Thanksgiving Weekend

Awhhhh... how I love Thanksgiving. The smell of pies baking, turkey and all of the other joyous smells that come with this wonderful holiday. We went up to my parents' house in Cache Valley. Josh was in charge of pies. Ok, he offered to bring all the pies because he loves to bake. Did I mention he's an incredible cook? Don't believe me? Check out these pies.

His scrumptious apple pie.

The caramel pecan.

The pumpkin. Ok, these last 2 pictures were taken on our way out to my mom's and they had the saran wrap on them, so they don't look as good.

The chocolate with a layer of hot fudge on the bottom. Yum, yum, yummmy! Oh and he also made the whip cream for all of them. Not hard, I know but homemade is so much better than store bought.

Hals was not happy, to say the least. The only person she wanted to be with and would let hold her was Amy. That's a real shocker.

Jordan and Josh sitting in the living room, just being lazy. What else is new?

That face says, "mischief" all over it.

Kai is playing this game on the computer that Amy and I later became obsessed with and played for hours. It's called Brick Breaking. It's one of those free games on Yahoo and it's totally for kids but we loved it.

Amy and I were having a paparazzi frenzy. We just sat there and took pictures of each other taking pictures of the other one. Yes, we are sad.

Mom doing the dishes.

Mom getting mad that we keep taking pictures of her.

Mom covering up her face with the roaster pan. I guess she finally had enough.

Alright, she posed for just one more.

I already know that I am so dead for putting up this picture of Amy.... so if you don't hear from me for a while, it's because Amy beat me to death for posting this.

Halle LOVES grandma's homemade yogurt.

Amy made these cute little Thanksgiving papers for the kids to write down what they are thankful for. I think she had a little bit too much fun drawing those turkeys. She's so talented, I could never whip that up. The turkey would look like a maimed jackrabbit.

This is what Chloee said, "I'm thankful for scissors and knives." We kind of looked at each other like, that was a tad bit scary. She then went on later and said that she was thankful for Jesus, but she said it in some weird rapper voice. Also notice that her sheet says, Mom and Amy. I guess Josh didn't make the cut.

Kai filled out Halle's for her. Evidently, she is very thankful for family, as we are mentioned multiple times.

Dad downstairs watching something. Who knows, the parade he taped, a good old John Wayne western, or just trying to get Amy on a movie she's never seen.

My brother, Jordan, got this pool table at the DI for $15. Killer deal. We had 2 pool tournaments, complete with the brackets and $1 if you won the whole thing. I know, we're high rollers.

My mom made this yummy stuff. It is soft popcorn and then you bake it with something else on it. I don't know, I wasn't in the kitchen but I can tell you it was delicious and the kids loved it.

Most of us were sick with sore throats or were coming down with it. I swear, we've passed it between families probably a million times in the last 2 months. Anyway, mom made her throat soothing, Wassil.

Yep, we hit BLACK FRIDAY. Well, we is a relative term, Josh hit it. Susan told Amy bout how Sears' ad had the front load washer and dryer SET on for $599. The set was normally $1400. There were only 4 per store. Josh about died when he saw the price and we instantly decided to had to have them and that they'd be majority of our Christmas to each other.

Josh left at about 11:30 pm to go see if there was a line. Turns out there was one person in front of him, so he stayed to ensure that we get this steal of a deal. Yeah, they didn't open until 4 AM but he stuck it out in the cold, I'm pretty sure in the negatives, the weather of good old Cache Valley. Now, in my defense, I did offer to bring him a chair, hot cocoa, more clothes, a blanket... but he rejected all of those lavish things I just mentioned.

And now they are here. Safe and sound. Awh, I love doing laundry. Never thought I'd say that. On top of the great deal we got, the washer is eligible for an Energy Star rebate. Tack that extra $75 on top of what we already got them for, that makes it $525 for the pair and $262 a piece. Now we'll sell our old ones to help pay for the new ones.

OUT WITH THE OLD AND IN WITH THE NEW!

The Junk Counter

This is our junk counter. It's where we put everything, it's our catch-all, if you will. If I am running in or out the door, something always gets set on the junk counter. I clean it off almost every single day, no joke, and it still ends up looking like this. This was not set up, it actually looks like this. Just this morning Chloee was looking for something to take for show and tell at school and our conversation went as follows:

Chloee: "Mom, where is my leaf? I want it for show and tell."

