Thanksgiving 2011

 We were extremely lucky this Thanksgiving to have the Mecham's drive from Florida to be here with us. We had such a wonderful dinner. It was hands down one of the yummiest Thanksgiving dinners that I have had. Probably in my top three. :) The turkey turned out great, homemade rolls, homemade stuffing (best ever!!), and lots of other yummy things. It makes all the hard work worth it. We also had a couple of girls, who live on base and couldn't go home to their families, eat with us as well. 

 I had fun making the napkin rings and getting everything ready for our table. I used the same tutorial as one of the flowers on my fall wreath that I did. I also printed my place cards from the same site.

 I caught Jack and Jackson playing with their Leapsters under the blanket.

 We went and took a walk on the Ocean Springs bridge. We were hoping to see some dolphins, but didn't have any luck. We did see a great sunset though!

 We got some guest passes to a local gym/family center that has an awesome indoor pool area. It was endless entertainment for the kids...and the dads. They went down the big water slide until they were sick.

 Anderson went down this water slide over, and over and over, almost the whole time we were there. It made it easy to keep an eye on him!

 Jack found some flippers that he thought he would try out. :)

 We took them to the Shed for some real Mississippi food and entertainment. Justin and I have been watching a bunch of food documentaries lately (I know, we're geeks) and after seeing those and thinking about the food we were eating, it just didn't taste as good as the first time we ate here. I guess you go there for the experience.

 The boys spent the whole time dancing and playing the air guitar.

 The inside has a ton of one dollar bills stuck to the ceiling with a fork. I was curious how much money is really on that ceiling.

We have a lot to be thankful for this year. 

Justin graduated from dental school, we spent the summer with family, we were able to visit my parents on their mission for the third time, we have a nice home, Justin has a great job and is learning lots, our kids are healthy and happy, we got a new nephew, and we have great friends who are willing to drive 7 hours to eat a turkey dinner with us! I really love this time of year and the chance it gives us to look at what we have been blessed with. I also love Thanksgiving because it is the official kick off of the Holiday season! Christmas parties, hot chocolate (even though it's 70 degrees outside), shopping, decorations, and this year...Las vegas! We are going to Justin's brother's house on the 17th and then driving up to his sister's house in Utah for Christmas. We haven't been with family on Christmas for the past couple years, so we are excited! Less than two weeks!!

Happy Holidays everyone!

Minor Adjustments

 Whenever I know that I am going to have company, it makes me want to change up my house and make sure that everything looks good. I am always rearranging things, changing things up, and organizing like crazy. I like to rearrange my decorations and stuff all the time anyways, but when we have company, I'm even worse. Justin says I have a sickness. I like to call it a hobby. :)

We hosted Thanksgiving this year and it was just what I needed to push me into gear and get all the projects I have been wanting to do, completely done. 

 We rearranged the dining room. We swapped to shelves and flipped the table and rug the opposite way. I like it this way so much more! I love that you can see the blue shelf and having the big dresser on the other wall looks so much better. I also spray painted my chairs. I want a new dining room table really bad, but it hasn't hit the top of the priority list yet. So I painted the chairs to satisfy me for a while.

 I ordered all new prints and made a gallery wall. This is probably my favorite thing in my house right now. I spray painted frames that I already had. I had a big stash of black and brown frames and painted them mostly "almond" and "khaki", and threw in a random "ivy leaf" in there. They are all Krylon spray paints from Walmart. I used spray paint primer first which made a huge difference and they all turned out really nice.

 I completed my first big sewing project. I passed by some fabric at Walmart, of all places, and thought that it would make really cute curtains but I always picture something really cute and it doesn't always turn out that way. Then after looking at the price of $1.50 a yard, I thought I had nothing to lose. I LOVE how they turned out! I spent a total of $17.50 on all four panels. I have two matching panels in the dining room. To say that I am happy with them is an under statement. I was extremely surprised that they actually turned out how I envisioned them. That doesn't happen very often when I am using a sewing machine. 

