Our Progressive Thanksgiving

One thing that I have come to learn, and accept, about Spencer and I is the fact that we are always on the go.  We love to get together with friends and family and could play all day long.  So that is exactly what we did this Thanksgiving.  We played all day, and all night long, going from one place to another.  The day started out at McCormick Park.  Spencer organized a Turkey Bowl game while I organized a 5K Turkey Trot run.  Thanks to dry weather the guys had a great time playing football and I was so pleased with how many people showed up for the run.  We had a great group of 16 people (not all pictured) and hopefully next year there'll be even more.  Oh yes, this will be a tradition.

 After our early morning exercise, we headed out to the Ridgeway's house to shoot guns.  Traditions are the best and that's one tradition we can't let die.  Everyone looks forward to shooting clay birds and it gives us all a chance to pull out our shot guns and dust them off.   

 Mom & Dad hosted dinner at their house and we ate at 4:00 p.m.  Sitting at the table this year was Kathryn and her family, as well as Jeff and his.  I always find it enjoyable getting together with Spencer's family.  I love the stories they share and you can feel the love they have for one another.  Thanksgiving is definitely a time in which I am extremely grateful for family!  After dinner we went over to the Kalauli's to play games and eat more dessert.  I must admit we were a little rowdy while playing games so we'll have to wait and see if we ever get invited back.  :-)  Black Friday started early this year with a kick off at Walmart at 10:00 p.m.  Throw in 3 very short hours of sleep and then we were back at it for another 8 fun-filled hours.  The Ridgeway's were with us so there was never a dull moment.  Literally we had a blast!

Track & Field

Watching Ryan run through the years has been a highlight for our family.  We are so proud of him and all of his accomplishments.  Right now he holds the 2nd place all time record for the 800 meter run in BYU's history.  Pretty awesome!  Ryan's coach, Ed Eyestone, is a former Olympian runner himself, so I'd say he is in good hands.  We hope that if it's Ryan's dream to run in the Olympics someday that we can be there front and center to cheer him on.  That would be an awesome experience!        

Beautiful Friends!!

"Even though we change and we're

all finding our own place in the

world, we all know that when the

tears fall or the smile spreads across

our face, we'll come to each other

because no matter where this crazy

world takes us, nothing will ever

change so much to the point where

we're not still friends".

(lifeisabeautifulstruggle.tumblr.com)

Shannon, Sheila, Paige, Myself & Jenn

These silly ladies are some of my closest friends!! Some of them were there to celebrate the arrival of my first born son with me, over 9 years ago. Through the years we have seen each other's family take shape into the joyful families they are now. We also share a lot in common with each other which has been the bonding element for all these years. It's fun to reflect on the many memories and traditions we have created and will still continue to create. There will be a time where we will be many miles apart from each other, but like the quote above, nothing will ever change so much to the point where we're not still friends! Thank you ladies for being you!

My Little Clones

My boys are becoming more and more like me everyday ... ah ohhh!! Some of the habits they are picking up make me chuckle because they are the exact same bad habits I have. The other day I came downstairs and found all three of my boys sitting on the couch watching cartoons munching on a handful of raw spaghetti noodles. It's the most horrific sound, like teeth being ground. and I honestly don't know what it is about raw pasta noodles, but we love them. Are we lacking some kind of mineral in our system or something? Oh, and as a side note, wide egg noodles are the best because they are thinner, but you gotta be careful of the pointy edges. Those can hurt! ;-)

He Said, She Said

How long have you been married? 11 years, 7 months.

How long did you date? 7 months, including engagement.

Who eats the most sweets? I do, definitely. He drinks the most pop though.

Who said I love you first? Spencer told me after returning from a hunting trip a month after we started dating. I said it back of course. I guess time apart made the heart grow fonder.

Who's taller? He is by a whole foot! I'm 5'5" and he is 6'5".

Who sings better? Spencer has an amazing singing voice. I truthfully can't sing, but I love to karaoke anyway.

Who's smarter? Once again, Spencer has a wealth of useless knowledge. He's actually pretty good at Jeopardy. I'm not so good.

Who does the laundry? I do.

Who pays the bills? No one. Just kidding, I do.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I do. The left side just feels awkward.

Who mows the lawn? It's about even.

Who drives? Always Spencer. There would only be two reasons in which I drove; either he would be sleepy, or I would be picking him up from work to join me for lunch.

