Awesome Thanksgiving

And I was so worn out, I'm just now posting!  We left here right after I got done with the After school Program on Tuesday (last week), got pizza, while Scott gassed up the van and we headed north to our families!  It was Ben's birthday, but he didn't complain!  He was thrilled to go up north!  His teacher was super sweet and bought him cupcakes, since he ruined his on the way in and we had cupcakes to snack on on the way too!  We got in super late and then I talked to my mom for awhile!  It's so nice to spend time with family!  Wednesday was the Zoo and Games at my Sister-in-law's house.  It's an amazing house!  They've worked super hard on it, and it shows!  It was great having kids my kids' ages to play with (since my husband's brother has 7 kids and most of them are close in age to ours)!  Our kiddos loved being with cousins!  We went back to my family for my kids to spend time with another cousin when they woke up on Thursday morning.  My family is so sweet and they let me sleep in everyday I was there!  It was amazing!  We had our Thanksgiving lunch there and then Thanksgiving lunch again an hour or so later with my husband's family.  We got to play more games.  We especially liked the Round Robin Ping Pong and Ultimate Frisbee!  Then we went and saw the lights at the nearby park and they were awesome too!  The kids loved picking out favorites and seeing what the lights were doing!  I liked the fish jumping out of the water and back in!  We left later, and went back to my family.
Mandy and I went out Black Friday shopping after we got the kids in bed (I did a little online shopping at Kohl's before we left).  We went to Target, Old Navy, Bath and Body Works, and Build-a-Bear.  We had our after midnight meal on the way back and got in about 2.  Not bad!  There weren't any lines, since I refused to go earlier and miss out on time with my family to shop!  I was very excited about our buys!
Then on Friday, we girls went to a Matinee showing of Frozen.  I LOVED it!!!  I'm buying it when it comes out, so we can watch it again and again!  I love the family ties, and the true love angle!  We went over to Scott's mom's house and did our little Christmas gift swap.  We all love our presents!  We all worked hard together to get lights hung up outside the house, even I took a turn, although it scared everyone to have a pregnant woman on a ladder.  It scared me more to have my kiddos on it!
Later we went to Powerplay to celebrate Ben's birthday!  No cake or anything.  Ooops!  He had a blast and even played laser tag for the first time (with Scott).  He ended up telling me that it wasn't an ego booster and that he had gotten his first taste of war.  It was fun watching him play!  At one point he ran up behind an opponent to shoot him.  The bad news is that he was doing something wrong with his gun, so none of the shots actually connected!  He did great on the beating up Crocodile game!  Our little kiddos enjoyed the kiddo playground!  Josh was so cute jumping in the bounce house and trying to grab balls!  Cecilia and Leah did a great job going up all the slides!  We had a lot of fun!
On Saturday morning, Kim and I headed up to the Temple.  It was great seeing family there!  My dad was in charge of our session, which was super cool!  I LOVE the Temple!  It's so peaceful, and beautiful, and you can feel the Spirit so much easier!  We went back to the house and Dad picked up a piece for our van.  Poor Dad spent a lot of time working on our van this week!  We didn't get enough done, but did get a car top luggage carrier and jogging stroller from some friends, which was much needed for all of the Christmas presents we had to bring back!  We ended up staying the night and we left after we ate lunch after church.  Church was great, especially since Mandy took Josh with her to Nursery!  Nice!
We made it home safely, phew!  We unloaded the car and went to bed late.  Then we woke up to sick kiddos.  So, Scott stayed home with them for a couple of days.  He went into work last night, worked day today and will work tonight (Friday night).  We're all exhausted!  But, tomorrow's Friday!