the one about Thanksgiving

We had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving! It was nothing like our usual Thanksgivings, but maybe that is what made it so nice. We have been able to spend Thanksgiving with both of our families almost every year since we have been married. My family usually eats around noon and the Lane family eats in the evening. This year, Grandma Lane changed her dinner to the night before. (It was GREAT, by the way! Hopefully a new tradition.) My family all had different plans this year and we ended up not having a dinner together. Excuse me while I sound very ungrateful for a minute... My family is small. 10 people when we are all together. We all live right here together and see each other nearly everyday. We get together for every Birthday, so really, it wasn't that big of a deal that we didn't eat together for one year. I actually saw every member of my family today and visited with all of them, except Brayden. And he is my buddy. Whats up with that??? Anyway, I realize how fortunate I am to have my family so close and I couldn't love them anymore, but it was kind of a refreshing change to do something different today. Since those two dinners were changed/cancelled, we had no plans for today. I was chatting with my good friend Lindsay the other day and they were going to be alone too, so we decided to have our Thanksgiving dinner together. It was so great! She cooked the turkey, gravy and stuffing. I did the mashed potatoes, pies and rolls. We met at their house at 2:00 and our meal was DEEEE-LISH! Lindsay's turkey was absolutely perfect and her stuffing was TO DIE FOR! I have to brag for a second and say that my rolls were perfect!! My pies turned out great too. And in my mind, no Thanksgiving is complete without my famous orange rolls! It was so much fun to make dinner for our families and we did a pretty dang good job if I do say so myself. It was so nice to visit with Brian, Lindsay and their beautiful kids today. I am so grateful for wonderful friends who wanted to join forces with us this year.

My roll dough turned out PERFECT today! It raised beautifully and it was so nice and fluffy. I made crescent rolls but forgot to take pix of them. Sad, because they were pretty. However, I did get some pictures of the orange rolls. The best part of Thanksgiving is, of course, LEFTOVERS! Lindsay was a sweetheart to share her beautiful turkey with us.

For the last couple of weeks, I have been writing things that I am thankful for on my FaceBook status. I tried to do it every day, but realistically...well... it just didn't happen. I did pretty good though. Of course I am thankful for millions of other things too, but here are just a few that I covered on FaceBook. I thought it was a perfect thing to add to my Thanksgiving blog post.

Monday, November 9
Today (and everyday) I am thankful for my beautiful little family. My amazing husband and my precious son make my life worth living! I love living with 2 "men" that love me, appreciate me, protect me, and respect me.

Tuesday, November 10
Today I am thankful for my big brother. I know, I know, CORNY! We have gotten so close over the last year and I am just so glad that we have a good relationship. Our families get together every weekend for games, our boys are best buddies and even our spouses are friends. I LOVE the relationship we have created. I love and adore my brother! He is such a good example to me!!!

Wednesday, November 11
Today, I am thankful for all of the brave men and women who have served or who are currently serving our country. I am also grateful for their families who live without them so I can be free. What a HUGE sacrifice! My Grandfather is a Korean war Veteran and I am so proud of him! Thank you soldiers, veterans, their families and even to our Government who all sacrifice and work so hard for our freedom. Happy Veterans Day!

Thursday, November 12
Today I am thankful for my 3 Sisters-in-law! Danette; SIL 17 years. We are SO close. She is strong, smart, determined and a good example to me. Talia; 11 years and she is the funniest, coolest sweetest girl on earth. She is very wise for her age and I admire her!!! Brynn; SIL for 9 years. We were meant to be sisters! We are GREAT FRIENDS and we are so much alike. She is always there when I need her and she is the BEST!

Friday, November 13
Today, I am grateful for my creativity. Is that weird? I hate to sound boastful or anything, but I love that I can think of something I want to make, visualize it, think about it for a few minutes and then create it. It comes very naturally to me. Everyone has their own special gifts and talents and I am so grateful I have found mine and I am able to use it every day.

Saturday, November 14
I am having a blast in Wendover with my hubby! Today, I am thankful for him and all the fun times we have together! He is the best guy EVER!

Sunday, November 15
I am glad to be home from our mini-vaca to Wendover. That brings me to today’s thankful post. I am so thankful for my home. It is not perfect, by any means, but it is nice, clean, warm and there is so much love here, it literally overflows!

Wednesday, November 18
Today, I gotta say, I am thankful for my FRIENDS! I know some of the most AMAZNG WOMEN in the whole world and I am so glad to be able to call them my friends. I don't want to mention names, because I will forget someone, I am certain. So please, if you are my friend.... I'm talking about you!!!!!

