Thanksgiving Weekend 2010

I had a really fun Thanksgiving weekend. Unfortunately, my brother's family couldn't join us this year. On Wednesday, they made it from Rexburg to Blackfoot and had to turn around and go home because the roads were too icy and slick. I was so sad but completely understood! So Wednesday night I made Pioneer Woman's pecan pie and chocolate peanut butter pie. Oh my word, they were AMAZING! For my last meal, I want somebody to make me that chocolate peanut butter pie, okay? I also made dough for the rolls and let it hang out in the fridge all night.

Thanksgiving day I baked rolls and made a veggie tray. Voila! I'm ready for my share of turkey day. The food was awesome, company was great (parents, aunt/uncle, little bro's family). After vegging around for a little while I decided it was time to do something. So, several of us went and saw the movie "Tangled" in 3D. It was sooo good! I was worried that my boys wouldn't like it (taking them to see "The Princess and the Frog" was a disaster!) but they loved it! I loved it too. My favorite character: the horse. Hysterical.

After the movie, my parents took the kiddos home and Shandy and I decided to do some early Black Friday shopping. Fashion Place Mall opened at 9pm and stayed open all night. Every single store was open for business with some killer deals! 50% off everything at Gap, 40% off everything at Eddie Bauer... It was complete madness but I loved every second of it. Shandy and I were loving the people watching for sure. Once I got home, Sam went to the mall and found some basketball shoes among a few other treasures. It was a GREAT way to be part of Black Friday without having to stand out in the freezing cold at scary hours of the morning. I will definitely do it again next year!

The rest of the weekend has been sort of lazy but yet busy. We've run a lot of errands and had lots of hot chocolate. :)

Not sure why, but yesterday Parker filled up a laundry basket full of blankets and fell asleep in it. I'd blame it on the turkey, but he didn't eat too much of it! It certainly did not looke comfortable!


I just don't question what he does because he's so random. Today he told me that he wishes he could legally change his name to "bleep" because then when people were saying his name, it's like they were swearing and somebody had to "bleep" out the bad word. See what I mean? He's so.....unique. :)

Then there are these cuties. Carson filled up the kitchen sink yesterday and played with some toy fish in the water for at least 2 hours. Not kidding. Cameron dragged in a stool and joined in the fun. It was just enough time for me to sneak in a nap. Yay for kids who know how to entertain themselves!!!


For the past 2 days Sam has been building a huge shelf in our garage to hold all our "stuff". It's going to be awesome to get our garage all organized! Since we've lived in the house, there has been a piece of plywood up against one wall that held Sam's hand tools. Sam removed the plywood as part of the shelf construction. He saw a big pile of gray fluff. Upon further examination, he discovered that it was a completely decomposed bird. Poor thing must have fall down behind the plywood and couldn't fly back up and out! I'd like to blow away the dust (AKA feathers) and see what the skeleton looks like underneath! But for now, it's just hanging out like this:



Today we decorated for Christmas, yeah! The boys were bored out of their mind so Sam took them sledding.

This picture of Cameron makes me laugh. He looks so tough with his black eye and I think he's trying to decide if he like sledding. As luck would have it, he loved sledding! Who'da thunk?


Solo run. Look at that joy in his eyes! ha ha!


Oh fancy, he's giving us jazz hands now!


Now he's either flipping off Carson, or he's saying "We're number 1!"


Parker forgot his sled. Either that or he's training for the olympics in the Skeleton event!


I took a few pics of our decorated living room. Did I mention I listened to Chrismtas music all day? I'm loving this Christmas season already!







I have my advent calendar all put together and just waiting for December 1st! My sister in law gave this to me last year. It's a mini muffin tin. Brilliant! I put M&M's in the cups. The boys will love it.

Arrrgggghh, The Blizzard of 2010

I meant my title to sound like a pirate but now that I look at it, it just looks like I'm screaming. Not screaming, pirate. Got it? Good.

Well, we had a doozy of a snow storm on Saturday (see last post) that left the neighborhood looking dreamy and winter-wonder-land-ish. Here are some pics from Sunday morning. Sam got up early and shoveled before his church meetings.




On Monday we started hearing reports of a huge blizzard heading this way. There were blizzard storm warnings on TV and it was all the news reporters could talk about. I was seriously planning on a few days of being snowed in. I was ready! I filled my car up with gas, had plenty of food, replaced all the flashlight batteries, found candles and matches.... I was actually getting pretty excited for the Arctic airflow and furious snow.

Sure enough, on Tuesday at 5:30pm it started snowin' and blowin'. Sam was scouring the neighborhood shoveling driveways all evening. It was super awesome! And then, it just stopped. It was supposed to be stormy from 5:30pm to 8:00am. By 9:00pm I think the snow had completely stopped. LAME. We were left with some chilly temperatures. This morning the kids walked to school in 10 degrees of chilly-freeze-your-boogies weather. I had them very bundled up! Snowpants, sweatshirt and coats, hats, gloves, boots.... by the time we had morning prayers before school, Parker said "Mom! I can't fold my arms!" because of all his layers. It was awesome!

