Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend this year!  Derek was able to get the jobs he was working on finished by Tuesday and he had Thursday and Friday mornings off from his delivery job so he was practically a free man!  

We are so glad that our friends, Yi and Sarah, spent five days with us and brought one of their friends who didn't have anywhere to go for the holiday.  He sort of kept to himself, but when he did come out to hang out with everyone, Cadence LOVED him!  Every time she saw him, she walked right up to him with her arms up.  I joked with him that if Derek and I died, we would give her to him because she liked him so much! :)  They had some sort of unspoken bond!

Top Ten Thanksgiving List

1. Having Yi and Sarah here for FIVE DAYS!!
2. Crockpot Thanksgiving turkey legs (Thank you to everyone who lent us a crock pot!) along with the rest of Thanksgiving dinner.  It was a total success!
3. Playing Wii Wheel of Fortune and Sets & Runs
4. Derek and Yi making Yi's knife block
5. Having free time with Derek
6. Buying and setting up our Christmas tree and front door Christmas wreath.
7. Chinese Hot Pot dinner with family and friends (We had 12 people around our table!)
8. Seeing Harry Potter #7
9. Staying up late with friends
10. Yi and Sarah making it here and back home safely through TWO blizzards!

Both Derek and I are wishing that the holiday weekend could have been a bit longer.  It's going to be difficult going back to regular life, but it has to be done!

Sweet Shot Tuesday

Cadence has decided that hanging out with us on the couch is pretty cool. If we're sitting on it, she's sitting on it. And on this day she was being extra cute and doing all kinds of fun poses!

My favorite part of the photo is her static hair!

And as always, this photo was edited with Everyday Action's fabulous actions!!

I Love My Backyard

Behind our yard is a common area. There are a few throughout the neighborhood, but the one behind our house is the best. 

Beyond the common area are quite a few empty lots. The lots are full of weeds but in certain lights, they look kind of pretty! 

Behind that is beautiful blue sky with trees on the horizon! 

I'm really hoping that it's a long time before people buy those lots and build.  I don't want to loose any of that sky!

"Wow!"

"WOW!"

Is what Cadence exclaimed--very loudly--in the middle of a musical number during my Mom's sacrament meeting in her assisted living facility.  

Normally that wouldn't be "blogworthy," but she was the only child there and there were less than 20 very quiet adults in the room.  

It was very noticeable and very cute! :D

3 Pictures

Photo #1 taken at breakfast this morning. She was particularly happy about her bananas, french toast, and her Daddy sitting across from her making funny faces!

This is my FAVORITE face!  Pure joy!

Photo #2 taken just before dinner.  I've given up keeping her out of this utensils drawer.  I took out the sharp objects and let her loose.  This looks like a "holy crap, I got caught face," but it's just a "holy crap look at this spatula" face! :D

This is my 2nd favorite face.  Mid-wow!

Photo #3 taken during her bath this evening.  Our cat, Willow, is the best off camera prop!  When ever Cadence sees her she makes the best faces.  Perfect for photos!!

And check out that hair!  She finally has enough to mold into a cute suds antenna!

All of the above photos were edited with Everyday Action's FABULOUS Deep Clean actions (plus a Utah, Sumter and Phoenix action)! I love them!

Look Mommy, Coupons!

This is what happens when she gets into the newspapers. Papers everywhere!

Look mommy, coupons!

Oh, wait.  It's just an ad...

Busy Weekend

We had a busy, but lovely weekend.  It started out with a friend of ours spending the night with us while she was in town for a missionary farewell.  Her visit was short but sweet and it was really great to see her again.  Plus it gave us an excuse to make and eat yummy Chinese food.

Cadence was awesome at church today!  She made it all the way though sacrament meeting without any tantrums and even sat on our laps for most of the meeting.  During Sunday school she made her rounds, visiting all the people sitting around us and stealing other babys' toys.

After church, I took some family pictures for some friends.  I don't usually make it a habit to do that on a Sunday, but this was the only day their whole family could be together so it's service, right? :)  They were so much fun and I'm particularly happy with this photo...

I edited this photo using Everyday Elements' awesome Deep Clean and Utah actions.

After taking photos, we had my dad over for dinner (egg drop soup and curry), and then after dinner I had a couple fun friends over for a coupon swap.  Busy day!

Egg Drop Soup

We had an awesome RS meeting tonight.  It was all about how to use spices and herbs.  Our committee leader asked a few of us to make soups showcasing some of the spices.  Mine was Egg Drop Soup.  It's showcased spice was ginger.  And it was great!  Derek thought it was delicious, a lot of people at RS liked it, and then I took some leftovers to a friend's book group and they loved it there too!

Here's a link to the recipe on allrecipes.com.  It was really easy and the recipe said that you could freeze it.  I think I'll be making a huge batch tomorrow!

PS:  I failed today at November's goal (see sidebar).  There were clean dishes in the dishwasher and that was just too many dishes to do after RS and a book group! :)  So I'll be cleaning the kitchen up in the morning.

Back by Popular Demand....

Walking

So about three days ago, Cadence decided that walking was on her to do list.  She's been taking steps here and there for a couple months, but this weekend it was the real deal.  And here's a video of the cuteness.

I need your opinion

I don't usually do a fancy edit on my photos.  Usually I don't like the edit to overpower the photo but my ISO was set a little too high on this photo so I wanted to see what I could do to mask that.  Which edit do you like best?

Edit A:  My usual edit.  Just the basic touch-ups

Edit B: A medium edit.

Edit C: The basic edit with an added texture.

Edit D: Not my usual type of edit at all.  I like how her eyes and lips pop.  I think it's too contrasty, but I kind of like the artsy feel of it.

New Photos

Some fun photos edited with free actions!!!

These photos were edited with CoffeeShop's Perfect Portrait 2, and Isabelle LaFrance's 1-2-3 Haze

This second photo is the one I'd like to enter for the Paper Mama's Touch-up Tuesday challenge.

This photo was edited with CoffeeShop's Perfect Portrait 2, and Pamela Topping's Fairy Dust textures

Shake, shake, shake, shake, shake it!

Cadence learned how to shake her head no today.  She has no idea what it means.  She shakes her head in response to any question asked her.  Well, shakes her head or shrugs her shoulders.  Either way, it's the cutest thing I've ever seen!

Couponing at Wal-mart

Here's my loot from my Walmart trip this morning. I had only planned on getting the 6 half gallons of 8th Continent soymilk at Walmart because it's $1.20 cheaper than at Albertsons, but they had all the other stuff I was looking for so I kept shopping.

My savings this trip weren't as great as they have been because I had to do some non-coupon shopping... :( But I still got some pretty good deals. I spent $37.67 and saved $26.00! The 6 soymilks, 4 bottles of juice, and 2 bags of rolls were between .50-.60 each. Derek was especially excited because I came home with TWO packages of Oreos; one of them was free. He gets into couponing when it means free oreos!! :D

Usually I have a lot of trouble checking out with coupons at Walmart but today my checker (I think her name was Gayle) was awesome!