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Happy Thanksgiving!

We had Thanksgiving at our house this year. It was so fun! Thank goodness for Dave's mom - she made half the dinner, so I didn't have to do all the work myself. There was so much food!

This morning, I had this vision in my head of all the cute pictures I would take of the kids. (I guess I got a little side-tracked looking at all the good sales for tomorrows shopping trip.) By the end of the day these were the pictures we ended up with.

Here is Bria helping me get the turkey ready to put in the oven.

OOPS!!! Sorry Max. Didn't mean to disturb you!

Dinner and The Forgotten Carols

We have a tradition every year of going to The Forgotten Carols. Dave has been, he thinks, for at least 12 years to see it. We absolutely love going. It really brings in the Christmas spirit.

Well, last night was our annual Forgotten Carols night. We go with some of our very good friends every year. This is the whole group at dinner. There were 12 of us. We got Chinese food - yum!

(Dave and I are sitting at the end of the table on the right)


Dave is a huge Michael McClean fan. When Dave was on him mission, Michael McClean went to do a fireside in Dave's area. This picture was taken in October 1997.

Craftin' Turkeys

We had a turkey crafting day today. This morning, we made turkey hats. Bria spent quite a long time coloring her feathers - they were very colorful and detailed (the feathers are in the back of the hat, so they are hard to see in the photo). She loved her turkey hat so much, she hardly took it off all day. Max colored on the back, not the front, of his feathers in about 3 seconds and was ready to move on to another project! He is a very busy boy. Miraculously, the majority of his hat did make it through the day. He couldn't resist pulling the eyes off. Truthfully, I thought it would be in a million pieces within the first hour.

Then, for Family Home Evening tonight we made turkey napkin holders that we can use on Thanksgiving. It was fun!

Is it too early for Christmas?

I have this rule that Christmas does not start until after Thanksgiving. I am usually very strict with that rule. This year, we decided to splurge and get a new Christmas tree. Dave bought it on Friday. So, here we have a brand new Christmas tree sitting in it's box in the middle of our livingroom floor..... Really, what would you have done? So, we put the tree up, but nothing else. Then I started thinking about how Thanksgiving really is later this year than normal, and the brand new tree looks so sad and bare....it's really not right to just let it sit there all by itself.

So.......

We pulled out all the Christmas decorations. I don't know how we got so many, but they take up like half of our storage room. (I left 2 big boxes out....they are what house the remainder of the handmade, one-of-a-kind, ceramic nativity set that Dave's dad made for us. They made it through last Christmas until the very end when Max decided to help me put the box away faster by pushing it down the stairs.....so, needless to say, what we have left is NOT coming out this year.)

We put up most of the decorations last night and saved the tree for after church today. The kids were so excited!! I left the room for 2 seconds and they were tearing through the boxes! After that we set down ground rules about how we decorate and what exactly they could do to help. Doesn't it look like moving day instead of decorating day?

One of the things I love most about our house is the high shelf in our living room that can pretty much hold all of our decorations. (Hmmmm....Maybe we should have put our nativity up there last year.)

The kids had a blast helping Dad decorate the tree today. He is the only one tall enough to reach those high-up branches.

After the tree was decorated, Bria turned out all the lights and told everyone to gather round the Christmas tree to sing carols. (I am really starting to wonder if I have let her watch one too many Christmas movies!) Instead, we compromised on sitting on the couch and hearing her sing her own made-up Christmas carol that was actually quite good considering she just turned 5.

So, too early or not, we decorated for Christmas.

Max the Acrobat!

Max is going to be a serious gymnast when he gets older. He really has no fear. During the summer, he did front flips on the trampoline all the time. Here is a little taste of his acrobatic skills.

Queen of the Mountain

It was an unusually warm day today. I thought it would be good for the kids to play outside. Bria headed straight for the large dirt hills that are by the new construction houses in the neighborhood. Yes - that is a new shirt she is wearing! I'm glad the kids had fun. There are so few warm days left...

