Thanksgiving Thoughts & Devastating Disagreements

We had a great holiday weekend here in Arizona despite a few disappointing setbacks. Talia and Ryan planned to come up with their kids and share Thanksgiving with us, but unfortunately they had to alter their plans due to a devastating disagreement between Ryan and his stomach. . . His stomach won. After stopping overnight in Palm Springs, Ryan was still not feeling well after a long episode of working through the night at the Hospital the day before and a pulled muscle in his back, so they decided to turn around and head home. Bummer!!! We had already bought all the food, so we have TONS of leftovers (I'm not even kidding, I feel like we're in a replay of 50 First Dates, only on Thanksgiving day. And without the whole Hawaii, island romance thing. Okay, bad comparison. But I can whip out a mean plate of potatoes & gravy, stuffing, ham, and turkey and re-heat it for two kids in 3 seconds flat I've done it so much!)

Our turkey, now that's a story all in its own. A guy Buck works with is over the Boy Scouts in his Ward and they slow-roasted our turkey overnight in a big barbecue pit ~ it was so tender, the meat was literally falling off the bone! So good. It was fun though to spend time as a family and just relax. Buck was supposed to go back to work for the whole weekend because his Project he is working on is closing soon so they're in crunch time right now. He has a tooth that has been giving him alot of pain though lately and ended up staying home for most of the weekend, which I didn't mind! (He is either getting a root canal or having it extracted this week, compliments of the result of a previous football injury that went untreated. But it was still all worth it, right babe?! :)


So that pretty much wraps up our holiday weekend, besides Buck playing in the Turkey Bowl with our ward (which he cut short on account of his tooth) and finding a few sweet deals for Christmas presents for the kiddos. The stores weren't nearly as crazy as I thought they might be. We usually never do the whole "Black Friday" event, but I thought I would gain my rite of passage and brave the masses this year. After hearing about a temp. worker being trampled to death on the East Coast I was alot more apprehensive and discouraged about going; it is just so sad how thoughtless and senseless people can be, and all for materialistic posessions! I suppose with things like this, you just have to remind yourself of all the good people out there too, and to be positive and have faith in mankind, but it sure can make it tough at times.


President Hinckley was such a good example of optimism and faith. I often think of his quote, "Life is not just to be endured, but enjoyed." Although at times the state of mankind can be upsetting, if we let ourselves get pessimistic and hung up on all the negative things in the world, then we will only miss out on all of the many wonderful things also. Focusing on what's wrong never helped make things right. Not to mention it certainly doesn't lend any help towards our own personal improvement by doing so either! If we are too busy worrying about others shortcomings, we aren't very likely working on our own. I know I've definitely got room for improvement in this area! :) So in short, I am so thankful for leaders who remind us of what is really important and to find joy in the journey. I am so thankful for my family and the support and joy that they bring me, and for all of the many abundant blessings in my life. I hope everyone else has had a great Thanksgiving holiday and were also able to get a renewing spirit of gratefulness! All our love~

 
How can you not find joy in THIS?!!

     
A few pics to enjoy!

"List of Fives" Tag

10 years ago...

1. I was a junior in High School
2. I drove a 79 Ford Mercury Cougar. rarrr
3. Talia & I were mother-daughter in the Murder Mystery H.S. Play
4. I made First Flute in the All-State Band (Yes, I was a band geek)
5. Our 2 mile Relay Team took first at State!

5 Things on Today's list of things to do...

1. Clean the spare room for Ryan & Tia to stay in for Thanksgiving
2. Fold about 4 loads of laundry. Fun!
3. Watch & play with 3 little monkeys.
4. Finish a Hairbow Holder for a friend.
5. Finish a Birth Announcement.

5 Snacks...

1. Apple slices w/lemon juice & water
2. Cheese & crackers
3. Goldfish
4. Granola Bars
5. Crackers & peanut butter

5 Things I would do if I were a Millionaire...

1. Pay off all debt
2. Help family member's with debt
3. Invest/Put money in savings
4. Have Buck enjoy whatever business endeavor he chose
5. Have a real Honeymoon & go on a vacation with family

5 Places I've lived...

1. Salem, Arkansas
2. Belgrade & Dillon, MT
3. Basin, WY
4. Rexburg, ID
5. Lancaster, CA

5. Jobs I have had...

1. Lifeguard at Basin Pool
2. Model for Fine Art Classes at College
3. Weeder/Cutter/Taper/Designer at Sign Shop
4. Typesetter at Artco Stationary
5. Freelance Graphic Designer

5 People I am Tagging...

1. Talia
2. Ashley
3. Amy
4. Amber
5. Bree

"Snack" Puppets

I'd been feeling bad that I hadn't been doing any fun stuff with the kids lately, especially with the Boutique Show and everything I had been pretty busy, so I invited my friend Julie and her 4 kids over and we made sack puppets! Or "snack" puppets, as Jeron calls them ~ I guess it's partially true since they are made out of lunch bags! Ha ha.

