Thanksgiving

was so much fun. Totally worth the 5 lbs. I gained. We drove straight through to Utah-22 hours and got there for my dad's 69th birthday on Sunday.

I'm not sure we ever really recovered from that drive, but we managed to get some things in. Marshall spent some time with his oldest brother Mark on Monday up in Salt Lake while the kids and I hung out with my mom and ate lunch at Cafe Rio. We watched some of the video Heidi took on our Disneyland trip last year.

It was fun to relive it. That was a great trip. Tuesday we went to New Moon with Michael, Heidi and Tyler. Loved it! It was better than the first, and I know I keep saying it over and over, but Bella is much less pathetic in the movies than in the books. Heidi had some tickets to the BYU basketball game that night against Southern University. While Samantha dogged us and went to Young Women's with BFF Hanna, we attended the game with David and Tyler. 107-51. There's really not a lot you can say about that. It's got to be embarrasing to play so poorly and get beaten so bad. BYU was sinking 3 pointers left and right. Very cool. What else? Wednesday Samantha spent as much time with Hanna as she could and we got to visit with her mom Tamra. They were the only friends we saw when we were there. Our friendship goes back to our single ward days before we were all married, or even dating our spouses. Good friends. That evening we met up with 2 of Marshall's brothers and 1 sister for dinner at Spaghetti Factory. We got to see his new nephew Austen, who is so adorable that I actually held him, and got to meet his nephew Brett's fiancee, who is also adorable but I didn't ask to hold her! His neice Nicole brought her boyfriend and his sister Mary's boyfriend brought his family visiting from Phoenix, so it was quite a gathering.

Thanksgiving day was all about the food.

My mother had ordered dinner from Sunflower Market before she knew we were coming and they seriously had the best turkey I have ever eaten. Also their stuffing was reminiscent of my grandmother's homemade stuffing we all remember so fondly. Heidi put a lot of effort into making a Barefoot Contesssa chocolate cheesecake,

and she set it on the stove to cool. Well, Kristina, who I have begged over the years to stay out of the kitchen, turned on the burner to make her cranberry sauce and after the scorching smell permeated the kitchen, realized she had turned on the wrong burner and burnt Heidi's cheesecake. If you didn't eat the crust or the bottom half, it tasted really good. After eating we had to say our goodbyes and pile back in the car so we could make it to Vernal in time for Thanksgiving dinner at Michelle's. More food and more family. Marshall's mom and stepdad were there, and his nephew Mitch who was married a little over a year ago and has a cute baby, Kinsley.

His stepson Anthony was so excited to play with Scott.

And you'd be surprised how much food we can pack away, because I had no trouble eating that 2nd dinner, just trouble fitting into my jeans when it was over.

They had some great pies there. Oh man. And the "pistachio", so good. And devilled eggs, and more stuffing and really good gravy for the potatoes and veggies and dip. We had to get back to Houston, so our stay in Vernal was short. The next morning we went to a boutique with grandma Shirley so she could get Samantha some scrapbooking materials, and we walked through the "Trees for Charity" and then headed home, doing another all nighter. And we are still recovering from that, but we have so much to be thankful for. We really miss all our family and it was so good to see everyone again. Hopefully we'll be able to do it again soon. Though maybe flying instead of driving.

Samantha's first basketball game

was last night. She had so much fun. Their team won by 2 points. We're still working on the being aggressive part, but the more they practice, the better she'll get.

With the birthday money

I received from my parents, Michael and Heidi, I ordered some cookbooks from ecookbooks.com. I was so excited when they finally came the other day.
I can't wait to start trying out some of the recipes. And speaking of recipes, Samantha made cinnamon rolls on Sunday.
She started the dough in the bread machine before church and then finished them off when we got back. In case you didn't know, we go to church for 3 hours so it works out perfectly. I love that bread machine.

Kids say the darndest things

and I thought I should record this one for posterity. I made this Mac n Cheese last night for dinner. Scott, who is not only extremely picky, but he sometimes gags on his food if the texture is wrong or if he takes too big a bite. He didn't really care for the mac n cheese and about half way through he started gagging on it and had to spit it out. Then he explained to me what "real" macaroni and cheese is supposed to be like.

"the cheese is melty and it is all around the noodles, and that is why it's all slobbery."

I should pass that along to Kraft for their commercials. "Kraft Macaroni and Cheese-It's the slobberiest!"

36

was one of the best birthdays ever! I had such a great day. Breakfast in bed (Omelet w/ onions, mushrooms, spinach, pepper jack) followed by lying around for an hour or two. Amy left me hidden messages all over the house and the final one had candy. So cute!

Once my stomach wasn't so full we rode our bikes to the track and ran a mile. We didn't time these. In the late afternoon we drove down to Galveston for dinner and Cirque Shanghai: Bai Xi. We walked along the pier

and ate at Yagga's, which was recommended by some girls at the candy store. They had really good food, and their fried zucchini w/ homemade ranch was the best. The show was amazing. The Chinese acrobats did the most incredible things. It was insane how strong and flexible they were. Really, you shouldn't be able to bend your body in half. It's almost gross. But that's beside the point. I was afraid since it went from 8-10 that Scott and Amy would have a hard time staying awake, but it was so fun to watch that it wasn't a problem. To top it off, I got a bread machine. I'm so excited to try it out. What a great day! I didn't even mind being another year older!!

Halloween

was an absolutely gorgeous day. We rode our bikes to Samantha's school and did some timed miles around the track. I know, it sounds crazy to do something like that as a family, but really, it was a lot of fun and I had some very proud kids when we were done. Here's a list of our times, in case you were wondering.
Marshall: 6:30
Samantha: 7:35
Kirsten: 7:47
Scott: 10:54
Amy: 10:58

Scott only wanted to be a ninja for the swords, which were a huge hit with the other little boys. Amy has Uncle Michael to thank for her adorable Minnie Mouse witch costume that he picked up while at Disneyland earlier in the month. She added the hair herself.


Our ward (church) had a chili cook-off and trunk or treat from 4-6. We made a pot of chili, that turned out okay, totally glutted ourselves on chili, hot dogs and of course, CANDY, and handed out lots of candy to cute little primary kids, and not so little, cute youth. They had face painting, go fish, and doughnuts on a string. Marshall and I did a doughnut competition, but he knocked me down and ate both doughnuts (They were small and we were on our knees.) But don't fret, I smeared a powdered one in his face, then got a fresh one to eat.





Samantha had made plans to go trick or treating with a friend so I dropped her off there and then Marshall and I took Scott and Amy, 2 of Amy's friends and the friend's two older sisters who are in young women's and wanted to go trick or treating but needed some adults to go with, so they called and asked if they could go around with us. Turned out to be so fun.

The 2 older girls kind of kept an eye on Scott as we drove behind. We didn't plan it or even ask them, but he was fast enough to keep up with them, so they made sure to keep him with them. We went to one house that was decorated so well and even had spooky music. It was amazing. Then we went to another house where the adults dress up and seriously scare the *&!#@ out of the kids. It was so funny to watch. No one got any candy from that house. They all ran as fast as they could to get away. So funny! They literally chased the older girls down the street!

Samantha hit the mother lode. Her bag was almost full. Of course, we charged her for letting her go with her friend, so that lessened the load!

I love Halloween, and now we're headed into the holiday season, starting off with my birthday on Saturday. This is the best time of year, and I'm excited to be in Texas where you can go trick or treating without coats and go running that very morning.

*at this very moment my kids are gathered in Amy's room, have their candy sorted into piles (Samantha's doing) and are trading!