Feeeeee-ew Football!

We had some of Tyler's co-workers over for the BYU/Utah football game last weekend.  We had a lot of fun getting prepared with snacks and setting up the furniture ... and the girls got into it making signs and what-not.  It actually got me a little excited about a football game.  ;)

Here are the girls sportin' their "Black Friday" pj bottoms:

Krystal loves the few times she gets to hang out with Brooklyn - the daughter of a co-worker .... and they have a lot of fun together and are easy girls to take care of.

Thank HEAVENS BYU pulled it off ... 'cuz Tyler was honestly stressed out (and, for those of you that know TyGuy - stressing him out is pretty much impossible!)

I wish my camera worked right now - but it has no flash ... and takes blurry pics ... but, I had to post these anyway.  Here's Tyler in BYU's overtime .... stressed and even more stressed:

Can you tell what just happened here?  Yep ... BYU's AWESOME winning touchdown -

He jumped up so fast after being so stressed out that he literally nearly keeled over ... so he had to sit down and cheer the rest of the time.  He had no voice for choir the next day ... but, I still made him go.  Muahahaha!

Good Golly, Cougs - that was a close one!  But ... sure makes for an entertaining hubby.  :D

Black Friday - Shoppin' and Droppin'

- and, Black Friday - of course - now starts Thursday night.  More droppin' for us!

10:30 pm - get in line at the ModBe store that already has 300 people in front of us.

11:15 pm - dig through the already almost empty bins of shirts and camis ... manage to still spend $75.00

11:30 pm - wait in line for an hour and 15 minutes to pay for our shirts

12:45 am - drive past the mile long line to Toys R Us (hasn't it been that long since 10:30pm?) - rethink our plans of getting in there and just go home to catch a few zzzzzzzz's

1:00 am - get ourselves a yummy 7-11 hot chocolate

1:20 am - try to sleep for 2 hours with heart burn :)

3:30 am - wake the girls up -- they are the ones that are so excited about this day -- can't ya tell?

4:00 am - go inside Wal-Mart ... split up ... man our posts :)

4:30 am - thinking how organized Wal-Mart is ... I am very impressed.

4:50 am - rethinking how organized Wal-Mart is ... this is CHAOS!!  Workers trying to stop 50+ women from grabbing boxes of stuff early is .... well ... non-existent.  People are running everywhere with boxes and goods in hand.  Of course, my camera line doesn't start until 5 am on the dot.

5:20 am - get in line to pay for our goods.  Cuss .... a lot.

7:30 am - FINALLY leave Wal-Mart and head to Target (despite how tired the girls look - they still wanted to keep on).  Target doesn't have much left ... but, we managed to still get some of the items on our lists.

8:30 am - Yay!  The awaited trip to Mc-ee-Dees ... although we were all begging the sun to please not shine so bright at this point!

Believe it or not - Marissa and Anaka went strong all day long.  They both crashed for the night at 6 pm, though ... and slept until 10 the next morning!  Silly girls.  Me?  Well - I'm STILL trying to catch up on the missed sleep.  I'm getting too old for this.  :)

Sweet Sweet Dessert

We are very VERY blessed to have both mine and Tyler's families close by - and so we are lucky to enjoy both sides of our family every Thanksgiving.  This year - we had Thanksgiving Dessert Night with the Jenson clan.  SUPER good times ... not one picture of dessert ... but, believe me - GOOD eats!  haha.  I, personally, had Grover's sweet potato left overs for my dessert ... it's just as sweet and tasty as any pie out there (and probably has just as many calories) - but, there ya have it!

Here are Ty, Jers, and Brandola - brothers and best buds:

Theses cousins are best friends and all get along SO well.  I don't think we even heard from Julia and Krystal more than once or twice the whole night.  They were certainly busy bodies ... playing house and make-believe.  Marissa and AJ are content to camp out at the computer for a good solid hour or two ... or even three!  :D  SHEESH!

Good Ol' Grove -- He is such an amazing man.  We are all very lucky to have him ... and for that matter ... Lori Lou too!  She certainly keeps us all smiling.  Just for memories sake:  whenever Jeremy and Plonnie are around ... accents, funny-talk, song, and dance randomly start happening ... it's hilariously entertaining.  So - Plonns started a rhythm on the table - and everyone just kept adding some new sound to create ... well, a masterpiece.  :)  When Lori came in to all that jazz ... she just strutted her stuff right on in.  We all fit together so well.  ;)

And, of course, Thanksgiving just isn't Thanksgiving without a good round or seven of game playing!

