Running...

I ran 7 miles in 70 minutes.... burning almost 1000 calories... got the exercise down but I'm still eating like everyday is Thanksgiving- yikes!

Fabulous Family Day...

We had just a really wonderful family day today. Nothing out of the ordinary. Just relaxing and spending the day with the people I LOVE.

We all went to the YMCA this after noon after sleeping in waaayyyy late- except for Jeromy who was up at 6-something studying. Jeromy worked out on the elliptical, and did some weights, then he went swimming with Aurora. Jade did 30 min on the elliptical then 30 min on the bike. Kent did an hour on the bike, and I ran 7 miles. After working out real hard there's really no guilt in just lounging around the rest of the day!

Actually Jeromy and I ran a few errands. We called it our date time... going to Costco and Trader Joe's.... yup, that's our quality time!

Ok, time to start decorating for Christmas! Looks like something needs to go right in this spot... what should it be? (See my first Christmas card on the wall?)

Cool (fake) tree people!!

Ohhhhh Ahhhhhh- pretty lights. Looks like I got a little crazy up towards the top!

Jade and Aurora putting on their special ornaments that Grandma Cindy made special... ummm, are you making "special" ornaments this year mom? (No pressure! Oh- what about the cinnamon rolls... with... frosting??? LOVE YOU!!!)

The guys putting on their ornaments...

And finally with all the ornaments on it- including my favorite ice crystals! I do have alot of favorites tho... and if the tree looks crooked in the picture... well, you'd be right! It is crooked, Jeromy says it gives it character.... I agree!

We'll take a break from the decorating for some dinner! Watch out Jeromy is about to cut the cheese! Goat cheese, that is, for the lactose intolerant!

Yummy spaghetti!!! We were going to watch a family movie with our dinner. Here we all are in our jammies up in the "asylum", warm and cozy!! Jade, once again, made her fabulous chocolate chip cookies for dessert- we love her extra for that!Some more decorating.... love Aurora's stocking mom! Not to mention Jade's and Kent's!
Hey Tessa- remember making this lighted present for me? I love it and YOU!!!

Good night all!

Thanksgiving 2011

So thankful! Things our family are thankful for:

Aurora: My home!

Kent: My family! (Kent didn't know what Jade said.)

Jade: My family! (Jade didn't know what Kent said.)

Katie: For my husband, my kids, this house, good paying job, yummy food, and the day off from work to enjoy all of it!

Jeromy: The uncorrupted reason for Thanksgiving- you'll have to ask him what that means.

So thankful to Jesus who has given us life and all the blessings we have, for wonderful family and friends and an abundance of food.

Feast your eyes on this!!!! I found this yummy recipe on line! Here's the ingredients:

olive oil

ground thyme

1 cup honey

dried sage leaves

fresh minced parsley

dried basil

salt and pepper

Sounds amazing doesn't it. And I also slow cooked it. It took 7 hours on 250 degrees. And it was perfect at 1 o'clock for our dinner! Thanks mom and dad for bringing your meat thermometer to make sure it was perfect- and your turkey carver!

Can anyone tell what's wrong with the turkey here? Well, I cooked it upside down! I couldn't tell which end was which and apparently which side is the front or back! LOL- it still all cooks the same! Thanks a bunch to my amazing daughter Jade who woke up with me at 5:30 this morning to get the turkey all ready and pulled out all the gross stuff so I wouldn't vomit. TMI sorry!
Daughter and dad: Misty and Lee...

Sister: Katie and Misty....

Jeromy cutting the turkey!

Aurora letting Kelsey play with her doll house and dolls. Misty said Kelsey was hoping Aurora would let her in her room when they were driving over!

Mmmmmm: coffee, tea, root beer and water.

We have 3 desserts to choose from! A yummy pumpkin cake- made especially for Aurora cause she doesn't like pie- her mom emailed me this yummy recipe! Then we have my mom's apple strudel- always a hit! Then Costco's amazing pumpkin pie- this pie almost didn't make it past last night- Jeromy and I were both eyeing it! And of course cool whip!

