thankful turkeys

I started this post (loaded all of these photos) at the beginning of December, and here we are in January!  Oh well.  Better late than never...

 

For Family Home Evening in November we usually have the kids make a list of all the things they are thankful for.  This year we did something different and decided to make a "Thankful Tree"  together as a family.  We cut out a bunch of leaves and everyone wrote things they are thankful for.  Rob wrote for Liv (in case you are wondering why "nail polish" would be in Rob's handwriting).  The kids really got into this and didn't want to stop!  We had to make more leaves (and could have kept on going!). 

 

 

 

In mid-November, Liv climbed into our bed early one Saturday morning.  She snuggled up to Rob and asked, "What are you doing, Dada?"  Rob:  "Reading an article."  Liv:  "Of Faith?" 

 

 

 

We had a great Thanksgiving!  Rob's sister's family was here visiting from Utah.  They had actual Thanksgiving dinner with our brother-in-law's family, so we invited a new family in our ward over for dinner.  Rob was thrilled that I made PLENTY of stuffing this year.  Here he is enjoying some leftovers the next day:

 

The kids always have so much fun with their cousins.  It was great to play at the park and just hang out and visit.  I got this photo from the park one day, just before our 'Kids vs. Parents' soccer game:   

My sister-in-law does a much better job than I do at remembering to get photos of the kids.  The following are just a few of what she took while she was here:

 

I think we have several photos of these two cuties from over the years.  I love seeing how they change from year to year.  It will be strange one day when Burke is the taller one!

I really dig this candid of B playing basketball:

She caught T laughing--so him!

 

This picture of Hewitt is so great, and so "Hewitt!"  He has always loved playing with little figures, and I thought this was awesome shot of Hewitt with "Captain Moroni."  I feel like this should be in The Friend magazine or something!

 

 

 

Here are the cute little girls playing at the park.  Liv loves having a girl cousin close to her age.  Even though these two are about 21 months apart, they are now wearing the same shoe size!  

We took the whole gang to "Organ Stop Pizza" one evening.  I think everyone enjoyed the show.  We sat up in the balcony, and the kids were standing up at the railing for some of the time.  At one point during the evening, Tosh gasped and told us that his flip flop had fallen down through the railing!  I wish I had captured the expression on his face on camera!  The adults were trying hard not to laugh.  We were very lucky the shoe did not hit anyone or land in any pizza!  The shoe had fallen just behind an older gentleman, and Hewitt hurried downstairs to retrieve the shoe. 

Rob's sister was kind enough to take some photos of our family one morning (Thanks again, JM!).  Trying to get a good family photo is generally pretty stressful.  The kids do not like having to wear collared shirts and jeans, but they are getting somewhat better at just rolling with it and trying to humor their mother for one day.  We started off in front of our garage door, but the sun was a little too bright for some: 

Liv's poses were hilarious the entire time!  She cracks me up!

Here are the best of the family shots:

Our Christmas card photo for 2013:

I just had to post these different pics of the kids just so you could look at the various poses Liv made (hilarious!):

Mr. Peterson (looking handsome and especially photogenic that day) and me :)