Was it really Thanksgiving?

We had an unusual Thanksgiving this year. No yummy turkey cooking in the oven. No football on the tv. No luscious, heavenly naps. We did have a match made in heaven on our countertop. Dan's is the one with the clown. Duh. I wouldn't touch that with a 10 foot pole. He makes funky concoctions that in my hometown we called "Suicides." I hate clowns too. So there is a double strike on that. Look at how my straw is leaning in to kiss Dan's despite the 2 strikes - awwwww.

We did travel to meet my mom and dad and my dad's sister for dinner. At a restaurant. On Thanksgiving. It did not feel RIGHT. Can you take a guess as to where we ate? I've only told TWO souls. I was horrified and held my tongue.
I took 50 pictures of the kids outside - this was the BEST ONE. I think Christmas card pictures this year might need some re-planning. Apparently asking all three to look at the camera is just too much.

Look at this lovely table setting. Does it get any better than this? An antique oil-lantern? Sugar packets? S&P? Table runners and fine china be damned. We've got wiped down wood and two tables pushed together. "Jealous??" (ok, everytime I say that now I think of that one leg girl skit on SNL - anyone know what I am talking about?)

Even LuLu was sulky. She is having an eye issue and was not feeling the love at The Cracker Barrel. BUT - not a soul had to do dishes and there were no seconds, so it was built in portion control. Sweet.

Truth be told my cute mom just had knee surgery and did not want to be standing in the kitchen all day. My dad is getting ready to have surgery shortly. I offered to cook but they just wanted to make it easy on everyone and go out. It wasn't that bad - it just didn't feel very, Thanksgiving-ish. Waaah. But we all lived and still had a really nice day as a family.

I hope you all did as well!

Fun Turkey Crafts!

Graham has been having a little friend over to play once a week from school. I'm, um, (cough, cough) "BABYSITTING." Which is funny because I don't like other people's children all that much and I don't babysit. (I'm just not the type to gush over children, oh you are soo cute! Etc. Kid are obviously ok, otherwise I wouldn't have had any, I simply prefer my own.) But this is a great kid and he plays SO well with my three. So we are making an exception to the very strict rule.

In return my friends know that the only way I will ever ask them to babysit is if I am dying, about to die, or Dan is dying. Period.

But I picked up these little can turkey instructions at the local library. (ps..I think our librarians are perpetually cranky...anyone else agree?) and then I came up with these sad little sugar cookie turkeys. But the kids LOVED making them, using the icing tubes, a little chocolate frosting in a can and there was little mess involved.

Gobble! Gobble!!

ps...I made a few more tassels for gifts this Christmas. This could get addicting! I'm offering one for sale in my Etsy shop - but please don't go fighting over its fabulousness. It is *really, really* cute!!

"Dad told me there is no fringe at Wal-Mart"

These were the famous words of Greg this morning when I told him we had to go buy some fringe. Isn't that just like a BOY? Any girl would be like "You need fringe?!?
LET'S GO!"
You see, I came across one of my most favorite blogs ever a few months ago written by a certain Miss Susie at Bienvenue. She makes these adorable tassels and I have been adoring them every time I read her blog.

But the crafty girl in me came out saying "I can SO make that!" Um, not so fast there Kristen. It looks simple enough but when you don't have one to look at in person to copy and you've never done it before...well, it's not as easy as it looks!

So today...I finally present to you my very first tassel EVER. Susie is probably weeping tears of joy (or more likely horror) at this accomplishment.

And let me add for the record that with the time and money I spent...I should have just clicked on her little Etsy linkadoo and been done with it!

My Date with Edward

Did I really stay up until midnight to go see this with 70 other friends? Yes. Yes, I did! My friend Allison (Twilight obsessed) was kind enough to organize a big ta-do complete with pre-party! So fun. We all met at her house for appetizers and desserts before heading over to the may-hem to get in some good people watching! Kari was my Vanna for the night. She cracks me up. Here are some hot mamas dressed up to impress the 20 SOLD OUT theaters full of women waiting to see the movie. That one girl in the black skirt is going to catch some nasty disease from a theater seat wearing that. Perhaps she didn't read the book and know that Edward is not attracted to that sort of girl?
PS..he prefers brunettes.

Here is Jenny witnessing the cuteness that is one of the many "Twilight Prom" couples there. I promise if my sons EVER have some girl try to talk them into doing some ridiculous thing like this, well, I'm not sure what I'll do short of promising something quite expensive to him as a bribe not to. This poor, poor, boy. He was one of the 10 there I think.

I tried SO HARD to get a picture of these two. This was the best I could do. Problem #1 - matching sweatshirts that say "Team Alice blah blah" What does that even MEAN? Does Alice even have a team? Apparently so. It's these two. Everyone else is hot for Edward or Jacob. Problem #2 - The sweatshirts were PINK! Who makes their husband or significant other come to the midnight premiere wearing pink Team Alice hoodies. Come on, let a man be a man.

Vanna/Kari showing off more of the many attractive prom dresses.

