November…

Went to Gibliano Brother’s dueling piano bar for my friend Cara’s birthday…it was so fun! If you never have been to a dueling piano bar, it's a bar with two pianos on a small stage.  You pretty much sit and listen to music all night long!  You can put in requests and tip the piano player and they can play pretty much anything and they sing too!  The night we went, a guy put in a request to sing a Louis Armstrong song and sounded just like him.  The pianists are usually a little crude, but funny!  We got made fun of for only drinking water and eating and Erica got asked to dance from a random guy…haha we were all rolling on the ground laughing while she danced with him.

Neal did his first scout out with his scouts. Of course it had to snow that week so it was FREEZING for them but they had a good time.

 

Had a girls night at Cara’s and we made these signs. We were able to make them for free and they turned out super cute!

Here was our Christmas Tree this year…

I won this little lovely from the girls over at Oh So Delicioso! I was thrilled to win something for once :)

We got to go home for Thanksgiving, we ate a delicious dinner with the Bodily’s and then went off to the Guymon’s for the annual Ping Pong Tournament where Neal is the reigning champ. My sister-in-law Mallory and her sister Caitlin and I braved the crowds Thanksgiving night and got what we were after{ a TV for our bedroom and a Blu-Ray player and some boots and clothes.}

Thanksgiving …

We were able to drive home for Thanksgiving and we got there right before the BIG storm. We were planning on staying with Neal’s parents the first few days but ended up not being able to because the roads were closed going up to Driggs. We got to see them Friday though and we can’t wait to spend more time with them during Christmas.

 

Jasper is a California dog and could barely handle going out in the snow! But it was cold…(-12 with the wind chill)

We had a great time with my family! We had a delicious Turkey dinner and the son-in-laws  got to play the new Call of Duty game together while the girls chatted.

     

That evening we went to the annual Guymon Ping Pong Tournament…where Neal won again. Since they started doing the trophy it’s gone between Neal and his dad.

 

Neal with his Uncle Darrell as runner up!

Thanks for the good times Fam! Can’t wait to see you in a few weeks! We feel so grateful to have two wonderful families!

Thankful Hearts…

For Thanksgiving this year we drove the 13 hours home to enjoy time with family. It was a wonderful week but as always goes by too fast! We celebrated two birthday’s, went Christmas Tree hunting with Neal’s parents, enjoyed warm fires with hot chocolate, went to New Moon, visited with friends and family, ate great food, had a bridal shower and got to go to the temple where my sister and my soon to be brother-in-law received their own endowment. It was so neat to have every single one of my family members there! What a blessing the temple is and the knowledge we have of eternal families!

Our hearts are truly full and we can’t wait to go back in just a few weeks. Here’s a few pics. 

 

Neal’s Parents

Yep there’s already snow back home.

The “Perfect Tree”…

  

Nephi (Neal’s brother) turned 23 and Heather (my sister) turned 21! Glad we were able to celebrate the day with you! Love you guys!

 

This is the goody table at Heather’s bridal shower.

  

My sista’s---- Love them all so much, they are my best friends! {hugs}

Thanksgiving

Neal's parents got to come out for Thanksgiving...it's been so fun and I'm so glad they were able to come. It has been so nice to have some family around for the beginning of the holidays. We love what easy company they are. So care free and always helping out. Thank you Mom and Dad Guymon for coming out---it means so much to us! We love you!

ALL the food we had + 4 people = so much leftovers!

Connie made her famous rolls--they are too die for! (Neal can eat the whole pan single-handed!)

This is our place settings--Connie had the cutest idea for the Oreo turkey favors...so cute!

This is what has gone down since they got here:
Monday--flew in and just got settled
Tuesday--grocery shopping for the BIG day!
Wednesday-- Ruby's on the Huntington Beach pier
Thursday--cook, EAT, clean, nap, play pinochle (Which us girls won!)
Friday--decorate for Christmas

This is the pier at Huntington Beach, Ruby's is the big building on the end.

This was the view from our seats in the diner. We got to see dolphins and people fishing from the pier--it was so cool!

We watched this guy the whole time. While he was getting a pole ready a seagull came and stole his fish (it was very entertaining!)

The Mexican from above caught this and told us it was a bat ray. Here is Boyd showing off the bat ray...I don't know does he look a little freaked out about it?

We feel it is very appropriate to say things we are grateful for with it being Thanksgiving. We are grateful for the gospel, family, our bodies and every amazing thing they can do, for the new friends we've made and the old ones we'll never forget, temples, modern day prophet, beautiful weather, warm showers, clean house, food, our health, education, our marriage to each other. I could go on and on! We are so blessed and it's so humbling to think about the blessings we already have. It really takes your mind off of the things you want and allows you to refocus on the wonderful things you have. Our testimony of tithing has grown so much since being here! Everything worked out so smoothly for our move here, I found a job quickly and then an even better job after that and then we got into the Bond Rent faster than we thought we would. Heavenly Father watches over us and knows what we need. We are so deeply grateful for all He has given us.

Poor Mom G. Her eye started bothering her Sunday and it got worse so on Monday she went to Neal's Optometry school and had it checked out. Come to find out she has a 4+ corneal tear and then a bacterial infection in the same eye on top of that. We have no idea how it happened. But at least she was in the right place to have it happen! Hope it's doing better Connie! They gave her these cool glasses because her eyes were dilated...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving this year was spent with the Davies (my mom's family) at an institute building in Idaho Falls. I thought, "How can it be Thanksgiving and we're not going to be eating at a house?!" I was being pessimistic. But to my great surprise it turned out nicely. There was ping-pong, air hockey, the Wii, a pool table...and more. We had a great dinner with the traditional noodles for the potatoes, pumpkin pie, and of course turkey. It was yummy! After eating we made gingerbread houses and then it was off to the Guymon's. Neal's family always has a ping-pong tournament on Thanksgiving night. Neal won for the 2nd time...he wins everything he does I swear! Here's a picture of him with his trophy. We played a fun game with his family, called Curses. It a game where you get curses put on you that you have to do and if you break the curses you have you're out. It was hilarious! Grandpa Guymon had to speak with a french accent and Grandma Guymon had 1 inch long arms! We had a great time with both families and we feel so blessed to have great families. We have so much to be grateful for. IT CAN'T GET BETTER THAN GOOD FOOD AND A GREAT FAMILY!