Post Thanksgiving Post!

Wow, what a busy and fun week!!

I wrote a post the night before Thanksgiving, and I am so glad I did because I feel like we haven't had time to take a break since then! All of my family-minus Paul and Andrea-were here for the holiday! It was a riot!
We had my oldest brother Carlos, his wife, Elise and four of their six children. Jacquie, Nate, Trevor and Christy. Liam had a blast with Christy, but I think Nate was his actual favorite of his cousins! When Nate was around, Liam followed him around like a little puppy dog- and Christy, who is 7, played so nicely with Liam and would talk to him like he actually understood what she was saying.
Then there was Stormy and Scot, and Richard and Janet. Then Timy and Meagan made it out with their four week old daughter, Nola. She was adorable! It was so good to finally meet her! I forgot how little new baby's are! When Jon and I were coming home one night, Jon mentioned how little Nola was and I reminded him that Liam was a pound smaller than she was, and he said, "how did I ever feel safe holding him?" I just laughed because when you have a toddler the size of Liam, seeing little baby's puts things in perspective! Although, looking at Nola, and looking at Meagan, you really wonder where the baby was hiding! Meagan looks fantastic for just giving birth a month ago!
Thanksgiving was a fun day! I was put in charge of cooking one of the turkeys for the family, and so I got up early on that morning so that I could dress the turkey and then put it in the oven. I was so afraid of not hearing my alarm, however, that I spent most of the night up and I wasn't really able to sleep. I got the turkey all ready and we headed over to my parents house. It was a fantastic meal, even though my mum was freaking out that we didn't have enough veggies for everyone, but there was plenty to go around and enough for leftovers! It was really fun to spend time with the family. Jon later had to go to work, and so Liam and I spent the rest of the day with my family. Liam had so much fun playing with Christy that I even let him stay up past his bedtime.
The next day was Friday, Jon had to work that day too, so he left for work in the morning and I was going to spend the day at home getting the house ready to put up Christmas. Liam and I moved the couches and cleaned up the random items that happen to find homes under couches. We vacuumed and then as I was moving my music, there was a spider that decided to make it's home among my sheets of music. When I saw the little devil, I did a basic jig and screamed getting away from it; Liam saw that as his opportunity to copy me and jumped up and down and screamed a couple times. After killing the spider, Liam and I danced some more to Christmas Music. After we had successfully moved the couches and adequately cleaned we went on a walk around the neighbourhood! We didn't do a very long walk because my belly was starting to get tired by this point in time. So we finished our walk and I had just put the stroller away when my dad called me and asked me to come over so that they could change the tires out in my van. So, that was perfect timing! I loaded Liam up into his carseat and we headed over to my parents house. Tim and Richard swapped out my tires while my dad was helping Carlos with stuff with the car that he and Elise had bought while out here. Tim and Richard came in and said that it was a good thing that they switched out tires because I had about a month or two left on them before I would have been in serious trouble! How grateful I am for family members who know how to perform car maintenance!!
Later that day we had our family Christmas Party! Something to know about my family: we throw awesome Christmas Parties! Timy is always the M.C. and we always do Let's Make A Deal themed parties. This year we had lots of bags that prizes were placed in, and the family was all seated while Timy was conducting, well, Liam, who had been watching 101 Dalmatians in the other room, strolled in and saw the bags. He grabbed one and started running off with it, so Tim had to stop him and offer him something else. Liam immediately dropped the bag and happily took what Tim offered him and ran back into his room to finish his movie. It was truly hilarious and I wish that I had been recording it!
Saturday was an extremely fun day! Jon didn't have work at all! So we got up and he brought up the Christmas Tree and we set that up, as well as our stockings that my mother made for us. We realized that our tree was a little bare last year and so we went to Big Lots and we got some lights and tinsel for the tree! We also bought Liam's presents and wrapped those upon arriving home and Liam taking a nap. We decorated our tree with lights (although they were deceptively too short to wrap around our whole tree...) and we put tinsel up and then I also put tinsel on the mantle where our stockings are. I vacuumed up the loose pines that had fallen off of our tree, and then we relaxed. Later that night we went to dinner with Jon's parents and little brothers. On our way there, I was a little concerned because every time I would brake there was a knocking noise that was coming from the passenger side tires. So after arriving to Rod and Sheri's I made a mental note of it, then we went to Costa Vida and it was still making that noise as I braked. I was starting to feel really uneasy about this knocking noise, and so after dinner whilst on our way back to Jon's parents the knocking was louder, so I had Jon call Sheri and tell them we were having issues as I called my parents to tell them about the problem. I got dad on the phone as I was heading down the road to their house and got to Syracuse Jr. High and dad told me to pull over and he'd be there in a minute. So we pulled into the parking lot, and soon enough my dad was there. He did a couple things first to the tires and then I asked if he would drive it back to their house so that he could hear the knocking. So I got in the car with my mom and dad got in my van and drove back to his house. We get there and I get out of my mom's car and Jon tells me that the noise didn't come when dad was driving. So I got in the car and dad and I went on a drive together. It only happened occasionally, but it wasn't consistent so dad told me to bring it on Monday and that he would look at it when it was light out.
We went back to the Mosher's house and had some ice cream while Liam played with Hayden and Connor. After finishing up our visit, we drove home and the knocking didn't happen again, but it's still a little unnerving to me. So I'm glad that dad will look at it tomorrow.

Overall, I feel as though it has been a very successful holiday/week! I am so thankful for all that Heavenly Father has blessed me with! I am so excited to start the Christmas Season! This will be Jon's and my fifth Christmas together. I was thinking about it today and realized that we've been together since 2009, right after Jon got home from his mission! It doesn't feel like it's been that long, but it has! This will be the fifth Christmas that we go on the hayride to see the Layton Lights, the second since having Liam! I am so glad that he and I have these traditions together. I wouldn't give them up for anything!