The Holiday Spirit

Lately Will has been breaking out Christmas Carols in the car and even in the grocery store. Today as we were shopping he was singing,

"Ho, ho, the missing toe"!

Ha!

That's my favorite one so far.

Hats!

I just happened to take a picture of Will in his hat before the party
Isn't Steph beautiful? I love how her blue eyes stand out.

Adorable Diantha soon to be off to the land down under

My red hat--glad to have an excuse to wear it!

The whole crew

Diantha got a bunch of us together for a night of karaoke before heading off to Australia on a teaching exchange. Some of the gals she teaches with came up with the idea of wearing crazy hats. There was a whole story attached to wearing the hats, but it escapes me now since I've waited so long to blog about this night! We were quite the sight. Thankfully, we had a nice drawn out dinner beforehand because the place we went to karaoke had some technical difficulties. Most of the crew had left the karaoke bar before the machine got to working. Only Diantha, Steph and I were left at the end of the night. Wouldn't you know we were the first three singers up when the equipment was finally functional? Good thing too because we all had to get home to hubbies and children. We sang our songs, shook our booties and headed out of there. Personally, I've never had much trouble making a fool of myself. I guess that's why I'm able to karaoke amongst the likes of superstars, such as Steph and Diantha. They both have amazing voices. I do not. I'm okay with that. I just like to have fun and who doesn't like to belt out a tune once in a while? What's funny is that afterwards people ALWAYS come up and compliment Steph and Diantha up and down. I'm sort of standing there like....hmmmmm....don't even try to compliment me....I know you're lying! :) Ha! I just try to best to sing with a little bit of conviction and shake my fanny. You gotta live it up while you can, right?

Thanksgiving

Will and his Grandma Doris

Will helping my Dad open his birthday present

Who doesn't love to put olives on their fingers???

My beautiful mom

Here are the few random pictures from Thanksgiving that I said I would post. At least I got them up before Christmas! My dad's side of the family rented a community center so everyone could gather comfortably (my dad is one of eight children). It was really nice to be with my grandma, aunts, uncles and cousins. I loved that Will had other cousins to run around with while we celebrated. Afterwards we headed over to my Grandma & Grandpa's house to celebrate some more. It was a day of feasting! All the food was delicious and it was great to be with family. On Sunday we had Thanksgiving dinner with Mike's family and did our annual cookie baking. A nice weekend with good company and good eats.

What? No Comments?

Hey there, folks! Did I scare you away from commenting because I said you couldn't make any old people jokes? We had a great Thanksgiving and I will try and post a few pictures soon. I don't have a ton, isn't that just typical? Just wanted to update while Ella is napping and Will is occupied. I was checking my email and Ella fell asleep in my arms. Ahhhhh. Hope everyone is enjoying their holiday season! Will is telling me I'm the best momma in the whole wide world. I should get off the computer and try living up to the title!

Oh Yeah, I'm Another Year Older!

Yes, it's true, I'm another year older and feeling pretty good about it! I had a great birthday. Turning 30 was a little rough, but now that I'm in my thirties I feel much better. I also had a really great birthday. My brother, Jeff threw a party for my mom and me. We didn't have to bring a thing. He had it all set up for us. Jeff even grilled up some gardenburgers just for me! If that isn't brotherly love then I don't know what is! Typical of my family events I have zero pictures to show for it. I think Jeff has some incriminating ones, but I haven't seen them yet! I love hanging out with my family so it was the perfect way to celebrate. After that shin dig Mike and my friends conspired to kidnap me and take me to the Squeeze. I had told Diantha and Stephanie about it and we had talked about going there and taking a tour of my hometown. On the way there they played Honey Can You Squeeze Me In by Mr. Delbert McClinton. It took me a while to catch on (it usually does), but I realized where they were taking me. A family friend happened to be at the bar and my mom met up with us there too. We had some drinks and told a lot of stories. Steph and Diantha also had a game for us that involved testing everyone's knowledge of how well they knew me. It was hilarious and scary how much they knew about my life! I'm blessed to have such great friends and family. Thanks to everyone for making my birthday so special. Sorry it took me so long to get around to blogging about it!!!

P.S. No old person jokes are allowed on my blog.

Things Will Says...

Lately he has been calling Mike, Mr. Potamus. It's hilarious! He wraps his arms around him and says, "I love you Mr. Potamus". Will has chosen to go by the name of Mr. Monkey.

The other day we were in line at Fred Meyer. He told the guy behind us that his sister screams like a banshee. Nice.

Halloween Part II

Mike's masterpiece
My happy pumpkin

Will wanted to accessorize

Tell me this isn't the cutest clown you've ever seen!

A very serious bumblebee!

Classic

Everyone was happy when they discovered my cheesy pumpkin earrings

An action shot

Once again, Halloween did not disappoint! We had a great time going door to door around the neighborhood. Since the downtown trick or treating was the night before we had time to be leisurely. The highlight of the evening was when the kids both received whole candy bars. Ahhhh yeah! I always dreamed about that when I was a kid! :) We're going back to that house next year!!!

Halloween Part I

The before shot when everyone, except me, has make up on. It was smeared before we picked Mike up from work to go down town.

A reapplication of make up right before we started

My cute little bumble bee

Checking out her first piece of loot

There goes the make up!

A clown on a mission

Warrior bumble bee

My happy guys

Maybe the cutest pic of the night

Downtown trick or treating was Friday night this year so we got a double dose of Halloween. We had a fun time going to all the stores for treats. Ella really liked taking her candy and putting it in her bag! Will was a seasoned pro. He was in hog heaven and very excited that it was finally time to go trick or treating!

Pumpkin Patch '09

Excited about the tractor ride!
me too :)

Will found his pumpkin

Daddy doing all the hard work

Corn, glorious corn!!!

My little ham

Using a water pump for the duck races

Ella loved poking her head through the cut outs

So did Will!

This picture cracks me up!!! Classic Mike.

Crawling to the top of the hay bales

Jumping off like a cool guy

Ella had to follow suit. She's a real go getter

I had to get into the action too! :)

October wasn't a good blogging month for me so now I'm trying to catch up...in one day! I love going to the pumpkin patch and I think it shows in the amount of pictures that we took. We had a great day and the weather was nice. The ground was pretty muddy out by the pumpkin patch. Will lost a shoe in the mud as he was stepping back onto the tractor. There was another father there who decided not to wear shoes at all. It was actually pretty hilarious. There he was in his bare feet with mud up to his calves. I told him that some people pay a lot of money for that kind of treatment! We spent a lot of time after the tractor ride playing at the farm and we all had a good time.

Good Dog, Carl

After a great day visiting with an old friend of mine I decided to drop off some books at the library. By chance, it happened to be the day that the author of the Good Dog, Carl books was visiting. Ella squealed each time the dog barked. The librarian chose volunteers to lay down on the floor. The dog then jumped over three little kids. Will kept trying to be chosen. He even snuck up quietly and laid down next to some of the other kids, but the librarian kept sending him back to the audience. Poor Will! I guess the librarian thought he was too young. We were still able to play with the dog afterwards and get a book signed. I'm actually bummed that I have pictures of the dog and not the visit with my friend Isolde and her two daughters whom I had met for the first time. I think I get too busy visiting and forget to take pictures during times like that. Isolde and her daughters are way cuter than the dog in case you're wondering! :)