Happy Thanksgiving!

Here was my contribution to our family Thanksgiving dinner. I love making fruit bouquets for family gatherings. This was my first time making it without melons because they are too expensive and out of season. The chocolate covered strawberries were a hit. I made a yummy fruit dip to go with it too. Excuse me for my messy kitchen. It was a crazy morning.

I hope you had a delicious Thanksgiving. As we think about this year, we could think everything that went wrong or what we struggled with. It is so much easier sometimes to concentrate on the bad. There is so much to be thankful for, even the small things. Pondering over the past year for me, here are a few things I am thankful for.

1. Exchanging our truck for our car. It has helped it out so much with the high gas prices and we love it even more that the prices have dropped so much. It hasn't been one year and we have put 20,000 miles on it. We drive it EVERYWHERE!

2. My children. From Caden finally getting potty-trained to him going to preschool and Lola feeding herself to walking on her own. They have grown up so much the past year!

3. Greg's job stability. Since we have been married we have lived in 5 homes and we just celebrated 5 years of marriage and lived in our house for the past 3 years. It was chaotic the first couple of years, but with the disastrous economy, we have been blessed with Greg's job stabilty, for both of his jobs.

4. My best friends. You know who you are. I have had shares of ups and downs and so have you. We have been through the past year full of long talks and laughs. I love you all!

5. My family. I am grateful for them to be alive. I have noticed that we all are aging and especially my parents, they aren't getting any younger. I am so happy they don't have to work as much and I get to talk to my mom whenever I want instead of appointed day and times. We need to go to Seattle soon!

Well that is a few things I am thankful for. I wish I could add that I am done with my Christmas shopping, but I just have a few more things, so not too bad.

Twilight Night!

So the night finally came. Twilight T-shirt...check! Twilight tickets for the 12:20 am showing Friday morning...check! Fun girlfriends to come with me...check! Purse full of card games to play in line...check! I don't think I forgot anything. Actually I did, a blanket and socks.



So the night started off with going out to dinner at Chili's. A place you just can't go wrong. Stef, Kerri, and I started off with caffeinated soda pop to help us get through the night and appetizers. The nachos and chips and salsa were delicious! After a lot of salty foods, we had to end it with their scrumptious molten chocolate cake. Dinner was full of laughs and casual flirting with our waiter :) Before we knew it, a couple of hours passed. We drove to the new theater by the mall and we had a hard time finding a parking lot and there were lines waiting outside for the movie. It was freezing. I had a hoodie, not even a good winter jacket and I was wearing flats with no socks. I was pretty cold. Luckily, there was a baby blanket in the car that Stef was kind enough to share with me. We were able to find our line and made a couple of friends in line, who ended up letting us borrow a blanket and bought us cocoa. It was great bonding time with fellow Twilighters. We weren't in line too long, it went by really fast. The movie started and there were too many squeals and giggles for me. I admit it, I did it occassionally, but what do you expect from a bunch of girls obsessed with Twilight at 1 in the morning. It gets a little crazy! I did like the movie, not loved it, but it was good. What do you really expect from a teenage love story that involves vampires and werewolves? It was a great night and so much fun. We even talked about doing it again. It was definitely worth going to bed at 330am!

Rakin and a Rollin

Newbie!

Here is our newest member of the family. This is Bria Jane. She is the fourth child for Amanda and Corey, who is my sister-in-law and her husband. Now they have 2 boys and 2 girls. How perfect (for them, we like our two). She was born last month and I got to meet her for the first time on Sunday. She sure is a cutie! Can't wait to see what personality she brings into our family pot!

Happy Birthday Greg!

What a great weekend to have a birthday! Greg is the big 2-8! I took him out on a date on Saturday to Chilis and shopping, while Grandpa and Grandma babysat. We had a family birthday party for Greg (28), Cole(6), and Capri(3) on Sunday. Monday was Greg's actual birthday, he got to come home early from work, we went shopping, and we went out for sushi. I would think Greg had a good weekend and birthday. You will have to ask him yourself, but I loved having him home all weekend. So, Happy Birthday Greg! We love you!

Halloween Fun!

We had a great Halloween. We got our costumes on in the morning and then we headed over to Greg's work for lunch. We brought monster toes which are pigs in a blanket with mustard for the toe nails. They were a great hit. Greg came home a little early from work and we had Pizza Hut for dinner and is was off to trick-or-treating. We went around half our neighborhood and back. A lot of people weren't home just because they were going at the same time. Greg dressed up as a wizard and I was a witch. I should've gotten Dozer a costume. Lola walked a little bit, but she was a little slower than the rest of the kids so Greg ended up holder her most of the time. Caden was so excited and he had to come to me after every house and show me his candy. It was so cute! Lola even got to say her " Tee too tee!" and she always said her thank you after people closed the door. We got home around 7pm and we left our bucket of candy on the doorstep so we wouldn't get bugged. I let the kids whatever candy they wanted and then it was off to bath and bed time. The kids were in bed by 8. No one came to our door and all the candy was gone. While the kids were in the bath I went through their candy and sorted it out. I just put whatever I didn't want to keep in the bucket outside and that was all gone too. We probably just have a ziploc full of candy. Ladies and gents, let me introduce to you Buzz Lightyear and our Angelic Fairy!

To Infinity and Beyond!