New Years Eve Unexcitement

The last few days feel like they have just flown by! Probably because I've been so busy! Wednesday Jessica had her driver's license test and PASSED! So we now have a teenager with a license!

So we've been working on getting my old car up and running and registered for her. Scott took it yesterday to get smogged and it passed. Today I'm going to have to go down to DMV to get the registration paid (it won't let me do it online) and new tires, then she should be good to go! Hopefully it runs good for awhile and she doesn't get stuck anywhere. I keep remembering that I did get a new car because this old one was acting up.

So far we have no plans for New Years Eve (tonight!). Weird. I think Jess is going to her friend's house to spend the night so it will be just us and the little kids. I sent my brother a message to see what he's doing but so far he hasn't responded. I have a turkey in the fridge so I guess I can put that in and pick up some other stuff to snack on. Might be a night spent scrapbooking!

I've actually been working on my scrapbooking a little bit, which is fun! I'm still working on catching up Jessica's album. I'm in the summer of 2009, so not too much to catch up I guess. Hopefully it's caught up before she turns 18 lol. That will probably be the cut off of me doing scrapbooks for her unless she asks me to. We shall see! It's so weird that she's getting so grown up. Time sure does fly doesn't it!

Lucky for me I seem to be getting over my cold quickly. Which is AWESOME. I'm so glad it's not going to be a one month coughing fest!

Happy New Years Eve everyone! I hope you have a fun and safe night!

Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge (AKA Cards I Made)

I decided to try out Mojo Monday's Sketch Challenge

I made both for fun

These were great since the one used small squares. I tend to cut my scraps in different size squares to clean them up. This is a great way to use them up!

That! Would suck.

Today I went to lunch with a few people from work. One of the girls is from Minnesota. All her family is back there, and she is here. She came to California to go to school. She went to school more up north but then got the job down here, in No-Central California. Her rommate and her went to the Monteray Bay Aquarium on Christmas Eve and came home on Christmas Day.

She said that she got ONE Christmas present and that was from another co-worker when we went on our girls night out. It was condoms and lube. Can you imagine that being your only Christmas present? She said she didn't even get any Christmas cards and none of her family called her on Christmas.

That makes me really sad!

Looking Forward

I've been thinking of my New Years Resolution List. In years past I've had a few, most of which start with Lose Weight. Lose Weight. and Lose Weight. I can't think of a time when I didn't want to lose weight since I was 10 years old or so. Which is sad because when I was 10 I was really skinny but I thought I was fat.

So I think it's safe to say that #1 on the list is. I am thinking of going back to doing a weight watchers type diet.

1. Lose Weight

Which means I'll be taking all those left over cookies and fudge and what nots to work this week to get them out of my house.

Along with losing weight I'd like to try to run a 5K. I know I tried this last year and fell off but it's ok. I can try again right? So

2. Run 5K

I really want to get back to using coupons again. I used to rock the coupons thanks to Teri's List/The Grocery Game. Eventually I started using Coupon Mom since her site is free and I had the hang of it. When I went back to work I quit using coupons because I just didn't have the time to do it. I really need to MAKE the time and get back to it.

3. Back To Using Coupons

This next one might sound kind of weird. I think I need to try and be a better wife. It's easy with all the hustle and bustle for me to feel very grouchy towards Scott. We've went almost my whole 5 days off with hardly talking to eachother. It's very easy for me to do. He spends most of his time in front of the TV and I either play on the computer or just go about doing whatever. I'm thinking if I just do a few small things daily it will help us connect more. I'm not sure exactly what those small things are yet. Any suggestions? He makes me coffee every morning, which is super nice. He's started making the kid's lunches also. I thought he was doing that to be nice to me but later found out he does it to make himself get out of bed. (and for some reason that annoys me even though he's helping me out). He gets up pretty early so I don't know if anything "before work" is possible.

4. Be A Better Wife

I'd like to make dinner every night. Although baseball and softball season will be starting soon but with some work I can still make dinner, right? Along with making dinner every night is having a PLAN for making dinner.

