Christmas Up

The rest of our weekend was spent putting up the rest of the Christmas decor and a few chores around the house. Our elf , Christopher, also finally arrived after many requests from the kids for him to "show up already!" And he came bearing gifts, a new Christmas coloring book and a letter he wrote.

Inside the boxes were a new ornament for each of us. Per his letter, he asked Mrs. Claus to quilt them each especially for us and our likes.

 I got the entirety of the inside decor up, and Mike got about 3/4 of the way done with the outside stuff. So it was a productive couple of days, along with a little relaxing on top of it.  25 days until Christmas! So much to do and so little time!

Fri's-Giving

The Friday after Thanksgiving was a little strange not getting up for Black Friday sales, but we enjoyed taking our time getting ready and going out to our traditional morning meal at the Cowboy Club. It was delicious as normal. After that the boys headed out to go target shooting with Papa. It was a first time for the twins and only the second or third time for C. I chose to stay behind and went back to the store with my sister to pick up a few more items and look around for any goodies we may have missed the night before. Mike reports that they had a good time and enjoyed it. He was awesome enough to snap a few pics for me.

Then it was back to Papa's where we got to meet my nephew's new girlfriend and have some late birthday cake and ice cream for us 3 November birthdays that were there. We also snuck in another round of Apples to Apples and introduced his girlfriend to that. I'm pretty sure she's going to be hooked. ;)
When we finally had to head out and leave the partying behind we made our annual stop at the Festival of Lights on the way home. The kids loved it like normal, especially Faith who exclaimed "This is so fun!"

I seriously love the way out traditions have morphed into 3 days of fun from the normal one day of turkey. I hope it doesn't end for a long, long time!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day started off early with my sister and I heading to the Thanksgiving morning sale at Kmart, like usual. Mike stayed back at the hotel and got some extra sleep. We somehow ended up shopping for over 2 hours in one store! But we scored some deals and scoped out some of the stuff for the nighttime sales as well as helped my Mom get some of her shopping done, so it was a total score!
Once Mike and I were truly ready for the day, we headed over to my Dads to see the kids and start the turkey time. This little stinker had the cutest turkey outfit on but wouldn't let me take a pic. Papa snapped this one, still not the greatest but it's the best she'd let me get.

Once some of the others arrived, we enjoyed some pre-dinner pie and a few rounds of Apples to Apples together. Then it was time for another delicious feast prepared by Grandma Judi. Yummo.

Then being the sacrilegious souls we are, we headed out to the Black Friday (Thursday night) sales. We scored everything we were looking for at the first store and spent a small fortune. Then visited 2 other stores briefly.  We were done before 9 pm and back to Papa's for some more pie and to check in on the kids again. It felt really strange to not have to wake up early the following day.  But it was a good haul and we were happy with what we got.

Pre-Turkey Date Night

Anther fun Thanksgiving has come and gone and another 3 days of playing with my family were a blast.  Our annual trip to Price started out on Wednesday afternoon. Once we arrived, we got to hang out with my sister at her house for a bit while we waited for Papa to get off work. Once he was home we got the kids squared away with him and headed out on our annual niece/nephew date. This year was a little different since one nephew had to work and one niece couldn't get away from her other family obligations, so we only had one niece and her boyfriend and we invited my sister and her husband along for the ride.

We went to our traditional dinner spot, Pizza Hut and had a good time. Then since there weren't any good movies we wanted to see playing, we switched it up and went bowling. Well at least 4 of us did. None of us had been in years and we were absolutely terrible, but it was such a good time. We laughed and laughed and because it was turkey-day weekend, I told Mike I was going to turkey in the 10th frame of the first game.......AND I DID! I made him take this selfie with me to commemorate the occasion.

I almost did it again in the second game, getting the first two strikes then missing on the third. Dang it! After bowling it was time to check in on the kids then get some shut eye before the Thanksgiving Day festivities began. What a great evening! Thanks to those that could make it and I can't wait for it again next year. I love this tradition!

Trophy Time

C's football banquet was a huge success. He got to visit with his teammates, play games and laser tag at Boondocks, eat pizza, listen to his coaches say some really nice things about him and of course pick up his winning trophy, championship t-shirt and framed football pics. It was a great night and the trophies turned out pretty awesome, if you ask me. He's one pleased little man.

Eleven!

We've been busy celebrating here at the Ouren household. Our baby boy turned 11 on Thursday!
This is the first year we didn't do some sort of party with family and/or friends. So that was a little different for us, but Caleb still got to choose what to do on the day of (after school of course) and one activity to do.

