Giveaway

If you have a little girl (or if you want to win this for my girl!), you should check out this giveaway for a really cute bow holder!! I keep thinking I'm going to make one for Abby, but it hasn't happened yet...

Thanksgiving

So, we went to the White's house for Thanksgiving. It was fun! They also invited Ray (their district mgr) and his family, and Jake's parents were there. It adds up to 8 adults and 6 kids. Having Thanksgiving with a bunch of people raised in the Midwest included foods that we Southerners aren't so used to! :o) Our menu included:

*Turkey

*Ham (I brought it!)

*Mashed potatoes/Gravy

*Butternut squash

*Stuffing

(I've never had stuffing, but it was pretty good)

*Cranberry sauce

*Rolls

*Pear jello salad

*Pies

(Apple, chocolate mousse, mincemeat, pumpkin)

*Cute little reindeer cookies

(Sugar cookies with Reeses cups bodies, Reeses pieces feathers and licorice waddles. CUTE!)

I feel like I'm missing something, but this covers the basics. Zac tried the mincemeat pie and said it was "interesting." He ate the whole piece, so it must have been a good interesting. I stuck with the chocolate mousse and reindeer cookies.

After dinner, Sarah and I went to find a newspaper...took a little bit of driving, but we got one! While we girls perused the sale ads, the boys got comfy on the couch:

Jake and his Dad are on the couch by the window, along with Shelby the dog. Ray and Zac are there on the right. None of the boys even moved when the camera flashed! Sarah and I ended up going to Shopko and Michaels to looks for some Thanksgiving Day sales. Didn't buy anything - but it was nice to get out of the house for some Mommy Time.

The kids had a good time playing. Jake & Sarah have a HUGE basement that makes a great playroom. Abby came upstairs and pulled on Jake's pant leg to show him her newest toy discovery:

She's taking her OSHA heritage very seriously. hahahaha And of course, she was sporting her Razorback cheerleading outfit. Woooo, Pig Soooie!!!

So, we had a pretty fun Thanksgiving. Very different - only my second Thanksgiving being away from family. How was yours?

Holiday favorites

Zac and I got an invitation to have Thanksgiving dinner with the White family. Jake is Zac's manager and his wife, Sarah, is my new buddy. So we are trying to decide what we want to take to dinner and it got us started on our favorite holiday foods. I will try to post recipes on my Excellent Eats blog in the coming weeks. We don't care for a lot of the traditional holiday foods like dressing (I know my MIL is reading this and probably just had a stroke) but there are still lots of foods we do like. Some aren't traditional at all...but still good.


**My fruit salad (my nephew, Dylan's, favorite!)
**Meemaw's Oreo ice cream
**Sheila's pecan cobbler (Holy crap - this stuff will up your blood sugar to 1,000,000 but it is SOOOO GOOOOD!!!)
**Mamaw's pound cake with vanilla sauce
**Hope's sausage balls
**Hope's sopapilla cheesecake (Zac saw me type Hope's name on the sausage balls and told me to add this one pretty quickly)
**My dad's fried turkey
**My pineapple & brown sugar glazed ham
**Aunt Donna's layered salad (this is a new one, it's yummy)
**My homemade rolls


I'm sure there are more and I will probably add to this list. What are your favorite holiday foods?

Giveaway

Heard about this giveaway on Jennifer's website. Her friend is giving away some fun makeup stuff....check it out!!

Stolen from Rikki's Facebook

Stole this from my friend Rikki's Facebook...I'm retarded and love these things. Feel free to steal it for your blog/Facebook!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi my name is: Sarah Leanne Elliott

Never in my life have I been to: Boston

The one person who can drive me nuts is: My husband (but there's nobody else I'd rather put up with!)

When I'm nervous I: Tend to get easily overwhelmed and semi-freak out

The last song I listened to was: one of Michael Buble's songs...can't remember which one

My hair is: Free of silver streaks, at least for the next few weeks

When I was 5: I was in kindergarten

Last Christmas: Was our second one with our Abby Punkin

I should be: In bed asleep

When I look right: I see a little girl asleep in the recliner who should be in her bed.

I'm looking forward to: Seeing my hubby next Saturday. I miss him!!

