Black Friday Shopping

I'm not a huge shopper by nature.  Not anything like Lisa and I really hate obnoxious crowds and stupid traffic, but I LOVE Black Friday. 

Why?!  I'll tell you . . .

Not everyday do you make random friends everywhere you go and get to experience this . . .

ONE

Lisa and I were in a 3 hour line at Target and made pretty good friends with the sisters behind us.  Lisa went and gathered gloves for everyone to choose from, I hunted down a cart for all of us.  A cart that I had to follow someone out to their car to get.  A cart that I had to be apprehended (kind of, but not really) by security when I walked out with my cart friend with a movie in a purse . . . it was too hard to hold for that long.  Lisa and I were pretty much pulling all the weight in the new found friendship though, until . . .

Adele, our close new friend and Target employee, offer us a free move to the front of the customer service line if we would open a Target debit or credit card.  Not interested in a credit card we all searched for a check or deposit slip with proof of our account number.  Our new friend had one, but needed all of her "sisters" to move to the front with her and pay separately.  Adele was on board and off we 4 sisters went . . .

To the FRONT of the line, void of any wait.  We all promised to "do it again next" and departed from our never to be seen again sisters!

TWO

Plus . . . where are you ever going to see something like this at midnight and find it hilarious especially when you're standing in line behind it for an hour (on our second trip to Walmart)

Pictures won't even do it justice.  But that is a basket FULL of lettuce, cilantro, broccoli, and half and half.  We decided they had to own a restaurant, but couldn't figure out what you would make with all that and why in the world you would buy it on Black Friday. 

THREE

And don't worry we made a SECOND trip to Target that night, but this time we were smart.  We got our fire pits, walked straight to customer service like we (and Adele) owned the place, purchased and left. 

FOUR

Ran into some good, old friends

FIVE

I ended up with a . . .

TV (I'm not sure I needed, but wanted the option)

a fire pit (I envision long family discussions around it while roasting marsh mellows)

all 3 seasons of Arrested Development (will NEVER regret)

Ernst goes to camp/jail/work (babysitting nights - 3 nights for $5 . . . try and beat that)

loads on new Rubbermaid

and some not to be named Christmas stuff.

Not my best year, but not a bad year.

Ansen rocked it too the next morning with a generator, work shirts and helped Addison buy her much anticipated and worked for i-touch on sale (she was still sick). 

Happy Thanksgiving! 2012

It's weird to think that last year Thanksgiving was non-existent for me.  I have absolutely no memory of it and I have no idea what my sweet kids did that day. 

Two years ago, on his way out the door, Ansen got the news that he was being laid off at work (turned out to be a blessing).

One year ago, I got in a terrible accident (also turned out to be a blessing - I can already say that).

But after 2 terrible Thanksgivings we wanted a good one

(even if the terrible turned out to be a blessing).

We almost did it, except Addison got sick on Tuesday morning and ended up sick until Saturday morning.  But we will take it.

We did Olivia's class party and honestly how did we do class parties, birthday parties, Christmas gifts, church lessons . . . pretty much everything before pinterest?

Sarah found these cute hats on Pinterest for the kids to make and they were darling. 

It was also Mrs. Plank's birthday so we had a Thanksgiving Feast combined with a birthday party!



We had all the kids bring Diet Coke or a Twix . . . Mrs. Plank's two favorites.  I could never maintain the excitement and enthusiasm for 30 gifts like Kim did PLUS everyday, all day. But I sure love doing it for an hour or two here and there.  They really are cute kids and I love knowing who Olivia is talking about everyday.  

As for Thanksgiving day I got ONE picture.  Pretty lame.  We had dinner at Banna and Branda's with just us and my cousin, Justin plus Jenny, Alice and Parley.  

Even though it was fun, I can't wait until at least Jeff is back next year.

And then of course Lisa and I headed out for Black Friday (now Thursday night  . . . how sad :( ) shopping.  More on that.

Chris and Andrea were here that weekend too - always fun to be with family!

