Thanksgiving week BREAK!

Oh it's so nice when Eli has a break from school. We spent the week close to home and it was the best break. I'm finding more and more that I love being home and sleeping in our own beds instead of traveling every time Eli has a break from school. Here's what our week looked like.

Monday: It was freezing, but we decided to play at the park. We were the only ones there. Eli surprised me with his skills on the monkey bars!! Austin was brave and tried it too. Poor Eleanor was freezing after playing in the snow so unfortunately, we didn't last long, but it was still a great time. After the park, we decided to play at Focus on the Family. Eli is tall enough to finally ride the slide! Austin can't wait for his turn!!

Eleanor is always waving hello to everyone! She has the cutest little wave.

We were all so excited and grateful that Aaron passed his fitness test!! I didn't get a picture, but here is evidence of us throwing confetti at him when he arrived home.

We celebrated Aaron's success by dinner at 5 guys. Eleanor's first time and she was happy about it.

Tuesday:

We went to the Nature and Science museum and checked out different parts of the museum than we usually do. It was great!

The youth from our ward had a temple trip and Aaron volunteered to help out, because it was tough finding priesthood holders that could help in the middle of the day on Thanksgiving week. While Aaron was inside, we visited with my friend Tiff and then enjoyed a walk on the temple grounds. I was able to go inside quickly as well and I always, always, love my time in the temple. Our prophet, President Nelson, invited us to make a better effort to be in the temple more regularly. I realized this week that my weekly schedule has worked out better as I plan my weekly schedule around the temple instead of penciling in the temple when I may have time during the week.

Our kids haven't been to Krispy Kreme before so we made a quick stop on the way home from the temple! Temple treat. 

Wednesday:

We received a note that our car had a recall on the airbag. I felt spoiled on Wednesday morning as I sat at the Honda Dealership for an hour while the car got fixed. Aaron had the kids at home and I read the Book of Mormon while sipping on hot coco. It was lovely!

Thursday: THANKGIVING!

Our first annual Turkey Trot. Aaron didn't think I was serious when the night before I said we'd have a turkey trot first thing in the morning. Haha. He was a little grump at first, but got over it quickly. :)

The boys then had a turkey bowl in the backyard.

Aaron made a pie and fried the turkey! I baked the rolls.

Eleanor's first Thanksgiving!!

We ate with Curtis and Denee and we had a memory time. Denee had cute edible turkeys for the boys to make. They loved it!

Denee also has a printer for her phone and she printed out these sticker pictures of the kids. So fun!

Friday:

Eleanor came with me Black Friday shopping. We ran to Kohls at 6 a.m. and had a great time!

We had free tickets for the mini Nutcracker at the library. Everyone was mesmerized! 

We put up a little Christmas tree and the boys were so excited!! Austin fell asleep during his nap with the lights on. Pure Christmas magic.

Saturday:

Aaron's birthday!! He's 31! The kids loved helping me get the balloons and streamers ready Saturday morning. 

And everyone wanted to help with presents! 

We then went to Pueblo to the Children's museum. Aaron hasn't been with us before and the Christmas exhibit is up now so we were all looking forward to checking it out.

Last minute we decided to check out the River Walk in downtown Pueblo and it was so beautiful! We were so grateful we could enjoy the lovely weather outside before it turned snowy and cold later that day.

We returned home and had pizza for dinner followed by brownies and ice cream to celebrate Aaron!

This year Aaron has taught us all that when we fail, to learn from our failures, get back up again, refocus and try again. The children adore Aaron and I adore him more.

And here's a picture I found on Aaron's phone from our temple visit last week. I thought it wraps up this week perfectly. I'm so grateful we could celebrate Thanksgiving together and I'm so eternally grateful for my little family.