Thankful for Thanksgiving

This year Chris was able to come home for Thanksgiving!

One I only took a few pictures while we were there but I had to prove that Chris was the elected Turkey craver. (No one LIKES to carve the turkey). Chris took it all in stride and was such a good helper to my Grandma Mary.

He cleaned up to carve the turkey, walked into the kitchen pretending his hands were sterile. my dad laughed :)

He even got to wear an apron!

I am proud

The Sprules (Katie and Cupcake) decided to make an appetizer to eat before Thanksgiving. i would have to say I hope this becomes a new tradition!

Spinach Artichoke dip!

We all swarmed around it. Ryden was so cute handing out plates and eating the bread.

Katie and Chris also decided to decorate the table with some of the vases from their wedding. They bought fresh flowers and made a beautiful arrangement. Too bad they all had to be moved to make room for all the food!

of the best parts of the holidays are getting to see all the little ones. Ryden didnt have ANY stranger danger this trip out which was amazing so it was really fun playing with him!

These weren't from thanksgiving but i had to include them because Ryden was so cute when i went over for a visit the night before thanksgiving. He even makes a "silly face" for the camera!

Uncle Bill and Ryden playing. soooo cute!

ALSO...

Melissa was in town for a whole week this thanksgiving so I got to spend time with her and her mom Kay. Kay's idea to go to Sushi Garden which was amazing! Even better was that it was half price happy hour! Wahoo!

Me and Kay on our side of the table

Melissa on her side of the table

i heart melissa

As usual we went to Fox and Hound to meet up with some people. I went two different times. First time I didn't think to take pictures... this is from the second. not pictured are all of melissa's cousins.

The girls

The guys
Us

We also went to over to Brian and Kim's house for a bit one day and only the boys were home. Got to see Cody and Erik playing outside.

Boys will be boys!

Erik about to show us his new trick with his daddy's help

Sliding down a rope (hose). I have a video of this i will post later

Cody posing for the camera

yey for family and friends!

Animal friends!

back from visiting tucson. it was so nice seeing so many people. spam and karen's wedding was amazing! too bad chris couldn't make it out for it with me but he did get to come out for thanksgiving. it was cute having such a full house at my parents. 2 parents, 2 daughters, 2 daughter's significant others, and 3 dogs. since all of us were together we had some amazing breakfast courtesy of my daddio! one morning all the guys decided to take all the dogs on a walk. :)

action shot

ok this time they are ready

we were lucky that this time while we were visiting that georgia got to meet a lot of other animal friends.

A picture of Cupcake with Duncan and Olive while I was visiting up in Chandler. They love their daddy!

First up was Clayton's dog (Cleveland) and kitty (Wilma)

Cleveland is so cute. Looks like a lab with short little legs.

Wilma is a kitten that is a month older that Georgia. You cant tell from this picture but she is so tiny!

Some pics of my parents with Georgia. she is such a little lover!

My dad thinks Georgia doesn't like him... but when we were sitting in the kitchen i looked over and saw her like this....

what do you think? i think she likes him!

one of me and her

Last but not least we got to go over to Chris's brother Brian and sister in law Kim's house. They have two dogs of their own (Koa and Scout) and were watching Molly, their parents dog, while they were out of town.

Georgia loved the kids... but i think she was a little overwhelmed...

look at her expression :) Koa is looking sweet in the background

hugs!

and all the kids wanted to pick her up! she probably weighs as much as they do!Brian made us a fire to sit outside and enjoy the Arizona sky. notice how chris has sierra and georgia on his lap! :)

Good times were had in Arizona. I think for Christmas she will pretty much get along with all of her animal friends!

Second Visitor to stay with us!

Chris's best man David Sanchez came through town on his way out to California. We got to see him (took a little break from fasting in order to bond over a meal) and Georgia fell in love!

(above: nice face Georgia!)

The place we went to eat. A bunch of people that Chris went though school with in california are out here right now so we all went to lunch.

Chris and his best man Dave

The four that went through language school in california...

Jess, Chris, Tim, and Dave

The guys

Chris, Chris, Tim, and Dave

fitness!

So as you know, Chris is very much into being and looking healthy. His brother Brian and his wife Kim tried out this system called Isagenix and had good results with it. It is a fitness system that helps cleanse your body of the toxins. Chris and I decided to try it out.

Isagenix: this is what our pantry looks like.

so we are doing an 11 day cleanse.

First 2 days are pre-cleanse days. You take a 2 oz shot of the above supplement every morning.We substituted 2 meals a day with the Isagenix shakes (which are really tasty) and then eat one healthy meal within 400-600 calories.

i have tried to get a picture of how yummy the shakes look but i don't know if it came out looking like much of anything. We mix fresh strawberries in this one. Other we mix frozen fruits in and it doesn't change the taste as much as the color.

The next 2 days were fasting days which were SOOO HARD! Chris and I are used to eating... so waiting up and taking the supplement shot as well as 4 oz shots of a fasting drink (which keeps your vitamins and everything else still in your system even though you aren't eating.)

So after the first day of not eating (besides almonds and these yucky caulk tasting "snacks") we didn't know how we would get though the next whole day. Brian's advice was to keep busy and to go to bed early... earlier to bed for me was like 7:30!

Day 2 of the fast came and it didn't seem as hard. Chris found out that his buddy Dave was coming through town and he wanted to go to dinner so we didn't know what to so about fasting and going to dinner. Brian said we would be ok as long as we ate healthy and not too much. Well the first smell of food was crazy! Earlier in the day Chris was so hungry he was starting to think Georgia's farts smelled like bbq potato chips! ewwww!

We went to a restaurant called Cork n Pig!

Yummy!

This was Jess's bbq chicken pizza

My tuna sandwich and salad.

Chris's spicy steak salad

and chris and i shared a little serving of mac n cheese.

I only ate half my sandwich but it was an amazing meal after not eating for nearly 2 whole days!

We are on day 6 of the whole process now.

We are on day 2 of 5 of the shake days and will end out the last 2 of 11 days with more fasting.

It has been a struggle but will totally be worth it!