Thanksgiving

My favorite holiday of them all! I truly love Thanksgiving. It's probably all the food, but it's just like a big kick-off to the holiday season. There is just something about the feel of the day that I anticipate all year long.

This year I attempted to "run" a 5k. I wasn't quite all the way ready for it and walked a bit, but I'm glad I did it. Even if I was by myself. I have to be honest...it was like the second coldest day of the year here and I'm pretty surprised that I got up to go all by myself. Although I was anticipating that moment where everyone else on Biggest Loser has finished the race and they come back to help the last person, I assure you it did not happen and there were in fact people that finished behind me.

Keith had to work this day for 4 hours and right in the middle of the day. Blah. It ended up working out ok other than I feel like I hardly spent any time with him. His mom had dinner at 1 and so he got to be there for that and then quickly head off to work. Afterwards I went to my moms with the boys since he would be working.

I always enjoy the time spent with my in-laws and please NO ONE take this the wrong way, but there is just something to be said for having Thanksgiving with the food you've always eaten. I've heard that scent is the strongest sense tied to your memory, and on Thanksgiving I totally believe that to be true. We enjoyed some great food and because no one else was coming but me and the kids, my mom had a little extra time to decorate the place settings for us. They were so festive and cute! She had her beautiful tree all decorated too. The decorating thing is something I unfortunately DID NOT inherit.

I think it's terribly cute how her wrapping paper has to match her tree...

Also since we were the only ones coming she thought Gavin would think it was so cool if we all had our own little "turkey" . Gavin loved it!



Max loves pretending to talk on the phone. It's the cutest thing! Everything is a phone and he thinks he's pretty neat!

Austin, Chelsea and Myah joined us in the evening after their Thanksgiving. Isn't she cute? She's at such a fun age and I love hearing her starting to talk! She has the sweetest little voice!

Gavin really wanted to decorate the "holiday". He kept telling this to my mom so she let him set up his own little area for his "holiday".

The rest of the evening we just relaxed. Alan introuduced me to this quick, fun game.


We played around with Austin's awesome light pen and my camera.

And Austin, Chelsea and I enjoyed a nice little reading of Chuck Norris jokes. I think it was just late but I laughed a lot! For instance, -Chuck Norris uses a night light. Not because he's afraid of the dark, but because the dark is afraid of Chuck Norris.- See? I hope you're reading this late at night so you can be laughing like I am right now...


All in all it was a wonderful day. And the best part? I still get to have ANOTHER Thanksgiving on Sunday with Dad and Amy! Let's prolong this holiday as long as possible!!!

Every little boys dream...

SNOW! Gavin has been so excited for the snow to arrive. Naturally, the day that it really snows he wakes up with a terrible cold. Then yesterday we apparently had the "Bilzzard of 2010" but I must have missed that one. In any case, I was to my breaking point of being stuck inside with my kids, and finally decided that a little cold never hurt anyone. So I bundled Gavin up and sent him out. The brief 10 minutes I had to myself while Billsy was napping and Gav was outside...PRICELESS. I love them both to death but they are LOUD. Gavin NEVER stops talking. I mean never. I think I remember my school report cards when I was young saying something about me being an excellent student, I just talked a little too much. I envision this in Gavin's future. Then add into that the raw boyishness and well, you can understand why a quiet 10 minutes would be nice. As for Max...well, he's a baby #1 and #2, I think he's going to follow in the footsteps of his brother because he jibber jabbers all day long.


Look at that face!


Do you love how his snow pants don't fit? Don't worry, his boots don't really either! He just couldn't stand to wait. I'm sad because I've squeezed a lot of mileage out of this snow suit! You should have seen him walking in it...it was hilarious! But it didn't stop him!


Usually this is what we get all day long from our sweetie...


But he's been yucky sick the past few days and we've had a bit more of this...

I'm getting too old....

The other night was the midnight premiere of Harry Potter. The movie = awesomeness. Definitely my favorite so far. Janelle = way too old to hang out with teenagers and go to midnight premieres. I was soooooooooo tired! Might have had something to do with the little pre-showing party I hosted before we went. It was totally last minute and I didn't get to do any fun decorating or anything, but I found a bunch of recipes for things they eat in the books and went to town. It was a bit more involved than I anticipated but the girls that were going with me seemed to enjoy it and that made it all worth it. For those who have read the books I made Pumpkim Pasties, Butter Beer, Treacle Fudge, Acid Pops and Cockroach Cluster. My favorite were the pretzel rods dipped in chocolate and sprinkles which I of course called "Ollivander's Wands" and then they each got a broomstick treat bag. We did a Harry Potter crossword puzzle and a trivia quiz and then we played "Indoor Quidditch". I hid a small bouncy ball that I had painted gold and they had to find it. 11 teenagers in my tiny front room looking for a little tiny ball was HILARIOUS. And even better, I had the best hiding spot. It took forever for them to find it! I had a great time despite my tiredness and I am thankful for some cute girls who even invited me, an old woman, to go!

Ready to go!

This was the richest concoction....kinda like a butterscotch cream soda. I won't even begin to tell you how much butter and sugar is in this....

Sort of like individual pumpkin pies

These were yummy!

I shouldn't post this disgusting picture of myself but I had to prove another adult was with me and I'm not the only crazy fan!

