2012 Thanksgiving

We had an awesome and very fun Thanksgiving week. Actually the Sunday prior, my brother and Meggan came up to our house to spend the night. Meggan had to leave on Monday to get to work, but Justin stayed until Tuesday and then we drove down to the the valley together. I love spending time with my brother and am always bummed that it's so limited, but that doesn't mean we don't have a total blast. Tuesday night we stayed at my mom's condo and the next morning the kids, my mom and I had a fun little walk/drive through my mom's good ol Senior community. Bradock and Raylee just love riding in the little kids golf cart.

Thanksgiving morning Rachel, my brother, my mom and I ran in the Mesa Mi Amigos 10K Turkey Trot. Rachel and I took turns pushing Rachel's little girl, Kyndal, in the jogging stroller. It was so fun to run with Rachel again...it has been forever and I swear time flies by when you are just chatting away. That afternoon, after getting cleaned up and food prepared (I brought "clean" sweet potato casserole and roasted veggies) we headed over to my Aunt Tammi's condo's club house for the Thanksgiving feast. It was so fun to see all my Aunts, Uncles and cousins. It was a great time and afterwards we headed over to Brett's Uncle Jack's and Aunt Jen's house to say hi to the Flaherty gang. Of course the kids had a blast with all the horses and puppies. It really was a great Thanksgiving and after doing this 30 days of Thankfulness I have sure realized how truly blessed I am. I have so much in my life that I too often take for granted, but I truly feel very, very thankful!

Nothing like a little horseback ride on Thanksgiving.

The kids have added a new item to their Christmas list. Seriously though Uncle Jack's lab puppies are pretty darn cute. Now that we actually have land for animals I am kind of up for expanding our little funny farm. As long as the animals aren't in my house and I don't have to clean up animal crap I am totally cool with them:)

I absolutely love Black Friday...well more like black Thursday now. The craziness, adrenaline, shopping madness and deals galore just get me so giddy. Mindi, Kiley, Matt, Brett and I hit up Walmart to score some awesome deals on TVs and a few other needed...ummm wanted items. After scoring those deals I left the group to head to Target. Who goes Black Friday shopping for slippers?! This cold weather chica...even convinced the sister-in-laws that they needed a pair in every color. 15 pairs total!!! These are by far my favorite slippers and since I wear slippers everyday I can never have enough pairs. 

Junky die hards ready to get some great deals! After hitting up Walmart and Target Thursday night I was up bright and early Friday morning...5am to be exact...to hit up the deals at Junkie Trunk. Of course I wouldn't have done it without my bestie and fellow Junky Lover, Rachel. They didn't open until 9am, but because of our early bird eagerness we scored a fun gift bag priced at $100! 

Friday evening we headed home, so we could get a bunch of chores done on Saturday and be ready for Sunday. After getting our Christmas tree and and decorations all set up we busted out our box of Christmas books. The kids are even more excited for nighttime story time now. I absolutely love Christmas...mainly because I love giving gifts. I get so excited to find a really fun or special gift for someone and to see their reaction when they open it up. We have a crazy December coming up, but I just love this fun holiday season.