Thing to be grateful for...

I guess I better get at least a few things posted before I get so behind I'll never want to do it again. We had a great Thanksgiving. We usually have two dinner's to go to but, this year the Davis' didn't have a get-together. Though I missed seeing the family and my mother-in-laws stuffing, It was nice not having to rush all day long.

We have had a very relaxing weekend and I'm grateful for my family. The Mora's got together at my Brother Lamoni's house. And had all the food we could eat and then some. We have most of the traditional Thanksgiving things like turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, but we also have Mexican food traditionally served at Christmas time like pierna (pork roast), black beans, jicama and peanut salad, and some years we even do chiles rellenos, but not this year.

The Day was so nice you could see the mountains so clearly I had to take a couple of pictures.

I'm grateful for the earth we live in and for the freedoms we have in this great country.
I'm grateful for my family, even though they hate taking pictures.Grateful for my brothers and sisters and that they open their home to all of us to celebrate these special days.

For a home to live in especially in these difficult times (but I'm especially grateful for the decorating part of it)




For talents and friends that make me remember them. I was asked to dance last week. It was lots of fun remembering the steps and choreography, but my knee didn't appreciate it so much.

I'm grateful that my mom taught me the love of crafting among many other things. I do it as much and as often as I can. I attempted to do a boutique this year and these are some of the things I did.
Christmas wreaths...

Joy and other type of signs... It was lots of fun making them.

Grateful for good schools that my children go to and that they still celebrate the Holidays.
This was Eric John's class and their thanksgiving feast.
Grateful for lazy days with the kids and simple things like making ice cream in a bag.
Especially grateful for little surprises like Dallin coming home the other day with a shaved head. After I got over the shock, he explained that the whole football team did it in Honor of a friend battling cancer, and they did it to lift up his spirits. He passed about a week later and the kids were all very strong and decided to dedicate their playoff football game to him.

Red was Loren Merkley's favorite color so they all wore red the whole day...Even for their game. The cheerleaders cheered for him and I'm sure that his family truly appreciated it. I proud of all the boys. Good job Bulldogs!!!

There are so many things to be grateful but more than anything I'm grateful to know my children walk in truth and righteousness.

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving.

Free Sonic Ice

I love that we finally have some sweater weather, now that it's November. That was a long hot summer. So today as we were eating dinner guess how surprised I was when we heard and saw this outside (don't look at our ugly, dead grass). It was so funny to hear the kids say it was Sonic Ice falling. So I took my cup and filled up! J/K... Though Eric thought it would be funny to go get a handful and throw it at the kids INSIDE MY HOUSE, and I wonder why my kids don't behave. We have such crazy weather in Arizona, I love it!!!

Halloween Happenings

A little late, but better late, than never... Halloween was great this year a little laid back.

We started the Monday before Halloween with some pumpkin carving at a friend's home. We had some delicious soups, bread bowls and lots of fun getting in the Halloween Spirit.

Good to know even the cool teenagers can still get into to the spirit of the Holidays...Halloween Day... we went to our annual block party. I think it gets bigger and bigger every year. The kids were ready first thing in the morning, I'm sure it was agonizing waiting until sun down to get started. Miss Angela dressed up as, what else, but a princess, Cinderella to be precise and loving all the cute things she got to wear. Ammon and Eric, I mean clone troopers invaded our home and were ready to demand candy as ransom. They trick or treated to their heart's content...

...The kids had a candy auction with all their loot. It was funny seeing all of them sitting in a circle with their pile of candy holding up candy to the highest bidder.

and then at about 9:00 pm we had some of my family and some friends over for some grown-up fun. I of course had way too much fun decorating...

...we played a game called Would you Rather? It was sooooooo much fun and so funny. It's just a serious of ridiculous questions that you have to choose from. For example:

Would you rather Be trapped in an elevator packed with wet dogs -OR-with 3 sweaty, fat men with bad breath?

Would you rather Have 5 bottles stuck on the fingers of one hand for a year -OR-a bucket stuck on your foot for a year?I Know... so silly but so much fun. The way you win the game is by doing challenges. Oh, lets say like... Lap water out of a bowl like a cat

...or dance only to the tune of your own humming

...or make up your own, like make all the guys do a Samoan dance... SOOO funny!!!

Needless to say, we had a blast. I love Halloween, Family and Friends, what more can you ask for.

