A day for giving thanks!

I love Thanksgiving! It is one of my favorite holidays and this year was no exception. It was so great. Brent and Krissi and their kids spent the night at our house on Wednesday and we had a blast. We talked, we laughed, we cooked, we ate, we stayed up late (adults until 2 a.m., kids until 4 a.m.), we cooked some more, we laughed some more, we ate some more........

Great food, great times and great memories!

Wednesday night, Brent and Krissi made exactly 96 rolls.

And they were delicious!

Kevin and Andrew made a yummy banana pudding

Doesn't that turkey look good enough to eat?

And the kids aren't bad looking either.
We cooked the turkey in the roaster this year to save

the oven for the other dishes. It turned out so juicy.

Everyone ready to dig in.
After all the preparation time, I told everyone that they had to take more than 10 minutes to eat. They all did a good job; it took at least 30 minutes. And that didn't include pie time.

Here come the after feast pictures:

Brent and Krissi checking out the Black Friday ads

Alex, Henry, Megan, and Holly hanging out watching a movie
(the picture turned out kind of blurry.)

Andrew, Zaron, and Kevin watching the Cowboys game

Hopefully I don't get killed for posting the next three pictures. I couldn't resist.


Brent resting from his hard labors


Samantha catching a few zzzzs.

Jill in dream land.

Thanks guys for the yummy food and the fun times!!

Pilgrims and Indians and Vampires, Oh My!!!

I went to Megan's 3rd grade Thanksgiving program yesterday. Usually when I hear the words school program, my mind says "ugh, do I really have to go". Because I being the supportive mother that I am, would never say this out loud. So it is an understatement to say that yesterday I was sincerely shocked. It was seriously the best 3rd grade program that I have ever seen. It was so cute; I loved every minute of it.

Here is Megan with her friend. They were Native Americans. Aren't they so cute?

The kids sang the cutest songs with the funniest actions.
After the program, I went straight to Orem and spent pretty much the rest of the afternoon Christmas shopping. I'm happy to report that I am completely done with all of my Christmas shopping. Yay, and before Thanksgiving even. That's a first for me!


And finally, I finished the day with another viewing of Twilight. Yes, Jill and I have seen it twice now. We took Shaelee, Jill's friend with us. We felt stupid standing in front of this sign. Oh well, good memories. I have to say that Twilight is even better the second time around, if that is even possible. We totally love it!
And so you don't think we just ditched the rest of our family on the night before the night before Thanksgiving (because this was last night, two days before Thanksgiving), we didn't. Zaron took Kevin, Megan, and Holly to see Madagascar 2 at the same theater. They didn't want their picture taken, but they loved the movie.

5 Stars

Jill and I went to see the 10 pm showing of Twilight last night with her friend Erika and her mom Annette. We had such a blast. The girls wanted to get there at 7:00 because we didn't have reserved seats and they wanted to get the best seats. Well, it paid off. We were second in line and we literally got the best seats in the theater; third row from the top, right in the middle. The waiting time went pretty fast too; we took lots of card games.

I love Skipbo!

Jill and Erika in their Team Edward shirts.

They made these shirts; I think they turned out pretty professional looking.

Annette is so great and she's very fun to be with!
I was kind of skeptical going into the movie because I have become very disenchanted with the Twilight books.

Whoa, was I surprised. The movie was sooo good; better than I even imagined. I think I liked it even better than the book.

I totally want to see it again.
Thanks girls for the fun time!

The grades are in

Last week, all four of our kids brought home their 1st quarter grades. I don't mean to be braggy, but they did really well. Holly got all checks and pluses. Kevin and Megan each got all A's and one B+. Jill got staight A's and she's in 8th grade; amazing. So, we told the kids that instead of paying them for their grades that we would take them out to dinner. We asked them where they wanted to go; they chose Costco pizza and churros. Yea, score!! Costco pizza is delicious and cheap. We went out last night and we had a great time. It was fun to reward the kids for their hard work.

Hey, what do I get for helping those kids get such good grades? I mean, afterall, with the exception of math, I put a lot of effort and sweat into these kids and their homework, which equals good grades. I think I deserve something..... I wonder.....

Tag, I'm it.....twice

I've been tagged twice this last week,

by my friend Carrie and my sister-in-law Stacy.

Lucky for me, they were both the same tag.

Here goes............

