Thanksgiving Feast and Program

Today was a big day for Lucy, they had their Thanksgiving feast at school along with their Thanksgiving program.   Garrett and I were able to go up to school to participate in the feast with Lucy's class.  They had tons of yummy food brought in from Chick-fil-a and it was nice to not have to prepare lunch when we got home.

 Lucy's classmate jumped into this picture and it was so cute that he wanted to be in it.  It was fun to see Lucy playing with her friends.  I was happy to see that several friends invited her to play with them and just how many friends she had.  I know she is a friendly girl but some of you know we struggled with her making new friends at school and she has really learned well how to make new friends this year. I am proud of her , this will be a skill that will always be needed in life!

 She made a cute turkey hand with a fun poem. This is her teacher Ms. Amy helping her, Garrett even got to make one since he was there. They both turned out really cute!

 This evening they had their Thanksgiving program. They have been learning songs and practicing for a long time.  Lucy has been singing these songs for a while and we have been listening to the CD they sent home while driving in the car.  It has been fun to see her so excited about participating in the program.  I think she made a pretty cute Pilgrim!

 They had some cute signs for the last song! I was proud of her singing, I could tell she really knew the songs.

 After the program they had refreshments, it was a nice program and I thought it was nice to be able to attend as a family and especially fun to have Lucy learning the real meaning of why we celebrate Thanksgiving. She has been telling me the story about the Pilgrims and the Mayflower for the past week or so.  It is fun to have her grow up so we can watch her participate in some fun productions.

Lights at Graceland

Friday evening we headed to Graceland for the annual celebration where they turn on the lights at Graceland.  We went a couple of years ago and had a fun time so we thought we would head back again this year.

 They had a few crafts set up inside for the kids to make. They wrote letters to Santa and then decorated a Santa hat.  Sister Gaw from our ward works at Graceland and she was excited to see some familiar faces.  She had fun helping Garrett and Lucy with their crafts. 

 Rocky the Redbird even made an appearance.

 We then headed outside to wait for the celebration to start.  There were several other student families there and we had fun visiting with them all as we waited. 

 American Idol finalist Lauren Alaina was the quest for the evening and with the help from some children at St. Jude they flipped the switch and turned on the lights at Graceland.  Once the lights went on the snow started to fall!

 After the snow stopped she sang a few songs for us. She has a really good voice, she sang one of her new songs along with a few Christmas songs. I wish she would have sang more.  Then Santa came down from the house in a Limo! I am pretty sure Lucy still believes that Santa lives at Graceland because of this.

 The kids went over their wish list for Santa and he told them to make sure to put them in the mail so he wont forget.

Here is our family with the "rock and roll Santa".  We had a fun time going, it sure is a fun free local thing to do with the whole family!

Fridays With JJ

Friday's are fun days at our house. They are our Saturdays! It is also garbage day for our neighborhood.  Garrett has lately really enjoyed being JJ's helping in gathering all the garbage from around the house.  They put it all in the garbage can and then take it to the street.  We have always enjoyed watching the garbage truck from the window.   Garrett isn't satisfied with watching from the window and so we go outside.  This week we had just pulled up from picking Lucy up from school as the truck was coming down out street.  The like to watch until they can't see the garbage truck anymore and then help bring the can back to the house.

 Friday afternoons are also special for JJ and Lucy .  It is their time together and they usually go on daddy-daughter dates.  This week they went out on the patio and drew pictures on big pieces of cardboard.  They always have a fun time together visiting and spending time together.

Garrett's First Trip To The Dentist

Garrett went to the dentist for the first time yesterday.  We waited until Lucy was about 2 to take her as well.  I know they recommend they go earlier but I just don't really think it is all that important if there isn't a problem.  Garrett was pretty excited to go and had a fun time playing in the waiting room.  When it was our turn to go back they wanted to weigh him and he didn't want to stand on the scale at all.  We were a little worried that they may not be able to do much, he didn't even want to sit in the chair.  Once the Dr came to look at his teeth they used the knee to knee method which they used with Lucy when she was younger and Garrett did so great.  He let the Dr look at his teeth, brush them really well and apply a fouride treatment.  He didn't seem nervous at all.  The Dr said he has really healthy teeth and everything looked really good.  I am glad that he has healthy teeth! I think the worst part of the apopintment for Garrett was waiting 30 minutes to eat/drink after the flouride treatment. 

