Happy Turkey Day

We had a great "first" this Thanksgiving, after 13 years of always having to be at work bright and early Friday morning, Stephen has the whole week-end off. I guess if you work for a college, no students = no work. His new job is so cool.

We took our time getting ready for the Feast. We decided that to get the best flavor out of our food we needed a clean oven. At 10 in the morning we started this particular process. We choose the 2 hour cleaning cycle thinking that our Sweetheart turkey only took a couple of hours to cook. The thing about directions is that they only work if you read them. Stephen had the read part of the instructions if we were dealing with a turkey that had already been thawed. Our turkey was frozen though(oops). We had to add 2.5 hours to our total cooking time. This gave us a very relaxed, and enjoyable day. We were able to get all the food ready when we wanted, Sarah set a beautiful table, I was able to take a bath and read a book, the boys played inside, outside and the wii. Not forgetting the football that was watched. We got to do it all. Even thought we ate later that usual, the food was delicious and plentiful, there was plenty of gravy due to Tyler Florence and his recipe, and we even had pumpkin pie.

Isaac decided that he needed to know the definition of words, so throughout the meal, we had the dictionary out finding out meaning to every day thanksgiving-type words (i.e. Thanksgiving, pilgrim, Indian, etc.) which then lead to other-type words, (toad, frog, hypocrite...). Who says you can't have meaningful table conversation?

Later we went to see Stephen's folks and family members who were there (half the boys and half the girls) and stayed there until *gasp* after 10 o'clock at night! (Now for you night owls out there, this is a humongous deal for us. Being in bed by 9 is not unheard of at our house - we're totally boring, I know), but without the early work schedule we thought we mix it up a bit. Way to go us!!!

Sage decided that he wanted to see what all the fuss was about with early-bird, and door-buster sales, so thankfully, his Grandpa loves those things and Sage slept over so he could get up at 3:30 and be a JCPenney's at 4, Toys R Us at 5, and Radio Shack at 6. Crazy if you ask me, but hey - whatever floats your boat.

This is a short video of the things my family is thankful for - I love these guys!

Girl's Night Out

So who's the best mom in the whole, wide world?
Well today Erika and I split it for first place. Today, really, really early today, think midnight, Erika and I took our Twilight crazy girls to the midnight show opening day. We stayed up to watch if Edward could possibly live up to our expectations. By the end of the movie, we felt he did.

Sarah earned these coveted tickets by babysitting our cute friend Annie's 3 kids. Needless to say Sarah was happy to do it. After inviting her mother to share in her bounty (who else could she get to drive her at midnight?), she also invited her best friend and cousin Hannah and Erika. We had popcorn and water and a great time. We laughed, lost the car, and giggled all the way home (yes, giggling took place at 2:30 in the morning in a car full of females - go figure!) I hope all of my memories of these two girls will always be as sweet as this one.

The BEST Day of the Year!

I love my birthday! Anyone who has the misfortune to be around me during Fall will attest to that fact. This year was no exception. Starting with having the Primary kids really belt out "Your month is such a special one, it's birthday time for you!" on the Sunday prior, my week was spectacular.

I would love to thank all of those special and wonderful people who love me enough to remember me on my special day. Dad & Mom (from France), Dax, Stacy, Ellie, Rhett, Konrad, Rachel, Anya, Amy, Linc, Rae & Max, Erika, Alan, Hannah, Josh, Noah, Lukie, Kate, Luke & Lisa (even from their vacation!) Marcus & Audrey, Heather & Chadley, Ryan & Annie, Franny, Dave, Kristen & Ruthie, Jenny (note the lovely flower and balloon combo she brought me - awesome!) Niss (who took time from work), Brother Zabriskie Sr. the Jr. Zabriskies, Jen (via Anna and a lovely candle) , Kaye, Laura, Briana & Schyler, the RS Presidency, Jim and Myrna, Jill, Karen (brought me cute little cakes), my wonderful Husband (who took the day off), my delightful offspring (who wished they could have taken the day off) and everyone who sent happy wishes on my Facebook page. It was GREAT!!! Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!!! Everyone made the day beyond special.

Lukas Takes a Tumble

Ahhh the first snowfall of the year, so beautiful, so pristine, so lovely..... so frozen. Along with the cold, wet snow comes the ice, the black ice. Poor Lukas went to school today, all happy that it was short day, he had boots, gloves, a coat and hat to play in the snow, but alas this was not to be.

On the way into school after the first bell, Lukas slipped and fell. He split open the skin right about his left eyebrow. I got a call from the school's secretary saying that Lukas had fallen on the ice and had a cut, but the school's nurse was there, but I needed to come and see him. Usually this wouldn't have been such a big deal, but today I had Audrey and Ada with me. I had gotten dressed, but not the girls. So we put on coats and grabbed blankets and off to school we went. When I arrived Lukas had paper towel on his head soaking up the blood. I looked and the cut and realized that it was pretty, darn wide and would probably need stitches. So now we were off to the Urgent Care.

Ada and Audrey were real troopers, and everyone loved the fish, suckers and songs, but after two hours of waiting (and a certain girl missing her nap), we all kinda wanted to leave. Lukas was the bravest of all, he didn't move when they gave him two shots to numb his head. He didn't make a peep when they irrigated his wound. He could have been asleep when they "tugged" in his skin when they were sewing him up.

Now Lukas is the proud owner of 6 stitches (or sutures, if we want to be technical) 1 on the inside and 5 on the outside, and a lovely scar (according to his Dad, "Chicks dig scars") and hopefully we can put an end to this trauma. A big THANK YOU to Dr. Jeremy Coleman and nurse Monica, for great treatment and all the hard work on our behalf.

Let's Just Add Insult to Injury

The day just wasn't bad enough for Lukas apparently. Later the same afternoon, while having a drink of juice, Lukas' glass was ripped from his hands, and it hit his front tooth and chipped part of it off.

So off to Dr. V's we went.

The bad news was it was his permanent tooth, good news it wasn't too much and was easily fixed, no shots needed for this one. We all came to the conclusion, that when he fell on the ice earlier in the day, he probably cracked his tooth, so when the glass hit that front tooth just so....

adios front of tooth.