Ever since I made them for my Primary class, Jeron's been dying to actually make one of his own, but his creation turned out a little less structured . . . :)


Um, yeah - he's a boy. One that loves the glue gun a little TOO much. And don't even ask about the knight's helmet. What can I say, he's Jeron. :)

In actuality, it ended up being Julie and I in the kitchen making puppets and loving it, while the kids mostly ran around playing and chasing each other! I forgot to take pics while Julie was there, but her boys actually put together a dinosaur and girl puppet that turned out pretty cute. And although our little craft project turned out to be more entertaining for the adults than the kids, everyone had lots of fun!

Jocelyn displaying the puppet she supervised.




I think she's wondering why in the world that girl has such a big mouth!



My floor afterwards . . . Oh, but it was SOOO much better in person! Jeron dumped an entire bag of buttons on the floor . . . not to mention all the scraps of paper and ribbon!



And my table ~ pretty impressive, don't you think?! (Hey Erica, you recognize that table?!)



It was all worth it though and I'm sure we'll be making "snack" puppets again in the near future! Keep posted for new additions to our puppet family . . . :)

"Look, Mom! I'm a . . ."

Jeron continues to just crack me up. That is one spazzy, entertaining kid! The other night we were all sitting around having some chill time watching TV with Daddy home, and suddenly I hear Jeron, "Look, Mom! I'm a skateboard!" And I look over to see THIS . . .









Lol. I was laughing so hard! I had to get a picture. Oh, thank goodness for kids. Gotta love 'em.

Hairdos & Haircuts

Is that? . . . yep, you guessed it! That's a nice little bunch of Jocelyn's hair. I swear almost every little girl has to have her very own haircutting experience. Well, Jocelyn just had hers a few days before Halloween. I had given Jeron a haircut and had made sure to put everything away as soon as I was done like always, but Jocie must have either grabbed the scissors when I was using the clippers, or used the mini-trimmer of Buck's that I used on Jeron's neckline, because this is what I noticed later that night when we were getting ready to go out.




You can't tell that well from the pictures, but she cut a good inch and a half strip that reaches back almost that far from her hairline. So I can no longer put her hair in a ponytail at all. The front will not go up! Fortunately you can't tell that badly when her hair is down. Even clips are hard though! Sigh. What do you do . . .

At least I can count on Jeron to cheer me up. He cracked me up a few days after that with his own hairdo attempt.
"Mom, I want to fix my hair all by myself."
"Uh, okay."
And he comes out like this:



I was trying so hard not to laugh and said, "That looks great, you did such a good job!"
With a smile he says, "No, it's kinda dorkie. It kinda looks like horns." And laughs.
And these are the faces he comes up with when I ask for a picture. Such a goofball.

The Boutique Show

I know, two posts in one day, but I wanted to post about the Boutique Show I participated in on Saturday. I didn't make too much in sales (requests anyone?), but it was a really great experience and I was able to get my business card out to alot of people. I had quite a few people interested in having me do their Holiday Cards, so hopefully that works out! It was really fun to make everything in preparation for the Show though and to meet other people. Even if I repeatedly got 3-4 hours of sleep the week of the show! Some lady even wants me to paint a sherpa for her son's business in Virginia. I know, funny. I made hairbow holders, hairbows, snugglies and put together a Portfolio for my Photo Cards. Lots of work, but now that it's done, I feel so much more organized and prepared! Now to get my design site reorganized!

Some pics of a few samples of my work:







And a special thanks to Ashley for having such great bows that I could learn from! :)

Halloween Hams

Jeron has really started thinking he's cool and loves making funny faces for the camera ~ He's such a little comedian.



Jocelyn had fallen asleep right before we were trying to go out, so at first she wasn't too keen on the fairy wings, but she warmed up to them pretty quick and ran around trying to bop Jeron with her wand.



Braxton was really tired too since it was his bedtime, but I still managed to get a pic of him wearing the pirate bandana! We had alot of fun dressing up even if we didn't get to do too much trick-or-treating.

Mobile Mouser

I laid Braxton down a few days ago, and he decided he would try and crawl a little bit! I say try, but he really does try and get his knees up under him a little bit, which I tried to catch in this video but he wasn't doing it as well by the time I taped it! I couldn't believe it, at 3 months old! Let's hope we don't have an early crawler on our hands! He is 3 months 3 days today. (And if you're wondering about his onesie, I was in the process of getting a diaper to change him, but Jeron was being my helper watching him and he was the one who rolled him over on his tummy.)