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!

Thanksgiving 2010

It seems like my Thanksgiving posts are always kind of lame because I usually do them after the Christmas rush  and I'm just trying to get it all in.

So Thanksgiving 2010 . . .

Lots and lots to be thankful for.  Seriously.  I'm in one of those really great phases of life where I just can't stop noticing all the things I'm so very, very blessed with.  Where everything feels like a true miracle and I just feel so overwhelmed with all that I have to be thankful for. 
It really does create pure happiness everyday.

We got Ryan and Kendall this year for Thanksgiving so we all made it a big weekend and headed over to Banna and Branda's for a couple of sleepless nights.   Sleepless because we stayed up way too late playing games and sleepless because Drew is just a dreadful sleeper outside the comforts of his own bed and regular routine.   

The morning was Football, showers, food prep, etc.
And then the delicious Feast!



Next we played minute to win it and took some great naps.

While this little guy snuck left over cookies which he only ate the centers out of.

And this (sleepy?) little kitty pranced around the house. 

Finishing the night off with a couple of hours of a pretty competitive game of hide and go seek.  We all took turns teaming up with Drew as seeker. 

And then a couple of good games of Dominion and Settlers of Catan until 4:00 a.m. 
(Only Lisa made it out for Black Friday this year.)

Great, great Thanksgiving!

Giving Thanks!

Catching Up . . . Thanksgiving was fun, Fun, FUN! Ryan and Kendall came for a week from Ohio. We bowled, went to Body Worlds, ate a lot, went shooting, lip syncs with the Sharp family, shopping, hot tubbing, family pictures mayham, sleep over at Banna and Branda's house for 3 nights and lots and lots of games. (We weren't so good with pictures this year.)

Olivia trying to get Banna's glasses . . .

Olivia: My eyes are cold.

(It almost worked.)

Thanksgiving 2007

This year we had Thanksgiving at my Aunt Shannon and Uncle Charlie's in Bountiful. Then we headed over to Flips Gym where my cousins Lyndsey and Becca had taught gymnastics for years. We did an obstacle course and played games. The best game with Blind Tag. Which I'm going to explain how to play because it was hilarious! I didn't do very well at taking pictures this year . . . oh, well.




Blind Tag: There are 2 people working together and one is blind folded. The unblindfolded person cannot touch their partner, but directs them where to go so that they don't get tagged. I haven't laughed so hard in so long. The best part is watching the blind folded people "run." As the blind folded person you feel like you're full-out running, but in actuality you're barely prancing around. Left and right seem to be easily confused. Add a few younger kids who are just randomly playing or laying on the floor and it's a real treat.



Anyway, then we headed to the church for Karaoke. For the past 8 years we've done lip syncs, but this year we traded to karaoke. Ansen has refused to participate in lip syncs for the last 2 years since he feels the year we did Spice Girls-If you want to be my lover, was his chance to "go out with a bang," but loves karaoke. We had a great time and even Addison did a little Hannah Montana performance for everyone. My mom loves preforming so she was really at home in her natural environment on stage with a microphone.

Here's a good one of Addison in mid-Hannah Montana move.

Thanksgiving Memories . . .

I decided to post some pictures of last year's Thanksgiving fun. Last year we decided that everyone could pick an activity and we'd all participate. This proved to be a random weekend, but very entertaining. Lisa and I picked roller skating at Classic Skating. Here's the picture sequences of one of our races. It was a really intense race (obviously). Somehow Ryan can kick our butts every time.





Towards the end I got going really fast (you can't even image how fast I'm sure) and couldn't stop so I thought I could step up onto the carpeted area to slow myself down. I definitely slowed down when I fell on my face and dislocated my shoulder. It was one of those times that you try to stand up and laugh it off and then later realize how much pain you're really in. Kendall sadly fell within the first few minutes with the same laugh it off experience and was out for the rest of the fun. We even had to stop and get her a doughnut on the way home to sit on.

We only lasted about 1 1/2 hours and despite the injures, it was still the best $20 I've spent in a long time.

**Side note for future: You can click on these picture collages to enlarge them. ***

And I know we look like complete red necks, but we're really not. This was Ansen and Ryan's pick- gun shooting. My mom actually used one of these for our Christmas cards!