Thanksgiving (week) 2018

We had a great Thanksgiving week. We had more than half of my family together and spent lots of the week playing with the cousins who came to town!

The day everyone got together happened to be Grandpa's birthday, so the kids made a huge birthday banner for him.

Happy birthday to our dear old Dad/Grandpa!

The weather was pretty cold and rainy for most of the week, but we did manage to sneak in one trip to the arboretum. I took one picture (I was not great at taking pics all week, most of these are from other people). Tyler was so sweet to help Harvey up to see the crazy bugs.

That same day we got lunch at went to the park by Monka's house.

We also spent lots of time playing at the church building near their house. The kids brought scooters and balls and we all had fun playing and running around.

One particular game of missionary tag found these two cuties together.

There were one or two times where we were between activities with sleeping babies and needed to be quiet. I led the kids in a long game of Simon Says

And Uncle Jeff showed the kids his favorite nature show. They were all fascinated.

Harvey was particularly happy when Eva was holding him!

My cousin Charlotte and her family were so kind to have us over one day (they live about 30 minutes from us). They heated up their pool and the kids swam for a bit. It was still pretty cold outside so they didn't last long, but we had such a fun time playing at their house.

We wanted to go out the night before Thanksgiving (enough cooking!) so Tyler suggested Mia's, a place he used to go to for work occasionally. It was a big hit with everyone! We kind of took over the restaurant, especially when two of my cousins arrived with their kids too. Such a party.

Free soft serve for the win! Max and Lyla were sure happy about it.

On Thanksgiving Day we spent the first part of the day with the Juergens crew. Gigi was so nice to host everyone, and at a time where we could make plans with both sides. It was fun to catch up with Uncle Russell and Aunt Pam and their boys too.

We then met up with the Andersen side at Monka and Ampa's complex clubhouse. It was a good place to have so many of us fit!

We ate and played in and outside while everything digested. After dessert and cleanup the kids put on a little play for us, re-enacting the first Thanksgiving. 

Group picture outside of the family.

 Cute cousins watching a movie upstairs at the clubhouse.

 We ended the week with a few hours at Urban Air, where I only took this picture haha.

It was a wonderful week! We have so much to be thankful for and were happy to have some time off of work and school to spend together.

Harvey turns 2!

Our cute Harvey boy turned 2 on November 15th! His actual birthday wasn't super exciting, but luckily he is just 2 and doesn't understand or care. He came with me to a baby checkup while Max was at preschool. He sat there so quietly and ate pretzels like a champ. Harvey loves pretzels!

And in the afternoon the poor guy had to skip his nap and come to another doctor appointment, this one a last checkup for Max's eye. Luckily the office had a super cool fish tank.

Harvey received lots of love and FaceTime calls and in person visits too! I only happened to grab a screenshot of his visit with Nana and Botz and his visit with Monka.

A birthday bubble bath. I thought this would be fun for him and it was for a minute, but it turns out he doesn't like how bubbles stick to you easily! I sure love his smile.

The next day we had a family birthday dinner at McDonald's, clearly the only place we like to celebrate the kids' birthdays. For the record, we'd let them go anywhere they chose! They just always choose McDonald's. 

We had birthday cupcakes too. 

I took these two snaps from a video - he got so smiley and cute while we were singing "Happy Birthday" to him! It was adorable. And then he totally blew out all his candles on the first try, shocking us all. 

Gigi and Poppy came by with some fun gifts for him, including his very own scooter! He was so excited to try it out.

I can't believe Harvey is 2. Wasn't he just barely this little squishy baby with a crazy umbilical hernia and rolls and a cue ball head?? Time is such a thief. 

Some things about Harvey at 2 years old:

- He LOVES drinks. Give him some kind of special juice and he'll be your best friend. He's a pretty good eater too, but drinks are a sure-fire win for him.

- Harvey is so adventurous. He runs with abandon and loves to climb and jump off of anything he's allowed to, or not allowed to.

- He has followed his brother's footsteps and inherited a love for cars, dinosaurs, and trains. Cars the most though.

- He has the cutest little impish smile. It matches his personality so well!

- Harvey loves his big siblings and fancies himself one of the big kids. But he is no passive 3rd child - he will definitely make it known if there is any foul play or unfairness.

- He is the best snuggler. You wouldn't think he would be given how active he is, but if I'm sitting or lying on the couch he'll often wander over to me and ask to snuggle. Or ask to "hold you." 

We just love our Harvey boy so much!!

Cute, silly kids

Random things I wanted to remember about the kids from November:

Max went through a major Pokemon loving phase. He was first introduced to them by his cousin Dean, and was given tons of cards from Dean and Gigi and Poppy (saved from the first time they were cool)! Tyler helped Max with a binder and card organizers and Max spent so many hours arranging and rearranging them. 

Harvey does this funny flexing thing when he's excited. Millie used to do it too, as did I as a kid! It was never taught, just a funny thing.

Couldn't resist taking a picture of Harvey living his best life at church, lying on the ground eating pretzels.

Max is getting to be quite the little reader but has a funny way of holding the books when he's feeling lazy!

Millie trying out hairdos before bed.

Speaking of hair, Max was making all kinds of funny faces to entertain me as I cut his hair.

Millie was so desperate to rake some leaves one day. Our trees don't typically drop theirs until the beginning of December, so Millie was hitting the ones she could reach with a rake and then raking them up. Harvey was a happy accomplice.

And these two silly boys love to play in the crib together. They bounce and laugh and have so much fun!

November temple fun

Our ward's Primary had a temple trip one Saturday in early November. We had quite a cute crew there!

The kids got to walk around the temple grounds, stopping at a couple different points to hear people tell stories and talk about what happens inside the temple.

Harvey was fairly reverent. He probably didn't get as much out of it as his older siblings but he knows what a temple is and that Angel Moroni is on top so we'll call that a win.

A member of the Temple Presidency talked to the kids for a few minutes before we left. On our way out we saw Monka and Ampa! I think the temple is my favorite place to run into people. 

And I'll throw in here a selfie from when Tyler and I got to go together a few days later. We love the temple!

Halloween 2018

This Halloween was not our most exciting. I was in my first trimester still and not feeling well and did not give the kids' costumes much effort. We didn't do any fun holiday activities or visit any pumpkin patches, but you know what? The kids didn't even notice! They were just excited to get candy on Halloween haha. Simple is definitely better sometimes. 

Millie chose her own costume and was a beautiful unicorn.

Max stayed true to form and was very much undecided on what he wanted to be. He threw on a Batman cape we have in our bin of dress-ups and called it good.

And Harvey... oh Harvey. Given his obsession with shoes, especially boots, he wore his favorite pair and I dressed him accordingly with what we already had. Too big cowboy boots were the order of the day.

I'm glad I thought to take these pictures in the morning, because it was another rainy Halloween night!

The kids waited semi-patiently for Tyler to come home and take them trick-or-treating. I got to sit with Sharon and pass out candy while he took them as has become tradition. They didn't last long in the rain but got tons of candy still!

And we always pop over to scare Nana and Botz on this holiday. Nana is so sweet and always asks me ahead of time what the kids' favorite candies are and makes sure to have a special goody bag just for them. They also gave the kids glow sticks which were very exciting. And please note Max's costume change! Haha.

And we stopped by to see hi to Poppy too. Gigi was out of town (helping take care of new baby cousin Myra!) and we missed her! Poppy didn't have many trick-or-treaters either so the kids definitely benefitted from all that leftover candy. It was a wet and chilly night!