Our Trips to Boise and Thanksgiving!

We took a trip to Boise to see Great Grandma and Grandpa Winston October 15-17  and we had a great time. We made a special trip to take them their new ipad which they are thoroughly enjoying. I am so impressed! Here are some photos from that trip:

October 15, 2011: Jared’s 29th Birthday!

We arrived in Boise at night because I had a Relief Society Super Saturday that I didn’t want to miss, so we didn’t end up leaving for Boise til about 2pm. When we got there we quickly introduced Grandma and Grandpa to the ipad…

Grandma Winston learning the ipad. Already playing Solitaire!

October 16, 2011: This was a Sunday. We ended up staying home and partaking of the Sacrament with Grandma and Grandpa given by some of the Young Men in their ward. Grandma then prepared a delicious pork and cabbage dish and Ella and I made a yummy Angel Food cake with a strawberry drizzle prepared by Grandma for Jared’s birthday.

A big burrito OR a little burrito

Ella and Grandma playing catch

Happy Birthday Daddy! (Don’t mind my strange singing)

Milee got ahold of Daddy’s cake! Haha!

Grandma and Milee cuddling

Ella is OBSESSED with “toe-jam”! ha!

October 17, 2011: This was our last day in Boise for this trip. Although it was a short trip, we sure enjoyed ourselves!

One of Milee’s first attempts at Applesauce. Tart?

Milee and Grandma again

Milee and Grandpa  

THANKSGIVING 2011: We decided to all meet in Boise this year for Thanksgiving. We being: Jared, Ella, Milee, Me, Grammy and Grandpa Winston, Aaron, Kira, Caity, and Phillip (the exchange student from Germany), Aunt Cindy and Uncle Lynn and of course Grandma and Grandpa Winston and Cousin Christy and her family who already live in Boise.  We were there from November 23-27.

November 23, 2011: Jared worked the night before so we left for Boise once he got off work. Aaron and Kira stayed the night at our house and we traveled together. We arrived in Boise around 5:30-6 pm.

Grandm and Milee

November 24, 2011: Thanksgiving! We had Thanksgiving at Cousin  Christy’s house. It was YUMMY! We played games and had fun as a family. After Thanksgiving Kira and I went Black Friday shopping! We stood in line outside of Target for 2.5hrs with Aunt Cindy. I got some games for Christmas for $4 a piece and an Aerobed for $40!

Milee and Grandpa

November 25, 2o11: After getting in about 2 am, Grammy and I went back out shopping to return a game that I was overcharged for and to do a little bit of shopping before we all got together for the day.

We went bowling as a family! It was really fun! It was the girls against the boys (girls in one lane, boys in another). I was in 2nd both times I think. Kira beat us girls! Ella got to play a game too and the gutters came up just when it was her turn. It was fun to watch her!

SUCH A CUTE FACE!

Daddy and then Mommy helping give the ball more power so that it would make it down the lane :)

YAY!

Ella sure enjoyed these stairs! Weird that her eyes look like they are shining! iphone problem?

Milee practicing her balance

After bowling we went back to Grandma and Grandpa’s and had pizza and watched a movie or two. It was a good day!

November 26, 2011

Grandma is still enjoying her ipad!

Not sure WHAT Jared was doing here! :)

We decided to spend some time at Lindsay Bird Nielson’s this day. We got to see Sheri which was nice and just have a short visit. They made cupcakes for Kira and Brett’s birthday’s and we sang to them. It was really nice.

Aunt Kira, Grammy, and Sam (Lindsay and France’s baby)

The Group

FUNNY FACES!

Grammy and Milee, Sheri and Sam: Grandmas and their grandkids

And some pictures of what’s going on behind the camera. We were trying to get the babies to look at the camera!

Aunt Kira, Sam, Aunt Caity, and Milee

Milee and Sam

Ella joined in the picture :)

Where’d this kid get her looks? She’s a beauty!

Silly Ella

The babies again…

Aunt Caity with the babes

The two Aunties with the babies (Kira and Caity) 

After that get together, we met at Christy’s. We watched 17 Miracles. Good movie! The character, Albert, is actually a man in one of the other ward’s in our building at church! Small world!

Milee and Grammy

I LOVE this video of Grandma and Ella playing with the ipad! Sooooo cute!

November 27th: We left early for home. It was a great Thanksgiving/partial family reunion!

Halloween 2011

Halloween! I know it’s been over a month but I finally got the pictures from a friend and am taking one day at a time getting up to date!

I loved our Halloween this year, especially since last year we were sick with the stomach flu.

PUMPKIN PATCH

We started the season by going to the Pumpkin Patch and picking out the perfect pumpkins. We actually didn’t carve them until Halloween and I’m not sure we got pictures of the end result (lame I know) but it was fun nonetheless.

They had these super cute kiddie wheel barrows. Ella loved it!

I put Milee in the large wheel barrow and went to take a pic and right when I clicked the button she smirked like this!

They also had tractors that the kids could sit on. Ella did so several times :)

They even had a small corn maze! Ella really liked leading us through it :)

An especially fun part of this years Halloween was our costumes!We themed with our girls and it was so fun!

Jared dressed up as a fish tank while Milee was his fish, and I dressed up as a tiger tamer and Ella was my tiger! Milee wore the same costume Ella wore at that age and Ella wore the costume that Grammy Winston made for Daddy when he was 3!

FUN WITH FRIENDS

I watch kids and a few days before Halloween they all were at my house at the same time. I had them bring their costumes and we made a treat and did a craft. Here is my attempt at some pictures:

Our craft:

Buzz and a Tiger

These make me chuckle. It was a feat to try and take a picture of 2 3yr olds, a nearly 1yr old, an 18mo old, and a 6 mo old. HAHA! Poor Milee was NOT happy to be in that fish costume :)

TRUNK OR TREAT

This year our ward did just a trunk or treat with the other wards. It was okay. I would have rather had a party too since we heard such great things about last year’s but we missed it due to our flu. Oh well. We got MASSIVE amounts of candy! Big candy bars even!

PUMPKIN PATCH AGAIN

We went back to the Pumpkin Patch so that we could go on their “hayride”. It was okay, in my opinion. Ella loved it though!

They also had this old pickup that we could take pictures with. Unfortunately I wasn’t in the picture, but this friendly cat took my place :)

HALLOWEEN

We carved pumpkins before we went to our Halloween Party at our friends and it was so fun. We drew faces on the pumpkins and then cut them out. Ella drew hers all by herself. Her teeth were cute little lines that Jared had a great time cutting out for her :) Jared and I did our usual he does one half of the face, I do the other. I also carved Milee’s.

On Halloween night we went to our friends, the Perry’s, for a Halloween party and trick or treating.

We made mummy pizzas (bagel with pizza sauce, string cheese, and olives):

and spider desserts (ding dong with twizzlers for legs and frosting for eyes and smile):

and drank spider punch (Kool-aid with spiders in it)

then played some games. First pin the nose on the witch:

 

Ella won a gumball machine!

Next, Fishing!

and finally, Trick or Treating:        

Ella didn’t really like the things people had in their yards. She would ask why there was an arm here or a leg there. Hehe. At one point there was a skeleton and Ella exclaimed “Look! Why’s there an x-ray in their yard”. Guess it’s obvious that Daddy takes x-rays!

Some cute pics of Ella “Tiger” and Mommy “Tiger Tamer” and Milee “Fish” and Daddy “Fishtank”

We had a very enjoyable Halloween this year. It was great fun to share with our friends. It was also really nice to hear parents out trick or treating say “Man I wish I was a cool mom/dad and dressed up with my kids”.  :)