Thanksgiving!

 We have so much to be thankful for this year....family, friends, Mark's job, a wonderful church family, good health, a great Christian school for Paige, and so much more.  God has truly blessed our family with riches beyond money. 

It was our year this year to spend Thanksgiving with Mark's family.  His parents agreed to take the girls a few days before Thanksgiving to give Mark and I a little break and some time to celebrate our 8th Anniversary.  It worked out that Paige would only miss a half day of school, so they got to have special time alone with Grandpa and Grandma from Sunday until we got there Wednesday evening.  I know the girls had fun!  Thanks Grandpa and Grandma for giving Mark and I a break!

Mark took the girls up to them on Saturday (and stayed Sat. night) to have a Thanksgiving dinner with his Grammie in the nursing home.  (I stayed home for some much needed alone time.)  Here is the girls' Great Grammie watching them play dominos with Grandpa.

Grandpa with his 3 oldest Grandkids.

Uncle Mat, Aunt Myra holding Ariana, Alaina, Great Grammie with Skylar, and Paige.

As you can tell by the Sponge Bob float on TV, we have now arrived and it's Thanksgiving Day!  We brought Skylar a birthday gift, as he had just recently turned 2.

Alaina with 2 month old Ariana.  I was sporting a pretty nasty cold and didn't hold Ariana so I wouldn't pass it to her.  I was pretty sad about that!

Paige with Ariana, Uncle Mat, and Aunt Myra.

And the craziness begins!

The girls wrestling.

And jumping together.

Grandma "caught" Alaina, as Skylar isn't quite sure what to make of the mayhem.

Then decides he would like to join the fun after all.

I'm going to preface this pic with a little history.  Mark and I decided, pretty much as soon as the girls could walk, that when we wanted to rest while they were playing, the worst way to wake up is a surprise attack by the girls.  Usually it is a run and jump on you attack.  So instead, we implemented a "kiss to wake up" rule.  Now, if our eyes are closed and they want to wake us up they come up and give us a kiss on the cheek.  Much better! 

So then, Mark must have come up with a game they call "Wake the Sleeping Bear"!  Here Alaina is the sleeping bear.

Paige comes up and gives her a kiss.

And wakes the bear who starts chasing her.  (Mark is usually the sleeping bear.)

Paige's turn to be the bear.

Skylar with Grandpa.

Alaina hula hooping.  Paige actually mastered Hula Hooping while there.  She is quite good.  I don't have any still pictures of her, just video.

A rare smiling picture of Skylar.

The girls' first wishbone.  They were very intent.

What happened?

I've never seen a wishbone break like this.  They actually broke both the bones off at the exact same time.  Not sure what that means!