Forgotten Pleasures

Recently, I was invited to go a community yard sale. It was so much fun. We found tons of great stuff, some of it was even brand new, in the boxes and everything. I had forgotten how much fun it was to do this. You find some great things at a great price. I have big plans for the stuff I found. I loved it so much that I went this week again. Check out some of my finds.We found two ex consultants, one for Lia Sophia and one for Pampered Chef. I loved the jewelry. The red necklace is still in this years catalog and retails for $110, I got it for $10, Score!!Brand new Pampered chef stuff, all this for $5Found these remote control cars for my boys, for Christmas, Shhh, don't say anything. They were a steal.Several knick knack stuff.Practically new stadium seat. All three for $6. This is too much fun.This week's finds: these cute shelves......cool scooter for the boys...... and this awesome table for my room. I'm so excited, I might just finish my room. I'll show you later.
I got a few more fun things, but these were my favorites. I love going to garage sales.

Why...oh why do people like to suffer...

The kids are on fall break this week and we decided to go to the fair. The Paynes, McLaws, and the Davis all went. We went on Wednesday for $l ride day. We had lots of fun the kids liked getting on the rides and just being crazy. Okay I have to say that Lanette Payne is CRAZY!!! She loves to get on all those wild rides. Now, you would think that a thirty something woman would not be subject to peer pressure anymore, but Nooooooooo... I for some insane reason agreed to get on a stupid ride called G Force. I am not a ride person. I get sick, my head hurts for a week after and I just really don't know why people pay to be tortured that way. I have to say that I did it. The kids saw and heard me reduced to a bumbling idiot, screaming bloody murder and well, with absolutely no dignity left at all. I will NEVER get on a dumb ride again. And, my head still hurts!!!

Can you believe I was on this stupid thing!!!! Never again. And yes, I'm a huge chicken.

BUNKO

I had bunko tonight. It was at Melody Williamson's home. Cute home, great food and good friends. My night started as any other bunko night, I was on my usual losing streak. Then, the stars aligned and lady luck decided to throw me a bone or dice anyway. I had 7, seven, count them SEVEN bunko's. Now those of you that play bunko know that that's just crazy. I still can't believe it. Things like that never happen to me. I a loser!!!
Here's my proof. I haven't yelled so much in a 48 hour period. First the SYTYCD show and then Bunko, I'm losing my voice. I ended up picking the gift I brought because I loved the jar so much. Guess where I found it...Hobby Lobby. It was a good night.

So you think you can dance, dance, dance...

I have a permanent grin on my face. I got to go to the 'so you think you can dance' tour last night. My sister-in-law Heather called me a couple of days ago to ask if I wanted a couple of tickets to the show, because she had a concert to get to. Mmmm, let me think about that? Umm.. YES!!!!!! Thank you Heather for thinking of me. I absolutely loved it!! I invited my friend Amy that is such a huge fan, but she couldn't come so I called my friend Kim (also a huge fan) and she "sacrificed" and was able to come. We were on our way when my sister Adriana called and asked what I was doing, as soon as I told her I knew she would freak out and sure enough as soon as she found out where I was going, she began to scheme how to get there. So before I ever even arrived she was able to locate tickets off of craig's list, get them and get to the Jobing Areana before I ever even got there. She's crazy!! But I'm glad she was there. Here are some of the highlights. The Jobing Arena was packed. Kim and I went a bit early to get a bite to eat and everyone had a long wait.So we ended up at Sweet O. It was very delicious, I would definitely go back. We had a great paninni, salad and caramel pecan chocolate cake. Here's my crazy sista, with her kiddo's. I'm sure she wanted to be on stage with them, she's a great dancer.It was a full house, every seat was taken. Joshua and Katie are...like they like to say on the show... Sick!!! They are so good, in such good shape and the dancing... GET OUT!!!Gev and Chelsie's dance, amazing. I do have to say, he's very tiny. The guys are all good. The three best dancers are definitely Will, Joshua and Twitch.Even though it was three hours, it felt like 10 minutes. I wanted it to keep going. I could have watched them all night. Joshua and Katie in the very fun jazz number.I love the very weird and quirky dance that Mark and Courney did. Mark is a lot taller than he seems on TV.Twitch and Katie's door dance was insane. They are so good. My definitely favorite dance of the whole season was Joshua and Katie's Balliwood dance, so I felt a little jipped at the group dance. It was still awesome. It seemed to be over way too fast. I absolutely loved the show.
Thanks Kim for coming with me and making it a fun night. All the the good pictures were taken by Kim and her amazing photography skills. Thanks for sharing. I think I'm going to have to make this a yearly tradition. Ammon was definitely bummed he didn't get to go. Next year Ammon I promise.