The leftover miscellaneous pics

 Wrestling has started:

Ben and Kenzie surprised us with a visit when we went to Moab:

(Apparently Moab has issues with people using public bathrooms where they aren't supposed to.)

I love texts like these from my kids:

Ben having fun with his wresting club:

A great rowing workout for me:

Surprising our friends with a Christmas tree:

Plans for a chicken coop:

Wondering about the animal that tore apart our archery target.  Mountain lion claw marks?

And finally, this is what it looks like to tear families apart.

Group chat, keeping in touch

We have a group family chat which I feel very lucky to have.  It keeps me in touch with my kids, especially the ones far away.  I get stuff like this on there:

I get commentary like this:

and this:

and this:

We get to partake in special experiences like this of McKenzie's:

And we get to share things that we find humorous like naked Jesus:

Please know I am not mocking the Savior here, only questioning the artist that chooses to paint his robe in flesh tones.  It should never happen people.  (Hope this isn't hanging in your house!)

We also get to share things that we find touching like this:

So yes, we love our group chat.  

Christmas decorations

 

Family pictures

 Of course since everyone was home, and it might be the last time, I made us take family pictures.  I wanted to hire a professional but Brad said with his fancy camera, we didn't need a professional.  So we took our own family pictures.

Here is the one we chose:

And here is the one of the kids and Blue that I loved:

I was really pleased with the way they turned out, but please know, family pictures are extremely difficult to take in my house.  Inevitably I always have someone that refuses to wear the clothing that I picked out (Brad and Jordan).  I have boys standing on their tiptoes so they look taller than their siblings (Jordan) and I get lots of funny outtakes like the following:

I'm really not sure which I like more....the picture perfect ones or the outtakes.  Either way I'm glad we took the time to capture these.

Thanksgiving

 Every year our dear friend, Samantha, gives out Thanksgiving pies.  I just loved that she and her fellow workmates dressed up as turkeys pre and post Thanksgiving dinner.

All the kids came home for Thanksgiving.  It may be the last year when they are all home without spouses and family.  Isn't that weird.  Pretty soon they will all go their own ways.  This year, the boys didn't go on a dirt bike ride on Thanksgiving day.  Instead, we all went on a family hike...up raiders ridge, just like Kenzie and I do annually.

Thanksgiving dinner was delicious (and a lot of work) like always.  We smoked the turkey this year.

Brad worked with the kids to mount their bindings for the season.

We had some fun dress up days...ahem....Ben

Really, he just wanted to show off how buff he is. 

It's always hard when the kids have to go back.  Brad wants to keep him here as long as possible and usually his trick work.

But when Kenzie catches on to his jedi ways we get this look from her (which by the way, we are very familiar with...it's her I'm going to kill someone look).

Despite her annoyance at being held hostage, she did let me take some selfies and pictures before they left.

And then, of course, Brad made fun of us for taking selfies:

But we finally convinced him to try to pose normal for us.

His shirt might be tucked in a little too much though. 😂