Aunt RaNae Birthday Celebration!

What better way to celebrate your National Holiday than with the Team Beardshall. What more can you ask for on your Birthday?

Well we thought it would be fun to see the lights at Thanksgiving Point, and let me tell you....there was nothing to be thankful for! Ha! Okay Katy actually really enjoyed them, but I think it was due to the fact that she was un-holstered from her car seat and sitting on RaNae's lap. Secondly it wasn't until afterwards that I realized that they did not give me the $2.00 off for my coupon. I was charged the full price, despite handing him my coupon! Do you think I cut coupons because it's fun? No I cut coupons for the sheer satisfaction of not paying full price! So that was a downer too, because I love my coupons. Arge!

Okay we did get to see santa's reindeer, but that made me sad too. They were in the smallest cage surrounded by "mutants"( as Steve likes to call other peoples kids. Remember he is a cop having to deal with the worst though, tainted I think so!) surrounding the cage screaming and trying to poke them. Poor things!

Oh and I felt bad making everyone wait in line to see Santa (even though they humored me and waited for a half hour). It was when they told us it would be another 45 minutes and our stomaches were growling that we decided to hit the road to eat.

Now because it was Nae Nae's birthday we all decided that it would only be fitting to let her choose of course. Boy am I glad she was in charge because we hit up the In and Out Burger on the way home. The line was great and we found a seat relatively fast. SO.....It was a great night after all. Actually any night when you can hang out with Nae Nae and King Kenny is always a good one!

Happy Birthday RaNae!

My Poor Reindeer!!!

Waiting for Santa. It wasn't meant to be!

White Elephant Extravaganza!

The White Elephant first hit the scene back in 2004, and although we are dwindling in numbers (we miss you Jane, Johnny, Luke and Marin and kidlets) we still know how to pull out all the stops!

The Duncans so generously donated their humble abode this year. And poor Emilee dragged all her rock band over, with two kids mind you...only to be disappointed when Steve forgot the Wii on the counter at home! And although we didn't get to rock out we still had a great time!

The ever present "poo face" Jon always provides me this time of year!

Beautiful as always Jon!

Another traditional shot is the Abby in the air!

Don't be alarmed, those are bangs you are seeing. I'm trying to relive the second grade, no doubt it's the last time I had them. On another note Team Beardshall was fortunate to be graced by the presence of "butt head" this year. She is a long time favorite of the White Elephant Extravaganza. You can really get a sense of her name by looking at the top of her head! We also are excited to enjoy our brand new lawn ornament, I think it will look fabulous out front, don't you?

Mark my words... "Butt Head" will be back next year! Moo Ha Ha

The Duncans received a beautiful doll, complete with burnt face (Talia was loving it!) and a back massager. Don't worry Bryson stole it from Michelle's little sister!

The Davis's are sporting a beautiful smoking jacket, I do believe? Actually that is from the Duncans and I think its a kimono? They always have world traveled gifts. Andrew is sporting my glow in the dark glasses. Yup, he actually stole those from me! How rude! (Oh my gosh, Full House flash back...not cool!)

The Schmidts were lucky enough to walk away with these butes! Jon got our Jesus bandaids, Michelle got the golfers dream phone (another that was stole from me!) and Brooke got a lovely bear statue...although she was more pleased with the massager that Bryson stole! *** Also on a side note Michelley is preggers and due in June...congrats again***

The Cannons got our "I love boobies" breast cancer awareness bracelet and candy "grill". Lance pulls this off nicely, although we all decided that it rightfully belonged to Johnny since he was a thug a few Halloween's ago!

Bah Humbug!

And the Christmas cards were sent. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

(I have to admit I am kind of impressed that everyone is looking at the camera when we used the timer! Plus, Santa is smiling and Chuck is not eating his antlers! He was not impressed with the Santa hat so he opted to be rudolph!)

Lights, Camera and Action!

I don't know many Utahans that would disagree with me when I say that you know it's Christmas when you've seen the lights. Tradition, right? Maybe now, but we didn't make it down last year...perhaps it was the new babe that graced our presence. Wasn't quite sure she could handle all that Temple Square had to offer.

Good thing we waited too, because I think she handled it pretty well this year. Katy is a gawker and she made the most of her skills checking out the scene and all the people. She seemed to really enjoy herself.

I was surprised that I didn't:

1. See someone I know AND

2. See someone get purposed to!

We did enjoy the presence of Spencer (Steve's cousin) and Jenny. Spencer also dons the uniform so when they get together it's tales of jail and tickets and whatever else you can think of. Somehow I don't feel that I can "feel the spirit" of the nativity scene when they are discussing the problems with heroin and meth. Can you blame me?

We still had a great time!

My favorite RED tree, love it. It seems like I hear someone refer to the atonement in regards to this tree, and somehow it has always stuck.

That's what I think of when I see it

Flashback/Rewind.....2007!

Love the lights!

So Mary and Joseph in the water must have been a new thing since 2007.

I felt that it added a nice touch!

Dad and the Katster. Hopefully she will think this is a fun family tradition,

even in sub zero temperatures!

tree hunt

In my honest opinion Joanne says it best in describing our tree hunt..."We drive an exorbitant amount of miles to get a mediocre tree!" And I couldn't describe it better. But when you see the bute we got you will understand why we do it.

As most adventures begin we got in the car and headed out. Usually we stop for a beverage but we just trucked along shootin' the breeze. I tell you what, before we knew it we were in Wyoming and that drink was sounding better and better so we got our refill cups and headed into the "last stop". We figured it would be a good place to go since it was probably really the last stop. Once we got the permit we had to find a good spot to find our victims!

Humm this looks good to me, so Roger took Katy out to get a closer look....

Yup pretty good view from here!

