Thanksgiving

Another Thanksgiving has come and gone.  Life is just flying by but I do want to take a few minutes to mark this day of gratitude.  We have so many things to be thankful for. 

We had a quiet Thanksgiving at home this year.  I'm used to loud, family filled Thanksgivings (I mean like 35 people) but it was a nice day.  Heb and I cooked a beautiful meal.  He smoked his first turkey and I did all the fixings including 3 pies.  We watched movies, spent time together.  It was so pleasant.

My favorite dish of the day, Sweet Potatoes and Raspberries.

Heb's cousins came into town to stay with us over the weekend and we had a great time with their family.  We lit the fire in our fireplace, played games and enjoyed some good food.  It's so nice to have family on the East coast! 

Almost all of our Thanksgivings have been spent with family.  The only other one without was the year that we went to Istanbul.  How could I forget a Thanksgiving of kabobs and the Spice Market?  I think our main meal was at KFC because we had to have some American fare to celebrate, right?  We laughed about our experience at the Turkish baths.  I don't think I've ever been washed up by someone else as an adult.  Good times.  See, so many good memories to be thankful for.  

So, happy Thanksgiving to you all.  Hope it was a great one for you all.

The Monster Halloween Post

This is what our Halloween looked like last year.

We were packing up our house in Lorton, VA and finished with just a few minutes to trick or treat at about two houses.   I was exhausted, physically and emotionally. Can you believe that was only a year ago?

Here we are one year later.   Oh, what a year it has been and I am still reeling from it all.  However, I'm hopeful about our life here.  We celebrated Halloween big with all sorts of activities.  We pumpkin patched, we made "blue" cookies for Leo, we pumpkin carved and had the cutest little owl and fireman I've ever seen.

We attended the Ward Trunk or Treat

I even turned over a new leaf and put together a costume for myself this year.  My costume was "That Girl is on Fire," you know, like the song.  It was inspired by the glass artist Chihuli.  Have you ever seen the sculpture in Symphony Hall in Salt Lake?  That's a Chihuli. 

One of the Moms threw a Halloween party.  The kids were so cute and I couldn't help but reminisce about our little Leo the owl.  He is growing up so fast.

Some moms with our second babies.  Amy has some new little friends.

My sweet little Amy Owl.

We've been enjoying the fall colors.

Hanging out at a local nursery

Here we are making the requested "blue cookies"

 

Can I fit any more pictures into one post?  No.  There you have it, Halloween 2014.

North Carolina

Well...we did it again.  We stayed in a hotel this weekend.  I thought I'd sworn them off forever (not really, but do you remember the 32 nights we spent in one this summer?).  It was not that bad, we actually had a great time. 

This picture just sums the whole trip up.  The kids were troopers.  Amy is such a fun girl right now.

We took a road trip this weekend down to North Carolina to visit some old Logan friends.  We don't have hardly any family here on the East Coast but the Kudin's are like family.  Janette was blessing her new baby and we couldn't pass up the chance to support them and celebrate their new little guy.

I met Janette years ago in an Irish Dance class. She's known me through several variations of myself.  You know what I mean, right?  First as a newlywed, as a grad student, and now as a mom.   Don't you have variations of yourself?  I feel like I learn so much and grow in each phase of life that I'm a different person every few years.  We are still in the moving in portion of Virginia and few people really know me and my history.  It's nice to have a face to face conversation with someone who does.


We had a very low key trip with lots of good food and conversation.  I have to say that my favorite part was just being in the car with Heber and having nothing but time to talk.  We've reached a phase in life where there seems to be an infinite number of things to do and needs of little people to be met.  It all filled me up and made me feel happy about the world, even if we didn't see or do anything groundbreaking, well, except for that Mennonite Restaurant, that food was pretty life changing.  We enjoyed it all immensely.