thanksgiving extravaganza!

we had quite the thanksgiving weekend. we had family in from indy, brooklyn. providence, and philly. due to the kid sitch, we decided it would be the easiest to host at our house. i had fun decorating ( with some help from just about everybody) and everyone else brought the food ( i did make a turkey, 3lbs of cranberries and mashed potatos tho). worked great for me! we had a delicious meal and i am so thankful for all the food and good times. our guests from NY thought that Az reminded them a little bit of italy. so where better to go to than an olive mill. we sat outside and had a lovely lunch under the queen creek sun sampling wine, olives and pb&j for the kids. the kids had a magical time running wild for several hours. we played lots of games and learned our new favorite game... celebrity. P and I are still the undefeated champions of pictionary. challenge anyone?????? you will lose. we also enjoyed a quick trip to sedona, hikes and a kid free dinner @ el zocallo in dt chandler. yummo. i really didn't want the weekend to end. now i have 2 weeks to shed about 20 lbs of turkey weight before the christmas parties start!






did i mention we even did our own very accurate reenactment of the first thanksgiving?

i heart the heart ball.

my beautiful friend A needed a date for the heart ball ( because her hubby had to work) and graciously asked me to be her partner for the evening. i was all over that. i got a new dress ( vera wang lavender label)( oh what? you didn't ask? oh and yes, p scrubs was pumped about the price $$$) heheheh. you know me, i always find a bargain! soz anywayz.... we got all dressed up, hair and make-up ( thanks to sissy, heart her) and we were off to the ball! the kids kept asking who i was going to marry. i told them i already married daddy. they asked if they were having a babysitter. i said no. they said who's going to watch us then? i said daddy. they said.. who are you going to marry then? this went around a couple of times. they just couldn't understand why i would be going to a ball if i wasn't going to marry anybody. when we got to the ball, there were paparazzi waiting as we walked on the red carpet. crazy, right? we spun and laughed and enjoyed our 15 min. of fame. more like 15 seconds. the decorations were beautiful, food was yummy, attire was couture all the way. that was my fav part, looking at all the dresses. after we were seated and realized it was a cash bar, we got a little bored. just for a minute tho, because we decided what that party needed was a camera and a conga line! those rich, old stuffy people can be really fun, all you have to do is ask. sometimes we snapped away anyway, even if they were trying to pull away. we may have gotten a few stink eyes, but at the end of the day, we had a BLAST! 

well....

so while most everything was true about the darling sister post, i was equally excited about my darling baby brother. he is a hilarious, fun-loving, and thoughtful brother. afterall, he was raised in a house full of girls. he impresses me with his new found fathering skills. he and nattie make wonderful parents and partners. i love them both and especially their beautiful litle girl.

hmmmm....

so can you tell who was over babysitting and and thought it would be funny to post on my blog???????? little sisters are the pitts. hahahahahhahaHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA!

j/k Saharah. ur'e the bestest.

she really did post it tho!

darling baby sister

have i ever told you about my darling baby sister? well, please, let me. she is much younger than me to start with. when i was three and i was told that i was going to have new baby brother, i really just didn't care. but then, when i was four, i was told i was going to have a wonderful baby sister and i just about died. i couldn't wait to put the strangest french braids i could think of in her hair. she is the best thing that has ever happened to me...if you take the husband and four small children i have aquired over the years out of the picture. anyway, wow. she is the best. dang. i mean honestly. 

fun with hats

i love my new 100 yr. old bathtub!!!! the bathroom is finally coming along. we need to finish painting and putting up floor boards and a few other things.... but soon i will be able to take a good old-fashioned bubble bath! i know whats going on my christmas list!

also- i got a cute hat and d and s tolerated me playing around with pics. s looks so old to me... no! i don't want her to grow up!!!!!!!!!

now this was blog worthy!!

