An Arizona Thanksgiving

That's right, everyone you see in this picture, except one family of four stayed in one house for Thanksgiving. It was crazy, loud, and definitely a memory that will never be forgotten. In old traditions of going to Arizona on Thanksgiving to see my (Jessica's) Grandparents for a week with everyone in the family, my Aunt Chrissy and her family were able to get a beautiful home in the mountains of Prescott so that we could try to relive some of the old memories of getting together. We cooked an amazing Thanksgiving Turkey along with one fried Turkey, compliments of Uncle Mike, and had all of the fix-ens...potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing (sorry it never went into the bird Aunt Sharon) green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, I think you get the point.














Charlotte loved getting some special time with her Great Aunts, Uncles, Cousin, Second Cousins and Grandma and Grandpa. Here's a pic of Aunt Peggy and Mima.















Here are all of my cousins, with a few additions...Bry, Justin, Charlotte and Gavin
















The toy of the week...the Plasma Car! So fun! Can't you tell by Charlotte's expression?





















Here is Bry dropping the Turkey in the fryer. One of his highlights of the trip for sure!














The men oohing and aahing at the sight of the Turkey.















We got to visit Downtown Prescott and the beautiful Courthouse in the center of Downtown Prescott, we were a little chilly and really not used to the cold 40 degree weather but loved getting all bundled up anyway! Except for maybe Charlotte, due to the fact that I had three sweaters underneath her jacket and she could hardly move her arms. But she was warm!




















Charlotte and Daddy walking in Downtown Prescott





















Another highlight was getting to see Rachel perform some songs at a local coffee shop!
Rachel Morgan Perry rocks!

















We're not sure when we'll all do it again, but it was so fun and we are so thankful to Aunt Chris for putting it all together!

Ballet Class

So, we thought we would take our dance parties at home and put em' to good use. Charlotte has since moved her twirls from our living room carpet to Shooting Stars Dance Studio. We start dance class with a hula hoop in the middle of the room, and each child takes a turn with a little free dance and some jumping. She loves to sing along and cheer for all of her friends. When it came time for her turn I thought she would have been a little more shy,but she LOVED dancing and jumping for all of her friends in the middle of the circle.




















"Jump, jump Charlotte"

Here she is stretching with Ms. Karen. Look at those toes, what a natural!













This is Charlotte doing a Plie (Plee-ay) in class. She also loves to do them at home while she says "Pliee"



















A little teamwork with the girls in class to move the hoop back to the closet.













At the end of class, Ms. Karen dims the lights and puts on some slow music. With crown and wand the girls dance around the class as the disco ball lights up the room with little dancing lights. It was so hard to actually capture this, but it was so adorable. I have to admit I cried the first time I saw her do this. I don't know if it was the music or the way she was dancing, but she really seemed like such a big girl!




















This is her waiting her turn for Ms. Karen to lift her up in the air, which is by far all of girls' favorite part!

Halloween Festivities

We started our Halloween off by going to Irvine Park with our pals Ava and Chas.





















Chas came prepared with his plaid shirt and cowboy boots...




















And Miss Ava had her tutu on, naturally. Orange of course for the festive trip to the Park.
All three loved the train and it was so cute to see them amazed by the large pumpkins, loud train and spooky haunted house. It really got us into the Halloween spirit!














We then got to visit yet another pumpkin patch. Charlotte loved spending time with all of her friends at Paige's birthday party. We somehow managed to get a few of them together for a little picture. Reese, Paige and Charlotte posed for a picture in Paige's Birthday Pumpkin Patch.














Of course, checking out the goods, finding that perfect pumpkin.

We definitely got some use out of the costume and got to party it up at Gymboree. Yep, that's Daddy wearing some Captain Hook gear to dress up for his daughter. What a guy! And yes, he was the only Dad dressed up. It took some convincing on Charlotte's part. But who could say no to their 1 and 1/2 year old yelling "Daddy Boots" before we left for the party. Needless to say he he dressed the part and Charlotte loved seeing Daddy, hat, wig, boots and all for a little party.








































She also helped Daddy carve her very first pumpkin!














And this is what it looked like...




















One of the best things about this years Halloween is that Aunt Sara visited from Louisana. Charlotte loved spending time with Auntie Sara.




















Getting ready for the first time to "Trick or Treat"














"Faith, just look cute and smile, and I'll grab the candy!"






















Charlotte loved going up to each house. After each door would close she would look at us and say, "More doors!"






















Captain Hook, Peter Pan, and Tink had a very fun night. Until next year...