Our Ever-So-Busy Holiday Weekend

Well people, for starters our laptop crashed this week. Sad Day! We have a new desktop computer but sadly it does not yet have Internet. We used to "borrow" our neighbors. Shhh... ;) So, I am beyond lost without it. Anyways... now onto my fabulous long weekend...
And P.S. I am having some serious picture issues so you will only see a few...

Wednesday...

You all know Jon LOVES to hunt. Sadly he has yet to get a deer. Well, a lady at my school got a "few extra" and was so kind as to give Jon one. Made his day! So, Wednesday we spent the entire day cleaning and cutting up a deer. We now have lots of meat for HIM to eat :) I am not so sure I can eat that stuff. Beware, below are a few pictures of this lovely looking deer. Believe it or not it did not disgust me at all. I think after going through school as a science major I have dissected more than enough animals in my time. :)

Well, my full deer pics are M.I.A. so I guess these 2 will have to do...

Thursday...

Turkey Day it was! We started off at Jon's parents where we enjoyed a fabulous turkey lunch with his family. I made the nieces and nephews a cute little turkey treat. (see below). After lunch we went to my Aunt and Uncles where we enjoyed delicious desserts. And had a little family photo shoot. My uncle is getting into photography and just bought a backdrop and wanted to try it out. Later that night Matt and Lori came over and planned our attack for Black Friday. We pulled an all-nighter and headed to Walmart at 1 am. (You can wait inside there) :)

My turkey treat :)

Grandma and Grandpa with their grandkids and granddogs!

Friday...

We shopped, and shopped and shopped some more. Wow, did we ever buy a lot. We could not even see each other in my vehicle there was so much stuff piled up. So Fun!!! After shopping we went out for breakfast at Rainbow Grill. Delish...

After breakfast we went home and Lori wanted to play "show and tell" :) We shop so fast we don't even remember what we buy. We plugged in a movie a took a little cat nap. An hour later we headed out to get our Christmas tree. We found the perfect one, brought it home and decorated away. (Picture to come soon) Jon also put the lights up on the outside of the house. Thanks hunny, they look great :)

Matt and Jon waiting in line at 2 a.m.

On the way home... we couldn't even see out the window

Saturday...

Jon left bright and early with Matt to go hunting once again. What's new? So, I decide to go shopping again. My mom, her friend Janet, my Grandma and her friend Geneva all went shopping. We ventured out to Muskegon. I got almost all my Christmas shopping done. Very successful day. That night I hung out with Kari. Just some quality girl time. Chit Chatting about this and that... And of course we made a quick run to Target for a few cheap movies. Then off to bed. I was exhausted!

Sunday...

I tried another new church. Kentwood Community. This is where Court and Jeff go. It was a very good service. Great music. Church shopping is just so hard to do. I think Ada Bible still rates to the top, if it weren't so far away. Pretty much a lazy day, didn't do too much.

Well, there you have it. Sorry its quite a long post. Who knows when I will be able to post again. Or if I will have anything exciting to write about. I do get to have my little loves this weekend. Thursday-Sunday. However it is a jam packed, hockey filled weekend. I hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving weekend!

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things...

• Taking pictures of anything and everything
• Collecting the latest and greatest children’s books
• The feeling of clean sheets on the bed at night
• Holding little babies tight in my arms
• My incredible family and amazing friends
• Being able to work with kids everyday
• Getting letters/cards in the mail, Christmas time is the best!
• Vacations…I wish I could leave now and travel all over the world.
• Shopping, anywhere and everywhere!
• Looking through old pictures and taking a walk down memory lane
• Even better, watching old videos of us as kids
• Emailing, facebooking, and blogging. It’s a great way to stay connected
• Quiet walks on the beach while watching the sunset
• Making doughboys around the campfire
• Being outside alone and admiring all the remarkable things God gave us
• Driving through neighborhoods at night looking at Christmas lights
• Candy, candy, and even more candy
• Decorating for each and every holiday. I love being festive!
• Curling up on the couch with a snack, watching a movie
• A hot shower after being out in the cold
• Cuddling with my hubby at night
• Laughing so hard your eyes water and your stomach hurts
  

The list goes on and on, but as the title says…”these are a FEW of my favorite things”

What is a list of YOUR favorite things?

Traverse City

This weekend was girls weekend! Jon has been hunting and it was time for me to get away from home too. The Grand Valley girls got together and ventured up to Traverse City (Kari's Hometown). Love these girls, we can just be together and have a great time. We laughed all weekend! Here is a little of what our weekend consisted of...

