Thanksgiving 2010

Once again, we were not able to travel for Thanksgiving this year, so we hosted the holiday by ourselves, for ourselves. We started out the day at 5 am. Kevin and I got out of bed, put the Kalua pig in the crock pot, bundled the girls in 3 layers of clothing, packed our bags, and headed to Naperville to run the Thanksgiving Turkey Trot!


Because we are trying to make the Turkey Trot a family tradition, we went the extra mile to make ourselves look festive. Both the girls wore home-made turkey hats, I borrowed an Indian dress from Becca, and Kevin is really white, so...everyone figured out that he was suppose to be the Pilgrim!

The girls thought their hats were hilarious! They laughed every time they saw each other or their reflections. They weren't the only ones who liked them either, several people ooooooed and awwwwed at them and stopped to make comments or take pictures.

I myself was called Sacajawea several times as well as Pocahontas. One lady even came up to me and said, "Either you're wearing a great Halloween costume or you're a real Indian!" I told her she was right on both, she gave herself a cheer, and then we went on our separate ways.

The race itself went smoothly. It was the first time I'd ever run with a stroller and my arms were sore, but it only slowed me down 2 minutes total. We started dead last (because we were 2 out of 15 strollers in a crowd of 6,100 runners) but managed to pass over 2,000 runners before finishing in 38 minutes and 8 seconds!


When we got home, we watched the movie "The Last Air bender" while the girls napped and Kevin and I started the cooking. Dinner was done and the feast began at 4 pm. We had Kalua pig, wild rice, home-made rolls, devilled eggs, asparagus fried with SPAM, and fresh apple cider!

When we were sufficiently digested, Kevin and I started on desserts. He made a Texas sheet cake, and I made apple crisp. Then we had our neighbors over for desserts and games. It was so much fun but it totally wiped us out. We were more than happy to crash in our beds that night!


The next day, the girls and I went to Kevin's work to decorate his desk for Christmas. After that, we came home and started our own decorations. The girls had a blast setting up the tree, although I think Lily is a little peeved that she can't fully reach it, and Kevin and I had fun finding places for everything else.


The spot in the house that I am the most proud of is our fireplace. I made the wall hanging and the two big stockings a few years ago, and this year I crocheted the other 2 stockings for the girls. Its pretty cool to look at it and know that I made the whole thing!

Anyway, we had a fantastic Thanksgiving even though we desperately missed our families and we are excited to start even more traditions for our upcoming Christmas! Happy holidays everyone!!!

28 years older...and maybe a little wiser too!

I know this is a little late, but on November 13th I celebrated my 28th birthday! I woke up early and went on a short run with the new running watch that Kevin got me. When I got home I was treated to berry cobbler for breakfast. I spent the next few hours enjoying some home spa treatments before Kevin took me out to eat sushi and then we rented "How to Train your Dragon" and "Toy Story 3". Then we came home and watched movies while eating the cake that Brooklyn and Kevin made. Before bed I got to open another stack of presents...the WHOLE set of books for "The Great and Terrible" series!

I had a wonderful birthday and feel very blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life. As a way of reflecting on the last few years I decided to share with you 28 things I have learned throughout my life. Enjoy:


1. Even though it looks like potato chips and tastes really good, you should NOT eat rat poisoning as a club snack, your mom will freak out.
2. There is NO amount of time that your brother is not willing to wait in order to scare the crap out of you.
3. If you want to raise rabbits for meat, don't let your children name them. You will end up wasting a LOT of meat.
4. If your mom says it can be done...it CAN. Even if that means setting up tents in the back yard to house the 17 people, 3 dogs, and 9 cats she has taken in.
5. Pouring cold water on your cousin while she is tanning in the front yard can lead to an epic water fight that involves pulling the hose through the living room window to spray your siblings. Don't do it...your mom will be mad.
6. The black dot in my eye is not actually a fruit fly that got stuck and had skin grow over it. Despite what Josh may have told me, it is actually a burst blood vessel.
7. You should take advantage of sibling worship as long as you can! (i.e. Tell your younger sibling that she is the cleanest pig in the world and you are an incredible talking dog. Then proceed to ride her back while directing her to clean your room.)
8. Do NOT sneak into the attic and eat all the MRE's out of your family's 72 hour kits. You WILL get diarrhea.
9. Backyard campouts are the BEST form of entertainment...for children AND adults!
10. Don't feed dog food to your cousins when you are supposed to be in bed. They will tell on you, and you WILL get in trouble.
11. Domestic chickens can NOT fly and they will face plant EVERY time you throw them out of your tree.
12. If you can't do a push-up on your hand while holding it in the position you would punch someone, don't punch someone that way. Your hand will probably break.
13. Picking up dog poop can be a VERY lucrative business. "If something stinks...in your neighborhood...who you gonna call? DOO DOO BUSTERS!"
14. Hair-spraying your sister's hair to her pillow while she is sleeping is a GREAT April fools joke! Unless you are the sister who got her hair plastered to her pillow.
15. Don't grab scissors from a feisty 3 year old. It will leave a mark.
16. If you pick up a frog, it will pee on you.
17. Don't Vaseline the toilet seat as a joke. Your mom might sit on it and slip off into the bathtub.
18. Being skinny doesn't mean you are healthy. I once saw a 300 pound man beat Kevin at a marathon!
19. Stacking up your food storage is a fantastic way to create a second bedroom.
20. There is no friend greater than a sister friend
21. Marriage is hard, but totally worth it!
22. When experts say that newborns sleep an average of 18 hours per day, they don't actually mean your newborn.
23. The human body is capable of doing REMARKABLE things, as long as you can convince your brain that it is possible.
24. No matter how old you get, you will always need your mom.
25. When a child says they have to pee, they have to pee NOW!
26. If you need more sleep, have a baby. No...wait... I mean, if you want to be more tired than you've ever been in your life, and NOT sleep, have a baby.
27. There is no lesson in life that is more impactful than motherhood.
28. Most importantly, over the last 28 years I've learned that I am loved. By my family, my friends, my husband, my children, and my Heavenly Father. And THAT is what makes everything worth it!

A GREAT Ending for October!

Just a quick recap of the end of October:


We celebrated Kevin's 28th Birthday by sending him to work with a new desk calendar filled with pictures of all his favorite people, picking him up from work with a giant candy letter, taking him to the Olive Garden for dinner, and eating apple cinnamon cheesecake while watching Iron Man 2 and Robin Hood.

Kevin also got some new tools for his birthday which he quickly put to use making a bunk bed for the girls for Christmas.

On Thursday the 28th, me and the girls dressed up as kitties and rabbits to go to work at Xsport Gym. (This picture was taken at 6am...thus the grumpy face from Lily!)

Friday morning me and the girls dressed up as the three little pigs and went to trick-or-treat at Kevin's office. Kevin dressed up as a biker but later that night when we went to our ward's trunk-or-treat, he dressed as the Big Bad Wolf!


The girls loved popping balloons with their bums and getting their faces painted by the young women at the trunk-or-treat.

Sunday after church we cooked a Kalua Pig and went to the Noorda's house dressed as cats. We ate a FANTASTIC meal, saw the neighbor's spooky garage, and played some fun games before heading home and ending the month of October. Good times!