skanksgiving.

trevan and i are on the every other year family thanksgiving plan and this year, our thanksgiving was spent at nannie's. usually, thanksgiving at my mom's is spent with a lot of our extended family... like 40 people, a lot. this year we changed it up a bit and just did our immediate family and as it turns out, that number topped out at 25 (plus 2 babies in bellies). nannie's house was full and the food was delectable.

i love thanksgiving.

 i have so much to be grateful for.

nannie knows how to do kids and the kids table was full of crafts to do and food to eat.

holiday boy and his pilgrim collar.

he is insane and all mine.

the babes of thanksgiving and an insanely cute baby.

the responsible party

my first kids... abeybaby and tuck

and no thanksgiving is complete without some family photos....

our jackson's

our lamoreaux's

and us.

 

celebrating 6

 sometimes you have a child that turns 6....

its monumental, just like every age.

so you celebrate BIG.

 we started the day off with balloons, singing, presents, and of course... 

mcdonalds for breakfast with the jackson's and yaya.

answer to an earlier post : decided to do it, and it's been 3 weeks and we have no regrets.(a big thank you to all the responses, i really really really thought long and hard about this.) we set up rules and limits and threats and so far we have not had to implement any of them, jude gets bored of it before too long and is playing something else. also, i myself have already mastered super mario bros and trevan has spent some QT with lego star wars. lol... we may need the monitoring.

 little cubbie ADORES jude, especially on his birthday.

 jude's leapster for 2 christmas's ago is officially greta's now and to ward off any birthday fighting we got her her very own game and she LOVES. she on the other hand has had her leapster taken away 2x already. who woulda thunk? oh yeah, i remember now.

p.s. her morning hair is amazing grace.

 this year we broke tradition of a mcdonalds birthday party with friends and hosted a pirate themed party at my house. it was a lot of work... but thanks to yaya it all came together.

i had 15 kids at my house, 15 kids under 6. 

yowza.

i've learned with the 6 and under crowd that activities keep the craziness at bay so we had lots of activities in our short 90 minutes together.

 

when our guest first arrived they decorated their "booty" bags because at every activity they received a treasure.

 

cutest little wench anyone's ever seen.

and yes, those pirate costumes came in real handy this year... reduce, reuse, recycle.

we played pin the sword on the pirate, followed by musical island hop (not pictured).

boys vs. girls in my toy world.

the party goers:

cohen, kayson, tage, max, JUDE, roen, milo (william where are you?)

lucy, poppy, gabi, greta, minie, grace, bella

 walking the plank over shark infested waters

 max & jude  

(can i tell you how much i love that jude finally has school friends?!?!?)

 pirate earring toss.

 pirate conecakes

 pirate reading of 'the jolly pirate, roger'

and did you notice yaya in full pirate garb? she is the best and totally in her element. she is an elementary school librarian after all.

we are a family of routine, and the only place we know to have a fantastic birthday party dinner is rock creek pizza (it was jude's request).  have you been yet? get.in.my.belly.

 dem guys.

 a really awful picture of the grandparents, but they were there and they are loved. 

p.s. dad, get a new look. xo

 pirate presents!!!

 EZ!

(note the pirate shirt... again, as per jude's request)

 my kids are the luckiest to have my mom and trevan's mom as their grandma's.

told you so.

my boy and me,

6 years together and forever to go.

give thanks.

"so each one gave thanks 

for love and for living

and they all had a happy thanksgiving."

 { my kids watching the macy's thanksgiving day parade 2011 }

halloweeing & halloween

 

 halloween is the #1 family favorite holiday here at the gregroy residence, we live and breathe it. so even though it has come and gone we still have to adequately document this year's halloween season because was nothing short of perfect.

 

thanks to my little mom, we have found the absolute perfectly perfect place to get pumpkins and it's just down the road from us in draper. don't even get me started on the adorable 85 year old man working the pumpkin patch who was all snuggled up in his coat and happy to help, or the prices that were beyond affordable (5 big pumpkins for $11), or the BOUNTIFUL selection, or the over all quaintness of it. it was perfect, and we will be going back there every year.

she's a dance dance dance dancin' machine.

jude is halloween.

 daddie and his cubbie 

(fyi... cubbie is all trevan calls ez)

 brotha's..... best picture ever.

 denim jacket cuties.

done.

 yaya and papa joined us and as you can tell, my kids are elated. we have the best family, really it's been scientifically proven.

onto the rest of halloween....

 we had the funnest murder mystery party hosted by brooke and dustin, we felt pretty special getting an invite into their elite townhome friend community. really, it was SO fun. visit here for a taste.

 this year marked my first time as a halloween party room mom. i had to bring schmez, and luckily greta was at school at the same time so we all partied together. oh and kindergartner's? adorable.

 lol.

 gaga in the preschool parade.

 ahoy ezzie!

the kindergarten parade.

this is the best picture i could get but i'm super glad he's reverent while parading.

the third annual jackson/gregory halloween adventure was upon us as soon as school was over... it seemed. nannie and grandpa mike joined us for our festivities. the kids trick or treated the streets of white city in all of their pirate glory for an hour and then we came home to salad, pizza, pumpkin bars and LOADS of our childrens loot. 

i like this tradition.

 since jude is mr. halloween we let him decide the fate of the kids costumes this year. he was big into themes this year (ie. harry, ron, and hermione - mario, baby mario, and princes peach - luke, yoda, and leia) but when after weeks of indecision minie and poptart set their mind to pirates and jude seemed to feel like that would be okay with him too and pirates it was. 

A VERY SPECIAL THANKS to nannie who whipped up this costumes in her spare time (which is non existent between taking her of her mom, working full time, and making costumes for all my other sisters). she is MAMAzing. 

a wench and her pirates.   

since i was a room mom, jude bossed me into dressing up too.

 damn he's cute.

 daddies who trick or treat.

the pirate crew.

 my birthday, halloween, my anti-depressants getting lost in the mail, jude's birthday, and our relief society super saturday that i was in charge of all in one week... it was WAY more than i could handle.

now i can breathe in the freezing cold air.