Ans n' Ash - Part 1

We met in Logan the day before school started in August 1998. Ansen introduced himself as, "Ansen, like Hansen . . . mmmm bop, but without the H." (Ansen doesn't remember when we first met, but he soon could not forget me:) 

He and his friends took me and all my little freshman roommates to a lot of school activities.  They took us to the cemetary at 2 in the morning to see the weeping woman, taught us to jump the fence and run around in the football stadium, played with us in a huge all apartment complex waterfight, snuck us into the underground tunnels of the school, drove us to Aggie A night, and showed us where to get free dinner every night of the week at difference school activites for the first 2 weeks of school.

This is the night I "impressed" him at Olive Garden by drinking 11 pink lemonades and 7 breadsticks and who knows how much salad.  And then thrifty me boxed up my actual meal and had lunch and dinner for the next day. 

The all apartment complex waterfight.  This was the first night I knew I would get along with my roommates and also realized the guys across the way were pretty cool too (we all teamed up).   And yes, I wore overalls.

The M4 girls is what everyone called us.  We all really got along . . . and we got along with Ansen's apartment too.  We played pratical jokes on one another all year, went shopping, ate dinner, hung out and got in all out wars.

I'm vividly remembering the dried oranges we had to clean off the door the last day of school that they thrown at our door at some point in the year.  I think I remember a broken window when they were trying to get in and pull us out the window.  I definitely remember a tampered with juice bottle and I remember salt in their whole gallon of milk . . .  yeah, we were all dumb.

We went on our first official date to Homecoming in October.  It moved pretty fast after that and by Thanksgiving we were thinking wedding - maybe. I e-mailed my Dad to ask him how my "friend" would know if they were following the Spirit correctly.  Dad caught on and thought "this little girl thinks she's going to get married" and wrote me an 11 page reply. 

(This was actually the Sweethearts Dance in February)

I went to Maine over Christmas break to meet his family, but we told everyone at home that I went to Farmington (left out the Maine part) to visit a friend - I wasn't ready for questions.  

We got engaged on February 12, 1999.

Appreciation

I appreciate that Ansen appreciates nature. 

He sees the beauty in the earth that I don't see and he shares it with my lucky little children. 

I do think God created a beautiful earth, I just don't notice it as often as Ansen does.  I don't see the details like Ansen does.  I think he got a lot of that from his Mom and also his Dad.  They see beauty in the earth.

I appreciate that about them.

I hope he'll teach our children that . . . better than I can.

Stop it already . . .

What a difference one, quick, little year can make.  We got last year's pictures back right before my accident and here we are again . . . a whole year later. 

I can't believe how much I love them.

Addison - 4th grade

Addison 3th Grade

Olivia - 1st Grade

 

Olivia - Kindergarten





Swirly Quilt #1 (and #2)

I decided that what my brother in law, Chris, and his new wife, Andrea, really needed/wanted was a quilt for their wedding.  I'm not sure what they thought they needed, but I went with a quilt (sorry guys . . . I had good intentions and maybe I learned something).

I loved this fabric so much, I just bought enough to make two quilts.  Since I didn't want to overdo it like I had with The Monster, I just made two bigger than queen size quilts . . . just takin' it "easy" . . . nothing too overwhelming for a new quilter. 

Theirs got done in time for Christmas. 

I was still new to the quilting world so I just used the same pattern as The Monster quilt . . . I was boring. 

 and mine is pretty close to done . . . two years (or more) later. 

Someone told me right before I gave it to them, that you never give a quilt to someone that doesn't quilt because they'll never know how to appreciate it . . . maybe she was right, but I still did it.  Andrea quilts now, so that worked out.

Ronald Reagan Library

We took a break from Disney and drove out to the Ronald Reagan library for a day.  Although the drive wasn't so pleasant, it was well worth the trip in the end (I was skeptical) and I'm glad we dragged the kids along. 

I took 3 pictures . . . this was Drew's pose . . . he wasn't thrilled at that point and we had started to run out of treats we were sneaking to him. 

But that is a Retired Air force One that Reagan used during his administration.

The horse was not real . . . I got in trouble for using a flash. 



And there was an actual piece of the Berlin Wall. 

"I'm reminded of my parents' teaching . . . everything works out for the best and individuals determine their destiny through ambition and hard work." - Ronald Reagan

Winnie the Pooh

Liv and one of her besties were in a play this year - Winnie the Pooh.  Olivia was a lady bug narrator and Addy was Roo. 

