Thanksgiving Vacation Time!

We had so much fun spending time together as a family last week! We started off the week on Monday with our family pictures. On Tuesday, we went and walked around the mall to see the Christmas decorations, picked up yummy pastries and rolls from Guglhupfs and watched Angels & Demons (which we really liked). On Wednesday, Calvin took us to see A Christmas Carol in 3D. I had been wanting to see it, but I hadn't been able to justify the cost of a ticket to a 3D show. Calvin got us out the door in time for a matinee, so that helped! Camden had fun with the glasses at first, but didn't keep them on long. I really liked it!

On Thursday, we had fun making pies and rolls and relaxing at home watching Leave It To Beaver. The shows are on Netflix instant play, so we watch them from our computer on the TV. They are so funny! We then went over and had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner at our friends' house. We also took the missionaries from our ward along. Everything turned out so good! I made two pies; a pecan and lemon meringue. It was my first time making both, and with Calvin's help, they turned out great! We ended up with a couple extra pie crusts because I pre-baked all the crusts I made and then realized I need a crust that was not pre-baked. On Saturday, I made some chocolate pudding and used one of the extra crusts. So easy and so good!

On Friday, Calvin made an attempt at doing schoolwork and drove to school, only to come back about a half hour later to spend some more time with us. I think it was really good for him to have a break as well. We took Camden to play at a park, then came back home because it was way too cold and the only one prepared for the cold was Camden! I told Calvin, at least I could take care of one person in our family! He then told me we must only be having one child then! Hopefully I can improve so that we can have some more kids :) We brought Camden home for a nap and took him out to another park later that afternoon. Friday night, we went to Sams Club and really stocked up on some things for our food storage. We made a total sweep and got flour, sugar, rice, oats, powdered milk, canned fruits and vegetables, water bottles, dry goods, etc to make sure we're prepared for the approaching winter. We then got it all organized in our attic and written down with expiration dates to make sure we rotate correctly. It feels good to be prepared!

On Saturday, it was all about FOOTBALL!
We went to the last Duke home football game at Wallace Wade Stadium. It was my first time there and I thought the stadium was awesome! It wasn't as big or as full as Lavell Edwards Stadium, but it was a lot of fun! We got to go right down to the front of the graduate student section. Camden had so much fun cheering, saying "Go, Go!" and he even got a high-five from the Duke Blue Devil. He was so cute clapping his little cougar-paw gloves.

After the Duke game, we stopped and picked up treats for our own little BYU vs U of U football game party. We had some hot dogs, cheetos (which Camden loved), homemade fries, and our chocolate pie. We were so surprised and excited that BYU pulled it off! Needless to say, we were a bit skeptical (see last year's score...). What a game!

And to top it all off, on Sunday we put up our Christmas decorations! We decorated our tree (the top half anyway, to try to keep Camden from bothering the tree) and put up some lights and a few other decorations. I'm so excited for the holidays! Happy holidays everyone! We love you!

Family Pictures

Here are some of our favorites from our family picture photo shoot yesterday! They all turned out so great! You can CLICK HERE to see even more pictures. Camden did so great and we got so many good ones! Happy Holidays!

Happy Birthday Calvin!

Happy Birthday to Calvin today! He is 24 years old. We had a fun day. For dinner we had delicious penne rustica (our version of our Macaroni Grill favorite) with very good breadsticks. We followed that up a little while later with cake and ice cream. Camden had a very hard time waiting for the cake. He would go over to the counter where the cake was and open his mouth wide and yell "Ahhh" asking for a bite. He was definitely excited when we finally got to sing happy birthday and eat the cake. You can see him holding out his plate for his piece.

I tried to teach Camden to say Happy Birthday Daddy. He was very good at the Daddy part, but the happy birthday didn't sound as good. He did try though! It was very cute.

The birthday boy enjoying his dinner!

Camden enjoyed it too! He has a new booster seat and really likes to sit with us at the table.

The birthday presents-given in advance of course

(I'm not good at surprises, also, Calvin helped put the letters on the sign).

Kiss the cook!

We love you Calvin (dad!). Thank you for being such a wonderful husband and father. Good luck these next couple weeks with the finals and projects. You're amazing!

New Words

Camden is learning new words every day! It is so cute to see (and hear) him trying to say new things. Last week, Na Young was over and we taught him to say "thank you." Yesterday we were eating some popcorn and he said "pop pop pop." He likes to come in the living room and point to the TV and say "a show, a show" when he wants to watch a movie. Then if there is a scary part, he says "dee-ee" which means "scary." He will cuddle up or run over to Calvin or me and say "dee dee," it is so cute! He also says "juice" and is starting to say "mo" or "more." He'll say "uh-oh" when something drops on the floor (or when he throws something on the floor). It is so fun to have him communicating more.

Last week, we had a few days of rain, cold, and wind. The last few days have been just beautiful! Right now, it's 70's, blue skies, and sunny. I can't even imagine snow right now! (Which I hear they have back in Utah!) The leaves have been just beautiful. Most of them are gone now, but there are still some brilliant and bright ones. Instead of snow piling up on the roads, they have leaves! There are leaves and pine needles everywhere, you can see the two places where the tires of the cars go and then the piles of leaves and pine needles in the middle, just like it would look if there were snow piled up. The only problem is, they don't come and plow the leaves off the road!

Calvin is getting busy with finals and the end of the semester approaching. He also has a lot to do with his extra activities. We're proud of him for working so hard! I have been busy lately working on advertising material for the lodge (Calvin also helped out with that, thank goodness) and answering the calls resulting from all the advertising! Camden is usually a good little boy and plays all around at home! He just gets in to everything and climbs all over! He loves the phone and wishes he could answer all the calls that I do.

With all that's going on, we are definitely looking forward to December 14th, when we fly out for our 3 week vacation! Wish us luck and pray we can make it until then!

Spudnuts and Parties

Last weekend we had so much fun with Halloween, parties, and spending time with our friends.

On Friday night, we helped our friend with a surprise birthday party for his wife. It turned out so good! She was totally surprised. We're glad we were able to help put it all together! Happy Birthday Na Young!

For Halloween, we spent the morning at our ward trunk-or-treat. We dressed as cowboys/cowgirl. (Yes, I know my hat is goofy, it was all smashed from being in a box since we moved.) Camden was so cute! He wore Calvin's belt and buckle from when he was a little kid. The belt buckle was made by Calvin's uncle and has a "W" for Winder. Thanks to Camden's Grandma Eggett for the real cowboy hat.

When we got home, we started getting the spudnuts ready! They were delicious! The recipe is one from Calvin's family. They have some mashed potatoes in them-hence the name spudnuts. We made at least 60 spudnuts! Calvin was a champion spudnut fryer. It took a long time because we were using our electric wok, which didn't hold many spudnuts at a time.

Here is the finished product. They were so good! We had a lot of friends come over for our donut and cider party. It was a great night!

Here I am glazing the donuts, just being goofy!

Camden enjoying his donut with Arie (Na Young's husband).