I have also been trying to find new lamp shades for the two lamps in my family room. I looked at Target and found some cute ones for $25 a piece. I did not want to spend that much so I kept looking. I found these two at the thrift store on base for $8 for both of them. I was freaking out when I looked at the price and that there were two of them. One day I will update my lamp bases, but for now, I love it. I also found 3 trays for $1.50 a piece and spray painted one of them green to go on my end table (which I also spray painted along with the table that my tv is on). Oh, and I got that circle mirror above the shelf at the thrift store. I think it was $7. I spray painted it. 

Ok, maybe I do have a slight sickness but I can't help it!

Now these pictures are out of date because I put up all my Christmas decorations, but you get the idea.

Blue Angels Air Show

 We have been anxiously awaiting the air show in Pensacola on the Navy base. Justin had the day off for Veteran's Day, and it made for the perfect family day. When we got to Pensacola, we saw a few airplanes making all these puffs of smoke in the sky. After they stretched out a little bit, we realized they were making letters. It was amazing how perfect the words were!

We saw the show with some of our dental friends. We have been extremely lucky to have met so many fun people since we have been here. We had instant friends from the residency and it has made our move here so easy.

 Anderson, Jack and Lillie anxiously awaiting the show.

Oooooo.....

Aaaaawwwww.....

 Earplugs. Check. Holding hands. Check.

 The Blue Angels were AMAZING! Of course! And extremely loud. I am surprised at how well the kids did. They loved it. Jack kept saying all day, "This is the best day ever!!" "The Blue Angels are the coolest airplanes ever!" "This is the best air show ever!" He was hilarious. You would have thought it was Christmas day, he was so excited.

 After the Blue Angels, we stuck around for the night show. It was crazy to see fireworks shooting off of the airplanes and helicopters.

 At the end, they had a fireworks show that last at least a half hour. I should have timed it. It was really good, but we had been there all day though and I kept thinking, this has got to be the finally. No. Ok, this will be the finally. No. Wow, this is a really long fireworks show and it's not even the 4th of July! I was slightly tired of sitting on the ground and secretly wanted it to end, even though the kids were loving it.

 It made it all worth it though when as soon as the fireworks were over, the announcer counted down, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.....The Wall of Fire!!!

No joke. This was CRAZY!! I got this picture off their website. Justin and I agreed, that this was possibly the coolest thing we have ever seen. We were pretty far away, and we could feel a heat wave rush right past us. It was really loud, really big, and very cool. The boys have been talking about it ever since. 

Talking in Spanish

I laughed at Jack's comment to me the other day while making his lunch...

Jack: "Peanut butter and honey sandwich please ma'am. I say ma'am because that's how we talk in Spanish. Right Mom?"

He cracks me up!

Halloween

 I let the kids pick out their costumes again. Jack wanted to be a "fire breathing dragon!" Anderson picked the monkey. We had them pretty early and the kids have dressed up in them many times. I guess that makes me feel better about spending money on costumes when they play in them instead of wearing them once and putting them in a box.

 Mary Poppins and the Bert, the chimney sweep. :) People were telling Justin that he really looks like Bert in the movie.

 We made bats with googly eyes.

 Anderson had a terrible cold, but managed to still have some fun despite his swollen eyes and runny nose.

 The boys got way more candy than I would ever let them eat, and haven't seemed to notice that the huge bowl of candy mysteriously ended up in the garbage. Justin offered to trade Jack a dollar for every five pieces of candy. He ended up making $6 from it. I think we might make this a tradition!

Seward Farms

 We have been trying to find a place similar to Patterson's in Ohio. Even though there weren't any beautiful trees with colored leaves, Seward Farms was a close second. It was really hot that day, but the boys didn't seem to mind. They were running from one thing to the next and were smiling from ear to ear.

 They had a big trampoline sort of thing. I think the boys would have jumped on that the entire day if we let them. Wouldn't this be fun to have in your back yard??

 All of these pictures were taken on my phone, so they aren't the best quality. Anderson was so funny to watch on here. He fell over more than he was able to stay up, but for some reason he could not get enough of it.

 This huge row of flowers was covered in butterflies. There are butterflies EVERYWHERE here. I have never seen so many butterflies.

 We took a hay ride past the cotton fields. There was a huge tractor collecting the cotton, which was a little scary for Anderson. He covered his eyes while we were close to it.

 We ended the day watching the duck and pig races. The boys loved it. It was a perfect (and hot!) way to celebrate Fall.