All day today I've had this precarious drift of snow hanging from my roof. I can't wait to see who it falls on (prolly me)!



The high temperature today has been 19 degrees. Excellent.

I do have some tragic news however...because it's FREEZING cold and the snow on our roof probably won't melt anytime soon, I am going to have to postpone the pumpkin throwing party to sometime next week (hopefully). Don't get rid of your gourds people! Just hide them in your backyard or something. When I have decided when it's safe to climb up on the roof I'll let you know.

Oh guess what? We finally put our railing back up in our kitchen. No more health hazards (or health hastards as our friend says) for us! Yay!


I guess it's time for me to start thinking about Thanksgiving stuff I can make tonight...a few pies, some roll dough....it's gonna be great! I'm pretty bummed though because my brother was trying to drive here from Idaho and the roads were so bad he had to turn around and go home. BOOOOOOO! It won't be the same without you Darren!

Anybody going to get anything amazing for black Friday? It's going to be super cold, I am going to have to think real hard about venturing out....

Fall Clean Up

First of all, it's good to be back in the blogging world. I've had a weird few weeks... Nothing really noteworthy, or maybe it was, but I was too worn out to write it down. I had a cold a few weeks ago and it just seems to be taking forever to come out of the funk. I'm starting to feel much better now, thank goodness!

One noteworthy event from a few weeks ago: We had "The Talk" with Carson.

Remember this post?

That was on June 20th. I still remember how hard I was laughing at Carson's definition of sex. I love how my friend Cathy commented "I can't wait until Carson finds out YOU'RE a gangsta!". Well, he now knows that his mom and dad ARE gangsta's, poor buddy!

He came home from school laughing about a joke that a girl told him. I asked him to tell me the joke and he suddenly gets sheepish and says "it's inappropriate.". I played the "cool mom" card and casually said "that's okay, just tell me."

Well, he tells me the joke. After the first 10 seconds I had to busy myself with folding laundry because it's so disgusting and completely inappropriate! I'm sure my face was bright red. At the end of the joke I asked him if he knew what it all meant and he said "no, but I know it's not okay to tell this joke anymore." I agreed and sent him on his way. When Sam came home from work I said "tonight we are talking to Carson and that's that.".

Sam was a good sport and that night he and I sat down with Carson and spilled the beans about being a so called "gangsta". He was totally embarrassed and said "Oh, I didn't know THAT". I kept laughing on the inside because when the heck did I get so old that I have a child that needs to know this stuff anyway! The next day Carson said "I really wish we didn't have to have that talk because I can't get it out of my head now!!"

Growing up is hard.

You know what else is hard? Balancing on a window sill without anybody holding you up. Cameron is a pro at it!


So the past few days have been incredibly windy. The wind was bringing in a storm that is going to last the next four days. I told Sam that we better rake the leaves before the storm hits. So we braved the freezing cold wind and worked in the yard today. Good times!

Parker's favorite job is stomping the leaves down in the garbage can....then resting while the rest of us do the dirty work. Punk kid.



Why is Carson smiling?


OH. That's why.


Just as we were finishing cleaning out the flower beds, the rain came pouring down. It was great timing! We came inside and had hot chocolate and just chilled (or rather, I should say we "warmed"). I seriously love stormy weather!

Cameron vegged out on the carpet with his favorite blanket.


Then I said "get your fingers out of your mouth dude!". He said "whatever, I can put my whole hand in my mouth!"


Then I told him to smile and he gave me the cheesiest pose ever.


Not long after that he fell down the stairs and got a nice shiner under his eye. However, he got happy in a hurry because I pay my kids a quarter for every goose egg. At the rate he's going he'll have enough money for his first car when he's about 6 1/2.


The rain storm from earlier turned into a fantastic snow storm this evening. Sam went outside and took some pictures of it:



I like the long exposures because as cars drove by you just see head lights or brake lights in a long streak.





I'm pretty excited about Thanksgiving next week. I love to hang out with my family and make tons of good Thanksgiving dishes. Since I do Thanksgiving every other year with my family, here is my blog post from Thanksgiving 2008. Remember all those cooking/baking mishaps? Here's to a drama free Thanksgiving!

Finally, remember this fun tradition? My plan is to throw our pumpkins off the roof again this year. I think we will try to do this on Friday afternoon, the 26th. Anyone is welcome to join us! If you have any pumpkins leftover from Halloween or Thanksgiving decorations, please bring them! This is also Black Friday so I expect lots of success stories of all your awesome deals you scored on at insane hours of the morning!

Speaking of deals, I've already scored some good deals on food this past week. at Smith's grocery store, I spent $25 and received a 20 pound turkey for $3. What in the what? That made me proud to be an American.

