Temple Square and City Creek

Wednesday night we decided to take the kids to see the lights at Temple Square. The weather couldn't have been more perfect.  We haven't taken the kids before because it's always been so cold, or we haven't wanted to push a stroller full of whining kids.  But this time was awesome.  They all walked along with us no whining and no one was cold.  Couldn't have asked for a better night.

 The kids and I rode trax to Gentry's work. He picked us up and we headed to City Creek.

 We took the kids to see Santa.  The photographer there was an idiot and the pictures were completely out of focus so we didn't buy a picture of them on Santa's lap.

 The fountains at City Creek were awesome.  The water danced with the music.  There was even fire in the water...but of course it stopped the second we went to take a picture in front of it.

 I was getting ready to take a pic of Gentry and the kids and a lady walked by asking if we wanted a family picture.  I thought it was so nice of her.

 These are the windows at Macey's.  They were so fun to look at made with candy!

 Gentry and I were married here 13 years ago...so we had to take a picture.

Christmas Decorations

I sort of dread putting up Christmas decorations, because I feel like they just make the house more clutter-y...but my kids LOVE them.  So they can't wait to put them up.  We let them help us. (Which causes me more stress because they want to get EVERYTHING out...you know the decorations you don't put up and have good intentions of giving them away...they get those out too.)

Gentry has been taking a bunch of pictures on his phone and tinting/cropping them with an app he has.  So I thought I'd post a few.

The boys were most excited for the ornaments that they had made in previous years.

 Alyssa literally set this tree up herself.  She got it out of the box and put it all together.

 Every now and again we get showered and dressed...usually on Sunday:)

 Frannie needs a haircut.

 Yep this picture would be me grabbing Brock's arm...(a little firmly)...trying to get them to stop being silly and just smile for the picture.

THANKSGIVING

This year for Thanksgiving we decided to host it at our house.  My siblings in Vegas (Missy and Chris) and Jennifer (in Minnesota) couldn't make it.

It was still a really good turn out.  Janay and Connor and her new "friend" Jay.  Alan and Michelle and their 3 girls. Matt and Michele and their 3 boys.  Kassie and her 2 kids.  Kim and Cyndy and my parents.  It was a good sized group.  Luckily no one cared that my Thanksgiving feast consisted of tables with no table cloths, cans of soda...yep no cups....and plastic plates.  Kinda ghetto, but guess what...no one complained about the cleanup.

It was a fun noisy group, but I think everyone had plenty to eat and some of us went to a movie afterwards.  We went to see The Life Of PI.  I literally hated it.  I was going insane.  It is not a movie for kids...or adults with ADD.  My kids had to go to the bathroom more times than I could count and they started complaining about being hungry.  (right after Thanksgiving dinner?!? That's how bored they were.)  Not a movie I would recommend...EVER.

Jordyn, Kassie, Cyndy and Alyssa.
You can kinda see the way we rearranged the furniture to fit in the extra tables.

Gentry and Me.

 Mom and Dad...my dad was carving the turkey.

 Maren and Michelle

 Kim and Alan

 Michele, Maren and Megan

 Max, Bridger, Boston, Porter, Brock and Tate.

 Connor and Tate.

 The picture I had of Matt was him "showing" his food. (Unfortunately the food he was showing was chewed up in his mouth.)  So I didn't post that one.

 Alyssa sent me this in a text after dinner.  I had to laugh.

I'm so thankful for my awesome family!  So grateful to have so many of them here, and can't wait to see the rest of them at Christmas!!  HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Reflections

The kids love doing Reflections at school.  This year we were off track so I bought some clay and told them to make something for Reflections.  This is what they came up with.  Unfortunately the day they had to turn them in, they kept falling apart so we were trying to hot glue them together.  Alyssa and Boston both won Merit awards. (Two kids from each category win Merits and two kids win and move on to the next region.) Brock got a participation award.  They had fun and got free Menchies ice-cream coupons, so we took them for ice cream that night.

 Brock's pizza place.

 Boston's garden food.

 Alyssa's butterfly...it broke a little.

 Alyssa's poem (couldn't get it to rotate.)

 Boston's art.

Alyssa's Birthday Party

Let me start with saying I don't like having birthday parties.  I swear they're a pain, and someone always gets left out.  So  I told Alyssa she could invite a few girls from the neighborhood...girls she "hangs out" with (they don't call it playing anymore).   Hopefully none of her friends from school feel bad.

Anyway Alyssa wanted to go to Classic Skating.  My friend Angie helped me drive since I didn't have enough room in my car with my boys.  It turned out great cause then I had someone to visit with while the kids were out having fun.

Here are the girls that came for the party.  Back row: Brynlee,  Morgan, Erin, Lexi,
Front row: Savannah, Alyssa and Natalie.

 They had a little dancing going on in the middle of the skating rink and Alyssa and Natalie won these awesome glasses for being the best dancers.

Another Eventful Week at the Mikesell House

On Sunday the boys decided they wanted to have the same haircut now.  I figured it would be better (because honestly their hair never looked good...so I was hoping they would look more "groomed" now and it wouldn't look like I forgot to comb their hair everyday.)  I have already gotten them confused...but in my defense it was from a distance.  Oh well.  That's what they wanted.

They went to school the next day and tried to switch seats, but Mrs. Anderson was too smart.  A couple kids in the class got them confused though.  (Boston on the left, Brock on the right)

 We went to my mom's house for Sunday dinner.  Alyssa made her own birthday cake.  Her favorite...Banana Brownies.

 Gentry and I celebrated our 13th Anniversary.  We decided not to do anything right now, in hopes of maybe taking a vacation for just the two of us in the spring. (Fingers crossed)
This picture was taken when I was 14 and Gentry was 15.  Kassie worked at JC Penny and took it for us.  I remember thinking we looked so cool with our denim outfits.  I love that we have these.

 My friend Katie had her baby on November 6th.  He's such a cutie.  They named him Nixon.

 Alyssa asked if she could open just one present early....so naturally I let her.  She picked this one to open first.

 It's a microphone for her Karaoke machine.  Her other mic had broken.

 Later that night we had Connor and his friends/family come over for him to open his mission call.  

Here are the guesses.

Me:Ohio

Gentry:Portugal

Boston: Boston

Brock: Florida

Alyssa: London

 And the correct answer is....HONG KONG, CHINA speaking Cantonese!!!  It was so exciting. 

 Later that night Alyssa asked if she could just open her presents so that on her birthday she could spend "more time doing her hair."  I said no, than thought to myself...she will wake up at 4:00 am wanting to open presents (because she is exactly like me) and so I figured we would all be happier and more rested if I let her open them the night before her birthday.

 After opening her presents Connor and Janay told her to come back downstairs and all of his friends sang happy birthday to her.  It was really cute of them.

 She modeled her new pjs for us.

 BIRTHDAY GIRL!! She turned 11!!

 I checked her out for lunch and she chose Chick-fil-a.  They gave her a free shake for her birthday.  And lucky for her they had just started serving the Peppermint Shake!!!  (our favorite, and she even shared a little bit with me.)

 Alyssa wanted to go to Texas Roadhouse for her birthday, but we couldn't go until the next night because she had cheer practice on her birthday and they didn't want anyone missing practice because competition is coming up soon.  They sang to her and had her sit on the saddle, they also gave her ice cream for dessert.

 

I volunteered to do singing time for 2nd Grade....this is just half of the kids.

 We also had our first snowfall Friday night.  This is what the boys decided to make.