Thanksgiving Fun

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Every year for Thanksgiving since Jim and I have been married, my parents have come out to Utah to visit us for 5 days. This has become more fun since we had Isaac. They have so much fun playing with him, he loves all the attention and I love the freedom to do things like updating my blog at a decent hour in the day. This year Isaac and I took my parents to story time at the library which they thought was cute. I have been wanting them to go for a while but this is the first time it actually worked out. We also went bowling which Isaac loves, Temple Square to look at the Christmas lights and out to dinner a couple of nights. For Isaac's birthday, my parents bought him a tricycle. Isaac was unsure of it at the beginning, but now he gets upset if he doesn't get to go out and ride it everyday. I wonder how it will be when there is snow and ice on the ground. Needless to say, everyone enjoys it when Papa and Nana come to visit. As for Thanksgiving Day I got up early to start making the turkey and all the fixings. Jim did make some AWESOME rolls! We had our friends, Artur and Inna and their baby Leah, over for dinner. They are from the Ukraine so I wanted to make sure they had a place to go on our holiday. Inna brought a potato salad and a strawberry pie which were fabulous! They are her from her grandmother's recipe. She wanted to make sure she could bring a little bit of her Ukrainian heritage to share. It has been a great few days and now to think that in exactly 2 weeks, Isaac and I will be in California!

Getting to Know you: Christmas Edition

Thanks Stephanie for posting this on your blog. What a great spin on an old classic. Come on and do it. No bah-humbugging around here!


1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper. I hate wrapping but it is so much more fun to tear the paper than to pull out the frilly tissue paper.
2. Real tree or Artificial? Real. That is what both Jim and I both grew up on. Ironically though, we have an artificial tree because we always go back to CA for Christmas.
3. When do you put up the tree? Day after Thanksgiving.
4. When do you take the tree down? When ever Jim helpless me. One year it was up until the end of February.
5. Do you like eggnog? Yes! I also like it warm with some nutmeg and cinnamon on top
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Diamond earrings from my grandparents
7. Hardest person to buy for? Jim and our parents
8. Easiest person to buy for? Isaac. He doesn't really care what you get him.
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? mail.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I can't say since the person who gave it to me reads this blog on occasion.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? I don't have one.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? December. I know too late
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? What isn't my favorite? If I had to choose, I would probably say the things I only get around that time of year: peppermint hot chocolates, Carmel apple cider, morcella, linguica, prime rib and twice baked potatoes.
16. Lights on the tree? Yes! What kind of X-mas tree doesn't have lights?
17. Favorite Christmas song? Carol of the Bells
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Travel back to CA since both of our families live 5 minutes apart
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? dasher, dancer, prancer, vixen, comet, cupid, Donner, blitzen, Rudolph ..it that all of them?
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? whatever we have
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or Christmas morning? Christmas morning!
22. Favorite ornament theme or color? No theme at least for the family tree with homemade and sentimental ornaments. I think you if you have a second tree it should be themed.
23. Favorite thing to eat for Christmas dinner? Prime Rib, twice baked potatoes, green peas, salad with Grandmas homemade dressing and an array of yummy desserts
24. What do you want for Christmas this year? World peace!...Just kidding..cliche'.. I would like a family vacation that is not to CA
25. Who is most likely to respond to this? Who knows?

Leaves part 2

For those of you that have read "Leaves," you saw all the great, big piles of leaves that I raked up in my yard. Well, thanks to Shannon for helping me bag and her kids for playing with Isaac, the task is COMPLETE!!! All the leaves are bagged!! WOO HOO! Now to someone who prides themselves on yard work would probably think that I didn't do a very good job because there are still some leaves on the grass. Oh well. If you saw a before and after, I don't think you would really care about the "few" that are left. Besides, it took 35 large garbage bags to bag up all the leaves. Because of the large quantity of filled bags and not a lot of room in the garbage can, we now we look like white trash with bags lining our driveway. If you have any spare room in your garbage can this week, I would love to drop some bags off in them since it looks like at least 3 or 4 weeks until the bags are out of the driveway.

Isaac's "New" Bed

Isaac has a new bed. OK, well, not really. It is his crib with one of the sides off. His crib can actually turn into a bed, but this suits him for the moment. He really likes it and has only fallen off of it in his sleep twice but one of the two times he didn't even wake up! So far we hadn't had any troubles with him not wanting to go to bed and crawling out. He just enjoys it.

