lots of fun

We had a really nice Thanksgiving this year with Tyler's family. Tyler's brother just got married back in September and they were able to come to Thanksgiving with us too. His aunt and uncle always host Thanksgiving dinner at their home. It was really nice to see everyone and visit and pig out on lots of yummy food. I was even able to make my favorite pie to take, banana cream pie! I made one to take and one to eat at home and they were pretty tasty. I will have to post the recipe on Make Your Tastebuds Dance soon. I feel so grateful for so many things in my life right now such as: the good health of myself and loved ones, our wonderful families, my hardworking husband, Tyler being accepted to medical school, sisters and a mom who are my best friends, missionaries all over the world and especially Elder Long down in Brazil, wonderful friends who are always there, our wonderful ward, the gospel, finishing school, staying at home with Jacoby, being a wife and mother, and living close to family. I love my life and I realize that I need to try to focus on all of the things that I do have and how blessed I am.


Last night we all went over to my grandma Long's to help her decorate her Christmas tree. As I'm sure you have noticed, we love decorating trees! We each made something to go on the tree using lime green and red and it turned out really nice. My grandma is such a sweet lady and I love her so much.

I went shopping with Steph on Black Friday and we got a ton of stuff. I'm kind of embarrassed to say that we were at the mall at 4:45 a.m. along with many other crazies. I wanted to get most of my shopping done, but I would say that I'm only about half done. With all the birthdays in December it makes it pretty tough too. Tyler's brother and his wife waited in line at Target ALL NIGHT Thursday, so I gave him a list of toys to get Jacoby. All done with that little guy now thanks to Trav and Betsey. It was really fun to go with Steph, but we missed Becca and Tom this year. What am I going to do next year when I have to go by myself?

Visions of Sugarplums

One of my favorite new traditions that my family has done the last three or four years is decorating trees for the Festival of Trees! I love to decorate and wish that I had more money to be able to buy or make things for my home. This is a great way for me to get to do that a little bit. It's so fun to go shopping and buy all the things you would like to use for a dream tree of your own and put it all together. I realized that this could be my last year because we'll be moving away, and I will miss it so much next year when I hear about my mom and sisters doing their trees. I was able to do a full sized tree and a smaller alpine tree. The Festival of Trees opens today and goes through Friday from 10:00 a.m.-10:00 p.m. all week long. Try to stop by and check out all the beautiful of trees and help support the Development Workshop. Steph and I are also selling our crocheted earrings that you can find here at the Festival of Trees Boutique. This is the smaller tree that I did at about midnight-2:00 a.m. I'm so glad that Jess, Steph, and Katie were able to help me get it done! I love this color combo; I would probably do a tree like this if I could spend a bunch of money on mine.

"Visions of Sugarplums"

When we went to Taipan Trading to get our stuff for our tree Olivia told me that she really wanted to do lime green and plum for the tree and I was a little reluctant because I had other ideas in mind, but I ended up loving the colors. Of course Livi was really proud of the fact that it was her idea and likes to rub it in my face. Oh well. My good friend, Jessica, was able to come help us decorate and it was so fun to talk and hang out with her.

My uncle Dave and aunt Janell with their tree. I think that Dave is trying to look as manly as possible because he had just helped Janell with her tree, but I think it's cool that he was willing to help her. It looked beautiful, Dave! :)

"Merry and Bright"

Becca and Steph's tree was so beautiful. I loved the color combo and the bird cage with the little nest and birds inside. They always do a great job.

a fun Halloween weekend

I always love when Halloween falls on a weekend. We had a party with my family on Thursday evening and on Halloween we went trick-or-treating to my grandparent's and Tyler's aunt's. I always remember wanting to go over to see my grandparents on Halloween and show off my costume. I know it always meant a lot to them to have us come over then and I know it still does. This year was a little more fun than last year because Jacoby could actually hold a sack and carry it to the door. I remember last year all we did was dress him up as a monkey and stay home. :) He looked really cute as a lion I thought. My brother, Thomas, was a lion once when he was little and my mom always said it was adorable so she helped me make the mane. I want to try to find that picture of Tom and send it to him with a picture of Jacoby. I hope that everyone had a nice Halloween weekend!
My friends used to call me Mufasa in high school because of the big hair, so this is for you guys:

Mufasa and Simba :) At our Halloween party we played carnival games. For Steph's prizes she had these sticker mustaches...I know, we are dorks. We always do this smile too; it's an inside joke that I'm not telling you guys about. :)
For my carnival game we did a donut eating contest. I hate to brag, but I'm GOOD at eating contests because I love to eat. Well I was doing pretty good, but you see that donut above my head that Devan is eating? It fell in my hair! Well that's my excuse for letting Lonnie beat me. Ha ha.

When we were at my parent's I looked over and saw that Jacoby had a sucker in his mouth. I asked everyone if they had given it to them and they said no, so I went over by the candy bowl and there was the wrapper on the ground. That little thief! Well he loved it so who cares.

This is Jacoby's new toy! He was always playing with our broom and I didn't really like that, so his Grandma Roe picked him up this broom. He doesn't really like toys very much, but he loves just regular things that we use all the time. Funny kid!