Thanksgiving Weekend

Wednesday night we headed over to my parents house so we wouldn't need to wake up at 6:00 to make it to the 8:30 turkey bowl.  Instead of driving to the field Bob and I decided to run there.  I really wanted to get a head start on burning off the holiday calories.  We took the scenic route which was 3.5 miles and did it way faster than I normally would have.  I'm pretty sure Bob is to blame for that one.  My toes went numb during the football game because the grass was still frosty but they warmed up after the first hour.  I was the only girl there and had fun guarding the ten year old who was probably better than me.  I did catch the ball several times and ran the ball about halfway down the field for a touchdown.

We spent the rest of the morning cooking and playing games.

Dinner was delicious as usual.  Leon was extra hungry this year.

Here is my plate.

We had less people than normal and amazingly everyone fit around one table! I don't think that has happened for Thanksgiving at my parents house since I was born.

The YMCA was having bring a friend friday so I convinced my mom to bring me to a cycling class.  It was my first one and it was sooo fun!  I totally want to go again.

I had no idea that they lights would be off and the music would be blaring.  Not to mention the instructor shouting things at us the entire time.  She kept saying things like "This isn't your grandmothers tupperware party!"  And "black Friday? this is BIKE FRIDAY!"

Needless to say I had a good weekend.  Thanks mom and dad for having it at your house and for helping out with the kids. 

Thanksgiving

a few of the many things I'm thankful for...

the church

family

friends

heat

warm socks

ice cream

cute little redheads

Leon's smiles

two working cars

fingernail clippers

electricity

computer

camera

nice house

working plumbing

sunshine

microwave

running shoes

babysitters

symphony bars

piano lessons

seasons

health

my life

Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving at our house was fun.  The morning was very quiet and relaxed.  I was a little sad when we talked to both of our families.  Each were all together, minus us so we missed them.  We did have a good time though!  Bob and I got to make a turkey.  After several video tutorials we felt like we knew what we were doing until we couldn't find the bag of giblets inside the turkey.  We eventually gave up on that.  I was sure they forgot to put them in our turkey.  But sure enough Bob found it after we were done eating and he was getting the scraps off the turkey.

 I got some matching dishes from the dollar store.

 Our turkey kind of split in half while cooking, but it tasted yummy anyway.

Some friends came over and we even had our first official kids table.  They did pretty good eating by themselves.  I wasn't sure how it would go because they are so young but it was fine.

Sorry I didn't get any pictures of the grownups.  It is a little bit harder since I am usually taking the pics.  I hope everyone had a good day!  We have a lot to be thankful for.

Black Friday

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!  Is everyone out shopping?  I am usually pretty into it but getting pushed a bunch last year kind of took a lot of the fun out of it for me.  Bob went out Thursday night and got a few things, but no big ticket items for us this year.  I know there was a lot of complaints about the stores opening on Thanksgiving day.  What do you think about it? I can't say I really care either way.  I don't like the idea of people being forced to work on the holiday but I would hope that they would pay extra to get enough volunteers to work.  I didn't go shopping but, if I were going I would rather go Thursday night then at 4am the next morning.

Last chance to sign up for the Cordless Hot Glue Gun Giveaway!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This will be our first year celebrating at our house without family in town so it is our first chance to make Thanksgiving dinner!  It is hard being away from family but at the same time I was looking forward to having a holiday at our house, and to making dinner.

We once again have been doing our family thankful turkey, by writing something we are thankful for everyday and putting up a feather. Ok, we definitely missed a few days, but our turkey is pretty big anyway.  Just a couple things we are thankful for:

Scarlett:  Chairs, Blanket, Food, and Shoes
Penelope: The Turkey, Purple, Pink, Blue, and my Mommy Daddy Brother and Sister
Tucker: Spiderman, All the things God gave us, Money, and Juice
Doranda: The Baby, Our Health, Stretchy Shirts, Chocolate, and the Library
Bob: Job, Family, Chicken and BBQ sauce, Pillows, and Agency.

I hope everyone is having a good holiday!

Black Friday

Bob and I like to go shopping the day after Thanksgiving, along with a lot of my family.  We started scoping out deals a couple weeks before the big day and found a couple things we wanted to get.  Sometimes we go because we really want to get something specific and sometimes we just go because it is fun.  This year we wanted to buy an external hard drive but Bob was able to buy it online on Thursday for a great price so we didn't need to go out for that.  There were also a few things at walmart we wanted to get.  One being a sewing machine for me for only $50.  It just does the basics but that is all I want/need.  And the other was dual headrest dvd players for the car for only $59.  This year Walmart was selling some things at 10 pm on Thursday and some at midnight.  Since the sewing machine was selling at 10 and the dvd players at midnight we got to the store around 9:40 and hung out till after midnight.

The store was pretty packed in certain areas with people crowding around what they wanted.  In case you have never been you should know that Walmart put their great deals on these pallets in the center of the isles and wrapped them up in plastic wrap.  Then when it is time a worker is supposed to cut them open and everyone gets what they want.  This is pretty much how it went at 10.  It was really packed and I heard people were getting pretty intense over by the sheets but I didn't have any problems.  Once I had the sewing machine I didn't have anything to do for a couple hours so I thought I would just wait by the dvd players.  There was one 10-year-old boy already waiting and so I just stood next to him in front of the pallet.  As time went on more and more people got there.  By 11 it was pretty packed and people had taken off the plastic wrap.  One guy was holding on to a specific dvd player and would not let it go.  I even heard him talking to the 10-year-old about how he couldn't live without it.  Bob and I, along with others, thought we was being ridiculous.  Needless to say things were getting intense as people counted the number of dvd players.  I was not worried at all because we still had a good amount of time left and I was standing right in front.   A vendor was passing out free 5 hour energy drinks and I think that added to the madness.

