My Turkey Dinner

Yesterday at 5pm I hosted an early Thanksgiving dinner for my dad and my inlaws to join us in. I always do one of our own, and then we travel to my mom's for her dinner with the rest of my family.

I cooked the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes/gravy, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, cheesy cornbread, deviled eggs, and a pumpkin cheesecake. My MIL brought rolls and a cherry cheesecake, my dad brought Italian mac and cheese, and his girlfriend Virginia brought cherry pie! It was a feast and we were all stuffed afterward!

Here is little B eating an extra hard boiled egg...

It was finally cold yesterday so we decided to build our first fire of the season for everyone to enjoy!! It was lovely to sit by.

^My MIL Penny, SIL Sarah and niece Zoe

^My dad holding hands with his new girlfriend, Virginia (I hooked them up ;)

^Nick's best friend Terry also joined us in the festivities!

We all had a great time and after everyone left I hurriedly got the kitchen cleaned so that I could relax and digest!! My mom's dinner is Thursday at noon, then that evening we are driving down to see the inlaws and have dinner with them.

I have been working on some crafts lately that I will be posting about soon. I finished the advent calendar! It turned out marvelous and as soon as I get the rest of the Christmas decorations on the wall I will take a pic.

Friends and Crafts

I didn't personally take any pictures of my friend's birthday party, but here is one that they took of us trying to get the kiddoes up on the gladiator game. Me and Brad are on the right!

Here is one of Brad in his room...he was being quiet in his room so I went to check on him and he had snagged one of Nick's extra keyboards and was playing with it.

I don't know if had mentioned the project I was working on, but it is a handmade Christmas advent calendar! It is all out of felt. I took features I liked from ideas on the internet and put them all together in my own design.

In the picture of the tree, it is not sewn down yet but I have since sewn it all together on the background. It was very labor intensive and took all of my patience, but it was worth it knowing that this will be hanging on our walls for many years to come!

The squares are going to be pockets and I'm going to make a plush felt Santa to move along in each pocket as we count down the days to Christmas. I'm sure I will end up putting chocolates or something in each pocket to eat as we count! If the boys can keep their hands off, that is.

Where Were You on 11-11-11?

I worked an early shift yesterday so that I could make it to a friend's birthday party in Shawnee. He is also a veteran so it was a double celebration! Brad went with me, but Nick couldn't make it because he was at a wedding rehearsal that he is Best Man in.

My MIL and SIL watched Brad until I could get home from work. They got him a BK happy meal and this is him enjoying his toy before we left for Shawnee...

My friends had rented a paintless-paintball setup and an inflatable gladiator game so the adults had a blast with those! The paintball was crazy--we all came out with more than a few wounds but it was worth it! They also had a bunch of good food, and I stayed late afterwards to help them clean up and get the babies ready for bed. As you can see, Brad passed out on our way home!

Nick left early this morning to do prewedding pictures and we joined him at the church at 11am for the ceremony. Here is Brad being good before we had to leave the auditorium when he started fussing....

We rejoined them for the reception and enjoyed some food and chat at a table with mutual friends. I don't get to see my hubby all fixed up very often!

Here is the bride and groom:

...and here is Nick and his longtime friend Brian. They have the same birthday (one year apart) and have been close friends for over 15 years. When Nick and I started dating we spent a lot of time all hanging out so even I have known him for almost 10 years!

Brian is also an avid guitar player so of course the groom's cake had a picture of one on it!

After the wedding I went to my mom's where both of my brothers were and Brad had fun playing his cousins for a bit. I plan to relax and enjoy the rest of my weekend!

My Week Late Halloween Post

I was really busy right after Halloween and didn't get around to posting, then we got a virus on our computer and I LOST my pictures! Thankfully I had uploaded these few to Facebook so they were saved.

Up until the last minute our plans were up in the air! We wanted to meet with friends and trick-or-treat together but I had to work late and one of them had a class. But we both got away early and all met at my house just in time for after dark fun!

