Friday, November 29, 2013

The First Thanksgiving


When we purchased Trent's family home we missed the fine print: "family gatherings will always be held in this house"! So in order to honor the agreement we hosted our first Thanksgiving! I'm not going to lie I was very nervous about taking on such a huge responsibility! There is a lot of pressure in providing such a monumental feast...especially when the guests have high standards based on previous experience! Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays...food and family what could be better! But I love going to other peoples home! Fortunately, Trent's dad offered to help us with the Turkey and I am a good delegator so all the guests brought a portion of the meal. It ended up being a great day and everything turned out surprisingly well! This was also Laura's first Thanksgiving so it was an extra special day!
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Grandpa Dan is a great teacher! Love watching these men in the kitchen!

Trent made a top for the pool table! It was the perfect setting for our 20+ guests!


Brendan is getting way to big way to fast! 

Anna and Miss Maddie!

Maddie and Laura got them honor of breaking the wishbone...Laura got the bigger piece! Hope she made a good wish!


I found the turkey crayon holder idea here...the kids loved decorating their place settings!

We love our cousins



The very best thing about Thanksgiving weekend..the ASU vs UofA game!

Laura's first ASU game and the best one of the year...and we won!!!!!

The kids were very helpful...removing the extra parts inside the cavity...gross!

Friday, November 1, 2013

Happy Halloween



Love this holiday! I really think Halloween is my favorite holiday! I love the decorations, the costumes and of course the candy! I have been lucky to work in schools that still allow us to dress up and even have a parade (more and more schools are not allowing this tradition :( So my team and I dressed up as the grammar police! Because of Aiden's glasses we thought he would make a perfect Clark Kent and Anna wanted to be a goddess! Laura enjoyed her first REAL Halloween as even though they celebrate the holiday in Spain it is on a much smaller scale! She dressed up as a cheerleader from Glee! Very cute! In honor of the holiday we also went to a pumpkin patch and maintained our tradition of carving pumpkins (this was a first for Laura). 
And of course there was the Trick or Treating! The kids hit up most of the neighborhood and filled up a pillow case! I on the other hand was on a diet and did not eat one piece of candy! That was a first for me!!







Anna with her besties...Kylie and Paige



Anna with the most amazing teacher ever...Mrs. Ryland!! We are so lucky to have her!!