Housework and Thanksgiving

In the middle of November we started a project on our house.  We decided to tear out the carpet and put in tile  We also decided to paint.

 For several days we had our table out on the back patio.  The oven was unplugged so we were cooking on a camp stove.  The kids thought it was awesome.  Jared especially loved to help with the cooking.

Now probably just before Thanksgiving was not the best time to start this project, but life goes on.  Ben's brother Jake and his family came up for Thanksgiving dinner

This is what our family room looked like on Thanksgiving morning.  It did not look like this by the time company came.

As you can see by the awesome knee pads and the stylin' outfit we were still working on the house Thanksgiving morning.

The turkey ended up taking a couple of hours longer than originally planned, but it was really good and our guests were very patient.

Some of the adults in the kitchen

The kids table

My sister-in-law Tiff and I

When the house is completely finished, it just needs a few finishing touches, we will post before and after pictures, but I love it so far!

Halloween with Friends

Ben and I, Tamina and Dastan from The Prince of Persia

Every year our friends, Brian and Cadi, host a Halloween party for couples.  There is a contest for the best couples' Halloween costume.  We had so many good costumes this year and we had so much fun.  I am so glad that we have so many good friends here in Arizona.

Our hosts, Brian and Cadi Davis

I was very proud of this awesome Halloween cake that I made

A bunch of us girls together.  Unfortunately I forgot to pull out the camera until some of the couples had left so we didn't get everyone in the picture.

 For our contest, in third place were Zac and Becky.  I forgot to get a picture of them, but they dressed up as a pinata and a little boy at a birthday party.  It was such a cool idea.  Becky is in the back of the group picture.

In second place were our geriatric couples, The Ashtons and the Pages.  The were so funny and egged each other on all night.  They  kept all of us laughing.

And in first place were the Piepers, Taylor Swift and Kanye West. 

Playing Catch Up

As you may have noticed, I have been a slacker and have not posted anything new for a while.  Over the next week I hope to get caught up to where we are and what we are doing right now.  I will try to post one to two posts a day until we are completely caught up.  If you want to read them all that is wonderful!  If you don't, well I completely understand.

For starters we are going to go back to a family trip to Lake Pleasant over Columbus Day weekend.   On the Saturday before Columbus Day we went with our friends, The Ashtons, our to Lake Pleasant.  We have lived in Arizona for 5 years and have never been out there with our family. 

We roasted hot dogs over a fire and talked and laughed.

Bella, Cindy, and Mom

Mark, Cindy, Bella, Dad, and Gwen

We fished in the lake.  Surprisingly we didn't catch anything, of course due to the kids wandering around in the water at the time others were fishing I guess its not too surprising.

Dad protecting his ears while Gwen casts her fishing pole

Dad and Mark fishing

The kids collected lots of shells.

Clearly I was not thinking quite correctly when I forgot to bring towels and swim suits to an activity at the lake, but that didn't seem to stop the kids .  I thought the water looked pretty gross, but that didn't seem to bother them at all.

We will have to take more trips to the lake.  It's about the only natural water we get to see in our little part of the world except for monsoon rain.