Sunday, November 30, 2008

Gobbly...Gobbly

Hello all, I have been neglecting my blog and feel like a blogging failure! I will keep trying to do better though I promise!

So, I just wanted to tell you about my special turkey holiday. We actually took the fun long road trip to Utah. Paul's sister Ruth was due on Thanksgiving and Paul's mom of course wanted to be there for the shining event so she hopped a ride with us! Paul's mom is so witty and funny...always telling embarassing moments of Paul's childhood...which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was super hard for her to leave her kiddos at home for Thanksgiving let alone two weeks! We were so proud of her!

We made our first stop at Ruth's in Provo. Here she is the mother-to-be she looked so great, it was hard to believe she was the full 9 months. We were all anxious for her to go into labor and in order to push that baby along Ruth drank herbal raspberry tea. Poor Ruth it wasn't the tastiest tea in the world...


Then we headed to my parents home in Bountiful. It was fun having my parents all to ourselves, spending some special one on one time with them. I was able to help my mom out in the morning by taking her to physical therapy to increase the strength in her wrist and elbow. It was really difficult to see her go through all of the pain...but she was a champ and pushed through the painful hour and a half sessions. I am so proud her!

While we were there,we we also happy to see my mom and dads future home! The view is absolutely stunning. When you look out the window you see hundreds of evergreens stretching across the hills. When you open the door you can hear the sound of rushing water...truly a paradise. The inside of the house needs some major work but my mom is going to work her interior design magic and make it breathtaking I am sure.

Turkey day came and one and all were stoked for the feast. My mom was not able to help much because of her injury so she did a great job at directing Heath, Danielle (my amazing future sister-in-law) and me as to what needed to be done. It was truly an adventure before this Thanksgiving I usually helped with the salad and setting the table...but this time I helped with the whole she-bang. My favorite task of the day was making the rolls, Danielle and I were a little nervous because we both had never attempted homemade rolls before...let alone being compared to the incredible baker my grandma, but my mom helped coach us and they turned out pretty darn good if I must say myself. On the menu:
Pear Salad
Turkey
Cranberry/Orange relish(yum!)
Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes
Yams
Rolls


We all filled up again and again and went around the table and told what we were grateful for. We missed having a couple of my siblings who were unable to make it. My sister Sandy, Tim and Kennedy along with my brother Jason and Rachel :( But we heard they had a fun Thanksgiving. We then trekked along to the notorious Twilight movie. I enjoyed watching it for the second time and Paul to my surprise also enjoyed it! Some of my other family members thought it was a little cheesy but I guess it didn't bug me all that much...I am a romantic, sappy individual and proud of it!

The day before Thanksgiving my mom and I went to Gateway together to pick up a couple of items and went into Z-Gallerie and fell in love with their inspiring Christmas decor. We had fun browsing the store for ideas and found the one item we could not pass up, the sparkling branches and since they were 50% off my mom purchased some for me she is so nice! On Friday I helped my mom decorate the house for Christmas. We had such a fun mother daughter day doing something we both loved to do! Paul did a good job at snapping a couple of candids...my little photographer!

Friday night we went to the Hale Centre Theatre to see the musical "Into the Woods", it was the first time I had seen it. It was a mesh of about 7 different fairytales and how they all worked together to make their dreams come true. There is something about seeing a live play not only is the set alive you feel like you are a part of it just as much as the characters are. When intermission came I was a little disappointed because when I was waiting in line this girl was on her cell phone talking about the play then she said she wasn't looking forward to the end of the show because.......-she gave the whole ending away, seriously the nerve! No surprise ending for me.

Saturday came all too quickly and Paul and I packed up and headed off. We already had a full car at this point but I insisted that we take a couple of branches that were cut so I could take them home and spray paint them. Oh the silly things I do for decorations. It felt like I was in a forest when I was driving and looking through my rear-view because of the twigs that stuck out every angle. Paul was a champ and hardly complained about them at all.

At this point Ruth was about to get induced but we had no idea how long it would take before the baby came. So we headed off we were happy to find out that the baby was delivered at 5:00 p.m., if only we had stayed around a couple of more hours! Congrats Ruth and Jared we are so happy for you!

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Under the Sea Halloween


Oh, how I love Halloween! Ever since I was about six I worked in a costume shop. I loved it, it was so much fun to go through the many aisles and pick and pull costumes off the rack to change me into whatever I wanted to be for a given day Whether it was a genie, witch,...you name it! This holiday definitely holds a special place in my heart!
Ever since I moved to California I have had a difficult time not living in a costume shop for the month of October. It wasn't until the 29th of October till I realized Halloween was almost here! Heather and I were in LA at the time and decided since we were close to the fabric district to go and check out some patterns and figure out what we could pull together last minute. We were going to go with cave people...until we saw some awesome sequin fabric. I had always wanted to be a mermaid and here was my grand chance, so we picked up random pieces of fabric we felt would go well together for a mermaid and a merman! Halloween is not Halloween for me unless I dress up!
The day of Halloween was kind of hectic and Paul came home a little bit later so we tried to make the merman costume work on him....but he ended up looking like a crossdresser and decided to bag his costume. However, lo and behold he pulled out an awesome tiger outfit his mom had made for him! Seriously, he made the funnest tiger. Every once in awhile during the night he would pounce out in front of people...it was hilarious!
We ventured off first to Seaworld, and I felt truly at home :) We met up with some friends Adam and Natalie, and saw the Rockin Shamu show. It was really fun to be there and see all the kiddos dressed up. We trick or treated and they gave us loads of Swedish Fish, how appropriate. Let alone they are one of my favorite treats!
We snapped some shots with the under the sea crew.
This girl was so hilarious, she was so funny...just look at that face. Isn't it funny how chilren are dressed up as he or she-devils!

Here is Paul and I, me trying to pull the face of a mermaid and Paul pulling out the claws!

Taking the trolley downtown. It was my first time and it was so much fun! Once we were downtown we people watched...our favorite costume of the night was the pacman crew. One dude was pacman and he had his three accompanying ghosts chasing after him...it was hilarious!

We then went to the mall and Paul had his first experience with Hot Dog on a Stick, crazy I know! It was a definite hit!
Last but not least we went to Ghiradellis for some ice cream. Thanks for joining us for Halloween Adam and Nat!