5. Make Meal Plans and Dinner Ever Night

I'd really like to get at least one credit card paid off. Those sneaky little things have a way of suddenly becoming very large. Which is NOT GOOD. Hopefully everyone can stay out of the hospital/surgery/broken bones/vet and we won't have any huge expensives that we can't cover with our regular paychecks.

6. Pay Off A Credit Card

That's about all I can come up with for now. How about you? Do you have any things you'd like to accomplish in the new year?

Christmas Re-Cap

Wednesday the kids and I made tons of cookies

Snickerdoodles
Mrs. Fields
Gingersnaps
Peanut Butter
Sugar Cookies

Spritz

AND Peanut Butter Pie. By the tiime we were on the last batch I had pretty much turned it over to the kids. It's nice when the oldest is interested in helping out AND capable of taking over.

Thursday I took my mother in law to Costco. I was petrified the whole time that someone was going to ram in to her with a cart and break her. We made it out in one piece!

Later that night the next door neighbors came over with gifts. We all enjoyed some Pumpkin Pie (from Costco, it's the bomb) and coffee.

Christmas Eve we all just kicked it around the house for most of the day. We watched three Christmas movies

National Lampoons Christmas Vacation
The Grinch (Jim Carey one)
& Elf

I fell asleep before Elf was over. I should have known better to lay down on the couch! Eventually it was time to get ready and go to Scott's Mom's house. She had cold cuts and finger foods. They got the kids some stuff for their stockings and cash. Here's the stuff we took to his mom's!

Those are lil' smokies wrapped in bacon and then covered with brown sugar there on the left. I cooked them a little too long though. Everyone else still liked them but they were better last time.

My sister in law got them drawing pads and pencils from the dollar store. My mother in law gave them some Avon stuff in their stockings and ca$h, no one ever turns that down!

 My mother in law liked her sweater I bought her. It has a really large turtleneck. She said it will double has a head cover lol.

 She wore it the rest of the night. Score for a gift that she actually liked. I got my father in law a Hickory Farms gift set. I didn't get yelled at too much for buying presents even though I wasn't supposed to. Everyone likes to have something to open I think. How sad would it be to get nothing at all?

Trevor with his Grandpa

We ended up staying until eleven thirty which is really unheard of for staying at his parents. Usually we're in and out in two hours or so. It was nice since his sister that usually stays in her room the whole time stayed out THE WHOLE TIME, his brother was there for quite awhile and his other sister arrived awhile before we left (along with her son who drove her there but he only stayed for a bit).

I crashed out when we got home. I was starting to feel like I was getting sick (of course, I can't have a Christmas without being sick, can I?) Scott played Santa. This was a good year for him to do it since there was only one thing to put under the tree and a few things for the stockings.

I took this picture in the morning (I usually take a picture of the gifts under the tree before I go to bed). There was no need to hurry and get up this year. Everyone slept until almost 9:00! I can't believe everyone slept in so long!

Once everyone got up it was straight to opening presents. In our family it's tradition for each person to open their presents one at a time starting with the youngest. Before opening you have to take a picture with your "pile".

The kids didn't seem to notice (or at least they didn't say anything) that they didn't get quite as many gifts or big ticket items. Other than the Wii that is. Which was nice. Rusty was rather confused about the whole situation. He kept running back to me over and over.

Every year I say "I should get myself together for Christmas morning". Never happends (and I even had time this year) At least I had put on my Christmas nightgown, which I wear all year long lol.

Scott got those "awesome" fleece pants from the neighbors. He has been warned that if the "awesome pants" are worn outside of the house they will be some "awesome garbage".

The kids hooked up the Wii after we opened presents. We got Melissa Just Dance 2. Rusty was not happy about everyone jumping around!

Eventually I got everyone to FINALLY get ready to go to my mom's house. They had all been playing around while I cleaned up everything (didn't want the dog eating anything while we were gone). Jess remembered at the last minute that she forgot to put the pictures in the picture frame she bought for my mom. Which meant that she turned into holy terror drama monster while she tried to put it together.

