Thanksgiving Recap

So Thanksgiving has come and gone. I thanked, I gave, and I gained 10 pounds. Let's take a look through my "Thanksgiving 08" file to see how this Thanksgiving went... At school, my kiddos and I made edible teepees.

(This isn't the best shot I got of our masterpieces, but all my other shots have kids in them and the law says I can't post pics of my kiddos.)

I totally kicked trash in the "who made the best pie" contest with my Pumpkin Turtle Pie

(well, I would have won if they would have had said contest)

Jessica looked fabulous as she made yummy "funeral potatoes"

I was also in charge of the wonderful green bean casserole, but instead of taking a picture of the food I took a picture of me (don't you love that my nails perfectly matched my top!)

I hung out this this cutie-pa-tootie...
and her slightly awkward dad
(don't you people know by now that every pic I take will end up on my blog!)


Jessica was totally digging all the quality family time

And Summer consumed not 1...

not 2...

yep, 3 whole plates of food!

But Thanksgiving didn't end there, folks. Every other Thanksgiving, my fam does a family reunion and this was THE year. My family is huge...I'm talking "first name basis with my 12th cousin twice removed" huge. Lunch was at Gpa and Gma Knights, followed by volleyball tourneys. Thursday night was, of course, the traditional FAMILY DANCE (which of course I have no pictures of because it is definitely something you have to experience for yourself!). Then Friday afternoon is the bbq. Basically, we ate all weekend then threw in some activities to laugh about later.

And, just to make this long post even longer...let me tell you about my Black Friday '08 experience. It went like this...

TJ needed a laptop.

TJ found a smoking deal on a laptop at Best Buy.

TJ drove past Best Buy at 8:30 THURSDAY night and saw the line had already formed.

TJ calls Lisa and says to bring chairs and drinks.

Lisa shows up with chairs and drinks, leaving a short time later to get 5 more sweaters, blankets, and HOT drinks (because it was FREEZING!)

TJ and Lisa sit outside, in the cold, from 8:30 pm to 5:00 am...and didn't get the laptop they wanted.

TJ and Lisa end up getting the 2nd best deal on a laptop and slightly curse those who were at the front of the line saving spots for people who just barely showed up at 4:59 am.

TJ and Lisa went home and slept until noon.

The end.

I hope your Thanksgiving was as lovely as mine. Now go hit the gym in preparation for Christmas.

Hello...Jerry

Thanksgiving is always a special time of year. Not because of the turkey or football or parades (even though I do love me a good turkey day parade!). But all of these are diminished by one very special event that I look forward to all year long. Calli's birthday! That's right, my fabulous sister Calli turned 26 (holy cow!) on November 26. Calli always delayed thinking about Christmas because Thanksgiving is a much more special occasion in her book. As I prepared to do my "26 things I love about Calli" post, I flipped through my pictures to see which ones I could post along with my list. Unfortunately, Calli lives in Missouri (or is it Kansas now?)...Oh yeah, its Kansas now. Anyway, Calli lives in Kansas which is too far away for the pathetic zoom on my camera! I found a few (and some others that Calli would probably HATE me for posting, so I won't). So without futher adieu, here are 26 things I love about Calli (in no particular order):

1. She let me hang out with her in high school.

2. One time we got in a fight (probably about something silly) and Calli bought me colorful daisies to make it up to me.

3. She made us paint our bedroom Princess Pink in high school (if you ever want to know what it feels like to live inside a bottle of Pepto Bismol, just ask!)

4. When we didn't want to sleep at night, we would play games such as "Guess what song I am humming" or "What movie is this line from"

5. And one time, she told me to put my feet up on my headboard and grab the bottom corners of my mattress (oh, ps, we had waterbeds at this time) and lift the corners up as high as I could then let go. It felt like you were surfing or flying or something equally awesome.

6. When she got married I stole a lot of her clothes, so that was cool.

7. She had friends like Tyler and "Gay Gary" who could fit their whole bodies through a hanger.

8. She was always up for a run to Sonic or Bahama Bucks.

9. Remember that infamous Christmas in which everyone (including Mike and Brendan) slept in Summer's room and you made us play "How many syllables does this word have" and "Catch the light from the flashlight as I shine it around the room."

10. You are the mom of 2 1/2 of my favorite nieces/nephews.

11. She never really got too mad at me over the whole "I stuffed a brownie in the couch and didn't say anything when dad blamed it on you and yelled at you and made you cry" thing.

12. She has always been crazy-psycho-overprotective. Even when she KNEW the doors were all locked at night, she would still go around and double check, just to make sure no robbers or rapists could get in.

13. She is oh so creative! She totally got all the creative genes from mom cause I sure got none!

14. She is the funniest person I know. Since she has been gone (in Missouri...or Kansas...) family functions are just never the same. I often think, "This would be funnier if Calli was here."

