Santa's Reindeer

We thought it would be fun to take the kids to see Santa's Reindeer at Thanksgiving Point and then follow it up with the lights once the sun went down. The reindeer didn't do much, but there is just something about seeing reindeer at Christmas Time that is magical. After watching the reindeer for a few minutes we headed inside to walk around and get some yummy ice cream.

The little kids thought the reindeer were especially cool.

After seeing the reindeer we got some Little Caesar's pizza and took it to Kenny's office to eat. I would like to say that from here on the night went smooth and we went back to the lights when it got dark. That is not, however, how it happened. The kids were wild, crazy and not listening. About 2 minutes before the lights were to turn on, Ben spilled water all over his pants. That was the last straw. We decided to pack up the kids and head home. It was very disappointing not to be able to see the lights, but the kids were just awful and they didn't deserve to be rewarded for such bad behavior. Sometimes being a parent is no fun at all. We may make it down again before the holiday season is over and we may not. I guess only time will tell.

Happy Thankgiving

We went to my cousin Michelle's house for Thanksgiving this year. It was a quick trip, dinner started at 2:00 and we had to be gone by 3:30 but it was nice to spend some time there. The kids enjoyed playing in the basement and Adam didn't even bother to come upstairs and eat dinner. My families Thanksgiving dinner is different than the Thanksgiving dinner that my kids are used to and they didn't like most of the food. They did eat some though and they enjoyed seeing family.  We headed home so Kenny and I could go out and do some Black Friday shopping. Black Friday seems to be getting earlier and earlier, but with 6 kids it's fairly important for us to get those deals, besides we enjoy it.

Grandma and Gracie

Adam playing ping pong.

The kids table

The big kids playing in the basement

Thanksgiving FHE

The kids busy working on their turkeys.

Gracie coloring her turkey.

Dan showing off his turkey parts.

I decided to try and be a good mom this year for Thanksgiving and I planned a cute Thanksgiving Family Home Evening. Like everything in my life, I didn't leave enough time and we were rushed, but we still managed to get it all done. We started out with the normal FHE stuff and then had a lesson on the first Thanksgiving. We read a book and talked about all the Pilgrims went through and how the Indians helped them. We talked about what this has to do with being thankful and then we talked about all that we're thankful for. Afterwards, we headed upstairs to make our Thankful Turkeys. This took a long time and included more whining from the kids and more work for me than I would have liked, but in the end the kids all managed to make their turkey. They each insisted on their own individual picture with their turkey because they enjoyed them so much. Oh, I made pumpkin bread as our snack. See I can have some good mom moments.  :)

Adam and his Thankful Turkey

Sarah took her coloring very seriously and her turkey turned out great.

Ben's turkey.

Gracie and her finished turkey.

Dan and his Thankful Turkey

Hannah was very proud of her turkey.

Adam enjoying some pumpkin bread.

Bunny! What Bunny?

Daniel holding our new little bunny.

We decided to take the kids to the free movie theater in American Fork to see Despicable Me 2. It came out a few months ago and they kids have been dying to see it. I drove the kids down after school on November 22nd. We picked Kenny up around 3:30 and headed out to look at some places we may want to live. We stopped at Walmart (it seems we always have to stop at Walmart) and then headed into American Fork to get some pizza and see the movie. We had a half an hour or so to kill and we just happened to pass a pet store. We decided it was a great distraction for the kids. Animal Ark was a great pet store. They had fish and puppies and rodents and the cutest little bunny ever. We held the bunny and took turns playing with it and then had to leave it at the pet store. The kids were so sad, but we had a movie to go to.

This is Adam "Ahhh! What a cute little bunny" face.

We stopped and got some pizza and then headed to the movie. Sadly, we spent too much time eating out pizza and by the time we got to the movie it was sold out. We promised the kids we would come back and then we headed home.

Gracie love the new bunny.

