Gobble, Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving! Every other year we switch off who's side of the family we have Thanksgiving with. I really like this plan, it cuts out having to jump from house to house and we spend the day relaxing with family rather then traveling. This year we spent Thanksgiving with my side of the family at my parents house. I must say that my mom is an incredible cook so Thanksgiving at her house is always delicious. My food assignment is always the same, sweet potatoes. I now rock at making them.
In my family we have a joke that your food assignment is always based on how well you cook and you only move up to something harder to make once my mom trusts you with it. I started, like everyone else at one point, with the drink, then up to jello, up again to relish tray, and I have now been stuck on the sweet potato level for years. I'm trying not to take it personally and to be proud of myself for graduating to the sweet potato level, which hasn't been easy.

We celebrated Thanksgiving with the McCubbins and Hoovers (my moms sisters families). After dinner we played Charades, which was suppose to be a joke on my mom, by my dad since he was in charge of the family game. All the slips we were to act out all said "This is a joke on Terri, act out whatever you want and hand the slip back to me." We played several rounds before she found out, she was a good sport about it all.

I'm so thankful for my darling family, all of them. I love them to pieces and couldn't imagine life without them! Especially my parents, I truly lucked out getting them (they lucked out getting me as well) just kidding, but I do love them more then I would ever be able to let them know. My dad carving the turkey.

Aunt Georgie really happy to be mashing potatoes.

The kid table

Carter making us all jam to Brittney Spears, "Oops I Did It Again", and "I Would Walk Five Hundred Miles"....

My mom after she found out the game was a joke on her....Let's get a closer look...

Macy and Papa playing Catch Phrase.

ADDICTIONS

We all have addictions, some worse then others, but they're there. I have a shopping and returning addiction, Macy has a Dora addiction, Raegan has a birthday party addiction. We have multiple "birthday parties" set up around the house daily. Kurt has a sport addiction. More specifically, a football addiction. I loose him every winter to NFL.
I'm not going to lie and pretend that it doesn't bug me, because it does, but I've come to the conclusion throughout the years that it will never change, and our family will continue to be ignored (not purposely) during football season. Kurt has football on continually, and not only does he watch every game, he watches Sports Center, PTI, and all those other awesome sport shows all night long.

I have tried to embrace it, learn the game, and watch it, but I find it horribly boring and I just can't do it, it's like asking Kurt to scrapbook, or watch Dancing With the Stars. He doesn't want to do those things, just like I don't want to watch a bunch of men line up and crash into each other, only to have to stop, set up, and do it all over again. I hate it.

To all you other wives who's husbands suffer with sports addiction, I feel your pain! I understand what you're going through! It's rough and we've got to stick together in these fantasy football, BYU, NFL crazy times. WE CAN DO IT!! WE CAN GET THROUGH THIS!!

In my self pitying in the past, I've decided to be grateful that he has a sports addiction. There are so many other more horrible, terrible, no good, addictions out there and I should be glad that Kurt is addicted to sports and sports talk rather then any of those other things. So, although I don't always love hearing crowds cheering, and announcers talking throughout my house all day on Sunday, I'm glad he's here and not at the bar.

You'll Never Convince Me That These Aren't the Cutest Bugs Ever.

I have so many Halloween pictures, it's ridiculous. So I had to choose a choice few. I was feeling it this year and was excited to make my girls these Halloween costumes. Raegan wasn't convinced at first that this was the way to go. In fact, she changed her mind several different times of what she wanted to be this year, but once she saw Macy's ladybug tutu she wanted one, so we made her a butterfly and she couldn't have been happier. She also got to wear it to school and to dance. It was fun to be able to pick out colors and ribbons for these costumes.

Of course my girls loved trick-or-treating, they stayed out until I called Kurt and told him it was probably time for our little ones to get out of the rain, and hit the sack. The girls were also lucky enough to have their cousin Cooper join them trick-or-treating. Macy and Cooper get along so great, and Raegan would just love to be the mom of them both. They scored enough candy to last them until next Halloween, I'm just glad that their still young enough to be oblivious to what candy bars I've stolen out of their treat buckets.