Thursday, November 19
I rid of that horrid 24 hour flu thing. Ewwwww. That brings me to my thankful post of the day.... SOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSO thankful for healthy, solid, regular bowel movements.

Friday, November 20, 2009
Today, I am so thankful for my amazing job!!! It is so much fun! I love helping people, I love making cute things, putting together displays, coming up with ads..... I just love EVERYTHING about it. Its the best job EVER!

Sunday, November 22
Today I am SO thankful for my amazing friend Lindsay!!

Monday, November 23
Today I am TOTALLY thankful for Christmas music. I LOVE IT!!! I have not started playing it yet, however, I am working on my Christmas playlist for my iPod.

Tuesday, November 24
Today I am so thankful to be an Aunt to the best boys on the planet! Besides being a mom, it is the GREATEST job a woman can have!!!! Of course, it helps that I have the most awesome, smart, adorable and amazing nephews EVER!!!! 

Of course, I am so thankful for my family, my home, my friends, my pets, Brett's job, and many other things. This was such a great holiday and it couldn't have been more perfect. It was very laid back and casual, which is just what we like! I love Thanksgiving! I love the harvest, the comfort foods, the smells and most importanatly, the kick off to my FAVE time of year.... CHRISTMAS!!!! Yes, I already have my Christmas decor up! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

Here is a little teaser for something you will be seeing on my blog in the next couple of days.

the one about Easter

We had such a nice Easter weekend. It was very casual and not very exciting, but that is fine. We have had lots of stress and craziness lately, so a nice quiet weekend was PERFECT. On Saturday, we got up early and went to the Dinosaur Museum for an Easter egg hunt. This is probably our favorite egg hunt. The kids get to go through the museum and find eggs. When it is all finished, they turn in their eggs for prizes. Not a ton of candy, like most of the egg hunts and it is fun and different. Brayden went with us (Brennen was with is Grandma) but he was too old to hunt eggs at the museum, so he helped Quayd. Quayd doesn’t really need help anymore, but it was fun for them to go together. Quayd even let Brayden get one of his prizes. This is right before it started. They were at the first of the line!

After this, we went to the baseball park for another egg hunt. All of the eggs are real, and the kids don't just love that. They break it up in different age groups and in each group they have one plastic egg. If you get it, you turn it in for a big prize. Brayden found the winning egg in his group! Quayd met up with his friends Rylan and Jeff. They hunted eggs together and had a blast.
After this, we went to Grandma Lane's Church for their egg hunt. Grandma loves it when we can go to this and it is a lot of fun. They hunt for mostly real eggs, but a few candy ones too. After the egg hunt, they have lunch at the Church. We always have fun when we go to this. Grandma with all of the big egg hunters!
We got to see Brynn and her sweet boys. Beau'D loves Quayd and they had fun playing together.

Saturday afternoon consisted of a nice, long nap. Then I made a nice dinner and we just hung out for the evening.

Sunday morning, we were woken up to a phone call at 8:00 am. It was Brennen calling to see what Quayd got from the Easter bunny. Quayd was still asleep, and didn’t wake up until almost 9:00. And that was because we woke him up! Quayd was so excited to get up and see if the Easter bunny came by. Of course, he did!
Quayd got 2 Nintendo DS games, some clothes, some tech deck mini skateboards, a kite, a jump rope and a special note from the Easter Bunny. This is what it said:

Dear Quayd,
The rest of your gift will be well worth the wait,
You'll share it with two other boys who are great!

You will get it for sure when the week is complete,
but you must promise to be really sweet!

My basket was already full to the top,
but here's a hint... it'll make you go Hop! HOP! HOP!

Happy Eater!
Your friend,
The Easter Bunny

Brayden and Brennen got the same note! Since our trampoline was totally falling apart, and we had to throw it away, the boys are sure it is a new trampoline. I guess we will see what the rest of the week holds! ;) The Easter bunny also hid eggs for Quayd to find.
There were TONS of them and they were all over our living room! And, all filled with Quayd's favorite candy. Laffy Taffy, Jolly Ranchers and mini Snickers. (or as he calls them, "sneek-ers!) Brett and I had to laugh, because you could tell that Quayd was an only child by the way he hunted for eggs. He totally took his time and after he found one, he opened it up, looked at its contents and marveled at how the Easter Bunny knows just what he likes. Quayd was in NO HURRY through the entire egg hunt. It was so funny.

My Grandma had a special egg hunt for the boys this morning, and Quayd found the prize egg.... $10.00! They also got a few other eggs with money and candy. Brett, Quayd and I had lunch with my mom. She cooked a ham for croissant sandwiches and made deviled eggs, and I made potato salad. It was so nice with just the four of us and we had a great time. THANKS MOM!!!

