Turkey and Two Wheelers

We had a great day yesterday with our family at my mom and dad's house! I love Thanksgiving, all the traditional food, preparing and planning, then eating all the delicious creations! I always make the pies, this year I made one pumpkin and one buttermilk pie. My brother smoked a turkey (it was awesome!) and my dad fried a turkey (MY FAV), we had all the staples stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, three kinds of cranberries, and apple salad. We also had some killer sweet potato chips that we made in the fryer with the turkey.

The meal was delicious and it was wonderful to have my Grandma Eileen there, my brother and his whole familiy, and it was great to be able to spend the day with Solange and Joseph on their first Thanksgiving. We went around the table and said what we were thankful for, Emily was thankful for Rocky, Bryce was thankful for the food, My dad was happy for his 6 grandchildren (he only has 5 grandchildren) Cami and I were a bit nervous about this!! My mom was happy to have Joseph and Solange with us for Thanksgiving, I was thankful my dad only has 5 grandchildren, Gracie was thankful for EVERYTHING, Grandma Eileen was thankful for spending the day with her family, Ryan was thankful for his family, Cami was thankful for her wonderful family, we all thought Joseph was thankful for turkey legs (he ate two!) but he said he was thankful for everyone, Solange's big beautiful smile showed she was thankful for the day!!!


After dinner my dad and Joseph headed out front, Joseph wanted to try out the bike in the garage. Well this kid is extremely athletic and there is not much he can't do! He was off and riding the bike in no time at all!

We all headed out front to watch him, then we all took turns riding the old Two Bike. The two bike belonged to my grandma and grandpa Brown and all the grand kids spent lots and lots of time riding this around their Shalimar neighborhood in Tempe when we were growing up, now this next generation of grand kids get to take their turn riding it! Great memories, and a great day!

Hope your Thanksgiving was full of memories.

Thanks!!!

This month is all about being thankful and grateful for the things in our lives, Em and I have a lot to be thankful for. We have some great people in our lives!

So excited to be heading off to Houston see the best girls in the whole wide world this week! Can't wait for some silly girl fun, shopping, laughing, and being creative at the Pink Store!

A huge thanks to my mom and dad for making arrangements to have Em so I could go, even though they already had plans! I love you both! A big thanks to Jon for hooking me up with a buddy pass for my flight! A HUGE thanks to Timi for having us all! Can't wait to see you all, you girls ROCK!

So grateful to have my parents home from Colorado for the winter...I have already had my dad working on lots of jobs around my house :) broken shelves and kitchen drawers, exterior illumination, windshield wipers, he is the best at fixing things I didn't even know needed work! Love you dad!

One quick pic from our trip to the fair last week, we had a blast eating cotton candy, corn dogs, funnel cakes, riding the crazy rides and posing for fun picutres! View from the top of the big slide....














What are you thankful for this month?

Off to see the Wizard

Well our favorite day of the whole year is over for 2009....now we have a whole year to wait and plan for 2010!
We had an OZ / Wicked theme this year had almost all the characters accounted for...Galinda "The Good Witch" was the only one missing...travelling by bubble back from Virgina...not all of us can travel by bubble.







Emily made a great Dorothy and would so have loved to
throw a bucket of water on me! Luckily I managed to stay dry!







Emily did my make up and did a great job turning me in to Elphaba the Wicked Witch of the West, although I know there are a lot of people who think I don't need any help getting my inner witch to show.







Wicked Witch of the East....watch out for flying houses.

Our neighbors Suzanne and Darren came as the Tin Man and Cowardly Lion. Em did Darren's make up too....and a little tip from Suzanne (who learned the hard way) when you cover your tin man funnel hat with duct tape don't put the tape on the inside of the hat!
Even our best buddy Frank (who sadly lives too far away in NJ) and loves Halloween as much as we do, always makes an appearance at Halloween.
Frank the rock gets to go lots of places with us and last night he made a great Wizard!



We had a great night with our neighbors and Em's bff Grey who came to spend the night.

Em and Grey looking great in their pink and blue check! The did well trick or treating, and came back with lots of candy!


Lots of food, candy and Pina Ghouladas...mmmm!




















Guess it's time to put the pumpkins and skeletons away and get out the turkeys.
Hope you all had a great night.

Pizza and Pumpkins

Every year on the night before Halloween we order pizza and carve our pumpkins. This year we were lucky to have my brother Ryan and his family join us...minus my SIL Cami who has been feeling under the weather :( we missed you.

Emily drew a text message smiley for her face!

Gracie's pumpkin all cleaned out!

Six pumpkins make a lot of guts! Ryan took the seeds home to roast...yum

Joseph carved his whole pumpkin by himself!

Solange drew a great face on her pumpkin and I helped her carve it.

Solange took over as the photographger after she was done carving and took some great pictures!

The teenagers were too busy listening to music looking at picutres and talking so they didn't finish as fast as the little kiddos. But here are the some of the Jacks lit up! Spooky!!!

The kiddos all had a blast and the Jack o' Lanterns came out great!

Happy Trick or Treating!

I think....

if Dorothy landed in OZ in 2009 she'd be wearing these while she followed the yellow brick road.

I'll have Halloween pictures posted later this week....we'll have a witch, a wizard, a Toto, and an adorable Dorothy here!

