'Tis the season

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We had an awesome Thanksgiving in Idaho Falls. Spent lots of time with both Sean and I's families and indulged on tons of yummy food. Our actual Thanksgiving dinner was at Sean's sister Erin's house and everything was delicious. We had quite the spread--turkey, ham, two kinds of stuffing, yams AND sweet potatoes, homemade rolls, green bean casserole, orange rolls, mashed potatoes, etc. Sean and I were talking about how we're lucky that both of our families have great cooks so we have an awesome Thanksgiving meal every year. We're also lucky to be from the same place-- we get to see both of our families for every holiday. Anyway, we have a lot to be grateful for.

Now that Thanksgiving is over, it is on to:

We put up our Christmas decorations tonight! Sean turned on the Christmas music and it really put us in the spirit of things. Here are some pics of the tree and decorations:

Sean's aunt made us these awesome Christmas pillows that I look forward to getting out every year.

We obviously are missing a stocking for me and our soon to be son, which is why my goal is to make some. We'll see if it actually happens!

This year will be our first Christmas together where we aren't spending it with our families in Idaho Falls. I will be almost 37 weeks pregnant and my doctor said no traveling after 36 weeks. I must admit, I am not too keen to the idea of delivering a baby in Malad or getting stuck in a snowstorm and delivering in our car-- especially since I'm pretty sure Sean would pass out and I would be left to fend for myself! At first I was sort of bummed but now that I've had time to think about it I'm actually really excited. We'll have all sorts of time to do fun stuff together and come up with some of our own traditions.

I came home from work last week and found this surprise on our kitchen table:

The note said, "I can't wait to spend Christmas with you. Love, Sean" For those of you wondering what this is, it is an Aebleskiver pan. Basically you use it to make miniature pancakes that you can fill with yummy stuff like applesauce. I loved them growing up and always thought of them as a sort of special treat. I've been talking about wanting one of these pans for a really long time and Sean thought it would be fun to have them Christmas morning. I can honestly say it was one of the most thoughtful gifts I've ever received!

Twilight

So we had a Twilight girls night out this past week. My friend Lauren organized the whole thing and scored us movie tickets for opening night! No, I didn't dress up as a vampire, and no I didn't wear fake teeth. Roll your eyes if you will, but we had a great time!

I discovered the Twilight series two summers ago while living in Virginia. Basically me and all of the other office wives read them and loved them. We had many a Twilight conversation by the pool! Our poor husbands thought we all went nuts.

Anyway, we started the party with dinner at Olive Garden. We went to the midnight showing and I have to be honest, I wasn't sure I could stay awake that late! I am like an old lady who needs to be in bed by 11pm and I couldn't even use caffeine to give me a buzz.

I didn't expect a lot from the movie, and when I originally saw the cast I had some serious doubts. Luckily I really enjoyed the movie and left very entertained. Edward was WAY better than I thought he would be. I was pretty dang tired driving home, but I made it through. This last picture is in the theatre and you can definitely tell by my eyes that we were approaching the wee hours of the morning!

7months and 2 showers

In case you're not sick of these pictures yet, here is my 7 month picture:

I've been a slacker on the whole rubbing the cocoa butter on your stomach to prevent stretch marks ordeal, but as you can see, I should really start taking it seriously!

Lucky me got to have two baby showers! The first was in Idaho Falls a couple of weeks ago and was given by my good friend Andrea with help from her mom Bev (my second mother growing up), my sis-in-law Erin and my mom. It was a brunch shower and it was awesome! Andrea and her mom made three different kinds of quiche that were all delicious. My mom brought cinnamon rolls (of course they were homemade), and Erin brought a really yummy fruit platter. Almost everyone I invited was able to come and it was so nice to see everyone there. We played a really funny memory game-- compliments of Erin. Everyone gave us such nice gifts—lots of cute outfits, stuff for the nursery, blankets, toys, etc! Seriously though, everyone went above and beyond with the gift giving.

My second shower was last Saturday and given by my good friend Heidi and my sister Emily. This was more of a "friend" shower, and it was equally awesome. I got to see a lot of friends I hadn't seen in awhile, which was great. The food was also delicious—raspberry pound cake, these amazing caramel bar things my sister makes, yummy pasta salad, fruit etc. Heidi also put out a few of my faves including Oreos and Dove chocolates—she knows my weaknesses so well! We played a funny game where you melt different kinds of candy bars in diapers and then have to guess which candy bar it is. I thought I would dominate this game because I do love my candy bars, but I only guessed 2 of 7 correctly!

I was again amazed by everyone's generosity and thoughtful gifts. I have great family and friends! Muchas gracias to everyone. You all rock! Here's a picture of all of the loot :)

These are already hanging on the wall in the nursery so they get their own shot. They were a gift from my mother-in-law and sister-in-law Erin:

I have been lusting after these ever since I saw them at Mini Bazaar a few months ago!

I am also very excited about the gift from my parents:

Finally, I had to take a close up of these for Sean:

Anyone who knows Sean well knows he LOVES Michael Jordan and anything with the jump-man symbol. I have seen Sean taking them out of the box and stare at them lovingly multiple times. Thank you Kinley and Cory!

And special thanks to Andrea, Bev, Erin, mom, Heidi and Emily for being so cool and actually throwing the showers. Having thrown a few myself, I know it isn't the easiest undertaking and I really appreciate it!

Happy Birthday Sean!