We had a nice nap this afternoon, then went to Aunt Debbie's at 5:00 for dinner. It is our family tradition to play Bingo at all of our parties. This one was no different. Brett is always the Bingo caller, and there are prizes for both kids and adults. It is so much fun! They do cool prizes too, but there aren't very many, so you don't always win. We didn't win anything at Christmas, but we all did awesome for Easter! Brett won a $30.00 gift certificate to Canton City and a $30.00 gift certificate to Casa Rios. I won $30.00 in scratch and win tickets, but I only won $3.00. Bummer. And Quayd won a $20.00 bill! It was cool, we were all super excited!

It was such a nice Easter and I am so glad we had peaceful and fun weekend together. Now we need another day to recuperate! Quayd and I get one, but poor Brett has to go back to work. Somebody has to pay for all of our Easter fun!!!

the one about our camp trailer

We go camping quite a bit and I realized that some of you probably don't even know what our trailer looks like, some of you probably didn't even know we had a trailer, and most of you probably don't really care! But I am going to post about it anyway. It is a pretty big part of who we are so now you can love it just as much as we do! ;)

First, let me tell you how our trailer came into our lives... When we were first married, Aunt Rhonda had an old hand-me-down trailer that we used for a couple of years. It was tiny! It didn't have a bathroom or anything, but it worked for us. We really only used it for sleeping and storing stuff. We camped in it several times and it was just fine for us. Oh! And it was free! Anyway, once we had Quayd, we wanted something a little more comfortable and we wanted to have a bathtub so we could bathe him. Grandma and Grandpa Lane had an old trailer that was PERFECT for us! And free! It had been sitting in storage for awhile so we had to do some major clean up. Brett worked hard to get everything running, but he did it. It still had a few minor problems, but we didn't care. It worked for us, and again, the price was right. Once we fixed that one up, Grandpa decided to start using it again. He took it on a couple of elk hunting trips. We just sorta shared it. It was great. Anyway, when he was coming home one time, he wrecked it. Like, really bad. He somehow crashed it into a big rock mountain or something. It was totaled. And most of the stuff inside was lost in the accident. (Don't be alarmed. Grandpa was fine. In fact, the whole thing was really funny and we continue to tease him about it today! I think that when he crashed it, he didn't realize how bad it was so he just kept on driving. After awhile he noticed things were flying out. Anyway, we never really got the whole story. If you know Grandpa Lane, you just have to shake your head and laugh about the whole thing.) So after that happened, we were pretty sad that we didn't have a trailer anymore and since we had exhausted all of our free options, we knew it was time to buy a new one. Two springs ago, Brett, Quayd and I took a trip to the big city in search of our dream trailer. (We wanted to include Quayd in the decision since he loves camping more than Brett and I put together!) We didn't want anything too big, or too fancy. We are not showy that way. We also didn't want something super heavy and hard to pull. We kind of knew what we wanted so we started looking at the trailers on the lot. We spent hours looking! We would walk in one, and walk back out, not impressed. We were so sad, because we wanted one so bad. We were just getting ready to give up when we saw one lone small trailer on the other side of the lot with the huge ones. We decided we had nothing to lose so we went into it. No joke, the second we walked in, we all three knew it was the one! Isn't that silly? It is a camp trailer! But it was perfect for us. We just loved it. It was a great price and we just knew it was the one. Anyway, we got all of the paperwork taken care of and it was ours! No joke, every time we go camping, Brett and I look around and we are so proud of our purchase






At a family camp out awhile back, I made this to hang on the wall. It hangs by the door.
Our trailer is just so US! It's small, but comfortable. It has everything we need and it is truly our second home.

the one about Father's Day

Kind of a strange feeling around my house today. Don't get me wrong, Father's Day was fun and great and I think Brett had a good day. But we definitely noticed the absence of one very important and special father. Mike. It is strange to think that we are approaching the 1 year mark since his death last August. And even closer to the 1 year mark of when we last saw him alive.

Strange story... Mike had a million and two health problems. And weird problems too! We still joke that if it could happen, it would happen to Mike. Anyway, he was on several medications for several different things and was pretty much confined to a wheelchair. He was a veteran and he was able to go to a type of rehabilitation center in Florida to adjust medications and get him adjusted to life in a wheelchair. He flew out early on July 24th. So on the 23rd, Brett, Quayd and I, Talia, Mike and Gleneita (I think that was all that went) went to dinner and spent some quality time together. When we said good-bye to him that night, that was it. That was our good-bye. It is so weird, but that night when we drove away from their house, Brett said to me, "That is the last time we will see my dad alive. He's not coming home." I totally brushed it off and thought he was totally weird, but he knew. Also, looking back, Mike was so insistent that he see everyone and tell everyone good-bye. It was so important to him. Isn't that crazy? He knew, without really knowing, you know? I miss him.

