Our Thanksgiving Week

We didn't have any school all of last week and the little boy that I watch was out of town all week, so I really wanted to focus on my kids. We decided to something fun and out of the ordinary each day last week. I think we were pretty successful with what we came up with.

 On Monday, we headed to Grammy's school for lunch. We haven't been able to go very much the last two years because of everything we have going. So it was a fun and special treat to be able to go and meet all of her students. Maisey has been waiting to meet a specific student all year. Her name is Belle. And Gage enjoyed drawing all over the white board.

Tuesday is my laundry day, so we don't go anywhere ALL day! So we did fun things together in between folding loads and loads of laundry. The highlight of the day was making a chain counting down the days until we leave for our trip.

 On Wednesday, we had a family date night. We let Maisey choose anywhere she wanted to go for dinner and she chose Panda Express. So we ate there then headed to Pump It Up. The kids love this place, and so do I. I can just sit there and watch them entertain themselves and get really tired, then when we get home I can throw them right in bed. Daddy is a good sport to chase them all around! It was a great night.

Until the ultimate fit throwing at the end because it was time to leave. Oh well!

Thursday started off with Shaun going to play football (which on Sunday I had a few men from the other wards tell me how good my husband is at football! It was kinda sweet to hear!) while I stayed home and got the grub ready. This is my second turkey ever and it turned out beautifully! Maisey even asked for seconds! We ate our meal early so we could put the kids down for a nap.

While they were sleeping, my mom and I poured over the Black Friday ads, trying to figure out our game plan for the night and following morning.

Once the kids woke up, we took them to go see Arthur Christmas. It was a cute little movie, but Maisey was still hesitant to believe the whole Santa thing.

This was Gage's first movie. He did pretty well, granted he had the large popcorn tub on his lap the whole time. (I snapped the pic from my phone after the movie started, so there is no flash) He just looked so dang cute with his little head sticking out of the top of this BIG tub!

Then there was Black Friday. My mom and I headed to Wal-Mart a little before the 10 pm toy sale started. We did Wal-Mart, Kohls, Macy's, Target, then slept for an hour, then hit up Lowes, Bed Bath and Beyond, Fred Meyer, Staples, and Learning Palace. I got home at 8 am Friday morning. We got everything on our lists and stood in relatively short lines, minus Target. We stood in line for over 2 hours for a kindle for my mom and when we were 8 people from the front, they ran out. That was our longest line and the only thing on our lists that we didn't get. When I got home Friday morning, I ordered one thing off of Amazon, then I crossed off the last few items on my "left to buy before Christmas and our trip" list. I am completely done shopping for every single person that we have to buy a gift for! It feels nice!

A little while after I got home from shopping, we headed up to the airport to pick up Papa! He flew in for less than 24 hours to pick up a car. The kids had a blast seeing him. We sang lots of Christmas songs, played Ragedy Ann and Andy, ate at Sweet Tomatoes, and went to a Spokane Chiefs hockey game!

 Gage did not want to be in this picture!

We got home from the hockey game and the kids and I went straight to bed while Shaun and his dad watched a movie.

There were lots of tears Saturday morning after Papa left. Good thing we will see him again in 2 weeks! After things settled down a bit, we headed to Palmer's Tree Farm to pick out our Christmas tree!

 Every tree we walked by, Maisey would say, "ooooo Mommy, I like this one!"

 The kids are always up for a ride on the tree cart!

 Our fam in front of the tree. This year it only took us a few minutes to pick it out. I think it's because Shaun wanted to get back to watch a football game! Haha!

 Maisey helping Daddy cut it down.

 

 After we got home from picking out the tree, the kids took naps and I locked my bedroom door and got everything out and wrapped gifts all afternoon. And just like my "left to buy" list, I am COMPLETELY done! It's so nice to not have to stress about that.

On Sunday, we decorated the tree. The kids were so fun to watch. Most of the ornaments ended up in one little section of the tree, but that was fine by me. They were so excited about putting them on. Gage had a hard time getting the bulbs to actually hang from a branch, so he would stand there and concentrate so hard on it and when he got one to stay he would stand back and say, "Taaaa Daaaa!"

Like I said at the beginning, I'm pretty sure we accomplished the task of doing at least one fun thing a day last week! I love making these memories with my family!