Thanksgiving with the Joneses

Thanksgiving is always celebrated early with the Jones family. We have to do it early because someone (named Sean) always signs his team up for the Soccer Tournament down in St George. The first game is early Friday morning, so we have to leave the day before, which is Thanksgiving Day.

It has actually been this way from day 1. I am not sure Sean, or his brothers, ever spent a Thanksgiving day at home growing up. At least we don't have to go as far as Las Vegas anymore.

Here are Grandma and Grandpa Peel enjoying the Thanksgiving feast.



Robyn, Jeremy and Cameron



Karen and John



Mike and Sean



Katie's birthday is coming up this Saturday, so we celebrated her birthday with her favorite cake - Snickerdoodle. (Notice Mike in the background - he loves to get his picture taken!)



Katie opening presents



I am not sure how Sean ended up on the floor. He will pretty much do anything to get the nieces and nephews to play with him.





Christian couldn't get enough ice cream!




Courtney and her goofy Uncle -- No, she didn't get glasses, those are Mike's, but she sure looks cute in them!



We had a great time, it is so fun to get together with family around the holidays.

Spooktacular

Every year the Young Men and Young Women in our ward have a Halloween activity for the Primary kids called "Spooktacular". Since I am the secretary in Young Women's, I have had the opportunity to attend and help out for the last few years.

There was cookie decorating.



Coloring



Story telling



and Bingo.

Poor Courtney had to come dressed as a soccer player since she had just finished soccer practice.



There were some really fun costumes. Here is a picture of Amy and I. 70's Babe and Biker Chic.



Biker Chic and Batgirl



Katie, Tyler and TC.



I tried as hard as I could to get Tyler to smile, but every time I turned the camera on him, he gave me this dorky blank look!

He is such a character... remind you of anyone?

Even Tyler and his friends made an appearance. Here are Tyler, Maggie and Brandon coloring.



Brandon and his cute girlfriend Brandy.



We had such a great time. I love being in Young Women's. We have the best girls and leaders, it is so much fun to hang out with them.

Learner's Permit

Just a warning to all of you who live in the Salt Lake Valley: Courtney just got her learner's permit!

UGH!

Whoever passed the law that lets a 15-year-old child get a learner's permit without ever having stepped foot in a Driver's Ed class needs to be shot!

Courtney looking cute holding her learner's permit and Spider-Man wallet.



Courtney holding her learner's permit and kissing her Spider-Man wallet.



Courtney kissing Pam while holding her learner's permit.

My Three favorites

I have been tagged twice now, so I thought I'd better get it done. The first time was during soccer season, and I was too busy to get to it -- my friend Jen just tagged me again a few days ago, so here goes...

What are the last three things you purchased?
1. Gas at Costco
2. Corn at Costco (I love Costco corn!)
3. Socks at Costco

What are your three favorite movies?
1. A Knight’s Tale (I am still mourning my Heath)
2. The Count of Monte Cristo
3. The Last of the Mohicans

What are three things you have not done yet?
1. Gone to Hawaii
2. Iron Sean’s dress Shirts
3. Bought vegetables for the baby shower on Wednesday

What are three things you can't live without?
1. My family & friends
2. My cell phone
3. Chocolate and peanut butter together or separate, but mostly together.

What are your three favorite dishes?
1. Ensalada from Bajio, (formerly known as Flauta)
2. Manicotti
3. Any Chinese dish

What are your three favorite TV shows?
1. Survivor
2. The Office (Last week's episode was one of the funniest I have ever seen!)
3. My Own Worst Enemy (My new favorite)

What are the last three places you have traveled to?
1. Florida
2. St. George
3. California

What are your three favorite desserts?
1. Peanut Butter Fudge (Stop laughing Catherine!)
2. Pie (Apple, Cherry. Pumpkin -- any kind of pie will do.)
3. Vanilla ice cream with peanut butter and chocolate swirled into it

What are three things you would buy if money was not an issue?
1. 4 brand new cars with great gas mileage
2. A 2-week cruise to Hawaii with Sean and the kids
3. A speed boat

Batgirl

Katie has really been into super heroes lately. Mostly Batman, she absolutely loved the latest movie, "The Dark Night".

She has been telling everyone for months that she is going to be batgirl for Halloween. Every time she said it, I would just roll my eyes and think "Good luck with that!"

I took Thursday off so I could spend some long-awaited time with my kids (since they were off of school for UEA). Katie had been telling me about this party that she wanted to go to, but didn't tell me until Thursday morning that it was a Halloween party, and she had to dress up.

So, first thing Thursday morning, we went to the Halloween store. Here is the costume that she wanted. It was $50! Yeah, that wasn't going to happen.



Though she promised to pay me back, and begged and pleaded for me to get it for her, I just couldn't spend that much money on a cheap plastic costume. I finally convinced her to let me make it for her.

So one trip to Savers and the fabric store, $20 and 3 hours later, this is what we came up with.



Not too bad -- a little less shiny, but she got real boots out of the deal! Here are Katie and her friend Taylor before the party.

Friday night and French Toast

Since we have been so busy this fall, my girls haven't been able to spend a whole lot of time with their friends, so Friday night I told them that they could both have friends over. Courtney and her friends went to the Cottonwood Football game and Katie and her friends stayed home and watched a movie. Around 10:30 the all got hungry, so I fixed them french toast. I fed Katie's friends first and then Courtney's gang showed up not too long after.

I was patiently waiting for them to finish, and go downstairs so we could watch the latest episode of Survivor, but Sean had other ideas. He loves an audience...



Somehow the subject of his "parents" came up and since none of the girls had heard the story of his life growing up in Paragonah, he had to share.

This video is a little over 7 minutes long, he tends to go on and on and on...



Unfortunately I didn't have enough memory for the whole story. His mother was flushed out of the plane's toilet, into the ocean, they didn't find her until years later when they discovered the Titanic. She was miraculously found at the front of the ship, hands in the air (rigor mortis), right where Jack was standing when he yelled, "I'm king of the world!"

By the way, his mother is NOT named Mi'ling and is NOT Chinese, and his father is NOT named Nicko and also NOT Greek.

Sorry Ross and Claudia...

Fall Soccer

It is finally coming to and end. Okay, not really, but at least it won't be as hectic as it has been for the last 2 months!

Courtney loved playing for Cottonwood. Here is how the season started.



Those cute girls!!

I wouldn't have minded so much, but we discovered it at 7am when we were walking out the door to go to girls camp, so we had to clean it ALL up before we left. Sorry Amy, this is why we were late to the clubhouse.





That is the goalie in red, Court almost scorred on this one.



Here is a picture of Charlee and Courtney, they have been playing soccer together for years.



This was one of the first teams they were ever on. The Green Gators!!

Tyler had a pretty good season playing with USA. He still has games until the end of October.





I had to put this photo in, this is a typical Jones photo. I probably have at least one photo of Sean and all his brothers looking like this: tongue out, thumb tucked in and super funny face!



Here is a picture of Tyler and his new grlfriend Cassie before Homecoming.



Why do they have to grow up so fast? It's not fair!

Katie had an awesome year. Bennion ended the season undefeated and then lost the first playoff game in a shoot-out, it was a heart breaker. The team was so upset.

Katie's last USA game was today, and thank goodness for that! It is getting cold out there. Here are pictures from a game she played a few weeks ago in Layton.





I just had to add this one. I know you can't see her very well, but two seconds after this picture was taken, she scored. Here she is going around there defender to set up the shot.



She is so awesome!