Thanksgiving + My 29th Birthday

Thanksgiving was suppose to be at my parent's house this year.  We usually have Lindsay's (Mitch's wife) family over or we go there for Thanksgiving.  So the Devines came over and then we invited the Nielsens since they weren't going to have Britt and Chris there for Thanksgiving.  They stayed in a near-by hotel and we stayed at my parent's house.  After everyone came over and we ate lots of food, we saw the movie Frozen with everyone and then the Nielsens stayed to play Nerts with us.  They were new to it, but near the end they found it to be fun like our family does.

The next day was my birthday, and Black Friday.  Since I don't care for shopping I didn't get up very early to shop like my sisters and mom, so Brady got me Stacks gf pancakes with coconut syrup (so so good) and then the girls picked me up to go to the Irvine Spectrum to shop a little.  I was over it pretty soon after we got there-- it was crowded, rainy and just too much going on.  We met back with the rest of the family (the guys) for lunch at Romanos. 

After we went for a walk around a park, almost went to a movie but then went to the Rip Curl Warehouse sale my brother was working at and Brady bought me a new wardrobe.  He felt bad that my birthday wasn't going as well as other birthdays he has done before but I was just really glad we were alone and were spending time one-on-one.  After he told me we needed to stop by Elise's house for dessert and then all of our families and a few friends were there to surprise me.  It was really sweet.  It's always hard to get friends together for my birthday because it's always after Thanksgiving and right before Christmas craziness so I'm use to not having friends on my actual birthday. It was my golden birthday so Elise went all out  with the homemade photoboth, the golden food, decor etc.  Everyone went around the room and said something sweet about me.  It was really nice of everyone.

My childhood friend Lisa made this little thing for me.

Thanksgiving Break with Jackson

My sister Elise taught me how to make her burlap wreaths so I could teach our Relief Society.  I gave them a bunch of options of wreaths I make but they picked Elise's so I made a bunch before teaching.  Elise started making her wreaths before pinterest was around so it's been fun to see others that look similar.

I was a little nervous because I had so many women in my class and I had never taught anyone how to make them but somehow everyone's turned out okay.  It was a lot of fun to see everyone's version of what they interpreted. 

My friend Heather took some pictures for me of the night.

We went out to dinner at a local BBQ place that we have wanted to go since we moved to South Pas.  It's called Gus' BBQ and it was so good! 

We also finally visited the LA temple around six months after we were married there. 

It was so good to be back there.

We got some sushi at our favorite sushi place we went to all the time while dating in Marina Del Rey, Irori.  Its fun to sit inside the ground, take off your shoes and have all japanese workers.

We put up our Christmas tree near the end of November, only because Jackson was coming and I wanted him to feel the Christmas love at our place. Oh and yes, I really already had gifts.  I love giving gifts, I'm not the best at it, but I try to put a ton of thought in them.

We started to drive to San Clemente and Jackson opened up the Thanksgiving package from his Gramma Nielsen. He loves all the holiday cards and packages she sends him.

Jackson got to play out in the great culd-e-sac with his BFF and his brothers.

Brady came out to hang out with us and drew the picture I took of them on the gravel. 

They thought that was pretty dang cool.

When we got back, the Elf came off the shelf.  Jackson loves to look at the Elf and seeing his cute face of wonderment and questions like ... he must get cold traveling back to Santa's workshop every night not wearing a coat.  He hoped the Elf would end up in his backpack so he could show the Elf Disneyland. Christmas is so much more fun with a kid.  

It was a mommy-Jack date around the best time at Disneyland. He was so filled with excitement for what the day was going to hold for us.

We did some things we have never tried at Disneyland, like the steamboat.

And Davey Crockett's Canoes... let me tell ya, that was a lot of rowing.  The guy in front of me was sweating up a storm and it was windy, so you can guess how this went down

Since Jackson's third word was "Vroom Vroom" he still fancies his cars.

We love the Cars Land and have to do all the rides, attractions there.

After we got pizza at his favorite place outside of Disneyland because the pieces are so big.

Believe it or not, we went back to Disneyland the next day, but this time met up with his friend Axel.  We wanted to use our passes as much as we could while Brady was working and we had Thanksgiving break together.

Axel's family all have passes and this kid knew more about Disneyland than anyone I have ever met.  

These two were in First Grade together and still remain such good friends.

The Bear Country playground area is where these two wanted to play for hours.  They loved it.  They played and played to the point where they would run to me out of breath and do it all over again. Then they wanted to go on the Big Water Rapids, and since it wasn't warm outside, there was no line.  They went on it over and over 6 times together while I sat out to watch them.

We had to say goodbye to Jackson for him to go back to his dad's for Thanksgiving.

more Jackson time

 We picked up Jackson from the airport, read some books together and started a movie and then just like that, these two fell asleep.

I started the Elf on the Shelf a little early because 

I wanted to share as much Christmas with Jackson as possible.

We went to Hook Burger the next day

then went to The Griffith Observatory and it happened to be a night where we could see Venus and Mars out of these homemade telescopes people all brought from all over the valley.  We had such a good time looking through all of the telescopes and taking Jackson around the observatory for the first time.

I love their relationship.  Jackson really looks up to Brady.  Brady spends lots of time with Jackson and gives him all of his attention.

Sunday I had a personal progress value projects lunch after church.

I am still so new and love getting to know the girls.  I always get called to YW which has been so great, it's just hard because I get so connected with my girls so when I leave, its hard to say goodbye.

That night we went to the high school so Jackson could bike and soccer out his Sunday wiggles.

We played games together 

We met up with the Paps and the Kimballs for park time, picnic and bowling.