Thanksgiving with Friends

This year we spent our Thanksgiving at our friends Jenny and Scott's home. They were wonderful enough to invite us over for some food and fun. Also joining in on the party were our friends Peggy and Ted and their two adorable boys, and Aubrey and Blaine with their sweet little girls.


The talented chef


Dan getting the honor of cutting the turkey

Goodie, more yummy food!
We had a fantastic time. Jenny really set the mood with all of her decorating. The table looked so nice.



Sierra with her friend Allie

The adorable, baby Grace
We all contributed to the food preparations. Dan made his famous candied yams, and I brought these yummy pumpkin cookies that my friend Marcie was kind enough to share the recipe with me. We also had delicious turkey cooked to perfection, gravy, mashed potatoes, homemade rolls, greenbean cassarole, and the best part... so many pies to choose from I didn't know where to start. :D


At the grown up table (at least we like to pretend to be grown ups) lol

We ate and visited, and ate some more.


Myself, Jenny, Aubrey, and Peggy

A candid moment with Peggy (isn't she so pretty?!)
The kids all played together and ran around.




Then after eating and visting and eating yet again, we decided to channel our inner rockers by playing a little Rock Band. This was a lot of fun. So much so, that I'm tempted to buy it for our family for Christmas.




Even Dallin and Sierra had fun playing the video game
Thank you Jenny and Scott for opening your home to us. We had a wonderful time spending Thanksgiving with you guys. We are thankful for your friendship. And for all the friends and family reading this, as well (you know who you are). XOXO :)

From Our Family to Yours

Happy Birthday TwilightMoms

TwilightMoms.com is celebrating their one year anniversary as a website! And we got a bunch of special Happy Birthdays from a lot of the cast, crew, and even Stephenie Meyer, at the Twilight Premiere. I thought it was a cute video.



I've made a ton of wonderful friends since joining the website(back in February). So I just wanted to add my heartfelt Happy Birthday, as well. Happy Birthday TMs! You all rock my socks off! :D

XOXO

Update on Brandon

An Update on Dan's nephew Brandon. He is still going through Chemo, and having a rough time. He is very sick, and is continuing to try to keep a positive attitude. Which is hard, when he is in so much pain. His Dad unfortunately was laid off from his job. When he was told the job would be held for him, after Brandon was done with his treatments. So they are now trying to survive on one income with seriously expensive hospital bills. If any of you that read this, find it in you hearts to help Brandon's family out in anyway possible (even just a few dollars would be helpful), please click on the link below. I will also be putting a link at the right side of our blog, after I get it from Brandon's dad. ---------------------------->

donation page set up to help Brandon with the PayPal company.

Here is what Brandon's Dad has said about the donations.

You don't need a membership with PayPal, you can enter an amount, then click "Update Total", then skip to the bottom "continue" link down by the credit card symbols. Many have asked how they can help.A nice neighbor down the street has offered to hold a Fund Raising Dinner. A family that only vaguely knows Brandon set up a Benefit Concert for our family back in September (which helped us through October). Other family members have sent anywhere from $20 to $100 at a time, as they've been able to, to help us with gas money back and forth to Salt Lake City. I would like to thank everyone for helping us in those ways.

If you'd like to donate, please do, and thank you - May God bless you many times over for the generosity you extend to our family! - We can't thank you enough.

The Lord said: "For inasmuch as ye do it unto the least of these, ye do it unto me."






(Thank you all again, we love you!)

Our Truck is Found!

Great news on the stolen vehicle front. This past Monday we got a call from the police department, letting us know they found our SUV, and that it was drivable!

So Dan headed to where it was found and picked it up. Thankfully there seems to be only minor damage compared to what could've happened to it.

Okay, so how it was found was, whomever stole it parked it in an apartment complex, in another person's spot, about 2 miles from our home. So the apartment manager called the police to report it, and come to find out the SUV was reported stolen. So we got the call.

