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Tuesday, December 2 | 1 Comment Check out us as cute elves. We are pretty stylin'! This is just the first of many holiday post, I love the holidays.
Monday, December 1 | Say Something Anyone who knows our family know we usually have more then one of every holiday celebration or birthday celebration, I guess that is what happens when both sets of family live in the state. So of course Thanksgiving was no exception, this year we enjoyed three Thanksgiving celebrations and they were all wonderful and delicious, but all had a bit of drama.
The first one was our Bi-annual Flake Family Thanksgiving (yes I am a Flake, that was my maiden name) and it was fun and full of people approximately 70. It’s always fun to see my Flake cousins and see how they are all doing. You know nosey me I like to know how everyone is doing and what they are up to. The food was actually really yummy considering it was potluck style. I always hate the whole potluck thing cause you never know what your going to get, but my Aunt Bridget did a great job of making sure we had all the traditional Thanksgiving food and the perfect amount. Now of course no big Thanksgiving get together would be complete with out a little funny moment so of course we had to have one. The Flake’s like to have little touchy feely moments where were all go around and tell a little something something. I like this type of stuff, but you know Jason and Colby were just thinking could we please just eat??? So we were suppose to say what we were thankful for and any news. Everyone went around and said stuff like family, the mountains, my health, etc. Then it was our turn and my brother-in-law went first and he stared off with basic stuff like his kids, then went into the price of diesel, and then the fact he had a job, which I was thinking yeah that’s good and then he said, “we are thankful we are still together”. Everyone was completely silent except me and I busted up laughing in my high-pitched cackle (as my family calls it). Then my sister tries to say stuff like I didn’t know we were thinking of no staying together. She was horrified. It was so funny. Mainly cause of how he said it, I totally knew what he meant, but still way funny. Then I had to follow that act after busting up. I can’t even remember what I said of course the main stuff like family, etc, but in the end I said oh yes I am thankful we are still together also. It was great. Thanks Jason for lightning up the moment. It’s always fun. Then of course we got to eat yummy food, visit, play a little dodge ball, and get way to dirty in the sad/mud box. Cooper and Brielle were filthy, but they had a blast. 
Our second Thanksgiving was the next day (Friday) at Colby’s sister Jami’s house. Which was way fun. Of course the food was absolutely delicious. If you don’t know Colby’s family, they are wonderful cooks. Their food it so good. Everything was perfect from the turkey all the way down to the pie. Oh and nothing is store bought it’s all homemade so that makes it even yummier. I think I gained a million pounds. We had Thanksgiving dinner at noon and then ate again at 6:00, it was a beautiful thing. Like I said before no holiday is complete without a bit of drama, right when we got to Jami’s Cooper stated acting weird. He was fine in the morning, but then he started acting like he was totally sick. So I gave him some medicine and he seemed okay but by 6:00 he was looking so sick again we had to go home and get him ready for bed. The poor guy fell a sleep on Jami’s couch watch TV. He is so cute. Anyway, we got home and put him to bed. The kids had so much fun at Jami’s, the food was wonderful, and the company was great. Oh by the way we took Cooper to Urgent Care the next night cause he was feverish and wouldn’t talk and when he did he talked funny and his throat was way red and guess what strep throat. Crazy since nothing seemed wrong at first then all of a sudden boom sick. 
Our last Thanksgiving celebration was with my mom and my sister’s family at my house. Now we always have family night at my house so this was not anything different except we fancied it up a bit. We did yummy steaks that my mom bought from AJ’s that were so delicious and tender. I couldn’t believer the difference between the quality and taste in steaks from AJ’s and from Walmart or Fry’s. It was 100 times better from AJ’s there were wonderful. Then I made lots of fun food and so did Erin and we had quite the feast. We had steak, whipped potatoes, cheese rolls, jello, spinach salad, roasted asparagus, pumpkin cheesecake, and hot chocolate. (All homemade of course I’ll post some of the recipes below for some of this years favorite Thanksgiving recipes) We had fun just eating and talking and having fun. Thanks Colby for grilling all the steaks you are such a good man. Drama you ask, of course while eating Chase all of a sudden turned pale ran and got a napkin and ran like a flash of lightning to the bathroom and threw up. It was great, I think he throws up at every holiday. Then of course Cooper ate Spinach salad and didn’t really love it and put way too much in his mouth started gagging and I ran over there just in time to catch him throwing up into the napkin and onto his shirt and roll. Sweet, like I said no nice family dinner can be complete without just a little drama. Then that night Colby felt sick to his stomach, Colby is another one that is ALWAYS sick on the holidays. I hope Cooper isn’t inheriting that from his dad. Oh well we love drama on the holidays, it’s always great.
Happy Thanksgiving all! Hopefully your Thanksgiving was as memorable, delicious, and fun as ours. We have many things to be thankful for but a good life, family and friends are just a few of the things that we are especially thankful for this year.
