Thanksgiving weekend

Thursday:

We had a great Thanksgiving dinner at Grandma & Grandpa Turley's house (Bob & Zelda).
The food at Grandma's house always tastes so good & Thanksgiving dinner did not disappoint.
Plus we only made the stuffing so it was a very restful day. We saw lots of my Dad's siblings & some cousins too.

Notice we gave Marlee no plate- one less thing for her to break:)


Marlee drinking some of Laun's Turley rootbeer-the test of a true Turley.


The weather was nice & the kids enjoyed playing outside:






Marlee barely out of harms way from being hit by the ball.


Marlee LOVES her Grandma Turley.

Porter with my cousin Phillip Johnson- they have matching hands. Porter's hands look just Phillips left hand. Phillip is a very talented athlete, a great piano player, & is going to be a dentist. I was very happy for Porter to see Phillip since I think this is only the second time they have met. I love that Porter can see from Phillips example that he can be & do anything he wants.

Marlee with her Great Grandpa Turley.

That evening after we put Marlee to bed we played sequence (capital & states) with my mom & dad. It is so fun that our boys are old enough to play games with all the adults & they even beat us the first round.

Friday:

We left for Alpine to cut down a Christmas tree & meet up with the Hall family. The boys do their best to entertain Marlee on the drive. Marlee is not the best traveler.

On our way we found a frozen stream & Laun helped the kids dance on the ice.

There was lots of kids there & I had fun doing a "photo shoot" with all the girls. I told them that when I counted to 3 I wanted them to all throw snow up in the air. I think the pictures turned out so cute.

I love in this photo how you can see snow above the sun:

Then I told the girls to run towards me on the count of 3. I love how Brandon & Mary's daughter Mikaela (the one in the green shirt & purple pants) isn't touching the ground in both photos.

Marlee, Laun, & Clayton searching for the perfect tree.

Daddy & his girl

Marlee & me

I know that there are so many pictures of Marlee but, she is younger & sticks around more-half the time I didn't even know where my boys were. That is a sure sign of a good time though, the boys love playing with their cousins.

Marlee by a "her size" Christmas tree.

She loved playing in the snow & kept eating it.

Grandpa Frost carrying Marlee.

Lots of kids watching a movie & trying to get warm in Brandon's new bus...I mean van. It is such a sweet van & seats 12, pretty awesome.

Notice the snow ball in Sam's hand, I'm sure someone got pegged with it shortly after:)

Laun cutting our Christmas tree- great angle of him, I know.

Laun is somewhere behind that tree.

Porter all bundled up.

A line of Hall's:

It was a cold but beautiful day.

Brandon & Ryan

Deep thoughts by Marlee

The kids & Laun

A family picture- notice Laun's wet feet, it kind of looks like he is wearing leg warmers!

Porter

Ryan & Laun looking for a Christmas tree

Ryan, Jared & Laun

Fire wood & a Christmas tree in tow.

Aker lake

Even though our Christmas tree blew out of our truck twice, it eventually made it home.

That evening after a visit to the Lollipop Shoppe in Alpine, Laun & Ryan joined Keith on a hunt & the kids & I stayed at Jared & Lisa's home.

Saturday:

There were 3 new Hall babies to meet.

Brandon & Mary's adorable Jacob:

Jared & Lisa's cute, chubby cheeked Grant:

And Ryan & Kami's precious 2 week old Raegan:

Grandma Black was also in town, here she is with our kiddos:

The kids enjoyed playing games (I joined them during Marlee's nap time which was fun) & watching a movie. I had a lot of fun visiting with the older nieces & nephews. I love watching them grow up, having conversations with them & enjoying their company.

Here is Pearce celebrating during a game:

On our way out we stopped by the home that Grandpa Hall was born & raised in. It is in day wash just outside of Pine dale. I love that it is still there. And I thought my house was small.

Marlee smelling her feet- for some reason with all of my babies I smell their feet & say pee-yew stinky feet. And they all think it is so funny, I'm weird, I know. So now Marlee smells her feet & laughs.

Clayton doing some strange sign, Marlee watching her crazy brother & Porter with gum on his finger. I think all of the traveling got to their heads.

On the way back it was snowing & so pretty. Although it was not pretty that it took an hour longer to get home-oh well, at least we had great scenery to look at.

I love Thanksgiving weekend, not only because of all the delicious food but because I have so much to be thankful for. I am blessed with such an awesome husband, great kids & extended family. I was also thankful because I had a whole week off of school-woo hoo!

Happy Thanksgiving!

On a sadder note, we took our cat with us on our trip and it ran away. It is missed already.

health updates

I took Marlee to the doctor yesterday because her chin was looking worse. The cut seemed to heal fine but the bruising was looking redder & Laun was worried it was infected. He was right, it is infected & she is now on antibiotics. She goes back to the doctor soon to make sure it heals well. I just hope it doesn't scar.


And a health update on me- my blood work showed I still have valley fever (caused by my pneumonia), the x-ray showed that my lungs are cloudy, & the echo showed that my heart is back to normal but that my pulmonary artery is bigger than average (could just be normal for me or also caused by the valley fever). I still have a doctor appointments coming up with the cardiology Dr, the lung Dr, & the infectious diseases Dr (sounds lovely) for the valley fever. So to sum it all up, it pretty much seems like I got one nasty case of valley fever that had lots of great reaction with my body. I am still feeling very tired & get out of breath very easily. I am not allowed to exercise & have to take it easy (how can a mom take it easy-seriously). But I am thankful that so far all results are great & now I just need to get over this valley fever which I guess can take awhile but, at least I don't have hypertension.

wild child

Marlee is a daddy's girl for sure. She follows him around everywhere he goes and cries when he doesn't hold her. If he goes outside then she follows, if he watches tv then she wants to sit by him, and so on. Here she is hanging out with her fav person, watching tv, all while still sucking her thumb and touching her belly button (sure hope she brakes the habit before school age).


Brothers wanted in on the picture too.


Last night Marlee was standing on the boys bunk bed (bottom bed thankfully) when she fell and got a lovely cut and bruise. And who does she want of course, even when she is hurt, her daddy. And I think it is very fitting that her pj's say Daddy's wild child on them.


This poor girl is going to be all scarred up with how active she is. She is non-stop and always finding something to get into. She has a very high pain tolerance, so when she cries a lot you know it must hurt. Thankfully the bleeding stopped soon and we figured she didn't need stitches- yeah, because I am so sick of being in the er lately. I'm just glad she's okay.