A Chair and a Half

Last month was our anniversary. We have a tradition of going to the Anniversary Inn in either Salt Lake or Logan every year. This year we went to Logan and stayed at the Hollywood Romance Theater Suite. When we walked into the room, we saw this chair. It did not look comfortable at all. I really didn't even want to try it out, but for some reason, Dave and I ended up sitting on it watching TV. It was so comfortable, we didn't want to get up. It was a chair....but it fit both of us so nicely!

Well, after we got home, we had to find that chair! Dave went on a mission, and after several furniture stores, he eventually found the exact chair. I have no idea how, but he got one ordered for us. It is supposed to be here around the first of December. I really can't wait.

It is called the Robert Michael Cuddler Chair - it is literally a chair and a half in size, which I guess is why it fit us so well. Here it is:

Eggnog Cookies

I got the recipe for these cookies on http://www.northpole.com/. That is a fun website! There are probably thousands of cookie recipes on there. But these cookies are wonderful! They are very creamy.

EGGNOG COOKIES

2 1/4 C flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 1/4 C sugar
3/4 C butter, softenend
1/2 C eggnog
1 tsp vanilla
2 large egg yolks

Preheat oven to 300. In a bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggnog, vanilla and egg yolks. Beat on medium until smooth. Add dry ingredients and beat on low. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto baking sheet. Sprinkle with nutmeg. Bake for 23-25 minutes, or until bottoms turn light brown.

Enjoy!

Max's Night

Max (age 2 1/2) woke up in the middle of the night last night. He was very tired. His bedroom is downstairs, and our is upstairs. He was trying very hard to make it to our bedroom but he was so tired he stopped right in the middle of the stairs, laid down and went back to sleep. I don't know how long he was there. I woke up because I heard him cough. I thought I should go check on him. It's probably a good thing I found him. I don't know what would have happened had he decided to roll over!

High School Tag

1. DID YOU DATE SOMEONE FROM YOUR SCHOOL? Yes
2.WHAT KIND OF CAR DID YOU DRIVE? A 1987 Chevy Cavalier. I miss that car!
3. DID YOU PASS YOUR DRIVER'S LICENSE TEST YOUR FIRST TRY? Yes. It was incredibly difficult. It is absolutely amazing I made it through. We had to drive around the block - make four incredibly difficult (not!) right turns.
4. WERE YOU A PARTY ANIMAL? Ummmm.....I'm gunna say no.
5. WERE YOU CONSIDERED A FLIRT? Sure.
6. WERE YOU IN BAND, ORCHESTRA, OR CHOIR? None of the above
7. WERE YOU A NERD? Yes, probably. I got made fun of for my job a lot. See below.
8. WERE YOU ON ANY VARSITY TEAMS? I ran track for a while, but decided I wanted to spend my afternoons making money instead.
9. DID YOU EVER GET SUSPENDED/EXPELLED? No. I did get lunch detention once. I can't remember why, though.
10. CAN YOU STILL SING THE FIGHT SONG? I might recognize the tune if someone played it, but I don't think I could ever sing the fight song.
11. WHO WERE YOUR FAVORITE TEACHERS? Mrs. Heise, my yearbook advisor. And, my senior year world history teacher. I can't for the life of me remember his name.....but, I do remember a lot of what he said during class. Oh, well. It will probably come to me in the middle of the night.
12. WHERE DID YOU SIT FOR LUNCH? In the cafeteria during the winter and always outside when it was warm. I ate pizza everyday!
13. WHAT IS YOUR SCHOOL'S FULL NAME? Del Norte High School
14. WHAT IS YOUR SCHOOL'S MASCOT AND COLORS? Go Knights. Turquoise, Black and White...wait, maybe I do remember our fight song.
15. DID YOU GO TO HOMECOMING AND WITH WHO? I did, I think. I went to pretty much all the dances with the guy I dated all through high school.
16. IF YOU COULD GO BACK AND DO IT AGAIN WOULD YOU? No Way! College, maybe. But, high school is one of those things that a person should only have to endure once in a lifetime!
17. WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER MOST ABOUT GRADUATION? I sat next to someone I had never talked to all through high school. We both had the same last name and we had quite a good chat through the ceremony.
18. WHERE DID YOU GO SENIOR SKIP DAY? Where I was from, we had no senior skip day. But, we did have an all night graduation party at a gym. Gold's Gym, I think. It was so fun!
19. WERE YOU IN ANY CLUBS? French Club. And I was on the yearbook staff. That was a ton of fun.
20. HAVE YOU GAINED SOME WEIGHT SINCE THEN? Hmmmmm.
21. WHO WAS YOUR PROM DATE? My first prom I went to with a guy named Justin. I just remember that it was at the Convention Center.
22. ARE YOU PLANNING ON GOING TO YOUR 10 YEAR REUNION? Already missed it. I thought about it, but never heard anything. Plus, it would be quite a trip to go.
23. DID YOU HAVE A JOB IN HIGH SCHOOL? Yes. I worked at the local library. Seriously, I loved my job. But, it was probably not the most popular job ever. I used to get teased about my big muscles from lifting all those books. They really were heavy, though.
I tag: Melissa