15. She has an ongoing competition with Mike about everything...even gingerbread houses!

16. She wishes she could be hooked up to a Mountain Dew IV her whole life.

17. She would always tell mom lies about us (like that one time when you said Lindsey had a boyfriend) and mom will believe her and start to get after us, and Calli would just stand in the background laughing.

18. She was always up for a good "lets see what stuff we can stuff through this hole in the wall into Lindsey's room" game.

19. She introduced me to the concept of judging boys by the shoes they wear...such as Troy and the hiking boots!

20. She once asked Karl to "Pass the Peas!"

21. She hosts rando parties for the Olympics, Lost, whatever!

22. She is always willing to do my hair for me (color, cut, anything I want) as long as I tempt her with a Mountain Dew.

23. She will watch musicals and sing along!

24. She is raising a little diva, just like herself!

25. She dated a lot of guys with "J" names, therefore dooming any future relationship anyone in our family could have with a J (which is funny, because Summer is dating a guy named Jay!)

and last but not least...

26. She is coming home for Christmas and I couldn't be more excited!

Happy BDay, Calli. I love you to pieces!

From Search Parties to Craft Parties

I bet you are wondering how our day went from this:

To this:

Well, it all started when dad said, "Let's take the quads out on Saturday!" So bright and early Saturday morning we load up the quads and head up to Saguaro Lake to ride for a couple hours. We got there at about 9:20 (like I said, "bright and early") and around 9:35 my brother in law Mike took off on one of the quads. My family doesn't ride hard...we usually take the quad out on a trail or two for about 10 minutes, then head back so someone else could have a turn. At this point, I should mention that this is the one time we forgot to bring walkie talkies to attach to the 

quads.

 Anyway, around 10:00 we start to wonder where Mike is...he's been gone an awfully long time. We assumed he was just off exploring different trails and whatnot. Well, when we still hadn't seen Mike by 10:30 my dad jumped onto the other quad to go look for him, thinking that maybe the other quad at died or whatnot as it was prone to do. 30 minutes later, dad comes back with no Mike. So TJ jumps on the quad to go look in another area. When TJ comes back without Mike, we all start to worry a little bit (and Lindsey was worrying a lot!). Just as dad was getting in his truck to go chat with the Sherriff, the rangers truck rolled in. So we ran to catch the ranger, he phoned the sherriff's office and pretty soon we had not one but three Sherriff's Department guys pulling up (including the K-9 unit...just in case Mike was smuggling drugs, I guess).

Questions were answered about Mike, what he was wearing, how long he had been gone, whether or not he had been paying his tithing (because of course Mike was last seen sporting BYU and Utah State paraphenelia so it wasn't hard to assume that we were LDS). 

Just as the Sherriff's guys were putting in a call for a helicopter to search the area (because by now Mike had been gone for THREE hours!), a Suburban rolls up with Mike in the back seat! Apparantly, Mike had been out riding around, lost all sense of directions (therefore driving in the wrong direction for quite a while), and eventually was able to find some people who could help him out. 

We were so glad that Mike made it back safe and sound, without any of the broken limbs we were all assuming he had! So after our crazy morning adventures, we headed home to make these adorable Countdown to Christmas magnet boards. The little containers will be filled with candy for TJ to eat each day as we countdown the days until Christmas.

8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...

Just 8 more days until Summer comes home!

Election '08

Can I just say how glad I am that this election is finally over!? It would have been nice had it ended another way, but I'm looking forward to no more commercials or solicitating phone calls. Most of all, I'm excited to have my husband back! He spent the last several months working on the John Shadegg for Congress campaign which meant long hours and late nights.

The few days preceding the election were crazy for TJ. He spent so many hours working at the campaign office, making sure he did everything he possible could before Tuesday. Monday night, he was able to drive up to Prescott for John McCain's campaign party.

Congressman Shadegg was one of the speakers at the party, so the whole campaign office went up for the event.

Then Tuesday finally rolled around and TJ continued to work hard all day. But Tuesday night it was time to party...so we cleaned ourselves up and headed to the Biltmore in Phoenix. McCain's big Election Night party was at the Biltmore and Congressman Shadegg had his party there too! There was TONS of people and press all over the place...I even saw Jon Voight there (but I was too chicken to ask for a picture with him).

TJ seriously fell asleep as we rode to the Biltmore...that will happen when you have been up for over 24 hours without sleep!

TJ's sad face when the presidential results came in.

But we were still able to party with WINNERS because Congressman Shadegg defeated Bob Lord by over 13% of the votes!

All in all, elections are no fun for the "political widows" but I am much happier now that I can spend more time with my husband.

The end.

P.S. Shout out to all the people who voted for Prop 102 in AZ and Prop 8 in CA!! The results of these two important propositions helped to soften the blow of this.