It was our ward's Father/Son camp out on Friday night and Brett always took Mike and Quayd, so it was a little difficult for him this year. These are scrapbook pages from the camp out 3 years ago.

This picture is from the last time we went to Hidden Springs Lodge. Just thought I'd throw it in here. (Brett, Randy and Mike playing cards.)

My dad lives so far away and even though I hate it, we just aren't super close. Throughout my 30 years, he has lived far away longer than he hasn't. As sad as it seems, it is just the normal now. We talk occasionally, but he has his life and I have mine. It is kind of a tough thing for me to talk about, so I don't very often. I love my dad though and I miss him too!

With the shortage of Dads here, we also realize just how blessed we are to have the amazing Grandpas that we do! Last night we got to spend some time with Grandpa Lane to celebrate his Birthday and Father's Day. We had a pizza party at his house. I couldn't pass up this great photo opportunity.

This morning, we got to be with my Grandpa for breakfast on his patio. My mom and I cooked, and my Grandparents provided the space! Brandon, Danette and the boys were there too. It was fun.

It was such a hot beautiful day today, that we couldn't pass up the invitation from Brayden and Brennen to swim in their sweet pool! Talia also invited us to go swim at the lake, but we thought the pool sounded much nicer. So she came here instead. Then we made Gleneita get out of the house and come hang with us. She brought lunch too, which was great!
So speaking of swimming, My son is a fish. Just so you know. He has always loved to swim! He has taken swimming lessons, but has never really caught on to swimming without a life jacket. And he hasn't really cared! He got a new life jacket this summer and when we were at the lodge last week, it really rubbed him and made sores all over. It was pretty sad. So today when we were getting our swim suits on, he said, "I don't want to swim with my life jacket anymore. I think I will learn to swim today." And you know what??? HE DID!!!!! Once he had it in his mind that he could do it, he did it with no trouble at all. Can you believe that? He was jumping off the side and swimming to the other side and everything. I am just amazed.

Well, I hope Brett had as nice of a day as I did. It was very laid back and relaxing. Quayd and I got him a golf pass and I am sure he will put it to good use! I am so thankful for Brett and the great dad that he is. He is so cute with Quayd and I love seeing them together. Brett is teaching Quayd to be a good man, just like he is. When I am with the two of them, I feel so safe and loved. They respect and love me so much, and I feel the very same about them. I am so glad I was able to give Brett his beautiful son and give the Grandpas and Great-Grandpas thier Grandson. I am so thankful for the wonderful men in my life!!!!

Happy Father's Day!

the one about my fun afternoon/evening and getting the crap scared out of me

I had such a FUN day and evening! But it ended with a terrible scare and a near BM in my pants.

I have to tell you all about it. Besides, I feel like I need to break up the "birth story" thing. It is getting a little depressing! And obviously you know the outcome because here I am and I have a great kid to show for it! Anyway, onto my afternoon/evening...

So I came home from work and I just wanted to relax. I put on some ugly cut off sweats and left my lunch lady scrub top on. My hair, for some reason, had totally fallen flat today, so I was just uglier than a big wet dog. And I didn't really care! I called Janice to see how the big marathon went and I got a update from her. It was nice to visit with her for a second so she could tell me all about her Boston experience. They were flying home and they had a layover in Cincinnati so we only got to chat for a second. But still nice!

So I worked on my blog, worked on a digi-scrappin' project that Kandice needed some help with. (Looks great, btw, K). As I was finishing up with that, Jamie gave me such a pleasant surprise by stopping by to visit. She had some time to kill so we just sat on my couch and laughed about our crazy boss at work, Emily. We LOVE to tease her and it is so easy to get her. I have pulled two GOOD pranks on her in the last couple of days, and I am getting nervous thinking about the possible repercussions. Anyway, it was fun visiting with Jamie. (And even funner to watch her try to start her scooter in my driveway!)

Then Quayd and I ran over to visit with Grandma and Grandpa Lane. Brett met up with us there. They are doing some remodeling and we looked through books of doors to try to help Grandma choose one.

