Need a place for Sundance film festival.....

You could stay at my brother's awesome house! 

(or maybe you know someone who wants to go...)

It's like nothing I've ever seen. It's beautiful and all the amenities. Click on the DETAILS. I think the theater room is my favorite!

just helping my brother out :) I want to see them keep the place! It's amazing. Maybe you know someone looking. Please pass it along if you feel the inclination! love you all!

May your Christmas be warm and fuzzy...

like new PJ's that make your butt look cute! I love you all. Thanks for helping through my life as a mother and wife. I lean on you all for support and I want you to know that I appreciate you all. Have the most wonderful Christmas that you need!  XOXOXO

What do you do....

When 1 child won't smile for a quick family picture? Do you threaten? Do you bribe? Do you punish? 

Do you pinch his cheek? 

Or do you just pick the one where you, and everyone else, look the best?

We've been up to .......

My very most favorite ornaments ever!

Not much, except lots of running around, getting Christmas done, 

working, shopping, making this,  (homemade clam chowder AND home made bread bowls. I know I can hear you now. This was to die for. I linked it for you :)

putting up lights (thanks, babe. He even did it while I was gone. He did it EXACTLY like I asked him to. HE listened to me!)

I know we're all busy, but thank you all for keeping up with your blogs! You're giving me something to do when I should be focusing on what I'm doing! I love this outlet!!

go see my friend Heidi.

She wrote a book! And it's been published and she's giving one away! She's awesome!

I wish I had the recipe.......

Katelynn with the much sought after Cheesecake. It really did elude us for awhile, now.

I wish I could share the recipe for the Apple Pie Cheesecake. But, alas, I can't. You have to drive up to Apple Hill and go to Kids Inc. But only on the weekends and not after Dec 14. I bet you could order one and maybe they'd ship it to you. It would be worth it. I might go up again in a couple weeks and get a frozen one. They cost $16.50. Worth every penny. We bought 2 and I think the 2nd one is almost gone! If I ever do get the recipe, I promise to share! (If you ever come this way, I'll even go with you!)

Happy Day after

A little family football game... Beamishes vs Miles'

The kids table

Pyro # 1

Pyro # 2

The most wonderful, moist, yummiest turkey ever! (see before picture of turkey below)

The aftermath

The coveted Apple Pie cheesecake. (I had it this time and I don't like apple pie... but oh my, this is sooo good)

The whole gang, 'cept Mark, he took the picture. We are very sad that our cousins had to leave this am. We miss them so much and we especially missed Aunt Wendy and Mikaelyn this time. They were in AFRICA!

( Now I gotta go help Mom with a wedding tomorrow. ANd to top it off, I'm sick! At least it waited until after Thanksgiving!)

Happy Thanksgiving!

May your turkey be moist and yummy, like ours is gonna be!

More LA

So I just read Denae's blog and realized I should be updating MY blog and not reading everyone else's. You all keep me going :)

I'll wrap up the trip to LA now. 

We got to hang out with these peeps...

I got to use my bro's ubber cool camera!

Got to drive a couple hours (both ways in 1 day to Palm Desert) to see these peeps......

 Got a great big hug from VICTOR GARBER!!!!! He is the sweetest guy! He is genuine and sincere. It was pretty darn cool!  (I only wish I had gone to the store with my mom and the girls so I coulda met Steve Carrell!)

Got a cool tour of the set of ELI STONE!!!  ( I am so sad for them that it was cancelled, just today. I love that show!)

He, Eli Stone, walk by us and he said hello to my sister and us.  (she's the cool one who works as a P.A. for Eli Stone) Katelynn and I stood right next to HIM in the Disney shop on the lot. But I didn't say anything or my sister woulda killed me :)

And had my iMac all pimped out, thanks to my favorite computer guy brother! Love ya Nathe!

 More to come, hopefully before my brother and 3 of his kids descend upon us! We are very excited to have them come!

Wicked good!

Sorry it took so long. It's so hard to get back into the swing of things after a whirlwind weekend. And the fact that I don't have all my old stuff (like 12,000 pictures) transfered into my new and improved mac... I'm dealing. Brother is busy and I will be a patient recipient of an updated system (and all the adobe stuff one could ever dream of....)

The highlight of our trip was definitely seeing Wicked (and then the real wicked people of LA :)

I even got to go with some of my favorite people!

I can't even put into words how much I loved this musical. he only other  musical I've seen was Mamma Mia. But this was tops. I snuck a couple pics inside the Pantages Theatre. 

This is the ceiling of the Pantages Theatre. It was so beautiful in real life!

The stage before the show started. The visuals were amazing, as were the costumes and lighting and .... everything!

But not during the show. I love the meaning behind everything in Wicked. Are some BORN Wicked or do their circumstances create it?  I laughed - Glenda was so amazingingly annoying and talented. She even got Elfaba to break character and laugh - 2x! I cried - but that's not new.

When we got out of the theatre, there was the end of a protest up the street. We had to drive by to get to the freeway. It was a little tense for all of us (especially with my brothers Yes on 8 sticker on the back of the car.) 

We made it home, safe and sound, thanks to Samantha and her awesome LA driving! Plus a little hot coco from Starbucks!

I'll give you more details late about the stars we saw.... and hugged! Oh, yeah and the tv set we went on! Got pics of that, too. 

