Thanksgiving

Well, it seems like forever since I have blogged!!!! A lot has been going on! Chase had his birthday and had a fun party. We took the kids and some of Chase's friends bowling. WOW! It had been a long time since we went bowling! It was a ton of fun! Chase really wanted and needed a new bike for his birthday....so here it is! He is pretty excited...the side of his bike says "chaos" and it doesn't have foot breaks, and the coolest part is that his front tire turns a full 360!!! Chase also asked if he could have his scriptures early (instead of waiting for his baptism. So we took care of that last week!)Chase is such a great kid! We are so happy to have him in our family!Most of you know that twilight came out last weekend....well, Jordan was SO excited to see the movie. A girlfriend and her worked hard making their t-shirts to wear to the movie...she loved it! Eventhough I didn't read the book, I went to see the movie with some girlfriends. Thanks Shaunna for keeping me clued in on what was going on!!! I loved the movie, and have now commited to reading the series!!!I broke the rules and decided to put up all of my Christmas stuff early....so I had the house decorated for Christmas before Thanksgiving. (I didn't have the tree up, so I didn't break all the rules!) It just seems like Christmas is coming too fast!!! We were so lucky to have Ricks parents come and stay with us for a week! We had such a fun time and were so happy to have them here! The kids got to go swimming at lifetime with grandpa (he even went down the waterslide), we did some shopping, and played lots of games!!!! Thanksgiving was super yummy.....thanks to Marlene's rolls!!! We kept with the tradition and made gumdrop turkeys. Cody got a little crazy with his, and I think Chase ate half the bag of gumdrops. This year was my first time to make yams and apples....let me just say...YUMMY!!!! I will definately be making them again! My cousin and his wife, Davey and Kristi came for Thanksgiving too!!! It was a great day!Friday night was pretty chilly outside, so Chase had an awesome idea of having a fire in the backyard. Rick started the chimnea and we had some hot chocolate! What could be better? Tonight was Dickens of a Christmas in downtown McKinney....I love it!!! It was nice and cool, and the square looked so pretty! They had Christmas lights, people singing, and awesome booths with food and activities for the kids. The first thing we did when we got there was take a ride down the sledding hill....what??? snow in texas??? Well, we make our own snow! Jordan, Chase, Cody, and I all took a turn going down the hill... We walked around and looked at some shops, Paige and Chase rode some ponies. That was not such a great deal....the kids stood in line and when they got up the lady said, $5.00. We thought well, okay - then she said $5.00 each! What?? I guess we know better for next time! That was the most expensive thing of the whole night!We had hot chocolate and they had a cute little train that gave rides around the square. The kids also got to decorate their own cookies. Of course Paige made hers into a cute snowman. Being extra careful to make it look nice. Chase took a little less time, and here is what Cody came up with!!!! We love walking around downtown....it is so fun and really puts us into the Christmas mood!!!! Hope everyone had a nice holiday!