I'm thankful for...(the nontraditional version)

I know, I know... everyone is going to be blogging about all the things they are grateful for. blah, blah, blah... FAMILY... blah, blah, blah... FRIENDS...blah, blah blah CHURCH. And yes, sure I am indeed grateful for those things as well. But this post is dedicated to those non traditional thankfuls that can sometimes be overlooked. Here's to you Mr. Passed Right Up during the "I'm grateful" ceremonies at the Thanksgiving table.

1. SKYPE Web Cam Service. Don't be dirty and think bad things now. We love chatting it up with our long distance fam. Hey. My brother Matt even showed me the inside of his nose last Sunday and Glen showed me his mullet. Emma points to the computer screen and touches it to say her greetings. It's FREE and webcams are dirt cheap these days. Try it out if you have fam far far away on Judea's plain.
2. Teething tablets. Emma's GIGANTIC tooth has turned into TWO HUMONGOUS teeth and she has not been the happiest of campers. Heck, if I had teeth the size of my nose coming out of my teeny tiny gums, I'd be miserable too. Anyway, yay for teething tablets and Infant Tylenol.

3. Nap time. Glorious nap time. Now that little Missy is moving and shakin' all over the house, I appreciate this time even more. Nobody to keep out of the books, trash, cords, sharp objects or dirt.

4. I woke up with a horrible sore throat 2 days ago. If I could sponsor this medicine, I totally would... FOR FREE. This stuff is the BEST and completely alleviates the sore throat. You should check it out, next time you are under the weather.

5. Thai Food. OK, for my peeps in Arizona. You have GOT to check out Ben Jarong (http://www.benjarongthai.com/). Really amazing Thai food for reasonable prices. We enjoyed Thai food last night and OHHHHH man was it good! Forget the Turkey tomorrow, hand me a big roasting pan full of pad thai!!

The pilgrims have landed...

...a few feet away from Plymouth Rock... on my kitchen table. Found these bad boys at "Big Lots" for $6 each. Not to bad for wooden pilgrim replicas missing their mouths!?! Greg insists that pilgrims without mouths are essentially the antithesis of pilgrims. After all, says Greg, we really only associate the pilgrims with one thing - EATING. Would they have marked their place in history if they indeed existed without mouths? hmmm... ??

In more seasonally related fun... we had some friends over for a FALL FEAST on Saturday evening and had a great time. We had so much fun, that this was the ONLY picture I took all night. Thanks to the beautiful Arizona weather, we ate our bread bowls and soup outside. In the thankful spirit of things, may I just say how thankful we are for wonderfully entertaining friends? Thanks pals, for keeping us sane and laughing!
Also thankful for FREE STUFF!! IKEA celebrated their 4th anniversary in Phoenix, by offering FREE gifts to the first 100 shoppers in line. My girlfriend and I got there at 8:30 this morning and at 10:00am each received a $25 gift card to IKEA and Free Breakfast. Go Team Go!

Emma was so exhausted from all the "FREE STUFF FUN"... that she fell asleep in her high chair finishing up her lunch. I happened to have the camera nearby and miraculously caught this HILARITY on video. The first few seconds are a little slow, but it gets pretty funny toward the end. We just LOVE our little angel.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

My favorite little flower in our garden has sprouted her FIRST TOOTH. She is a little behind schedule and is actually developing her top teeth first, which is backwards from most kids. But she is getting them nonetheless. If you look REALLY closely in this picture, you can see that bad boy peeking through her smile. We are a little concerned because this "said tooth" is the size of an adult tooth (or small country) and I think our little angel is going to sport an awkward "chicklet" smile for awhile. I guess she has to have some flaw to make her humble. :)

Here we are celebrating Linda's (undisclosed) birthday. We had the family over for dinner, as her actual birthday falls on Halloween and we were all out hoarding candy. Happy Birthday to a wonderful mother-in-law! She is so good to Greg, Emma and I and we feel blessed to live close.

We finally redid the landscaping in our backyard and laid down mulch instead of the previously hideous dirt/dead grass combo. Low maintenance is the name of our game!!

I got brave/crazy this Fall and decided to attempt a vegetable garden. My "green thumb" is so BROWN that it has killed cactus before. I know, I know...impossible, right? Not for Tam Bam! Luckily, this time around, I had some church friends who gave me step by step instructions that are supposedly fool proof. I am certainly a fool when it comes to this stuff, so I appreciated the guidance. Greg and I built the box and bought the "special" soil mixture. We are trying Square Foot Gardening because of our minimal space. It seems to be growing well now, but I'm not sure if it will last through the winter, as I realized too late that our patio does not get any direct sun light. Worse case scenario, I'll try again in the Spring and Summer when we do get direct sun light. Here's for hoping!!

Red Lobster

We had a wonderful Halloween week with our darling red lobster. She actually really enjoyed her costume because it gave her plenty of extra appendages to chew and suck on.

The day before Halloween we celebrated by exercising with my "stroller strides" class. You can see Emma in her costume in the bottom right of the picture.
Here we are carving pumpkins at JJ's house. Greg did a beautiful job of carving and Emma and I supported him by eating Halloween candy.

Halloween night we stopped by Greg's parents to show off the lobster and wish his mom a Happy Birthday! We wandered over to the neighborhood party with cousins Taytum and Kasyn. Here is Emma with Taytum in Grammie's wagon. Why is it that kids look so much bigger when they can sit up in a wagon?

She could not get enough "mirror time" with this costume on. Anytime she caught a glance of herself in the mirror or window, she would crack up laughing.

Greg and I purchased $5 lobster hats online and wore them on Halloween to become a red lobster family. Cheap and easy, just the way I like it.

As a side note, our little angel is growing and developing like CRAZY this week. This week alone, she learned to crawl, wave, clap and dance to music. Here is a little video of her MAD dancing skills. ENJOY!!