Who admits they are wrong? I'd probably say I'm the first one to, but Spencer will as well. He taught me before we were married, that it's more important to settle a conflict then to be right. It may take me a while, but I usually come around.

Who kissed who first? Spencer kissed me while on a double date with someone else. She was my best friend and luckily she didn't mind. And, luckily my date didn't mind either!

Who asked out who first? I guess after he kissed me, we kind of just assumed we'd see each other again soon. He said I'll see you at church tomorrow.

Who wears the pants? I think I have a pretty good say, but the final decision I must admit is always Spencer's.

He's Four!

Andrew, my baby, is now four years old. Four! I certainly don't feel four years older so how can he be? I find it interesting that with each passing year, changes in adults are so gradual, so sometimes it feels as if time stands still. I know it doesn't. And I am reminded about that fact all the time when I see a child who looks like they've grown up overnight. Boy am I glad that at my age I'm not growing up overnight! :-) But my baby is certainly growing up. I took him to his 4 yr. well child check-up and he is in the 95th percentile for height and 75th percentile for weight. He's no petite boy and it won't be long before he surpasses Cameron. Andrew is such a joy to our house and sure brings in a lot of energy. Here are a few questions I asked him.

What do you want to be when you grow up? A Storm Trooper

What is your favorite color? Blue

What is your favorite food? Pizza, Steak & Apples

What is your favorite toy? McDonalds Kung Fu Panda Happy Meal Toys

What is your favorite movie? Kung Fu Panda 2 and Cars 2

Who are you going to marry? Josie

Who is your best friend? Josie

Tested, Tried & True

I have to share this awesome home remedy. While doing a little baking one day I found myself being careless and grabbed a hot baking stone without any protection. Yes, dumb, I know, and it hurt pretty badly. The tip of my finger got it the worst and I instantly put it under cold running water. My Step-Dad told me he heard a rumor that if you burn yourself you're supposed to immerse the burn in flour. Flour!? For real? He heard that it's supposed to take the sting away and prevent blistering. Shoot, who am I to dispute that? I decided to give it a try and put some in a cup. I swiveled my finger around in the flour for about 5 minutes and can you believe it ... it worked! Who would have thought? The stinging was gone, absolutely no blistering, and I was shocked. This remedy is tested, tried and true.

New Family Photos

Camo Girl

One Sunday Spencer was in Elder's Quorum and the lesson was on Eternal Marriage. They were discussing how it's important for spouses to do things together. One question was posed to Spencer. "Spencer, how did you get your wife to bow hunt with you"? Well what the guys don't know is that Spencer has been trying for 12+ years to get me involved in any of his outdoor activities. While dating he bought me a fishing pole. Our first Christmas together he bought me a shot gun. One Valentine's Day he bought me hip waders. Romantic huh, need I say more? The truth is, I do enjoy all of those things once in a while, but not as much as he does.

Spencer finally hit the target when he picked up bow hunting. I knew from going to girls camp that I liked archery. We started target shooting out at the Ridgeway's house a lot this spring and I couldn't get enough. Spencer jumped on that as fast as he possibly could. In fact, his Father's Day gift actually turned out to be a gift for me. He bought me a bow. I felt bad that I made out with a present instead of him, but apparently he felt like it was a good trade.

Family Reunion at the Beach

Our family isn't always consistent with family reunions, but we try our best. This summer we were able to pull one off and went to Newport, OR and almost everyone was able to attend. We camped at South Beach State Park from Thursday till Sunday. Family camping trips are the best, especially when the Madden family joins us and our group gets even bigger. We love it!

The food was just about as good as the company! It felt like we ate and ate and ate. Thanks to Groupon, we were all able to go to the Oregon Aquarium for dirt cheap! The kids had a great time there. Another afternoon a lot of us went to the OHSU Marine Science Center which was a smaller version of the aquarium, only FREE. Playing at the beach was fun too. Dan's family, and Mark, rented surf boards and also did some skim boarding. The weather was beautiful, windy, but beautiful. Tanner, Megan and Erynn all brought their guitars and had a jam session and brought music to the campground. All of our camp sites opened up to a large field and everyday there was either a game of football, frisbee, or baseball; or a combination of all three at the same time, young and old. I enjoyed my early morning runs on the beach with Marie and Megan.

Family is definitely a blessing! I am grateful to belong to two really good families, mine and Spencer's. I cherish these memories of when we all get together!