Eventually everyone was in the car and on our way. Scott pointed out that the person that had took our shed had painted it. I said that I had told him we could paint it years ago, and not that the one he moved in it's place looked any better. He said "can't I do anything right?" Which turned into me wearing headphones the rest of the way to my mom's house.  Which, was majorly detoured because first he got off on the wrong exit? and then when he got off at the right exit he didn't get in the right lane so we had to go a whole different route. We've only been driving there for 18 years... I was good though and didn't make any comments (outloud).

Christmas at my Mom's was all day. We opened presents, did a gift exhange game with the adults, made dinner (I made 2 lasagnas), ate dinner, cleaned up and eventually had dessert and left around 9. Scott's brother was there. The best part of Christmas at my mom's was playing with my niece.

 The not so great part was that I was getting sicker as the night was going on. My brother and sil/niece and brother in law left early. My nephew stayed so he could play longer.

My other brother was rough housing with my nephew and Trevor. It's at those times that I realize how incredibly awkward it is to have a son who doesn't know how to wrestle. When we were growing up every night before bed my step dad would get down on the floor and wrestle with my brothers. EVERY night. I don't think I've ever seen Scott wrestle with Trevor. Probably because his contact with his dad while he was growing up was trying to stay out of his drunken path. It makes me really sad that my son doesn't know how to play like that. BUT then I can't really blame my husband because he doesn't really know how to do that either.

Everyone was so tired by the time we were having dessert. We didn't end up playing any fun games. It was really kind of depressing.

We got home and Scott and the girls stayed up forever while I tried to fall asleep with my stuffed up nose. I kept crying to myself, which really annoyed me. But I couldn't help to feel kind of sad that Christmas had kind of sucked. I'm glad it's over for the year!

Christmas Is Coming The Geese Are Getting Fat...

Whew I almost feel like singing Christmas songs. Just the other day they made me want to hurt someone. (do you know that song? My Mom always sang it and I think my Grandma did too)

Well today was pretty exciting!

I got  a Christmas Bonus at work.

I FINISHED my Christmas shopping (Started Saturday night).-took care of that "bonus" too haha

Cleaned up the kitchen and Melissa made dinner.

Made everyone help put the clean clothes away which got an hour job down to about 10 minutes.

Wrapped all the presents-this years code names are:

Red
Orange
Yellow
Green
Blue
Purple

Not too original this year lol. (I make up fake names so they can't figure out whose presents are whose, this year they each have 2 names)

The kids helped me put ribbons and bows on them-trying to figure out who was what name the whole time

Washed 4 loads of laundry while I did all that

The last load is in the dryer and the laundry will be semi caught up (except for putting away). I have to physically go out and turn the dryer off now since it's ghetto style and has decided that it likes to just keep going (but blows COLD air so the clothes aren't even getting all the way dry sometimes!)

Someone has some REALLY bad gas. I'm thinking it's  the man, who is sleeping on the floor. I wonder how much his back is going to hurt tomorrow? He's been sleeping down there for a couple hours.He always claims that the mattress on our bed makes his back hurt, and yet he can sleep in the strangest positions on the couch, chair and FLOOR. Go figure.

I'm taking tomorrow off so I will be able to make cookies with the kids. I had thought about just not making cookies this year but it's TRADITION! I already had Thursday and Friday off but we will be busy those days. I'm pretty excited although we'll have to run to the store in the morning and get the supplies. Our favorites are

Mrs. Field's Cookies (at least that's what the chain letter from the 80's called them lol)
Snickerdoodles
Peanut Butter Pie (brother Joey already requested!)

We usually make Peanut Butter Cookies and maybe Spritz oh and can't forget the Sugar Cookies although we'll have to go dig out the cookie cutters for those!

What's your favorite Christmas Cookie?

Crazy busy weekend

This weekend just flew by! I think we need to make the weekends a lot longer!

Friday night I went out with some girls from work. We started off by all meeting at the one gals house. She made us dinner and we got a ride down to the "cowboy bar". I pretty much spent the whole night with a drink in one hand and dancing my ass off. It was AWESOME.