A visit from our cousins

My sister Aubri and her kids came up to Bria's birthday party. The kids were so excited! My sister has been living in Hawaii and just moved back to Utah, so we haven't gotten to see them in over a year! Hopefully we'll get to see them more often now that they live closer.

A Barbie Birthday

Bria's birthday party was yesterday, and it was so fun! She wanted to have a Barbie birthday party. So, we started with making prince and princess crowns.

Here is Bria coloring her princess crown.

Max wearing his prince crown.

Then, we played "Barbie Says". Everyone had a turn being Barbie. Bria played Barbie in this picture. The kids really had fun.

We had a Barbie dance party with a balloon twist. The kids had balloons attached to their ankles. The idea was to dance until they popped their balloons.

We also played telephone. The girl who stated said "Barbie is Fun!" The little kids got confused on how to play, so by the end of the circle, we skipped over half the crowd and came out with "Doggie". They thought that was really silly. The other game that we didn't get to play, but I thought was still a fun idea is Pin the Accessory on the Barbie. I had the Barbie finished, but no accessories to pin on by the time the party started...too little time (or maybe too much time working on the cake).

Here is Bria's birthday cake. Dave's sister is really big into birthday cake decorating, so she let me borrow her barbie doll cake mold to make Bria's birthday cake. It turned out cute, but Oh, my! it was a lot of work. Bria really loved her barbie doll cake.

I thought this picture Dave took is really funny! All of the kids have cute expressions on their faces! They are such a fun group of kids.

Two years in our new house already

I woke up this morning and remembered that we closed on our new house on Bria's birthday and moved in the next day. I can't believe it has been two years ago already!

Here is our house in September 2006 while still under construction.

Here is our house today!

Bria's Birthday!

I cannot believe that the cute little baby that it really seems like we just brough home from the hospital turned 5 YEARS OLD today! What happened that made 5 years go by so fast? I can completely see why I get told so often that "they grow up so fast"! It really takes no time at all. So sad!


Well, Bria's actual birthday party isn't until Saturday. We are having the party a little late because my sister, Aubri (whom we haven't seen for over a year), is coming up to celebrate with us. YEAH! That will be fun. But, I couldn't just let the day go without doing something. So, we gathered up the other little girls (and the mom's, of course) from the neighborhood and had a girls (+Max) day out. We went to a pizza buffet. Now, this pizza buffet is good, no doubt, but the real reason we went there is to get their very yummy, delicious, scruptious dessert called a Cookie Monster. It is sooo good, and probably fairly easy to make, but I swear part of what makes it taste so good is getting it served to us?!? They bake a giant cookie. Then, right when they pull it hot out of the oven, they top it with ice cream, chocolate, carmel and whipped cream. YUM!


What a fun day!!

Halloween is the best nite-time holiday

(Christmas is the best morning holiday, just ask Bria)

MAX

BRIA

(I love Smilebox! It makes scrapbooking super easy!)