Me: "I don't know. Look on the counter downstairs."

Chloee: "On the counter-counter or the junk counter?"

That's when I realized, it's gotten that bad. I've said for her to put things on the junk counter before but hearing HER actually call it that made me realize that the junk counter needs a new name. Maybe the clean counter... although that would take a lot more on my part.

It Has Already Begun

The Date: November 1st (yes, just one day after Halloween)

What's Being Listened to at My House: CHRISTMAS MUSIC, Christmas music... oh and did I mention??? Christmas Music.

Yep, that's right, my husband LOVES Christmas and he loves his Christmas music. I had to hold him off until Halloween was actually over before I let him get his Christmas CDs out. Oh, the joy of 106.5, they start playing Christmas music on November 1st.

I guess you could say that I married a version of my Dad. My Dad loves Christmas music and the whole atmosphere of it all. Obviously, a trait that I loved about my Dad and wanted in my husband. I admit, I say sometimes that it's annoying but in all reality it just puts everyone and everything in such a lighter mood (at least at my house).

Bring it on, Rudolph!

Changing

As I was going through some old photos the other day, I noticed that I had pictures of Halle from Amy's marathon last year and this year that were very similar. I thought I'd compare.

Amy and Halle have always been extremely close. I can't believe I have 2 pictures of Amy kissing Hallsies right after each marathon. Amy has the exact same earrings in, the exact same hat on, the only thing that really changed was Hals and the fact that Amy isn't wearing sunglasses in the picture this year.

I forgot how chunky Halle was. You've got to love the NY Yankees hat my dad put on her. Obviously, she's going to change over the course of a year but I just don't notice it because I'm with her every day.

Always * Sometimes * Never

This was supposed to start out as a lighthearted post but considering the mood I am in today, I guess it came out pretty heavy. Amy was telling me about how this was on one of her friends blog and I decided to do it.

*I ALWAYS watch the biggest loser on Tuesday nights.
*I ALWAYS do laundry on Tuesdays. If nothing else gets done the rest of the week, the one constant thing is the laundry on Tuesday.
*I ALWAYS apologize for things that are not my fault and are completely out of my control.
*I ALWAYS cry at least once a day.
*I ALWAYS watch a sitcom episode before I go to bed. Right now, it's Frasier.

*I SOMETIMES swear. I would lean more towards always and less towards never but still, it's in the middle, so it's sometimes.
*I SOMETIMES cry at the thought of starting yet another day.
*I SOMETIMES don't shower for multiple days. Go ahead and judge, then get off my blog.
*SOMETIMES I don't answer my phone or my door, simply because I don't want to talk to anyone or see anyone else. Stop taking it so personally.
*SOMETIMES I question if The Lord really loves me.

*I NEVER feel like a good mom. Every day I feel like I'm reminded how much of a failure I am.
*I am NEVER happy with my pictures or really with anything I do. I guess you could say that I'm never satisfied.
*I NEVER cook dinner. I suck at it and I feel like I barely get through the day, attempting to make dinner would push me over the edge.
*I've NEVER liked many things about myself. Yep, I'd like a boob job, thicker hair, to be about 5 inches (at least) taller, to be back down to my normal weight and to have straight, white teeth. Unfortunately, all of those involve money, which isn't really an option right now.
*I have NEVER permanently dyed my hair. I like being a brunette. I'd never do blonde, if anything, I'd dye it darker.

The Upgrade

Chloee made an upgrade. A new backpack. Her old one was one that we got her when she was 2 and told us that she wanted to go to school.

It wasn't until she went to school that I realized that her backpack was tiny compared to all of the other kids' backpacks.

Hence the reason it fits little Miss Halle so well. It's just her size and she LOVES it!

The girls showing off their oh-so-cool backpacks. I love the way Halle is holding out the straps on hers.

And so the upgrade happened for both. Chloee upgraded to one her size and Halle... well, she upgraded to just having a backpack.

Everyday when Chloee goes to school, Halle cries and reaches for the window and screams, "Sissy Skoooo!" That is roughly translated to either, "I don't want sissy to go to school, stay here with me and help me torment mom" or "I want to go to school with you sissy, don't leave me here with crazy mom."

Either way, I'm not feeling so good about myself!