Black Friday

One more thing. I despise Black Friday. I've never thought getting up at the buttcrack of dawn was worth a few bucks I might save. Well, I was looking at the ads with my mother, who loves the early morning shopping thing and almost everything on my kids Christmas lists was on these ads and I guilted myself into going. So we got up at four and headed to Walmart. It is no small occasion here, either. Cop cars lined the buildings to keep people from fighting. It was great. I didn't get everything i wanted, but I just wanted to go home and go back to bed. However, after lying in bed for over an hour I woke my mom up and told her we were going again. So we went to kohl's. Between the two stores, I got everything that I wanted to get my kids for Christmas for less than half the prices I intended on paying. It was fruitful, dangit, so no I am going to feel inclined to go every year. Bumber deal.

WICKED

The day we had Emma's birthday party, my husband got all the husbands together and asked if they wanted to surprise the wives and take us to Wicked. The big surprise accidentally didn't happen. He slipped in front of me one day. Jack is always trying to do kind things to surprise me with and I'm so grateful that he is so thoughtful. I'm a hard person to surprise. I don't know why. I come upon things I'm not supposed to, I'm not actually snooping. I know he has suprised me a couple of times, but the big one was our cruise last year. And he had the help of Jani who is a very clever kind of gal! Anyhow, I loved the show! It was absolutely incredible! The day of it, I actually got sick and my fever was slightly over 104 degrees. I told the group we went with it was worth it to me to get them all sick to see this show! :) Jack and I walked away knowing that we needed to get Emma to see it. We got the CD and she's got all the songs memorized and is constantly asking to go see it. Maybe I brainwashed her, but I told her she could ask Santa for Christmas and we were going to have Jack take her Christmas Day.
Thanksgiving Day, however, in a very thoughtful gesture, he suggested I ought to take her with my mom and grandma. So a four generation group hopped in the sweet minivan and drove to Hollywood at the last minute yesterday! It was so fun! And I felt much better this time around!

Emma was so cute. It was obvious she ahd never been to a show before because she kept asking questions too loudly. She leaned over at one point and said "mom, this show is awesome. I want to see it again someday when I am six!" She was so funny.

For Thanksgiving, my parents brought my grandma and grandpa Smith down to visit. They are 88 and 90 yrs old. We had so much fun. It was WAY too short for my taste, but they have lives, too, I suppose. So they got here Wednesday afternoon and left Saturday morning. Way short. But we accomplished a lot! Of course, the food was fabulous. I only took pictures of my favorites because I forgot on everything else, but I had fun getting it all together.

These were melt in your mouth stuffed mushrooms.
I have the best spinach artichoke dip recipe that I got from my friend Cathy in Kentucky. I could sell this stuff.

I love fruit and dip. It's so colorful and pretty.

I put the pictures on backwards so these next two should have been first.

And i didn't take a close up of our table. I should have because it looked awesome and I have the prettiest china that I finally used. It stayed boxed up the whole time we were in KY and I LOVED pulling it out to use!

Just practicing at home. She did fantastic today during her recital. Jack has a conference to day and tomorrow that is from 7-6. He drove an hour back and missed her performance by three minutes and was totally bumbed and turned around to drive an hour back. I felt bad for him cause he felt really bad. However, I had the thought that I needed to get Emma roses for her performance and dad was able to give them to her and say sorry and that made them both feel a little better. Emma asked for 45 minutes before she performed when dad would be there to watch her so she may have been secretly disappointed, but she was pretty excited that dad got her flowers. All is well!

performance day

after the concert, he got up on srage to sing a little hsm2.

Emma and Carrie

(her teacher)

Yesterday I took Emma to Walmart to let her spend some money grandma judy and diana gave her for Halloween/birthday. She said she wanted crafts so we got scissors, paint, 12 statues of trains and ponies, and paintbrushes. We had so much fun painting when we got home and decided to do it again today. I got all the stuff out and on the back patio and ran in the house to fill a cup of water to rinse the paint. When I came back my little Emma nonchalantly told me she cut her hair.

I flipped out the first thirty seconds. There was some shock factor that came into play, and then I just started to laugh. I totally did that as a kid. Who didn't? So i explained that to her and told her we would have to cut it all short now which was a realy bummer to her to lose her princess long hair.

The Del Sol Salon was kind enough to squeeze in an emergency appointment because tomorrow is her violin recital.

Her hair was so long. i'm going to miss it, but it will be fun to try something new.

Great natural highlights! She has the prettiest color of hair.

It's a very cute finished product. She said she likes it, but is still a little sad about her long hair being gone. I thought the gal did a great job leaving some length and just layering it in there. It so could have been much worse. I doubt she tries that one again. Now I just have to keep those scissors away from Jackson.

The floral decor on the side table is a steal from Michael's. Regularly $80. I got it for $13. I was pretty happy!
Just had to show the nativity up close.

Pay no attention to how messy the bookshelf is. This is the full shot of the nativity up top. I want to get a big, beautiful wreath to put up above at the after Christmas sale for next year. I have such a hard time waiting for things like that.

Are those trees on each side ugly? I like them, but i don't trust my judgement very well. I guess if I like them that's all that matters, though, right?

And my tree, of course. The only thing I would do differently is put on WAY more lights, but it turned out nice.

Christmas came early this year. It's my favorite time of year and I'm always so sad to take it down so I just thought I would set it up a bit earlier. So the week after Halloween I got everything out and set it up against the wishes of someone in my family. He didn't have to help put a thing up so I figured there wasn't much leverage on his part. :) Actually, I don't think he cares all that much.

So I don't feel like being a woman comes by me all that naturally. I am by no means one who can keep a clean house, have dinner on the table, have kept the TV off to play with my kids and color and teach and go to the park...you get the idea. It has to be a half A job at all of them to survive. But I do feel like this room turned out really pretty. It's my favorite room in my house because it has so much character. My whole house has a lot of character. It is SO old, and it is falling apart. But all I care about is that it lasts 2 1/2 more years.

O Possum Part II

So come to find out the stupid o possum is back and living underneath the grill in the cupboard part in our backyard. Retard. That's just gross. Jack swung in like it was a baseball and whacked it out of our yard and I haven't seen it since.

How to Do Once a Month Cooking - wikiHow

How to Do Once a Month Cooking - wikiHow

I'll post on this later.

Just a Few More Pics

So we were at the park today and I had Sades in my arms and was pushing Jackson in the swing. I forgot that that has always made my babies giggle. She was laughing her head off. Jack was on the phone and recording at the same time so you can't hear as well as I want, but I'll take it anyway. She cracked me up!

A Little Love Note

Happy Birthday to Brandt! I'm happy you made it to this one! We sure love you here in California and can't wait to see you whenever we do! I love you so much! You rock!