapper costume is hard to find.  I ended up buying a dress from the DI and buying fringe and sequins to glam it up.  With beads and gloves, it turned out pretty awesome.  I wish it had more fringe but that stuff is expensive.  I might add more later.

Maxine was Katniss from the Hunger Games, Juliet was a vampire and Mikayla was a witch.

Mark found a leftover duck costume and wouldn't wear the awesome skeleton costume I got for him.  He was terrified of it and wouldn't go near it.  C'est la vie.

Jack was the HULK!

Because we didn't want to shave Merril's beard for Halloween, we found a way to integrate it into his costume.  He was/is The Most Interesting Man in the World from the Dos Equis commercials.  #nailedit

Check this out: Just a few days before Halloween, I got the idea to spray paint a huge pumpkin on our lawn.  People trick or treating thought it was super cute!  I hope it mows away in a few weeks.

Update: It did NOT just mow away.  It was lighter but was there pretty much until Christmas.  I might have to do it a few weeks earlier next year!

My first running race!

I have never been a runner.  I think it's hard.  When I would run the mile in middle school, I used to pray that I would pass out so I wouldn't ever have to run the mile again.  Since the Spring, I've been running a little.  By little I mean 1-1.5 miles.  I'm not fast either.  I run about a 13-minute mile.  If I were to run a marathon, that would take me a little less than 6 hours.  Not.fast.  However, I do like how fast my heart rate comes up and when the weather is nice, it feels good to be outside early in the morning.

All that being said, I saw a glow in the dark fun run in our community and thought it might be fun for me and kids.  We didn't run the 5K because I'm too much of a chicken.  We just ran the 1-mile fun run.

Light up rings were in the swag bag and Maxine thought they were awesome.  Yikes.

Jack, who is fastest, ran ahead and won 2nd place in his age division!!

He's won medals before because of his speed.  I think it's amazing!

The girls ran ahead of me and got off the trail.  They headed down the 5K trail and had to double back.  I ended up finishing first but they ran more than I did.

They were all tuckered out by the time we got home.  My impressions of my first race were good.  I felt like I pushed harder than normal.

Update:  It must have really wiped me out because I have run for 2 months.  I didn't run again until Christmas Eve.  How silly is that?

Mark's 2nd birthday!

My baby turned 2!  I can't believe it!  He's so funny.  A little about Mark at this age.  He doesn't talk very much.  All of my other kids had way more words at this age.  Maxine could rattle off entire sentences.  Whose fault is that?  It's mine.  I take full responsibility.  Mark, my sweet, you are my 5th kid.  I'd like to say that I've spent just as much time reading to you as I have the other kids but I haven't.  Over the last month, I've really tried harder to read to you at least a book a day or get one of the other kids to read to you.  I've already noticed a difference and know that you'll be talking my ear off in no time.

Mark loves dirt bikes.  He begs Merril to pull up dirt bike videos on his phone.  He still has a fondness for cars, trucks, and trains, but dirt bikes are definitely his favorite.

He has a violent way of showing affection.  He loves to hug and hugs with both arms and legs and dives his face into your face.  Hard.

He says all of his brothers and sisters names.  Jack's was first and then Mikayla.  Mikayla's name comes out the funniest when he says it.  La-la-la is about the only way I can describe it.  He loves cough drops, as illustrated by the birthday gift below.

He also loves stuffed animals.  Juliet gave him a stuffed animal for his birthday because she was sick and tired of him stealing all her stuffed animals and wiping his face all over them.  He seems delighted with it!

We love this little guy and don't know what we would do without him!  The next day we headed up to Grandma and Grandpa Campbells house for more birthday festivities.  Doesn't he seem excited!?  Maybe even a little extra excited!?  What a goof.  :)

Fall Break in San Diego!

Our family didn't really have a big summer vacation since Merril and I went to the Florida Keys for our anniversary.  We did some smaller trips but nothing big.  Fall Break meant a 4-day weekend and we decided to spend it in San Diego, CA.  SeaWorld and the San Diego Zoo were running huge specials on entrance fees and we decided to take advantage.  Merril liked strapping his surf board to the top of the Tahoe.

We looked at getting a suite at a hotel but what ended up working out was a nice beach house rental.  It wasn't anything fancy but it was a perfect situation for us.  There were beds for everyone, and a pack and play for Mark.  There was a garage for us to use, sand toys, boogie boards, beach cruiser bikes, a tv with a Netflix subscription, a full kitchen, and a fridge full of condiments, all 1/2 block from the beach.  It was a located a little further south of San Diego, in Imperial Beach, CA.  We got there late on Wednesday night and crashed.

 We woke up and went to SeaWorld.

Some of the smaller, I mean, bigger kids, insisted on riding some of the rides.

  
There were pools full of manta rays or some sort of rays and allowed the kids to touch them.  They were a huge hit!

Mark was a trooper but couldn't stay awake for the Shamu Show.  We hung out in the shade while the rest of the family watched the show.

This was the dolphin show and we ended up sitting in the soak zone.  Big mistake.  Mark did not appreciate being splashed.  :/  We moved up a few rows.  

We stayed until closing time, which only 5:00, and then ordered some pizza.  Merril saw an ad on the fridge for a pizza place right by the condo called "The Giant Pizza King."  I thought it would be ridiculous to get such a giant pizza but the kids were astounded at it's size.   

Mikayla kept remarking that, "it didn't even fit on the table!"

Mikayla's curly hair became even curlier in the humidity, if you can imagine.  Oh and that chair that Jack is sitting is was Juliet's favorite.

We tried to talk the kids into the San Diego Zoo on Friday but they weren't having it.  They decided it was beach day.

Mark is a stud muffin.

He was attracting all the ladies.  Or maybe just his Mom.

I was cold, of course.  I didn't even get in.  I was cold just sitting there.

The cold didn't stop the other kids.  Maxine played and played in it.  

Merril surfed.

There was a dead dolphin washed up on the beach but I didn't take pictures of that because it was yucky.  There were cones put out by the lifeguards but I guess they don't clean up dead dolphins.  We went back to the condo for naps and pizza leftovers and just vegged out watching Netflix the rest of the day.  

Maxine specifically requested to go to the San Diego Temple and do baptisms so we went Saturday morning.  We got there too early and waited.  Then we got put with a deaf branch.  We were confirmed in sign language, which was pretty neat.

Driving to San Diego to do baptisms took us longer than we had planned and Merril and the smaller kids were back at the condo and got bored.  They went back to the beach.  Merril liked this statue of the surf dude.

We got back to the condo and changed and everyone went to the Zoo!

The Zoo was pretty packed because it was Saturday and everyone was kind of tired.  Mikayla was barely moving.  She kept stopping to look at flowers and random rocks.  

We didn't end up staying at the zoo for very long.  We left after lunch and seeing the Pandas and drove home Saturday night.  It was a great little getaway.