A snow day and Thanksgiving

We put our snow tires on just in time. We were excited to see the snow dropping a few days before Thanksgiving. The girls were even more excited. We waited till the sun had just peaked it's head and headed out bundled up in the snow. Our attempted snowman was kicked over by Tegan.




Thanksgiving was at our house this year. A little chaotic, but in a good way. There was a scare when my mom's flight was cancelled from Utah, but they flew in early the next day and she quickly made up for lost time in the kitchen. We had visitors from all over this year. It was so nice having so many loved ones here.

The spread
This is my cousin Sandra who came up from California. The kids had a blast with her. She must have read them 100 books while she was here.
My mom and Tegan
My brother Nathan (on the left) from Salem and brother Jared (on the right) who came all the way from New York. So great to see them both.
Jess and my mom making pie crust.
Uncle Bob and Aunt Viv from Cali.
Sandra's daughter Katie. Girls loved her too.
My sister Brandy and me.

Family Pics

Thankful for things both big and small

Tis the season to be extra grateful for all that we have. I am, of course, grateful for all the big things in my life: my family, the gospel, health, our home, food, peanut butter M&M's etc. It's the little things I want to pay tribute to today...

I'm grateful for bobby pins. I use them every day of my life to keep the bangs that I always so badly want, but then hate having.

I'm thankful for those IKEA chip clips that I use on just about every bag of food big or small in my kitchen.

I'm grateful for the feather pillows my great Aunt so graciously gave us for a wedding gift. It has given me so many wonderful nights of sleep.

I'm grateful for texting. It has allowed me to communicate with others yet be just the right amount of antisocial at the same time.

I'm grateful for that one in a million shopping carts that just rolls on down the isle without veering to the left or right or just plain stopping all together.

I'm grateful for skirts. I've never been much of a dress or skirt wearer. They really go against my nature, but skirts seem to be that happy medium--a little dolled up, but not too much.

I'm grateful for naps. I LOVE and I mean LOVE a good mid-day nap. It doesn't need to be long. I just need a few minutes in dreamland.

I'm grateful for salad. I've never been super excited about eating or cooking vegetables. A salad is a way to get all the daily recommended vegetables in one sitting. It's got to have croutons on it though.

I'm grateful for outhouses that have hand sanitizer included. Oh what a difference that makes.

I'm grateful to sometimes be able to ride in cars that have those car seat warmers. A warm bottom really is nice. We'll probably never own a car with that feature, but I'd be happy to pretty much drive anywhere if we did.

Oh the simple pleasures...

Two Bugs on a Rug!




A favorite in our family...

Halloween Weekend

Halloween was met with its usual festivities. We went to a friend's Halloween party, dress up and all. Tom and I haven't dressed up in years so it was fun to finally do it again. We decided to go the cheap route and use mostly the stuff that we already had. What better way to do that than dress like each other. Since Jessie was Sleeping Beauty last year, she opted to be Snow White this year (minus the black hair). Tegan had an adorable pirates outfit, but the belled sleeves were driving her crazy so we squeezed her into her pumpkin outfit from last year and she was happy as a pumpkin could be.

Friday night, post party, was one of the longest nights I can remember. Tegan woke up at 12:30 screaming and vomiting all at once and then proceeded to puke every 15 minutes. Jess must have been jealous that me and T set up shop on the couch because at 1:30 she woke up with the same routine. Lets just say that the washer and dryer were on full-time duty for the next 24 hours and portions of our house smelled entirely of vomit. They must like there Dad better than me because when it was his shift to watch them, the vomiting abruptly stopped. On the bright side it lasted about 8 hours and was gone and the kids were real troopers through it all.Jess even felt good enough by the evening to go to trunk or treat with her friends. All in all it was a good weekend and now we've got some yummy candy to snack on now and then when the kids aren't looking. And heaven knows we will definitely be careful not to eat ourselves sick!