The Thanksgiving tables!

Good job cutting the meat Jeromy! (Better than cutting the cheese! Sorry it had to be said!)

The group! Can you see Kelsey's little face by the sink faucet???

Cute grandpa and grandma!!!

The kid table... even though Jade's a 19 year old adult! When did those kids all get so big!

The adult table. Minus Dennis... he had to work :o(

Jeromy and Kelsey playing with the building blocks!!!

Had to have a little of all 3 desserts!!!

The grand kiddos back row: Denny, Kent & Jade. Front row: Mason, Kelsey and Aurora.

The grandsons: Denny, Kenton and Mason... looks like Denny is catching up to Kent in height!

The granddaughters: Aurora, Kelsey and Jade...
Da boys.... just chillin'... nice group of good lookin' guys... especially that one in the front!
YAY!!!! Five days of dinners out of all the yummy leftovers! And that's just for me, we also have several tupperwares in the fridge of massive leftovers for the whole family! Hope they don't get sick of turkey any time soon!
My mom would be so proud... right mom? I've been cleaning up the kitchen over the last couple of hours and I've actually**** wait for it**** been enjoying it! Jade was kinda stressing the clean up chore cause the dishes is her chore, but I just felt like doing it and it was kind of nice and relaxing just slowy cleaning every little thing up. Any one with me on this or is it just me??? Anyway, everything is CLEAN!

Good night!

Some stuff this weekend.

Look what I got! It's my anniversary present from last month, but we finally got around to picking it out this weekend. Jeromy knew I had been wanting a food processor! So here it is!

Look at all the parts! I told Jeromy he had to read the instruction manual and tell me how to use it! I'm tired of reading instruction manuals- especially from work.LOOK AT MY BABY!
Me and Jeromy, full, tired, content and happy! Thank you Jesus!

COME ON!!!!

LET IT SNOW!

LET IT SNOW!

LET IT SNOW!

3 day weekend.

First I want to say how great it was to hear your voice Tessa last Thursday- even if it was for only a minute! I had to go to work! And I know you'll call again sometime! I can't wait to see you! Aurora said she needs a "Trig fix" and so do I! I found this picture of all you gorgeous girls: Awesome Jade, Fabulous Hannah, Amazing Tessa and Superstar Julia! Love all you girls!

Ok, next we have Kenton-Orion! He said his dad wants to see how much his beard/mustache grow out my Christmas when the kids go down to see him. I think it's just Kent's plan to grow it out cause he knows I'd rather he shave it off. But he really wants to grow it out. So I guess it won't hurt. I can't believe how much it's coming in... my baby! He's been growing it for about 2-3 weeks. He likes that I keep telling how much of a man that he looks like.

Next I went to Laura and Jason's on Friday! And Laura showed me her latest thing- couponing! She has this huge binder and everything! Well Laura... a bought a Sunday paper tonight to get the coupons! Where do you get all your coupons? I don't think I'll ever have a binder... that I bring to the store... but who know! Now that I'm working this budget thing- more on that later! Here's my adorable cousin Laura!

And I got to hold their sweet little baby girl! Man- my eyes look tired, I should have taken a nap with her!

Look at that sweet little face!

Oh and I forgot to tell Jason while I was there- on Veteran's Day- THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU DO! AND TO ALL VETERANS OUT THERE- THANK YOU!

Some amazing trees around the neighborhood...

Gorgeous...