Wickedly Thankful Weekend

So I didn't post about my many things to be thankful for yesterday. I have a really good excuse. Really I do. I was getting a pedicure (so VERY thankful for finding a really good place with a guy who does a really good massage!!), then I had to get my girls, who were out really early from school and take them out to lunch! (Thankful again, for the modern conveniences of life) Then I had to rush home and pack my bogs to go on a whirlwind trip to L.A. with my oldest girl and my mom! We left at 2:30 that afternoon.

Here is what I am thankful for or going to be thankful for this weekend.....

That my oldest sweet daughter wants to hang out with me and her "sweet little old Gramma"

My awesome brother and his wife and 3 cutie patootie's. We got to go to Claire's soccer game. That was fun! And My awesome brother has our mac and is going to mac-ify it! Upgrade and everything. A free service on our mac - priceless! 

My baby sister. We are currently @ her little pad near Burbank. Pizza just got here and we're off to see wicked tonight! My sister in law's coming, too. I can't wait! 

My other sister in PD. We're gonna drive over there in the am and hang out with her and the girls all day, then out to the Cheesecake Factory for din-din. I am so thankful for family! 

I love hanging out with my mom and sister's. I am so happy and filled with love for  my baby girl, who wants to hang out with us, too. 

I am very thankful that gas prices have dropped significantly, so our trip is a little cheaper!

Most of all, I am thankful, once again, to my husband who is home with the kids and missing me so. I miss him a whole lot, too! Thanks babe, enjoy your golf on Tuesday;)

(I'll have lots of pics from our fast and furious trip next week. Until then, I am so thankful to all of you!!!)

Thankful!

I won't let today go by without my Thankful post.

Today I am most thankful for my husband. We have been "together" for 19 yrs :o Married for 16 of 'em. I love it when he's home and I have to work. I am thankful that he likes to clean the kitchen on those days :) He's a great cleaner!

I have loved having him around more than usual the past 3 months. Soon we will be so busy with our business, we may not have time to hang out as much.

He puts up with me and my "moods". Which can be kinda bad at times.

I am so very thankful that he chose to join the church and be my eternal companion. I am so thankful that he honors his priesthood and that he goes with me to the temple, even when I sign us up and he doesn't know ;)

I love you, Mark, with all my heart. Thankful doesn't even begin to explain how I feel about you!

Last time, I swear!

My mom forwarded me this message from our Stake Public Affairs guy. He says it all.

Okay...so this will be my final email about Prop 8. With 86% of precincts reporting and a 52-48% lead, I think it's safe to go to bed. Prop 8 prevailed! Two shorts months ago, we trailed by 15% with a small amount of undecided voters. A 20% turnaround -- we were truly part of a miracle.  I wanted to thank you for all you did to follow the counsel of the Prophet and the First Presidency. When we were asked in June to devote our best efforts to protecting marriage and supporting Proposition 8, I’m not sure that we envisioned all that we would need to do. Thank you for your best efforts. I was inspired by your faithfulness, especially when I knew that many of you were not comfortable being  "politically active". But you did it anyway, because of your faith in and testimony of a living Prophet.

Your sacrifice made the difference -- walking, calling, donating, emailing, letter writing, calling again, blogging, sign waving, poll working, getting out the vote, calling one more time, babysitting, talking with friends, acquaintances and strangers. I'm especially proud of our youth for  standing up for truth in the face of peer pressure, intolerance and some hateful exchanges.

Thank you most of all for the way you did this. You were respectful, positive and sincere. That was missing from so many interactions on 
this topic. You represented yourselves, your families, our ward and the church very well.
 
I know that while we are relieved to have this particular challenge over, I suspect there will be something else around the corner. The 
chasm between our beliefs and the beliefs of the world will continue to grow wider, and we will be faced with other challenges, with some 
likely being much more difficult than Prop 8.

I hope that you gained a stronger testimony of the personal peace and blessing of knowing that you were doing what the Lord asked you to do 
through his living Prophet. 
Thanks again,

I was able to give about 3 hours of my time yesterday. It was not hard, I did it with my mom. We mostly sat in the lobby of a retirement home, waiting for the poll updates. As I watched the hustle and bustle, I KNEW that this is the beginning. I have stepped out of my comfort zone and outwardly Followed our Prophet. It is very humbling. I know the fight is not over, lawsuits have been filed, but I am ready to stand up, again, and do it all over again.

Thankful

I wanted to start out the month with a Thankful post every day. I'll start today. 

I  am thankful for the beautiful colors of fall. The cold crisp air in the morning and warm breeze in the afternoon. I am thankful that my kids don't have to take jackets, yet, to school, even if I want them to. I love that fall brings cold nights to snuggle with my forever man!

Can't wait to vote!

We did it! We braved the cold, rain and wind to serve the Lord! And follow our Prophet!

He was great! This kids from our ward and he would cross the street to every corner and stop in front of the stopped cars and jumped and waved his sign and cheered for Prop 8. A little crazy but all for it!!

This is a cute family that came from 45 minutes away to participate tonight! They have 3 kids and 1 on the way. She was so for this and very fun to talk to. (I never did get her name!)

Rebecca not so happy in the rain or cold. She eventually went to the car when it started to pour! (we didn't last much longer after that, either)

Katelynn and friend for Prop 8 (we were all soaked at this point - but anything for a good cause)

I pray that the Lord's will will be done. I know that this fight won't be over, even if it does pass. But I know what side of the fence I stood on.

"As for me and MY house, We will serve the LORD"