Then I went to Winco last night at 11:30pm because I hate the crowds there, and was so happy they were giving bacon, eggs, orange juice, english muffins, and cereal away for FREE! No strings attached, just plain ol' free! Sure you have to bag your own groceries, but I can justify that when the food is just given away!

I've rambled long enough. Good night!

Fall Cleaning

Since I have a lame cold and can't seem to shake this cough, I cleaned my house yesterday. It looks real good. It's even stayed clean today because Sam, Carson, and Parker have been in St George since Friday. Me and the Cam-man are hanging out. Cam-man is running in circles around my house right now. Not sure why, but if it makes him tired for his nap, I'm all for it!

This morning I decided to take my cleaning streak to my blog. For a few years now (yes, years) I have been meaning to update the list of blogs I have linked on the right side. Tons of my friends and family haven't updated in over a year. I deleted those blogs. Tons of people went private and I didn't even know since their blog never moved to the top of my blog roll. I know, I'm real observant. :) I deleted those blogs. I also added a ton of blog links to my list since lots of people have created blogs in the past few years.

Why am I explaining this? Well, the last thing I want to do is hurt anybody's feelings. If I deleted you and you want to be put back on my list, just leave a comment. If you are private and you want me to see your blog, let me know and I'll give you my email address. If you have a blog and I don't have you linked, let me know so I can add you. :)

Now 'scuse me, I have a coughing attack coming on!

Hall-O-Ween 2010

Oh my word, these past few days have just raced by in a fuzzy whirl. Friday was the Halloween parade at school. Sam was able to come to the parade with me which is always a big bonus! We dressed Cameron in his fat frog costume and headed to the school.


We saw Parker first. He walked by so fast, but I'd recognize those eyes ANYWHERE!


And then, the moment I've been waiting for....Carson the penguin! He pulled it off like a champ. He waddled and everything. Total super star!


On Saturday night, we had dinner with some friends and then the kids rushed out the door to go Trick-or-Treating before I had a chance to take pictures. I did however, get a picture of Carson's friend Devin. Check him out!!


Despite the fact that it was raining and super cold, I think the trick-or-treaters had fun and they came back with a ton of candy. Cameron came home and didn't want anything to do with his candy. He kept saying "Mom, I'm so freezing! I want to go to bed!" Pretty funny. Don't worry though, he ate his fair share of candy on Sunday before church. So of course, during church he basically had a sugar crash and turned into quite the handful (Sorry nursery leaders!).

After church I made the kids get their costumes on again so I could take pictures.
I can rarely get all three looking at me at the same time. It's so frustrating.


Pretty soon, Cameron resorted to staring into an abyss without even trying to smile anymore.


So we stood up and changed locations for a fresh start. Little better.


Then Sam came outside to liven things up. Sort of worked. Thanks for trying!


Sunday night was pretty funny though. I went over to my friend's house because she was kind enough to color my roots. Once I got home, I washed my face and put on my pj's. To set the visual mess I was: pajamas on = no bra. Face washed = bright red mountain of a zit protruding from chin, very visible. Hair colored = hair washed, no product in hair--words do not describe the frizzy 'fro I was rockin'.

I was laying on the couch flipping through channels. At 9:30pm, I hear a bunch of kids come up to my front door. 9:30! Yes, Sunday was technically Halloween, but most people around these parts trick-or-treated on Saturday. I didn't mind the fact that I had candy-beggars at my door, but I DID mind the fact that I looked like a hideous mess AND it was 9:30!

I have a stupid window next to my door so the kids could see the lights on inside. I jumped up and hid on the other side of my computer desk so they couldn't see me through the window. These dang kids, who were probably ranging in ages from 2 to 6, would NOT give up. I kept hearing their parents encourage them as well! They kept knocking, and knocking, and knocking. Then to my horror, they opened my storm door and tried to open my door knob! Can you believe that? Luckily my front door was locked. I honestly don't know what I would have done if they just walked in on me! By this time Sam hears the commotion from downstairs so he comes upstairs, sees me hiding, and crawls to the back of the couch so the kids don't see him! It was so funny! Finally they started to leave. I walked to the front door to look through the peep hole when I hear a dad say "Oh, there they are!" (d-a-m window by the door!) so the kids ran back up the door and kept knocking. By now I'm squatting down by the front door feeling a bit frantic and hysterical. Sam is just laughing behind the couch. After what felt like FOREVER, they finally left, but not before I heard the dad say "just grab one of these pumpkins off the porch and put it in your bag." That almost sent me flying out the door to lecture them on stealing, when I heard a female voice say "that's not funny! let's go.".

Phew, I still have my dignity in tact. That was a close one.

I ALMOST took a picture of myself this morning when I woke up, but even I was too mortified. After a good night's sleep my fuzzy hair was quite large and puffy. The zit was twice it's size, and well, I lost my nerve.

I still have the zit. Why is it that I'm 35 and can't get rid of my zits! I keep telling myself it's because I'm young at heart, but seriously, who wants to relive the zit years? No thank you!