Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving was really wonderful this year.

I spent most of the day on Wednesday baking/preparing all the desserts. We had about 20 people coming so I wanted to be prepared. I made 2 pumpkin pies, 1 coconut pie, a chocolate sheetcake and a BTS dessert.

Here's the destruction of the kitchen!



Thursday morning rolled around and Sam's small cold blew up into a massive cold. We wondered if I should just stay home with him but we decided to at least make it to the Club then decide from there.

The entire family meets at the The Capital City Club for Thanksgiving lunch and it's really great. It's an all-you-can-eat buffet of some pretty yummy food...salads, shrimp, oyster shooters, prime rib, brunch items, and the typical Thanksgiving fare.

We have quite a group and require a lot of space!



After filling our tummies with way too much food, we let the kids run around a bit outside and they always love that!

Abby & Jonathan:



Judy with most of the grandkids:
Logan & Austin were getting a family photo taken:



A quick family photo...blinded by the sunlight:



We then went back to the condo to get changed and a big group of us went to see "The Muppet Movie." The kids seemed to enjoy it but the adults feel more could of been done. I fell asleep so I have no opinion either way.

The men spent most of their time watching football:



The kids enjoy playing at the pool table:



There was also free make-overs by Sydney & Ava:




We then proceeded to eat once again but it was all traditional food and it was delish! Once the guys cleaned up, we were able to enjoy the fireworks!




Video:




After the fireworks, I pulled out ALL of the MANY desserts I made and barely any of it was eaten. I brought most all of it home and proceeded to throw it away after a couple of days. A sad waste of time, money and delicious desserts.

We had a really wonderful day and grateful that Sam managed to keep to himself enough so we could be there with everyone.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Another first

Sam has been 12 for 6 months and due to his "early to rise" schedule, he's been unable to attend the temple with the youth. Luckily for him (and me), they scheduled an appointment to do baptisms for the dead during the Thanksgiving holiday.

That day, the weather did not look good. They were forecasting high winds, lots of rain and possibly tornadoes. I was quite reluctant about going but decided to give it a try. We met with the other youth at the church and we drove up. The weather held out just in time for us to get inside the temple.

We coordinated the evening so that Sam could go first so that I could get him changed in the girl's dressing room quickly enough before the girls came in. Sam was a bit wary but decided to give it a try. After asking for his goggles, which I didn't have, he was able to do two baptisms and that was enough for him. It was a very special moment and I know that those two men who he was baptized for were there in spirit.

After he was changed, you could just hear the torrential rains coming down. It was very loud but we were safe and where we needed to be. Sam also managed to do ten confirmations so he got to experience everything which I am grateful for.

Once we were finished, we walked out and the rain had stopped. We took 20 people to Chick-Fil-A for a late dinner and then headed home. It was a really wonderful experience to be able to see my own child help and serve others who can't help themselves.

Service Sunday

For November's Service Sunday we helped Todd's mom clean up and plant new flowers around Stacy's (Todd's sister) grave. It looked pretty sad with all the leaves tangled in the pansies & rose bushes but we all worked hard to get it looking good.


This is the before photo of the headstone:



Sam working hard

There was some old pinestraw around the tree and we pulled it all out and Judy & Abby planted some ivy and some pretty purple flowers.

After photos:

So much nicer.

Afterward, we got some frozen yogurt.

It was a nice day to spend time together and honor Stacy.

Sometimes I'm a genius

When I say sometimes I actually mean rarely but I did have a good idea last year.

Christmas is a wonderful time of year, with the exception of finding the funds to pay for it. I decided at the end of last year to start putting some money away for Christmas the following year. I have an online savings account so I added a checking account and started putting $25/week into that account. As fall rolled around, I got a debit card to use for that account and that was my Christmas money. I managed to save about $800 and let me just say how nice it is just to have that available just for Christmas and I don't have to worry about keeping track of every cent like I do in our regular checking account.

