Recessionista Holiday Special Giveaway

I've talked about Recessionista Party before and how much I love it.

It seems my love is growing stronger!

They are having a giveaway this weekend that involves winning all their holiday specials from this week. We're talking an Anthropologie Cardi, Pea Coat, and other wonderful items.

Follow this link if you want to enter!

http://www.recessionistaparty.com/2010/12/03/a-special-friday-giveaway/

It's a Marshmallow World

Southeast Idaho sure has gotten a lot of snow the last few days! Ah Mother Nature, how we love you. I'm amazed with how much snow we've had and how soon we've gotten it.

I had my back drapes closed for the first part of the day of the big snow storm. Brycen likes to sit in his exersaucer and look out the back door. So I opened up the drapes and saw this:

Not much to look at when your door looks like this! It looked pretty cool though.

I then decided to open my front door and see what it looked like:


That's a lot of white!
Notice the snow on the bottom of the door?

We had a little wall going on. Crazy snow!

Our harvest wreath got a direct hit. Poor little scarecrow!

Needless to say, Tyson spent a lot of time snow blowing the driveway over the next few days!

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That night the snow had just really beat down on our little neighborhood and the back roads surrounding. So much so that our neighbors only two doors down and east of us couldn't even get to their house in their cars! They had to park at houses the other way down the street and then walk. Our road in front of our house was so bad we saw four cars get stuck within a few hours. And in the same spot. My mom, sisters, and grandma were coming over to pick me up for a baby shower that night and had to turn around because the roads were so bad. We didn't have a plow come for at least a couple of days after that storm. I couldn't get out for work and Tyson had to barrel out in his truck to get out. We didn't have mail for a week because our carrier couldn't get down our street, much less reach or mailbox. Our neighbors were getting stuck all around us. Most of us just stayed inside for days.

This Thanksgiving I was especially thankful for plows.

Mike & Lee's Family

On Thanksgiving my uncle Mike and aunt Lee had all their kids and grandkids home for the holiday. This is something that rarely happens! So they decided to get a family picture and asked me to take some for them. I've never done anyone else's family pictures before so I was excited! They turned out really nice for just running outside my grandparents' front door to take them. I love their family!

A Bitter-Sweet Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was so nice. It was filled with bitter-sweet memories. It was Brycen's first Thanksgiving and he got to try a few different things, thanks to his Grandma. :) He tried mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes (which he didn't like the texture of), and whipped cream from a pie. Thanksgiving was held at my grandma and grandpa Murri's house this year. Most of the Murri family was there and it was a lot of fun!

(I didn't remember to get my camera out till dessert, so that's where all the pictures start!)

Mom and Grandma

Hannah and Chloe getting ready to dig into pie


Our gracious hosts, Grandma and Grandpa

Tyson and Amber

Getting the pies ready

Grandma was getting after Grandpa and my uncle Mike because of how they were topping the pies. They weren't exactly doing it with any finesse.

Hovering

Because they wanted a taste of what I brought...

This lovely Cheesecake Factory cheesecake. It had red velvet cake with a layer of cream cheese frosting, then vanilla cheesecake. The outside had white chocolate flakes all over it. Whoa! So good. I was excited to bake something, but when I saw this at Sam's Club I had to get it. And it was very popular!

Grandma, Uncle Bob, Aaron and Uncle Blake

Aunt Janell, Uncle Blake and Dad

Mom and Aunt Penney talking about the cheesecake

Grandma and Brycen

Amy and Brycen

Amy didn't come to Thanksgiving dinner in this shirt. Brycen threw up all over her so she had to change into one of Grandma's shirts. Oh, babies.

Mom walked in the door after I did and was wearing the exact same thing I was. We had to take a picture! That's what happens when you hit a Kohl's sale together!

Grandma and Grandpa enjoying their favorite beverages.

They were pretty exhausted by the end of the night!

Brandon and Kristen were there, which meant that little Ethan came too. He is 4 1/2 months now. He and Brycen got a lot of attention! Brycen couldn't handle it all and had a few meltdowns.

And we can't forget Mady in the mix of great-grandchildren! She is the oldest and Coya and John's daughter. She and Ethan are first cousins. Aren't these three just so cute?
...

And now to the bitter part of our bitter-sweet day. Our beloved pet, Snoopy, of 14 years passed away on the 26th. She was such a sweet and loving kitty and we will really miss her. She was a really good cat and we all just loved her. She is with her mom now (who died the week before our family moved into the current house), and also her sister who passed away this summer. Interesting how they both passed away this year after so many years have gone by.

Snoopy, we love you and will miss you!

What Happens when Tyson Does the Grocery Shopping...

Tyson went to the store on Monday afternoon to get some things for us. We needed some super glue, scotch tape, etc. Then I told him to pick up some cookies for the snowman cookie jar. When he came home I unpacked the bags and found the glue, scotch tape, the few other things, the cookies, and all of this:

To clarify what you're seeing above, he came home with:

• Chips Ahoy cookies for the cookie jar
• white fudge Oreo cookies
• two bottles of pomegranate 7Up
• Reese's peanut butter cups
• plain holiday M&M's
• peanut holiday M&M's

Apparently we didn't have enough sweets in the house! All I can say is our families can always count on us having sugar around.

I wonder why? :)

I love you, Tyson!

Christmas Giveaway!

Head on over to my recipe blog to enter a Christmas giveaway!

The winner gets a cute apron, a book with some awesome tips for the kitchen, a magnetic holiday notepad, and a Mrs. Claus Christmas tree ornament (she's holding a plate of cookies. Perfect for a recipe blog giveaway!)

Come on by!

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