We all got in our costumes and started hitting up the neighbors all around us. There weren't as many participating as I remember from last year, but we did get a late start and they may have already closed up.

This pic is my favorite of the night: Nick in his ape costume holding Brad's hand ♥

After a few houses, Brad got pretty good about keeping his hat on and carrying his bucket (until it got too heavy).

Here we are at the house getting ready to head out: Me and Brad, Rachel and Jet, Zoe and Sarah

These are the kiddos waiting at a door for candy!

This is my sister-in-law Sarah and her little girl Zoe.

The Winn family

We all had a great time and the weather was just perfect. I threw a couple pizzas in the oven when we got home and we stayed up late watching a scary movie and snacking together!

So I'm sure most people have heard but we had a pretty big earthquake here in OK Saturday evening. It was actually the biggest in the state history--a 5.6! There was a 4.7 real early Saturday morning but I was asleep and did not feel that one. For the big one I was crocheting on the couch while Nick was at the gym and first I heard the cabinets rattling. Then when I started to feel the shaking I knew it was an earthquake. It lasted for at least a minute and got the chandeliers swinging back and forth. Nick missed the whole thing b/c he was on the treadmill :)

We had another one tonight and this time Nick and I were together in the kitchen. It wasn't near as strong--no swinging lights. The cabinets rattled for a bit and we could feel a little shaking. It was a 4.7 aftershock. Such craziness! I looked up the strengths of the last couple months' worth of earthquakes in CA and they are all 2s and 3s on the scale. So ours are way stronger than theirs! I did see on the news that several people in OKC had severe damage to their houses unfortunately.

In other news, I have been busy recently with several custom crochet orders! It is that time of the season that I love! Yesterday I actually made something for myself--a crocheted cowl scarf. I really wanted to make a grey one but didn't have enough yarn so I made it brown with an accent of green. I will take a pic of it soon for you! Next I want to make my little boy one!

A Halloween Inspired Gathering

Yesterday we hosted a little get-together of our friends over some creative snacks, spooky music, and a nasty looking drink only for the brave! Almost everyone wore their costume and we had a good time laughing and talking.

While I was in the kitchen, Nick carved a beautiful jack-o-lantern for the porch!

I found most of my snack ideas on the internet (or more specifically--Pinterest). Here are "eyeball carrots"

"Witch's Hat cookies"

"Mummy wraps"

I made an ice hand for the punch, but a finger broke off putting it in :(

And the drink of the evening was called "Brain Hemorrhage". Disgusting to look at and a little chunky to drink, it was not for the light-hearted!


Nick's costume was an ape...

My {homemade} costume was Jane of the jungle....


...and Brad was a zookeeper!


This is Chris who came as "chicken cord on blue"

Brad's cousin Zoe was there too

We had a good night with our friends, and hopefully they had a good time with us! We love the holiday season!

The New Addition

The Bentley that we bought a little while ago is all done and has been on eBay for a few days. The auction ends tomorrow so we have been keeping our eye out for the next project to flip! We have looked at a few cars but they were all duds. Until this one!

It is a 1968 Mustang GT in great condition! We got a really good deal on it and were able to drive it home. Our plan is to buy a Super Snake kit to put on the body then get it painted gun-metal grey with black stripes. Here is a pic of the *hopeful* end product:

We actually used to have a '68 Mustang in the past and Nick put a similar kit on it. He is completely able to do it all himself. We will have a shop paint it, but he can do the stripes. But we won't be doing anything until the Bentley sells! That was my only stipulation. So for now, both of our cars are out of the garage and in the driveway...

Here is a pic of my boys playing in bed one morning...

And here is another plain shirt of Brad's that I thought up some embroidery for...

That's about it for now! Say a prayer that the Bentley sells tomorrow! We are having a fun little Halloween party tomorrow evening so I will be busy cooking all day while the boys carve a jack-o-lantern!