Taste Testers

I can't believe I have never blogged about this. A couple of years ago I was introduced to this fun group of gals that have a recipe club. They call it Taste Testers and 10 months out of the year we rotate going to each others houses for dinner. If it is your turn to host you cook the main meal. Everyone else has an assignment ranging from salad, appetizer, side dish, dessert, paper products...etc. and we rotate those throughout the year. I think it is one of the things in my life I have come to really look forward to. Not only is it a nice little break, but I have developed some FABULOUS friendships that I know I'll keep for the rest of my life. Not having grown up here I really don't have a lot of friends outside of my BFF and church friends, so this has been something I have really enjoyed. Each person in the group is so much fun and they all have such witty personalities. It's just a big laugh fest every time we get together.

My favorite time of year is our last meeting held in November. That means it's time for the annual white elephant gift exchange. I seriously live for this and the last 2 years have decided early in the year what I would be giving. The first year I regifted something I got as a door prize from my grandparents Christmas party: A "Knit your own Bikini" kit. Second year I made a set of Christmas cards with everyone's picture and a picture of Barack Obama on it that said 'Look who's "Barackin' Around the Christmas Tree this year." This was in response to a long standing joke we had about Barack Obama. So this year I planned to actually crochet (I'm not much of a knitter but could make about whatever you wanted with a crochet hook) a bikini. I had great plans to do this early in the year and have it ready but I didn't even do it until the night before. It actually only took 3 hours. It was hilarious and I have no idea who would wear a crocheted bikini, but that's beside the point! I can't remember some of the gifts given the past years, but they are all so funny.

I'm so thankful to have such good friends and so many fun memories. This has really been a bright spot in my life and I thank each of these women for being that for me. Aren't they all so cute? We unfortunately were missing 2 of us in this photo.

Turkey Time

Anyone else feeling like this has become the "Look what I baked blog?" Seriously...I'm not sure what's with all the baking lately. Gavin was in charge of the snack today for preschool and to go along with the theme of Thanksgiving and their letter this week (T) we made some turkey cupcakes! They of course are 10 times cuter on the directions page but I thought they turned out ok. Here is some advice if you're going to be doing these...instead of the Fruit by the Foot...by those Pull and Peel Twizzlers. I thought of that WAY too late, but hey, I'm now fabulous at rolling up tiny pieces of Fruit by the Foot.

Side note...I got a new camera! Actually, I got 2 new cameras. I bought one and then decided I wanted more of an upgrade than it was so I now have a Canon Rebel XTi for sale if anyone is interested. I'll make you a good deal. Looking forward to getting to know my new camera and seeing what it can really do!

Let them have their cake....

Tomorrow is YW in Excellence. Our theme centers around Daughters of a King and royalty. We as Beehive leaders were in charge of refreshments and were asked to make a castle cake. Good thing my AWESOME advisor is so knowledgeable in the cake decorating department! We spent a fun evening last night decorating the castle cake while the kiddos slept. It was a late night, but went smoothly and I'm thankful for the fun time I got to spend with a good friend. I wish everyone could know her :) What I lack in qualities she definitely compensates for. And she's just so much fun! I know I have been truly blessed to have her as a partner in this calling. I'm always amazed at how well my Father in Heaven knows me and knows who I need to be surrounded by.

As for the cake...I'm pleased with it. But I'm also very caked out...I had to watch an episode of Cake Boss today just to get me to frost the extra cakes we have for serving...


Please keep in mind this was midnight :)

Trick or Treat

The day of Trick or Treating I was so close to not even letting Gavin go. Seriously. The day was RIDICULOUS, HORRIFIC, THE WORST DAY EVER, slightly trying. I even threatened that we would not go trick or treat and my darling little first born looked and me and proclaimed he Didn't. Even. Care. This of course did NOTHING to bolster my enthusiasm over this holiday. Then right before it was time to go out...it rained. So we headed out to my parent's neighborhood party hoping the rain would subside by the time we got there. It hadn't and we all huddled in my parents garage eating soup and breadsticks. FINALLY we got to trick or treat and Gavin was SUPER cute doing that (thankfully because he wasn't so cheerful when we got to my dads). He would tell everyone thank you and then to a couple people he would all of the sudden say, "Happy Halloween!" It was pretty cute. Sort of made up for the rest of the day. Sort of. I don't even have pictures of it because I didn't take my nice camera due to the rain and I took one picture of Gavin sleeping in the car and my point and shoot died. I really just couldn't win that day!

Max hated the hat on his costume so these are the best pictures we got. Let's hope for a better next year...we have 364 days to get it figured out...

Cake Time

Max finally got to offically celebrate his birthday with the ritual "I'm turning one so let's smash a cake" right of passage. He has now graduated his first year of life. And what a great first year it was!

We didn't do much just had some dinner and cake. I figure I'll save my energy for parties that will be memorable to him. And/or parties where having a couple extra people in my house doesn't make me feel like we're falling all over eachother. One day.

Here are some photo highlights...

I didn't even know it but apparently I planned a game called pile all the balloons on Austin...

Um...Mom, should I really be doing this?

Gavin had been asking me all day when it would be time for Max to make a mess with his cake. when the time came, Gavin was pretty sure he got to help with that mess...he kept painting frosting on Billsy and then he tried to feed him some. This is Gavin upset because Max bit his finger...

This make me laugh...Billsy does this a lot. He's not too keen on actually picking up his food apparently. He just goes for it. Definitely my kid....

Uhhhhh....too much sugar.....

This sure is fun.....

Gavin got smart and got the spoon...no more biting his fingers!

The aftermath....