Outdoor decor

Our next-door neighbors,

on both sides,

decorated their houses with lights

first

on our street.

They both look like Clark Griswolds' homes.

So, not to be outdone,

yesterday

Doug decorated our house

with Christmas lights.

Austin helped.

Actually, they made a

day of it.

They shopped for lights and decorations

and then went to lunch.

It was a man thing.

Tangled lights, maybe,

but absolutely

no swearing here.

London and her Barbie watched.





















And
the
neighbor's
cat
supervised.












Voila!

Merry Christmas

from our

now decorated house

to yours.

Just make yourself comfortable

We hadn't seen Jake for an hour or so.

It wasn't long before

Sydney

discovered why.

He's not allowed

to sleep with the kids,

but when we saw this,

we couldn't help but let him stay there

for awhile. . .

just this once.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

It always seems like

there's a different

feeling

in the air

in December.

Decorating always helps us

bring that spirit

into our home.

We got to have

Marc, Tomi and Finn come to visit

us for the night.

Having more family here makes it

even better.

The most wonderful time

of the year!

Thanksgiving weekend, in a nutshell

First, the view

from Craig and Kimberli's house.

Wow.

Their kids' playroom.

Heaven for kids.

The girls' slumber party

in the playroom loft.

Our family feast.

Dinner was delicious.

Late night card games.

Trip to temple square,

in which we stayed in the car

to look at the lights.

Too crazy.

But still, beautiful as always.

The drive is always half the fun!

We loved the chance to

spend time with family

and reflect on our blessings.

It was a great weekend!

One of the best artichoke dip recipes ever

I was craving a good

artichoke dip

today.

Just had to make it!

And, I have to admit,

ate a good amount

right out of the oven.

I hear it's supposed to

rain and snow

over Thanksgiving weekend.

If you are having company,

or even if not,

this hot dip is a great dish to serve

to company

or yourself

to warm you up.

Enjoy!

Get the recipe here.
And have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Parents' week at the dance academy

I got to go and watch

Sydney and London

in their dance classes last week.

Sydney's classes are

rehearsing for the upcoming

production of

Tarzan, which will be

at the end of January.

We are so excited to see it!

More on that, later.

And London's not old enough

to rehearse for Tarzan yet,

but I thought the

pictures were cute anyway.

Thursday is her favorite day of the week.

She loves to dance.

Thanksgiving lunch

Yesterday was the

big Thanksgiving lunch

at the school.

London and I went

to eat with Jordan.

It was cool.

The place was

all decked out

and festive-looking.

The ladies worked hard

to give us all a

nice Thanksgiving meal.

The pumpkin cake

was delicious.

And the company

couldn't have been better.