Christmas Eve

Every year we spend Christmas Eve with my grandparents on my dad's side of the family. They only live an hour away and it's great for the kids to see their Great Grandparents. They are now excited each year for the food, gifts but most of all the mexican cookies my grandma bakes each year. My grandparents just celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary which is absolutely amazing to me. That is just something you don't hear about anymore. It's so nice to see how much they love and care for each other. They had 4 boys, my dad being the oldest. We took a picture of all the men in the family......can you see how much Mark stands out? Even Peyton kind of blends in :)

Then a picture of the grandkids minus 2 of them. Spending the holiday with them is a tradition I don't want to see go away.

Christmas Cowboy

Cowboy Christmas is a something that has become a tradition with my dad. We've been going for about 5 years now and look so forward to it each time. My dad is a cowboy who lives on a ranch and this is his happy place. Each year for 2 weeks in Vegas, at the same time of the rodeo, all of the convention centers open up for aisles and aisles of shopping. They have everything you can imagine from the littlest picture frames, clothing, home goods to diesel trucks, tailors and even horses and tons and tons of bling in between. You don't have to be into country to enjoy it unless you're my brother. I don't think he's as excited as we are to go back next year but at least he came. During the weekend Mark kept trying to bet on the UFC fight and couldn't understand why the sportsbook didn't have the odds up. Well we found a sign saying we were a week early and him being so stubborn insisted that Vegas had the wrong dates. We even had to call several people to clarify hence the picture.

Student of the Month

To our shock Drew brought home an envelope from school letting us know she was getting the student of the month. Not sure why we were so suprised but we were. We sometimes have a bad habit of comparing her to Peyton at this age and sometimes think that maybe she's a little behind since we started her a whole year earlier. Well, she obviously doing something. We went and saw her receive her award and she couldn't of been more excited. That is until at night when we were having dinner with friends. She's excitedly telling them about the assembly then she leans over and whispers "what'd I get again?". Her friend Zoe got the writing award and another friend Misha the math. I wasn't able to get a picture but they were 3 happy little girls.

Our first 5k-The Biggest Loser Finale

This morning before our wonderful Thanksgiving feast my coworkers, family members included, and I ran a 5k. We thought this would be a great in to our Biggest Loser weight loss challenge that started in September. Since Mark is working and Drew was too little, Peyton and I were up in our freezing cold desert weather ready to go. The race started at 8:00 and we started out walking. Then I began to feel quite claustrophobic being stuck between so many people that I told Peyton and Whitnee we need to run at the next opening to get out of the crowd. That made things much better and actually got us motivated to keep running and get the race finished. It felt so great crossing that finish line and I can't wait to try and beat our times next year. I don't run, I dislike working out, so for me to hobble out of bed this morning and pull of a 5k off felt like quite an accomplishment. My legs are sore. I'm so tired, but it was a great feeling.

And to top all this off, my team, TEAM BLACK, for the biggest loser challenge won by a 1/2 percent weight loss over team Pink. I'm thankful for that because it was a huge challenge. I lost my goal of 7 pounds and am thinking I'll gain it all back today with the amount of green bean casserole I'm hoping to eat.

The Pendleton Foundation

The Pendleton Foundation is a Coachella Valley charity that helps cancer patients with different types of financial needs. It was started by a woman named Karen Pendleton who was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2005. They don't necessary help with direct medical bills but they'll give gas cards, show up with groceries or grocery cards, pay for hotel expenses for people going through treatment or even help with personal utility bills especially during the summer months. The list goes on and on. Each year the foundation hosts a Chef Auction. Chefs from around the valley come up with a package that can be auctioned off. The money they raise goes to the charity. Mark had been asked before to participate but his schedule always conflicted. This year he was able to do it and what an experience it was. His package was 2 rounds of golf, dinner for 8 and 4 VIP tickets to the Kraft Nabisco Tournament in April. He sold for 3,000.00. The evening was memorable as they not only auctioned off chefs but also had an emotional slide show of past recipients of the foundation. It was truly touching to know you're helping out.... in a very round about way.... and he can't wait to be auctioned off next year.

http://thependletonfoundation.org/stories.htm

Halloween

This was the first year in a long time Halloween wasn't at our house and it was great. We went to the Hershbergers Block Party. Ton's of kids, games, food and a costume contest all before trick or treating. The kids loved eating the donut from the string but I think they liked getting their purple ribbon's even better. Peyton for the funniest and Drew for the prettiest costume. After we left we stopped by our old neighborhood to say hi. Mark was able to meet us there after work before we headed to my moms house all before 8:00. Whew. Long day but super fun.

Office Halloween

For the first time in years our manager wanted everyone to dress up for Halloween. I hemmed and hawed. I couldn't think of anything so I took the easy road, got ears and went as a black cat. But, some people were very creative. We had Marge Simpson, Sara Palin, Dwight from the office and even a Double Dare contestant. Not to mention we covered the sports jersey department and also Tony Hawk. It turned out to be a fun day with an office lunch and adorable kids trick or treating there way through.

Pumpkin Carving

It's become a tradition each year to carve pumpkins with the Douherets. The kids were so excited but we didn't have the normal, safe pumpkin carving tools so we used regular knives. Naturally I stepped in to help because I didn't want them to cut themselves and within 30 seconds I sliced my finger. Still not sure how it happened but I stayed out of the way and let the guys take over from there. I'm not doing so hot in the kitchen lately. Luke chose a bat template, Olivier hand drew his version of Frankenstein, Drew had the little guy winking and Peyton the ghost in the graveyard.

Nike Swoosh

It's no secret that I dislike the kitchen but even more, I really, really, REALLY dislike cooking. Nothing makes me more frustrated and I've been extremely lucky that Mark cooks whenever he's home. But the other day he ran an errand and left me in charge and this is what I got in return. A beautiful burn in the shape of the Nike Swoosh. I wonder if I can get some sort of sponsorship. Just Do It!

Tim McGraw

Tim McGraw came to Fantasy Springs Casino and we couldn't have been more excited. We've missed Stagecoach every year so when we found out he was coming we were not going to miss it. Twelve of us got together and bought our tickets the morning they went on sale. We had dinner before hand then off to the show which was excellent. He was excellent. His voice was absolutely great, his band was great and he constantly was reaching out to the fans to shake hands. I hope he comes back because I would love to see him again.