Thanksgiving & Trev's Birthday

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday last week! The truth is, though, that I was a TOTAL slacker on taking pictures. So you'll get a couple random ones taken with my iPhone. Sorry! But, more importantly, I just wanted to write about what we did so I can remember (blog = journal ... remember?). And since most of the photos are Instagram photos anyway, I'm just going to include all of the ones I've taken recently up until today! :)

Saturday 11/17/12... another one of Charlie's new favorite activities. He loves to open up the cabinet door to the lazy susan where we keep all our food. So far, he hasn't been bad about pulling things out (except the one time he found the mini marshmallows and started eating them!) so I let him sit there and just turn it around and around.

Sunday 11/18/12 - Also a habit of Charlie's... he LOVES to pull his feet up on top of his high chair. Usually he can only get one up, but this day his Daddy put the tray on a looser setting so he was able to get both feet up there! Crazy kid!

Happy Thanksgiving from two members of the crazy Shipp clan! :) I took this first one on Thanksgiving morning after Charlie had just woken up:

And this second one was taken at the church in Heber City where we had Thanksgiving this year! Let it be known that I took this picture as a complete joke. No really. It's a joke, I promise! :P I was talking with my sisters-in-law about how so many teenage and tweenage girls litter Facebook and Instagram with self-photos  sporting peace signs, kissy lips, wide mouths, etc... (you know what I'm talking about!!) and I took this one so I could tap into my inner 12-year-old self!

Thanksgiving Day was exactly as it should have been: Relaxing and full of family, great food, and fun conversation! Although doing it at the church means we missed comfy sofas and sports on TV (for the guys!) ... but it was still fun and Trev got to enjoy his sofa and TV once we got home later that afternoon!

I'm always so excited for Black Friday the next day, not so much because there are deals on things (definitely a perk!), but more-so because I get to go shopping with my sisters and then meet up with all the ladies for lunch at the Pizza Factory afterwards! Aren't we so cute? From L to R: Me, Grandma Deanna, Mical, Jill, and Meghan! Always a great time!

Well this year on Black Friday I lucked out and Trevor let me continue to go shopping AFTER lunch!! He was glad to watch Charlie and so I continued to have a great day! I found out that new Outlets opened at the point of the mountain and I was SO excited to go to J.Crew! Finding a parking space at this place was literally impossible. It probably took me 15 minutes. And then the LINES! These were definitely the longest lines I had to wait in all day. (The University Mall that morning wasn't bad at all since it had opened at midnight on Thanksgiving and I think that's when everyone went! I was happy because I still got great deals and no lines!... until J.Crew at the Outlets haha!) Regardless, everything in J.Crew was 50% off and so it was worth the 25 minute wait in line!

After the outlets, I joined Meghan and Mical at Ikea (no purchases for me there... yet!) and on the way home around 4:30pm there was the most awesome sunset!! LOVE those November sunsets!

The next morning we took our family pictures for the Christmas card! (Can't post those until cards are sent! I can't wait to show them off!) By this point, our whole family was feeling the effects of the cold/flu that Charlie picked up somewhere. Charlie's worst day was Thanksgiving day - his skin was dry, eyes were red, and his nose and eyes were oozing green stuff. It didn't look great, but he really didn't whine much and seemed to be pretty happy, which was great! But yeah, by Saturday morning Trevor knew that he was getting sick (cough, achy, stuffy/runny nose... the works) and I felt a little under the weather but just barely. So, we were all troopers to go get these photos taken! :)

That night was our traditional see-the-lights-on-Temple-Square night! However, we were short in numbers this year since Mical had to go back to Vegas early, Russ was out of town so Jill (and therefore Trent) didn't come, Troy ususally does something else, and Trevor was feeling really sick! So, that left just me and Charlie and the whole Sonnenberg clan!

But it was still a blast! We ate amazing mac 'n' cheese at Noodles 'n Company in SLC. Dining with 5 kids was an adventure! This photo, I think, pretty much sums it up. Meghan was trying to get a pic of Steve with the 4 kids. Kelan was moving around, Kanyon and Scarlett were making silly faces, Cohen is being sweet (and active!) and Steve's trying to keep it all wrangled in. And then there's Charlie at the bottom, who's looking at me like "Mom, are these crazies really my cousins?!!?" :P

After dinner we drove over to Temple Square! It was cold, for sure, but at least this time the cold was manageable. My toes didn't get cold and I didn't have to wear gloves (good thing because I didn't bring them!). I think Charlie really enjoyed looking around at the lights and trying to touch them whenever we got close enough!

Halfway through we always love stopping to get hot chocolate to warm up from the inside out! Once it cooled off enough, Charlie loved it too! Here he is all bundled up looking SO SO adorable:

The whole weekend was really so much fun, minus the sickness that was floating around our little family. I always look forward to Thanksgiving festivities all year!

Now onto Trev's 28th Birthday! I have no pictures of the birthday boy. He was sick. He went to work for only a couple hours in the afternoon. He could barely talk, so those couple hours were torture! The one blessing from that, though, is that we actually got to see him on his birthday since Mondays are usually very long days at work! That morning (the 26th) I went to the grocery store and thought the produce looked really pretty so I took this photo:

I bought salmon and yams, and since Trevor was home that night, I ended up cooking a nice meal for him for his birthday. It was the best salmon filet I've ever cooked, or close to it! As requested, I also took his ties in to be dry cleaned (that's what he wanted for his birthday... so practical, this man I married!). But I also wrapped up an awesome black pull-over and a new pair of socks from Banana Republic that I picked up shopping on Black Friday and let him unwrap that. No parties, no cakes, no hoopla. And that's just the way he likes it. Just a nice dinner, a little gift or two, and a back rub before bed. I think, despite feeling under the weather, he had a good day :)

Okay, just finishing up the rest of the Instagram photos! The next day, Tuesday 11/27/12, Charlie and I really needed to get out of our sick house and went on a walk to the park for some fresh air. He finally got brave enough to crawl through the tunnel. Once he did it, he just went back and forth a lot until he discovered something more dangerous to do. ;)

And lastly, here's one from today 11/30/12. Charlie's current angelic state:

Gotta love nap time! Now that we're all finally feeling better, here's hoping that the coming Christmas holidays will be full of cheer and less full of the flu ;)