Thanksgiving

Each Thanksgiving brings two feasts for us. One with my side and one with Dave's side. Thursday is spent having dinner with my family and Friday is spend having dinner with the Welkers.

This Thanksgiving Thursday was celebrated in Mendon with Grandma Peterson. The dinner was yummy and the girls loved having Grandma here with us for most of the day. She even stayed with the girls for an hour while Dave and I ran to Logan to get a movie. We should have left her with the girls in Mendon and we could have gone to her house in North Logan for the night! Can you imagine the partying that would have gone on in Mendon!?!

As Dave and I were in Logan, we drove by the Staples and Best Buy shopping center and were amazed at the crazy people lined up outside of Best Buy. There was probably 20-30 of them. Crazy! Nothing is a good enough buy for me to stand outside all night waiting in line for Black Friday! We were in town about 6:30 p.m. They had a long night ahead of them. There was only one poor lonely guy sitting outside Staples. Best Buy must have had the better deal!

Friday, we headed to the Welker Ranch to be there by 1 p.m. for the opening of Grandma and Grandpa Welker's mission call. All of the Welkers were there either in person or via phone. And the call is......drum roll please.....Albuquerque, New Mexico serving with the LDS Family Services. From my understanding this is old stomping grounds for G'ma and G'pa Welker. In the early years of their marriage, they lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico where G'pa Welker taught seminary. They traveled many times to the reservations in this area. I believe they will feel right at home and they know the Lord is sending them to this place for a reason. They will report for their mission on February 2, 2009. The mission will be for 18 months.

Dinner with the Welkers was yummy and Hannah and Ashley enjoyed their time with cousins. G'ma Welker coordinated for everyone to go to the church to play dodge ball. Dave and the girls went for this activity and I headed home to give Nicole a much needed nap.

After dodge ball, everyone headed to Mendon for "movie night". The adults stayed downstairs chatting while kids were either up watching the movie with the surround sound and projector or they were outside taking advantage of the golf cart.

Ashley was so exhausted from the day's activities that she fell asleep during the movie. Hannah kept right on a chugging and finally crashed after everyone left at 9:15 p.m. Nicole stole the show with the adults with her teasing personality and when I mentioned it was time for night-night, she told everyone bye, blew them a kiss, and walked to her bed. Pretty impressive.

Saturday brought Dave helping his Dad at Ken's house (Dave's brother), me and Nicole taking a shopping trip with G'ma Peterson, and Hannah and Ashley enjoying more cousin time at the Welker Ranch. Again, the girls were exhausted by nights end and crashed until Sunday morning.

Sunday has brought a sick baby. Nicole has been struggling with a cold and today it's hit full force. She's been toting a 102.7 fever and wanting LOTS of snuggle time, which tells me that she does not feel good. I've been keeping her medicated and crossing my fingers that it passes quickly. Why do they always get sick when it's been a long weekend and now it's time to head back to work? Oh well, what do you do? They come first. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

I am really terrible at taking pictures at Thanksgiving. I have no pictures of the Welker day and I remember just before my mom left on Thursday to take some pictures. I guess I'll have to try harder next year!!!

I did get one......G'ma Peterson and the girls.......

Scrapbook Night

A co-worker had a watch party Friday night and all of us girls were invited. We decided to take advantage of "being away from the kids" and turned it into a scrapbook night. Oh, what fun we have on these nights! It's filled with food, fun, and scrapbooking!! Who could ask for more?

Two of us headed to Lewiston to the watch party. It has been quite awhile since I've journeyed to Lewiston and had to find the egg farm. I use to head this way a bit in my earlier days of going to Brooke's. Not only has it been awhile since I've been to Lewiston but we're heading there in the black of night. Needless-to-say, Jen and I did get lost. Not too bad though. After we figured out where the egg farm really was, we were on our way. How could we have missed it?!? The smell should have been the sign.

After the watch party, Jen and I headed to Bridgerland and met up with two others and we scrapbooked until 1 a.m.! Every girl needs to make sure and have "outs" like this. It's rejuvenating and tons of fun and yes, the time flies!!!