It looks like whomever stole it, decided to take their family around in it. There were beer cans, cigarettes, milking boots, a hose, a kids Halloween cape, dirty diapers and underwear... you name it, it was probably in there. It is completely trashed inside.

But you want to know what the funny thing about all of this is? The thief left their kid's folder in the truck, and inside the folder what do we find?...Contact information. The idiots left their info in the stolen vehicle. LOL So now the police are investigating. And if they catch them, we will be prosecuting.

We are very happy and thankful that we got our truck back, and in relatively good condition. :)

It's a Go!!

Breaking news from Summit! Twilight, just on opening night, made about $40 million, and is projected to make over $70 million for the whole weekend. Because of this, Summit has given the green light to make New Moon. *happy dance, happy dance, happy happy happy happy, happy dance* Read the letter below...



This doesn't mean that now that I've reached my goal of getting the sequel made, that I will stop seeing the movie again. Because I am still more than willing to go to it multiple times. Soooo, if you are wanting company to see the movie, just let me know. LOL

Our Twilight Party

Friday night a bunch of friends, that are fans of the Twilight Saga, and I had a party in celebration of the Twilight movie opening. We went to dinner at an Italian restaurant (unfortunately they didn't have mushroom ravioli). We chit chatted, ate yummy food, played games, and had an all around good time together.


I was in charge of the games, prizes, and party favors. This was fun for me to put it all together. Here is what the party favor bag looked like. In it is a tiny pedicure set, with apple nail files, and sparkly (just like Edward) nail polish. Also a Twilight Delight Ghirardelli chocolate, a pin of Edward & Bella, and a Twilight temporary tattoo.



Modeling my tattoo
The restaurant was really loud, so it was hard to play the games (my throat is still raw from having to yell so everyone could hear me). We still were able to play about 4 different games. We didn't get to the two team games, that we had wanted to play. But maybe another time. :) All the games that we did play, everyone seemed to enjoy (I hope).


Karyl, Heidi, and Laura

Jane Ellen, Cyndy, Molly, and Candice

Jodie and Heidi

Mandee, Peggy, and Janeece
We had about 20 girls there at the party. Then, after the restaurant, we all headed to the theater, where a few more of our friends joined us to watch the movie.


Season and Angie

Janeece, Myself (excuse the scary face), and Jane Ellen

Ashley, I can't remember her name(she was Odette's friend), Odette, and Selina

Janeece serving us some Sparkling Apple Cider.
It was an extremely fun night!

Las Vegas Premiere

Dan and I had a fun time in Las Vegas this week. He took me there to go to the Twilight premiere party and advanced screening, at South Point Casino and Resort.


Our VIP Tickets
We got there Wednesday afternoon, and checked into the hotel. Went to dinner at a yummy restaurant at the Luxor, before seeing Carrot Top. Dan has been wanting to go to his show for the past few trips to Vegas, but the show has always been sold out. So he took this opportunity to get tickets. The show was funny, but Carrot Top swore way too much.


One cool thing about it, was Criss Angel, and Holly from The Girls Next Door, were in the audience. I was surprised at how little Holly was in person. She is a tiny thing, but never looked that way to me on TV.

The next day was the day of the party and movie. We had a blast. There were about 400 people attending. And all the proceeds of the event went to St. Jude's in Las Vegas. Which is awesome!


Look! It's Edward and Bella in the flesh! ;p

It's hard to tell from this picture, but the room was packed with people
No cast members attended though. I was sad about that. I thought, being that it was Vegas, that we would at least get one or two. But nope. This wasn't the official premiere. That was on Monday in Hollywood. Oh well, it was still worth it. There was great food at the party. And I got a Twilight-tini drink (Sprite, with Cranberry Juice). That was tasty.


We had VIP tickets so when it was time for the movie, we got reserved seats right in the middle of the theater. The movie as I said previously was fabulous. And I am proud to say that I kept myself under control. I seriously thought I would make a complete fool of myself in front of Dan. But I was good. Nothing too fangirlie. LOL

The Movie, My Review

My thoughts on Twilight the movie...

