Our typical 'cRaZy' Thanksgiving morning

Every year early Thanksgiving morning I run a 5k and Brandon organizes and plays Flag Football at the same time. There have been years where we have gotten a babysitter just so we can live out our passions. This year being eight almost nine months prego I decided not to run the 5k but, after watching me race last year Jace decided to take this challenge on himself and run the kids 1 mile race. Every time we drive on Peek Road (the race course) Jace asks if it is almost Thanksgiving and time to run his race. Early Thursday morning I woke him about 6:00am asking if he still wanted to run (hoping he would say no so this could be the one year we sleep in) but no, he asked me to make him oatmeal for breakfast so he wouldn't get cold during the race. After breakfast I told him to lay in my bed hoping he would fall asleep while I got his running gear ready. Fat chance, he was sitting up and ready to go when I came back.

Probably the most enjoyable part for Brandon and I was when Brandon found Jace half way through the race, Jace took one look at Brandon and said, "Dad, I should have said NO." After the race Jace said, "Mom, I didn't like this race so much." I asked, "What part didn't you like?" "The running part." I then asked, "What part did you like?" "The part when I got a ribbon."
I guess running is not his thing, but he claims he is doing it again next year.

"Silly" face

The "infamous" ribbon

B can't live without his "Turkey Bowl." Our first year of marriage he spent $400.00 on flags for flag football promising they would never go unused. Whether we have been in Utah with family and friends, co-workers, grad school with students, or different wards he has always planned and announced Flag Football. This year he played with a broken toe, and claims he did the Superman dive into the endzone and injured his back (he still thinks he's in high school.) I guess boys will be boys. :-)

A night of mischief...

At about 2:00pm on Friday Brandon walked in the house from work or so I thought, when I heard him on his phone tell someone, "Ya, I just got home from Hobby Lobby." My first thought was, "Do you even know WHERE Hobby Lobby is, let alone WHAT it is?" (Hobby Lobby is a craft store here in TX similar to Michael's, Roberts Crafts, or Joann's Fabric). He then turns the corner with a big smile on his face and goes on to tell me that we will be making UofU flags all night so he and one of his buddies (Jared Taggart) can go out and vandalize the homes of all of our cougar friends.

Supposedly there had been a lot of smack going on between a bunch of the husbands who were going to be attending a BYU/UofU party the next night at the Taggart's house.

Once again my husbands hidden talents amaze me. He walked into a craft store that he had never been in before. Approached the lady at the fabric counter and told her how much red fabric he needed and then asked how he could put a white "U" on the flag. After many options he decided that we would make the "U" at home that night and then iron them onto the red flag. Around 7 :30pm I walked into the living room where he, Jace, and Kai have a Clone Wars party every Friday night just to find him glued to the television and not paying attention to the "U" he was messing up. I proceeded to make one and after teaching him he made the other three which turned out much better than my one.

At 11:00pm he left with the ladder and the flags to pick up Jared Taggart where they attacked most of our BYU friends. The boys and I woke up at 6:30am excited to drive around and see what kind of mischief dad had been up to the night before just to find BYU vinyl letters all over the outside of our house. Who else gets up every morning at 4:30am and can pull something off like this by 6:30am??? THE JENKINS!!!

The Jenkins

(Sherlyn and Blue had already ruined their flag before we were able to get a good pic.)

The Christensen's

(Don't worry Mark and Karen the red flag will definitely help bring up the value of your brand new home)

THE BOYER'S

At first we thought the string of events that night would bring down the value of the Boyer's home considering their vehicle was stolen just a few hours later. But, we soon found out that Lance had left the car unlocked with the keys inside. :) When the officers showed up to the Boyer's house and told them what had happened to their car they glanced up and saw the flag. The officer asked if Lance wanted to press charges against the car thief's and he said, "I don't know?? I might know these crooks." Thankfully Lance was able to see the two suspects and realized even though Jared and Brandon could pass as sixteen year old's they definitely were not these sixteen year old's.

THE ROBINSON'S

If you know Nora at all then you know she is never one to go to bed early. To top it off they had friends visiting from Dallas so even though they were the last house to get hit they were still up. As soon as Brandon had lifted the ladder into the car Rob came outside and noticed the flag. Being the good sport he is he left the flag right where it should be until the next day.

Yes, our house and the Taggart's were still hit and do you think we left those vinyl letters up all day like the flags??? No way, I think both families had them down before 8:00am.

GO UTES!!!!!

A week of Feasts...

This past week the boys each had a Thanksgiving Feast at school. Kai's was on Wednesday and Jace's was on Thursday. Thanks to the flexibility of dads job he was able to attend both days, and we both agreed that it was such a fun week having each boy to ourselves...a little one on one time is always needed especially before their sweet little sis gets here. :-)

We love...

new traditions at our house.

Every year Brandon puts a ton of orange lights in our trees outside. Sometime this past September he came to me and asked if we had to do lights this year. I pouted a little and then said, "I would love it if you did but, I guess you don't have to." A little while later he came to me and said, "I have decided to not put all of the lights up, I'm just going to make a jack-o-lantern out of lights in our big tree." I really thought this was just a cop-out and had no faith that it would work whatsoever.

Can you believe it it actually turned out pretty good. We had neighbors that claimed they would wait outside every night in their garages or on their bikes to see the big Jack-O-Lantern come to life. I guess I should trust Brandon a little more when it comes to my perfectionist ways. He's actually pretty creative and a perfectionist in his own way which often turns out more perfect in the end.

We also got this advent calendar this year. It was definitely a hit with the boys and I did not even use one piece of candy. I stuffed each day with Halloween crafts, Halloween pencils, Halloween stickers, Halloween stamps, Halloween movies, and Halloween books. It was such a fun way to celebrate the season. :-)

Halloween Parades, Parties, and one stubborn little boy...

His shirt and face say "monster" which is exactly what he was that morning

I usually don't have much to complain about especially when it comes to my kids but, I must say that the morning of the boys Halloween party and parade at school was one of the most exhausting experiences I have had this pregnancy. We arrived at school about five minutes early to finish up a few last minute pieces of the boys costume that had to be done after we got out of the car. As soon as I put Kai's Dragon costume on he had a "ROYAL FIT". Screaming and crying, "get this thing off of me" (keep in mind he was the one who picked this costume and had already tried it on and had no problem with it). I promised him as soon as we got into the school I would take it off hoping he would forget once he saw all of the other children. As minutes went by I picked up all forty pounds of him, backpacks, a huge baby in my belly and marched in. The screaming and crying did not stop and by the time I got him to his classroom I could not peel him off of me to even take the costume off. Finally after all of the chaos of getting the costume off he did not participate in the parade, class pics., and most of his class party. He attended Jace's party with me and afterwards asked if he could put the costume on. I simply said "no" and marched him down to his class to finish the last little part of his party. Afterwards I went straight home to take a three hour nap. :-)

Jace's Party

Never a dull moment with these boys...

or with Jace that is...

Always being goofy...

The last little bit of Kai's party...like nothing ever happened...

Games

and more games since this was the last bit of the party...

At least he's happy now. I realized half way through the ordeal that that was all that
mattered. :-)