Thanksgiving Day

This year we spent Thanksgiving with the Lowry Clan at Mike's parents' house. We had the traditional Thanksgiving feast. Thankfully there were plenty of mashed potatoes for me to eat. I love me some mashed potatoes and gravy! Of course I was too worried about making sure everyone had something to eat and was happy to remember to take any pictures. I didn't get the camera out until the celebrations were winding down.

Gage trying to cram half a piece of pie in his mouth all at once.

After stuffing ourselves we had a couple of fun games of Mexican train dominoes.

Massages for everyone.

Hunter put Laina to sleep. He is so good at that!

Mike's cousin Tye came from Colorado with his family for the week. Here he is with his little boy Jace.

And a quick picture of the family before we left.

The only other picture we have of our whole family is at the hospital the day we brought Laina home!

It was a nice and relaxing day for us. It reminded me how grateful I am to have such a wonderful family. Mike and I always feel so fortunate that we love each other's families so much. We have been truly blessed this year with a precious little girl, a healthy family, and plenty of business to keep the store afloat. We are so thankful for our Savior and for a living prophet. We hope everyone out there had a wonderful Thanksgiving too!

Why?

What is the fascination with scissors and little kids? On Wednesday Aria proudly presented to me her new haircut, a haircut of her own making. Sadly I don't have much control over what she is doing while I am nursing the baby. I'm going to have to start locking her in the room with me.

Why do they do this? I think Hunter is the only one who has never taken the scissors to his own hair. Michela did it a couple of times, Chase has cut his own hair twice as well as Aria's, and now Aria has taken her turn. I try to keep all of the scissors put away and out of reach, but the kids insist on leaving them laying around where a curious little 3 year old can get her hands on them. Aargh!

Here are the before pictures. (Note- She did not have bangs before this!)

Love the hound dog eyes on her sad little face when I told her we needed to go have it fixed. At least she was going for a cute little layered look.

Our wonderful neighbor and friend Lisa, who fixed Aria's hair last time, came to the rescue once again. Here she is snipping away, trying to fix this shaggy mess.

Aria slowly warmed up, especially when Lisa got to the styling stage.

And the finished product.

Aria loves her new do. I think she looks so darling with bangs. Mike says she looks like me, but I think she looks a lot like Michela did when she was this age.

I'm just proud of myself for not freaking out this time. Maybe it's because I'm getting used to the sight of my children with sections of hair haphazardly chopped from their heads or maybe I've just realized there's not much I can do about it and it's only hair, it will grow back eventually.

Just Because

I couldn't resist putting this picture up. Her big ol' smile just makes me giggle. I love how her chubby cheeks squish her eyes up when she smiles. How can you not want to kiss those cheeks! I could eat her up!

Quad Pod

At Hunter's school they are having an invention convention this week. The students in fourth grade where all given a fork to use to invent something else. They were allowed to bend it, paint it, break it, weld it, anything they wanted, but they could only use forks. This had Hunter stumped the entire week, so of course he started to panic a bit last night, since it was due today.

Mike suggested he look through his scout book for inspiration and then he headed out the door for a scout meeting. I had to deal with Laina, so I wasn't much help. Hunter's first try was a grabber thing where he had stuck another fork in between the tines of the first fork. The other fork happened to be one of my good forks and I informed him there was no way he was using my good forks! I handed him a bunch of plastic forks and told him to do whatever he wanted to them. I watched him as he played around with them and then I practically saw the lightbulb

appear over his head. "Where's the duct tape?" he asked. He ended up using his original fork, four other plastic forks, some duct tape, and some pliers. This is what he came up with.

Introducing the Quad-Pod.

He bent the first fork so that it could hold the camera up. It started out as a tripod, but he ended up needing one more leg to balance it out. Pretty clever for a 9 year old, don't you think? I love watching his brain at work. Wonder what he'll come up with in the years to come?

4 Months Old Today

Laina is 4 months old today. Can you believe it? She is getting to be such a fun little girl. The kids love watching her and playing with her. The best is when she starts squealing and screaming, everyone starts cracking up.

And her latest new skill? Well let me just show you.

Ta Da!

Yesterday Hunter told me that Laina had rolled over. I didn't see it so I didn't quite believe him. She's been getting close to rolling over for a while now, so I thought maybe he just helped her a bit. Today I was playing with her on the floor and the next thing I know she had rolled over. So I ran and grabbed the camera and she did it again! She probably did it 4 or 5 times today. I'd better start being more careful about where I lay her down. This is a bit early for rolling compared to the rest of the kids. Hopefully this doesn't mean she'll be getting into everything sooner!