Our Thanksgiving!!!

So this Thanksgiving was a FIRST for us.

We hosted our first Thanksgiving!

Along with the hosting responsibilities we cooked our first Turkey.

After taking notes and talking with a few "pro's"

we bought ourselves a baster, turkey bag, roaster and

TURKEY

Dan did a majority of it...and I have to say it did not turn out so bad!

(Uncle John wanted some gravy with our juices...so we let him go for it!)

(after hanging with the red-headed Aunts all day...Dacie's hair started looking a little red herself!)

We had my sisters Cara (and her hubby) and Amberlyn (who ironically all live in Arizona now) over, and then our little crew.

We typically go down to Dan's parents, but his family was all in Utah spending it with his sister who just had a baby.

When my sisters heard we were going to be in town-they opted for our house

....thus our First Thanksgiving story began

The kids were pretty excited to help decorate name tags (check out my name!)

We watched the parade earlier that day and into the afternoon. Kept the kids occupied with a great game of Thanksgiving Bingo and tent/tunnel/tepee in the front yard...along with trying to shoot the gopher that is tearing up our front lawn with a pellet gun!

Everyone contributed to dinner and it turned out YUMMY! I could only manage one serving this year (I am running out of tummy room already)...and serious amounts of rolls.

Our after dinner activity included a mad picture neighborhood scavenger hunt.

We divided into car teams

Had a list of items to find and take pictures of (thanks Family Fun magazine)

IF we could not find and item as it was getting dark, we allowed artistic freedom to find something to take its place!

My team (booboo, Sterling and I) rocked the house-with a little help of Internet pictures (no rules) and extra credit for pulling over and going INTO a total strangers house we saw eating Turkey dinner (My sister Booboo has GUTS)---too bad her camera is busted or I could give you the ENTIRE list with 2 extra credits pictures in its entirety!

Dan (team Colton and Dan) thought that a picture of a port-a--potty and a palm tree could replace his FALL and Holiday filled list items he was missing...and he finally, at last, resorted to having Colton tape him squealing his tires in the empty Fry's parking lot

it really was quite fun!~
I would recommend it to anyone

Then we did a game of spelling T-Day words with our bodies

When the kids were in bed the adults got a game in too!

These pictures are compliments of team Dan

one is a turkey decoration hanging on a wall and the other someone playing football!

Friday day- the sisters went shopping in town to do some Black Friday Christmas shopping. Although we went into one store...a couple of kids taken to the car numerous times, 2 haircuts, dividing kids and hours later... we had our fill!

That night our little clan and Booboo headed down to Phoenix.

Saturday, Dan and I went to the temple and capitalized on a cheesecake factory gift certificate from last Christmas (thanks Shaun!) on the way home.

all while Amberlyn was getting in some quality Auntie time with pizza, parks, and walking Grandpa's dog.

That night with light rain sprinkles we headed over to the Glendale Glitters

We got in some serious walking

Fun Christmas lights...

AND a whole Lotta POUTING!

We took Dacie and Ryland 2 years ago as babies, and I had forgotten how commercialized (state fair type) it was. The boys were going NUTS not being allowed to buy or ride anything

There was allot of "this is so dumb"

amidst the break dancers they were mesmerized by and the pretty lights!

*just keeping it real, so I never forget our family was NOT perfect!

We took our time getting back to Cottonwood Sunday evening...and NO ONE wanted to be home!

I say that was a pretty good indication of a great weekend

Wouldn't you?

We had a Great Thanksgiving, how about you?