Thanksgiving and Gingerbread houses!

We had a lovely Thanksgiving! We started the day out signing the papers to refinance our house. We were able to get a new, much lower rate! We were so excited and so happy we were able to get it taken care of! We then headed off to Mike's Aunt and Uncles house. We walked in and they had decorated it so cute...all the tables had cute centerpieces and everyone had their place with their name. It was so cute! We had a lovely time. The food was fantastic!

We then headed off to Mike's parents house. We spent time together as a family and enjoyed being together. We spent the night and the next day we made gingerbread houses! It is one of my most favorite days of the year! I of course forgot my camera so I didn't get pictures of any thing. Here is our gingerbread city and each house:

Our gingerbread city
Madilyn's house. She put on every piece of candy. She did such a great job!

Mayli's house. She did it all by herself (I did help her with the door). It is fun to see the kids really getting into it and being so creative!

Katelyn's house. She did it all by herself too. They had so much fun picking out candy.

Dede's house

Mike's house.

It was a lovely holiday! We had a great time and enjoyed remembering and thinking of things we are thankful for!

Welcome Home Elder Samuel Clayton

Well we made a surprise trip up to Montana to welcome my little brother Samuel home from his mission. He served in the Halifax, Nova Scotia mission. The only people that knew we were coming up were my mom, Caleb, and Sarah. Everyone else was surprised we were there. It was fun to be able to go and we were so excited to see everyone. :)

Here is Madi with her sign


The nieces that were there to welcome him off the airplane.

The skater boys ready to pounce on him when he came down the stairs

This was Madi's favorite way to hold her sign

Sam running down the stairs to us

The nieces giving him a big hug

Mom giving Sam a hug for the 1st time in over 2 years

Dad giving Sam a hug

Brothers re-united after almost 4 years. Their missions overlapped and Sam left just a few months before my brother Caleb came home.

Madi kept hiding under the chairs

All the boys...just the same as in high school

Sam with our family. He was so happy we came up and was surprised we were there. He was a great missionary and we are so happy he served faithfully for 2 years! We love ya bud!

Happy Halloween 2010

Well this is my last post tonight. While I was handing out candy I had a few minutes to finally catch up on the blog inbetween trick-or-treaters. Tonight we got to celebrate Halloween a day early since we can't go tomorrow because it is the Sabbath. So everyone here decided to go a day early so our kids could enjoy the holiday. The kids were so excited.

Madilyn dressed up as Mariposa a barbie butterfly fairy. She looked super cute!

Mayli dressed up at a pageant queen. She looked beautiful.

Katelyn in her pink mermaid costume. She looked so pretty and was so excited to go out.

Attempt 1 again...

Attempt 2...Madi smiling the other 2 have silly faces

Attempt 3...and well....yah...I tried.

Daddy, Katelyn, Madi, Mayli, Uncle Thomas, and Emma heading out to go trick-or-treating. The girls got so much candy and they had a great time! Happy Halloween!!!!

Friday Halloween Fun!

Friday was a fun day. We had fun parties to go to and lots of fun things to do.

Katelyn dressed up for school in her Mermaid Costume

Our pretty pink mermaid...Madi had to get in on the photo

Mayli right before her school party.

Super cute Pageant Queen

Katelyn and her class in the costume parade at school

Katelyn sitting in her classroom

Katelyn's class all dressed up (with a few siblings in there)

Then we got to go to Daddy's work and go trick-or-treating. Here are our attempts to get a good picture..someone always has eyes closed, face covered, or something. Attempt 1.

Attempt 2...I love Madi's face.

Attempt 3...they all looked so cute!

Here are Daddy and the girls walking around to go trick-or-treating. They got lots of candy and had so much fun!

Mayli's Field Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

We had Mayli's fieldtrip to the Pumpkin Patch on October 22. I helped chaperone. We had a lot of fun. Here are some pictures of the fun!

Waiting in line to go on the hayride.
Mayli on the hayride

Madilyn on the hayride...she looks 'so happy'.

Mayli and her friends waiting to go in to see all the animals.

Madilyn really wanted a picture with this...yet she wouldn't stand still for 5 seconds so I could take a decent picture. She still looks cute!

Petting the bunny

Mayli and Madilyn and Levi in the back

Mayli petting a chicken

Madilyn petting a chicken

Madi going down the slide

Mayli and her friends climbing up to go down the slide

Mayli's class and her teacher. We had a super fun time! After this picture each kid got to go to the pumpkin patch and pick out a pumpkin to take home and decorate.

Dodgeball

Well dodgeball has become our semi-annual tradition now. It is so much fun! This time I didn't get to play because I'm pregnant but there was about 5 of us ladies out of commision who couldn't play this year so we sat up on the stage and I still got knocked by a ball (Oliver...hahaa!). Good thing it was just in my shoulder. :) It was fun to watch but it is way more fun to play. We had a good time!

I love this picture of all the men lined up ready to go. They mean business!
Here was one team

Here is the other team. It is so much fun to have so many wonderful and fun people to live by! It is always a blast to get together. Can't wait until next time when I'll be able to play again. :)