Why I'm Tired, a pictorial essay

Wednesday

Made 3 batches of homemade rolls and preped the turkey. I got the idea to brine my turkey from a blog I occassionally read. To sum up: cooler, ice, salty, sweet, spiced up water, overnight. Let's not forget the regular SAHM duties like making sure moments like this are caught for Nash's future wife to use as encouragement to get him to fix things.

Thursday
Kids were hanging from the rafters. Ok, so it was just my crazy brother, James (who drove in from Vegas unexpectedly) that would let his adrenaline junkie 18 month old do that. BUT we had plenty of kids who were so busy playing that they almost forgot to eat dinner...

...except Jackie. She wanted to go home. There was "nothing" for her to do at our house. The only thing she would eat was one of my homemade rolls. They are quite good.

We had lots of family and friends. Here's my adorable cousin, Shandra and boyfriend, Justin. She was my very first cousin...holds that special place in her heart.

Her brother, Phillip, and girlfriend, Jen are having a baby next summer! Congratulations!!!

Which will make these two GRANDPARENTS! Woohooo! And my mom will finally be a Great Aunt. She's still got a way to go to catch up with me. We've got 3 great nieces on Har's side....just saying.

My Great Aunt Joan protects her namesake, Emma Joan, with her karate moves because...

Uncle James is trying to give Emma her birthday spankings...a week late.

Papa fell asleep in a chair in all the chaos. Must've been from the morning of vaccuum dog hairs off of everything before company came.

Or it could've been from this good stuff. We had 2 turkeys totalling 40 pounds and this is all that was left. Enough for a couple of sandwiches this weekend!

Friday
This morning Emma and I were out the door around 5 a.m. for some Black Friday shopping - later than past years. We came home a couple of times in between locations, but when we came home for the night found Grandma had been working hard to get ready for the next holiday.

I'm sure when we go downstairs in the morning the Christmas tree will be up and we'll hear Christmas music playing on the CD player.

THE BIG NEWS

It's not that these lovely Beehives welcomed Emma by "heart attacking" our house the night before her birthday, or that she was so delighted (that was a given);

It's not that Emma got to be with her very best friend, Caitlyn, exactly where she wanted to be at her actual birth time on her actual birthday: Pirates of the Carribbean;

It's not that there are reindeer at Disneyland (who knew?!);

It's not that Nash is already shaving (I love bathtub pictures);

It's not that we let Emma have 3 friends stay over Friday, so we could go to the earliest Saturday showing of New Moon OR that Dedan likes to act like a vampire OR that we loved the movie and all agreed it was better than Twilight;

It was something we discovered at the theater though: There is a movie coming out (The Lightening Thief) and one of the main characters has my name! Well, it is a great name.

Why is this so hard for me?

Emma, my baby girl, turns 12 on Thursday. The Primary sang a birthday song to her yesterday in church. I started crying. I felt like an idiot for crying but I couldn't stop...until Dedan came over to me crying. Poor kid got my crybaby gene.

"I never cried for my sister's birthday before, Mom. I'm just so sad that she's leaving."

"She still lives with us, babe. She's just going to Young Women instead of Primary."

"I know! But I'm so sad. I will miss her in this class."

Me, too, baby. Me, too.

Tween Scouts

This year I have the good fortune of being a co-leader for Emma's Girl Scout troop. Comparing them to their former selves of just a few months ago I can sense a something has happened recently. They've grown up. All of a sudden they're not the little girls they used to be. They're smarter, more thoughtful, and funnier (more funny?). Junior high has morphed them into....young ladies

Our meeting this month was putting together a package for a unit of soldiers serving in Iraq. They all brought excellent goodies to contribute to the package. The cards they made were creative and sincere. What a blessing for Emma to have such good friends!Chloe, Amber, Olivia, Emma, Lacey - Kaylie wasn't here :(

Pirates & Pooh & Buzz...oh my

Halloween was fantastic. How could it not be when we were hanging with our Vista peeps?! Har and I were pirates.......but compared to Knowltons we looked like cartoon pirates. Don't you love Har's unibrow?! And JP's pirate pimp hat! Dedan loved playing the blood thirsty vampire and he looked extra spooky on the dark street when he would glide by, cape flowing behind him thanks to his Heelies. Amy (a non-dresser upper) said he reminded her of Voldemort in the Harry Potter movie where he was sucking the blood from unicorns.
BFFs, Caitlyn and Emma were adorable. Caits as Abby from NCIS (genius, right?!) and Ems as witch...the good kind that smiles, says "please" & "thank you" and wears bright orange.
SIDE NOTE: SEE HER CUTE TRICK OR TREAT BAG? MY KIDS EACH HAD ONE THAT I TRICKED MY MOM INTO SEWING FOR THEM.
I love this shot of the pirates escorting Buzz (Nash) and Pooh (Calleya).

My favorite costume of the night wins bonus points because of his accessories. Nascar drivers can trick or treat super fast when they bring their race cars. Go Colby!