Thanksgiving battle, games, pie, and great weather

What a fun Thanksgiving week!  My sister Rebekah flew into town with her English fella Scott, a very nice chap (ok, I'll stop trying to be British). I had a couple days off work, and we had a fun couple of days together. As for the turkey day itself, my brother Joe and his wife Susan and sweet daughter Kaylie drove up from Springville.

We almost had all the original Deardeuffs, as we call ourselves, except for the next youngest-brother Michael.

Look at the gobbling crew:

We moved the couches from our living room, brought in two tables from the garage and everyone fit fine. Food stayed on the kitchen table, and it was GOOD. 

I did the turkey myself and I am very proud that it turned out so moist without a turkey bag like my mom always used. I have made a fuss over the years about stuffing inside the bird, and I did it this year, but JB's stuffing is fantastic made by itself in the oven. Dare I say it was better. The man can cook. He also did Pioneer Woman green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy, etc. 

Someone else who can really cook is my sister-in-law Susan. She brought rolls and pie.  And ohhhhh the pie. Here's Ben sampling the squirt-in-your-mouth whipped cream.

Ben was also happy that Bekah brought egg nog. He and I have been the only ones drinking the rest and that is just fine by us.  James and Andrew were particularly fond of the apple cider she brought.

The weather was beautiful. 60 degrees! We played outside.

We also played inside, with a new game Scott brought called Exploding Kittens. They took Max and Ben to Thor in the movie theater, and the boys loved it. They said it was so funny. It's something I wouldn't have thought about going to go see.

On Wednesday, Bekah suggested something she saw while driving called Battleball. There was a Groupon for half-off, and I would totally do this again. 

It's basically like a nerf gun battle, with 2-inch foam balls in a room with stairs, tires, barrels, etc. James and Andrew looked a little overwhelmed by the equipment but all the boys really really loved it.

JB and I took turns following this lady around. Her favorite was the mini-golf course there.

I am soldering through the rest of the leftovers, taking some to work every day. 

Leaves and acorns

My leaf-rakers and smasher-downers were back this year to help not only clean up our yard this fall, but other yards as well. 

Andrew our goofball stomped down leaves in our brown can with some dabbing action in October.

We again helped our dear friend Ann on the next street (she gets dumped on by a huge tree). And our neighbor a couple of houses down, Larae, wanted extra help this year with all her acorns. Hundreds of them. We went over a couple times to clean them up. When I hinted that maybe the tree ought to go, she said "Oh no, no."

Jamesy loved getting buried in the pile.

And he popped up to photobomb the picture I was taking of Millie in the leaves.

Andrew told me all about this stick he found in the brown can, as he rested from his stomping labors.

Here are both my good helpers in the can -- I was not going back to Larae's house one more time, I was determined to fit all her leaves in at once.

These boys snuck some acorns back home in their pockets and I found them softening in their room. They said something about wanting to feed the squirrels they were going to catch and keep as pets.

Books all day

This little 16 month old girl LOVES books. Loves to be read to, loves to turn the pages, loves the same book over and over. 

She'll carry them around, then hoist herself onto the couch, perch by JB, put the book into his hand and lift his hand up.

Notice the fidget spinner she placed on his chest for safekeeping while she heard this book 5 times in a row.  

She likes some of the board books we have had since Max was a baby. Other favorites include the Jane Austen board books we were given when she was born.

As noted before, whenever James finds my phone he opens the camera by swiping left and then he just starts taking pictures. Sometimes he catches a slice of family life, like me cleaning up the toys below, and Andrew reading to Millie. 

Another time he caught me reading to the bookworm.

We have a lot of books in our house. Maybe too many, but I did see a study once that said more books = higher grades, more success in life, etc.

Almost 7 year old Andrew was thrilled when I found a cupboard full of books I had forgotten about, including some Arthur chapter books. This cupboard was filled by Ben when he cleaned out his and Max's book shelves of books he deemed too young for their room now.  I got a joke book from the library and he has been poring over it and asking me what some of the puns mean.

12 year old Max is liking the Gregor the Overlander series for his school book reports (same author as Hunger Games), and almost 10 year old Ben reading the 3rd Harry Potter book now. They both are getting the newest Diary of a Wimpy Kid book for Christmas, but I think they lean more toward informational texts and non-fiction and graphic novels.

4 year old James is into dragons lately, so during our trip to the library we found a bunch of dragon picture books to read at night (including a special one I accidentally picked up without realizing the momma dragon dies of cancer. That was a shock to read cold last night with no warning). He still likes dinosaurs and we still read of those at night together. He notices when I skip over parts, and he thinks all the large ones with teeth should be the T-rex even though duh that's an Allosaurus.

JB just finished That We May Be One by Tom Christofferson. Very good read. He had our ward discuss it for October's 5th Sunday lesson, and I have heard a lot of great feedback from that.