Eight things I'm passionate about:

1. Zaron

2. My kids

3. Food

4. Surprises

5. Candy and popcorn

6. Time to myself

7. Not looking stupid

8. Not hurting people's feelings

Eight words or phrases I use all the time:

1. Did you brush your teeth?/Did you wash your hands?

2. Did you read? Are you sure?

3. Did you do your jobs?

4. Pick up your stuff right now

5. You're kidding/Are you serious?

6. I'm not going to tell you again.....

7. Do you think you could stop fighting?

8. I love you, have a good day or good-night

Eight things I want to do before I die:

1. Finish the basement

2. Go on a mission with Zaron

3. Have grand kids, whoa

4. Be retired preferably before age 65

5. Travel

6. Learn to ski

7. Visit Paris and Rome

8. Attend all the temples in the world

Eight things I currently want or need:

1. To lose weight

2. To go on a cruise

3. To be debt free

4. Painted walls (in my house)

5. A new wardrobe

6. A library (in our city)

7. More time in each day

8. Grass and a fence (in my backyard)

Eight places I want to visit:

1. Hawaii

2. Puerto Rico

3. California

4. Caribbean

5. Mexican Riviera

6. Disneyland (again)

7. Alaska

8. South America

Eight favorite restaurants:

1. Carrabbas

2. El Pollo Loco

3. Cafe Rio

4. Chadders

5. PF Changs

6. Benihana

7. Famous Dave's

8. Taco stand on 2nd west in Salt Lake

Eight TV shows I watch:

1. Monk

2. Psych

3. McBride

4. Jane Doe

5. Quincy MD

6. Perry Mason

7. Little House on the Prairie

8. Brady Bunch

Eight people I tag:

1. Amy (my sista)

2. Anyone

3. else

4. who

5. wants

6. to

7. be

8. tagged.

Random!!

This is a totally random post! Oh well!!

On Saturday, I took the girls, Jill, Megan, and Holly to see High School Musical 3. It was so good; fabulous songs and excellent choreography. We had such a great time; fun girl bonding. We ate so much popcorn to last us a lifetime, though. But we had to. If you bought the large popcorn then you got, not a free refill, but a refill for 50 cents. We all know what a rip off the concessions are at the theater. So we had to take advantage of getting the additional large popcorn for only 50 cents. I guess it's the same as buying something that you don't really need, but it was on sale and such a good deal that you couldn't pass it up.

Moving on......

This is the result of eating too much Halloween candy,

suckers start growing out of your mouth.

I have the most! No, I have the most!

And finally.....

I was driving to the grocery store this morning and I turned on the radio. What did I hear? It couldn't be Christmas music already. Don't get me wrong, I love, love, love Christmas and Christmas music. I'm just a big fan of enjoying one holiday at a time. Last I checked we haven't celebrated Thanksgiving yet. Time already flies fast enough without the holidays being crammed all together. Oh well, by the time I was home I realized I was actually enjoying the Christmas music. It does make you feel good!

I do love this time of year!

Halloween 2008

I love holidays, but I wouldn't say that Halloween is one of my favorites. I love trick or treating and I love all the candy. I don't love spending $30 or more dollars on a costume for one night. I know, I'm such a cheap skate. So because of this, my kids have learned that they need to be creative when it comes to dressing up for Halloween.

This year Kevin got a $5 wig and $3 glasses.

He never did figure out what he was, but I think he looks pretty cool. He did win the best costume prize at a class party. Thus, proving my point that you don't have to be a big spender to be a winner.

Holly got a $3 grass skirt (which ended up breaking and falling off by the end of the night, thank goodness for shorts underneath, what did I expect for 3 bucks, I'm not sure), a Leigh that was in the basement, a borrowed hair flower, and a homemade coconut top (the coconut shells were from sorbets that we bought at Costco last summer, delicious).

I think she's a super cute hula girl.

By day, Megan was a Gothic girl and by night she was a witch. She went to school dressed in Gothic attire and her friends told her she looked really scary. She decided that for trick or treating, she didn't want to look so scary and she went as a witch. It's good to know that witches aren't that scary. We scored big with Megan this year. Her cape was a black trash bag and her hat was from the basement. Her Gothic costume was leftover from her sister's costume last year. Net cost - $0!!!!


This year Jill wanted to be batman. Being the big spender that I am, I bought her a $2 mask, $1 black gloves, $1 black snow cap that I was going to going to turn into the pointy black batman cap, a yellow belt made out of some leftover fabric, and a cape from the basement. In theory and in my mind, this was totally going to work. Well, the mask looked more like Zorro, the cap ended up looking like Mickey Mouse, and the cape had huge holes in it. Sorry, Jill we'll have better luck next year. I think we'll look into renting a costume.


Last night, Jill was going trick or treating with her friends later in the evening. Therefore, she wasn't ready to have her picture taken before I left to take the two little girls trick or treating. I left the camera with Zaron and told him to get her picture before she left. Well, the first thing Jill told me this morning when she woke up, was "I got out of having to have my picture take last night, nanner, nanner." She did end up wearing the black snow cap, the gloves, the mask, the cape, and the belt and she told everyone she was batman, but she wouldn't let Zaron take her picture. What a stinker!!



But, I didn't want to leave Jill out on my Halloween post, so here is Jill when she was four years old, all dressed up as a nurse for her preschool Halloween party in Michigan.
Isn't she adorable!! Nanner, Nanner, Jill