Sean turns 27 today! For some reason, the date is wrong on this post-- should say Nov. 19th. We're not really celebrating until this weekend since Sean is busy today with school, church meetings and a basketball game, but happy birthday regardless! I did tell him I will make him whatever dinner he wants, so we'll see what he comes up with. I'm crossing my fingers that his b-day presents arrive today. This weekend we'll head out to dinner to celebrate and probably catch the new James Bond.

We've also got a BBQ and birthday cake planned with the family while watching the BYU vs. Utah game on Saturday. Should be fun since we have both die-hard BYU and U fans who will be in attendance. I asked Sean what kind of cake he wants and he chose German Chocolate. Sounds good to me-- easy to make and no decoration necessary!

Anyway, happy birthday Sean! Now for the mush: You truly are my best friend and I hope you're day is awesome. You are honestly the best person I know and I am lucky to be growing old with you ;) XoxOx (big kiss, little hug, little kiss, big hug, little kiss)

A happy weekend

Had a great weekend in Idaho Falls complete with an awesome baby shower for me (a post dedicated to this is coming) and the opportunity to see my little brother Thomas and his wife Megan sealed in the Rexburg temple.

Megan took out her endowments Friday night and I was fortunate enough to be there. I realized I hadn't been to the temple since before Sean and I left to Philadelphia, so I was definitely past due. Philadelphia doesn't have a temple yet-- although they announced in Conference plans to build one! I realized it had been awhile when I could BARELY button up my temple dress. Any sudden movements and it could have been ugly! Anyway, the Rexburg temple is beautiful and I am grateful I got to go.

Thomas and Megan were sealed Saturday afternoon. We are so happy for them and can't believe it has already been a year since Megan was baptized. Congratulations both of you!

The only downer of the weekend was that my family celebrated Saturday night by going out to dinner (restaurant will remain unnamed) where I think I might have gotten a case of food poisoning. I'm still not sure if it was food poisoning or the stomach flu. Regardless, I woke up Saturday night (well, technically Sunday morning) at 3 am and was sicker than a dog. I'll spare the details, but luckily I am feeling much better and can eat again!

Sand dune action

Last weekend Sean and I met up with the Casale clan at the Little Sahara sand dunes. Usually Sean just takes off with the boys so I was excited I was invited to tag along! I think Sean was pretty excited to be able to haul his own bike-- he bought a carrier thing that fits into the hitch of our new 4Runner (we recently ditched the Accord because it was on its very last legs). I obviously didn't ride, but I still had a swell time hanging out. I was trying to recooperate from Halloween so I was more than happy to just hang in Rob and Heidi's sweet Toy Hauler and snack the afternoon away.

Ready to ride-- I love how macho he looks in all of his gear!

While the boys were off riding we climbed to the top of one of the dunes. The view was really cool and I'm just happy I made it to the top without collapsing!

Here's a little video of Sean playing around a few minutes before we loaded up and headed home:

Halloween '08

A redneck and a cowgirl (with child) were the costumes of choice this year. Sean's ensemble consisted of torn jeans, a NASCAR shirt, fishing vest and mullet wig (which he found more joy in wearing than I think is probably normal). I had to dress western for work so I wore cowboy boots, a brown skirt, Sean's XL flannel shirt (basically since I didn't have a shirt that would work that still fits), a leather fringed vest, bandana and hat (hanging on my back).

So Omniture pretty much goes crazy for Halloween. I had been warned by all of my co-workers, but I still didn't know what to expect. Here's how it works-- each department comes up with a theme and is given a budget to decorate their area around that theme. We're talking over-the-top decorating-- WAY over. Departments compete against one another for prizes and in the afternoon, friends and family of employees come trick-or-treating.

The marketing department came up with "Wild West" and I volunteered to be the Phyllis (or Angela) from pr-- as in I was a member of the party-planning committee. I am still amazed at the transformation of our area. One conference room was turned into a saloon-- complete with a player piano and a bar serving homemade rootbeer. We also had a campfire scene, a gold mine, a jail and gallows and a shooting range (which was really flat screen t.v.'s, Wii's and a shooting game). PR was in charge of the jail and gallows, and I have to say I think we did a pretty fine job. We even covered the entire department floor in straw! We made Channel 2 news at noon-- click here to see the video (the video is on the right and is called Halloween Bash 2). You can see me at the end of the clip when we all yell "yee-haw"-- I'm sitting on the straw bale on the right.

Other departments did an awesome job also. There was a Candyland, Wizard of Oz, cnchanted forrest, mini golf course (that Sean and I both think was better than any mini golf course in Utah we've been to), Gotham City, BYU vs Utah (where they actually built a football field out of real sod) and a bunch of others. It was so fun dressing up and really getting into the spirit of things.

Towards the end of the party I thought I might die of exhaustion. There were literally a thousand or more kids and parents who came trick-or-treating. I borrowed some cowboy boots from my sister-in-law for my costume, and while they were awesome, I thought my feet might need to be amputated at the end of the day. I came home from work and collapsed in our recliner and would have been more than ok with putting on my pajamas and going to bed at 5:30 pm. Don't worry, I wasn't that big of a loser. Sean had to help the young men at our ward's trunk-or-treat so I put on my slippers and hobbled over to join the party. Truth be told, I have never loved the trunk-or-treat idea, but I was sort of grateful for it this year. I don't think I could have walked to my door over and over again to pass out candy!

Hope everyone else had a happy Halloween. Now it's on to turkey day!