Our First Thanksgiving at Home

Oh my gosh, what a crazy week!! This year I wanted to host Thanksgiving in our new home and half way into it, I was having a nervous breakdown. My crazy week started when the painters come on Monday to begin painting. They said they would try to get as much painted as they could before Thanksgiving, so that was my stress #1. Stress #2 occurred when I walked into the formal living for the first time with the new wall color. We painted the paneling (against my mom/grandmothers/dave's request) and it was a bit overwhelming to see the paneling painted with all that color. I cried at first but now I love it and I'm so glad I went with the blue/green color. Looks great with our furniture. Stress #3 happened when it came time to fix all the food. I actually enjoyed this part because I'm into cooking but nevertheless it was a lot of work. I did have help tho, my mom came over to lead a helping hand and my sweet nephew helped me trim the green beans, pigs in a blanket and make the pumpkin/cranberry bread. Oh, we also picked up the fried turkey from Razzoo's together too. Stress #4 came when it was time to clean up. Luckily my wonderful mom helped do the majority of the cleaning. I couldn't have gotten all that done without her. Wednesday was "D" day and my mom and I got all the Thanksgiving decorations placed, arranged and set the tables and did last minute food shopping.
Thanksgiving day arrived and I was so excited to show off our new home to my family. I had appetizers waiting (fruit tray/pigs in a blanket/cheese ball), the house was clean and I was ready to entertain. We all ate lunch together in our formal dining room then after lunch a group stayed in the TV room watching the Cowboys and the rest of us played with the kids playing twister, board games, chain and bracelet making. It turned out to be an awesome day and now its time to start preparing to host Christmas. Stay toned!! : )

My formal dining where we had lunch

Some Thanksgiving decorations

Jerod helping trim the green beans

Jerod got a little grossed out pouring the pumpkin out of the can, soo cute

Kathy made us a yummy pecan pie and John delivered it right to my kitchen

Me and mom cooking away

Mom tasting her homemade whip cream

Back to work you two

Quick pic before I forget to take one of us

Dad attempting to crave the turkey

Let's eat

Dig in

I can't believe we all fit in one room together

Kids playing bed bugs (it was a little noisy)

This was our first year to bust out some twister

Davey & Mike giving it a try

I can't believe you are still going...good job

Now thats a view

Putting the world's longest chain together

It goes on...

and on...

and on...

and on!!

Good job kids

Bracelet time... ended up being a little harder than expected



Thanksgiving in Waco
Last minute we decided to go with Vicki, Grams and Peeps down to Waco the day after Thanksgiving to have hotdogs at Chad and Catherine's new home. They have a really nice home and they hosted Thanksgiving for the first time at their new place this year too. It took us about 2 hours to get there and when we arrived the boys were jumping around on Chad's new trampoline. That thing is awesome and I couldn't wait to try it out. Brent got on there first and did a few flips but I showed him up with my triple backflip. Then Chad, Justin and I played a fun game of remember but Justin won. We worked up a good appetite just in time for hotdogs. I ate one with chili and cheese then I headed straight for the left over desserts. We watched a little football, then we headed back home. I was completely exhausted and finished Thanksgiving off by sitting by the fire eating yummy leftover Thanksgiving food.

Brent feeling out the trampoline

Go for it...

Getting straped in

Soo much fun

Sweet Zoe


Brent playing with the kiddo's

Playing Peak-a-Boo

Perfect way to end thanksgiving...sitting by the fire eating thanksgiving leftovers

Team Building with MillerCoors at the Ranch

Last week I was in San Antonio for our Central Region Meeting with MillerCoors and this year they did something totally different for our team building. They kept it pretty top secret as to what it would be and rumors were flying all week about what they had planned for us. To all of our surprise, they planned an outing at a Ranch 45 minutes outside San Antonio. When we got there, we still weren't sure if we were doing a ropes course, horse back riding or what. The facilitators had all 150 of us group in a very large circle and we went through some pretty funny team building exercises. We played a game of Simon Says and it was pretty funny to see the ones who weren't listening very well and got called out for it. After that, they spilt us up into 3 groups and we all went off to overcome the challenge before us. My first challenge was the rope climb. It was a straight up 100ft ropes course and I can't believe I made it all the way to the top. After you went, you managed the rope for the next person. After that challenge, I went to the rock climbing one and surprisingly made it up that one too. A lot of people didn't try the challenges, they just stayed on the ground and cheered the rest of us on. The 3rd challenge was the zip lining but it got dark before I had a chance to make it over there. I really wanted to do that one, oh well. When everyone got done, we all met up in the really big barn and huddled around the huge fireplace as they got our dinner ready. They fixed us some good grub...steak, chicken, corn casserole, corn bread, salad and 3 kinds of desserts. Everyone had a great time and I really think it did bring all of us closer together!!

All of us doing the group team building exercises

All the people in the middle are the ones who didn't do what Simon Said

The 100ft Ropes Challenge

The second gap is bigger than the first gap

Ashley and I managing the rope for Mitch (my new boss)

Go Mitch!!

This is harder than it looks

My turn...oh boy here I go

Almost there

I made it!!!

Back down to earth

We did it!!

Second Challenge: The Rock Climb

Here I go again



Tight rope

Almost there...

I did it!!

Time for dinner inside the big barn

This fire felt amazing, its cold outside

Big barn doors


I'm going to miss my On-Premise team!!