Thanksgiving!

As we sat around the Thanksgiving dinner table...here are a few of the things we were thankful for this year...employment, family, friends, food, psp's, cheap gas, testimony of the Savior, vacations...to name a few!

This was definately one of my favorite Thanksgivings I have had!! Stacie and Jess live in Mississippi and so we are the closest family to them so we decided to get together and meet at our timeshare in Branson, Missouri! We were able to get the penthouse which had 2 bedrooms, 2 baths down and a bedroom and bath up, kitchen, washer/dryer and our favorite part was a hot tub on the deck that overlooked the golf coarse and city! It was awesome! We met on Wed. night and did some last minute shopping for our big Thanksgiving meal. I wanted to be really traditional since it was Sophi's first Thanksgiving so we had a fresh turkey(second turkey we had to buy, since the first one thawed out in my garage and was declaired "unsafe" by 1800turkey), real mashed potatoes, yams with marshmallows, stuffing, rolls, jello, greenbean casserole, and pumpkin cheesecake and chocolate baked pie for dessert! This may seem like no big deal, but Stacie and I being the youngest girls out of 6...we are usually given the assignment of stirring the gravy and "DON'T LET IT BURN" type of duties...so a whole meal with no older sisters or moms to help...is a big deal! We did fabulous and everyone, including ourselves, were so proud of us! Stacie even brought us cute little aprons! WAY TO GO STACIE!! Ok, I guess I have to give props to Jess for carving the turkey and the chocolate pie(homemade...his grandmother's recipe) and Derek for stirring the gravy and not letting it burn!! Good job boys!









Then we had fun playing outside, it was a gorgeous day. We played at park and the tennis court and basketball court and then inside for some run around ping pong! I think I was the champ...right Jess?? You can see me on the phone...this is where we heard the exciting new news that Matt and Jenny are having another baby!! Congrats guys!





Thursday night we relaxed, watched basketball, and played hot tub games;)...in my defense, Brock was underneath my robe(yes, that is right...each room came 2 Worldmark robes)...hence the wideness!!
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Black Friday, we went to the outdoor mall and after lots of traffic were able to find parking. We got pictures with Santa and did a little shopping, but mostly window shopping! We then headed over to Branson's hot spot...the Buffet which has the largest banjo and violin in the world!
It was a GREAT holiday and we are so thankful to have Stacie and Jess close by so they can come and experience a few of our favorite vacation spots. We hope to plan many more vacations in the next three years they are here!

Brock's smile!

Brock is so funny! He LOVES the camera and gets this goofy face everytime the camera clicks! The kids (and dad) love taking pictures with him! What would we do without him in our life??

It's that time of year again!

We were going to be gone for Thanksgiving, so we wanted to get our decorations up beforehand. It is so fun to get ready for Christmas and pull out decorations from previous years that bring back such fun memories! I have seen some really beautiful trees decorated this year and I start to get ideas for that perfect tree and think how plain my tree looks but after setting it all up and seeing how much my kids love it all, I realize it is perfect for us...not too fancy but fun and represents our great Christmas moments! I love my kids and are so grateful for the joy and simplicity they bring to my life! Maybe next year I'll get the perfect tree, but until then, I'll enjoy and appreciate all we have now!

Gracie can do it!!

Grace and Bella are so opposite, Bella is so independant, she has to do it all by herself(I'll post some of her outfits later). Grace, however, asks for help with EVERYTHING!! She won't go to bed alone, tie her shoes alone, go to the bathroom alone or get dressed alone. Today I didn't have time to help her and she was forced to do it alone, and she looked so cute, I told her she is getting ready on her own more often...I never would have put these clothes together...she is my fashionista!!

First Haircut!

Brock is getting a little shaggy...so I gave him his first haircut. He kept pushing his shoulders up...it was not an easy task. Grace had to hold down his arms while I razored! Grace also took the pictures and kept covering up the flash...so pictures are a little dark! Now if I could find a way to hold Jaxson down to cut his shaggy hair!!

New Elementary School!

Such an exciting day for the kids! Their new school is finally built and the whole family was invited to do the final tour of the old school and walk over to the new "Green" School! The room you see with all the windows is the lunch room! So much natural light! They all wore matching shirts that say "Earhart, no child left indoors". The new school is so beautiful! Windows all over, lights turn on and off automatically, no paper towels, sinks automatic, their own EE room, each class has up to 10 computers and a smart board...I could go on and on!! We love our school! Here is a video from the news. I can't get it to just play...but if you want to see the video, type the following link into your browser.
www.kake.com/news/headlines/34358179.html

Trip to Colorado

We had a great weekend. Friday we drove to Colorado to see family and show Sophi a big american city! Saturday we had lunch in China Town and then Derek's dad and the Gannons joined us for a drive to Georgetown, up in the mountains. It was a fun trip, we saw deer, alive and dead and rocky mountain sheep. There was a little festival going on up there where we enjoyed the music, games, booths and fire pit.



Even Bella did a little dancing...you just couldn't stay still!!


Then we had a treat at a little home-maid icecream shop at the end of the street where the owner told us he doesn't serve Obamacones?!? They were yummy! (except Derek and Jaxson were not so happy with their tasteless sugarfree cones!)





Then Sunday we had a regional stake conference and went to the Gill's for lunch! Thanks for the yummy meal!

Monday we took the lightrail and showed Sophi downtown Denver and took a tour of the Bronco Mile-High Stadium at Invesco Field. It was fun, we saw the suites, Bolin's suite, the control room, the field, the press room, locker rooms...even the cheerleaders! Then we took the trolley(or bus) down 16th street mall! SCARY PEOPLE down there!!









While waiting for the lightrail, we had fun playing in the tracks! Grace was trying to pose and heard a noise and was so scared she would be hit...you can see her as she is running off the tracks! Funny!!






Monday night Aaron and Megan took us all to one of their favorite places from DC that just opened up in Aurora called '5 Guys Burgers'! It was really good! Good ol' Idaho fries! Tuesday, we went to the temple and then headed back to Wichita! It was a great trip and so fun to see so much family and such great hopitality! Thank you everyone for a great weekend!