November 2010

Remember November? I don't. It went by too fast. All I remember is a bunch of snow, and a lot of food. November was a busy one for me. I photographed, had two Thanksgivings, and probably gained 12 pounds. (I just read a statistic that said the average American gains between 7-12 pounds from Thanksgiving to Christmas. 7-12!)

I always love November because it's the month to stop and reflect on all you have. To celebrate with loved ones, and to remember we aren't only lucky to have so much, we're truly blessed. So I say farewell to November a little begrudgingly. I'm very excited for December and all the fun that comes with it, but know there will also be a lot of stress and chaos. So for just today I am going to try to slow down and be thankful for all I have. Goodbye November, until next year.

Thanksgiving in Idaho Falls

Hello, hello. We just got back late last night from our trip to Idaho Falls for the holiday. We ate, (understatement of the century) we spent time with family, (missed everyone who couldn't come) celebrated a birthday, did some festive decorating, and relaxed.

We're sad we had to come back to reality, since it was so nice just chillaxing. But we're happy to be home and playing in the snow. I am currently listening to Christmas music and getting ready for December, which is bound to be busy, busy.

Back tomorrow with pictures from our trip.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone has a safe, yummy holiday. See you back here Monday with pictures from our adventures. Happy Turkey Day! {That's one of Bob's famous smoked turkeys pictured above. You haven't had turkey til you've had the smoked variety. I love this holiday!}

Our Family Pictures

As someone who likes to be on the other side of a camera, it was kind of weird to get professional pictures taken. But the photographer was really nice, and it was fun to be with my family. I think the last time my whole fam got family pictures was like ten years ago at Kiddie Kandids. So I love having these to document our lives and how we've changed and grown. I won't show the whole family, but here are a couple of Bob and me, and my parents..

{Early} Thanksgiving

I think I can sum up my families early Thanksgiving in three pictures..
We gave thanks. We ate. Then the tryptophan set in. Can't wait to do it all again in just a couple short days!

November is almost over!

I have been running around like crazy. Photographing, celebrating an early Thanksgiving with my family, prepping for our annual Christmas party, and getting ready for Thanksgiving with Bob's family.

I will be in and out this week. Here's the cute family I shot Saturday. The weather was crazy, but we had a blast. Happy Monday. I'm excited it's a three day work week!

Shelter overhead, and food in my belly..

********** Today I wanted to be thankful for our health, and for the most part I am ever so grateful that Bob and I are healthy and have all of our limbs. But you'll have to excuse us, because for the last two weeks Bob and I have had between the two of us, coughing, sneezing, sniffling, ear infections, bleeding ears (don't ask), headaches, sinus infections, dizziness, and all around crappy sicknesses. So today I'm not going to say I am thankful for our health, because I am a tad disgruntled that we went all year without getting a cold or a flu and then bang, bam, boom, we both got it at the same time.

So instead, we crawled out of our sick cave, and went to the grocery store because we haven't had any real food in our house for weeks. Bringing me to what I'm thankful for today.. **************

Last night Bob and I went grocery shopping. It took waayyy too long. But it's always more fun when we go together. So we can liven it up just a bit by teasing each other about women's razors, cheese bricks, and which desserts we want.

We went home and had a taco night. We cooked dinner together and talked. We then curled up on the couch in our warm apartment, ate, and laughed our guts out at Modern Family. (Do you watch this show? You should.)

Today I'm thankful for the necessities. The food in our fridge, and our comfortable living situation. (And that we can afford medicine so we could take Nyquil and both sleep comfortably.)

Work

Am so grateful to have a job. Not only that, but one I love. One that pushes me to be creative, and allows me a little me time. With bosses that actually care when I'm sick, and are understanding. A job that I don't dread going to. In a time when the economy is unsteady, it sure is amazing I have a job I like.

Thankful for Friends

I have been blessed with friends. My parents have always called me their social butterfly, I love meeting people and making friends. Old and new, my friends have seen me at my best and my worst. We've laughed, cried, and been all out crazy together. Not a day goes by that I don't thank my lucky stars for my friends. (I wish I had a big picture with every single one of my friends, because I didn't find nearly enough pictures of my beloved friends.)

My Other Family

Whenever I hear people talking about how their in-laws are horrible or how hard they are to deal with, I feel thankful. Thankful that I get to have such amazing in-laws. I truly think of them as family, they make me feel like I've been a part of their family my whole life. They are some of the kindest, most generous people I know. My only gripe is that they don't live closer. But we are blessed to be able to see them so much, so I shouldn't complain. I am one lucky girl to be surrounded by so many loving family members.

My Best Friend

I know I mentioned how thankful I was for my family yesterday. And yes, Bob is a part of that crazy/fun family. But I thought he deserved an extra mention. I'm so grateful for my best friend.

A man that makes me laugh every single day. Even when he's sick. (The poor guy has a double ear infection and a sinus infection.) I love him, and find myself thankful for him more and more every day.

Mi Familia

This year I gave my mom a book of family pictures for her birthday. It's become a tradition to make our family album anything but normal. And since our family is anything but normal, I think it suits us. So I thought I would hop on the thankful train and say what I am most thankful for, especially this time of year. My family. The whole crazy lot of us.

Halloween Party

I have always felt for the most part that Halloween is kind of a kids holiday. I have had fun Halloween's in the past, but have never really gotten into it since I have been an adult. Well this year I changed all that. I realized that most of my friends have kids and would be taking them trick or treating. So I decided to get some childless friends together this year, and throw a little dinner party. (Well except for Ami and Jon, but their kids are older, so it worked out that they could come.)

I hand delivered my invites.. (yes those are fingers.. find the recipe here.)

And then I got to brainstorming on some spooky decorations and details. (I must admit Martha helped me out.)

I bought pumpkins, and gutted them so we could serve soup in them. Bob made some yummy skewers, and poppers. And then the guests brought yummy side dishes to add to the meal.

After dinner we played a couple games, chatted, and laughed a lot.

I realized after the party that for a lot of the pictures I had my camera on the wrong setting, so most of my pictures were pretty blurry and hazy. But I will just say I did it on purpose to make everyone look spooky and ghostly.

Among the group we had a white trash wedding. (Aubrie's pregnant), a witch, a match, and Cleopatra and Mark Antony. Everyone looked great.

I have to say we had a lot of fun this year. Thanks to everyone who came and made it so fun. Next party to think about? Our annual Christmas party. I think I might try to revel in this month first. Happy November!

All Hallows Eve..Eve

Friday we headed over to Bonnie and Jon's for dinner and pumpkin carving. I am still dreaming about that food. Dinner in a pumpkin, rolls, spinach dip, bruschetta, homemade apple/caramel heaven in my mouth cider, and pumpkin whoopie pies. I'm pretty sure I just gained a pound thinking about it. We enjoyed our killer meal, and chatted.

Then we got to carving.

Bob wins the award for most creative with his conjoined twins. I seriously don't know how he comes up with this stuff. (Please notice he even included a cleft lip on one of them.)

After carving we lit some candles, and talked. We tried to come up with some scary stories, but I think by the end of the night we were all pretty tired. We did spot Jovie the ghost dog though.

Thanks to everyone for such a fun night. Next up, the Halloween partay. More on that tomorrow.

Post Halloween Post

Wow, this weekend has been a blur. We had two festive get togethers, told scary stories, carved pumpkins, played games, ate really yummy food, and had a ton of fun. I also somehow managed to get a nasty cold in the mix. But I'm back, and ready for November. Still editing some of the pictures from our adventures. Should be finished tomorrow or the next. Happy turkey month.