Thanksgiving Day 2009

This year we had Thanksgiving at our house instead of with the extended family. Which meant I cooked everything my mom didn't get around to while attending the bird in the oven. Though surprisingly Rachel and Michael helped out a bit in the kitchen. It was quite the experience the day before as we moved all the living room furniture into Randy's room so we could set up tables. Luckily Randy was actually home and helped (for once).

Anyway, everything worked out in the end and we had a great thanksgiving day. Now onto the pictures!

Here's my sad little plate waiting to be piled with mountains of food.


And here's the plate with it's array of colorful goodness waiting to be eaten.


Everyone on the Easr side of the tables


The West side (gangsta) of the tables.


Our "Thanksgiving tree" from the country of LAME-ZOR. Why we put it up early November I'm still trying to understand. At least Rachel and I get to decorate it while my parents are in California. We'll make it rock.


Randy's girlfriend Becky and her son Carter joined us this year for our meal. It was fun having them with us and getting to know Becky better. I have SO much in common with her. It's awesome. We even have the same camera! And Carter was hilarious through the day, very entertaining.


The one picture (out of MANY) Randy actually smiled in came out blurry. figures.


My mom wanted the butter in pretty dishes. So I made it interesting :D


The parentals


Carter LOVED the olives. Becky had to bribe him with olives so he would eat everything else on his plate.


Rachel and me holding the pies that we didn't make. Yeah, they were store bought. But we thought we'd be cool anyway and get a picture with them.


Miles also had a thing for the olives. He knows what they are and knows to hold out a finger so we can put it on the tip. He's adorable as usual.


Oh, the big ugly box behind Miles in the video is the new pots & Pans set my dad got for my mom for thanksgiving. They are SO nice! Non-stick, glass lids, oven safe, etc. I'm excited because I know I'll use them just as much as my mom!

Up next CHRISTMAS!!! Get ready for baking overload, an explosion of decorations, and cool stuff overkill. Of course documented through photographs. December is my busy month, expect lots of posts!

Bec

Love story meets viva la vida

I don't like TAylor Swift that much, but I love coldplay and JOhn Schmidt. I thought this was worth sharing.

I have a new favorite song.

Well, not favorite, but I love it, and want to play it in orchestra. It sounds like the most finger knotting(kind of like tongue tied but for your fingers) song and sounds so challenging but awesome! The song is from one of my favorite shows, "The Great Race". Hilarious show that I can never get sick of watching. Henry Mancini is the composer. Also another favorite composer. He wrote "Moon river" for breakfast at Tiffany's as well as the pink panther theme song. Musical genius. It's a goofy fun song and you may think I'm crazy for liking it. Just imagine being a violist/violinist playing this song. Or even the Clarinet, super skills required for that part! Houndbite wouldn't let me embed the song, so you'll have to click HERE to listen.

Here is the clip from the movie with the song in the backround, but you can't hear it as well. I highly recommend getting this movie the library!.

My cousin Brady was married December 13th to my now cousin Chelse in the Logan Temple. They got married on the same day as my parents and had the same wedding colors. We drove through a lovely blizzard, but it was worth it!

For decorations they had huge champagne glasses filled with christmas ornaments and lit trees all around the room


Rachel manned the camera for a while. I swear she has tremors or something. Every picture she took was blurry. I tried to sharpen this one up a bit so you can see my handsome cousins.


The beautiful black/crimson roses and pine branches for a bouquet


For a favor, they gave out a CD of their favorite songs. They were some GOOD songs too!


The grooms cake, made in copy of Brady's favorite tie


The dessert table was just that. About 15 different cakes, pies and cheesecakes. They were all gigantic and delicious.


The beautiful wedding cake. Always the highlight for me. I'm obsessed with wedding cakes!


My cousin Brady is majoring in Opera performance at BYU-I. He is SO good! This is just his normal singing, but when he switches to opera, he's amazing. I would LOVE to have my hubby sing a song to me at my wedding like this. All his groomsmen were from a barbershop group they were in since high school.

Late nights with a camera, a viola left out after practice, and nothing else to do.

Well, It's done. Michelle has gone off with the married crowd. I am down another single friend.

Moving on. can't dwell on that sad fact.

I put my itunes on party shuffle as I was browsing my daily blog/websites, when suddenly, I hear the hunky man voice of Perry Como crooning me to "I'll be Home for Christmas". BAM!!!!! Wow, Christmas! It doesn't help any that it's snowing this very moment. Or walmart for that matter. I always start thinking about it too soon and get in holiday season mode. Halloween, Thanksgiving, then christmas. Keep it in order people! Although I do know what I'm getting most of my friends this year. It's cute too!

