A St. George Thanksgiving!

We were excited to spend several days in St. George with Hillary and Patrick this year.  Garrett's roommate Danny Arana joined us as well. Fun group!

This is the response I usually get from this 17-year-old...

I was both nervous and excited about cooking my VERY FIRST Thanksgiving dinner!  We've always gone to parents, in-laws or siblings houses for Thanksgiving so attempting the whole meal was what prompted me to attend a Thanksgiving Basics class the previous week.  Boy did it help!  I cooked the turkey in a bag and it was done sooner than it said on the bag so I learned to take it out a little earlier next time...

I made homemade cranberry sauce--SUPER easy and tastes 1,000x better than canned!

Not sure if I'd make this sweet potato casserole again since I prefer my yams with marshmallows.

Mashed potatoes in the crockpot is absolutely the way to go and there's no stress right before it's time to eat to mash the potatoes...

The pan gravy turned out like it was supposed to but I still need to figure out how to make my mom and Nana's gravy since it's the very best I've ever had.

Pomegranate raspberry jello salad with homemade whipped cream is always a hit!

Homemade Lion House rolls were delicious--just not used to the St. George oven so they got a little browner on top than I'd like but Grayson said he preferred them that way...

No time to make pie (which I don't mind) with traveling and doing everything myself, but Veyo Pies were killer and the coconut cream pie in the middle never made it to the table because I ate it all by myself over three days!! (don't tell...)

Cooper enjoys our movie nights and snuggles up to anyone who will let him or he gets his own Luv Sac...

The boys went dirt biking a couple of times and enjoyed every hour!

Made a stop to see the lights at the St. George temple and we took turns zipping Cooper up in our coats since it was only in the 30s...

Played four square, pickle ball, went on walks to the duck pond and there was an extreme amount of video gaming going on...

SO thankful for my amazing family and the fun times we have together.  Only 3 more days until Sister Tebbs is home to make our family complete again!!!

November in a Nutshell...

November came quickly and was filled with lots of extra-curricular activities!  

This fun group went to the Mystery Escape Room at Gateway in SLC and had a blast!! We had an hour to escape with lots of difficult and crazy clues and we escaped with 52 seconds to spare!  The escape rate for that particular room is 17% so we were quite proud of ourselves...

I accompanied my parents to Hacienda Heights, CA for the funeral of our dear family friend Jim Smith. We flew out at 7 am and flew home at 9:30 pm. It was a long day but a great day to see old friends and neighbors from California. We attended the viewing, funeral, gravesite service and luncheon and my 80-year-old parents were troopers--even with me driving on the crazy California freeways...

Jim's wife Brenda is an absolute gem.

Jim's daughter Chanda Smith Davis is one of my oldest and dearest friends and we have fond memories of attending BYU-Hawaii in 1984 together...

I hosted a fun ward and neighborhood baby shower for one of our awesome Primary teachers and daughter of our last Bishop, Allison Brewster Bell. She will be an amazing mommy!

So lucky I was able to reserve a much-coveted spot at A Bountiful Kitchen's Si Foster's Thanksgiving Basics class.  The best part (besides the amazing demonstration of everything to make for a Thanksgiving dinner in 3 hours) was getting to EAT IT!

John and I were privileged to be invited by our friend and neighbor Jill Parrish to her investiture as a United States District Judge in the new federal courthouse building downtown. It was a wonderful program filled with remarks from Supreme Court justices, the Honorable Mike Lee and Orrin Hatch, her husband Blake presenting her with her robe and a fabulous response from Jill. Fun to run into lots of friends and neighbors as well...

Bring on Thanksgiving--I'm ready!!

Birthday Boys!!

I love November! Big party at our house with back-to-back birthdays, Thanksgiving, Black Friday shopping and a lot of "together" time...

Garrett started out the month turning 22 on November 4.  The kids always choose a favorite restaurant on their birthday.  We met Garrett at Winger's in Orem so he could get his all-you-can-eat sticky fingers and asphalt pie.

These two are always laughing and goofing off together.  Even though they're 5 years apart, they're close friends and I love it!

Grayson turned 17 on Friday the 13th.  Friends are a big part of his life so he took 5 of his closest buddies to his favorite place the night before his birthday and celebrated with the family the night of his birthday at The Old Spaghetti Factory.

I love this amazing family of mine and can't wait until Sister Tebbs returns home in a couple of weeks on Dec. 2 and we're all together again.