Steve and Joanne decided to get a better look on the 4 wheeler. I thought Steve was crazy when he wanted to haul that thing up there, but Roger seemed sweet on the idea. And if I do say so myself, Joanne looks like she is having a pretty good time too!

Still trying to find the perfect tree, with the perfect view!

I guess it's dad's turn to find a tree. Any luck up there?

Ahhh the perfect tree, at least Gus seemed to think so!

And a Charlie Brown for the Beardshalls! We opted for a tree that would fit on the entertainment center so we weren't spending the whole season telling Katy "no" a word that Dr. Schmidt says she really has no concept of right now. All I know is that she loves to do things even more when you tell her no!

Katy posed to be more of a challenge than I gave her credit for. She wanted to take off any chance she got, here is one of those such chances! Go Katy Go!

Caught her just in time for a picture with the Grandparents!

So aside from loving running and being out in the wild. Gus and Chuck actually both really enjoyed the 4 wheeler, as you can see here. I don't think Gus liked it too much when he fell off when Roger was driving!

Katy experienced the joy of the 4 Wheeler too!

We had a great time. Thanks to Roger and Joanne for joining us on our annual christmas tree hunt tradition. Already looking forward to next years!

black hole

Why would you do that to yourself? You seriously like Black Friday shopping? Are you CRAZY? These are some of the things that I have been asked in regards to my love of Black Friday. I usually come back with response; What's not to like? Pretty witty I know!

But lets break that down, what's not to like?

Sleep depravation....Check!

Sub Zero temperatures....Check!

Drop Kicking through the crowds....Check!

Looking your very best!.....Check!

Britney and I got real crazy this year and actually ventured into Walmart. Let's refer to the above questions... Perhaps I am a bit CRAZY! Walmart was actually really organized this year. The crazy element came into the equation when we chose the 1300 S Walmart. English was defiantly the second language! But the english I did hear was laced with stories of "so and so cheating on so and so" and profane language! Feel the LOVE!

Some of the looking your best I was talking about...

The loot, don't worry we shared the cart!

Somehow I can never escape the double chin when I do a self portrait!

After we axed the Old Nave and Target in Jordan landing (due to the 3 hour wait in Target), we picked up Katy then the gang and headed to our traditional breakfast and Village Inn! I do believe that Britney is uttering the words "sit!", can't you read that on her lips, too funny!

Katy is a poker for sure!

We even concurred Costco. If you have not been to the West Valley location you are missing out, no lines...not even on Black Friday!

Lastly we headed to the Macy's at the mall. The kids had a blast gathering germs on the toys! Brynn was in love with the pink car...

TJ braved the bull ride....

Gage wanted to travel to space....

And Katy liked the pink panther car....

Here is some more of that BFFing that I am trying to cultivate!

Totally Tenacious Turkey Time

The stuffing has landed, I repeat the stuffing has landed! The wonder that is Thanksgiving is here. Yes, the eating too much turkey and falling victim to the nap that was inevitably caused the all the tryptophan that you inhaled! I LOVE THANKSGIVING!!!

What's not to like; food, family and fun! Here is how the day went:

After the run we stopped by the Beardshall's to pick up the Thanksgiving/Christmas Jammies, I do believe that Katy was pleased....

Hangin' with her BFF Brynn! and uncle Josh of course!

If only she had three arms she could have grabbed Gage too!

If Gage was not already cute enough, he decided to bring his own home-made plate to eat off of. Mom got excited about the T-Day art to hang up until Gage informed her that he was going to use it to eat on! So cute!!!

The Barkers! Yum, Yum!

The Beardshalls...Steve had to go straight to work. Lookin' good!

Team Katy/Katie!!! Zach stopped by but went to eat with his family. I was not able to snag a shot before he left so this was the next best thing!

I just love Thanksgiving, thanks for hosting the shindig this year! Can't wait for next Turkey Day!

My Running Buddy

I am really lucky to have a SIL that also doubles as my running buddy! Because we had a great time running the Draper Turkey Trot. I almost packed Katy up in the jogging stroller, but I opted not to. Am I glad I did because it was pretty much below freezing, or at least it felt like that. There was one guy who thought it would be funny to run in nothing but a loin cloth and an indian head dress! Can't imagine he could feel much of anything, even after the run! Let's do it again next year Wendy!

I also had the chance at the end of Oct to run in the Nike 10K human race. A bunch of people in my ward were running. Any excuse I thought and tagged along! What a great run!

I have had a great time getting back into running this year. It's one of my favorite things to do. It gives me a chance to clear my head. I do miss running in Holladay though! Nothing beats Holladay Boulevard! This year I had a chance to run:

Salt Lake City Half Marathon

Top of Utah Half Marathon

Ragnar Relay, Las Vegas

Nike 10K

Turkey Trot

I would love to run a marathon but I think next year I will focus on running my half's faster. 2011 will be my marathon year! For now Nicole and I are planning on running the Ogden Half next year...anyone want to join? Plus anyone want to start a Wasatch Back team? I don't even know if they are sold out already or not.

Here are the Hot Mamma's I was talking about. We took these pictures for the Dr. OZ show. They came out and filmed us for one of their segments. Yeah....we weren't on TV. I do believe they showed a snip-it of us in the background? At least that is what I heard. I guess we'll have to settle for our 15 seconds of fame instead of 15 minutes. I just want to get all warm and fuzzy and tell these girls how much fun I am having finding an excuse to hang out! Thanks for our great workouts every week!

Our next adventure??? The St. George Half Marathon and 5K in Jan. Let the countdown begin!

I don't know what it means to jump on "3", as you can see here! But man Sheena really got some height! Woo! I do also have to give props to Susie and her ninja kick! And lets give it up to Em for her "Toyota" jump...remember those commercials?

Oh yeah getting ripped!

We still got it!