Thanksgiving in Donnelly

Scott and I spent Thanksgiving this year with his side of the family, in Donnelly ID. Scott has six siblings, 3 boys/3 girls, he is four out of six. Five are married, and 13 kids between them...if I counted right. His two older brothers (and his parents) have recently moved up to Donnelly/McCall area. His older sister lives in Nampa, the sister right under him lives in Mesa AZ, and his baby sister lives near us in Boise. It was only a year and a half to two years ago that we all lived relatively close to one another. Most everyone lived in the Nampa/Caldwell/Middleton area, and Scott and I lived the furthest away in Boise. So we are all still adjusting to not seeing everyone too often. So it was nice that we could get everyone together for Thanksgiving.

Scott, Carly, Spencer

Scott's brother, Jason, has horses and Spencer loved to come watch him feed them. You can't tell by my face, but I am terrified of them. It took every ounce of courage I had to stand so close for that picture. Spencer, however, loved them.

Scott and Spencer sitting on Jason's (brother) porch. Yes, it was very cold...Spencer was prepared:)

One word.......cheeks:) Spencer and his cousin Emma.

Spencer helping Scott hang some sheetrock

Spencer helping Uncle Jason hold the tape measure

Carly and Scott's baby sister, Emilee

Carly and Scott's 2 little sisters, Amber and Emilee

LOTS of games

We had a gift exchange, since we won't see each other at Christmas. This is Scott helping Spencer unwrap his gift.

Spencer's cousins: Megan and Kimberly (sisters, they are sitting across from one another), Lexie, and scary hair Hannah in the back

3 cute girls:)

Spencer just chillin' with his cousin Tyler....watchin' a show

All the cousins, except for 3

Carly and Spencer

Happy Birthday Katie!

November 20th, was Katie's (little sister) sweet sixteen birthday! My older sister, our best friend, and I have a birthday breakfast tradition. We pull the birthday girl out of bed around 3 in the morning, blindfold them, make them wear a dumb birthday hat, and take them out to breakfast. After awhile, it was obviously expected, but you never knew what your hat was going to look like, and sometimes we would sneak someone else in the car with us. So this year we decided to let Katie in on our tradition. We made up a story on why my older sister had to sleep over, and luckily Katie believed it. However, Katie has a morning routine, where she washes her hair at 2:30 in the morning, then puts it in a towel and goes back to sleep. So when we went to wake her up at 3:00 she had already done that, and was laying there with a towel on her head. Katie isn't known for being Mrs. Merry Sunshine in the morning, and she wasn't. She kept whining about how her hair's in a towel, and she won't have time to rewash it...yadda, yadda...we didn't care, she was still going. It took Lindsey and I a few hours to make her birthday hat, and we were sneaking her best friend, Cassie with us, who was already picked up and waiting in the car. So we finally got her up, and moving. We went to IHOP, it was really good. You wouldn't think you'd be hungry that early...but from years of doing this, it tastes really good at 3 in the morning. Besides that it wasn't really that eventful. She opened presents, her main gift was a cell phone. She doesn't like to be the center of attention, she likes to, "go to other people's parties" but not have them. So I did her hair, and gave her a facial, and Lindsey gave her a massage. Then we all went to Chili's for dinner.

Katie and Cassie
Lindsey and I....man, we're pasty! And yes I'm aware that my face is puffy. For some reason whenever we get up that early my eyes burn, and my face gets puffy. Whenever I'm really tired the light starts to hurt my eyes, and then they get itchy and puffy...I don't know.
Fun, full-body, Christmas jamas...Spencer had some to match.
Katie and I....and the top of Spencer's head.....at Chili's.

Special Olympics

The Idaho Special Olympics had their bowling tournament on Tues, the 18th. My mom teaches a special education class at Liberty Elementary School, and her class put together a team. Spencer and I went to go cheer on the team, but Spencer was kind of a nightmare. We had to stay behind the bowling area, and all Spencer wanted to do was run around up by the lanes, and play with the brightly colored balls. So we left basically before they even started. We watched the opening ceremonies and that was about it. It was funny because they asked a few of the athletes, "What does it mean to be in the Special Olympics?" The first two athletes said really cute answers about good friends, and good fun. Then a boy from my mom's class got up and said that it was about, "going bowling, and getting a strike." Another little boy after him then told us that it was about, "getting bad guys." It was really funny. I never heard how things ended up, but one kid from my mom's class got a 140, and another got a 138. Not bad...of course there were bumpers, but thats still pretty good.

Cheering from the side-lines!
It only lasted for a few minutes, but this is Spencer, mesmorized by the bright colored balls flying down the lanes.

What have we been doing since Scott came home?

Scott came home Wednesday night, after being gone for two and a half weeks! We had a full few days planned:) Thursday night we went swimming.
Spencer loves the slides!

Then on Saturday morning we went to the Veterans Day parade. My little sister Katie was marching with the band. Spencer loves the big military helicopters that fly over when the parade begins.

Disney on Ice came to town, so that evening we went and saw the show. My older sister, and her family, as well as my little sister came too....It was awesome!!


Everyone waiting for the show to start. The show was called "100 Years of Magic", they performed songs out of several of the Disney classics. I really liked the Mulan performance...the Beauty and the Beast performance...the Aladdin performance....Toy Story...I liked them all.


Finding Nemo, Mulan, and Aladdin.


It's a Small World (Disneyland), marching band, and the finale.


By the end Spencer was phasing in and out:)
About ten minutes into it Spencer peed completely through his pants...he must have been a little scared:) So he went pant-less. Spencer, Natalie, and Alex are all about Mickey Mouse right now, so they had a blast. Spencer was content the entire time. Natalie wore her Belle outfit, you should have seen her face during the Beauty and the Beast performance:)