Thanksgiving Sandwich

This sandwich is amazing.  Just amazing.  Roast turkey, homemade stuffing, homemade cranberry sauce, I think some gravy, all on homemade wheat bread and toasted on the panini press.  It's worth roasting an entire turkey just for this sandwich.

Hot Rolls

I think heaven is going to smell like hot rolls coming out of the oven.  Or maybe chocolate chip cookies.

December

There are so many things to be thankful for this month - here's a roundup of just a few

Good friends - its fun to laugh and play! 

The pixie program - we have a family to be a "Christmas Pixie" for and we bought doughnuts.  (Although I think these were actually the ones I bought for us.  I think we got all snowmen for the other family!) It's fun secret santa program.  Even though we actually got busted!

Christmas traditions - the Nutcracker is one of my favorite new traditions.  Rachael is always on the edge of her seat she likes it so much.

Running into friends - turns out our bishop and his sweet wife were one of the couples in the performance this year! 

Good kitchen help - we sometimes do a ginger bread house for Christmas but this year we did a cookie tree instead.  Rachael lovingly placed each sprinkle on by hand.

 Rachael danced in another version of the Nutcracker this year! It was a lot of hard work but overall I think she enjoyed the experience. 

Letters to Santa - this is a fun tradition we got from Uncle Declan's family.  After you write it, you burn it! I love sharing everyone's traditions as our families grow and change.  

Our beach trip this year was at low tide at Fitzgerald Marine Reserve.  I have never seen so many urchins and anemones  - this is only a small sliver of the thousands out there.  It was beautiful.

Temple Weddings

We knew Michael when we lived in Kentucky, so when he married a girl from California we were thrilled just to be able to attend the reception and see the Arntz Family.  Then Michael asked us if Ryan and I would attend their temple sealing and I was so touched and so pleased to be able to share that milestone with their family.  What a blessing to have eternal families.

Strawberry pie

It was my sister-in-law's birthday today and I bought her this cute purple pie dish.  It looked kind of empty so I made a strawberry pie to go in it.

Piano lessons

Today was our first day of piano lessons at home.  So far, so good!

Family fun

For family night we made caramel apples.  So much fun!

New furniture

Last year I sold our bedroom furniture (except the bed) because it was so bulky and it didn't make sense to move it across the country again.  So for my birthday this year Ryan let me re-do the bedroom.  (Yes, my birthday was weeks ago.  It takes a girl a long time to commit!) We have been using the most pathetic collection of dressers and cabinets for our bedroom - it was so lovely to get a new dresser and two new nightstands delivered.  It feels like a read bedroom again!

Halloween costumes

I do have a tendency to go overboard at Halloween...

The White House