Saturday I woke up (still at the friends house) and waited around for everyone to wake up so I could get some asprin and coffee. Eventually I had both and was on my way home. My nephew's birthday party was at 2 and we all made it there. The kids all had a great time playing with Nerf guns. They didn't need any organized activities, just played for HOURS. I of course spent most of the day playing with my adorable niece! We discovered that she loved drinking water out of my glass and spent most of the day "having sips".  In the evening we left the kids there for a bit and went and bought a new computer (ours died last weekend) and then did a bit of Christmas shopping. This is the hardest year ever to buy stuff. Everyone has so much crap already and I'm tired of buying stuff that doesn't get used. Anyhow, we managed to spend about $400. YIKES. Didn't buy much just "something" and some accessories that is all going to be from Santa for everyone I think.  Just need to get a couple things to wrap for everyone after payday and we'll call it done.  We got back from shopping and hung out with my brother and sil for awhile and then left to go home.

Not too long after we left we had a car behind us driving totally aggressive, even honking at us for stopping at a stop sign. We got on the freeway and the guy in the other car at one point pointed at us through his open passenger door window and continued to go slow and speed up trying to get us to be next to him. It was rather scary and we decided to call 911. I just said that I wanted to report a drunk driver. We never saw a cop but eventually the guy took an off ramp. Scott kept asking if he had cut the guy off or something. I hadn't been paying attention so I really didn't have any idea.

This morning I woke up and had to drive back to pick up Trevor since he spent the night. I swung by the grocery store and picked up a little plant and a gift card, got home and got everyone and then we went to my dads for an early Christmas celebration. They had finger foods and a Wii game and that's what they all did for the whole afternoon.

I've spent my evening trying to recreate my checkbook and bills  on my computer. Hopefully I'm not forgetting anything important!

Blah already back to work tomorrow. I'm glad it's a short week!

12 Down, 3 To Go!

Last night was Trevor's Christmas program at school. Usually I have the kids stand in front of the Christmas Tree since everyone is dressed up. Later I make the picture into our Christmas card. This year that didn't happen because Jessica wanted to stay home and study for her final and work on her Christmas presents she was making for her friends at school. Melissa didn't know if she was supposed to play in the program for band or not even though I TOLD her to find out a few days before and even reminded her that day that she needed to find out. I told her since she didn't know what was going on that she couldn't play even if she was supposed to. Bad mom I know but at some point the kid needs to pull her head out of her ass and be responsible. So yeah everyone was pretty happy when we left. As soon as we got there Melissa decided that she was going to hang out outside with her friends and never came in for the actual performances. I tried the WHERE R U? text, which went off in her bag on the chair next to me.

So for the first time in like ever it was just Scott and I watching. I had totally forgot to tell my mom which day it was and she never asked. Woops. She should have known it was this week though if she really wanted to go. We sat in the area where we usually sit. No one was in front of me until right before the program started. (and I even did a little looksee to make sure there were no slightly balding me in front of me). Right before the program started a lady took her seet in front of me. It didn't take me long to start thinking OMG she's like amazon tall or something?? I had to look around here because there was no seeing OVER the top of her freaking huge head. Especially when she was holding her arms up with her phone making a video.

The program started off with the band, which was absolutely HORRIBLE. They have a new band instructor this year and the man never talked to the crowd and/or had the band stand up and take a bow or anything. I thought that was very odd. Maybe he had performance anxiety.

The band was followed by the Kindergarten (so had to look up to spell that how sad!) kids, which were of course ADORABLE. Then 1st and then 2nd, which was yeah time for Trevor. I can't remember what they sang first but the 2nd song they sang was a hokey pokey reindeer song complete with antlers and shaking their "tails". Too cute! Trevor was totally into it too which made it even better.

