Thanksgiving at home

Over the years I've had quite a few experienced chefs in my kitchen during the Thanksgiving holiday but none of them hold a candle to Jaden. She stayed up with Kyle and I until 11:30 preparing the turkey (that cooks through the night). Raising this one is already starting to pay off.

Jaden helped to clean out the gizzards,

(I love this candid pic we caught)

inject the herbs and flavoring,

and of course, in the end, take all the credit for a

beautiful turkey that was even more delicious!

Not to be outdone by her performance the night before,

Jaden decorated a beautiful Thanksgiving table.

Ty did as he only knows best - he got ready for some football. Really, he went up to his room alone and came back down fully dressed in this. Reese was also in the kitchen as my nearly naked, not so helpful shadow.

Our long awaited guests Nick, Katy and Sutton arrived

from San Antonio and we did feast. Followed by some serious playing of the wii.

Did I mention serious? Click on the pic to see their faces. Yes,

baby Sutton, this is what you have to look forward to.

Reese dons the "Great Gobbler" crown that was not rightfully hers. Jaden won this years "Great Gobbler" questionnaire of Thanksgiving trivia challenging Uncle Nick to 3 sudden deaths. Never got Jaden to pose for a picture however.

A quick post of Halloween, so that I can post Thanksgiving, cause Christmas is 5 days away!

I hang my head in shame because I didn't take any good pics of the kids in their costumes. Guess that's what happens when you put on the Elementary School Fall Carnival the same day. These will have to do.

Finally, it's all about me!

The surprise of a lifetime! Four sisters, 1 sister in-law and two nieces flew to Texas and showed up on my doorstep on my 30th birthday. When opening my front door to see all of them for the first time I believe I said, " Oh my gosh!" repeated seven times very slowly. I was completely shocked. I had no idea. Jaden and Kyle kept a good secret.

Yes I cried. And I challenge any of you to keep from crying under the same circumstances.

From left: Sarah, Lexee, Deborah, Kiffen, Hailey, Deon and Miriam

We took a trip to Kemah Boardwalk

We all rode the train.

A few less rode the phantom. Jaden being one of them.

Even fewer rode the 100ft drop.

And this one held babies so she wouldn't have to ride anything. Let's just say the car ride to Kemah was plenty exciting for Deborah and her nausea.

Deborah, while writing this I had yet another good chuckle reliving our ride (don't remember the name of the ride, do remember your eyes rolling to the back of your head) together at the Lynden Fair when we were kids.

Some took turns trying to be the favorite Aunt. Better luck next time Deon or rather grandma!

We ate out at Fish City Grill.

We played a few rousing games of zingo.

Still at Fish City Grill

And others of us studied calculus.

What we don't have any pictures of is the poor lady we turned in and who was then arrested outside my local grocery store. That was exciting. Doing our civic duty (or rather being a typical Davis -looking for some drama) we made the world a better place by seeing to it there be one less intoxicated individual driving the streets.

Also not pictured and for very good reason: what we looked like after staying up every night until 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. Lots of laughing, movies, walking down memory lane, making new memories, eating, drinking and being merry!

I had a blast! Still shocked that you all came. Thank you for making me feel so very special. It was my best birthday yet.

And, Lexee, I still haven't erased your beautiful picture you left me on my wall. :) I love it.

Ahh . . .

After four years serving as Primary President, I was released today. Bitter, saweeet! I absolutely loved being in Primary, especially while my own children were there. Shown here with not one but two dozen roses and covered in hearts with special thoughts from the children. Um, pretty sure this is the first time I've ever received two dozen roses. Thank you!

Not sure what to do with myself. Better not jinks it. You know as soon as you say things like that something bigger than before finds its way to you. Please let it just be reading , finishing Reese's stocking, or learning to play the piano.

Learned so much, feel so blessed to have served with such great counselors, secretary and teachers. Grateful to my Father in Heaven for allowing me the opportunity to be a part of these children's lives and to learn and grow along with them. Without a doubt my favorite calling.

Marriage is hard

"You're either workin' hard or hardly workin'!" Kyle and I decided to celebrate our first ten years of marriage doing both! (Stole that quote from Shrek. Quoted way to often at our house.)