Saturday, November 22 | 3 Comments We love our neighbors. It’s so fun to have friends that the kids can hang out with in the neighborhood. It’s also fun to have friends that are crafty and fun. We decided to do Thanksgiving rotations like our Halloween rotations. The girls went to four different houses doing Thanksgiving activities. They always have so much fun hanging with each other and just being silly girls.
They first went to Amy’s house and did a really cute turkey hand project. It was so cute because they got to decorate it with feathers and glitter. You know kids they LOVE glitter and they love feathers. (I’m glad it wasn’t my house, I hated glitter when I taught) The saying at the bottom of the turkey picture was so cute it said, “I made a little turkey so everyone can see that I am very thankful that God's been good to me.”! 
Next, they headed over here for some weaving fun. Okay so I may have picked a craft that was a bit too complicated for 5 year olds (and 1 4 year old), but with LOTS of help and patience they got through it. We took big construction paper and cute holes in it and then took strips of paper and weaved it through the holes, to make a Thanksgiving placemat. They said my center for rotations was more like homework or school time then fun. (Sad) I’ll have to have them over again to make fun turkey cookies or something to make up for my sorry, complicated craft project. Sorry girls to disappoint. 
Next, they ran across the street to Lisa’s for some more gobbly good time. They made really cute turkey hats that were of course a big hit. Better then my homework craft. These cute 3-D turkey hats are still being worn around the house and Brielle likes to talk like a turkey as she wears it. (NICE) 
Finally, it was snack time at Jackie’s. They ran there for some yummy chocolate chip cookies and punch. Let’s just say it was RED punch since when we got to the park all 5 girls had a red punch mustache and chocolate all over, yummy. To be a kids again. Reagan said they were the most delicious cookies she had ever tasted. Where were our adult cookies Jackie? Just kidding.
Then we met at the park for a little fun time with everyone. It was way fun and the kids loved it. Now we are all geared up and ready for some turkey time. Thanksgiving, yummy…..
Saturday, November 1 | 3 Comments What an awesome holiday Halloween is. I just love it, what other holiday is it cool to dress up however you want and knock on complete strangers door and demand candy? It’s a beautiful thing. Then after you get all the candy you could ever want from a bunch of strangers you get to eat as much of it as you want and stay up way to late until you are finally off your sugar high and then crash hard into bed without a bath, it doesn’t get any better. You gotta love it. (Check out our video at the very bottom and see all the fun we had!)
This year we started our Halloween at 4:00 with my sister (Erin) and her family at a neighborhood by Entz Elementary where Brielle goes to school. The Spuhlers invited us over to their neighborhood black party that they do every year. It was so much fun, it was like a mini carnival. They block off part of the street and literally party. They had little games, snow cone, hotdogs, popcorn, and a bouncer. It was really fun, I love stuff like that. The kids had a blast and we had fun spending an hour with my side of the family before we headed to Colby’s sisters house for our annual soup and trick or treating.
This year we did our trick or treating at Jami and Scott’s house. We always start our Halloween with some yummy homemade soups for dinner and then get the kids already and take one big group picture and hope for a good one and then head out to trick or treat around the neighborhood.
This year we went out about 6:30 it was a little different because usually Colby’s mom come from Oklahoma just to see the kids and spend a few days here for Halloween and she didn’t this year (or so we thought). So as we are trick or treating this really interesting clown came up to Brielle and started to take her candy bucket, Brielle was horrified and immediately said “No, give me my candy” and ran behind Colby. I kind of thought it was weird because this clown was clearly an adult and I had been watching then for a couple of houses thinking, “Why are these adults trick or treating,” but decided to keep going and have fun. Then when she did that to Brielle’s candy I was a bit horrified myself. Then this clown would not leave Brielle alone she was very persistent. I almost yelled out, excuse me she is afraid of clowns can you please back off, but before I could say it this clown said, “Hey you little moron give me your candy.” Right when I heard that I knew it was Colby’s mom. (The moron thing is a little family joke, she said she use to say that to her kids when they were younger, not sure if that is true or not) Anyway, the kids were so excited to see their Grandma Bonnie and I was excited, but still in a bit of shock. It was a fun Halloween surprise. You got us good Bonnie. Happy Halloween to everyone, hopefully yours was as fun and eventful as ours.
Saturday, November 1 | Say Something The other day we did pumpkin carving. This is something we do every year and I love it. Maybe because I get to sit back and take pictures while Colby does all the creative work for once. He is usually the one who does all the carving and the kids just have a blast.
This year we invited The Boberg’s over for dinner and “THE CARVE-A-THON”. It was way fun. I think it is so cool when the kids reach into the ooowee gooey pumpkin for the first time to clean it out. It is so slimy and yucky and they just love it. You can tell they really want to take a hand full of that gooey mess and fling it across the room and make a huge mess until they look at me and I give them the eye and they’re brought back to reality. We had tons of fun being creative, taking a big, fat, round, orange vegetable and making it into a sweet little creation by carving a cool face on it, and then lighting it up and watching it glow in the dark.
What more can you ask for?