no, this is not the twilight zone. yes, i made dinner and baked a cake in one night. i know. impressed, right? hahaha. it's so sad that that is a REAL challenge for me. I had my mom's group and we were supposed to make dinner for our families and then bring the leftovers to the meeting along with the recipe. we then assembled recipe books and had a potluck. well, i was so excited for the craft and the eating part... not so much the cooking part. BUT... i did it. i may have needed pauls help once when i was out with the kids, he just had to put the other cake in the oven. and so the cake may have come from a box... BUT it was organic and gluten free! and the dog food looking stuff is the dinner i brought to share. it was shredded curry chicken over rice. funny, no one asked where my recipe card was. humph!

p.s.  do you like the roses, lilies, dahlias and violets behind the cake? p daddy brought them home for me. well, for the girls AND for me.

his banner over me is love...

 i have been wanting to make a banner for thanksgiving so i thought i had better get on it! i found some cute stuff at the paper source on rural/southern. not the most helpful people i've ever delt with but they do have awesome products. i think i'll hang it outside between the trees for thanksgiving.  i hope our grass growns in!!!!

projects..

i was at a boutique last weekend and it really inspired me to get my ceiling tiles hung. this awesome, talented lady had a booth set up of ceiling tiles, candles, religious art... all my FAVORITE things. my heart was beating fast just looking around. anyway, she was selling her tiles with canvas pictures for $300 each!!! yowza. i went back to the place i bought my tiles and they were all gone:( i'll be on the lookout for more!!!

mancation

so my hubby decided it was time for his annual mancation ( i call it something else, he doesn't think it's funny). he and a couple of his college friends get together every year and hang out for a weekend. no wives, no children. doesn't sound like much fun does it? so this year they rented an RV and drove up north to go paint balling and camping. then they are headed back on sat. to tailgate and go to the ASU game. they were so excited for this trip, i haven't seen paully wake up willingly that early in a long time. have a great time boys!

happy birthday S!!!!!

today is my baby girls birthday. she is 2 today. she is an (poll taken from the whole family) adorable, cute, silly, gorgeous, funny, precious, snuggliest, big shoe wearer, ariel watcher, bellowing laugher, loudest No you've ever heard, sweet angel girl/daughter/sister.

happy birthday baby!

photo shoot

i talked the girls into another photo shoot to try to get the perfect photos for my canvas project. No, i will not ever finish this project. no, i will never stop talking about it either. anyway, the outfits were cute, the hair was cute, the lighting was perfect... the photographer... not so perfect. i did get some funny and cute pics, but not good enough for canvas printing. the girls had some great laughs and smiles when daddy came out to help. before that, a lot of pouting and candy bribing was going on. ALSO... my friend "J" ( hi J!!!!! loved the h.s. photo!) has such a cute blog and I love the way she writes on her photos. I think i figured it out. you can download fun fonts for FREE from 2peasinabucket.com. i'm off to paint my bathroom now.

Happy Halloween!

What a day! We started off with a half day for the girls. That was nice because they had extra time to change their minds about their costumes, several times. D went from tinkerbell, to a witch, to a bunny, and back to a witch. L stayed consistent with her barbie dress ( from when she was 2) she had been hiding behind her bed for a couple of weeks. S was going to be an octopus, but we could not find the octopus head anywhere so we decided on a china doll for her. And S went from a witch to an angel, back to a witch and then ended up saying she was not a witch but never really defined what she was. She really liked the blue stripes in her hair tho. Magoo and Papa stopped by with some caramel apples and the girls loved that! They were yummy! We got into our costumes ( P was my knight in shining armor and I was an old lady. I know, we didn't even have to dress up for those costumes) and started to get ready for the evening. S really loved trick-or-treating. She was so excited to fill her basket with candy that she would tip it over every time she got back into the stroller. So we would stop, pick it up and then put it all back in. This happened several times. We finally got back home and the kids ran around with their sugar high for the next 4 hours and finally collapsed. The end.