The only time I can scrapbook is when we have these get togethers. Hopefully this changes when we do get a computer here at home. I can't load my software on Dave's computer (oh yea, we digiscrap) so I'm limited of when I can scrapbook and I have to refresh my knowledge with the software each time so it seems as though I do not get alot done.

I haven't been going in any order for scrapbooking. Some here, some there. I have done a couple of pages of my Dad's funeral and a couple of pages for 2008.

Here's a little sample of what I did last night:

2008 book....

Page 2 of this layout is still under construction.....

My Dad's book.....

I can't wait until I scrapbook again!!! It's so addicting!

We've Been Out of Commission

Last Monday while I was using Dave's computer to type some recipes for a class I was teaching on Friday, the computer crashed. When we moved to Mendon, we were unable to bring a computer with us and we've been using Dave's laptop from work. It is amazing how useless you feel when you do not have a computer or the internet. Dave got his computer back today and so now I feel like we can get back in touch again. This has brought to life that I REALLY want a laptop for Christmas. It's been on the list for awhile and we've been looking. After this experience, I think it's at the TOP of the list!

Last week was pretty mellow. In fact, I didn't even take one picture! The only thing planned for was Dave heading to U of U for the Mountain Crest semi-final playoff football game and me teaching a 30-minute meal class for Fabulos Friday (enrichment night). Even though Mountain Crest lost by two, Dave said the game was really good to watch. My cooking class went alright. I was EXTREMELY nervous. I had 30 minutes to teach the class and I had some samples to try. I got nervous and talked really fast and was done in 15 minutes and ready to sample! Oh well! At least I'm new enough in the ward that if they didn't enjoy it, they'll never ask me to do it again! Always looking for the positive.

One sad event did happen during the week. A long time friend of the Welker family, a guy that served in the Bishopric with Dave's Dad, and a guy that lived on Hollow Road where we lived for the past 2 1/2 years was out walking Wednesday night with his daughter when he was hit by a truck. Arlin was critically injured in the accident and I'm sad to say that he passed away Saturday morning from the trauma to his body.

Both Arlin and his daugher were wearing emergency relector jackets but the driver did not see them. The daughter was not hurt in the accident. Its times like this when it reminds you to live life to the fullest each and every day for you never know when it will be someone you love's time to leave earth. Tonight as I was looking around my house you would never know that it was sparkling clean on Saturday. Now, it is a cluttered mess. I have three little tornados. However, I look at it and am very thankful for my girls and I'm very thankful for the opportunity to have the toys on the floor because it means that they are in my life. I am also very thankful for an amazing husband sitting here next to me on the couch while I am typing.

Dave's Dad has been asked to speak at Arlin's funeral. I'm sure he will do an amazing job. I'm sure he is honored to be considered for this task.

I cannot believe it is already November 17! Where has this month gone? Next week is Thanksgiving and then comes the craziness of Christmas shopping! Dave was hoping to not put up Christmas lights this year but Hannah has been asking for the past two days when we're putting up the lights! I do love the holiday seasons and the feelings it brings inside. It's fun to now see excitement through a child's eyes. The weather has been and is suppose to be amazing for the entire week. As soon as we're ready to put up the lights it will be freezing cold. Isn't this how it's suppose to be?

The computer made it through the whole post! Yeah! We're on the right track! Hopefully, I'll get some pictures this week! Until next time.....

Oh, The Life of a Three Year Old

You play hard all day......then crash!

A History Making Moment

I am using my blog as a form of a "journal" and because of this, I wanted to make an entry regarding the historical event that has occurred with the recent election of the 44 President of the United States.

As everyone is well aware, Barak Obama is the President-elect. He will become the 44 President of the United States of America in January 2009. Obama will be the first black president of the United States. Whether Obama or McCain were to win the election it was going to be a history making event. We would either end up with the first black President or the first woman Vice President.

As the elections were coming to a close, either way when I would think about the next president I would get an eerie feeling in my stomach. I wasn't particularly impressed with either candidate. The US is in a very interesting state. The next few years will be an interesting ride. I can only hope that as a whole, America will stand together and we will survive!

