November 26, 2010
This year was a little different than years past because we had a second Thanksgiving celebration the day after Thanksgiving with Jim's family. Jim's sister flew in Thanksgiving night so we thought it would be fun to celebrate with her and her family this year. We hosted the gathering at our house and I cooked a turkey (only the second one I have ever cooked).
I woke up extra early - not to go Black Friday shopping, but to get the turkey ready and in the oven in time for it to be finished cooking before everyone arrived. I kept dreaming about the turkey not being cooked enough and eventually just couldn't sleep so I got up and started. We were fortunate enough to have Jim's other sister pick up a turkey for us from Trader Joe's that was already brined. Trader Joe's also had a recipe online for cooking the turkey - so that made it easy. I pulled the turkey from the refrigerator and began opening it. I have never been a fan of eating meat off of the bones and especially not preparing and cooking meat on the bones. It just grosses me out.
So I started on it and I immediately thought I would lose it. When I had to pull out the neck and the other "stuff" (giblets or something like that) I started to run upstairs to wake Jim up. I made it about half way there and then decided not to bother him and to just let him sleep. I gave myself a pep talk and decided I could do this. I tried not to think of the turkey as it may have been when it was alive. I was so proud of myself for being able to prepare the turkey by myself.
Here it is all prepped
Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of it when it was fully cooked. It turned out pretty good - not the best turkey that I have ever had (Dave and Valerie still have my vote for the best ever turkey), but definitely not the worst either.
Samuel and I made our traditional turkey place settings - this year we bought candy corns right after halloween so that we were sure to have them (unlike last year where we had to improvise and use swedish fish - not quite the same)
I think everyone had a nice time. 
This year we also let the younger cousins exchange Christmas gifts and open them on this day so that they could be there all together to watch. When I was little we also did this with my cousins so I thought it was kind of fun.
Samuel and Amir exchanging gifts
Ryan and George exchanging gifts
Atar, Darren and Justin
Sean and Levi
Rikki, Taylor and JR (Grandpa)
As I have reflected on this year and the events that have taken place I feel even more grateful for the wonderful blessings that I have. I have an incredible husband who works hard at his job, is so compassionate and kind to others and is an amazing father to our boys. I have two super sweet boys who make me so happy and make me want to be the best mom I can be. I have the gospel in my life and a wonderful family - both my own and the one I married in to. I truly have so much to be thankful for.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Thanksgiving Celebration 2.0
Thanksgiving Celebration 1.0
November 25, 2010
We spent Thanksgiving day with my family at my sister Janell's house. Almost everyone was there, so it was quite the gathering. Of course there was delicious food of all sorts. Some of the kids made these cute place settings. 
The "kids" table
Having large Thanksgiving gatherings brings back fond memories of going to my grandmother's house and being with all the cousins having a great time. It is fun to see my own kids enjoying the time with their cousins now.
Thanksgiving Day Tradition
It has become tradition in our family on Thanksgiving morning to go buy a newspaper full of the ads for "Black Friday". We take a brief look at them just for fun and then the fun really begins. 
This year Jim, Samuel, and George carefully separated each piece of newspaper and placed them in a pile on the living room floor. 
Then Jim said "ready, set, go" and they all grabbed handfuls of newspaper and tossed them in the air. 
It was crazy for a bit, but so much fun for them. 
It was also fun to see George in on the action this year. I am pretty sure this is a tradition that will stick.
The Blizzard That Never Was
Tuesday November 23rd the weather man reported that there was a HUGE blizzard that would hit most of Utah. Supposedly the worst storm in years. Samuel had heard about this and was quite excited to finally get some snow to play in. Wednesday morning Samuel woke up and immediately went to look out the window. After looking out he said, "What happened to the blizzard?" There was maybe an inch of snow on the grass and nothing on the streets. He was quite disappointed but decided he still wanted to go play in the snow. So we geared up and headed outside. Although there wasn't much snow, it was still very cold. George refused to wear his boots or a hat or mittens. Once we were outside he decided he would wear a hat, but still refused the mittens even when his hands were ice cold. I ended up carrying a screaming, freezing cold little boy back into the house against his will after about 15 minutes while Samuel stayed out in all his warm gear.
Here they are before George started crying because he was so cold
This is Samuel's snow angel
Even though there was little snow, I think they both still had a good time and I know we will get more snow soon enough, so it was ok with me that the blizzard didn't really hit our area.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Gift From Aunt Stephanie
Aunt Stephanie is so on the ball - she always gets Christmas presents sent before Thanksgiving (actually that is very smart - I should try that sometime). Anyway, we let the boys open one of the boxes of Sees candies yesterday and they were in heaven. Especially George.
