Thanksgiving 2017 - Aaron's Birthday!

Our original plan was to spend Thanksgiving in Fruita with all the Pavlovskys, but my Grandma Pav ended up having some heart surgery a few days before Thanksgiving in Denver so we all decided to gather at Alex's house. It worked out a lot better for us because Aaron had to work at the last home football game on Saturday so it was nice to be able to spend more time with family than driving a lot over the break. We're grateful everyone was able to drive to Denver so we could all be together! 

Austin's favorite books to read these days are about his childhood. :)

And here are our Thanksgiving pictures. Aaron fried the turkey again and it was delicious! The weather was gorgeous too. Two years ago it was snowing and freezing. This year it was warm and sunny.

Dinner was delicious and we all felt so grateful for family, faith and health. Uncle Tom was able to join us for dinner and then we delivered food to Aunt Delzia, Tylen and Uncle Tom at the hospital. We ended the day playing Codenames - our new favorite group game!

Friday was Aaron's 30th birthday!! He made this chocolate cheese cake and we loved it!

We headed back for Colorado Springs on Friday afternoon and stopped for pizza, per Aaron's request.

The boys were so excited to sing Happy Birthday and give him his gifts - gum, the movie Inside Out, some camping gear and a new silicone wedding ring. I teared up thinking about how last year he was deployed and how hard this time of the year was when we were separated. It was extra special to be together this year celebrating Thanksgiving and Aaron's birth!

On Saturday the weather continued to be gorgeous. Aaron put up our Christmas lights. 

Aaron left for the game in the afternoon and the boys and I ran to a baptism for a little boy in our ward and then ended the night with a peppermint milk shake from Chick-fil-a - my absolute favorite. I made them eat carrots before the shake. Hahaha

On Sunday Eli gave his first talk in primary! It was about how he can prepare now to be a missionary. Aaron helped him write the talk and it made my heart happy to see Eli share his thoughts on preparing to serve a mission someday - even if he didn't want to speak into the microphone so no one could really hear him. ;)

And my Grandma Pav continues to improve each day! I was able to visit her twice over Thanksgiving and I cried both times. It was a tough recovery for her and it hurt my heart seeing her suffer so much. She seems to be doing a lot better now and I'm grateful for modern medicine and the advances in surgery that allow us to take care of our health. 

It was a happy Thanksgiving indeed!

Bye, bye cast

 We've been running lots of errands for Thanksgiving/Christmas prep and we stopped for a quick Jamba Juice. The boys haven't had one before and I was having flash backs to my college days. There weren't a lot of places to eat in Rexburg (it's grown a lot now!) so we frequented Jamba Juice often. The boys were fans. 

The boys' favorite thing to do is steal my phone and take billions of pictures. They made me laugh.

Alex gave us these superhero costumes and the boys have worn them all weekend.

On Friday evening we went to the AF Hockey game. Air Force won!

The sweet beehives made us a lasagna for when our baby is born. We ate some of it now and froze the rest. It was so thoughtful of them!!

Turns out these pictures are in no order of our week. Haha - we ran to Trader Joes and the boys loved pushing the shopping carts. The biggest news of the week was Austin got his cast off!! When the technician took off the cast, Austin said, "Oh hello arm!" It was so cute! And then he proceeded to have his hands in his pockets as we walked out of the hospital. :) 

I took one more picture of his cast during nap time before it was taken off. We all loved him in his little cast. Aaron said he was going to miss it and Austin said, "It will come back." I sure hope he doesn't break his arm again any time soon!

Eli's sunbeam teachers made the class turkey cookies! Eli was a nice boy and shared with us on the drive home from church. Eli's teachers are so great at including us in the Sunday lesson. Sister Banner asked all the fathers to write a note to their children with encouragement. She was comparing the scriptures to words of wisdom from our Heavenly Father. I loved the idea and I'm so grateful for teachers that love and help teach Eli and Austin what we're trying our best to teach them in our home.

Happy Thanksgiving week and Aaron's birthday week! Aaron turns 30 on Friday and we're excited to celebrate him!!

Preschool

Last week was Eli's last week of preschool. This preschool really was the perfect fit for our family - it was only 3 weeks (I didn't want Eli gone from home more than that) and while Eli was gone, Austin and I could enjoy a little one on one time before a new baby joins our family. On Monday, Austin and I went to lunch together and he was excited to share some root beer.

The only baby prep I've done is buying bows. :) I thought these were soooo cute. I'm 30 weeks along! 10 (probably more like 9) more weeks to go.

On Wednesday, Eli's last day at Monkey Buziness, I promised Austin we could stay and play. He was happy about it.

The best part was when Eli came out to play 2 times during his preschool class!

He's teachers were so great. I told Eli I hope his teachers will always say that he was "kind to his friends."

Aaron had Veteran's Day off on Friday and we enjoyed the day at home cleaning and organizing. We're hosting the Volks in Colorado this Christmas so we've been busy getting our house ready. I always love getting rid of "stuff." Haha - the boys have even started putting books, toys, clothes into piles and I over hear them say, "This is my junk pile." hahah After working all day, the boys were excited to go to Landon's birthday party at SkyZone. 

Poor Aaron just hasn't been feeling well and can't get over this cold he has. He was required to get a flu shot last week and he got it when he had the start of an illness and I think the combination made him worse. He was supposed to work on Saturday at the football game, but his boss sent him home. He went to sacrament meeting today and then came home. He did receive a priesthood blessing and we're hoping he's feeling back to normal very soon.