A Touch Of Tyrell

This year was the first time it would be the 5 of us... and just the 5 of us. We put some thought into what we'd want to eat and decided on the traditional Thanksgiving feast... with a few twists.  We wanted ham, but when we thought of mashed potatoes and gravy we couldn't bear the thought of eating it without turkey (but we'd never eat through a turkey just the 5 of us) so we decided to get a rotisserie chicken the night before.  #winning.  Breckie made the pumpkin pie on Wednesday. Since so much of our stuff is still packed (I must have put the rolling pin in a box I didn't think we'd need until the house was done) we used a water bottle to roll out the pie crust.  We spent Thanksgiving day playing board games, nintendo, iPad games, watching movies, and playing. Before I knew it I was halfway done cooking our Thanksgiving meal and I hadn't had any help so I was determined to do ALL of it solo.  Jake took care of the kids... wh...

We had 6 guests for Thanksgiving this year that made it extra special. Somehow we were lucky enough to be given 3 really nice beds a few weeks before everyone showed up and we had (pretty much) a room for everyone to stay in.  My sister Tayne flew in from Portland late Sunday night. I sent Jake to go pick her up since my pregnant body likes to go to bed at 8 pm… but I was too excited to see her and couldn't sleep. I finally went to bed at 3 am. Super great way to start off a week of visitors! My mom, Tim, Grandma, and younger siblings Bridget and Braxton drove from Colorado and got here Monday evening around 5. My Dad and Kelly drove down from Glendale to see Tayne Monday evening as well, so we ended up just being one big happy family and eating burgers, fries, chips and salsa Monday night… which was truly delightful.  On Tuesday, while Everett was at school, we went for a hike. Breckie and Grandma stayed home and watched Big Hero 6 :) It's funny because just t...

I always have SO much to be thankful for. SOOO much! So I guess this year I am grateful that Thanksgiving wasn't any worse than it was.  It took us a solid 3 weeks to decide if we were going to drive to CO or stay in AZ. Finally we decided to drive to CO. Breckie (and I) are not very good road-trippers but Jake and Everett are the bomb.  So we set off Wednesday morning at 10:15. We purposely didn't leave any earlier because we didn't want to start out the trip sleep deprived.  The 7 hour drive took us 9 hours and Breckie puked 6 times… well, she had 6 puking episodes which means she really puked 12-15 times. At least we brought wipes this time :) (and honestly, she hasn't puked since September 3rd… I've been keeping track!) The next 4 days went as follows: no sleep, eat, Breckie puke, no sleep, eat, Breckie puke, sleep exhaustion, wanting to die, Breckie puke, Breckie puke, Breckie puke x's 100, drive home, Breckie puke 3 more times, Breckie f...

I finally decided that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  My favorite sister and Lucy came so it was doubly awesome.  Montana and Lucy got here on Wednesday and Kelly and my Dad were visiting for the evening so we all hung out...  ...played in the backyard... ...and then went to an all-you-can-eat Asian buffet. Classic. And very classy :) Thanksgiving morning Jake and Montana ran the Turkey Trot 10K in Mesa. They didn't run together but finished a minute apart from each other. While they were gone Lucy prepped everything for turkey dinner and Everett and I made pies.  Then we 'played' some games while Breckie napped and Lucy studied for her finals next week. I had one of those moments of pure gratitude. Everything was right. And the sun was shining through the windows! After the race and while the turkey was cooking we all went on a walk to the park. It was a nice, warm day. I love AZ....