Miscellany from November

Here are some miscellaneous moments from November...

Sometimes on our gmail at work people will put a little message, I had this message just before my trip, but I took this picture because of Marci's message about the Fall playlist cd I gave her since I'm her Secret Pal--apparently she liked it!

Oh Whitney, why must she torture me so?!

My co-worker Angie gave me a bag full of goodies for my trip. It was so unexpected so nice of her to do this, I wore the sunglasses the entire trip!

My mom brought Kneaders for a car lunch the day before I left for California...it was my first car lunch of the year since I only work 3 days a week now there isn't as much need (though I still enjoy them).

Michelle texted me while I was in the car with my mom saying she was bringing me cookies! I felt so spoiled as I had my mom leaving and Michelle arriving...spoiled!

Michelle made these tasty sugar cookies for Cookie Monday (which she posts on Instagram every Monday) and I had commented that I almost showed up at her house to taste them, so she kindly delivered them to me at work!

I came home from work that day to find that Michelle had delivered my wreath! I had been working on it but felt stumped about how to attach the "S" and the bow so she and her mom tweaked it for me (which was the most important part).

One of our office aides put this note on my computer, this is funny for two reasons 1. She is NOT my favorite at all 2. I think the word "totes" is pretty funny.

My Secret Pal this time around hasn't been very into it but did give me these goodies after I sent a reminder email to the whole group.

I got a nice thank you note from Amie, oh how I love good mail and miss its frequency.

Amie and I went to the wedding reception of our friend Lisa's son. He was in the first primary class I ever taught 11 years ago! I loved that primary class so much I had them for 2 years. It was surreal to see him as a married man.

Our old oven broke so our landlords got us this one. It's very nice but looks a tad modern for our old house!

This is the only lipstick I've ever had that will actually stay on all day, and is a color I like. I usually have a back up stash but ran out of it last week and started to panic when I couldn't find it at 2 different Wal-Marts (nothing but the best for me). I ended up getting the last two our local Walgreens had which leads me to believe that Cover Girl might be discontinuing my color. Oh the humanity!!

Since Michelle and I didn't get together the Friday I was in California and weren't going to be able the Friday after Thanksgiving we opted for a Cafe Rio car lunch.

Thanksgiving 2013

For Thanksgiving this year we gathered at my parents' townhouse for the first time ever as an entire family (it's much smaller than the Compound in Freakin Eagle Mountain).

The kids were excited to see each other.

We need to take family pictures before dinner so we hopped into the cars and drove around the corner to try to find a place that wasn't too sunny. 

We found some shade nearby that was backed by piles of manure! It wreaked for sure, but served our purposes and was definitely memorable. We took four shots with the tripod and self-timer.

We had Amy take our family photos (no easy task) and she ended up having to stand in the doorway of our car so she could shoot us from above, it was pretty funny. She also had to work around the trash and manure in the background. Good times.

Back at the house the boys played video games, while the girls played one of Whitney's creative games.

Amy helped Robyn with a photography app for her phone, and Olivia and Megan laid on the floor (which was funny because we hadn't even eaten yet).

We all fit at the same table except for Ashley, Megan and Olivia who sat at a little table nearby.

Andrew made an appearance with his besties.

Tess was in charge of organizing names to be drawn for Christmas gift exchange.

We hung out all day.

Amy was oh so happy to get a little nap in.

And then the M&Ms and games came out.

We taught Randy and Landon how to play Wizard.

I brought Thanksgiving Bingo (which I got from Pinterest) and it went over huge.

I also brought Catch Phrase which meant the kids could all play too. It was pretty funny.

Teaser

Lori and I spent 5 glorious days in Laguna Beach, California and I took over 1200 photos! Here are 5 of them (chosen at random).

The beach at Sunset (or any time really) is good for the soul.

Our whale watching boat encountered a huge group (school?) of about 1000 dolphins, it was the coolest thing ever!!

We got up early one morning to check out the tide pools and saw about 5 star fish.

We walked around downtown Laguna to enjoy everything.

Taking pictures at an outdoor flower market was one of the highlights for me. I love flowers!

Rewind--Whitney's 13th Birthday

Whitney talks about her birthday all year long. She is always saying things like "You know what you could get me for my birthday...", or "I can't decide what I want to do for my birthday (she'll say this 5 months ahead of time)." It's pretty funny and not exhausting at all.

I'm not sure how or when we started doing "corner presents" but they have become a favorite part of the kids' birthdays.

Whitney was happy with this stash of gifts.

My mom checked Whitney out of school early so they could drive to Salt Lake to meet up with Bella for some shopping and then a movie.

Bella stayed over that night and the three of us watched "Thirteen Going on 30" together. It was their first Romantic Comedy/Chick Flick and it was hilarious to watch with them since they're both 13. They weren't old enough to swoon and didn't understand a lot of what was funny, but we had a good time.

We had a full day of fun planned for Saturday.

We picked up Lori and went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch.

Then we went to Slurp for the first time and had a hard time taking a self-portrait (of course I love dominating the photo...NOT!)

Oh Whitney.

Next stop was Color Me Mine for our misspelled table appointment of fun.

Lori got right down to it, but Bella and I were pretty stressed about messing our projects up. I was surprised at Whitney's hesitation too but her issue may have been because she had too many ideas.

It took her over an hour before she was ready to paint! She made a cool striped design using tape. We were there for 3 hours and had a really fun time. I think Bella and I would be less stressed the next go around.

We had a family party that evening for Randy and Whitney and I had arranged for a friend from church to make this amazingly beautiful apple pie for Randy.

Adam entertained us as usual!

Whitney blew out all 13 candles (I hope she didn't wish for a dog!).

The big crowd.

Everyone gave Whitney cash!