 He got a new toothbrush and some fun cars stickers along with a dentist rubber duck.  He loves his rubber duck! He was pretty excited about all his fun things the dentist gave him.  Lucy was a little jealous that she didn't get to go to the dentist but she was happy to know her appointment is in a couple of weeks.  

 This week I was really good about planning out some fun things to do with the kids. I gathered all my materials and printed things we would need at the beginning of the week, thanks to pinterest it was pretty easy to find some great ideas! So when we had down time we could just pick out what we wanted to do that day. For Garrett I also tried to plan a few more acitivites with him. Mostly just simple ones that I knew he would love to do while Lucy was at school. One day we water painted from our book. It has the paint already inbeded in the pages. He had a lot of fun and made sure to paint every spot!  I think we will make this a weekly activity since he loves it so much! Lucy came home from school and wanted to paint one too.

 Lucy loved this simple activity. We traced our hands and then used an ink pad to make our fingerprints. We enjoyed looking at all the lines in our fingerprints. She chose the red ink, which makes it look like our fingernails when you aren't up close.

 I printed out a fun color by letter turkey picture. This week Lucy has been pracitcing a lot at school for their upcoming Thanksgiving program so she was soaking up these fun little activities. Usually on busy work days at school she isn't all that interested in little things like that because she says it is just like school work. So it was fun to sit and color with her in the afternoon. She tells me the funniest things when we spend out time together. She tells me all about all the boys and girls who got in trouble at school that day and all the funny things that her friends said at school.  I really enjoy our time like that together.  I think it is fun we have each other to spend time with each afternoon.

 We made a rhyming tree. I printed out a tree and on each tree branch I wrote a word and then cut out leaves with words that rhymed with the words on the tree brances. It was good practive for her. She knew what ryhming words were but I could tell it was good for her to say the words and figure out which one they went to.  She did really well and is starting to recognize words when she see's them.

 Lucy wanted to take a picture of me and Garrett. Garrett had just woken up from his nap. Which is why he doesn't have any pants on. He gets really hot when he sleeps so I left his pants off that afternoon. We love to watch the old Dennis the Menace shows on TV each afternoon. I think they are so fun to watch and the kids love them as well. Lucy thinks Dennis is the funniest kid ever! Garrett usually wakes up while Lucy and I are just sitting down to watch and he loves to come sit and cuddle with me. I love that he loves to snuggle and be close to me. I just soak it up as we sit and watch our Dennis the Menace shows.  I know since he is growing up so fast pretty soon he won't fit upon my lap, or he may just not want to snuggle anymore.

Walmart Vision Cruise

Saturday evening JJ and I went on the Walmart vision cruise. We went last year and so we weren't going to go this year but at the LDS SCO BBQ we heard that other 4th years that we went on the cruise with last year were going again this year. So we thought--we should go too! I took some pictures fro Lauren and Braden last week so they said they would babysit for us, we swapped! The kids were so excited to have Lauren and Braden come play with them.  We got them a pizza dinner to eat, a movie (which ended up being to scary) and some M&MS to play don't eat Pete.  They had a really fun time together. They love them and it is so fun to have them be so close to us.

I had Lauren snap a few pictures before we headed out the door.

 Here we are in front of the boats

 We ate a BBQ dinner while we listened to a presentation from a Dr who works for a Sam's club. We were really impressed by the Dr's presentation last year. Almost thinking, wow Walmart wouldn't be that bad of an option.  This year's presentation was depressing, he was less then motivating and we weren't even sure he enjoyed his own job. I wouldn't think he would be the speaker I would pick if I was trying to recruit some new Dr's.  Either way it is always fun to hear about options and the way different Dr's run their practices.

 After the presentation we walked around the boat a little bit and headed outside to see where we were.  It was really windy out there, and a little chilly. 

 We enjoyed doing some dancing together and busting a move with the live band. They were a lot of fun!

 Here we are with the other 4th years, they both live up in Memphis

 Here we are with the 3rd years that live down by us.

 JJ of course talked with as many people as he could, getting his name out there and just gathering some information and passing out some business cards.  It was a fun evening together and with friends. I am glad we went out and had fun together.