Of course we HAD to go to Popkies... my all time favorite spot to buy colored popcorn!

Us "down state" girls were dying at the fact they put there Christmas Tree in the middle of the street. Cars just drive around it like its no big deal.

Smoothies from Juice Island.... delish!

Leelanau Wineries... I loved the look of this place.

Us with our wine

Me, Danielle, Kari and Diane

Tasting at Gill's Pier. We had so much fun! Free Wine... it doesn't get any better than that :)

Dee and Little Woody :)

Dinner at Bubba's

Of course we also can't make a trip to TC without getting Moomers ice cream. So funny, Danielle and I didn't like any of the flavors so Kari was nice enough to ask if they had any mint chip in the back... and they DID. Thanks to this dude, Jon! Danielle took his picture. :)

Enjoying our Mint Chocolate Chip

Such a fun weekend. We need to do it more often. Christmas break girls... its a must!!!

Frustrated....

Okay people... Right now I cannot stand my blog. It has issues beyond issues! The background never shows up, the friends list never updates, its ugly and it just drives me nuts! If you have noticed, I haven't blogged much lately and that is why. I really need to take the time to make this thing look cute. So bare with me the next, who know who long, while I try to update my blog. And yes, I currently have snowflakes as my background. (Although you probably can'y see it b/c it never shows up) But if its going to be this stinken cold it may as well snow. It makes my Christmas music so much more enjoyable!

Shop Till You Drop

Hurray, I am finally updating, but sorry, no pictures with this one. Jon and I have both been very busy. It's that time of year where school takes over, those dreadful parent/teacher conferences. Luckily I don't have to do these yet but Jon has been busy with last minutes papers to correct and report cards to fill out. He has also been hunting EVERY weekend, so I make plans for every second he is gone. This brings me to my post... Shopping!!! I seem to be very good at it lately. On Saturday I went on a bus trip with Erin. We went shopping at Great Lakes Mall in Auburn Hills. I had to be up at 5am, YIKES! We shopped at that one mall, ALL DAY. It is HUGE! Such fun! I got home around 1AM the next day and man was I tired. I bought some things but really not much at all. And I didn't get any Christmas presents. Bummer! I have really become a deal shopper which I never was in the past. I ended up with 2 new dress scarves ($5 each), 2 new shirts (one was $5 and one was $2), a pair of Aldo, brown, knee high dress boots for $30 regular $126! Yup Huge Deal :) and a pair of Privo shoes which I have been wanting for a really long time, which were $85 on sale for $50 Overall we had a great time. Oh one more thing, we played a little game on the way home on the bus about different things people bought. A couple questions were who spent the least and who spent the most. I thought this was crazy so I had to share... The person who spent the least, spent $32 (which we laughed about b/c is was $40 to even go on it.) And the person who spent the most spent $750! Holy Guacamole! Really? Anyways, hopefully a new update will be much sooner than this one.

Halloween

Well, I am feeling lazy so instead of writing, just enjoy a few pictures from Halloween.

Jon's bat pumpkin and my "normal" pumpkin.

Saturday morning J and Matt went up hunting, so Lori came over to help me hand out candy. (I love the fact that Matt is hunting now too, now I have someone to hang out with all weekend) :) Neither one of us had plans Saturday during the day, and you know that does not go over well with me. :) I decided we should make caramel apples. They are my FAVORITE treat ever and I have always wanted to make them, so we did. It was a lot of fun and for the first time ever, they didn't turn out too bad. (The second batch looked much more presentable. But they both tasted great.)

The preparation work for our apples

The finished product

Cupcakes... I love confetti cupcakes with the confetti frosting, I had a box in my house so these had to be made. It just might be the last time I get them. Gluten free diet starts soon! More on that later :(

SOME of the goodies we had that night. I made every bit of junk food I could that night, just in case I don't ever... get to eat it... again :(

The basket of candy. YUM! We had a huge variety from popcorn to airheads to chocolate to fruit snacks and even glow sticks. I love halloween and I love handing out yummy candy! Most of all I love hearing "Whoa, they have to best stuff ever!"

This is Mason... Courtney's friend Kelli's little boy. They came over for a visit on Halloween too. Is he not the cutest thing you have ever seen?!

He kept trying to look out the window for the trick-or-treaters but wasn't quite tall enough.

Love it <3

Lori and I enjoying our caramel apples!