Here's our cute kids ready to beg for treats!

Macy giving her pumpkin a smooch.Raegan was overly excited to clean her pumpkin out until she touched the guts...and the guts got on her hands...

no more pumpkin carving for Raegan. I had to take over her pumpkin while she managed.Here's her finished Cinderella pumpkin. Raegan was cracking me up because she was making her pumpkin talk. This was the conversation she had with Cinderella...

Raegan, "Oh hi Cinderella, my name is Raegan and this is my little sister Macy and this is my mom."

Cinderella voice by Raegan, "Oh hi, it's so nice to meet you. I don't have any arms! Why didn't you carve me any arms?"

This was my Halloween costume for Bunco, I know, I know, really creative. I should have made myself a tutu and been some sort of bug.

Macy Goes to the Dentist

I decided to take Macy to the dentist because she was complaining awhile back about something hurting in her mouth and I wanted to make sure it wasn't a cavity. She's been with us to take Raegan to the dentist so she was as excited as can be to be able to go herself. In the car on the way there I was telling her that the dentist would be looking in her mouth and she would have to open up really big. Well, the second she laid down in that chair, before they were even ready, she had that mouth opened big and was afraid to shut it. I had to tell her 3 different times it was okay to keep it closed until they were ready to clean her teeth. When they were trying to clean her bottom teeth she could not for the life of her keep her tongue in her mouth, it was pretty funny to watch them try to work around it. She did great and no cavities!She did awesome holding still for her x-rays.

Here's Macy just waiting to get her teeth cleaned, they were still minutes away to being ready to start.

Gardner Villiage Tradition

Who can pass up the Gardner Village witches? Every year I look forward to taking my girls to see the witches there, and of course it's also great to be able to browse in the cute shops. This is where I actually got my girls Halloween costume ideas, of which I will post later.

As you can see Raegan is terrified of the Witches. I believe she called this one Grandma, no offense to her real Grandmas who are much prettier and not at all witches.

Macy's Tribute to Raegan

My Little Ballerinas

Who would have ever thought that my clumsy daughter (who used to run into walls when she was younger) would now be dancing! I actually put her in dance to help with her with her coordinated challenged problem. So far she loves it and is constantly showing me her latest moves. Her teacher came up to me during class one time and told me that:" Raegan just has it, there's something different about her, she's ready for the older class." Really? Do you think that her being in the 3-4 year old class when she'll be 5 in January has anything to do with it? In our house we are just going to believe that it's pure talent. Be watching for her in the Nutcracker one day.

This is Macy practicing for future dance lessons. She constantly puts on Raegan's tutu and tells me she's going to dance class. As you can see the look on her face is very serious. This is the face of a dancer. Also take a closer look at her walking on her toes! She does this all the time! I can't believe those little toes don't snap off!

Domestic Diva in Training.

I have been canning my can off! Over the past few years I have been learning how to bottle different things and I learn something new every year thanks to my mom, my mother in law, and neighbors! This year I've bottled: peaches, peach jam, apple pie filling, and spaghetti sauce. Last year I did spaghetti sauce with my mom and it was an absolute disaster. Seriously, I told her never again. Luckily it was one of those experiences that we look back on and laugh. However, my darling mother-in-law was bound and determined to help me do it this year so that I knew it wasn't all that hard, and my bad experience was a one time deal. She was right! With her help it seemed like no big deal at all, of course, she did most of the work while I watched and learned from the expert. Whenever I tell her she's the expert she's quick to remind me that she's not an expert, just old. She's so sweet to help me out.

I loved spending time canning this year. Even on the days where I did nothing else but can, and my house and kitchen were a mess because of it, it just felt good. I felt so productive and domestic! I remember after canning the peaches laying in bed that night thinking it was a great day. Best of all, my food storage is growing! Yay!