i do still exist.

sure, 2 months between posts is completely adequate. i have not fallen off the planet. i made it through the made rush of Christmas and presents and baking and cleaning- and well, everything that comes along with that holiday. i also traveled up north with all the kids to spend thanksgiving with my family (and see my first ever football game with my sister and brother-in-law- BEST PRESENT EVER!)
really, my thanksgiving vacation deserves it's own post. so why not flashback in time to 2010?
the Friday before thanksgiving my dad flew down from seattle to help drive me and the kids up. help is kind of a loose word. he did ALL the driving. although, when you have 4 kids in one van it is much much much better to be the driver. because the co-pi has to do all the backseat work.
the plan was to go to portland and spend the weekend with just the little babe and my wonderful sister. that's right, 2 whole days and nights to myself.
it was amazing.
my sis and i stayed at my parents condo and we basically shopped, and shopped, and shopped, and ate. actually, we might have eaten more than we shopped.
we got to see my most favorite crafty blogger in the world, meeting up at a fun restaurant, where we were served awesome appetizers by the oddest waiter. really, he should have been welcoming guests onto disney's tower of terror, not serving delicious food.
now something rather odd happened during our weekend. we were stuck in portland due to the snow. however, there was no snow in portland. basically everywhere else in the world was hit by a snowstorm, except for us. so we couldn't travel to my parents and the kids (they were up by mt. hood) and we couldn't travel north (puyallup) where we would be spending thanksgiving, and with my parents condo's now being rented for thanksgiving, ashley and i were forced to rent a hotel.
really. it was just dreadful. what with hgtv, and more time for shopping.

our hotel room.

the bathroom
i haven't had this much time without my kids in 4 years. the weekend was amazing, but the whole week was fantastic too, because my parents really took over and watched all the kids. it was one of the most refreshing times i have had. i cannot wait till i can do it again.

ashley and i made it home, and the rest of my kids and family made it back to us later that night. i assisted ashley as she made our entire thanksgiving meal. ok, i did help. i ate a lot of sugar cookies and a lot of pie. although i did make my first ever stuffing (thank you pioneer woman) and i was responsible for the baked brie.

hot cocoa break.

decorating sugar cookies.

could there be a cuter picture?

ashley and the best apple pie in the world.

ashley and her beautiful turkey.

with thanksgiving under our belt (and stretching our belts) i took my sister out for her very first black friday event. now we didn't get up at 4 am or anything, instead we started our day at 8 am. we came home around 10 pm. i do not believe i have ever shopped so much in my life.
it was awesome.

steven and i prepping for black friday

the very next day sam flew up to seattle and we went (with the kids) to see some of our very best friends (they have 2 boys Campbell and Henry's ages) in the world. we spent the day with them. i love how when you get back together with old friends nothing really skips a beat, you just jump back into things.
and then, the game. chiefs vs. seahawks. it doesn't always happen, that the team sam and i LOVE and the team my sister and steven LOVE play each other. in seattle (otherwise a flight out to kansas city would be a little unrealistic) of all places.


ash and steven totally spoiled us by getting really amazing seats, and it was absolutely awesome that for the first game we had ever been to that WE WON!
sorry seahawks, but thanks for allowing us to see a victory in person.
and that was the last half of my november. my december was pretty amazing/rushed/busy/fun/stressful. so it really deserves it's own post.