I loved it! It was so good. All the actors did a fantastic job portraying their characters. They easily made me believe I was watching the "real" characters from the book, instead of actors playing the characters.

Robert is Edward hands down. But I never had any doubts that he would "be" Edward (ha to all you doubters ;p ). Holy crow, he had me in a mushy pile of goo.

Kristen Stewart did a perfect job portraying Bella. Her shyness, clumsiness, stubbornness, fearlessness and independent spirit.

The film did a wonderful job staying true to the story. Was it a word for word version of the book on film? No, but what movie can do that and actually have movie goers, that have never read the book, enjoy it? You just can't fit all that into a 2 hour movie. But almost everything was there, just rearranged or condensed.

I would've loved to have had the movie 5-6 hours long, so that we could get every single conversation between Edward and Bella that we get in the book. But that just wouldn't be a realistic expectation. You end up alienating and boring a huge chunk of the population that have no clue what Twilight is about. It just would not translate well to the film medium, if you were to do a word for word version of the story.

Do I wish there were some things or lines there that weren't included? Yes, of course (the blood typing chapter for instance). But again, it is not possible to please everyone in that regard. The books are always going to be better than the movies, no matter what book to movie we are talking about.

What matters is that I felt like I was there in Forks, witnessing the true story of Bella and Edward unfold before my eyes. Catherine Hardwicke, and of course Robert and Kristen, completely nailed it. That is what is important.

Some favorite parts for me were...

The Kiss *faints*

Edward's sparkle (I was pleasantly surprised at how well they were able to do this effect, because I was worried it was going to look cheesy and cheap)

The confrontation in the hospital after the accident

Baseball

The ballet studio

The prom (loved the little surprise at the end. Perfect lead in to the sequel)

All the little extras put in the film, that only those that are fans of the books would recognize (I found three)

Okay, I could go on and on. So maybe I should just say, "the whole movie", and save the time. LOL

Anyway, the movie gets a huge thumbs up from me. And Dan said he liked it. He's never read the books, so that is saying something right there. Especially coming from a "vampire purist".

See y'all later. I'm off to go watch it, for the third time, today! :D

One Week!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! In one week from today Twilight is coming out in theaters! Actually, for me, even less than one week, since I'll be seeing it before the general public in Las Vegas! I can't freakin' believe it.

Although I am trying to not think too hard about how close it is, because everytime I do I feel myself start to hyperventilate. Seriously. Last night while lying in bed, I felt like I was a little kid the night before Christmas. I couldn't go to sleep. I am such a fangirl. LOL

Etsy, My New Friend

Britten turned me on to the fabulousness that is etsy.com. I have found countless, wonderful, handmade, Twilight items from there. It is truly an addicting website, so beware! lol

This is my newest buy, and I am just so ecstatic with it. It was custom made for me by a wonderful seller named Shielou. Her stuff is truly one of a kind and adorable.



This picture does not do the necklace justice. It is perfectly gorgeous and adorable in real life

A better close up shot of Edward, from Shielou's etsy store

When it came in the mail today I had to dance a jig, after I busted my package open and saw the tiny Edward. This will be perfect for our trip to Las Vegas next week, for the advanced screening and Twilight party. Yay!

I highly recommend Shielou. Check out her etsy store... http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6289058

Or her blog, where she features all her newest creations... http://shielou.blogspot.com/ And she is happy to do custom orders.

Anyway I just had to share, because I am so in love with my necklace! :D

Disneyland Day 3 and 4

I am putting up my white flag. I just don't have the time to blog two more lengthy posts about the rest of our Disneyland trip that we went on back in June (See, pitiful isn't it that it's taken me this long).

So let me just say that our last two days were as magical and wonderful as the first two. And a bunch of Dan's family joined us for those last couple days, which made it even more special.

Here are all the fabulous pictures. Enjoy!