Thanksgiving was never meant to be shut up in a single day. --Robert Caspar Lintner--

On to the second Thanksgiving! It was so great to be home, such a nice break from Provo! I'm really looking forward to the day I can leave it, not gonna lie. I love going home though, I miss it so much! I loved seeing my parents and all my sisters and my brothers and especially all the nieces and nephews! I got to see little Kady Scarlett for the first time but sadly only for a few minutes (Monie and Kyle spent Thanksgiving up in Nauvoo with his parents). She is a little doll though, SO cute and SO good! I'm excited to see her again in a few weeks. Then there's the twins and Santana who are all getting so big and more adorable every day! That Tani girl is just so cute and so funny! And she's so good! And the boys are so funny too, Matteo is so cute when he dances and the way he runs is just a hoot. Abrahm is so serious but when he does smile, it's too cute! He has the cutest little dimples and blue eyes with the CUTEST hair! I love it.

Then of course there's the older kids, I can't BELIEVE how big they are getting! Sierra is still gorgeous as ever, about to turn 15...eek! That's so crazy! Brian is almost as tall as me and can pick me up now...holy cow. Then Natalia and Carmen are definitely little pre-teens. They are SO loud together too! I took them with me to Wal Mart and it was just crazy. They're fun though and are such cute girls! A little sassy but cute... :) Jerica is so cute too, her hair is much longer than she usually has it and it's SO thick! My hair is like 1/16 of what she's got...so not fair :) She's hilarious though and says the funniest things and her stories are quite entertaining as well. She goes on and on and it's just so funny! I didn't see the other boys much but they're all getting big too, Mario is particularly funny. He has the funniest little phrases he says. It's a hoot. It was so great to see them all though, I'm glad I got this little extra time with them before Christmas. I'm sure Uncle Mark will steal some of the attention away from me...but that's ok, he'll have a fun ol' time with all the kids hanging all over him. It's gonna be great!

I loved seeing my sisters too. I miss them so much! They are, next to my Mamma of course, my greatest role models and I look up to them so much! They have such different personalities and characteristics and strengths and I admire them so much. I'm grateful how much closer I am becoming to as I'm getting older and married and such. They were laughing at me one day cuz they were talking about some recipes and I was like, these ones are really good! They said it's funny to see me all married and house-wifey. :) I've always been pretty good at domestic stuff so it shouldn't surprise them too much. Anyway, it was great seeing them and I can't wait to see them again.

It took us a while to decide what to do about Thanksgiving but we finally decided to just do it and then they could have another one or something when Mamma got back home. It wasn't the same without her of course but overall it turned out really good, or so I thought. I didn't contribute as much as I was supposed to cuz right after I got up that morning Dad was like, let's go, I'm going to see Mom. So I went up there to see her instead of helping out with dinner(I went up there everyday, 3 hour round trip, not fun but worth it!). I sorta helped with the cherry pies...sort of... :) Thanks Annie! She did a lot of the work and did a great job. I did a lot of the shopping so that was my contribution to the day.

Anyway, dinner was great, so yummy! The pies were delicious as well. Cherry cream pie is the best! minus the cherries of course :) After we ate, everyone kinda just sat around for awhile and then one of the Elder's read our thank you cards we do every year. Then for some reason they started a competition with this old school toy, the one where it has a ball on a string and you have to try to catch the ball in the little cup thing. It was kinda funny to watch, very random thing though. Dad was having fun with it though, he was pretty good too! They did this for seriously 30 minutes or so. It was nutty. After that we kinda ate some more and watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, a family tradition of ours and way funny movie. Overall it was a pretty good day, although I had to leave early the next morning to go back to Utah. And that's pretty much it for last week! I had a fun time with all my fam, especially the little ones and am looking forward to going back soon! Now for more pictures!

Mmm...Turkey and all the fixin's!
And the Rhino is back! Annie and Mellisa named her and decorated her for the holiday, although I forgot the name...I wanna say something with an R though...
The whole gang! Well, minus me cuz I was, as usual, taking the picture...and minus mom and minus Monie and Kyle and Kady...well that's still a lot of people!
Even more mmmm!!!!!!!! Pie!
Being Thankful
They are SO cute!
Natalia and Santana
Isn't this just the cutest picture??? This kid is a DOLL!
Aw...sisterly love!
Adorable little girl....Mellisa called me tonight and told me she's walking now! On the day before she turns One too...yay for Tani!
Storytime with Button! Such a funny little girl.
Where's Tani?
Abrahm likes to show people his belly.
Such a pre-teen... :)
Ok, I couldn't help but put this in there, I love it! I was lucky, for the third time in my life, to be by the base when it was landing, so awesome!!!