Thanksgiving 2009

Today was a beautiful day--warm enough to roll around in the leaves.

We had Thanksgiving dinner this year with the Snow side of the family.

Emily was the designated photographer
and then the time got away from me
and we ended up with a lot of single shots of just our family.
Oh well...

These girls are pretty cute.

I got off easy this year...

Dan prepared the turkey and the gravy.

My only contribution was a homemade gluten-free chocolate cake for Hilary,

which she graciously shared with everyone.

Nothing better than Thanksgiving...great food and great people to share it with.

And the fact never ceases to escape me that this child will be in

college next Thanksgiving! (I know...I need to give over it already)!

Thanksgiving is...

Thanksgiving is living like a queen.

Thanksgiving is eating like pigs.

Thanksgiving is a holiday.

Thanksgiving is not liking the scale.

Thanksgiving is family.

I found this little poem in Julia's book bag today and it made me laugh.

Procrastination versus Preparation

As a mother, I am still learning that procrastination is not always a bad thing and that it actually works better for some people--just not me.

You see, Emily takes after her dad. He may procrastinate at times, but he works

well under these conditions. I, on the other hand, prefer to prepare because procrastination only leads me to stress... a lot.

I am trying to exercise patience as I sit back and watch (without too much talking), Emily prepare or is it procrastinate her college admission deadlines and scholarship deadlines?

I want her to have it all done yesterday. However, she prefers to put the final touches on everything the night before. And you know what, it always works for her!

Any pressure=great success for this one and in many ways I admire it.

So dearest Emily, I will try to show more appreciation for the wonderful virtue of procrastination.

Counting My Blessings

I love Thanksgiving because it is a time of reflection.

A time to count our blessings...and there are so many!

Today and everyday, I am grateful for these four wonderful girls in my life!

We all pretty much share everything with each other.

I love every moment of being their mother, even the more dramatic moments, which are quite common in a household of hormones.

I am one very grateful mom!

It's been a bad week for this one...

She came home from her grooming appointment looking, well, if you've seen Pinocchio,

there is a definite resemblance to the little wooden boy and Scout when he is transforming into a donkey.

You see, our adorable Westie was "blessed" with large ears--batman-like ears.

When she is properly groomed, the ears don't look so bad, they are actually endearing.

This week the groomer, in her haste, decided to shave Scout's face and leave the rest of her hair long. When Dan picked her up with the twins, they nearly died at the way she looked!

Scout must have sensed her hideous haircut because she literally kept her face down after we brought her home. We are all adjusting to her new look, including Scout.

We can't wait for her to look like her breed again!

This is why I love my job...

Geek is Chic

Tonight is Timpview's Sadie Hawkins Dance and the theme is...

Nerds and Geeks...

so Emily and her group came up with their own version, Geek is Chic.

Emily's date is the awesome Daniel Winters from Atlanta

who flew all the way to Utah for Sadie Hawkins.

My favorite moment of the evening... when Daniel pulled out

a corsage made out of graph paper for Emily!

Don't you love the nerdy glasses they sported?

We got to host Emily's group for dinner--which we loved--except that they were an hour and a half late for dinner.

If Daniel's amazing family is reading this...thank you for letting him come!

We only wish you all lived closer because we miss you guys tons!!!

Order

This picture has nothing to do with this post but it does look like a Polaroid...pretty cool...my creative eldest child did this for her blog.

This post is actually about ORDER. I recently (with the help of this guy) put our food storage room in order. It has only taken years, but it has happened and it has made me so happy! I now have a nice big room to put all the long term food storage and water. The pantry overflow also has its own place. My favorite part is my new refrigerator that sits next to the deep freezer. No more tip toeing into a dark garage early in the morning for another gallon of milk. While the room is not complete, it is a great start. AND to be completely transparent, I must thank my parents for their very orderly genes that they've passed on to me, because without them, this project might have never happened!

Halloween 2009

Halloween lasted two days this year. Friday, Julia and I dressed up for Wasatch's annual Halloween Parade. I sported a fairly bland witch costume and at the last minute, Julia made a costume change and decided to be a Polynesian girl. I have to say she was a cute one!

Halloween night Julia met up with cousins and friends to trick or treat together.
This cute group of girls had a great time and scored loads of candy.

Dan and I commented on how strange this Halloween was because we only had one child who actually trick or treated and she preferred to do it with friends.

The highlight of the night was getting to see so many friends, neighbors and ward members with their adorable kids in their costumes!