Happy Thanksgiving 2007: Dinner, Shopping, and Animal Safari

We had a wonderful thanksgiving last week. The girls let us sleep in until 9:00 am. That was an awesome holiday treat. Then we enjoyed a nice leisurely morning. Emmeline loved the parade, which really surprised me. A little after noon we all headed over to Atlanta Georgia to have dinner at my Aunt Sara and Uncle George's place. It was a full house. My parents, along with Lucy and Leland, drove down from Virginia and my Grandpa and Grandma Jorgensen flew in from Utah. Plus George's mom was also there. Thedinner was great with all the traditional food. I especially enjoyed the sweet potatoes in orange peel bowls and my yummy green beans. and of course the pie. Aunt Sara had a fun family music history game for us to play which was particularly fun because there were so many differnet generations playing. On friday my mom, aunt sara, and I all went shopping. . . although we did not get to any stores by 4:00am. We are not that dedicated. We didnt get out and about until around 10. We still found some good deals and had a fun time. I enjoyed having a shopping trip without hauling around two little girls. I usually dont get to browse and look around as much as I would like so it was a really nice treat for me. In the afternoon we all went to this animal safari place.It was pretty crazy because you drive around in these ugly vans and you can feed the animals as you drive through the park.The animals come right up to your van and stick out their tongues for the food. They had cows, buffalo, sheep, deer, and other things. They also had some animals caged up. . .a rhino, camel and a couple of ligers. It was actually pretty fun. Emmeline loved seeing all of those animals up close. And she loved feeding them, although that meant dropping the food out of the van before the animal actually came over.lol. My dad was such a good sport because he was the driver and for the entire hour we were driving in the park he had at least 10 people yelling, "stop!!!" "Go" "slow down" "faster" and usually he was getting different directions at the same time. But he took it in stride. He is a very good grandpa. After the Safari we all settled down with some delicious pizza. mmmm. Then Brett and I drove back home to Birmingham. It was a great thanksgiving!!

I know. . .October is over. . .

But I still have a couple things that happened in October that I didnt write about that I just wanted to quickly mention so I wouldnt forget.

1. 2007 Trunk or Treat. This years trunk or treat and carnival were so fun. Since I am still in the primary presidency I was still in charge of helping put the carnival together. It turned out great. I was in charge of making the root beer. I had never made home made root beer before and it was so much fun. I loved getting the dry ice and putting it in the cooler. And now that I know where to get the dry ice, I can see myself using it a lot. It is so awesome. Anyway, back to the trunk or treat. Since Emmeline was old enough to play the games and participate in the activities, Brett and I didn't have to run the cake walk. We got to take Emmeline around the carnival instead. It was so fun to take her to the games and help her play (even though I did miss the cake walk. After doing it for the past two years, it kinda felt like my "baby" and I had a difficult time seeing another couple do it differently then I did. But I guess it was time to say goodbye).

2. 2007 Primary Program.  The primary program this year turned out great. Even with the

 difficult and slow songs that the children had to learn, they did a wonderful job. Everyone had their parts memorized and they sang so beautifully. I was very proud of them.

3. Carving pumpkins. This year we went over to our friends (John and Alicia Cutts) house to carve pumpkins. Emmeline did a great job pulling out the seeds. Then she decorated her pumpkin with a marker while Brett carved it into a jack o lantern. The two pumpkins Emmeline and Brett did both turned out very cute.

4. Halloween 2007 Trick or Treating. The Birmingham South Side Police station is about 2 blocks from our townhouse. They were putting on a special Halloween activity for the community so we decided to go check it out. They had bags of candy to pass out to the kids. It had enough candy in it that we didnt feel like we needed to do any other trick or treating. Awesome, lots of candy in one stop. They also had face painting and cookies. It was a fun Halloween activity.

Aright, now I feel like I am caught up and can move on with life. There were just so many fun things going on in October. Yeah.

Welcome Back Brett--Never Leave Again

Well, I realize that November is halfway over and I have yet to post a single thing. On November 1 Brett left for New York and his MicroBio Conference. Apparently it went really well and he had several professional tech people asking him when he graduated saying they would be interested in having him come work for them. Brett got to talk to a lot of people in Academia and Industry and he got some ideas about what he would like and would not like in each field. So it was a good trip. Meanwhile. . .back at the ranch in birmingham. . .I was struggling along with the two girls. It is so funny because I used to be so independent. In college I had no problem driving for hours by myself or going out to eat at a restaurant (even Olive Garden) all by myself. Yeah, table for 1, no big deal. And I enjoyed having an evening or two all by myself to get lost in a good book. Funny how things change. Life was hard without Brett around. lol. Things went fine, the girls and I went to the zoo and the park and we even got to church (almost on time), and I did get involved in a fun series of books (the Twilight series by Sephanie Meyers). But none the less, I was very happy when Brett got home. Other than the bare minimum, I didnt accomplish much without him here. . .including a lack of posts. But he's back now and I've sorta gotten back on top of things here at home. Yeah for Brett. I hope he never leaves me again. :)