**This picture has been removed by request of the subject due to unflattering theater lighting. Being up till 3:00 a.m. makes us loopy.**

Final thoughts? I really liked the movie. I pretended it was like watching a great tv show except for 2 hours. Acting was decent. Except a lying still scene that became long and awkward. Having to see James creepy and naked before he ate dinner. Watching Edward look really super ugly as he overindulged in Bella's blood. Watching semi-professional special effects. I enjoyed watching Edward in every single scene. He was beautiful in an odd sort of way. His "siblings" needed a bit of help in the hair department. Someone on set had never used bleach before and they all had really bad blond dye jobs. And whoever picked out the baseball hats, seriously? That was a joke, right? Do vampires have enormous fat heads?

But I'm finding myself slightly OCD about it today just like I was when I finished the first book. Can't wait till next November for New Moon and a fun midnight showing with a lot of great friends!!

(not sure why this is underlined, I can't fix it and I an running on 3 hours sleep here)

My Fun Find!

See my new cute lamp? I had borrowed one to put here from my mom 4 years ago when we moved in. It's taken me that long to find my own- seriously, how dumb! But I was walking around Wal-mart searching for NASCAR toys (now THAT is a sentence I never dreamed I would say!) and lookie here, a cute new buffet lamp from Better Homes and Gardens for $14.99!!! Can you believe it? Too cute! It seems a little tall for the space now but I think it'll be ok once I find a mirror that I want to go there to balance it out.

It's been difficult to blog this week. Everytime I sit down to the computer my sweet LuLu comes crawling up fast, pulls herself up and just starts grinning and talking. How can I ignore that?

A few friends got together this week for a fun recipe party. Where everyone brings samples of their favorite recipe along with a copy of the recipe to hand out. There were about 20 or so people there but it was a lot of fun and got my house clean for the weekend!

My favorite by FAR was Laurie's Balsamic Bruschetta. YUM!
*4-6 Roma tomatoes
*1 bottle of Paul Newman's balsamic salad dressing
*1 baguette
*Mozzarella cheese

Slice the tomatoes and marinade in the salad dressing for 2-4 hours. Cut the baguette into thing (about 1/2" slices). Slice the mozzarella cheese into squares. Place a tomatoe on a slice of baguette and put a piece of mozzarella cheese on top of the tomoto. Place on a cookie sheet and broil in the oven till the cheese is melted.

How EASY is that? You could probably garnish it with some parsley to make it even more fancy. Although I don't think it needs it. I know what I'm bringing to a few holiday parties this year! Yum!

THIEF!!!

I am more than disturbed right now. I was turning out Graham's light and I see car lights so I peek out the window...this truck stops right in the middle of our street, someone gets out and goes up to my neighbors porch and steals their pumpkin! I'm sure it was some dumb teenager. Who else would do something so mean?

I banged on the window and flashed the light. Then I felt dumb and thought that maybe they would come back and steal something of mine - so I took all my fall things of my porch. In barefeet. At 11 p.m. In my pj's. When it's 30 degrees outside.

I get paranoid. I can't help it, I inherited some from my mother and I grew up near L.A.
How could I be anything but?

I feel sad for the cute little girls who live there though, there will one pumpkin missing when they wake up in the morning.
BOOOOOOOO PUMPKIN THIEF!!!!! BOOOOOO!!!

Time For a Party!

I wanted to join in the fun at Chris' party (are you all tried of me linking to her? I think she's fabulous!) So here is my own little version of something you can make as a Christmas gift that is homemade.

I'm really more gifted at copying ideas but here is something I whipped up on my very own before Lauren was born...after all I needed somewhere to keep all those cute poofy bows!

Ta-DAA!! A Bow Hanger. SOO easy. All you need are:
Wooden plaque (Hobby Lobby $1.99 then use a 40% off coupon! Sweet!)
your choice of paint color and paint brush
large silk flower
3 matching smaller silk flowers
coordinating ribbon (I used grograin, I think it looks better being hot glued)
hot glue gun

Paint wooden plaque. I did three coats. Spray with sealer (matte finish) and let dry.Measure ribbon strips and hot glue them onto front of plaque.
Measure long strips that will be holding the bows. I should've made mine longer but oh well. About 12-18" Hot glue those onto back of the plaque. Turn plaque around and hot glue large flower (or an initial would be cute too) onto front.

Don't you love all this hot glueing - told you it was easy!I found these sweet little wooden flower disks at Roberts...but found that Hobby Lobby sells a bag of round wooden disks (again, use the coupon!) that are cheaper and you can't really tell the difference when done. Paint those, hot glue the small flowers on and then hot glue onto the ribbon ends.

Dan was helpful and added one of those jagged saw looking picture holding thingies on the back. You need something to hang it with! Duh!

See? Did I tell you this was a piece of cake or what? And you have a cute little gift for a baby girl, daughter or neice for seriously folks, less than $10!!!

NO SLEEP!

