Thanksgiving Pics

I have been getting some questions, mostly from my family, about where the Thanksgiving pictures are.  Instead of having to hunt for them, I decided to put them on my own site.  Enjoy.

Favorite Things

Adam's favorite gift was his huge bionicle that I don't remember the name.
Elli brought out everything she could for her favorite.  She really wanted a rolling backpack, but loved the camera and watch and legos she got, too.
Amy can't put down this crazy doll, Annabelle.  You can feed it and it will cry real tears.  After it eats, it yawns and takes a nap.  She loves it!

Me

Elli got a camera from Elise and was taking pictures all day, so Amy wanted to take some too.  Here's a quick one of me.  

Christmas Breakfast

This little breakfast has a few little stories behind it....  First, we had a nice waffle maker that got lost in one of the moves.  Every Sunday we have breakfast for dinner and haven't been able to have waffles for a few years.  Riley got me a Williams Sonoma waffle maker for Christmas, but I ruined the surprise and figured it out a while ago, still very excited to get it and use it nonetheless.   So I was very happy to make a special waffle breakfast.  The waffle maker worked great, the waffle mix was yummy and didn't need the last 3 eggs I had that I needed for the yummy pumpkin dessert I wanted to make, so I could still make the dessert, and we had plenty of syrup.  Sometimes we run low and Riley gets nervous.  But.....
..as we were eating, Elli pulled several glass chunks out of her mouth from her waffle.  I had given her the last waffle from the iron, trying to be nice by giving her a fresh, crispy waffle.  Well, as we were moving about 2 weeks ago, I was making trips back and forth from house to house and heard some glass fall on the floor as I was moving the kitchen stuff.  I have my glass, pyrex mixing bowls stacked together and I guess one chipped and the glass fell in the biggest bowl.  As I scraped the batter from the bowl for the last waffle, I must have scraped up the glass.  Hopefully she didn't eat any chunks.  Oopps!  We did have the leftover waffles the next morning and no one has had any glass in theirs.  

Christmas Eve

After the kids opened their Christmas pajamas, they picked out where they wanted to put their stockings.  Adam wanted a hint what his present was and I told him it had to do with a video game.  He was so excited to get to open it on Christmas Eve, so of course was disappointed to find Mario and Luigi on his pajamas.  He was sure it was a new Wii game.  
Riley has been asking for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, so that is what Santa got too.  Elli thought he would like 4.
Amy wanted to check out how Santa would come in.  She was worried he would fall on the little rack that's for wood and get poked.

Elli and Katie

Elise was watching Horton Hears a Who and thought that the little fluffy thing looks just like Elli.  They kind of act the same too.  Elli is always off in her own world singing and talking to herself and saying funny stuff.  I'll try to put up the clip Elise found for us too.

Gingerbread House

The kids have been asking and asking to put this thing together.  Once they mentioned it to their friends, it was over.  Breanne and Adam did the frosting and everyone put the candy on.  I like it to sit out and look pretty for a couple days at least, but as soon as the last piece of candy was on they wanted to eat it.  Oh well.  

Walk on the Rocks

Amy and I were trying to take Flat Stanley out on the beach that we go to for some friends in Utah.  The tide was pretty low so we were able to go farther than normal.  It was pretty warm too.

Haircuts

Elli, Amy and I got our hair cut in the last couple of weeks.  Elli's has been much easier to comb.  Amy's is a little too short in the back to make it straighten out and I am still getting used to mine.  It's a change for sure!

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and we shared it with our friends, the Hussey's.  I forgot my camera, so Lenette took some pictures for me.  She kindly posted them on her blog, so to see them, I will direct you to the right, where you will find her link.  We are under "Gobble Gobble".  

I am still eating the yummy leftovers.  Riley isn't a casserole fan, so he finished off the pies and has gone to his favorite barbeque restaurant for dinner tonight.  (He comes back with it and eats it here.)

Pictures from Mexico

What I Came Home To

I'm back from my week long trip to Mexico and this is what was waiting for me.  The kids brought the poster to the airport, and the flowers and some brownies that are long gone, were waiting for me at home.  So sweet.  Oh, and lots and lots of laundry.

The Costumes

Every year we seem to wait until the last minute to decide what we want to be.  Meaning, the kids.  Adam kind of gave up and said he didn't want to go trick or treating at all.  Right.  So Amy and I went to the store Halloween day and found Adam a pirate set and Elli a witch costume.  One good thing is that they were already on sale and we got them for cheap.  Adam hated his, but couldn't stand not getting candy and Elli was happy.  We borrowed Amy's costume from some friends, but she didn't even know who Eyore was.  Maybe next year we'll plan a little better but probably not.  It all worked out just fine!

Carving

Somehow the pictures got switched around, so here are the finished Jack-o-lanterns.  Elli did the first one to look like her own mouth.  Amy's is the middle one and Adam did the mean one.
First we had to do this.  No kidding.

Full Triathlon

Riley has been looking forward to this race for a long time.  He's done a couple sprint triathlons these past summers, but this was the big one.  I think it had a 1 mile swim then a 25 mile bike then a 6 mile run.  Riley hoped he would finish in 3 1/2 hours.  He finished just under 3.  

Here he is coming around one of the last corners on the bike.  First he swam, but after I dropped him off to register, I went back to the hotel to shower and what not, so I missed the swim part of the race.
And this is the end of the 6 miles and end of the race.  He was tired, but not as tired as I thought.  He's already talking about the next one.  He did a great job and I had fun spending my first night away from my kids EVER!  Thanks Lenette and Beau for that!

Skating Elli

Before our neighbors moved this summer, they gave us two pairs of skates that their girls had grown out of.  The skates are way too big for Elli, but she loves to skate around the street.  Luckily the neighbors were safety savvy and also gave us the knee pads, wrist guards and even some elbow pads that Elli forgot.  

Image Tag

I thought this was a cute tag from Lenette.  Hope it's not giving away too much personal information.  Here's what you do.  Type your answers into google/yahoo search and post a picture from the first page of the results.  Here's mine.  You should do it too.

My Age

Where I live:  Havelock, NC....  this actually looks like my back yard.
Place I'd like to travel:  England...  any where there.  
Favorite Food:  Bread Pudding!  I love it and always eat myself sick.
Place I Grew Up:  Idaho Falls...  that's the temple I got married in and the river we used to walk around.  
Favorite Color:  Red...  Any piece of furniture or shoe catches my eye if it is red.

Favorite Animal:   Bird ... It reminds me of my Grandma
Something I used to love:   Precious Moments... I had them all around my room and even had them at my wedding.  Wow.
First Name:  Brook

Middle Name:  Lyn...  I guess this guy is  Lyn Moir.

TRAILS

We started taking walks on a couple of trails these past few weeks and the kids and Sandy really enjoy it.  It's been a little cooler and quite nice outside.  
Here are the boys.  I don't think I could do it without Riley.  Even with trail markers, I have gone off track more than once.  He he.  
Here are the girls.  I end up carrying whatever the girls think they need to bring.
Sandy loves to run ahead and zoom back to us to see if we are coming.  She's been really good to stay with us and not run totally away.

Fun with Photo Booth

The kids love to get on the computer and take silly pictures of themselves.  These are some of the hundreds that they've taken.  Pretty funny.  You can see me in the background vacuuming in one of them.