(That's my boy on the right with his hand held high)

(and here with the stripe on his shirt)

After that we made it through the rest of the program which was, yawn, not too exciting. We were pretty excited afterwards when Trevor chose getting a cookie over waiting to see Santa which takes AT LEAST an hour. We got home in record time and picked up Jess to go out to dinner.

The kids chose Applebees. Right after we sat down Trevor started crying that they had no crayons. He cried for almost the whole time we were there, thank God quietly, but he cried. We finally bribed him with going to see the house with all the Christmas lights if he stopped crying. He's been wanting to go see it for awhile so that worked.

 
One of these times I'm actually going to get out of the car so I can see the train that goes around in the yard there.

Another Star Wreath and Biggest Loser Commentary

Here's a new wreath I made last night for a co-worker. I like the way it turned out! Sorry it's not cropped. Still no computer at home and I can't figure out how to do it on the work computer.

I got home yesterday and the Christmas tree was untouched by the dog, TG! Can't say the same for a cup from the Magic Bullet. I don't know why the dog always finds those to eat them but I'm pretty sure it has something to do with them belonging to Scott...

Did you all watch the Biggest Loser this season? I don't think I made it through ONE episode without falling asleep. I seriously need to get DVR. Anyhow, last night was the finale, and SOMEHOW I stayed awake for the whole thing. There may have been smacking involved.

I was glad for the guy that won. He had been unemployed for quite awhile and so I'm sure the money from winning will really help him out. Hopefully he will keep his weight off afterwards. I wish they would do more "where are they now" type things.

I always feel bad for the people that went home early and didn't lose very much weight too. They go up for their before and after segments and they hardly look any different. How embarrassing! I think that would be a huge motivator for me personally. Let's show the whole world how you FAILED to lose any weight.

Are you planning on a "losing weight" New Years Resolution?

It's finally looking a little bit Christmas around here

Well we FINALLY got the Christmas tree up yesterday. It only involved minimal cussing. For some reason the tree has about 2 more plugs than sections for the lights and it totally confuses me on how they are all supposed to fit together. After I got them all together, lit up, and the tree decorated I had to put the star thing on top and DUH that has to be plugged in too. I ended up pulling out an extension cord. It's white but you can't see it because there are a bazillion ornaments on the tree. I only broke 3 putting that star thing on the top.

The kids did most of the decorating. Not quite sure what's up with the cheesy smile lol.

:sigh: This girl is getting WAY too grown up. ELEVEN. She's 11!!

The finished product!

Jess helped too but I was forbidden to take pictures of her.

Rusty is completely confused about this whole putting things to chew up on the tree thing in the house. I put barracades in front of it this morning when I left for work. Let's hope they helped deter him.

Christmas Star Wreath

Saturday night I decided to get my craft on and make the Little Birdie Secrets Star Wreath.

If you haven't been to that site before and you are a crafter, you MUST go check it out! Tons of inexpensive cute crafts that you can give as gifts! I spent Saturday bookmarking them all and Sunday my computer died. :sads:

So here is my wreath

Not quite as awesome as hers but it was my first attempt. I didn't have a wreath like she used so I made my own from a cardboard cracker box. I cute 2 circles out and then covered them with paper and mod podge'd them to make them look nicer. Then I did the stars like she did for the background.  I added a few smaller stars in for fun.

Next time I make this I will

1. Make it bigger
2. Use less colors
3. Make the background stars smaller

Overall I think it turned out kind of cute! I brought it to work and hung it up in my cube.

Ahh the memories..

The other day at lunch the talk got around to "coffee houses" that we used to hang out at when we were teenagers. I'm over 20 so this was before the days of Starbucks. The one I liked to go to wasn't like the coffee houses of today.

It was dark. It was moody. It was in a "bad part of town".

The funny thing is that when I went there I never drank coffee. I think I drank tea a few times. I wasn't into the whole hot caffinated drink phase yet.

But it was cool to hang out and people watch. EMO people before "EMO" was a thing. Druggies. Preps. Then us. I have no idea what we were. My friend was super smart, beautiful, blonde, and exploring. Me, not so much.