I just finished A Gentleman in Moscow and I highly recommend it. It is a slow, nice, laid-back uplifting read.  Now I am into some of Laura Ingalls Wilder letters from the library and I keep reading out loud parts to JB.  And during a recent thrift store perusal, I found a collection of short stories called The Road to Yesterday by LM Montgomery, one of my all-time favorite authors. By the way it's funny to see copies of your favorite books on thrift store shelves -- I want to buy them all so they are not lonely. Or place them front and center so they get a good home.

Crafty

I go through fits and spurts of crafting or sewing, and I have had a busy period lately.

It started when Andrew found his un-framed birth date cross-stitch in my sewing box. So I framed that, and finally got to steppin on James's creation and finally Millie's.  James is four after all.

Here are the first three boys:

Here is James

Here is Millie's before I put it in a frame

And, since I felt like I was on a roll with the cross stitching again, I made this for her room

Then I remembered seeing something on Pinterest about cross-stitching over crochet stitches, so I made this fox hat for the next person I know to have a baby boy.

And, even though Millie barely sleeps in her own crib let alone has a pillow, I embellished this pillow case with some embroidery stitches for her. I did the crochet edge when I was pregnant with her.

The boys wanted to try sewing and crafting, too, so I helped Ben and Andrew make stuffed thingies (that are now somewhere under the couch), and I put embroidery thread on big needles for Andrew and James to sew through fabric. James LOVED it, happily stabbing here and there randomly.

Andrew had several crying fits when he felt it wasn't perfect, or when he went over instead of under or the thread got tangled. I told him that even Nona and his Great-Grandma Crossen make mistakes while sewing after years of practice, and it doesn't have to be perfect. That helped him settle down.

Jumping pictures are not our forte

So, if you didn't know, 14 years ago on November 14 JB and I got married.  Let's jump for joy for the beginning of this family!

That wasn't working so well, and Millie-girl and Momma-girl couldn't quite handle the jumping. So, we tried just the boys.

Please, for ultimate enjoyment, just zoom in and look at each face, pose, and even hair flapping.  It's too much.  When we got them the first time, we laughed and laughed. I had tears running down my cheeks.  Yeay for us!!!

More family pictures

Gosh, I love all of the pictures we got. How to pick one for the Christmas card or for the wall?

These boys are getting so tall and handsome! I just think they are the best-looking bunch.

She LOVED being high in the sky.  When we took the Lagoon pictures two years ago, JB tossed James up in the air to cheer him up and keep him going for the rest of the photo shoot. This time it was just for fun.

Stop it. Our last baby is the sweetest thing.

Family pictures 2017

Valeri Anderson came to visit her parents in late summer, and offered to take our family pictures at Sugarhouse Park. I am in love with these.

Like last year, it went so smoothly.  Valeri is quick and calm, she had her daughter Chloe, the best helper with her. The outfits all came together, the boys all were patient and in good spirits, and the baby cooperated. And I loved my hair. I didn't look at any picture later and say "Ugh" about myself, or say "If only such and such boy had smiled there," or whatever -- you know how it can go.

Millie was just learning to stand on her own.

Millie Grace, age 1

James Byron, age 4

Andrew Rockwell, age 6

Benjamin John, age 9

Maxwell David, age 12

Valeri got into the stream and looked up at us

And then we went under as well.

We took our engagement photos at Garden Park, but who knew this spot so close to our house had so many great backdrops?

I just love this baby, and she is getting to be so big, so fast.

She is so cute next to her dad. And he is so handsome. Nothing looks better on a guy than a baby.

I have a few more posts coming soon, especially the jumping pictures. We just couldn't get it all together and it's hilarious.

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Halloween extras

Kids are so much fun. Andrew and James really got into Halloween this year (as did Ben -- wanting me to make the house scarier). 

12 year old Max was a great sport about the pumpkins. We had four, but one turned rotten early, and he didn't mind not carving one. He is a kind soul.  Ben cut his finger while carving, but it healed quickly.

Oh, and I could only find small candles in our house that were Christmas-scented. So our jack-o-lanterns were pretty confused.

4 year old James asked me if he could be a dragon when he grew up. He wore the costume a lot, and asked me to take pictures of his tail. But he never held still, so they are all blurry.

9 year old Ben wore his costume a lot, despite me asking him not to wear it too much -- I was really worried about him getting the jersey dirty, because it is a real BYU jersey that we borrowed from JB's sister. He just LOVED the pads and wanted to show everyone, and wanted to play football with his friends or brothers in the whole getup. 

And any time Ben wore his football outfit, Andrew did too.  He is really learning how to push buttons with rival smack-talk and he is only 6. I keep emphasizing kindness...

Max threw together his nerd costume the Sunday afternoon before Halloween within 5 minutes, and thought the picture I took of him pushing up his glasses with his finger looked obscene. So took a selfie. Ok, several selfies.

We had monster cookies to decorate from our sweet neighbor Ann...

...and yard decorations to admire. They just loved this house and wanted to pose here.

One week later, Max still had a pretty full pillowcase of candy; Ben and Andrew's stashes are depleting fast (if not already gone). James's is long gone. We had leftover candy that I can't find! I think it's in the Bishop's office at church.