What a Week.

We had a full Thanksgiving week. It started off with Wednesday night. My niece came home from her mission and we wanted to go see her. The college closed at 12 so I got a chance to hang out with Dawn till I had to get James. it was a lot of fun. We did a little shopping and went out to lunch. After I got James we went to Dawn's house to help her make some pies and then off to my sister and brother in laws house to see my niece. I though that we'd be visiting and waiting for her and her parent to show up because of the holiday rush. When we got there we saw quite a few people, I scanned the room to see if I could see Lexi But I couldn't see her. I thought "yeah they aren't here yet." But then I saw my sister and waved at her and before I had a chance to think anything else I saw Lexi running at me I just had time to register what was happening when She had me in this huge hug. We were laughing so hard and hugging each other. Man I missed her. It was so good to see her again. We also got a chance to get her a little welcome home gift. My sister and her husband as well as my mom and dad went in with us and we were able to get her a lot of candy and goodies with two movies. Hairspray and Enchanted and we were also able to get her the book Twilight. She was more excited about the book then the movies which shocked me cause she's a huge movie buff. We had a chance to listen to her stories and look at pictures and just hang out with her. It was so much fun. We didn't want to stay much longer we were the last people to leave and poor Lexi looked exhausted, so we headed home. :) Thursday we went over to mom Armstrong's house to see if we could help get ready for dinner. Abby and Lisa were both already there. Nikki and Justin showed up a little while later with the rest of the kids and then Kim and Gordy. Mom had bought this robot Dino at DI that Gavin absolutely loves. He would get on his belly and follow this dinosaur then he would growl at it and chase it. Justin, James and dad had started a game of catch in the front yard and I decided to join them. then Abby and Nate came out to announce that dinner was ready. Thanksgiving at the Armstrong house is so fun. We get to use Great Grandma's china and silver and mom Armstrong's food is mm mm good. :) She makes this thanksgiving soup that it YUM MME. That is the first ever Thanksgiving that I was able to clean my plate and go back for second helpings. Everything was so good. After dinner everyone started to do their own thing. I sat on the couch to read a book but fell asleep instead. Then James woke me up to ask if I wanted to go play football at the park. It sounded like a lot of fun...although my stomach was screaming at me not to. :p We had fun playing football with the kids it was Nikki, Justin, Bob and Nate against James, Abby and myself. Nikki had to leave a little early though cause Ethan was getting cold. it was so fun to see the kids get all wound up about the game. by the end Abby was saying she was savage and Nate was screaming like a warrior. :) A couple times Gavin even stopped playing to run around with the kids. After awhile people started to get cold and wanted to go back. Our team lost by 1 touchdown. :) In fact I think it was the only touchdown. Well when we got home it was almost time for dessert. Nikki was making a chocolate silk pie and James was making fudge. It was so fun to watch both of them in the kitchen they kept joking around about making a cooking show together and having Gordon Ramsey as a guest star so they could get yelled at. :) Nikki and James are so funny when they get together I love it. After Nikki was done with her pie James was close to finishing his fudge. He kept having a hard time and after awhile Bob came over to help him out. Then it was desert time. Mm mm. pumpkin pie, apple pie, pecan pie, chocolate pie, and FUDGE!!! Well needless to say by the end of the night I was done eating. Everyone started to pack up and head home after awhile But James, Bob, Dad, Abby and I started up a game of Yahtzee. we played a couple games then decided that it was time to go home. We told Nikki and Justin that we'd bring Abby and Nate home so they could stay a little longer. So we got everything piled into the car and headed out to Nikki and Justin's house to drop the kids off. Then home. I love going over to family's houses and spending time with them. But it always feels so nice to come home. :)

These pictures were just to cute so I had to include them. This is Justin and Ethan. Justin fell asleep while holding Ethan. I think Ethan was asleep for awhile too. Well Fri James had to work so in the morning he helped me clean the house before he had to go. We got the downstairs and guest room done and then for some reason I got an itch to take down my scarecrow wreath and put up out Christmas one. So I did that then I decided to pull out our candy cane to hang on the back door and the Noel sign to hang in the kitchen and before I knew it I was pulling out boxes of Christmas stuff and decorating. Not what I had planned..but ok. Then my mom and dad showed up. They were going to be spending the weekend with us. they were shocked to see me decorating. They thought I was really excited for Christmas. I guess I must be. Well I went out shopping with them and then they took me out to dinner at T.G.I. Fridays it was really yummy. I haven't been there in a long time. I just wished that James didn't have to work so he could have joined us. Well after dinner we rented the new Indiana Jones and watched it. By the time the movie was over James was home. Well Saturday mom and dad had some more shopping to do. So we went to K-mart in Layton first and they got some stuff there then we went to Riverdale Sam's club where they found TONS more then what they had thought there. By the time we loaded up the car we realized that we needed to go drop some stuff off at home. Well James called and said that Mervyn's had given him the day off and that he was at home. So we dropped stuff off at our house had lunch and went back out with James to tag a long too. It seemed like we went EVERYWHERE. I didn't think I could get shopped out...but guess what. It was crazy we went to Walmart and that was an experience in itself. Then to Bed Bath and Beyond, then to a furniture store, then to RC Willey, and then to the mall where we went to quite a few stores. By the end of the night I was ornery. This T-mobile guy tried to sale me something and I kinda snapped at him. It's rather humorous now but then it wasn't. After all this we only had one more stop. Mom and I went to Albertsons to get rolls for Sunday and Dad and a James went to Papa Murphy's. Mom and I were going to rent another movie from redbox but then decided not to. So we went home had pizza and pie and watched Cinderella Man. Sun was Lexi's homecoming so we all got ready for church. James was going to try and catch the bishop before church to set up a time to get his temple recommend renewed before he had to go to work. Mom, Dad and I left early in case we got lost trying to find the church. We found it ok and ended up being 30 min early. When Alec (my nephew) saw we were early he laughed about it. But we had plenty of seats for our family. Lexi did a great job on her talk. Her mom said she was nervous about talking in English again and she was nervous about finding the right words. She did a great job though. After church we all went to Nancy's (my sister) house for a luncheon. It was nice to visit with family again.We got a chance to stay awhile and then when we were going to go mom realized that dad had her keys as well as his. My dad was traveling home with my sister Denese and her family to Monticello. Luckily they were only in Riverton and could easily turn around and come back. Mom and I got a chance to look at some more of Lexi's mission pictures while we waited. then Lexi got a real nice surprise. Her trainer called her from...I think it was Peru...maybe Puerto Rico. Anyway she got a call from her trainer whom she absolutely loves and Nancy and Gary let us in on a secret...I cant tell what if Lexi is going to read this. Anyway it was neat to see her again. I am so excited (once again) that she's home. Well Denese and Dad showed up and Denese said it was a good thing that dad had taken mom's keys cause her daughter Brittany had forgotten her money and when Denese went upstairs to get it she also realized that her other daughter Tasha had forgotten her guitar. Well after all that we said our goodbyes and went home. We got home around 6:30 and were invited to come and have cake and ice cream for Justin and Nate's birthday. We also found out that Mervyn's had told James that they didn't need him so he didn't have to work after all. Oh well. It was fun spending a little time with his family. I was a little worried that mom would be shy but she wasn't really. Well that's our weekend and I am exhausted. I really didn't want to get out of bed this morning. :p I love the holidays but I am excited to get back to my normal routine.