Thanksgiving 2009

I admit right now that there are a lot of pictures in this post but I make NO apologies for that. It was a fabulous weekend with a lot happening and I didn't even begin to dent the surface of what I could have posted. :) So here we go...

We were blessed to have all our children and grandchildren in Arizona for the holiday. Whitney had suggested that we all participate in the Mesa "Mi Amigos" Turkey Trot and so we did. Joshua,, Whitney, Dustin and Mariel all ran in the 10K and did GREAT! Old Dad and I ran the 2 mile run and take great pride in the fact that we never had to walk (and with no training, haha) so next year we have set a goal to run the 10K, and since we may be alone, who would dispute if we did or didn't accomplish that goal? :)
Jeremy, Hannah and the little girls walked in the 1 mile family fun walk. Hannah made each of the little girls their own "official" competition numbers and they looked so cute!

Melissa and Katelynn were our cheerleaders and we couldn't have finished the race without them!

Whitney, our family race organizer
Dustin and Mariel (this was Mariel's first "official" race but I bet it isn't her last :)

Traversing the desert on our way back to our car...thank goodness this wasn't our AZ raceway :)

Later when we got home and while we waited for the turkey to cook, we made "handprint" turkeys with the little girls and listed our blessings on the feathers.

I forgot to mention that Kristin, Mike and Avery were so fast at the Turkey Trot that I wasn't even able to photograph them. So glad they sat still for this one :)

Whitney and her "blessings" turkey.

We also wrote letters to our serviceman to give thanks for their service to our country. Thank you everyone for taking the time to do that. Thank you Uncle John for being one of those servicemen!!!!
Great weather and food + wonderful family = perfect Thanksgiving dinner

Friday was not just the day after Thanksgiving and "black" Friday but at the Skinner house it was the day we "ushered in Christmas".

The little girls LOVE their Aunt Mariel and had fun decorating a gingerbread house with her and eating it as they went along. Thanks Mariel!!! Molly looks VERY happy!

That evening we enjoyed a Mexican dinner with yummy new recipes for enchiladas and then headed to the backyard to let the little girls break a pinata full of Christmas candy. They loved swinging at the pinata but Uncle Dustin finally had to take a turn and break it open.
Kate, Molly, Maddie and Avery ready to go to bat!

Kristin, Mike and Avery (17 mos.)

Josh, Kate (2 yrs) and Melissa

Dustin and Mariel

Jeremy and Hannah (I just loved this picture of them...so cute!)

After we broke the pinata we came in the house and Mimi read a Christmas story to the little girls and we shared Christmas gifts with each other. We could have waited until Christmas but it wouldn't have been as much fun not seeing the smiles on each other's faces since we will all be in separate places...Idaho, Utah, Arizona and Hawaii. :)

Maddie 4 yrs (our oldest granddaughter) She REALLY did listen to the story :)

Saturday morning was "family pictures". I should have put the silliest one on this post (and we had quite a few to choose from :)) but I couldn't figure out how to get it on...I'm obviously still learning how to blog :) Anyway, Whitney picked the colors this year...black and purple. All in all, they didn't turn out too bad. It's a shame we knew that in just a few days they would already be obsolete. Sorry Lucy!

That afternoon while the boys watched the ASU/UofA game the girls snuck out of the house and went to lunch and had a little shower for Melissa and Lucy. I am very blessed to share my life with these sweet girls.

After we got home it was time for our pedicures by Whitney! Ahhh!!! Our toes look so much better and the little girls can't quit looking at their purple glittered toes and saying "Whidney...toes".

This Thanksgiving weekend was too short and went way too quickly but will be a treasured memory for all of us.

Lucy Elizabeth Skinner

I realize I'm blogging out of order but everyone is so excited to see pictures of little Lucy that I'm blogging about her before Thanksgiving. Here she is...little Lucy Elizabeth Skinner, born December 2, 2009 to Joshua and Melissa. She is absolutely perfect and we welcome her to the family!!!! She weighed 7 lb. 8 oz. and was born at 6:06 am. What a great way to start the day!

Mimi and Lucy

Bonka and Lucy

Josh, Melissa and Lucy

The proud Daddy

The VERY happy Mommy

Do you think she looks like Katelynn? We definitely think they look like sisters! How blessed this little family is to have Lucy join them. She will add even more sunshine to their very happy life. Congratulations Josh and Melissa! We are so happy for you both!

Backyard Campout

Hannah suggested that sometime we should have a campout in our backyard before it got "too cold". (Which should make all of you who live in Utah smile.) So Friday night was the chosen night and it was so fun. Maddie had her last soccer game for this season at 9:00 am Saturday, Melissa is expecting her baby anyday and Bonka and I would always pick our own bed, so it was decided that those were reasons enough to just have a "pretend" sleepover. We had sub sandwiches and then went to the backyard and began preparations for the tent, fire and s'mores.

Here are the mighty men setting up our tent. Thank you Josh, Jeremy and Bonka!

Bonka started our fire for us and we enjoyed the warmth it provided as the evening began to get cool enough for a light jacket :) Hannah brought the biggest marshmallows we had ever seen and the s'mores and roasted Starbursts were a hit!

I realized that Halle slept through most of the campout so I thought I'd better get a pre-campout picture of her so you knew she WAS here :)



Maddie, Molly and Kate loved playing inside the tent with their flashlights. Here they are making silly faces for the camera.

Josh, Melissa and Kate

Hannah, Jeremy, Molly and Maddie

Bonka telling his idea of a "scarey" story for 2 and 4 yr olds. Obviousily it wasn't too scarey since the adults all seem to be laughing :)

Jeremy and Maddie listening to Bonka's story.

I do believe this was the first time I had seen Kate and Molly holding hands. They walked around like that for part of the evening and it was so cute! I hope they will always love each other and who knows maybe someday they can be roommates with Avery at BYU.

Molly did a little shopping and her best find was Kate!

It was such a beautiful night out and so much fun. We will definitely do this again sometime and who knows, maybe next time we will actually sleep all night in the tent :)

An Afternoon with the Girls

Bonka and I had a great time playing with Maddie, Molly and Kate Saturday afternoon. We had gone to Maddie's soccer game and brought the girls home with us afterward. We had so much fun playing with the blocks, watching Barney, playing with Tanner, swinging, eating, playing in the kitchen for real and pretend :), jumping on the trampoline, eating again and making pumpkins out of apples (which I forgot to take pictures of but they were so fun to make) and eating again :).

Here is Bonka playing blocks with the girls. (He bought these blocks several Christmas' ago and just knew that "someday" the grandchildren would like playing with them...well, "someday" has come:)) Thanks for buying them Bonka!

Molly

Kate

Maddie

Playing in the "kitchen".

Maddie was cute about this. She went into the "real" kitchen and loaded her little grocery cart full of real foods and then put them into the pretend kitchen so she could play with them instead of the play food. (I understand completely, afterall, what fun is it to eat fake food? :))

Jumping and "fishing" on the trampoline.

We will definitely do this more often. It was fun to watch the cousins play together and they are now getting old enough to enjoy it. So fun!!! Can hardly wait for Avery to join them at Thanksgiving! Party on!