november... thanksgiving with santa...

we started off november in tucson with a trip to the open house of the new lds temple in phoenix.  beautiful temple inside and out.  i haven't been to a temple open house since i was like 5 and our whole family went through the las vegas temple.  i don't have many memories of that time, but do remember going with our very large family of cousins aunts and uncles.  the phoenix temple was beautiful.  the celestial room was really beautiful, but very interesting to be in there before the temple is dedicated and becomes the incredible peaceful room holy room.  we had a good time with jeff and stevie and their kids.  after we went to dinner and then headed home.. i believe the boys spent the afternoon in the pool with the kids.

the next day daniel and i hit the road to vegas to see my family.  our stuff had arrived before us and luckily my mom was there to tell the movers where to put everything.  i'm still impressed they backed the massive semi up the properties alley way so they could unload it right next to the barn where our things will be stored while we are in tucson.  

we had a great time with cousins in vegas... we went to the children museum... went shopping with grandma... played in grandmas backyard a lot... and even had a little bonfire marshmallow roasting fun.... 

daniel also took a pretty nasty spill on the rocks in grandmas backyard and got quite the fat lip.  this boy rarely hurts himself... but almost every visit to grandmas he manages to face plant and give himself a fat bloody lip.

after two weeks chris showed up to help load up the uhaul and drive with us back down to tucson... luckily we had master packer jack slade to help us load the truck... he and chris had great fun playing tetris with the boxes and furniture and perfectly loaded what we were taking with us on the truck.  

here's our first little picture of the newest soon to be addition to our little family... so far so good!!

soon after we got back to tucson and settled in it was time for thanksgiving.  this year most of chris' family traveled to tucson to spend it with us.  susan and ed, david, aunt sharon and her family, aunt marge, grandma rose and grandpa mitch... it was a full house.  we had thanksgiving dinner at jeff and stevies... my contribution was jeans beans, sweet potato casserole, and rolls... i always love making rolls and they turned out quite pretty this year.  we also had a surprise for the family as most didn't know i was expecting.  we put daniel in a shirt that said only child (until june) and didn't say anything... surprisingly it took forever for anyone to notice.. hahaha  daniel also had no problem helping himself to stevie's pantry to find the cheeto puffs.... hahaha he probably ate half the bag.

the next day we all drove up to flagstaff to ride on the polar express train.  i love flagstaff.  had so much fun visiting my sister emily when she was in college there.  its such a pretty town in the middle of these beautiful mountains. we got in line and got on the train... all in our pjs... and yes i wore a onsie.  they gave us hot chocolate... which was amazingly the perfect temperature.,.. and we got cookies... we sang christmas carols.... and then the train arrived at the north pole... all lit up beautifully... and on the way back to the station santa came through and visited our car!!! i was so shocked that daniel was so excited to see him... like... really liked him.  big smiles and laughs and santa handed him a bell.... one happy boy.

after the train ride we went to dinner with everyone... daniel was exhausted by then so we quickly ate and headed back to the hotel.  we spent the next couple days with family and had a really nice time seeing everyone after being gone across the country for the last couple years.  happy to be back on the west side of the country to more easily see our families.