End of November

The end of November was packed full.

*We continued our Friends Thanksgiving marathon tradition - one of the best parts of Thanksgiving. We've done it so many years now that we can pretty much quote all of the Thanksgiving episodes.

*I thought my Thanksgiving decor needed some pilgrims and indians, so I waited patiently for Rod Works to put their Thanksgiving on sale for 50% off and then raced over there as soon as they did. These three (along with this Thanksgiving sign from Just Add Sunshine Inc) were just what I was looking for!

*Corbyn boldly declared one day that Megaman and Spider-man are cool and Batman is not cool anymore. That night Rog found him asleep with socks on his hands to be like Megaman. I don't think Batman is totally out, but he definitely doesn't get the attention he used to!

*My friend, Kelli, and I both won $25 gift certificates to Wood Connection on Instagram, so one afternoon we packed up 3 of our 4 kids in her minivan (her oldest was at school) and made the trip to American Fork. It was delightful until the kids decided they had enough of the toy room and ran crazy around the store. I got some fun Christmas crafts that I may or may not get to this month, but they were free! 

*Rog got a terrible cough from Peyton that had him up until the early hours of the morning coughing. He spent many nights sleeping on the couch to not disturb me. 

*We took family pictures for our Christmas card. Looking at all the outtakes, it was a miracle that any of them turned out. (Also a miracle that I don't look too much like a cow either - that scarf did wonders to hide my growing bump!) A few of our favorites...

*We took our turn watching the kids for our date night exchange. At one point, Peyton and Elsie were upstairs watching Finding Nemo while all the other kids were downstairs watching Ninja Turtles. Rog went to check on them and found them like this. They are seriously the cutest friends ever!

*Rog's mom came into town for a quick visit. It was fun to see her if only for breakfast at Tay and Martha's and dinner at Outback.

*It was supposed to be raining all day, so we decided to watch the BYU vs. Savannah State game at my parent's house. Turns out the rain let up just for the game, but Rog got in a spectacular (and much needed) nap. 

And I finished up a few crafts I had been trying to get to all month.

(We won 64-0, so it's not like it was a nail biter by any means!)

*I made Nantucket Cranberry Pie for dessert the Sunday before Thanksgiving (to spread out the cranberry) and it was pretty much amazing. My new favorite pie and I don't think it's just because of my recent cranberry obsession.

*We made thankful turkeys for FHE - another one of our favorite Thanksgiving traditions.

*I spent the Tuesday before Thanksgiving making pilgrim hats...

 

And turkeys for our place card holders. As well as acorns for our centerpiece.

*I cooked all day long on Wednesday prepping for Thanksgiving. And while I cooked, my mom did dishes all day long trying to keep up with my mess!

*On Thanksgiving Rog made up for not being around on Wednesday by being the best helper. I'm pretty sure his favorite part was injecting the turkey.

*After our Thanksgiving dinner (that I will be posting about in more detail soon), my mom and I hit the stores for some Black Friday shopping. I got new Christmas lights for 50% off at Kmart, a whole bunch of Blu-Rays for super cheap at Walmart (after waiting in a 45+ minute crazy line), and some miscellaneous deals at Kohl's. I feel bad that Black Friday gets earlier and earlier every year and that people have to work on Thanksgiving, but it was kind of nice to do all my Black Friday shopping during more normal hours rather than in the middle of the night and early morning.

*Because I got all my shopping done Thursday night, we were able to put up our lights and go to the temple on Friday. We decided to put some lights up on the back of our house because we never get to enjoy the ones on the front of our house. This way we get to see our lights as we pull into our garage at night (that is of course if we go somewhere at night which doesn't happen all the time, but I have a feeling it will happen more as Christmas gets closer).

*On Saturday we watched the BYU vs. California game. It was a close game and it was fun to see BYU come out on top (42-35). This time it was Peyton who got a spectacular nap. She sat down next to me and I looked over a few minutes later to see her nodding off (which never happens).

*I finished my advent calendar on Sunday - just in time to start using it Monday morning. It has been a huge hit (especially with Corbyn) and I'm so glad I put in the effort to get it done by December 1st. It was fun because Rachel made this advent calendar a few years ago and I made my ornaments last year. And this year we switched places - she made her ornaments and I made the advent calendar.

And that was the last two weeks of November!