The entire night and the next morning we thought about that bunny. The next morning Kenny and I decided to go do some looking into getting a bunny. We found a really cheap bunny cage and decided to get it. Next we headed to the local pet store where we found another bunny just like the one we found in American Fork. Of course we had to by it. We brought her home the the pure excitement of the kids. I loved seeing their face when we walked in the house with her. 

Hannah and the bunny

It took a few days, but we finally settled on the name of Cinnamon. Cinnamon is a wonderful bunny. She is very playful, likes to get out of her cage and explore, she's great with the kids (though sometimes they do scare her a little) and she's so cute. The kids have really enjoyed her and they're even doing a great job of feeding her, checking the water, taking her outside to play, and changing her cage. Hopefully that will continue.

Ben petting Cinnamon

On a side note, a few days after we got Cinnamon Kenny surprised us at home after work. He said it just happened, the car just went there and he didn't mean for it to happen. He showed up after work with another bunny just like Cinnamon. It was the original bunny from the pet store in American Fork. The 2 bunnies are very similar in their coloring and we have reason to believe that they may be sisters. It's nice to have to both bunnies. They get a long well and they are very fun to watch together. We named our second bunny Velvet because she reminds us of the Velveteen Rabbit. She is much more shy and not nearly as adventurous as Cinnomon, but she's still a great bunny and we've really enjoyed her. I'll have to take some pictures of both the bunnies. I have a cute video of Adam playing with the bunnies, but I can't get it to post. Oh well!.

Gass Family Photo

Our ward had their primary program on November 10th and my parents and brother came to our sacrament meeting to watch it. The kids did a great job and they really enjoyed having others there to watch them. After sacrament we went to the rest of church and grandma, grandpa, and Ryan went to Ryan's house for a couple hours (I guess they didn't want to hang out in primary with us.) After church they came back to our house and we took a family picture at the park just down from our house. The lighting wasn't the greatest, we were all looking into the sun, and we had to set the camera on a timer, but despite all that, I think we still got a pretty good picture for grandma's Christmas card.

# 1 Car

Ben with his trophy and winning car.

Kenny has been working crazy hours during October and into November. Because of this, when it came time for the pinewood derby in early November, Kenny wasn't around to help Ben with his car. Ben has an amazing scout leader right now that was kind enough to help Ben make his car (because there's no way I have any idea how to do it and I had plenty of other things going on.) Anyway, Ben went to Bro. Green's house a few days before the derby and they made a simple car that carried a Lego guy. Ben was thrilled with it and I was just glad he was able to go. We weren't expecting great things, but we were excited to head to the derby anyway.

I arrived with all me kid on Friday the 8th and got the car weighed and put the correct amount of pennies in it to make sure it hit that 5 ounce mark. I was getting ready to put some graphite in the wheels when the little girls came up and asked if they could race a car. Ben's scout leader said I could go get Ben's old cars for them to race and that he would make sure the wheels were taken care of . I went and got the other cars and he gave the car to our neighbor Bro. Robertson who apparently took some time and put a good amount of graphite on it. 

Ben's car kicked butt. It was awesome and won all but one race that it was in. Ben had never done that well before, though his old cars did pretty good as well, and he was so excited. When it came time for the awards, they announced the 3rd and 2nd place winners. I was watching Ben and as a the 2nd place winner was announced his head sunk and he was so sad. He was positive he hadn't won anything. (I will admit I was so sad for him at this point because I didn't think he had won anything either.) When it came time to announce the winner they asked everyone who they thought won. Everyone said Aiden, our neighbor whose car won every race it was in, but apparently was racing slow cars. To our amazement the actual winner was Ben. 

His first place award and trophy.

I wish I would have had a camera on Ben's face when they called his name. It was priceless. He didn't believe it at first and then all his friends started screaming his name. He was sooo excited and shocked at the same time. It was so fun to watch him and to see the pure joy and excitement on his face. It was one of those moments that as an adult, and a mother, you just think it is so precious and sweet. He couldn't stop smiling and at the same time was very generous and thanked all those who helped him. He called daddy, who was very excited for him, and he insisted I take a picture and Facebook it. HaHa! It was a good night.