Now Carrie Underwood is on. Jeez. I get so distracted by music I can't think. I analyze it and sing along with the harmonies. Distracted.....

This morning my alarm didn't go off(or did I forget to set it? I can't remember. So at 6 Rachel came down to my room to tell me she was ready. I jump out of bed, start getting ready to book it to choir. Rachel went to clean off the car (stupid snow), then I had to move my dad's car(he parked behind me, KNOWING I leave before him in the mornings), Had to find shoes instead of flip flops (stupid snow) and seeing how I can't remember the last time I wore socks, had to scrounge up some of those. Rachel and I get in the van, she can't find her music folder. Back in the house to look for her folder. She never found it, and the by the time we would have left, driven slowly because of the snow, we would only be at choir for 15min before it ended. Not worth the gas I think, so we bagged it and stayed home. rachel went back to bed while I looked for jobs online. Fun stressful mornin' I tell ya what.

Speaking of hunky man voice, I found this interview of MIchael buble on a british talk show. I loved this little segment at the end and edited it up for all to see. I love this man. Later.

Musings

Could life get better?


Raised on this stuff


I think my brothers had hundreds of these when we were little. I may have even sucked on them as an infant.


Every female would agree I think.



This was a little something Rachel and I put together for Michael's birthday last week. We also wrapped up his desk chair, pillow, and a pair of shoes. It's fun to hear your brother scream. :D

Ace loves his double ended ball. He has quite the grip for a dog. This is one of his favorite things to do with Michael and Randy. I don't know who gets the better workout, MIchael or Ace.

Holy Plethera of Weddings!

Did I miss the office memo or something?

Just the other day I'm at Mike's wedding reception. Great, another friend off the list of single buddies. Two weeks ago was Zach Frank's reception. Angela was first, she now has a baby, then Toni. Surprise, another baby (seems to happen in marriage). Then a couple weeks ago Shell calls up, ENGAGED.

GEEZ! Now Tony just tops the whole thing off! (oh, thanks for telling me first by the way Tony. Oh wait, you DIDN'T) All my orchestra/band friends are going to be married by 2009! Sad little me sits in the corner and cries all alone. No, don't set me up with some guy you know. (Unless of course, he's Rich, over 6'4", extremely hot, and plays an instrument)

I'll get over it. Sooner or later. Ya'll better not abandon me though! or else.......I won't baby sit your children.

I forgot to take my camera to Zach's reception, but remembered for Mike's. So here ya go.

Mike calls it a mutual agreement rather than a marriage between him and Holly. She agrees.

Weird.

Cake. Beautimus.

They had a buffet of catered food including roast beef sandwiches, salad, pasta, freash fruit, and crepes. SUCH good food.

Randy invited Charity along. She always keeps things interesting. Oh, she's Randy's non-girlfriend whom he spends every second with. Isn't that a pretty serious commitment asking someone to a wedding reception with you?

Mike caught off gaurd. I would NOT let my husband wear those glasses for my wedding pictures. they may be in style now, but 10-30 years from now? Nope.

Holly the bride. I wish her luck in a life with Mike. She'll need it :)

Randy dresed up as on of the groomsman. Her colors were pink and black. Pink tie!

Pretty flowers.

They had big band swing, sinatra etc., playing the whole time. charity is a ballroom enthusiast and taught Randy how to dance. Here he is with Rachel doing swing. Rahcel took two dance classes last year for gym credits. It was fun to watch. I even got video!

I'm always interested in the cake design. Can't I touch it, PLEASE?!?!?!

Randy and Charity's favorite pose.

I'm an Aunt!!!!!!! (Finally!)

Coming in at 9lbs. 5oz., 21 inches long, at 8:55pm on monday May 5th, 2008, we welcomed Miles Alofa Laulu to the Hodgson clan!

Michelle was started because she was a week overdue. She was started at about 10am and had the baby in three big pushes at 8:55pm. She had an epidural and said it was just tough pushing, but everything else went great!

Miles is SO cute!!!!! He has a jet black curly hair (lots of it!), big hands (perfect for sports like his parents), a bit of a cone head, and looks like a white polynesian. That seems the best way to describe it. Not really brown skin, but has his dad's nose and hair for sure. Pic below you can see his hair!

Gramps and Gran loving the new addition!

He only cried when he first came out, and after that he just made little grunting noises that sounded like he was laughing. It was hilarious!

Proud Daddy

Happy Mom

Mom, Dad, Rachel and I went to the hospital about 20 minutes before he was born. Really good timing. Lema's sister and her husband came too. I seem to have a knack for the retarded look in pictures. oh well. I'm an aunt and I don't care how stupid I look!