If I were a character on Grey's Anatomy: I wouldn't know who to be; I've only seen half of an episode...

By this time next year: I might be pregnant again....??

My current annoyance is: Clutter.

I have a hard time understanding: How people can be ok with abortion - It disgusts me.

There's this girl I know who: Is the cutest thing ever and is asleep in the recliner right now. :)

If I won an award, the first person I would tell would be: Zac

I want to buy: The Cricut Expression

If you visited the place I'm from: Your sinuses would be going crazy.

I'd rather hold a cockroach than: A mouse.

The most recent thing I've bought myself was: Getting my hair colored.

Most recent thing someone else bought me was: Admission to my nephew's football game on Friday night.

In the mornings: I'm a little retarded.

Last night: We drove to see my nephew's football game - looooong drive.

If I were an animal I would be: A bear - hibernating sounds fun.

Tomorrow I am: Going to church, then hanging with my in-laws.

Tonight I am: Sharing a bed with my toddler. :o/

Flying

By the time most of you read this, Abby and I will be on our way to Little Rock, via Chicago O'Hare.  Zac gave us both blessings and so I know everything will be ok.  But, if you find some space in your thoughts, think a little prayer for us - especially for my patience and my nerves!!

Thanks, love ya!!!

SNOW!!

Tuesday night was bad.  Abby woke up around 2:00am and, after time in the bed with  Mommy and on the couch with Daddy, didn't have a lot of luck going back to sleep.  Finally, around 6:30 she fell asleep in the bed with me.  (By the way, this is not normal for her; once she's asleep, she generally stays that way.)  After all that, none of us woke up until after 10:00.  Abby and I woke up when Zac yelled, "Holy crap!"  I nearly jumped out of the bed!  He came in the  bedroom and said, "Look outside!!"

About six inches of snow had fallen during the night.  Zac went out  around 10:00pm Tuesday night for McDonald's french fries (we binged on fries because we were mourning the election results) and it wasn't snowing at all.  So all of this came in the middle of the night.  By the time we got up, though, all the roads and sidewalks were  cleared and kids were in school.  Totally not the way it would have worked in Arkansas!

So we got some breakfast, got dressed and headed to the nearby park to play in the snow.  Besides the playground area, there's also a huge field that they use for various kids sports.  It was so pretty to see the snow everywhere!

Abby and Daddy couldn't pass up the chance to slide, even in the snow!

And then, of course, we all had to swing.

These are just a few pics of our awesome neighborhood park.  Here's the Little Tykes playground set.

And this is the big playground set.

And a picture of the skate/bike park.

So, we were the only dorks out playing in the snow because people here in Utah just don't appreciate it.  lol  But I can get used to that...

Halloween

"Sarah, you're posting about Halloween and it was over a week ago...."

Yes, I KNOW!  But we've got to get this stinking internet line fixed.  It makes posting pictures a real pain the booty.  Zac's been up to the office once, and that was after I went up there once.  So I'm going to leave it for his honey-do list to get it taken care of before I get home.  lol

Our Halloween week actually started the Monday before (Oct 27) at the Draper Haunted Hollow.  It was little community family event and it was pretty fun.  We met up with Jake, Sarah and their kids (Jake is Zac's new manager) and that was fun.  Their little boy, Tate, is 3 and Abby adores him.  But these pictures were all taken before the Whites got there.  Here we go...

Things got off to a rough start at the Draper Haunted Hollow....

...because Abby was NOT fond of this guy.  In her defense, aside from the scary mask, he was wearing platform moon shoe things and was about eight feet tall.  I'd be scared if I was only three feet tall...

But then he gave her a sucker and all was right with the world.  :o)

After getting the sucker, she was a little more inclined to be civil with this nice lady.  (Man, I look like a dork...)

They had lots of booths set up with different games and things.  At this booth, we used colored glitter glue to make pictures.  We made a picture of three little "punkins" to take home.

Another booth tied doughnuts to strings so that the bigger kids could eat them without using their hands.  Funny to watch.  The little kids just got to eat the doughnuts.  To the best of my knowledge, Abby hasn't had more than, maybe, three doughnuts in her life.  She devoured this one.

