Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving is always at Mom's house

It isn't Thanksgiving without everyone looking at the Black Friday ads

Mom's famous french apple pies are simply a must...there is never a shortage of pie variety

What a gorgeous Thankgsiving Day

We ran out of room this year in the Giving book, so I had to add new pages. This is the tradition for over 10 years that all the people that come write in the book what they are thankful for

I love my grandma's (the one I never met) version of stuffing.

Since Omar has been around he has become the official turkey carver.

I wish I had taken more pictures of course. But once we start eating everything becomes a blur. This year Mary, Megan and Ben Wallis came, as well as Nancy, the boys and Micah brought one of his roommates. All of us kids were there, and Aaron Ihli and his family came. We had all the trimmings: turkey, cranberry sauce, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potato yummy, green bean casserole, stuffing, broccoli spinach casserole, creamed onions, creamed squash, homemade rolls, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, french apple pie and icecream.

This year for the movie we went and saw Harry Potter. Also, we played quite a bit of Settlers of Catan. Super fun!

The next day we went and took family pictures. That was the first time I think we have done that since I was in high school. Kelly and I got this for mom's Christmas gift. It was a perfect day for pictures.

Wonder Works Out of Control Magic Show

I was a part of a couple of his trick. I was on stage for a good 20 minutes.

After the Dave Ramsey show we went over to Wonder Work's Out of Control Magic Dinner Show. Omar and I got groupons to go and my dad and Erin Pratt also joined us. It was really a great show. The food wasn't half bad either. I actually participated in about 15 minutes of the show on stage. This magician was really funny and talented. That is a lot to say after having sat for over 6 hours at the Dave Ramsey event right beforehand. I really am not sure how he did a lot of his tricks. I would go to this show again.

I am glad that we have been trying to find some deals for things down in Orlando area to try out that we have never done before. It seems that a lot of times growing up in Orlando, everything is so tourist and Disney oriented that we don't take the time to take advantage of some of the neat things to do.

Dave Ramsey Live!

So we went to the Dave Ramsey live event yesterday in Orlando. It was a great refresher for us since we are Financial Peace University Grads. It seems as though it has gotten Omar back into wanting to work to be debt free, which is exactly what we have been working on. We are focusing on being debt free for everything but the house by July 2011!!! That would be the best birthday present ever! Here's to Dave Ramsey...we love him! If you don't know who this guy is you need to go to his website http://www.daveramsey.com/ listen to him on the radio or watch him on Fox. Practical financial knowledge that will bring financial peace!!!

A cowgirl, an Indian, a Night of Mystery

The Assassins

Omar is in the Elder's Quorum Presidency and they have been planning their first activity for the Quorom which was the other night...a Murder Mystery Dinner. It was a ton of fun and people got really into it.

Omar was hilarious and had a perfect part for him, an Indian. Omar told me he thought he was chosen to be an Indian because of his color, I didn't think someone would have thought of that. I asked the Quorum president and he told me that was exactly why. I just laughed...but Omar was perfect with the horrible English and throwing jokes in all over the place. Boy did he look the part too!

I was a cowgirl and ended up being a main character in the plot. I enjoyed dressing up to, but had a wicked hard time of finding a gun! I finally bought a nerf gun as all the toy stores no longer sell cap guns or guns that look like real guns since kids have been killed by cops because of it. Someone told me they found a gun at Walgreens and I bought it an hour before the event, it was a working cap gun! It was perfect and completed my get-up.

The perfect couple...but not in this show

He was hilarious he was the lover that stole all the girls hearts

I totally want to host my own party now...have been wanting to for a while. I guess I will need to get on that...so many parties and so little time to host.

Goodbye to Utah.

After "This is the Place" we went and saw a movie together, The Network. We picked something out that Aaron wanted to see as he seemed pretty bored with the day thus far. It was quite a sad movie I thought...it just shows that fame, riches, and full time obsession with work/computers does not bring happiness.

The next day we went to church and there was an awesome talk regarding pride. I realized that is something that I seriously need to study again, as I am a very proud person.

The whole trip was nice, and I was surprised by my feelings when I left. I really missed Utah or rather I missed a lot of the experiences I had in Utah. I missed having really good friends that I have close relationships with and the meaningful conversations that I have with them. I miss the outdoors and the thought that there is always something to hike so close by that is not mosquito-filled, humid, and flat. I miss being close to the church center, as that is so much of who I am.

I still don't think I could live in Utah full time. But in ways look forward to my next visit.

Lame Halloween

Our Halloween this year is a little like this pumpkin...rotten! Well, more like lame. We didn't even carve a pumpkin, no less buy one.  We didn't bother getting out our Halloween decorations. We had debated about throwing a party, but then with Halloween on Sunday we weren't sure how to go about a party. I was gone the week before Halloween and both of us have been working so much that it made it hard to actually plan anything. Today is Halloween and unlike some states, when it is on Sunday trick-or-treating doesn't switch to another day.

Last minute our ward decided to do a trunk-or-treat just so the kids could have a way to go around and get candy not on a Sunday. I am not sure how it went as I didn't get off work last night until 8 PM and it probably was over before I would have made it over there.  We are going to get together for dinner with friend's of ours and maybe some trick-or-treaters will come by making it feel like the holiday that I really do enjoy.

Sarah's Wedding

One of my bestest friends Sarah Squires got married last week to a Blackwell. I was so happy that I could make it out to the wedding. We had 2 nights prior to the big leap to spend together just as girls. I must admit that I thought I was almost losing my friend once it all was over. I'm sure that is not so, it is just different as I met her husband for the first time, and usually I knew a lot of the guys she had dated in the past.

The day before the wedding we went and ran errands for the big day, and I helped her pick out her outfit for the family dinner that evening. We even had a chance to eat some lunch at this delicious place called Dodo's. We shared a salad and appetizer.

The Bride had much to talk about on the phone to get things in order

These Roasted Tomato Polenta Cakes were to die for!

The family dinner was lovely and I rode with the bride and groom. We got lost following a GPS that took us to this construction site with a drop off of over 100 feet...that was quite the adventure, but I was with the right people, they couldn't start without the guests of honor!

I don't think I slept much the night before the big day as Sarah was nervous...let's just say I didn't sleep much at all the whole week with my flight and everything. She made it though. The morning of the big day, I went with her to do all of her stuff, make-up and hair. How fun!

Something borrowed, was my veil. I am so glad that someone could get a use out of it!

Her cousin did her hair. It looked so romantic!

One of the girl's from her single's ward did her make-up

The final spray to make it all stay

Isn't she gorgeous?!

I went with Sarah's family who I know pretty well to the temple. Scary enough, both Sarah's dad and sister forgot their recommends. Thank goodness the Temple was able to call the Bishop to confirm that their recommends were up to date.

She was married in the Salt Lake City Temple which was really neat to see a sealing in a temple other than Orlando, as well as to see the sealing rooms in SLC.

Pictures were taken and we even had time to go and get lunch at Cafe Rio (oh how delicious) before heading back to the house to get things prepped for the reception. I went with Sarah's mom to the reception location, this beautiful barn/garden place. It was absolutely gorgeous. I was so happy that they put me to work. I helped decorate, was in charge of making sure the food, drinks, etc. stayed full. Sarah and Dave (the groom) looked like they had a great time.

So in love!

Coming out of the temple!

Katherine from BYU also flew out for the event!

leaving the house for the temple!

A final bite to eat before the big "I do"

When they left for their honeymoon to Vail, Colorado, I went and stayed with my in-laws.