Birthday Letters to Grandma

Grandma Holderness's birthday is on November 12th and the family wanted to do something special for her this year. Kenny's cousin had the idea to have everyone in the family (120+ people) send her a letter or card for her birthday. It was a great idea because Grandma Holderness loves getting mail and she was so surprised by all the mail she got on her birthday. A week before her birthday, our kids set to work drawing pictures and making card to send her. They had a lot of fun and we hope grandma enjoyed the things we made. The kids wanted pictures taken with their creations so I thought I'd share.

Adam's drawing

Adam's note spoken by Adam, written by mom.

Ben doesn't like being creative or writing or coloring so his was pretty simple.

Dan's note spoken by Dan and written by mom.

Dan's picture of him and grandma

Gracie's note. She wrote it herself and chose the colors.

Gracie's beautiful picture

Hannah did 3 pages. Here's her drawing.

Her note. She messed up and had to start over.

Another note on the back side.

Sarah likes to be creative.

Sarah's note and picture of grandma's house.

Planetarium Fun

The kids were off track the last 2 weeks of October and the first week of November. They, mostly Ben, really wanted to go to the Planetarium while they were off track, but with Halloween and sewing and everything we were having a hard time finding the time to go. Finally, on Tuesday November 5th I packed the kids up after naps and we headed to the planetarium. There isn't a lot to do at the planetarium, unless you want to pay for a movie which I didn't want to do, but the kids still really enjoyed it anyway. They made tornado's, played in the fog, saw how much they would weigh on different planets, and just had fun running around and seeing all that was there. It's nice to get the kids out of the house and even though it's a lot of work for me, every time we go I realize I need to do it more often. (Sorry about the bad pictures. They were on my phone and the room was dark and that's never good.)

Adam checking something out.

Don't touch the ball Adam.

Gracie playing in the fog.

Sarah and Adam taking a turn in the fog.

Gracie and Dan took a trip to the moon.

The tornado exhibit is new and it's the one thing Ben was
most looking forward to. He had a lot of fun making different tornado's.

Sarah making a tornado.

Happy Halloween

Halloween this year was just as fun as always. I worked all month on costumes and wondered why I was sewing them instead of just buying them. This was real apparent when I finished Sarah's costume and she hated it and was kind of a brat about it. Not exactly what I was going for, but in all honesty it didn't turn out like it should have and she is 11. Anyway, she still wore it and I calmed down after her pre-teen attitude so Halloween was saved.

Woods Girl Sarah

Ninja Ben

This year was the beginning of different Halloween for us. Sarah didn't stay with the family for Halloween, but went to a Halloween party with friends from her class. She was so excited to go, but I'll be honest that it was so hard for me to let her. I wanted her home with us, trick or treating with us, and just spending time with the family. Sometimes letting your kids get older just stinks.  :)  She had a lot of fun, got lots of candy, ate pizza, and played games. I'm glad she had fun, even if I missed her.

Vampire Hannah and Witch Gracie

Buzz Dan and Karate Kid Adam

I took the kids trick or treating this year and Kenny stayed home to pass out candy and get some work done. The weather was great for October 31st and the kids enjoyed seeing their friends as we wandered the neighborhood. After a few hours or so, I brought the little boys back and let Ben, Hannah, and Gracie stay out for another half hour or so. Because the kids were off track and didn't have school the next day I decided, when trick or treating was over at 8:00 that we would pile in the car and go visit my brother Ryan. The kids loved showing Ryan their costumes and all the candy they got, and it sure seemed like Ryan enjoyed the surprise of having us show up at his door.

Fun with Uncle Ryan.

I love this pictures so much that I just had to include it.