A Great Christmas Activity

For the past 16 years, my church has put on a huge display known as The Nativity. You may have heard about it if you live in the Arlington area. People all over the community donate their personal nativities & they are set up in different themed rooms all over the church. I look forward to it every year & it really brings you back to the true meaning of Christmas. It's really something to see & I invite every one of you to come! It's a 3 day event. Here are the details.

Arlington Stake Center

3809 Curt Dr

Arlington, TX 76016

Friday & Saturday, December 3 &4, 10am-9pm

Sunday, December 5 2pm-6pm

*Musical presentation on Saturday at 7pm & on Sunday at 5pm.

*Live broadcast from The Mormon Tabernacle Choir on Sunday at 7pm.

For more information go to: http://www.arlingtonnativity.org/

 

Thanksgiving 2010

 This years Thanksgiving was great. We stayed in Houston since we'll be going to Arlington in December & I have to say it's so nice to not have to go anywhere on a holiday. Instead we had Lane's dad & step mom come to us. This was my first year to host & everything went smoothly.

 Here's the table. My theme was acorns & maple leaves. I found these great gold & bronze glittered branches from Pier 1 that I loved. I didn't want to have to wash a ton of dishes, so I just stuck with paper plates. But they were cute!

 Here's a close up of the name tags I made.

 No I didn't fry this turkey myself because we don't have a turkey fryer, but I plan on getting one when we have more space! We ordered it from a local meat market & it was so good!

 What a beaut.

 Here's our spread. This doesn't include the salad & dessert. It doesn't look like much, but we only have 4 people & we barely put a dent in it. In fact, I was full before we even sat down. Luckily I couldn't overeat even if I wanted to.

The very top picture is what we looked like all day. I didn't even get Elliot out of her pjs. But this last picture we decided to dress up. We went out to this cool backdrop that I thought would be good for a holiday picture. It didn't turn out great as planned, so it probably won't make the cut. But it's festive anyway. I'll post it in December.

A big thanks to Alan & Brenda for coming down to stay with us. And to Brenda for helping me get all the food prepared!

Following the Trend

A lot of my friends have recently made their blogs private. I always hated when they did this because that means I'll never know when they update (blogger really needs to fix that) & therefore will forget about checking their blog. However, I've gotten pretty good at keeping up with them & I expect you to do the same. Because now it's time for me to follow suit.

The reason- My SIL told me that if you click on the "stats" tab you can see everyone who views your blog. So I checked it out & discovered I have people from all over the world. Crazy to think about that! I'm sure they're not regulars, but it's still strange. Plus some pretty exciting stuff will be happening in the near future (we'll find out where we'll be moving, etc) so you won't want to miss out on that. :)

Anyway, you know the drill. Leave your email address so I can add you & please don't forget about us! Even if I don't know you read my blog, I'm cool with it. Just let me know how you know or found me. I'm a curious one!

The deadline to get me your email is November 30th. As of December 1st our blog will be VIP only. Ok, have I've enticed you enough to keep in touch? I hope so!

*TIP* To make it easier on yourself, why not create a list of "private blogs" on your side bar. That way they're all in one place & it's easier to remember them. I'm just sayin!

15 months

Elliot is 15 months today. She is so much fun. Always happy. She loves to climb onto things. Right now, it's the couch that she tries to climb over & onto the computer table. It's quite nerve racking to walk into the living room & see her between the two. She is also a dumpster diver. That's right. Our child is obsessed with digging in the trash. I wish we had a closet to stick it in to keep her out! She's really a good natured kid. She loves to give her daddy nose kisses (aka Eskimo kisses). Right now she says Dada, Mama, hi, cat, duck, & quack. She can point to her head, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, feet & belly button. She can do simple tasks that I ask when she feels like it. Like today, I told her to get her shoes & she knew right where to go.


Today we went to have her checkup. She was fine when we were sitting in the waiting room. But when we were called back, she saw the nurse & immediately knew that she would be getting shots. She started clinging to me & whimpering. It was so sad. She had never done that before. Everything checked out ok.

Here are her stats:

Height: 31.5 inches--82%
Weight: 20 lbs 4 oz--13 %
Head: 17.5 inches--15%

Jalei Asks...

What do you & your spouse do together?

After reading Marianne's post about her & her hubby running a half marathon together, I thought to myself, Lane hates running, so that's out. We talked about it later that night & came up with nothing...Lame!

Sprout

Every mother dreams of the day when she can put her daughter's hair into a ponytail. All too often, they try too soon, but stick with it, resulting in a sprout. I am at that point. I finally went out & bought hair elastics & gave Elliot her first sprout. As the day has gone on, it has grown on me. I will say it is the only way I can get her to leave a bow in her hair, so that's a huge plus. What do you think?

My 28th Birthday

At 3am I woke up to the biggest thunderstorm I can remember. It kept me awake for about an hour, but I have to admit that I liked it. It would have been better if we didn't have to wake up early. After getting Elliot fed & Lane off to school, I went to vote. Once that was taken care of, I got ready for the day & met my friend Lauren for lunch at La Madeleine. Tomato basil soup was just what I needed on a dreary day. Afterward, I spent the day shopping. I got a pair of shoes & was talked into buying a straightening iron by one of those stupid kiosk salesmen. I always try to avoid them, but they caught me & reeled me in. However, I did need one & it has a lifetime warranty. Since it was cold today it made me go out & get a pair of comfy sweat pants. I love them!

Now onto the good part. Lane got off work & later that night we went to dinner at a tapas bar called Mi Luna. We've lived in Houston for over 3 years & have never made it to this place. We both loved it! We ordered these delicious marinaded mushrooms, a goat cheese dish with garlic bread & beef kabobs. Everything was great.

For dessert, we headed over to The Melting Pot. When we got to our table, roses & a card were waiting for me. I was completely surprised! Then they took a picture of us & gave it to me in a frame.

We ordered the turtle fondue with chocolate, caramel & pecans. It was so so good!

At first, I was a little worried that there wasn't enough dessert to fill me up. This top plate was just for me. Lane had his own plate. I know what you're thinking...what a pig I must be. But let me tell you I can eat! And this was more than enough. In fact I left a few things.

I had to throw this picture in there.

Here's the picture they took. I had to take a picture of the picture because the one I took with my camera wasn't as good.

Here's my loot for today. Lane got me roses, my dad sent me roses & then there were the roses at the restaurant. For my gift Lane got me Cowboys Tickets. I am SO excited. We'll be going in December. He bought them way back before we knew their season was going to crap, but that's ok. I have only been 1 other time so it will truly be special.

And my last surprise from Lane was a back massage. He got an electric massager from his dad & it felt so good. Lane did such a great job planning everything. This is the first year I didn't figure out what he was doing so I was completely surprised. I think 28 is going to be great!