Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving. We went up to Washington to spend Thanksgiving with Brad's family since half of his siblings have now moved there. We had a lot of fun. We had family pictures, Evelyn's baby blessing, grandkids pictures, Family Home Evening, went shopping, went to a hockey game, had good food and great company. It's amazing how much fun you can pack into a week! Some of my favorite lines from our trip:

• Bo (3 years old) after racing Uncle Brad across the basement. "Oh, I need bigger feet."
• Bo after playing soccer with Uncle Brad. "I can't kick the ball, I need bigger feet."
• Kaylee (almost 5 years old) on discovering the doorstops in her house. "Mom look these things are just growing all over our house. It's kinda making me mad."
• Ashlyn (almost 3 years old) pointing to Camille's pink bug blanket. "I LUB dis blanket!"

Something that Brad will never forget is coming out of the Hockey Arena to see me feeding Camille in the Beer Garden. Hey, the place had tables and chairs and a TV to watch the game. Besides Camille likes her "drink"!

One big (mostly) happy family

Camille & Evelyn

Cousins always a shoulder to lean on

Camille & Kaylee

I was tagged!

I was tagged which means I'm suppose to post six things not commonly known about me.

Six things not commonly know about me...Mmmm my life is pretty much an open book...

1. I LOVE to sing,but not in public! (I'm not saying that I can sing but I LOVE to sing) You know in the movies when they are watching people through the windows sing and dance in their kitchens with their brooms. Let's just say that happens at my house more often then I'd like to admit! I think I was a pop star in a former life.

2. As a lot of you may know I won a poetry contest in high school and have had two of my poems published. However, it's been a long time since I've written anything new. The other day I found a folder of my poems and was reminded of the parable where the servant buries his talent, so I've put all of my poems in a book (portfolio of sorts) and decided I'm going to take a little time each week to work on poetry.

3. I've never really liked the name Camille. Ironic, now that I have a daughter named Camille. I just never had it on the "list" of names I wanted to use. The only way I agreed with Brad to use it was if we didn't let people call her Cami. Now, I love the name Camille. I think it's beautiful and we've come up with a list of nicknames that are way better then Cami: Millie, Mil, Camel (Kacie's Fav), Chamomile, Mckillie, Sweet Potato (well we are Idahoan), Vanillie, etc.

4. I wish I wasn't afraid of E.T. but I am. I don't like to watch the movie, I don't like to see pictures, I don't like to think about him. (Everyone is thinking "DUH Karen we know this") I don't think anyone could have convinced me to ride an E.T. ride. However, I went on the E.T. ride at Universal Studios in Florida with Brad and I had my eyes opened most of the time. I think that shows just how brave I can be!

5. I love to put my feet on people, especially when I sleep. My sister, Vicky, use to hate it and would tell me I was disgusting but I'd do it to her anyway. (Hey, what are sisters for?)

6. I like living in Idaho. In fact, I'd be happy to live here until I die. Okay, so I confess sometimes I dream about moving. Lately, I've been thinking about moving to Virginia. We spent some time there last summer because of Brad's job and I really took a liking to it. I seriously would consider moving there. It's a great place and close to a lot of historical sites. The only downside is there are too many people. (Okay, I was having trouble coming up with six things but this is true even though it's more of a daydream.)

(Washington D.C. Temple)

It took me a couple days but I did it. Six things, this was challenging. I was up part of last night because I couldn't think of the last one. Okay, Kacie, Karlie, Erin, and Barb it's your turn!!

I'm no Martha Stewart!

I have a bad habit! (Surprise, surprise) It's not biting my nails (although I've been very good about that the last 11 months, it was my new year resolution!)

I LOVE to start projects. I get these grand ideas and just can't wait to get started then somewhere along the way I get bored, or forget about it, or it's harder then I envisioned, or I think of an even better project. Needless to say, I've have SEVERAL half finished projects lying around the house. We'd only been married two years when I got some of our wedding photos made up. I did finally finish a scrapbook of our trip to Europe in 2005. The Noah's Ark cross stitch that I started for the nursery BEFORE I was even pregnant still only has about 6 stitches in it.

The good news is I finished the baby quilt I've been working on for months and Camille isn't even 3 months old yet (okay, not until this Sunday). The quilt is far from prefect but I'm very proud of it. As my friend, Erin said the imperfections just give it character. (Oh, this quilt has a whole lot of character!) Here are some photos of the process!

Just getting started....

Making progress...

Almost there....

AND DONE!!!!

Boys will be boys

There are great big trees to the South side of our house (one reason we picked this lot). The top part of the trees are dead and need to be topped. Our hope is that they will sprout out the top next spring and look better than they do and that they won't break and fall on our house during a wind storm possibly killing us while we sleep. Brad rented a genie lift, borrowed his dad's chainsaw and with the help of Ron and Steve had fun playing lumberjack for the day. Of course, you can't rent a forty foot lift without having a little fun! So I got a ride and little Kurtis went up with Brad and his Dad. He said it was so cool. He liked being higher then Howard (our truck).

"Whoa, it's a long way down!" (Actually, they are spitting lougies!)

Kurtis will show you how to run it!