I remember on one occassion talking to these guys, there must have been like 4 of them, and then going to their house boat. My friend ended up making out with one of them under a blanket. I'm pretty sure there was weed but I'm pretty sure I didn't smoke it. I'm pretty sure I'm lucky we didn't get raped, murdered and thrown into the river.

Definitely the young and dumb days.

I do, do you?

Did you all hear about the guy that married his dog?

I'm not kidding! You can read about it here.

While I think it's crazy that you CAN marry your dog (afterall the dog couldn't really decline could she?), I can totally see where it would be a great arrangement.

Everyday, I come home, and Rusty RUNS to me, showering me with kisses.

Then I take him outside so he can pee and poop, that's the downside.

BUT he didn't go in the house, that's a plus! Not to mention that I don't have to worry about if he got it all in the bowl or not.

We play fetch for awhile til I get bored. Or he gets bored.

I get to pick what's for dinner. He's super excited to eat anything I make.

When it's time for bed, he's already warming up my side of the bed for me. He moves over and we snuggle in for the night.

If only he could take himself out in the morning I might consider it, afterall, a girl's got to sleep in!

When I leave for work in the morning, he's super sad.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Yeah, it just might work.

Snow and I, we don't get along.

As the weather turns to "winter" and people start talking about how they have to shovel and plow and the storms and the cold, can I just say..




I'M SO GLAD IT DOESN'T SNOW HERE!
(except for last year for an hour, and like that one time in 1974)

Yes, go ahead and throw your snowballs at me! We used to have a yearly tradition of going to the snow every year on New Years Day. The kids would get snow boots for Christmas, since you know, they outgrow them by the time we go again every year. I think I got snow clothes at garage sales for the most part. Probably from all those people that fled the snowy places for our mild California winters.

New Years Day we'd all climb in the car or truck or whatever we were driving at the time and head up to the hills to play in the snow. It would take us at least an hour maybe two, I'm not sure exactly how long now, but it was a bit. We'd get up to where there was snow and start looking for a place to pull over and play.

Everyplace was ALWAYS on the left side of the road. Which requires us turning around to park along the side of the road. There would never be any place to turn around. Too many people. No place to park. Not a good enough hill. We aren't PAYING to go there...

The man would start complaining. I'd be trying to bite my tongue. It would be bleeding. I'd say something, he'd get pissed. We'd start yelling. Eventually we'd just pick somewhere that was "good enough" to get out of the vehicle.

The last year we went I decided I wasn't going down on the sled. I'm not sure WHY I didn't want to. I probably thought I'd get hurt and/or didn't want to climb up the hill. Plus Trevor was little so I had to take care of him. I remember CAREFULLY walking across the snow when BAM!! I slipped and flew UP in the air and fell SMACK on my back and hit my head. I layed there stunned while people looked at me. I think I heard an "are you alright? while I layed there making sure all my limbs were working. Eventually I got myself up and made it over to a safe area to sit down. While I'm sitting there with my head throbbing the man decides he has to pee.
Which of course, there is no where for him to pee. It's the FOREST. He can't go anywhere CLOSE he has to hike back where "no one can see". Eventually he comes back and is panting and carrying on. He thinks maybe he's having a heart attack. All I can think is that 1. We drove the truck that is a stick and I can't drive a stick and how the fuck are we getting down the mountain?2. I can't even be in pain by myself.
Yeah I'm nice like that. So eventually he feels good enough that we can drive down the mountain and go home. Now no one can remember why I don't want to go to the snow anymore. Sounds like a fun day, no?If I did live where it snowed I'd definitly have to make one of these, or at least send the kids out to make one ;)

Where's my bubble?

After being sick for the WHOLE month of November I'm finally feeling better. Today? The person sitting one cube over at work is so sick with a cold. OMG I so want to get a bubble and wrap it around myself.

I had to take Jessica to the doctor yesterday because her ears have been hurting her and she has a double ear infection. Poor kid can't catch a break with her ears. She's had two sets of tubes and then later had to have her eardrums patched since the holes from the tubes wouldn't close up. It's been almost year since she's had that done. I had hoped that she would have outgrown the ear infections.