As we were driving home, we stopped at Quayd's friends house, Randon. He stayed there and played with Randon and their other buddy Peyton. As soon as I got home, Gibler called me and asked me to meet her at Maurice's to pick out some pants. She was worried that the girls that work there were just trying to make a sale and not being honest if her butt looked big. (Gag me!) So we stayed there awhile and tried on tons of clothes. We both left with a treasure! (wink, wink)

Then I came home and my sweet husband had made dinner. Kraft macaroni and cheese. I was off playing so he had to fend for himself. Sorry babe! Quayd came home and immediately went over to Brennen's. He is suddenly Mr. Social and doesn't think he needs to hang out with mom and dad.

Kimmie stopped by again and she asked me to go with her to run a few errands. And get a Diet Pepsi. (That was the most important errand!) We also had to go into the grocery store to get some Gatorade for Kayle. We were both a site, by the way. We were pretty embarrassed to even go into a store. Well our checker-boy was this high school looking kid. He was cute and just trying to be nice and do his job. So he says to us, "You just getting off work?" We just looked at him, then each other and giggled. Kim politely said, "Yep. Just gettin' off work." We got outside and cracked up. We were like, "What in the heck did that mean?" It was so weird. I know he was just trying to make conversation, but what a weird thing to say to two homely women in a grocery store buying Gatorade at 9:00 pm on a Tuesday. Yah. That is the only weird thing about that trip!

When I came home, Shae (my new BF) was here helping Brett do Ipod stuff. (These pictures were actually taken last night when she was here helping Brett with Ipod stuff. She is a genius, by the way! We had gone swimming with Shae and Amelia for Family Home Evening and Shae really wanted me to stress that. She didn't want anyone to judge her appearance from these pictures. I thought it was a good idea since I have so many teenage boys checking out my blog in search of a date! Goofy girl!) She was stumped with a silly questions so she called her big brother Garrison to come and help. In the mean time, Shae and I decided to run to the movie theater for popcorn. (This story is about to get really scary...... be prepared.......) I told Shae to tell Garrison that we would stop by and pick him up, but unbeknownst to me, he had already walked down. Shae and I are just chatting away and get in my car. Thanks to road construction, our driveway is a mess and very narrow, so I back in to my brother's driveway and turn around when I am leaving, then I can see where I am going better. First of all, as I flipped my car around, there stood Garrison, looking all creepy-like and I almost ran him over. Like, he wasn't scared for nearly losing his life by my careless driving, he wasn't waving, moving or even smiling. Just standing there. Well it freaked me out and I let out the most horrifying scream. It was so awful! Well we laughed and laughed about it, then Tara came down. we were telling her all about it and we decided to do a re-enactment so I could share it on my blog. Honestly, the pictures are pretty accurate!! Serious!

K, so wouldn't this scare you if you saw it in the dark after you nearly ran it over?

This was my reaction...

All of that, for this. Yummmmmmmyyyy. It was worth the scare!

Isn't that crazy? I was so scared. I don't know why. Garrison is harmless. But after we all had a big laugh, he ever-so-calmly said, "Maybe you should look behind you better when you are backing up." Oh. Yah. I guess I should. His dad is a Drivers Ed instructor, after all.

Crazy. Anyway, I had such a fun afternoon/evening. It was so nice to visit and hang with some of my awesome friends and family. Thanks to all of you for making my day so fun.

the one about Quayd's Christmas program

I'm so sorry to have to be the one to tell you this, but your kid(s) aren't the cutest in the world. Because mine is.

Oh my gosh. Quayd's program was AWESOME! He did such a great job. This was has part. "J is for Jesus, the Christ child so dear. We celebrate his birth on Christmas each year." He practiced and practiced so he knew it was perfect. And it was. He was precious. I am so proud of him. And get this... there were so many people there to support him. Brett and I, my mom, Brett's mom, Ga and Pop, Grandma and Grandpa Lane, Aunt Debbie and Ricci and Brynn and Beau'D. I loved it. How lucky is he to have all of that support. He is such a special boy.

After the program, most of us went out to lunch. We had Quayd's favorite, Chineese.

This is his whole class.

This is his best buddy, Raymond, and this is his "crush" Brinklee. They are both such cute kids. Raymond is a smart, handsome, funny great kid. I am so glad they found each other. Brinklee is GEORGEOUS! And she is a total sweetheart. I talked to her mom today and we are going to set up a play date over the Christmas holiday for these two. We need to have Raymond over again too. He is great. Quayd's other best friend is Tate. He wanted to give all three of these kids a Christmas present, so we got them a neat swirly lollypop from the cute little candy store in town. Anyway, it was a great day. I am so proud of my big boy. I love watching him grow and get so smart! I think his family likes him too. My Grandpa, Pop, and Grandpa Lane were both grinning from ear to ear during the whole thing. I can't tell you enough how great he was. He is so special. I am so glad to be his mom.