 

Banna and Branda came

Matt and Lisa

Mrs. Plank, her first grade teacher and her kids

Bella came to support them and her cousin. 

And her adoring family that wanted to see that loud voice put to some good use!  (but it wasn't so much). 

The first night she stood nervous and staring at me with these panic stricken facial expressions. She thought she forgot her lines and ques. The next night I brought the script and the only problem was that she thought she had a part every 30 seconds (and she didn't).  She was a little more relaxed after we figured that out (and got her lip stick on).

I kept wondering if she was hot or nervous with those bright red cheeks, but it was just make-up.   Love our Livy Lou Who!

Stollers

For years Ansen has made fun of my "Stroller Collection" that we store in the garage.  And I'll admit I've worked up quite a small collection.  Each with a very different and very important purpose.  The single jogger, double jogger, single mall stroller, and the sit and stand mall stroller.  I finally got rid of the baby carseat stroller. 

But after all the years and years of complaining I've heard about my stroller collection it was Ansen that necessitated the purchase of yet another stroller this year.  Another stroller of exactly what we had in the garage at home . . . and made me die laughing. 

We realized we forgot to bring a stroller to Disneyland as Ansen (no joke) was bagging on my Stroller Collection at my cousins' house. 

It wasn't intentional, but that was how Ansen figured out a way to get his and Matt's golf clubs in the car to California . . . not bring the stroller - plenty of room! 

Anyone want to buy a gently used sit and stand?

And back to Disney . . .

 So in California Adventure, there's this ride called

Ariel . . .

we rode it 14 times.  

because someone was in love.

The ride included music, but our ride included a narrative from a 3 year old.

Mom, close your eyes, open your eyes Mom.  We're in the water.  There is Scuttle, look Mom, now she has legs . . . and there was singing. 

All I can chalk this problem thing up to is that he has a thing for red heads and it started with me.

Cars land was fun, just long long lines. 

And who wants to forget the little scene Ansen started when he boo-ed people for cutting into the fast pass line for the Cars ride at 8:00 in the morning.  In all fairness, Matt was standing in that line (for over an hour to just get fast passes) much further behind where all the people were cutting.  It started with Ansen, but many around us were happy to hop on board with that scene. 

And the cutters probably deserved it . . . still it was funny after the fact when we all realized maybe we were morons, but well supported morons by those witnessing the situation.  



We went with FIVE day park hoppers again.  Last time we thought FIVE was a little overboard, but found ourselves sucked right back into the FIVE day when purchasing tickets this year. 

We got there before opening a few mornings with the plan to go home in the afternoon, but couldn't tear ourselves away and stayed until closing anyway. 

Which lead to breaks like this . . .

 and tired nights. 

But for the record we did not regret the FIVE day decision and I think next time, we'll quite possibly go with a SIX day.

Yes, we're that family . . . a Disney-loving family.  However you won't see a Christmas wreath with a stuffed Mickey Mouse strapped to the front grill of my car anytime soon (yeah, I've actually seen that). 

Some October Moments . . .

  . . . that didn't get a full post.

We celebrated my parents' 34th anniversary at dinner where we went last year. 

We tried to enjoy every last ounce of good weather we could before it was gone.  This was a well worked on concoction of some kind of soup . . . I forgot what kind, but it took a full afternoon to make.

My grandma was in town.  So Drewy and I went to lunch with grandma, mom, Aunt Shannon and Lisa (not pictured).  My grandma is getting ready to go on a mission to here, which will be so fun to have her close for a little while.  She just has to get through open heart surgery first. 

We made our yearly trip to Gardener Village.  The girls each invited a friend this year and we went kind of low key.  We ended up running into Liv's 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Plank, and her kids there so we spent the rest of the afternoon with them - which was fun.  

 I'm sure the nice furniture store loved the 9 kids running around while Kim and I slowly worked through the store sitting on every couch and chair and thoroughly discussing every rug and bed comforter . . .

Ryan, Kendall and Halle came for a few days for Kendall's sister's wedding.  I could only get my camera loving girls to look at the camera (and smile).   Halle is getting old enough to "play" with Drew now so that's cute to watch.

October FLEW by and I'm sure it will be dreary, sad January before we know it too.