For the parents of Lauren! My cute little girl thought it was morning at FOUR A.M.!!! Nooo, nooooo, nooooooooooooooo!!!

I took her shopping with me yesterday. BIG mistake. HUGE. (quick, what movie...duh)
Everyone likes to stop me and talk about how cute she is. Which I both somewhat love and of course agree with, but when I am in a hurry...

And since when did the mall become PACKED for Christmas shopping two weeks before Thanksgiving? I don't get it. Looks like I'll have to find time to go it alone, hit stores that are easier to manage with kids (Target, Wal-Mart, Starbucks) or just shop on-line.

And for those of you who might care, please give a Hip Hip HOORAY to Mr. Greg who FINALLY decided to potty train! WHOOT! Mommy now has an extra $35 a month without buying his diapers!!

Where I Live

Chris tagged me last week to list five things I like about where I live. Not an easy thing for me right now as I am not loving Utah at the moment. I think vacations do that to you. Tease you with what could be and then you come home to what is. But the more I thought about it the appreciative I became. Read on if you think you can handle some sentimentality...

I love the sunsets here in Utah. Summer nights where the kids are playing outside and the sky looks like it is on fire against those gorgeous Wasatch Mountains. I don't ski, I don't love camping, we don't own four-wheelers. Sometimes I wonder, what are we doing here?! But when it's light at 9:00 p.m. and my kids are running and giggling all over the neighborhood I am happy.

I love that we live close enough to my mom and dad to walk over to say hello. Or call and say "I'm taking the kids to the Copper Mine and they wanted Grandpa to come." And grandpa does! That Greg gets to go to grandma preschool every week. We live 40 minutes from Dan's family too - so we get to see them also as well which we love! I love the fun parties with his big family.

I love that I grew up a 10 minute walk since I was 7 with my best friend, Kjersten and here she is living a 10 minute drive from me. I never had a sister so I made her mine. Doesn't she look like Jennie Garth from 90210? She has the most beautiful family. She is a teacher, a mom, amazingly crafty and creative and the most devoted friend I could ever laugh or cry with. (We've done both lots!)

I hope these girls don't get mad - I wish I had a picture of all of the girls on my block. I am the "Old Mom in the Neighborhood" at my undisclosed age but they never make me feel that way. They are beautiful, talented, funny and smart. They are amazing mothers. They are fashionistas. They are such fun friends. I love the "who wants to go to a movie" emails, book club, our annual neighborhood block and Christmas parties, how all our kids flock outside to play together, how we help each other. I love the friends that I have made here. I love that I graduated from here. I apologize to my parents for that taking so long! I was a little unfocused. But once I decided to go back I LOVED college and I loved going to the U. I'm proud that I have a Bachelors degree. I had planned to go back to California to get a job and then met Dan a week before I graduated. What could a few months hurt to see what could happen with this cute guy? Well, here I am...

I love my little family. As much as I wish we lived somewhere that was a little more, hop, skip and a jump to something other than Boise or Vegas, I would be foolish to wish that I was anywhere without these other four. I am really trying to be more optimistic and have a heart full of gratitude for what I have no matter where I live!

I am tagging Kjersten, Katherine at FritzieMarie, and Mrs. B!

Gratitude Turkeys

Tonight for Family Night we made hand turkeys. Not the most elegant thing I know but I have three kids under the age of 6 here folks. I have to go with what I know they can do in a short time span!

Each of us wrote on our turkeys things that we are grateful for. Graham took this more as things he likes to do but that's ok. He cut his out by himself. Cute. On his other hand it said "Doing crafts with my family."

Greg initially answered "Nothing" when asked what he was thankful for. Little turkey. Copper is his stuffed dog named after The Fox and the Hound. If we ever get a dog I think I know what the name will be if he gets to choose.

Lauren graciously wiggled and squirmed as Dan traced her hand. We just guessed on what she would say. Oh my...the loves notes don't come as often these busy days but these two little words made me get a lump in my throat and a bit teary eyed.

I am thankful you found me too baby!

And here is Greg with our leafy tree! He didn't like the music class we went to so we went on a leaf hunt instead around the neighborhood and collected these. He went to town with the glue stick.

I love November and how it reminds me to stop and be grateful and not so greedy.
What are you thankful for?

Trick or Treat!

Jeff Gordon, Cutie Patootie LuLu and Tony Stewart...ready to go next door for a soup party before trick or treating. (Thanks for hosting Dave and Heidi, and thanks for suggesting it Mindy!)

I took the boys out while Dan and Lauren stayed home to hand out the candy...next year she'll get all dolled up but this time she stayed at home warm and cozy. Which was good since it started to rain!

We made it till 7:45 and the boys started asking me to carry their buckets and if we could go home!

It's never pretty is it? We let the kids dig in, stay up a bit later to watch a Halloween cartoon and soon it was quiet in the living room...I found this mishap at 9:00 p.m. So funny!! Dan scooped him up and put him to bed - I wasn't too far behind them...I love Halloween but by the end of the day I'm exhausted!