HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Hope you had a satisfying Thanksgiving this year! 

I had a visit from my Visiting Teachers last week.  During the visit we all joked about how crazy the holidays were for us and how it is stressful to spend time with family on both sides in one day.  Aaron and I have traditionally had Thanksgiving dinner at Aaron's parents house in the afternoon and then raced home to prepare food for an evening meal with my family.  My visiting teachers have the same experience every year too.  This makes for kind of a crazy day, where I am cooking multiple things for two dinners and we eat WAY too much.  

Well, one of my visiting teachers made the comment that we should be grateful we have families to spend the holiday's with.  And that really hit home this year.  It's so true.  I am very grateful I have so much family close by that my day IS crazy.  My Thanksgiving was much more relaxed and pleasant with that frame of mind.  

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

  

Chantel's PMP Certification!

I DID IT!!!  After a little prodding from my good friend Angela, I finally took a prep class and then the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification test in July.  I passed.  It was stressful and I cried after I saw my test results, but I'm really glad I did it. 

Now I am a PiMP! 

Give a kid a camera

My kids innevitably get a hold of my phone or iPad and take pictures of themselves.  Some of them make the girls giggle for hours.  I have saved a few of my favorites and thought I'd share.  These are all from my phone.  My iPad has that lovely photo booth app that will distort an image.

Old Picture - Harrison Kids

My dad has been trying to clean out old keepsakes for quite some time. He pulled the few of us that live in Utah down to his basement to go through some old pictures he was willing to give away.  Take a look at this lovely gem I snagged!

It's amazing how much we have changed over the years.  At least in this picture I didn't have my Princess Leia braids.  :-) 

Party at Grandma and Grandpa's House!!!

We had a fun party at Grandpa and Grandma Harrison's house tonight!  Lots of loud talking, funny stories and family.  I took some pictures of the festivities.   

Thank you Grandpa and Grandma for the CD / Book collection!

 Bailey LOVES Curious George.  We will get good use out of that set for sure!!!

Jenna and Bailey

 Joel and Kristen got Bailey the cutest dog that walks.  Bailey had to take it to bed tonight.  And she announced that she hopes the cat likes her dog, because they are getting married.   :-)

Leslie made a yummy cake for Preston and Parker.  Bailey holding her cake.  I forgot candles, so  I borrowed one from Leslie.  Oops!

Cute pic of Bailey blowing out her candle for the 5th time.   (Leslie needed them re-lit for pictures)  

Thanks everyone for the fun presents.  We listened to 2 stories before bed from the set Jami and Leslie got Bailey.  She figured it out pretty quickly so she can get it to read to her without my help.  Yeah!!!

Happy Birthday Bailey!!  We love you!!

Happy Birthday Bailey!!!!

My baby is 4 years old now!!!  We had a great birthday on Saturday for her.  At 11:00 we invited 5 neighbor girls over for a flower party.  

Bailey's Friend Party Invitations

Make a flower pot activity

I bought tiny flower pots and hot glued a styrofoam ball in the bottom.  The girls were able to decorate the flower pots with stickers, flowers and ribbon.  I put their names on the bottom so we didn't mix them up.   The party headed into the family room for presents, while I cleaned up the table. 

Present time!!!  Gretchen was a huge help through the whole party!

 After presents, we ate cupcakes and had juice boxes.  No ice cream, and only 2 of the 6 kids finished their cupcake, so I didn't feel bad serving the cupcakes instead of a cake.   

Bailey blowing out the candles

Gretchen helped me frost the cupcakes. 

 Then into the family room again for musical flowers.  Similar to musical chairs, but with paper flowers on the floor.  The prizes were headbands that I made with a big flower on them. Gretchen ran the music for me, while I supervised.  A few of the girls planted themselves on a flower when they wanted to win, but overall, everyone played and had a great time. 

Bailey's friends playing musical flowers

 We had a few minutes left after everyone got a headband, so Gretchen played the freeze game with the music.  The kids loved it and it filled the last remaining 5 minutes.  The party ended at 12:00, which was perfect for me.  Short and sweet.  :-)  Grandma Jenkins came down at about 2:30, since she was snowed in with the storm that came through the night before.  Surprisingly, we only received about 1/2 an inch of snow here.  

 Bailey opened the rest of her presents, both from Grandma and from us.  

Grandma gave her a floor puzzle.  Fun!

 Grandma was nice enough to sit on the floor and help Bailey do the puzzle.  Bailey got bored half way through it because Gretchen opened the Moon Sand.  Bailey wanted to play that more than she wanted to finish the puzzle.  Typical kid!

We thought this was cute with her peaking through the pants.

One round cake frosted and covered in chocolate chips, with Twinkies frosted in yellow

 This is the cake I made for Sunday night. (Gretchen unwrapped the Twinkies for me) We will get together with the Harrison side of the family for some treats to celebrate Bailey, Preston and Parker's birthdays.  Yummy!!!!

Halloween Costumes 2012

Since we chose to stay home this year, instead of visiting grandparents, I thought I'd share these photos and how we spent our Halloween.  (Good thing we did stay home, since Shelby had soccer practice until 5:15 - in SLC)

Zombie Gretchen

In true Gretchen fashion, she decided to go scary this year.   We pulled clothes from our DI bag, cut/ripped the bottoms, cut holes all over and used fake blood to stain the shirt.  Then, with my masterful make-up skills, we made her cute face look scary too.  She terrified a few kids in the neighborhood (taking a little too much pleasure in that!).  She took off with her friends that night and went all over the neighborhoods around us to trick or treat.  She had a blast!

Rapunzel Bailey

I took the day off and kept Bailey home from Emily's house, so we could help at school and prepare for the fun night.  Our neighborhood organized a soup, breadstick and appetizer get-together before trick or treating.  I made a black bean salsa for that, but missed the socializing as I was being a soccer mom.  Aaron went over (after getting Costco pizza for the family) and spent time being the social butterfly that he is.  :-)  You know how he likes to put in an appearance.  ha ha!  Really, he was picking up our dish, but my neighbors are so good at trapping him into conversations.  It's good for him.

Anyway, Bailey saw the Rapunzel costume at Costco about 6 weeks ago and HAD to have it.  So, I've been prepared for a while with this one.  It was really nice.  She looks so cute as a blond.  The picture above was from the school parade.  She would lay on the chair next to me and drape her hair over the edge and make me say "Rapunzel, Rapunzel let down your hair".  And then I'd grab her hair and pretend to climb up.  What a ham.  Bailey loved trick or treating.  We (Shelby and I) spent an hour out with her.  After each house, she'd ask "How much candy do I have now mom?"  I'd tell her - TONS!

Shelby, being an almost 15 year old, dressed in a Superman t-shirt and some blue skinny jeans for the occasion.  She got a nod of hello from the cute neighbor boy and had a blast going up to the doors with Bailey.  Most people offered her candy, but she was too old and politely refused.  Then she stole half of Gretchen's candy once she got home.  (as any big sister would)  :-)

Happy Halloween everyone!