The kids all had little cards that they got signed/stamped after they did a game.  Then they could turn in their cards (even if they weren't complete) and get a free pumpkin from the historic Sorenson home.  (Not sure what this place is all about, but they do a lot of stuff there).  Abby picked out a cute little pumpkin with a nice handle for carrying.  :o)

Then we met up with the Whites, hung out for awhile at the Haunted Hollow, then ordered a pizza and brought it back to our apartment.  We watched the new Indiana Jones while the kids played.  Woo hoo.

And so we got to Halloween day.   Long story short - some things happened that made me very upset with Denver Matress.  But because Jake is awesome and because my sweet hubby loves me through all my craziness, it all worked out.  

Halloween was a gorgeous day until, of course, about 6:00 when it started sprinkling.  I already had Abby in her costume.  So when Zac got home around 7:00, we braved the sprinkles and went to about 15 houses in the nearby neighborhood.  That was enough for Abby and we were able to get some good pictures!

Early in the afternoon, Abby decided to dress up as the Tin Man...

Eating a healthy dinner to prep us for all the candy!

(Thanks to Aunt Christine for the cute Halloween shirt!)

In full Abby Cadabby ("Abby Abby") ensemble.  Of course, she had to have some fruit snacks ("foo nacks") after dinner.  The girl's addicted...

Walking around the neighborhood with Mommy and Daddy.  

Rich neighbors = good candy!

Deep in though..." 'Trick or treat'...I can do this..."  Really, she didn't say trick-or-treat at all, I had to say it for her.  But she DID say "thank you" every time, which is more important anyway!

Everybody thought Abby Cadabby was so cute and usually let her pick out an extra piece of candy.  

At home, (almost) naked and eating a Tootsie Pop....who could ask for more?

Happy Halloween!!

Our other blog...

If you haven't checked it lately, I've posted some new recipes on my other blog. I'm having a lot of fun putting up the new recipes. Now if I can just keep a camera charged, I can take pictures as I cook them. But that's not at the top of my to-do list right now...if dinner's cooked, we're doing good. :o)

Political soapbox

Anyone that knows me can easily figure out (I think) which side of the political fence I'm on. If you don't agree with my politics, you might skip this post. It's basically a rant.

Zac has an obsession with Fox News. I would rather, especially right now, watch Food Network or a stupid soap opera. Anything to get away from all the craziness of this blasted election. Right now they are streaming live from NObama's rally in Florida. And I just can't make sense of all of this....

"I'm going to give teachers higher salaries!!
I'm going to make sure everyone has insurance!!
Insurance will have to cover all of your problems!!
I'm going to tax big business!!
Businesses have to use clean energy!!"

And, while doing all of this.....

"I'm going to lower taxes!!"

HUH? Maybe it's just the mathmetician in me (there isn't much of one..) but I don't see how that works. And if you tax all these businesses and insurance companies, don't you figure they'll have to pass the buck to somebody? Hmmm...

Now, I'm John McCain's biggest fan. I kinda think this election is the lesser of two evils, as most elections are. I just don't see how people can really believe the promises that any politician makes. 2+2=4, not 3. And they just can't seem to get that.

The biggest thing that keeps me on the right side of the fence is abortion. How can you have a child, want a child or love a child and think that abortion is ok? I have too many friends that can't have babies and WANT them. And people think that those precious baby lives can just be thrown away. I just can't wrap my brain around that one.

Yes, I think that certain people should be helped. My grandmother depends on her social security - we need to protect that. My nephew is covered by a government sponsored insurance. But really - the rules are too loose. As a bank teller, I cashed too many government aid checks for PERFECTLY NORMAL PEOPLE - my faith in our government is a little jaded.

But, I've voted. I cast my vote for the people that I think will do the best job and will uphold the values that I've been taught. And that's my civic duty.

I'm off my soapbox now. I promise to post a happy, upbeat Halloween post as soon as Zac gets his camera out of the car. :o)

If you're interested in seeing my adorable daughter proclaim our political views, check her out on YouTube.

CHEEEEEEEESE!!!

Now, I might be a tad bit biased. But isn't that one of the cutest things you've ever seen in your whole, entire life?