Thanksgiving 2014

Happy Turkey Day!

Every year we alternate sharing the holidays with my family and Micah's, and this was the Russell's year all together for thanksgiving. My mother in law hosted the dinner at their house in Sandy but did a really fun turkey party at the All Star Lanes in Draper beforehand.

If you live in Utah and haven't been yet, you need to go. It's located right in the old VF factory outlets off of 123rd south and State Street. They have arcades, bowling, bumper cars, laser tag.. Seriously tons of stuff for all ages. 

We started out bowling with the whole Russell fam and got a few really fun pics. 

My cute mother in law Dianne and my nephew cuddling up with Livi. Andrew loves Olive and is so sweet with her. 

Total fat face pic but so cute

Liv getting a little help from daddy 

After the first one she actually got kinda scared of the whole bowling thing. She wanted to run down the alley and grab at the flashing lights but wasn't too interested in bowling. 

Little stinker did better than I did! I'm blaming the belly though.. Totally threw off my groove!

After we bowled our games, we headed over to the arcade and played around on them. Olive loooooved it!

Loved the merry go round!

And the cars

Micah also had some fun 

We played around on some bigger kid games too and won Livi some random toys with our points. 

We met back up at Lynn & Dianne's for dinner prep and games. 

I made my fave pasta, the fiesta pasta and Micah initiated this selfie.. He neeeeever does! Thanksgiving brings miracles apparently hahaha. 

My mother in law had the best table settings, so festive! 

My card holder killed me haha!

Mama Indian with a bundled babe!

Dinner was so yummy, I can't get enough of turkey dinners!!

After dinner we did the traditional award giving process and Lynn & Dianne did too much as usual in spoiling us all with the cash prizes. 

Once those were all handed out we went into the basement for some minute to win it games that wveryone participated in and totally loved. 

Olive was obsessed with the baby!

Micah and his bro Matt tied for the longest standing jump. 

Micah and I left after the tournament ended and all of the prizes were handed out. Such a fun night with fam!

We stopped over at Target for a Black Friday deal for me.. An Xbox One! I jumped in line and waited to go in for about a half hour.. The line was super long so I was a little concerned but also given that the Xbox One's came out last year, I wasn't suuuuper concerned. 

By the time I was in the store and had found the area where they were set out there were only 6 Xbox One bundles! Sketchy! I grabbed mine and hurried to check out.. Yahtzee!

That night I put my new goodies together and played for a while. Love love love. 

After thanksgiving day we hung out with my family as much as we could while my brother Matt & sis in law Cara were in town from Texas.  They haven't seen Livi since June and were missing her tons so it was way fun to see them play together and for Olive to say "rara" and "nat". 

My mom took Cara & I out to get pedis & we all got some fun festive nails done then headed back to my parent's house for turkey sandwiches for dinner. First we stopped at Fresh Market (looking pretty amazing) for some pasta salads. 

Here's a close up of my toes

I asked the guy (yep, a guy) for just a snowflake but he gave me a whole Christmas scene instead. Umm alrighty then!

At my parent's house, Liv got some much needed play time with my siblings. 

The next day, my mom, Cara, and I went to Gardner Village for some Christmas shopping and lunch at Archibald's. Livi tagged along with us girls and it was really fun. I found some fabric for Olive's big girl bed that I have pics of HERE. 

I put Liv in piggy tails and a denim tunic.. Cutest toddler ever. 

She was plotting something sinister here muhahhahaha. 

Not long after lunch, Cara and my mom had to leave but I stayed a little while longer to shop.. And miss Liv passed out adorably. 

Thanksgiving came and left far too quickly this year, and so did Matt & Cara! It was great catching up and so much fun seeing Olive warm up to them again and play. 

Before they left, they gave Livi her Christmas gift early -- the cutest bunny sweater I've ever seen! She calls her bunny "muneee" and when I pull it out for her to wear now she goes "muneee!!" 

Matt & Cara will be back in Utah for our little man's birth in April, but goodness, that's way too far away. Lots of FaceTiming will be happening between then!

xoxo

Mandi