thanksgiving recap

We had a nice Thanksgiving week, even though it was a bit different than expected. Those of you that have been following this blog know that my mom has been sick. She felt well enough to run a couple of errands with me on Monday morning, but by that evening became very ill and we ended up taking her to the emergency room after dinner. My brother Mark and his family arrived at our home while we were still waiting in the ER late that night. My mom ended up needing to stay in the hospital the entire week and was released yesterday (Saturday). I have kept it together fairly well this week, but have broken down a couple of times over the stress and worry of my mom being sick, and not being able to spend as much time with her as I would have liked. I am however happy to say that she has finally been feeling better and acting more like herself today. She even helped embroider my Christmas stockings this afternoon.

It was fun spending time with my brother's family this week. His oldest daughter turned 16 on Tuesday, so I arranged for Rob and me to go on a "double date" with a 16 year old boy in our ward at church. He is a really friendly and great kid and we took them out for ice cream and then came home and played some games here with the rest of the family.

We went for a hike on Wednesday and most of the crew spent time in the hot tub. It has really cooled off here. It was the first time we have ever seen steam coming from the water. Here is Mark, Katherine and Rob on our hike:


Rob and me with the view of the never-ending south-east valley:
The kids always have so much fun with cousins. Hewitt decorated a "Flat Stanley" that his cousin brought and they did all sorts of things with him (jumping on the tramp, took him to the park, etc.). I didn't take many photos this week, but here are several great ones that I "stole" from my niece's camera:
Liv loved the attention that she got from her teenage cousins, and I LOVED all of the help! My nieces are such cuties. My cousin Bob was able to join us for Thanksgiving dinner and it was just about perfect except of course that my mom was missing. A friend gave me this idea to make these little turkeys and so my nieces helped me make these with little name cards for place settings. They were very simple and so cute!

I snapped this shot of all of the cousins after turkey dinner and just before putting Liv to bed:

It's always fun to host a party. Thanks for coming Dunnings!

Rob's birthday was on Thursday and it got slightly overlooked with all of the other things going on. I was a horrible wife and totally forgot about his presents until after the kids were in bed and the adults were in the middle of playing games on Thursday evening (so he opened them on Friday)! Happy Birthday, Rob. I really do love you. :)

I took these photos of Liv and Rob after church today. She was giving everyone kisses before heading down for a nap.
It is back to school and work tomorrow. My parents are planning to drive home to Utah on Tuesday as long as my mom is feeling well enough... Happy Thanksgiving!