Thanks for a fabulous night all!  Sure love ya!

A Day of Thanks

I just love Thanksgiving. A long weekend to hang out with family ... eat lotsa good food ... shop 'til ya drop ... and just feel the spirit of the holidays and excitement in the air. I. LOVE. IT!!

Mom and Dad always make the yummiest food ... and Thanksgiving they pull out all of the stops.  Mmmmmm Mmmmmm good!

Even Kristy Annie totally redeemed herself (from her pie making skills) and brought some incredibly looking ... AND tasting homemade rolls:

Dad carved the turkey while James caught a few zzzzzzzz's ... and Tyler cracked himself up by sticking crayons in James' ear (while James slept right on):

We just love being together and hanging out ... but, Melynda always manages to make the day extra fun for the kiddos.  She had crafts, treats, movies, and games goin' for them all day!  Thanks M!

I am so lucky to have my Mom and my Grandma and my Marissa.  Can you just feel the love?!?

Games and lounging are just a must on Thanksgiving Day!

I hope y'all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We sure did!  I'm so grateful for my family and friends!

Pie Making Day

We all love Grandma Miller's Chocolate Sundae Pie (aka Eggnog pie). However - it is NOT easy to make. A yearly instructional class is held at Mom's house the day before each Thanksgiving to guide the rest of us along ... we'll still need to keep that up for many years before us daughters will be capable.

In fact, Kristy was kicked off of many a task ... separating the whites from the yolks .... shaping the pie crust ...stirring the cooking custard ... and even filling the water baths.  :)  She's got a long way to come yet.  :D  Here are our beautiful crusts all ready to be filled:


Here is the custard cooling in the water baths:


Beating the egg whites and whipping cream:


Mixing the custard with the egg white/whipping cream combo:


The pies have got to set for awhile:


Gramps is in charge of grating the chocolate on ALL the pies. He performs this duty to perfection:


Voila. They look deeeeelish, don't they? They ARE deelish. Can't wait to get me a slice tomorrow!  Thanks for the fabulous day Mom!


Grandma Miller's Chocolate Sundae Pie

1 cup canned milk
1 cup water
2 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Pinch salt

Boil 2 minutes stirring constantly.

1 envelope Knox gelatin in 5 Tablespoons COLD water.

Combine and cool in water bath until soft jello consistency.

Beat 2 egg white while adding 1/2 cup sugar.
Beat 1/2 pint whipping cream.
Combine and add to custard.

Pour in pie crust (baked at 400 degrees for 9 minutes).  Chill overnight (makes 2 pies)

Good Character

I wish I had this kid's attitude.  Two weekends ago - I checked Aaron out of school to get his H1N1 vaccination (on a Friday).  He had ridden his bike to school that morning, and we forgot to go back to get his bike until the next morning (Saturday).  Well -- lo and behold -- it was not there.  I never purchased a lock for it despite Aaron 's begging and my Dad's insistence -- and, it must have been stolen.  Then the weather turned bad anyway - so we were carpooling to and from school.  BUT ... today was nice - so the kids decided to bike.  Aaron had tried riding his scooter to school another day last week and just couldn't keep up with all the bikers.  So he asked if he could just ride Krystal's two-wheeler.  I pulled it down ... purple and pink with white wheels and the words "Sea Star" painted across it ... and said, "This'll work fine, but are you going to be okay if kids maybe tease you?"  He said, "Sure!  It's not really making fun if I'm laughing right along with them!"  Can I just tell you that my heart filled with so much love for this kid when he said that?!?  What a fabulous attitude.

ANYWAY ... when he got home from school he told me that when he biked to his friend's house and his friend saw the bike Aaron was on, they both had a good laugh.  Then his friend said, "Hey!  My sister's old bike is the same one as this.  Wouldn't it be funny if we both rode pink and purple twinner bikes to school?"  Soooo ... they did ... in all their hilarious-ness -- two 7-year-old boys proudly (and laughing all the way) rode their sisters' bikes to and from school.  Ya know - good friends and good character make all the difference.

Tulips for Spring

After tons of research on how to select and plant tulips ... we decided to chuck all that information out the window and just go with the flow. :) I let the kids each pick 10 bulbs ... with no thought to whether they were early/mid/late ... or how big or little they were ... or what colors they were ... or even which variety.


We dug a big ol' trench - and plopped them in! (We DID make sure they were facing the right direction).  We couldn't find any fertilizer or root enhancer or anything ... but, we're hoping for the best.



Now they are buried safe and sound in the cold ground ... a little hope for Spring to get here sooner than later.