Cutting a Christmas Tree

Yesterday we went with our dear friends to cut down a Christmas tree! We thought it would be a great memory maker with our kids. We had a ball!

We got up at the crack of dawn and put the kids in the car.




We drove for a while and stopped at this adorable diner for breakfast.


They had entertainment for the cooped up child...


It was the cutest little place!


I think this shot would look better like this....


They had really great food!! MMMMM..... I was starving by the time we got there so I got a HUGE omelet with hash browns... The french toast was really good too...

This place was even complete with a cat curled up out back by a stump!


We drove for a really long time. To pass the time I was taking pictures of the clouds.





They are a bit doctored up... But not much. It was a really neat looking sky the whole time!

We got into Idaho...


And the children were getting bored...


We turned onto a gravel road...


And the children were still bored...


Then we got to a "two track road"....


And the children were laughing their heads off....

(I couldn't keep the camera still enough while we were on this road. It was hilarious!)

There was hiking of mountains...

Climbing of trees...

And falling out of them...

We found a tree. It took me a lot longer than our friends to find one.

There was cutting of trees...

And hauling it down to the truck...

Do you notice anything missing?? I did... SNOW!!! Oh well.

We got the tree home, put up and decorated.

This tree is a lot poky-er than other trees I have decorated...

Ouch!

It really took up about half of our living room! I have issues with visualizing how large or small something actually is. I really cannot be counted on to estimate anything like that. This tree really didn't look as large on the mountain as it did in the living room!!! Oh well.

At 5:30 am we were woken up by a very large crash! The tree and the IRON stand it was in fell over! I think the cat had something to do with it. Dang cat!!!

We took off some of the bottom of the tree. It fits much better now.

I am very excited for Christmas! This is my favorite season. I hope everyone remembers the reason for this time of year!!

Turkey's funny that way...

Polar Express and The Santa Clause are my 2 favorite Christmas movies. One of my favorite parts of The Santa Clause is when Tim Allen starts the turkey on fire…


Funny that should be one of my favorite parts… But we will get to that in a minute.

Let’s start off the day with…

for my cute bff

who is SO old now!!!!!! Happy Birthday Steph!

Dallin was climbing trees...


Maggie was enjoying outside...

I can’t believe this weather! It shouldn’t be this warm on Thanksgiving!

This year it was our turn to host Thanksgiving. Seeing as our kitchen is pretty small Scott took some of our furniture to the basement so we could set tables up in our living room. We were in charge of the turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and gravy. Not too bad. We were expecting 15 people and to eat between 4 and 4:30. Had a 14 pound turkey… or so I mistakenly thought.

There was lots of chopping and prepping…


And Scott was pulling out the "fine china"...

I realized at 11:20 that the turkey was a 20 pounder. Not 14. Oops… I should have had it in the oven an hour ago stuffed! Luckily we had a turkey bag in the house and we were saved.

Then it was lunch time... mmmmmm.... Hot wings!!

Then it’s back to business.

Scott’s sister arrived and started setting the table. We had our nice plates out…


And then I pulled out the silverware… I opened the cupboard for the glasses and this is what greets me…

This simply won’t do. So off we go to get glasses. Having 2 children under the age of 5 we don’t have many glass glasses left. It’s just not worth it to have them around the house… So at 3:00 pm on Thanksgiving we ran to Target – it was closed – so off to Wal-Mart….

Yae!!! And we were saved…

We realized at about 3:30 that we needed to put the stuffing and sweet potatoes in the oven. Oops… I had pulled out the top rack - so we pulled out the turkey to move it to the bottom rack so we could put the top rack back in.

Scott pulled it out and realized that the turkey bag isn’t entirely sealed. The corner is leaking broth. We tried to stuff it inside the pan. But of course I don’t have a roasting pan so I used a jelly roll pan… (This is where the real excitement begins)

Scott is pushing the pan back into the oven and the bag flips out of the pan, hits the rack or coils, melts, leaks all sorts of juice, butter and grease onto the bottom of the oven. There are 3 people in the kitchen. I am kind of off to the side. All of a sudden the flames are shooting out of the oven. HOLY TOLEDO! I go straight for the closet next to me and get this…

Obviously too much of The Santa Clause. No one wanted to use it. They wanted baking soda. All I could do is laugh. It was so stinking hilarious! I kept laughing and laughing!

And we were saved… (Thanks Blake and Luanne!!) Don’t people pay extra for smoked turkey??

Here is where I MUST admit – there were 3 people in the kitchen taking care of the fire. I wanted SO badly to run to my camera and get pictures of the flames shooting out of the oven and up to the top of the range! My very first thought: What a GREAT blog entry! But I refrained… I didn’t do it. I still have the visual in my brain that I wish I could take a snapshot of and put on here!!!

So dinner got pushed back. Because of that the mashed potatoes got lukewarm. I thought I would just turn on the burner and warm them up. The bottom of the pan started smoking and I smelled smoke! UGH! I burned the mashed potatoes. The whole pan had that icky burned taste to it.

Finally (2 hours late) we made it to the table and had a wonderful meal with family. Our 4 year old Dallin wanted to say the blessing on the dinner. Scott told him to make sure to thank Heavenly Father for all the things we are blessed with. Weeeeelllll…. He didn’t. BUT he did ask Him to not let there be another fire in our oven again. And hopefully we will be saved – from that at least… What a kid! There were quiet laughs all over the table but no one snorted or laughed out loud. So that was good!!!

As we were cleaning up I looked at the bottom of my “fine china” (said with a smirk).


I guess it struck a funny cord because it made me laugh that my china was made in japan. Heheheheeeee… I guess that’s what you get when you can put your “china” in the dishwasher!!!

I am pretty sure that I won’t be asked to host Thanksgiving again!!! But I do have new glasses now!

Today I am making turkey soup

And watching parts of The Santa Clause.

Oh – and this morning I went to get a Christmas Tree permit. We are going to cut a tree tomorrow! I am excited! I will try to get some fun pictures of that!!

Family Pictures

I am going to leave the Ouch song on even though I wanted to put on We Are Fa-Mi-Ly... But since I JUST put the other song on I am going to leave it....

We got our electronic pictures today! Here they are!!

Bang... Owie....

Saturday I went to a movie with my friend Steff and her girls. Yes - I must admit it. I went to see Twilight.

I must say that I preferred the book to the movie. And when I left the theatre I was quite disappointed. Unlike Rachel, I had higher expetations. But as I have thought about the show - I guess I can say they did a good job. I just think - well - it doesn't really matter what I think since no one saw fit to ask me before putting it out. I would, however, see it again.

Well - I got home and Scott says to me something along the lines of we had an accident. He showed me blood on his shirt. I was a little worried.


So can you see it?? No??? Maybe I should give you a close up??? (Excuse the food in her mouth. When she actually eats I never discourage it!!!)



Little Mags was sleeping when I got home. But when she got up I put her on the counter to inspect it. I asked her what happened to her lip. She put her hands straight out in front of her in little fists... pushed them forward... said BANG... then put her finger to her lips and said in the saddest little voice OWIE...



What? You don't get what happened? It was perfectly clear!

She had the spring action Ab Roller and was pushing it forward then banged her lip and then there was lots and lots of blood!

Come on - get with 2 year old talk already!!!

PS... We are fortunate that this happened Saturday as opposed to Friday. Or we would have had Grumpy-itis for family pics again!!!