Thanksgiving



Marty and his Dad -carving the fat thing.



We had a quiet Thanksgiving with Marty's Dad and his wife, Merry.  It was relaxing and delicious.  Merry did a fantastic job with all the fix'ins.



Oh, the whip cream...



They live in Manti...so it was a little bit of a drive to get there but the Temple is so beautiful!





In between our TWO Thanksgiving meals we took the kids to see Santa...and his beau.



On Saturday we had 'the meal' all over again at my parents house.  It's so nice for each sibling to have their own specific part of the meal - it all comes together so nicely and the tastes are all gourmet and unique.  Everyone is so creative and such great chefs!

My sweet grandparents were able to make it next door!  Such a big deal to have Grandpa venture out of the house!  Loved having them.

Charlie was a little upset at my Dad for trying to make him smile...he was scaring him instead.

My family is large enough now-we need to go to a church cultural hall to get our energy out and have room enough to move around freely.  It was a great after-feast activity.  We played tag with the kids, danced (break danced) with a strobe light and learned some line dances~ ha! It was great times.





How low can you go....







The competition came down to Ingrid and Marty.  Ingrid is like an all-out pilates/yoga pretzel chick.  You'd think she'd take the cake...but guess who won.



Oh yeah, Baby!







Who knew my husband could bend in such a way! Very impressed was I.



Tight...

Not all things are skin tight (like the jeans I just bought-on a mega deal) but our finances have been a little tight lately (with Marty starting up his own practice). I have always been a coupon shopper-not extreme, but definitely shop the sales. I always do my grocery shopping at Walmart...(I know Di, you hate this store but-) they will price match any sale at any gorcery store, so why not get everyones sales AND the things that are on sale at Walmart too! It makes me feel good to save money, esp. on things like food items.

Well the other day I went to Maceys because I had to get a specific food storage item for my MIL and thought I'd use some of their in-store coupons for other things that were a steal of a deal. I went thru the line and showed the checker my coupons in the ad. He told me not to worry about cutting them out and he would run them through for me. Well shopping with 3 kids sometimes is a real bugger. So I wasn't watching, and when I got back home discovered that he didn't give me the coupon price~! The whole reason I even bought the items in the first place! So I had to go back in and have them refund some of the money. Then 2 days later I was in Smiths for some of their 'in-store' coupon prices and SAME THING> they didn't take off the price. I had to go back in AGAIN and get a refund. This is NOT an easy thing to do with kiddos. And it's not a whole lot of money back but it's the principal of it. (One good thing about having to go back into Smiths Customer Service was I noticed that they sell Megaplex tickets for 6.50$!- I always wondered about where to get discounted movie tickets-sweet.)

Anywho...then I was at Goldenwest Credit Union to change something on my account (the checking account from which to pull from to pay our car loan) and they were going to charge me ten dollars to do it.  I asked 'why' the cost?  She said "let me check on that, I'm not sure".  She made a phone call right there in front of me and asked a superior why they charge that fee and if it could be waived.  The superior told her to go ahead and waive the fee.  So luckily I didn't have to pay it...I mean again, ten dollars is not alot, but what was the charge for!  They were just going to stop payment from one bank and start another....who's pocketing the 10 bucks?!  What my conclusion is...people make mistakes-like at the grocery store- you just need to watch as they check you out (cuz it happens alot).  And there are lots of little fees and costs that institutions try to pin on ya (I just saw a clip on the Today Show about this) that aren't really needed or the norm.  So... those of you trying to keep above water in this crazy economical time...be alert!

Sweater Vests

An old sweater from savers...

transforms into two sweater vests!

not nearly as cute as what she did here (I LOVE this blog)...but fun just the same.  charlie wasn't too happy about it...

a bit better...

oh, we're out, we're done!

Leaves, leaves...

...and more leaves!  The advantage to having a little yard with 2 HUGE trees (other than raking our brains out in the fall)- is to enjoy them before we rake!  It makes for a compact leave-filled play zone! 







(Ruby's school friend, Caleb, was over for a playdate)

When you wake up to this in the morning- how can you not take advantage.?!?

WE WON! MEGAMIND...

I entered a picture of my kids in a Superhero costume contest on KSL morning news...and we actually won!  There were 5 winners out of Utah.  I happened to be watching the last 20 min. of the broadcast while working-out one morning and saw that they wanted pic's of superheros sent in.  And then I realized I already had my kids' costumes made and they were superheros.  Sadly I missed the broadcast when they announced the winners.! But I got an email the next day telling me we had won and what our prize was.   

OUR PRIZE=  We got to go see the preview of MEGAMIND at Jordan Commons in Sandy.  It was in an IMAX theater in 3D.  It was SO great.  I have not seen a 3D movie in a really long time. And am usually not very hip on it.  The glasses are flimsy and annoying to wear, the kids never keep them on and it ends up being a blow.  But glasses these days are nice, comfortable, regular glasses.  You don't even realize your wearing them.  As for the quality of the 3D- it was so, so great!  The movie was very entertaining.  In fact so much so that  I didn't even let my 5 year old go the bathroom!(cuz I didn't want to leave to take her)  She was literally shaking in her seat, her legs were going 100 miles an hour just a  kick'in and shak'in - but I kept telling her to hold it!  Albeit she was in trouble for NOT going that morning before we left OR when I took Liam right before the movie started. I warned her and she said she "didn't have to!" I loved the movie and recommend it to everyone (especially in 3D).  I also loved getting special treatment.  When we got there, there was huge, long line of folks waiting to get in and were escorted past everyone right inside the theater.  We had 2 rows of seats taped off/reserved for us.  We got prize bags for our family which included  baseball caps, MegaMind masks, mega-sized pencils, sweatbands, tattoo's, posters, plastic jewelry, balloons, coloring books- all with the megamind logo on them.  It was a total blast and great memory for the kids...they loved it!