Thanksgiving 2017

Thanksgiving this past year was crazy and busy, but lots of fun.  Tom's Polley side of the family had their last ever big reunion Thanksgiving at Tom's parents house (it was the last one because it was getting to be too big).  We had over 80 people there.  I love Tom's family (I really got it good when it comes to in-laws) and it was great to see almost all of his aunts, uncles and cousins.

My sweet little boy eating some lunch soon before tons of relatives showed up at the house (they weren't staying at the house, but were here during the day)

Tom's sister Ann brought their new basset hound puppy, Bailey, down with them.  She was super adorable and was totally spoiled with attention when everyone was there.

Having fun bouncing around on the trampoline!

Kaybri and Ian were playing tag - I have to laugh that Kaybri stopped running away from Ian to smile for a picture - you can see Ian coming up to get her :)

Why hello little puppy

Everyone (especially Tom's immediate family) loved Bailey.

Playing ping-pong upstairs

Family giving Bailey love and attention

This is Nicole - the famous member of the family.  She married one of Tom's cousins several years ago.  She was on MadTV and also starred as Elphaba in Wicked on Broadway (reprising that role later on as part of a touring cast of Wicked as well).  At every one of these big reunions that I've been to with Nicole there, they always ask her to perform (which she does - it was just really funny when she first showed up at the house she walked into the kitchen and said "okay, what can I do to help?  Just don't say 'sing'!").

There were always lots of cousins on the trampoline.

Ian didn't like jumping with all of the cousins, so he patiently waited until everyone else had left and then took a turn by himself.

Kinley and Aaron at the park nearby the house (most of the adults took the kids over to the park to play games while we waited for dinner to be ready).

We took a quick family picture that evening

Bailey was pretty much the star of the show :)

They had crafts and other little things for the kids to do the evening of Thanksgiving

So many pies!

Nicole's dog, Roxie.

I noticed the reflection of the moon in the pool, so I decided to snap a quick picture.

Funeral

On October 28, 2017, my Grandma Cottrell (my mom's mom) passed away peacefully at the age of 96.  While it was definitely sad to see her go, we were all happy that she is finally with my Grandpa once again.  Grandma had been a widow for the last 36.5 years.  I'm grateful that I am able to have such a wonderful woman as my Grandma.  And I am especially grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and His atonement and resurrection, in conjunction with temple ordinances, which allow us to be sealed together as a family.

Tom and I drove up to Utah with the kids for her funeral the first weekend in November.  Both of my parents and all of my siblings were able to come as well.  It was a wonderful weekend remembering my Grandma and getting to visit with lots of family - many of whom I haven't seen in a very long time.

I only brought my camera to the graveside service and luncheon afterwards, so I don't have any pictures from the viewing or funeral itself.

My brother Nick was one of the pallbearers (front right)

You probably can't tell too well in these pictures, but the images around the side of the casket are of violets.  My Grandma's name is Violet, so it was very fitting.

My wonderful parents

Nick and his wife Melanie came up with their youngest daughter (though that's not Melanie in the picture - that's my mom :)

My aunt and uncle and two cousins

Hanging out at the cemetery for a little while

Me and my cousin Jen. I haven't seen her since she and her husband moved away from Provo years ago.  We had been roommates for a while during our time at BYU.  It was great to see her and catch-up a little bit.

Afterwards at the luncheon

That is one happy Grandpa :)

This picture is hilarious to me because Ann is trying to talk into that podium microphone.  My mom pointed out to me that Ann was doing that because when Ann was around 2 or 3 years old, she would always run up to the microphone in the primary room at church and pretend to give a talk (I was in the primary presidency so she always came into the primary room after church was over every Sunday).

Ann having fun playing with her little cousin.  She sure does love babies.

Halloween 2018

Not too many pictures this year from Halloween.  Our ward had a trunk-or-treat outside, which makes it difficult to take pictures in the dark.  I was honestly pretty stressed out about some other stuff happening in life, and that probably contributed to the lack of pictures.  But the kids still had a great time at the trunk or treat and then later on Halloween going trick-or-treating.

I did try to take pictures before leaving for the ward activity - this is the best I could get of the two of them.  Ian decided to be a cow again this year (good thing the costume still, barely, fit him).  Ann said she wanted to be Rosalina - a princess from the Mario Galaxy video games.  She fortunately was agreeable to being the "young" Rosalina that you see in flashbacks in the game instead of the main "grown-up" Rosalina - it made for a much simpler costume to make.  The star she is holding is a "luma".  Rosalina is in charge of the lumas in the game (I think).  That is a stuffed luma we'd gotten Ann a few months earlier off of Etsy.  But we made the crown, wand and dress.  

Just before going trick-or-treating on Halloween.  He was way too excited and distracted to hold still and look at me for a picture :)

A cute little Rosalina

They both had a great time.

October Catch-up

Wow, yeah I realize that I am super behind in my blogging and posting pictures.  So much has happened since these pictures I'm posting were taken.  Hopefully now life will start to settle down a bit more and allow me the opportunity to take more pictures and post more often.

Back in October (which feels like a lifetime ago now), we went to the Gilcrease Orchard to pick pumpkins.  Tom's mom came with us this time as Tom was taking a 5 week course through a professional organization and wasn't able to come.  It was a super windy day, just like when we'd gone a year ago.

Both Ann and Ian picked out a pumpkin pretty quickly

Ann picked a pretty big one

We brought along our stroller - this time not to push a child but for the sole purpose of carting around the pumpkins.  The orchard does have some wheelbarrows that visitors can borrow, but it is super busy there on the weekends in October and you can't count on any being available.

Stopping to take pictures at the sign/cut-out thingy

My cutie sitting on a bench

After getting and paying for the pumpkins, we got in the long line to get some apple cider donuts.  We left Grandma in line and I took Ann and Ian over here to take a few pictures.  They were getting antsy waiting in line - though as you can tell, they weren't super stoked about the idea of getting their picture taken either.  Notice Ian's awesome wind-blown hair.

They did have fun sitting in the wheelbarrows that were sitting nearby

We finally got some yummy, fresh-made apple cider donuts!

With some fresh apple cider to drink

After we got home, Ann said she wanted to decorate her pumpkin with markers.  I asked if she would rather carve her pumpkin this year and she said no.  We'll see when (if ever) she changes her mind and would rather carve them instead of just drawing all over the pumpkins.