I'm really wondering if she has some kind of food allergy. I've read before that that can cause ear infections and eczema and she has problems with both. If she starts getting ear infections all the time we might have to look into it. She said she'd rather be sick all the time than get another pair of tubes in her ears.

At The Movies..

Yesterday  I went to see Burlesque with a friend.

Oh my gosh, it was SO GOOD! I wanted to applaud after each "set". I have never really been a fan of Christina Aguilera, but man can that girl SING!

And this guy

OMG I'm in lust. He's SO HOT. The scene with him holding the box of cookies and not wearing anything just about sent me over the edge. I'll take him, guyliner and all!!

I liked the movie so much I'm tempted to go see it again. I NEVER do that. When it hits the $3 theater I might go see it a couple times. I think this is one of those movies that really shine on the big screen.

Although I could have done without the Cher solo. It just seemed so out of place. And she looks like a man in drag. Don't kill me if you're a Cher fan. I like some of her old songs!

Have you seen the movie?



Family Fun On Thanksgiving

I'm sitting here at 1:00 am (slightly cold, should get up and turn the heater on!) listening to someone burn rubber out on the main road. Why am I wide awake at 1:00 am? I layed around all day reading my book for blook club on Sunday, and just like the whole time I've been trying to read this book, I'll would read a bit and then fall sleep. Times like 10. With one big long nap towards the end there.

So yeah, I seem to have had plenty of sleep for today! I didn't even get dressed or showered until about 8:00. My friend wanted to get together and go have a drink and although I thought for a minute about not going I decided I needed to just go (those invitations don't come every day!). I had a nice time hanging out and having a couple drinks.

As everyone in the US knows Thursday was Thanksgiving. We were spending the day at my brother's house. It was so nice not having to do all the work this year. All I had to do was put the peanut butter and cheese spread on the celery and make some bacon wrapped little smokies (new name? heart attack snacks!). We weren't having dinner until 4 so we were all pretty lazy all day.

We got to my brother's around 2 and went up to the door. Knocked. No answer. Tried the knob. Locked. WTH? Called the house. No answer. Tried to use my key. Confused about which one was for his house (must mark that next time I go over there!). My mom pulled up not too long after us and so they unlocked the door and we all went inside. I called my brother to find out where they were (of course I'm thinking they are at the ER, something happened, someone's dying!) They were just visiting SIL's cousins that live down the street. Odd though, to leave your house right before all your company comes over and not leave a note. Or like, text someone to tell them where you are going.

My plan was for the kids to make these cute Oreo Turkeys which didn't go all that great from the start because they had a hard time getting the cookies apart with all the cream on one side.

They decided they were done before they had their little red heads since they couldn't get them to stay together. Guess it's more of a "mom" recipe!

I had bought the game Jenga to play. I had never played it before, and picked it up for $7 or so at Target. I was thinking it would be a good game for everyone to play. The kids saw it on the table the day before Thanksgiving and wanted to play it but I told them they had to wait. So of course that was the first thing Trevor wanted to do when my nephew finally got back. They set it up and we all took turns playing it for HOURS. So much fun! Trevor was still playing it on and off all day today, begging one of us to play it with him. Best $7 I've spent in quite awhile!

Jess took some mirror pics like she does everytime she sees Adrian. I don't think it will be much longer before she's totally posing!

After dinner my other SIL had wanted to play spoons. We all sat down and played over and over until it was about 11. It was so much fun! We've decided that we need to make a "Spoon Trophy" and the winner gets to take it home until the next event. I need to get working on that since Christmas will be here before we know it!

At one point when we took a break my brother went and layed down on the floor and fell asleep. Someone was saying we should take a marker and draw on him for falling asleep at his own party. I couldn't find a marker but they had a dry erase one on the fridge. It worked good enough! SIL was all upset when she found out what we had done though and rubbed it off I think. I haven't heard anything from him about it lol. It was pretty funny at the time!

Judging from Zoe, it was a successful day!