Rootbeer Floats...the Best Treat Ever

Tonight we had rootbeer floats for our Sunday treat. YUMMMM. We pulled out the "cool" glasses as Hannah called them.

Here's some pictures of the event!

Ashley, can you try to keep your eyes open? Yep!

Nicole enjoyed them too. She's asking for more.

A Pirate, Snow White and a Cow, Oh My!

I think the girls had a Happy Halloween this year. It was a busy one and by the time the night was over, everyone was exhausted.

The Halloween festivities began with all three girls getting ready to go Trick or Treating at Traci's house after I got off work. We headed to Lee's Marketplace for some Trick or Treating at 3:45. Lee's does an annual Trick or Treat that usually ends around 6 p.m. Of course this year they had to change it and it ended at 4 p.m., so we were rushed to get there. I did see that going at the end was the best! The girls were getting handfuls of candy put in their buckets. They were in heaven!

After Lee's we headed to the Logan Nursing & Rehab Center to meet up with Traci and some of the other daycare kids. It is a tradition of Traci's to take the daycare kids trick or treating at the nursing home. This is the first year I have been able to tag along. I love the thought that the older people do not scare my kids. To them it is fun to go there and trick or treat and I'm sure the older people love having the kids come to see them. We did have one little incident.....one of the residents was coming home with me. In fact, she had her purse and was following me right out the door. When I asked her where she was going, she looked at me and said she was coming with me. I politely said that I didn't bring her here so she couldn't come with. She said OK and headed back inside. This isn't the first time this has happened to me at a nursing home. I guess this is why I have a bit of a phobia of going to them.

From the nursing home we were off to Grandma Nana's. Trick or Treating at Nana's does not result in a treat from the treat bucket.....you get a "bag" of treats premade by grandma. In the bag this year was some chocolate chip cookies, small candy bars, a can of apple juice, and a dollar. Score!! The girls love going to Nana's to visit. Her house is not "child proof" so it's a little nerve racking for me with an active baby. It was a good visit though.

I love how innocent kids are. Ashley asked Nana why here arms were wrinkled. We also trick or treated to Nana's neighbor. She's a cute little 90+ year old lady. She probably only stands about four feet tall. She answers the door and Ashley says, "Why are you so short?" Gotta love them!!!

After Nana's it was time to do a little trick or treating around Grandma Peterson's neighborhood. The girls went to four houses that they love visiting.

Now it's time to head to Mendon to trick or treat our neighborhood.....and trick or treat we did.....Welker style. Dave was home waiting for us. He had the golf cart all ready to go with the strobe red light on top. They girls were in heaven using the golf cart to get around. The highlight was going to the bishop's house and not getting candy but roasting a hotdog over a bon fire. They also were roasting marshmallows and had hot chocolate. It was fun taking some time to chat with some of the other ward members. After all was said and done, I forgot to take a picture of us in the golf cart. Oops! Maybe next year.

Next year I have decided that we are not going trick or treating, we are going to stay home so the girls can have the thrill of handing out candy. I really think Hannah had more fun doing this than she did getting the candy. She had a stool pulled over to the front door and she would hold the bowl while looking out the side window and waiting for someone to come. Her excitement when someone was coming up the driveway was so fun to see.

We fed Nicole a little dinner and then decided to head to Grandma and Grandpa Welker's to trick or treat. On our way to the Welker Ranch, we stopped by a house of a lady Dave works with at Mt. Crest. Her yard was totally decked out with decorations and the girls thought that was great. She had been waiting for them and again they SCORED! They left with candy, a glow in the dark wand, a glow in the dark necklace, and a glow in the dark bracelet.

The visit with Grandma and Grandpa Welker was fun but towards the end everyone was exhausted. Nicole finally layed on the floor with her blanket and you could see in her eyes that she was saying, "come one guys.....I'm so tired!" We got back to Mendon at 9 p.m. and it was lights out!!!

Good thing it only comes once a year!!!!!

I had to add this picture......I couldn't get Nicole to hold still long enough to get a group picture so Hannah decided to hold her by the tail. I think the saying usually is "Grab the bull by the horns.....not Grab the cow by the tail."