House Pictures, and Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at home this year. I usually go to my mom's place in Utah, but Ryan had to work on Friday, so we had our first at-home Thanksgiving dinner! To make it more special, we were able to host Ryan's mom, his sister Helena, and their friend Ryan (yeah, that was occasionally confusing.) They came down with all kinds of food, and even had an activity for the kids - a kit for making these cool paper-bag puppets. Elise insisted on being creative with hers, in case you can't see it in the photo.


I'm totally irritated that we didn't get a picture of the meal, because it turned out great. I did the turkey, and a couple of other little things, and Donna, Helena, and Ryan (guest) did all the veggies and stuffing.

A couple days later, while they were still in town, we got together and went to the Griffith Park Observatory. We snuck Elise in to the planetarium show expecting that I'd have to take her out pretty quickly, but she loved it. That is, until it ended. Then she started wailing about how it had been "too taiwey" (scary), but that she wanted more! Kids are supposed to be 5 years or older to get in, so at least she didn't blow her cover until we were already leaving. Oh, and there are beautiful views from the observatory roof, so those are the only pictures we managed to get!
Leading up to Thanksgiving, we did a family project of making a "Thankful Tree". It's totally my kind of craft - easy and . . . easy. We hope to make it a tradition. Everybody had to come up with 8-10 blessings to put on a paper leaf, which we taped to the tree. Elise's included "new dress", "candy", and "nursery", while Connor's included "Dogs", "Trees", "Food", and "Mom & Dad".
Lastly, here are the long-awaited pictures of our new place!

Kitchen:
Living Room:



Toy Room:
Bedrooms/Bathroom/Laundry Room:


Backyard:
We're really happy with it, and will probably be here awhile. I just need to figure out how to turn the toy room into a bedroom for Connor and Elise to free up space for #3. Probably something I should get moving on.