Ok, onto the budget I was telling you about. We are taking this course thru Dave Ramsey. We've been pretty good about getting all our bills paid- we have no credit cards woo-hoo! But it's still kind of a living payday to payday... not good. So we have officially gone on a budget as of November 1st. Kinda scary... but so far so good. Of course we were just told by the oil changing people that Jeromy's tire treads are illegal cause there is, well, no tread... lame. But one of the first steps in this budget is saving for "Baby Step #1" which is having $1000 dollars saved for those emergencies that seem to always pop up. "Baby Step #2" is saving up to 6 months of your living expenses... that's going to take a while! So here's my bill book- been using this for almost a decade. My mom printed this "Bill" title for me almost a decade ago for this binder and I'm still using it!Finally got new dividers. The ones I had were all miss matched and falling apart. I have a "Year at a glance as the first page". My mom who was a budget officer before she retired showed me how to get this all organized. Then each divider holds each individual bill, how much a paid, balance ect...But now, added to the "Bill" binder is the "BUDGET", I may need to get a new title for my binder mom... Maybe "B-Cubed: Bill Budget Binder".... I'm so clever.... This page (which is actually one of three) shows our bills over 4 pay periods- or 2 months. Every dollar is accounted for. Dave Ramsey said most couples get into a fight just getting all the bills on the paper and agreeing to the money allotted to each thing. We didn't fight but it was a little stressful. Mostly cause we couldn't get the totals to add up. It kept changing every time we tried to re-add it up! But we finally got it.

Also had to mention that Jade spent the night at my mom's Friday night. Kent spent the night at Kyle's Friday night. And Jeromy wasn't picking up Aurora till Saturday morning cause she had a 4H meeting Friday night. So what does that mean? Jeromy and I have a night to ourselves. And what do we do? Have a great tilapia fish dinner... get in our jammies... snuggle up... and tweak our BUDGET! That's right, no kids in the house and we watched another CD in the series of our budget class. Ok, so that's not all we did-- TMI!!!

Soo, onto Saturday. I ran 7 miles at the YMCA and it was great! 7 miles in 1 hour and 12 minutes. Also, I noticed on my mom's blog that she had another home made pizza night with her sister and husband! I was craving that pizza let me tell you what! Sooo I called my mom and whined... and begged... saying I needed homemade pizza made with love and she said come over! THANKS MOM AND DAD! So we brought homemade chocolate chip cookies and 2 kinds of pop!

Jeromy and I dropped off all 3 kids and then dropped both our vehicles off to get oil changes (it was in the budget!- I'm going to force my self to love the word "Budget") then my dad picked us up and headed back to my their house. Here's Jade, Kent and Aurora's pizza, each 1/3 is made just how they like it with a ton of different toppings that my mom put out.Cutting the pizza for the kids...

Jeromy just had to get in there and play with the dough. I told him only my mom could make the dough "made with mom's love"...The kids love their pizza!

Jeromy and I making our pizza just the way we like it!
Here's our pizza before it went into the oven. We really have to make sure my cheese doesn't get on Jeromy's side cause he can't eat cow cheese. We did get his special goat cheese at Trader Joe's (also in the budget) so he could enjoy yummy melty cheese on his pizza...Then about 10 minutes later... look at that goodness! Can you believe I was able to eat my whole 1/2 pizza? I can't believe I ate all that- but my mom reminded me that I did run 7 miles- that does take alot of the guilt off! Jeromy also ate his half.Us girls: Aurora, Mom-Katie, Jade and Grandma Cindy!Grandma and Grandpa- so cute!Grandma also has some cupcakes!Kent had alot of homework- when does he not? So I had him bring some to work on at Grandmas. Here he is down stairs working away...Jeromy and his beautiful daughter Aurora!
After church today I did some major cooking for the week. I made 5-6 cups of brown rice and made my yummy stir-fry dinners. I don't know why I call it that it just makes me think of stir-fry with all the food in it! I also cooked a whole chicken breast cutting it into bite size pieces with a bunch of yummy spices. I make the chicken for Kent for his dinners when he's at the college thur dinner time. And then a couple dinners of the indian food I get from a friend. Soooo here's all my cooking. Ready to go into the freezer for when we want it! The ones with the little pink label have either Jeromy, Jade or Kent's name on it cause they all like there's a certain way. Yeah, they are spoiled. Most of them are for my work dinners tho.

Ok, another weekend done. What a great busy time we had.