My Joy in Preparing a Thanksgiving Feast

Here I am hosting and preparing an American Thanksgiving dinner! If it's not odd that a Canadian is the reason all the O'Neal's (Americans) are getting together, to celebrate this holiday, then you will find it odd that my excitement and complete joy is making the center piece on the table.

 
Aaaawwwww. . . take a deep breath and enjoy! I love it!!! This is so relaxing to me. I used an old glass dish, bought some popori to fill it with. Then I took two small white bowls to hold the candle. (Two to give it height.) I arranged the popori around the candle to my liking. Then placed it on top of these two adorable leaf place mats (I bought) and WA LA! Life is good when you have something beautiful to look at.

Autumn

crisp air-leaves fall-colors change-cool breeze

 

These picture are taken from my kitchen window and bedroom window. It is just perfect to sit here with a hot drink and day dream while I stare at Autumn's beautiful colors just outside my window. 

Took a Turn for the Worst

We had been looking forward to vacation for a long time. Sean-Paul and I decided we would get up early on Saturday morning (4:00am) for a good start on our way to California. Here are the serious of events:

1. 4:30am van overheats. Put antifreeze in the van. Continue on.
2. 5:30am van starts shaking. Stop and check air in tires. Continue on.
3. 5:45am van is still shaking. Getting worse. Pull over to search for a tire shop.
4. 7:00am arrive at Big O Tires in Spanish Fork.
5. Verdict is bubbled tires.
6. 7:30am and $700.00 later, off to California with brand new tires.
7. 9:00am van looses power up a hill, overheats, and we coast off to the nearest exit.
8. 10:00am towed back to Fillmore, UT.
9. Verdict is van has a blown head gasket.
10. Verdict is to leave van and take a rental car back home to get our Elantra.
11. 12:00pm changed our verdict and took the rental car on vacation. 

We left on our vacation with plenty of money and a happy family on the way to California:

We came back from a great vacation! But. . .with $4000.00 towards a new motor in our van and $700.00 for new tires. Our van was towed back to Spanish Fork to be fixed while we were on vacation and wasn't ready yet. When we returned back to Utah the rental car needed to be back in Filmore so this is how we get home?

This is what Big O Tires gave us to drive. Awesome, Yes, but great customer service.

Kiss Me Dirty

A four mile dirty obstacle course run for the ladies!

As you can see we finished good and dirty.


We ran, jumped, and army crawled through muddy water. It was a fun run with dirt throwing fights all the way through.

Ready for mud fights!


We were all ready for a kiss at the end. I am happy to say I received two from Cozy and Sean-Paul.


I hope the mud is good for your skin. That is what they use in facials, right?


YEAH!!!
It was a great girls time.

View more photos at:
http://www.zazoosh.com/events/viewPhotos/430/page10?
and
http://www.zazoosh.com/events/viewPhotos/430/page1?

Game Night

What do married people do on the weekend?


We get together and play games. One of our favorites is Carcassonne. This night we choose to play with four expansions.

(Above picture from left to right: Eric Price, Kasidy Olsen, Me, and Sean-Paul O'Neal) (Lauren Price was the one who capture our memory that night.)



The picture above is our finished board at the end of the game. To the left of the board you can see a massive city that we all helped build. This city made the game competitive and exciting. We all had ownership of the city at one point and were also kicked out of it as well. Kasidy finally closed the city and redeemed 89 points from it. (eeerrr) The game went down hill after that because of that city. All in all it was a fun game night that ended at 3:00 in the morning. (Yes, I know we are crazy.)

In addition to our fun filled evening Kasidy and his girls stayed over. :) Brittany was out of town for the weekend. (We missed you Brittany!) To top off the night poor Lesil woke up sick and was up the rest of the night. Our sleep that night ended up being about an hour. No hard feelings to Kasidy except a little the next day when we were dead tired. It was worth it though we had a blast. Thank goodness Lesil is better now and her virus was nothing serious.

These are the nights you remember!

It's Great to be a kid!


There is one thing about being a Mom that makes me wish I could put a pause button on life, (the above picture.) When your kids are young Daddy and Mommy are their world. In that world a kiss can heal any kind of hurt, a walk, the park, a song a $5.00 toy are the best things in life, and their smile is genuine with true happiness behind it just because your there every day. In this picture I see my babies, so happy and innocent. I wish to hold and cherish this moment forever.


"Nothing can beat being a Mom"

click image to view in full

How Could This Happen. . .

On the road, Sunday night, after dark, with the kids to take my hubby to the airport. This is never a fun time for us. Sean-Paul leaves a couple times a year for business which, I guess, is not so bad.

Just picture our family as I tell you the story. We are driving in our van, on the free way, in the rain, and after dark. We are running late, which is typical for the O'Neal's, so to make Sean-Paul even more late for his flight the windshield wipers stop working. I don't know if this has ever happened to anyone else but it's one of the scariest things to go wrong while driving on the free way. I never thought water would blind me to the point where I couldn't even see the lines on the road. We pulled over hoping Sean-Paul can easily fix them (maybe something was loose). Five minutes later Sean-Paul is driving with his head out the window and my glove for use as wipers. We were right by the exit for Beck street which made it only a short distance to our friend John's house. I am laughing now because we are safe and who ever drove by us got to see how stupid we looked. I forgot to mention that right before the wipers died Sean-Paul and I were discussing how the windshield wipers on a plane could operate. If you consider how fast planes travel and include the high wind pressure involved going at such a fast speed it seems impossible.

I will not lie and say this experience wasn't scary when it was. We could of easily been in an accident or my hubby could of missed his flight. When things like this happen in my life I always seem to reflect back on the situation. During that time I was praying for everyone to be safe and that Sean-Paul would make his flight.

Slowly we drove the distance to John's house and he quickly took Sean-Paul to the airport. He made his flight with only minutes to spare. John also drove us home and took the van to the shop to have a new windshield motor installed. $$$ was the worst outcome of this experience.

The Lord really watches out for his children. I learned when things happened that we don't have any control over we just need to have a little faith. We are never alone in our situations. They may not go as we planned but we only see the small picture compared to what the Lord sees. I am so grateful to know that there is a God that is always there and takes care of his children the way he sees fit.

The van is in the shop. Sean-Paul is in Idaho for business so I can use his car for the week. I was thinking the whole evening that this couldn't of happened at a more inconvenient time but now I am thinking this happened at a really convenient time.

Tuckered Out Everett


I was folding laundry in the other room when I noticed how quiet it was. The jolly jumper wasn't even moving . . . and this is what I saw.

Aaahhh! my baby all tuckered out. He is just like Daddy and can fall asleep anywhere.
He looks so relaxed.
I love sleeping babies.

Sneaky Cozy


She thought she was being sneaky till I started taking pictures of her stealing cereal. I love the little things toddlers do. . . oh how innocent they are. I am glad she is stealing Mommy's cereal instead of Dad's Cinnamon Toast Crunch which she isn't allowed to eat.



Look at the smile!!! Priceless and all I said was smile for the camera. She doesn't even now why I am really taking the picture. I am happy to be home with my babies so I don't miss all their fun and games.