Can You Believe It?

Today I went to go fill up my van with gas, a dreaded task. I feel like with every gallon going in the van the dollar signs just get louder and louder. Well, not to day. I filled my van up, all the way up for only $32! That's right, only $1.79 a gallon!!!!! This summer it was close to $75 /$80 to fill up. That is when I boycotted the gas stations by not driving and started biking everywhere instead with Isaac in his biking caddy. I am SO glad that gas has gone down and I actually left the gas station thrilled with my "savings" and not worrying about how the heck are we going to pay for this.

Birthday Boy

On Friday, our little boy turned 2! Can you believe it? I can't. We had a fun day. He had cupcakes and we had to sing to him a couple of times and let him blow out his candles a few times because he kept saying, "Again." Later in the day we went to BYU to go bowling; one of Isaac's favorite activities. He had a ton of fun. He is such a sweet, loving kid with a joy and excitement for life. He has blessed our family tremendously and I am so glad that he is my son. I love you Isaac and Happy 2ND Birthday!!!

leaves

For those of you who don't know, we have 2 very big trees in front of our place. When they are in bloom with leaves, they shade our front room which is very nice in the summer but it is also very nice to just look at the canopy of leaves. They are such a delight in spring and summer. However, when fall comes around, that is a different story. What goes up must come down, right? Well that is what happens. Our canopy of nice, green leaves change to a pretty yellow before they turn brown and fall to the ground. After spending a ton of time raking them up into 15 HUGE piles, I was pretty tired. It is a multi-day event. My neighbor, Shannon, came to help me bag them. After an hour, we bagged 4 piles which consisted of 20, that's right, 20 large garbage bags compacted to the max full of leaves. Only 11 more piles to go!

BYU vs. SDSU

So on Saturday Jim, Isaac and I went to the BYU/San Diego State football game. It was so nice to go back to a game since Isaac and I missed the last one because we were in California and we didn't go to the one before that because it was in the low 30's and I think that is too cold to make Isaac sit through a game.

Isaac was SO excited! He absolutely LOVES football. He loves to be at the games, watch it on TV or even watch highlights on YouTube. This makes me very happy and I hope he continues his love for football because I really enjoy it too.

Well, if you haven't heard, BYU spanked SDSU 43-12. Every time BYU scores a touchdown, field goal etc, the cannon fires and the BYU band plays the fight song while everyone sings along. Isaac is always so interested in the last part of the song where you cheer. It is really fun to watch. Also through out the game each side of the stands: North, South, East and West, all shout at different times, "B-Y-U-COUGARS!!" Isaac gets really into this too. As you can see, he likes practicing this at home. We are sad that there aren't anymore home games but we can't wait to watch the BYU/U of U game on the Saturday after Thanksgiving! GO BYU!!!

Church Issues Statement

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has been taking a lot of flack from opponents of Proposition 8. Whether you agree with the results of the vote or not, I agree with the Church's public statement regarding it's members involvement in upholding the proposition and the current protests outside California temple.

The statement reads as follows:

SALT LAKE CITY 7 November 2008 The Church issued the following statement today:

It is disturbing that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is being singled out for speaking up as part of its democratic right in a free election.

Members of the Church in California and millions of others from every faith, ethnicity and political affiliation who voted for Proposition 8 exercised the most sacrosanct and individual rights in the United States — that of free expression and voting.

While those who disagree with our position on Proposition 8 have the right to make their feelings known, it is wrong to target the Church and its sacred places of worship for being part of the democratic process.

Once again, we call on those involved in the debate over same-sex marriage to act in a spirit of mutual respect and civility towards each other. No one on either side of the question should be vilified, harassed or subject to erroneous information.

Speechless

"Yes We Can!"

Did you Vote?

I am proud to say that participated in a ritual that happens every four years in this country; I exercised my constitutional right to vote this morning. Whether or not we all agree on who should be in power on a state or federal issue or agree on propositions or amendments to a state's constitution, everyone 18 years and older need to exercise their right to vote. If you don't vote, you don't get to complain about anything!!! Plus, here is an incentive(although you shouldn't need one), if you show your "I Voted" sticker at your local Krispy Kreme Doughnut shop, you get a free star shaped doughnut with sprinkles. So if you haven't voted yet, get off your lazy bum and go do it!