Flowers we grabbed at walmart. I worked my flower arranging magic with added ribbons, scissors and D.I. vases. Yay for flowers!

It was so cute when he started to open his eyes. The lights were too bright for him and he was squinting so much he looked chinese. He is so adorable I could stare at him forever! Sorry for the wrong camera angle. You'd think I'd remember after doing it 50 times.

Please excuse my insane yodelling voice in this video, but enjoy the cute baby!

This "event" took place about 30 seconds before we left for the hospital. I almost became a patient myself. I was doing the dishes and a pile started falling. A knife fell less than 5 inches from my foot and stuck right into the ground. Rachel was playing with my camera and got the shot. Lucky miss!

Just a note: their will most likely be a flood of nephew pictures until, well forever from now on. You have been warned

Bec

Ode to the Dog

Last night I made a video of compiled pictures and videos of our dogs. Muppy who we had for 16 years, Toby since 2000 and Ace the newbie. the video finished, is huge. Maybe I'll get it online in my photo website. I don't think they accept files that big. I think I may be obsessed with my dogs. I guess it becomes this way for any person. If you have a baby they become the center of your life, if you get a new car it's all you can talk about for months and you find yourself sitting in it even when you have no where to go. Well, for me it's my dogs. Mainly Ace because he's very attatched to me.

He always seems to have mud on his nose from digging.


Toby on the other hand has become quite the lazy dog. I think since we got Ace it's just tired him out. His usual place of residence is the top of our couch. Just like a cat.

Today the Dumpsters from the county were dropped off on our street. I have never seen it fill up so fast! I think all our neighbors (and we) have been collecting junk and just too lazy to take it to the dump. You should see the dumpster by our house. Almost 1/3 more full than all the others. Lets just say we've been lacking the most in the de-junking department. I also got a ton done in my garden today. Lots of squash planted, nastursiums, tomoatoes, morning glory and my fence to keep the dogs out is almost finished. I keep draggin ace over to the garden and forcing him through the gaps to see if he'll fit and if I need to alter it. So far he's too big for all the crevices.

Ace always attacks water whenever it's moving water. Bruno (Our neighbors dog) is a regular visitor at out house and learns from Ace. He learned how to lift his leg when he pees, scratch when he wants to go out, and bite when he plays (which is bad). Lately though, he's become more and more used to water. he used to hate it like a cat, but now he attacks just like Ace. Our little protege

I'll be an aunt in two days! (cross your fingers)

As I've mentioned before, I adore Lio the comic strip. Just one of the recent ones I've found. Awsome.

Yay for Pictures and Videos post!

The genius internet people of the world need to create a program that will upload photos one time to the internet, and then it distributes a copy to each website you want. I currently upload my photos here on blogger, facebook, myphotoalbum, and sometimes on myspace. That's a lot of time staring in front of a computer waiting for uploads and taking the time to organize it all!

But for now, I'll be a dedicated photo poster to all the sites I want to share my life info with.

Here we have Toby dog doing the strong bad dance. I have one cool dog.



Yes, I had my birthday. Another year older, another year of feeling guilt of what you could have done in the past year with your life. This year It actually took two breaths to blow out the candles. I guess I didn't take a deep enough breath. I'll probably drop dead when I have to blow out candles when I'm 50.

Randy and Michael being excited beyond belief as usual

So many candles! Cute cake though!

Presents! Yes, I have a garden hose on my head. I'm a gardner, I needed a hose, I couldn't hold it for the picture, so I stuck it on my head. Oh, Toni, don't hate me!!! My Mp3 player broke(Randy dropped it) and I needed one for working out with. all my music is in iTunes, so I got the shuffle(my left hand). I still think they're taking over the world, but I gave in........I'm weak, I know.

Some serious frosting on the cake. Everyone had to scrape of some. This is from ONE peice. about 1/2 cup. Bleh.

My room is black, white and red. This is a blanket to match my bed. Or as I prefer, my mink.

Ace likes mud

Mom had to wash off his feet outside before we could transfer him to the tub for a bath. Too cold that day to wash him outside. I love how he's sticking his tongue out at me.



Shlurp. Mmmmmm,....mud



In the tub

After the dog wash. So humiliated with the ears down

All clean!

Toby loves his belly rubbed, apparently slapping feels just as good

My random cake. I felt like baking. I doubled the cake recipe though and not the frosting. hence the 1/200 of an inch layer of frosting. The center is custard. It was SO good! Next time though, more frosting.

Joey, our royal cat. the music is her theme song. I love how she looks like a queen. She could pass as an egyptian sphinx. A very fat egyptian sphinx