This year July 29 we hit our ten year mark. However, we didn't really celebrate until a couple of weeks ago, October. After considering a vacation to the tropic island where we honeymooned. We, instead, decided to seek out the place or rather the season, fall, that we so desperately miss while living in our own tropic, Houston.

We did that by spending 5 days on the East coast. We spent the first night back in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania where Jaden was born and where Kyle played two years of football while finishing undergrad at Bucknell University. We timed our trip around homecoming weekend. Speaking of timing, we could not have timed it any better when it came to the leaves changing color. It was everything we hoped we'd get to see.

The rest of our time was spent in DC and on the last day Monticello, Virginia. We have toured and even been tour guides (to family) numerous times while living in the East years ago. So this trip we dug a lot deeper and packed it in. Hence the "workin' hard and hardly workin'!" Now, while we were workin' hard, seeing as much as we could, it absolutely felt like we were hardly workin' because we were childless! Not enough can be said about how enjoyable that was. Here's my GINORMOUS THANK YOU to Brenya, Nicole and Sabrina!

Here's a little (or large) glimpse of our trip.

Backside of George Washington's home.

Supreme Court, a favorite of Kyle's. Interestingly, Kyle has a case pending in the Supreme Court. Making this tour all the more exciting.

Me by my lonesome outside the white house just after my tour ended. Kyle had a ticket to go too. However, he ended up sitting at a cafe across the street because his wife made him re-park the car causing him to miss the appointment by minutes. After all he ended up in the exact same parking spot that I thought was too far from the white house. I felt horrible. It ruined the tour for me. But maybe it wouldn't have been my highlight anyway. It wasn't that thrilling for me. Although, the presidential dog did pass directly behind me while heading out for a potty break on the front lawn.

Supreme Court justice, John Marshall, who played a major role in how the judicial system works today. On this day Kyle was his right hand man.

Capitol behind us.

Evangelical Hospital where Jaden was born.

Century Village: Jaden's first home. Thrity one bucks a month got us the nicest apartment we'd ever lived in. Yep, that's including utilities! Crazy.

Bucknell vs. Lehigh 2009

Kyle's first time purchasing a ticket to a Bucknell game. My 25th.

Gorgeous fall!

My favorite part of the whole trip: this is the stairwell inside the Capitol where everyone important, past and present, has walked on their way to Inaugurations (and other things as well but that's the extent of my knowledge). It leads directly out to the platform in front of the Capitol where many an important speech were given. I was so excited to be there. Click on the picture. I look like a kid on Christmas morning! Plus we weren't supposed to be taking pictures. They asked us to delete this one. As far as they know I deleted it.

Can't believe this RED!

This tree looks like it's on fire. Stunning.

Our Texas representative Pete Olson's office and desk. Apparently, he wasn't using it.

The front of Thomas Jefferson's mansion in Monticello, Virginia. Also a highlight.

This picture speaks for itself. We were, apparently, not in a hurry to get anywhere about this time. I believe this is in front of the National Archives building.

Fine dining in Georgetown! I'll take the snout.

Ford's theatre where President Lincoln was shot (behind Kyle in the balcony seats where the draped flags are).

The Mayflower hotel. A far cry from the LaQuinta (read below)!

We were so busy we couldn't even take the time to catch our flight home to our children. We missed it! Can you believe that? Last flight of the night too. How lame. How irresponsible. How ridiculous that to cap off our trip I cried while we sat in a parking lot of traffic. Even more ridiculous, after living it up staying at nice hotels and dining right we ended up staying at a LaQuinta eating at Denny's our last night in DC. Well, we can laugh about it now. Although, still a little embarrassed to write about it. So irresponsible!

Such an awesome, stimulating and refreshing get-away. So great to start and end a conversation with my spouse. So much pleasure taken by not eating even one PB&J, 5 days consecutively! Invigorating to play dress-up each morning and to wear impractical boots! Unbelievable, how much each of us has changed since living in Lewisburg together 7 years ago, not to mention the size of our family. Interesting, how quickly we both wanted to get out of Lewisburg, PA after we saw all we wanted to see. Breathtaking to experience fall again! And not surprising, that after 5 (some would argue 6) days in-each-others-grill we remembered how much we really like being together! Here's to another great ten!