About 15 minutes before midnight everyone went crazy.  Somebody shouted something and next think I knew a crowd management worker shouted 'No' but everyone started ripping and pushing and grabbing saying "what go?"  I was getting slammed by several people into the pallet and I couldn't even get out.  Bob got behind me and had to move people out of the way so I could get out.  The whole top layer of players was gone by now so you could guess how many people had pushed me to get theirs.  As I turned to back out I saw this huge greedy smile and this girls face as she pushed past me to get a dvd player.  It was disgusting.  She was so happy and giddy as people were getting hurt and going crazy. I got a huge bruise on my arm and was shaking.  I really couldn't go back in the crowd.  I was able to grab one but only because my instinct kicked in.  Everything went so quickly.  I stood in the cloths section by myself for a few minutes just watching the crowd.  The sad part was after about a minute all the people were gone from the pallet and there were about 15 ish dvd players left.  i couldn't help thinking about how all those people were pushing and going crazy thinking they weren't going to get one and there were still some left.  My brother-in-law pointed out to me how opposite of Thanksgiving this whole thing was.

After the Walmart fiasco we went home and went to bed.  Bob and I went back out after we woke up around 8 and got everything else we wanted without crowds.  It was nice and we got a few great deals. Above is a picture of me with most of the things we bought.  The sewing machine is a Christmas present for me so I have to pretend I don't know about it. ;-)

 Bob and Amery looking through ads on Thanksgiving.

Am I going to do it again next year?  Probably.  Do I hope it is less crazy? Yes. Will it be? Probably not.

Thanksgiving Dinner

This year my sister Talitha was in charge of what everyone was bringing for dinner.  She herself made one turkey and her husband made and brought another.  There was plenty of food to go around.  Bob and I were of course in charge of bringing breadsticks.  It all started the first year when I was asked to bring the rolls.  My mom thought I would just buy them but I was determined to make the best rolls ever.  Several batches later Bob and I now make the breadsticks ever and are always asked to bring them to every family event.  They are pretty good!

The secret to making them is tons of butter and parmesan cheese on top.  Here are some pictures of the other delicious food we had. 

I think this turkey was the one that was deep fried. 

My plate.  I think that saying about eyes being too big for my stomach was appropriate.  I couldn't finish.

Orange sorbet cake.

My dad and Scarlett hanging out together.  Bob and I got a lot of help with the kids while at my parents house.  Thanks to everyone who watched/played with them.

Thanksgiving Pre-game

Instead of the usual football game Thursday morning we went to the church gym and played kickball with the kids.  It was much warmer and much less wet.  Not to mention the kids could actually play it.  Everyone had a good time.  Here are some action shots.

My brother brought his unicycle and he let us all try it.  it was too hard for me to even get on but Bob was starting to get it.  My mom even tried it.

Scarlett stayed in the stroller the whole time.  I like this picture because I she looks scared to have Penelope pushing her.

 Tomorrow I'll post about our yummy dinner!

Things I am Thankful for

In no apparent order, so if you are at the bottom of the list don't be upset.

Family

Gospel

Health

Warm house

Bob's job

3 red heads

Blogs

Lemon meringue pie

Nap time

Slippers

Snuggie

Pintrest

Netflix

Microwave meals

Brownies with hot fudge and ice cream

Camera

Parents living close

G.N.I.

Hair color

Heated seats

Monster Smoothies

Ice cream

There are many more things, but these are just the first ones that are coming to mind at the moment.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Getting ready for Thanksgiving

A couple weeks ago for FHE we told the kids the story of the first Thanksgiving.  And for activity we made our own thankful turkey.  We each wrote things we are thankful for on the feathers.  I think my favorite one was when Penelope said she was thankful for the computer.  I had to laugh because she is always grabbing the computer mouse and pushing buttons on the keyboard every time I turn around.  I tried time outs but they really have no effect for her.  She will go right back and do it.  Then I read the study that said 2-year-olds will repeat the same offense the same day 80% of the time no matter what kind of discipline you use. For Penelope that was dead on.
For Mondays activity we retold the story and made these little pilgrim popsicle sticks.  Sometime later a king got mentioned while we were in the car.  I think I was talking on the phone to my mom about if we have any kings in our genealogy when Tucker says "mom, kings are bad, right?"  And I was like, "Some are bad and some are good just like regular people."  Then Tucker replied with "But mom, kings don't let you go to the church you want."  It was cute.  I think he got that idea from the first Thanksgiving story when we talked about why the pilgrims left.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Turkey Bowl

Our ward activity last night was a Turkey Bowl!  There were several bowling activities and turkey crafts for the kids to do.  They made a competition out of wii bowling.  Everyone bowled three frames and the two people who got the highest had to compete each other on the big projector in front of everyone.  I didn't realize this when I did my turn or else I might not have done so well.  I got second and had to play against the bishop in front of everyone.  I was so nervous.  I only got one strike the entire game.  I think I got at least 6 or 7 nines and then turned them into the spare every time but once.  I definitely do better at home.  People were cheering and clapping between each bowl it was a lot of pressure.  The bishop won. Luckily I wasn't too far behind I think I got 158 and the bishop got 185 (ok, maybe I was a lot behind).  At home I normally get around 200.  I say that loosely because at home we haven't played for about a year.  Although the bishop probably does better at home too.  I kind of wish Bob did better than me on the initial 3 frame bowl.  He is way better than me and I think he would like playing in front of the entire ward. Despite my nervousness and embarrassment it was fun.

 Here you can see the projector behind me.

Tucker made a cute Turkey craft.  We were supposed to bring a pie but since I think pies are way a lot of work especially to have so much crust I just made brownies and baked them in a pie pan. Thanks to the people to put on the ward activity!  I know these things can be a lot of work.