On the day of he chose to take some treats to his class and got to pass those out at lunch time. Then that evening, he chose to go to dinner with just Mom for a little date. We dined at his favorite new pizza place Pizza Pie Cafe and had some conversation, just the two of us. Then it was back home to finish up homework and wait for the rest of the family to get home from the twins swimming lessons.  Once everyone was here and ready, it was time for cake, a song, and presents at home.

 Mom and Dad had gotten him the new football he asked for, the Madden15 Xbox game he's been dying for and a new Lego advent calendar and new NY Giants jacket.  Plus the Eli Manning figurine he asked for that his cake was sporting. I think he was pleased.

For the activity portion, he chose to take one friend to the Grizzlies hockey game with just him and his Dad. He chose his friend Carter from school. Dad took them to the pro shop for some foam bear claws and mom scored some front row tickets for them to see the game up close and personal. Even though the Grizzlies lost, I got an "it was fun anyways" report. I'll take that.

Happy Birthday Caleb! More gifts and fun will continue to come in the mail and upcoming Thanksgiving trip to Price. The partying isn't over yet!

A Winning Season!

I haven't posted about football much this season. I've been a bad mom and only taken the camera to a couple games. But I'm proud to report that C's team took the title this past weekend in their division. His team finished with an 8-2 record and beat those 2 teams that had previously beaten them in the playoff game and the championship game. It's been a lot of work and commitment for him and for us as parents, but we made it through and he says it's been totally worth it.   

We've all been there for every game cheering him on along the way.

His coaches surprised them at the practice before the championship game and they got to meet an NFL player and get an autograph. They met Matt Asiata #44 for the Minnesota Vikings. He talked to them for a few minutes and got a group pic. C has been in 7th Heaven ever since.

Here's a few action shots that I did manage to get.

And him with his team after the big win,  well one half of the team. I couldn't get the other half from where I was standing. He took a pretty hard hit on the very last play of the game he was in for, so he doesn't look too happy in the pic. He was having a hard time being properly excited with his head pounding.

And a picture with his defensive line coach (where he spent most of his time), Coach England.

And we were so excited that Papa Ringo came up to the championship game. Faith could have cared less about the game, only cared that her Papa was there.

I'll try to post more pics from the team party where they'll receive their trophies and have one last hoorah as a team later this month.  Congrats Ouren #11 !

Halloween Weekend Re-Cap

Halloween started for us on Thursday when the kids got to wear their costumes to school and have their annual parade. They loved it and loved that they got to stay in their costumes all day until I picked them up from their early out day.  I didn't manage any pics this year (I know, bad mom!).

Then kids all had the day off of school this year for Halloween which meant they got the spend the day with Mom. They woke up to some little bags of goodies from Mom and Dad.

Then they spent a long morning anticipating the days activities. After lunch, it was finally time to get started. We got in their costumes and first went to one of the campuses I work at and trick or treated there. My supervisor at that campus knew we were coming and gave them bags full of goodies. Some paint, some stickers, toy eye balls and a little bit of candy.  Then it was off to Dad's office to trick or treat and hand out some candy there. After that it was back home to burn off some energy and get our outside decorations in place. Dad came home a little early to help with that. Then we made some Mummy Dogs for dinner and anxiously awaited it getting dark enough to trick or treat. 

Once it started getting dark, we darkened the porch and lit the pumpkins.

Then it was finally time! And Mom surprised them with another treat of glow-sticks that matched each of their costumes. Minnie had a pink flower one, Luigi a yellow power star, the astronaut a blue star and a yellow ax for the firefighter. It was perfect.

Then ventured off with Dad and the little's came home after about 30 minutes. Mike and Caleb went back out for a little longer. I stayed behind to hand out candy to the few trick or treaters we got here. After a few pieces of candy, they all went to bed semi-early, surprisingly.

Saturday I got up early and was able to get all the Halloween decor down and get the Thanksgiving decor up and get a few other house chores done before it was time for C's play-off game.  The football boys were fired-up and shut the other team out 26-0. It was so fun and they are so excited to be going to the championship game next week. After some more chores and dinner, we let them finally break out that paint from the goodie bags they got at my work that they'd been begging to play with all day. We wrote my supervisor a little note of appreciation to go along with it.

Sunday has been spent getting a few more chores done and watching football as well as gearing up for another week of football practices and swimming lessons, school and work. But what a fun time we've had.

We Mustache You.....

One of the days at school last week was mustache day. Dad took on the task in the morning since Mom was already at work and of course Faith had to have one too.....

So funny. And such a great job. Love watching these little people have fun.