The Tortoise and the Hare

For Halloween this year, Mabel and Emmeline were the Tortoise and the Hare. Well really the Turtle and the Bunny. I don't think I have ever seen such a cute bunny or turtle in my whole life!!   Happy Halloween 2007

Boo at the Zoo

The Birmingham Zoo does a lot of different things for the community throughout the year. In October they go all out with Halloween decorations and they host Boo at the Zoo on the weekends. This year we took Emmeline and Mabel when Grandma J. was here. It was so fun. Emmeline loved it. I think that this is her favorite Halloween activity we've taken her to this season. There were lots of little carnival games to play and booths scattered throughout the park where kids could trick or treat. Emmeline walked right up to the booths and held up her pumpkin bag. Even though she can't say trick or treat yet, she was very good about saying "thank you". She also loved riding the carasel (of course) and it was fun because they had it running backwards for Halloween. We love the zoo!! BOO!!

The Great Pumpkin Patch

This year we went to the Great Pumpkin Patch in Hayden Alabama to let Emmeline choose her pumpkin. It was so much fun. They had a lot of great activities for kids. They had a blowup park and craftstore and lots of food. We walked through the petting zoo and let Emmeline take a pony ride. I have to say, the pony ride seemed to be her favorite part of the whole experience. lol. Then we took a hay ride up to the pumpkin patch. Emmeline ran around from pumpkin to pumpkin. She had a hard time settling on one so Brett helped her pick one. She choose the littlest pumpkin, just like in one of her favorite books. I think that we will head on up to the farm every year (as long as we live here in Alabama) to choose our pumpkins. I certainly recommend it to anyone who lives in the area!!!

Its always fun when Grandma Comes

Grandma Jorgensen (Laura's mom) came to visit us October 19-21. It was her birthday present to come and meet her new little granddaughter Mabel.  We had so much fun. We went to the pumpkin patch to choose a pumpkin and we went trick or treating at the zoo.  (I'll write about both of these events in separate blogs.) We took her out for a special birthday dinner at Wendys. . .thats right we spoil people here in Birmingham. :)  We were really happy that she could come visit and we had a wonderful time.

Potty Progress

Today Emmeline went all morning without having an accident in her big girl panties. This is really only her third day trying them on. I am so proud of her progress. We'll keep working on it. The goal is to be potty proficient by her 2nd birthday in December. Keep your fingers crossed. :)There's nothing like a little Yatzee to pass the time sittin on the potty. Brett currently holds the high score. 

When Nana Came to Visit

Nana (Bretts mom) came to Birmingham to visit us this month. She arrived on October 10 and flew back to Utah on the 15th.  We had such a great visit. Nana brought all sorts of halloween goodies for Emmeline, including a beautiful halloween princess dress. Emmeline had a lot of fun dancing around in her new dress. On Thursday Nana and Emmeline went to the park to play while Brett was at work and while I ran some errands. On Friday Dave, Erin, Elise and Carson drove up from Florida to play with us too. It was so fun to have everyone here. We all went to the Cheesecake Factory (where else??) for lunch and then went and played at the Pottery Barn for Kids. Emmeline loves to play with the pink kitchens there. It is awesome that they have demo toys out for the kids to play with. They have several kitchens plus all the trimmings: pots, teasets, plates, bowls, even toy food to play with. Em could play there for hours. Anyways, after the Pottery Barn we went to the park again. The kids got pretty wiped out. 

On Saturday Nana stayed home with all the kids while Dave, Erin, Brett and I all went and had lunch. Guess where we went. Thats right, Cheesecake Factory. I dont think Brett or I could ever get enough of that place. mmmmm.  When we got back we had a nice relaxing afternoon. We hung out and visited in the backyard. The weather has finally started cooling off and it was so pleasant just to sit outside and not die from the heat or humidity.

Dave, Erin and Fam left after church on Sunday and we enjoyed having another quiet day with Nana. Emmeline had Nana read her lots of stories!!! Monday morning while Brett was off working, Nana, Emmeline, Mabel and I all went to the zoo. We had a great time riding the carasel and looking at all of Emmelines favorite animals. It was a fun thing do do before we had to take Nana to the airport and say good bye.

It was great to have so much of Bretts family here for the weekend! It was so fun to see the cousins actually be old enough to interact and play with each other. I know that Emmeline loved having Elise to follow around and Carson to play with. And of course she loved being spoiled by Nana:)!!

Note (for those who don't know): Dave is Bretts brother and Erin is Daves wife. Elise is 4 and Carson is almost 2.

Good Job Brett

Brett will be attending a bioinformatics conference in November 2007 on Long Island. He recently found out that they want him to present an oral presentation on his computer program at the conference. Brett was thinking he might get to show a poster or something but wasn't expecting to give an oral.  

I'm not surprised though. My husband is one smart cookie. 

Sound Sleeper

Saturday October 6th marked Mabels official 1 month old birthday. For all of last week she has been sleeping 8-9 hours through the night. At the end of this month, we'll move her into the crib in Emmelines room and see how that goes. We'll post an update when the time comes. For now, I'm enjoying my full nights sleep and hope that everyone with babies is as lucky as me.