Thanksgiving and Black Friday

This time of year, like many you, I kinda get gloomy! Thank goodness for the HOLIDAYS to perk me up. I feel extra gloomy with being sick so I have been looking forward to ALL the holidays a little more then I usually do.

I volunteered to help in Irey's preschool class on "Feast Day". They teach the kids about Thanksgiving and then they had their own preschool version of a Thanksgiving feast. Cheetos and all.

 Hallie modeling her pilgrim hat

It was super cute and Irey LOVED it. She is still telling people Happy Thanksgiving!

 To be fair they were Indians the time before;)

Sunday before Thanksgiving we went to my parents house for a Thanksgiving dinner with my family since we were spending the actual Holiday with Brandon's.

 Oh don't worry boys, you sit there with your feet up... we got it, haha MEN!

 All of our cute kiddos

The actual Thanksgiving day I invited Brandon's family over for breakfast before we drove up to Logan to do Thanksgiving with Brenda's family, the Hunsaker clan.

Ready to start Thanksgiving!

The drive up was beautiful. Logan is such a beautiful part of Utah. Plus it was fun to be able to spend time with family members we hardly get to see. And what's not to love about a lot of yummy food?!

I love to have holidays that we can take a second to realize what matters most. There are so many things I am thankful for this year. My family is the best place to start. 

From aunts, uncles, Gma, Gpa, cousins, mom, dad, brothers, sisters, my husband, and my daughters my life is SO FULL of people I love and who love me! 

I am also grateful for my health. I think being young, I have taken health for granted. These last few months have no words for how difficult they have been but I am SO thankful for supportive doctors and SO thankful that I can get back to normal and that this WONT last forever, well... I hope not. I am thankful for a healthy mind and a strong body that can with stand this sickness.

I am thankful for a home. So many people are with out homes or fighting to stay in their homes right now. I feel blessed that I live in a home I can afford. I feel blessed that it meets my family's needs. I know that my Heavenly Father has blessed me to be able to work from home in a beautiful salon that I can be proud of. All I ever wanted since I was in 7th grade was to be able to work from home and be with my kids. I get the best of both worlds and for that I am very blessed!

I am VERY grateful for the tradition of BLACK FRIDAY! haha.
I could just look online BUT it is so much more fun to go get the paper and arrange ads in order of need and places to go, and I circle what I am after in a red marker, it's just about keeping traditions alive. I may seem like I take this very seriously, and ya in a way I do, but it's really more like a fun game for me:)

This was the biggest Black Friday paper I can remember. It was HEAVY!

I was thrilled that Brandon agreed to tag along with me to walmart this year.

 My cute sister-in-law Brianna, came to stay with our sleeping girls while Brandon and I braved Walmart in a quest to get a white, 12 volt, 2 seat, power-wheels convertible FOR $99!!! I have failed miserably for the last 2 years in getting one. Not this year, at 7:45 we pulled into Walmart with our game faces on (they opened at 10)! I ran inside while Brandon parked. To my relief I got there just in time to snag the VERY LAST ONE! There was 4 total and I only had to get there over two hours early to get the last one... geez!

 This is the result of living vicariously through your kids. Brandon and I both wanted these as kids and never got one. I was even DONE Christmas shopping for Irelyn so now I am saving it for her birthday... in April. Well, you can never be too prepared;)

My sisters, Jamie and Jenesssa (Amy was out of town) came at 8:30. Jamie stood by the bikes she was after and Jen, who was there for the show, was on top of a stack of Baby Alive dolls (for $10, nice!) for Hallie and Irey. It was crazy in Walmart but since we all got what we needed it was fun for us because people are so entertaining to watch.

We had only planned on going to Walmart, Target, and possibly one other store IF we were up for it. What we ended up doing was... well... we got Black Friday madness (it's a virus, highly contagious) and went a little crazy and didn't get home till 6:30 am! I am not going to lie, I paid dearly for a night of no sleep but it was SO worth it!
Brandon went home right after we left Walmart at 10:20. Then the sisters and I unloaded one car, buckled up and headed to Target in Orem... but we couldn't get in the Parking lot, so then we went to AF, and the line wrapped around the store... LIKE back around Old Navy (if your familiar with the area, that's a LONG LINE). We decided to scratch Target. I asked the people in the front how long they had waited in line for and they said since 4pm! Ok, I am at least not THAT crazy! Then we went to the Disney store at University Mall. SUCCESS, too much success! Then we went to Del Taco, refuel the bodies. BUT this has been the 2nd year in a row they were out of fries... grrrr. We went to Kohls, PURE MADNESS, but we we braved it. We were in line for almost two hours! I think by that point we were delusional and started going crazy because after that we went BACK to Target and then BACK to Walmart after that. At least that is how I think it happened.... it's all a blur! haha. But it didn't matter what we bought or where we went, it was just so fun to be out with the sisters and to laugh until we cry! I couldn't love those girls more! Serious, I couldn't LIVE with out my sisters... it's a healthy dependency I swear;)

I felt like we got great deals and that was just the icing on the cake. Over all it was a great Thanksgiving and a awesome Black Friday experience! Now on to Christmas... I couldn't be more excited:)