Life made easy!

Blackberry Farm

Back in July I received this email:

okay...

i want a daughter trip. i think this is the place! who is available to come either oct 20/21/22, or oct 27/28/29. look up the place...it is wonderful. spa, hiking wonderful food. if there are enough, i can rent the 4 bedroom house. let me know. lots of birthdays for us this time of the year.

love, j

Well, you don't have to twist my arm too hard to get me on board! It seemed like such a long time away, July to October, but now it's come and gone and we had such a wonderful time. Blackberry Farm is located just outside of Knoxville, Tennessee in the Smokey Mountains.

The group consisted of my mother-in-law, Judy, sisters-in-law; Jennifer, Kattia, Annie, Lisa, Judy's two sisters, Nancy & Amy and Nancy's daughter, Sarah. 9 lovely ladies to spend a long weekend with out jobs, spouses, kids or responsibilities of any kind. My kind of vacation.

Here's a photo of all the girls!





The girls from Atlanta (the others flew in) drove up on Thursday, October 27th and we got there just in time for me to change my clothes and head over to the barn for a 2 hour horse ride with Amy. It was a perfect day for a ride and it was so much fun. I was, however, sore since I am not accustomed to riding a horse that was too big for me for 2 hours.

Me riding VW (Van Winkle)



By the time we got back to the house, it was time to shower and get ready for dinner. All dinners are served in The Barn and let me just say...the meals were a.maz.ing! Every single thing I ate was delicious and the presentation was fabulous! The only downside was that it took like 3 hours to eat dinner and that was a bit long.


Our house:



Our bedroom:



The Dinner Barn



Friday six of us were scheduled to go kayaking but the weather was 100% chance of rain and it was cold! As luck would have it, they canceled the kayaking trip and we were all able to get a spa treatment booked. I chose a facial and it was seriously the best facial I ever had. She even brushed out my hair as I was laying there.

One of the special perks of Blackberry Farm was the ride service. All we had to do was call and say we needed a car brought around to pick us up and shortly a black Lexus SUV would be there to take us where we needed to go. I wish that service carried over to my real life.

The sweet ride:




It seemed as though we were eating non-stop at BBF! Lunch & breakfast were served in another house and it was fun to try all their amazing food.

Lunching:



Friday was also our photography day. We hired a professional photographer to take our photos as a group for Judy's birthday gift. The hard part of course was the weather but we managed a few good photos.

On Saturday, we all went to yoga, a first for me, and it was fun. We then walked over to eat breakfast, again! Jennifer, Kattia, Annie and I then took the golf cart to the trail head and we hiked for about an hour which was really nice. Afterward, I met up with Sarah and we toured the grounds in the golf cart and it was amazing! It is such a beautiful place. We came home to find a bird stuck in our house and that was exciting!

Hiking:



Bird incident:



For dinner that night, it was Judy's birthday celebration dinner and we had all gone in on a special necklace made with charms we each chose and it was all put together by Amy & Nancy. It was an emotional dinner and we had a wonderful time talking and reminiscing. It was sad to know that it was our last night of heaven.

Dinner Celebration:



It was such an amazing and fun trip and it was all thanks to Judy who wanted to spend time with the women in her life. What a wonderful time!

These photos don't do Blackberry Farm justice but there are so many to share:

It was such a magical weekend and a great opportunity to spend some quality time together having fun, resting and eating, eating, eating!!

He's Published!

Back in May we participated in a photo shoot for the Just Kids magazine cover. You can read the post here. It's been quite awhile since the publication came out and although Sam didn't get on the cover, he's still featured in the magazine which is really cool! I finally was able to get some copies after two requests.

Here's the cover of the magazine:



and here's Sam's little feature:

There are a couple of mistakes but all in all, it's a fun little article about Sam.

You can view the magazine in pdf form here.

Requests for autographs will be be reviewed at our leisure.