Thanksgiving 2023 was a success.

    We had a really great Thanksgiving. We didn't take a lot of photos but we did make a lot of food!

Cute baby Elliot is becoming a real mover and a shaker.

    Our Thanksgiving dinner began with a surprise delivery of two amazing coconut cream pies from some great neighbors, what a treat!

This is how you start and end your Thanksgiving feast!

Greg and I put in several hours of work in the kitchen and only had one minor issue and ended with an amazing feast. (More food then we could ever need but that's the bonus of hosting, leftovers for days.)

The cutest part of our Thanksgiving for sure.

My favorite part of the dinner, hands down.

    And now bring on winter and the Christmas season. Here in Alpine Mother Nature came in with a vengeance.

Definitely wasn't expecting to wake up to this nonsense.

        Well, the holiday season has officially begun and off to a good start in my opinion. Let the Christmas fun begin!

Official birthday fun.

    We had a great time celebrating Greg's 51st birthday. He got lots of love and some very great and generous gifts from some amazing friends.

We made sure he had lots of yummy snacks, or better said, some of his favorite snacks.

Check out that bottom stash of snacks and gifts. Lucky guy! And applie pie!

    We also gathered at Geno's ballpark with several friends/neighbors to honor Geno's heavenly birthday. We sent off messages to heaven with some cool Chinese lanterns and enjoyed a couple great fireworks.

 

    And to top off all the great gifts four, very generous, friends, gifted Greg a very nice gift card. Very nice!

 

    And on Monday we had a great opportunity to tour the Orem temple, which was great. (If not a little chaotic, at least getting there.)

 

    A great birthday for Greg, a nice week and only a few more days before we get to enjoy Thanksgiving together. And just FYI, only 38 more sleeps until Christmas! Yikes!

A year ago!

    It's truly amazing how much can change in one year. This time last year Greg and I were enjoying a night in Provo celebrating Greg's 50th birthday only to come home on Greg's actual birthday to find out our good friend and neighbor had died. It's going to be a sadder celebration this year but we won't skip celebrating Greg's 51st birthday on Sunday and Geno's 1st Heavenly birthday. (Lets hope no catastrophic events line up with his birthday this year.) ((And yes, I did knock on wood after I typed that.))

Last years yummy meal at Ruby River steakhouse.

Kayli's creative birthday cupcakes from last year.

    This year we're planning on having the kids provide dinner for Greg and me and keeping things fairly low-key. Greg is currently enjoying a campout with the priest quorum at the sand-dunes. It's definitely been a fairly quiet and simple week, hence the trip down memory lane verses new photos.

Isaac’s 21 and Halloween

    Isaac had a great 21st birthday. He hit all the businesses that give out free treats/gifts for your birthday and he got the TV he requested. (Unfortunately, the TV was not on the list of free birthday gifts.)
    

 

 

 

His free birthday bundt cake.

And his requested pumpkin pie 'birthday' cake.

    There were also some Halloween festivities to participate in. Carter and Rachel attended Rachel's family Halloween party as a Teletubby and Thor.

 

    Charlie had her second to last Halloween parade at school. (I may have been the first parent to leave.) It was a Halloween miracle that she was the second group of kids to parade through. I love the short and painless school event.

 

    I made sure I was more then ready for any and all trick-or-treaters. I don't think I had as many kids stop by this year but that just means more candy for me.

 

I did get one big group early on. 

    And then we finished the week up with a play, "Finding Nemo Jr." that our friend Mackenzie was in. Cute play and she did a great job.

 

    And there you have it, another week and some fun celebrations.