We have been reading "Little House On The Prairie" by Laura Ingalls Wilder for our bedtime stories and we mentioned to Samuel that we used to watch the show on tv. Jim found one of the shows online and we were watching it with Samuel. Meanwhile George snuck away and was awful quiet. When we finally realized that he wasn't around we began to worry. We found him in the kitchen eating not one, but two suckers. 
No wonder he was so quiet! Thanks for the fun treats Stephanie!
Sickness Isn't Very Fun
Hopefully we are at the tail end of the sickness. It pretty much went through the entire family, ending with Jim now. The good part about it was the time we spent just hanging out on the couch watching movies - not something we do very often. Luckily Jim and I weren't sick at the same time. Bring on the holidays now!
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Halloween Festivities (Part 2)
October 29, 2010
Samuel had a costume parade at school on the Friday before Halloween. Here he is standing in line with his class. He didn't know I was taking his picture here. 
He seemed like he had a fun time walking around in his costume though. George had a fun time watching all of the kids walk by dressed in their costumes too.
October 30, 2010
Since Halloween fell on a Sunday this year, most everyone here celebrated it on Saturday. For lunch we had Hot Dog Mummies and Candy Corn surprise (Samuel's idea). 
Later on the boys got dressed in their costumes and were ready to trick or treat. 
They made it to two specific houses - neither of them were home and then the rains came. It was raining so hard and so fast. By the time they walked/ran back home they were all drenched. Samuel's costume was dripping wet and so was George's. We decided to scratch trick or treating and went out to Red Robin instead. Samuel was a little sad, but he got over it pretty quick. When we came home the rain had mostly stopped and there were a few people out still so we just set our bowl of goodies on the porch and put the boys to bed. I have to admit that I was not too sad that they didn't get a ton of candy. Luckily they are still young enough that it wasn't a huge deal to them. We had a fun time together as a family.
Let The Halloween Festivities Begin
October 27, 2010
It seems like Halloween celebrations were endless this year. It started with the annual Tri Ward carnival at the church.
display:
Samuel decided he wanted to be a candy corn this year - which was great because I had already bought this costume from Oriental Trading Company for 3.00. 
George didn't have much say in his costume choice. I found it online at Old Navy and thought it was really cute and inexpensive.
Samuel playing a game of pin the wart on the witch
October 28, 2010
Next we painted pumpkins. 
We decided to paint them instead of carve them this year because we only grew 4 pumpkins and we wanted to be able to use them to make something like yummy chocolate chip pumpkin muffins or something. So we gathered together the various paints that we had and got to work. Samuel painted a candy corn on his (of course)
I painted a witch and ghost (very original - I know)
George had a blast painting with finger paints on his
Jim created this great pumpkin face to accentuate the natural curves of the misshapen pumpkin
We had a great time doing this and I think we may do the painting thing again - much less messy.
Doughnuts
October 23, 2010
We took the boys to get some doughnuts at Krispy Kreme and it happened to be during the time when they had doughnuts being cooked so you could see the process. The boys thought it was pretty cool.
It's just chocolate - not a rotten tooth - yet. A few more doughnuts and it might be though.
They were both on a sugar high after this.
On Old Olympus
October 20, 2010
(The audio and video don't quite sync, but it is still pretty funny).
More Tangrams
October 17, 2010
Samuel has been very interested in musical instruments lately. The other day he wanted to create with the magnetic shapes. He created a trombone (his biggest obsession)
Trumpet 
Cymbals
Drums
There were others as well. He included some of the string family too.
Final Harvest
October 16, 2010
The weather has been getting cooler so we decided to pull up the rest of our garden and pick what we could from it. We planted sweet potatoes for the first time this year and they were quite successful. 
We haven't tried any of the butternut squash yet, but it looks yummy as well. Our peppers were probably the best growers this year. Needless to say we have quite a supply in the freezer now. 
Yeah for gardens!
Car Party
October 9, 2010
Samuel was invited to a car themed birthday party for his cousin. My sister and her husband are so creative! They made each child a car and then had them each decorate it with their name and other cut outs. 
The trunk actually opened/closed and locked. They each had a car key that they put into the ignition. They played some racing games and then ended with a drive in movie complete with popcorn. Samuel had such a great time there and especially loved that he was able to bring his car home. 
Thanks Elizabeth and Dave for a super fun party!