Fall break in Chi-Town

We had so much fun on our Fall Break visit to Chicago...."yes come in October, it will be beautiful then!"....well that turned out to be a bit of a stretch...they were having unusually cold weather for this time of year, but we didn't suffer any permanent frost damage and got to wear some cute hats, scarves and jackets.
We spent a couple days in the city with my FAB cousin Stacy and her awesome husband Drew. Drew grew up in Chicago and was a great guide to the city. We had Chicago style dogs at Portillo's and visited Millennium Park , walked up Michigan Ave, ate Garrett Popcorn , and watched the sun set over Lake Michigan from the 96th floor of the Hancock Building, before heading home to have some authentic Chicago Deep Dish from Lou Malnati’s. On Sunday we got to watch the runners in the Chicago Marathon as they ran through Stacy and Drew's Little Italy hood. Then we visited Lincoln Park, the zoo and had some more great Chicago Food.

The Bean in Millennium Park



Millenium Park

















Werid Silver Statue Guy outside the Wrigley building....Em was scared of him!







We all loved this great American Gothic Statue!




















I think the sunset from the Signature Lounge in the Hancock building was my favorite part of the whole week!












Chillin' at Drew and Stacy's after the deep dish.










Emily and Stacy running the Chicago Marathon!




















Neat Columbus statue in Little Italy by Drew and Stacy's house. Thank you Columbus for finding American so we can have fall break and come to Chicago to visit our cousins!




















Lincoln Park Zoo with the Hancock Building in the background.












MMMMM ice cream sundaes for dinner at Margies!!!!!
















On Sunday evening Stacy and Drew drove us out to Hinsdale where we would spend the rest of our trip with my BFF and her fam. Kim's family moved to Chicago almost two years ago and are loving it there. It was so great to see them! On Monday Kim, her 8 year old Abby, Em and I had reservations to visit the Flagship American Girl store on Michigan Ave! These two girls LOVE AG!!!! We took the train into Chicago and headed for AG. We started out with a beautiful Brunch in the cafe, followed by the dolls getting their hair done and then some serious shopping! After several hours at AG we did some more exploring on Michigan Ave and went back up to the Signature Lounge in the Hancock for some day time views. Then had more Chi-dogs at Portillo's before heading back to Union Station for our train ride back to Hinsdale. It was a fantastic day.














































We miss these boys so much!!!!!!!!
Blakey


Eric

















Tuesday was a bit crazy day, Kim's husband Chris ended up in the hospital after being up all night Monday with chest pains and crazy high blood pressure. Kim got Chris checked in to the hospital then came home to take us on a quick trip to Graue Mill a beautiful nature preserve and working water wheel gristmill. It was a gorgeous spot and we took some awesome pictures of the kids! Then Kim headed back to the Hospital to be with Chris and Em and I got to spend the day with Blake, Eric and Abby! We miss these kids so much, it was great to hang out with them and catch up! They showed us around Hinsdale and took us to some of their fav spots, like Cosi for a great lunch, then we narrowly escaped an international incident and possibly being sold as indentured servants at the town candy store over some spilled skittles...phew, great candy store but not sure it was worth dealing with the Candy Nazi!









MMMMMM Murphy!!!





















Chris spent one night in the hospital and after lots of poking and proding they think he was dealing wiht a hypertensive attack that they will keep and eye on and mange with high blood pressure meds. On Wednesday Kim showed us around her favorite places in Hinsdale and we had lunch together before picking her kiddos up from school and heading for the airport to fly home.


Hangin with some of the Hisdale locals!

It was a great trip and we look forward to going back soon maybe in the summer ;) Emily LOVED the big city!!!! But we were both happy to get back to the beautiful Arizona fall and our gorgeous mountains!


I know what you're thinking.....man this looks like a great trip...i wish I could see more picutres...well you are in luck I have uploaded way too many here...

http://picasaweb.google.com/christa.flook/FallBreakInChicago#

Happy Fall everyone!

Even more...

Can we really have more Halloween...YES!

I have been working on some fun Halloween charms for a a swap with some of my Creative Escape friends, thanks to Candi for hosting this swap, I can't wait to see what everyone has made!













I also added some fun Halloween recipes to the cute little cookbook we made there.















Tonight for dinner....Bat Wings and Swamp Dip

Bat Wings
20 Bat Wings (chicken wings will work if your store doesn't carry bat wings)
1/2 C Soy Sauce
1/2 tsp. Ground Ginger
1/4 tsp. Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
1 tsp. 5 Spice Powder
2 Cloves Garlic minced

Combine marinade ingredients in a plastic bag or shallow dish, add wings and toss to coat, chill for several hours.
Bake on a foil lined sheet at 450* for 10 minutes.
Brush with remaining marinade and bake another 15-20 minutes until crispy.

Serve with Swamp Dip and veggies

Swamp Dip
8 ounces Sour Cream
3 Tbs. Coarse Ground Mustard
Combine and garnish with chives.








OK honestly found this recipe online and thought it was great for this cute cookbook....but they were actually really yummy and easy!!!




I have also finished several more of my CE projects
7 Gypsies super fun interactive photo display board.














Marah Johnson's Book Box..no pics yet but the box and books are done.













Heidi's FaB photo display album














Lynette Carols Unforgettable wall hanging with pics of my BFF's fam...sent it off to her for her b-day. Can't wait to see you next week!!!!!!!!!!!








OK if you are still here I'll let you in on the scariest thing at our house ....and it has nothing to do with Halloween!!!!!!
Enter at your own risk!!!!!!













This is actually a pretty good day in here......
Happy week everyone!