A week of Thanksgiving....

This has been an interesting week to say the least. Things started out on a bit of a down note with my Grandfather's health declining. He was admitted to the VA Hospital last Saturday and has since been transferred to a care facility. It is disappointing to see him in such a fragile state considering what grand memories I have of him. He has good and bad days, but I'm just not sure where things will go/should go from here. Thanksgiving was a little on the solemn side without either of my grandparents attending (Grandma stayed with Grandpa at his bedside) again. Last year they both had a bout of the Flu and I was so excited that they were going to be attending this year....well that was not to be. Thanksgiving was still nice and it was a relaxing laid back day all things considered. I decided that I wanted to cook EVERYTHING by myself this year and had a great time doing it. I spent the night before baking the pies..(ALL HOMEMADE FROM SCRATCH!) Since we're still eating them, I think I made a few too many: pumpkin, pecan, sweet potato and a chocolate peanut butter pie. Then in the morning I prepped and started roasting the Turkey, made Watergate Salad and started the stuffing, yams and green bean casserole. I did get a little help, though. Tom peeled and cut the potatoes for me while I was doing everything else. Thanks Tom! So of course we then proceeded to stuff ourselves silly! The kids were so cute making noises of content with each bite, helping me feel good about all of the work I'd done. Everything really turned out so nice and I got great compliments from everyone about the quality of the food! Chris was especially greatful for my research and execution of true southern pecan and sweet potato pies. I have to say that I am pretty darn proud of myself.
Since Chris's schedule is so crazy, he was the first to drop for the obligatory nap. Followed very rapidly by my mom, the kids and I. What a nice day. Then, of course we had to plan our attack for the next morning. Yes, Chris and I are INSANE! We went Black Friday shopping, again. What a blast! We got up at 3:30 am and started at Wal-Mart. We took our friend Marguerite for her first Black Friday experience and I don't think that it was as exciting for her as we'd hoped. All things said, we got essentially everything we wanted, AND we survived! Later that day, my Mom took me for a girls day out and got me a MUCH NEEDED perm and hair cut! It's been a long time and I really needed it. Thanks Mommy! Then like we do every year, we went to Temple Square for the lighting of the Christmas Lights. We were late due to my hair appointment, but we still made it. This year was a little crazy and since my hair was still wet, we couldn't stay long because I was miserably cold. But at least we still got to go.
I am starting to realize that I have been a little uptight and tense for the last couple of days and I think I've finally figured it out...it's almost been a year since my surgeries and hospitalization and I think I am reliving the anxiety and fear that I was feeling then. I don't think I have ever verbally expressed the fear and uncertainty that I experienced and had just been greatful to just be okay. So, I apologize if my mood has been a little off..I will snap out of it soon, I promise!! :-)

Wow! Where does all the time go?

I was doing so good at keeping up my weekly blog, happily, until recently. I guess I've gotten so wrapped up in the excitement that I forgot to share the fun! So, since the last time I blogged so much stuff has happened. I started babysitting Mikey (our friends/neighbors 3 month old) 5 days a week and have fallen completely in love with the idea of having a baby around. I forgot how much I love this age! Well, circumstances being what they are, I guess I'll have to be content with babysitting. Darn. Mikey has become an extension of our family and the weekends are hard for me when he's not here. He is just so much fun! Taylor and Danny have loved having him here so much that they fight over who gets to hold him, change his diaper and make him laugh! Who would've thought? Anyways, I'm just thankful for the baby therapy! Then we had Taylor's 5th birthday. Oh boy. I got myself in WAY over my head. I decided to throw a party at our house like a good mommy and totally overdid it! I made darn near the cutest Pirate Ship cake EVER, hand made a "Pin the Patch on the Pirate" game, played "Musical Planks" and made treasure maps with each kid! We had 12 kids under 6 running around hopped up on cake and pizza! I know, I'm nuts. Hey, it turned out so stinking cute that I'm even considering doing it again next year! Maybe. :-) Grandma Stefenee took Taylor to her first Salon appointment for her birthday and had her hair and nails done. Tay had such a great time that she wants me to take her there once a week. Oh boy, I think we created a diva! After that chaos calmed down, I hosted a Lia Sophia jewelry party at my house (three days later!) thanks to some intense urging of an unnamed partner in crime...cough, sneeze Jessica, cough cough. It turned out to be a pretty fun girls night. NO kids or husbands and lots of jewelry. Almost heaven on earth! Almost. Okay, I think I've about summed up the fun for this week. Hopefully I'll get back on track and keep my posts coming weekly!

Halloween Fun!

I forgot just how much I love Halloween!! My Dad absolutely made my whole week in his Batman costume! Grandma Stefenee and Papa volunteered to help with Taylor's Preschool Halloween party and were awesome sports and dressed to the hilt to impress the kids! They really went ALL out and made great memories for Taylor that will last forever! When Taylor got out of school, we went with the Mckell family to their work Halloween "party." Party just doesn't do this justice!
He works for Omniture and they don't take Halloween for granted....at all! They had TWO office buildings totally decked out so well that they rivaled any Haunted House (except it wasn't scary, it was a Super Hero theme) It was the COOLEST thing I have EVER seen!! Thanks for inviting us guys!
After the party we went to Grandma Stefenee and Papa's house to go trick-or-treating and as soon as we walked out the door, it started to rain! The good news was that it was a very nice night and the rain was intermittent, so I really enjoyed two of my favorite things combined! When we had made our way around their neighborhood we decided to come back down to our house so that the kids could trick-or-treat to their friends houses. What a treat that turned out to be! The Wingers (Taylor's friend Kates family) did a spook alley in their garage that was so COOL! The kids spent 20 minutes playing in there and probably would have stayed for hours! Then the Christensen's also did a "haunted garage" for the neighborhood that could be customized to it's audience. Taylor and Danny decided that they were big enough and brave enough to go through the SCARY version with Grandpa, Uncle Tom and Daddy. I was a little worried about them getting too scared, but they surprised me and loved every single second of it! Did I mention that I LOVE our neighborhood?!? Everybody does the funnest things and is so awesome! Thanks for the great memories guys!!