Any turkey can TANGO!!

I hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving. We had a second one here, actually, where I did the cooking. In case you were wondering...I DID remember the sugar in the pumpkin pie! (Victoria actually asked me if I remembered it this time. What a gem.)

I had to post this video. This is a song that each of the girls learned in Kindergarten & it seriously is the cutest. This is the first video posting attempt for me so I am hoping it turns out. It is sooo funny when Christianna coughs towards the end & covers Victoria's singing mouth...she just wanted her to wait until the coughing was over to resume their song...but it just ends up throwing the whole thing off...I just wanted to share with all of you! (BTW: the extra girl is our neighbor & best friend to Victoria. The girls are practically inseparable!)

While I am waiting for it to upload, I think I will share a few things I am grateful for.

• My dear husband: He can be really funny & I love it when he laughs...he has the cutest crinkle eyes EVER. He is a great worker and loves his job - which makes it easier for him to go out every day to provide for his family. He knows the "signs" - so when I am stressing and in my "relaxing zone" he knows to keep the girls away.
• Victoria: She is a good little leader as are many firstborn children. She loves everyone and is always trying to make friends with all kids. She has an independent spirit which makes me sad sometimes...my little girls is getting so big! She is beautiful and caring.
• Christianna: (aka: The Rebel) She likes to see how far she can get with things and loves to push the boundaries. She is a HILARIOUS little girl. She just has a knack for finding humor and helping us find it too. She is a cuddle bug and definitely a Mama's girl.
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints: I seriously have no idea where my life would be if not for the gospel and it's teachings. I know I am a better wife, mother and friend because of it. It is wonderful to have the knowledge that you are never alone, that I have a Heavenly Father - as do you - who loves us for who we are and wants the best for us. I am a daughter of God! That makes me feel so great and I am truly grateful to know it.
• My family, friends, our country, our health...there are so many blessings in my life and I am grateful for them all.

Comics Corner

I love reading the Sunday Comics every weekend! Seriously, I laugh out loud - and as anyone who knows me knows, I have a loud cackle of a laugh. I normally serve as the comic monitor because Chris is more interested in all that serious, boring, dreary stuff that is in the rest of the Sunday paper. As I come across a great hooting comic, I share it. My big idea is to do the same for all of you & when I come across a "worthy to cut out & post on my fridge" comic - I will share.

"According to the Indiana University School of Medicine, laughing helps relax tense muscles, lowers blood pressure, and even burns calories. Humor and laughter is also becoming increasingly popular as a form of psychiatric therapy."

So get reading & laugh until your sides hurt!
(I think that should be my new motto.)

Fooseball is the DEVIL!

Go BYUTES!!

I am hoping that I don't offend the masses with this one...but I HAD to!

Last night I witnessed a VERY sad thing. We all went over to the Kenner's home for some football fun. Armed with spinach artichoke dip & tortilla chips, we entered the insane fans' world. You see, I am not a particular fan of any team - whatsoever! I can watch sports every-so-often, but I am not a follower. So that is why I showed up wearing this:

I LOVE IT!!
I have a couple questions resulting from my evening watching the very dissappointing game.

To BYU: How are you feeling about your quarterback? Why was he kept in the game after all those turnovers?? How does that make you feel?

To Utah: Do you really feel good about that win? The game was literally handed to you!

I am sure you'll take that win & run, but I see it like this: If I am going to spend an afternoon watching a game, I want it to be a GOOD game...one where you are on the edge of your seat, where the teams are neck & neck and intense. Sad to say, there was dissappointment all around, but the company was GREAT!!

Sugar: My Nemesis

Hey! What can I say? I am ALL ABOUT the FOOD!!!

I love Thanksgiving dinner & all the fabulosity that comes along with it. Some of you may be thinking....maybe you should lay off the food a little Nicole, maybe that would help you drop a few...you're right...but I don't normally eat stuffing out of the bowl. In my defense, there was too little to put away as left overs so I just finished it off.

I am sure you have all been waiting to hear this one. What's with the sugar???

Well, we all did our part for the feast. Mom started on the pumpkin pies, I made the mashed potatoes, Jennie made the most wonderful rolls & twice baked sweet potatoes, Crystal made this yummy appetizer cheese dip. There was much more to make so the kitchen was a flurry of activity. I even kept up with the dishes as we went along - something, I think, I have never done in my life! Once it was all done, we all gathered around the tables. (Side note: Victoria had an emotional moment when she was tired of always being with the little kids and just wanted to sit at the adult table. Hey we know how it feels, we've all been there. But normally it is when you are a teenager with little kids....she is only 8 people! Mom was great & gave her her own little table complete with candle....I would have just told her to suck it up...way to go Grandma!)

Now we are getting to the meat of this story - so to speak. After dinner was done, out came the dessert. In my opinion, the BEST part. Well, it turns out that Tom & I LOVE pumpkin pie. So we agreed to go ahead and take one for ourselves & go horde it in the corner. We got out the whipped cream and forks & we were ready to rock and roll!Here we go! Getting it all ready to eat. Note: Who needs a plate?

Getting the first bite...noticing that they are now taking pictures of the entire event. I love Tom's face in this one! I am thinking that he really didn't think I would just eat it like that.

OOPS - it slipped off my fork. What was I thinking anyway? An entire piece doesn't just sit on a regular fork. I should have grabbed a serving fork or small spatula.

Here it is.....the whopping finale......quote:

I FORGOT TO TO PUT THE SUGAR IN THIS PIE!!!!!

I had finished putting the pies together because Mom got started on other things.

Alright, dry your tears. There is no crying over pumpkin pie (even though I wanted to crawl under a rock.) We just added more whipped cream, poured about a tablespoon of sugar on the slice & mashed it all up together. I have no doubt that it will be a family story for years to come.

• Gas to travel to Grandma's $40.00
• Thanksgiving diner with the entire family $150
• Movie for the kids to watch $15.00

• Nicole the "chef" having a little "Humble Pie": PRICELESS!

Crazy day- Part 2

After the family pictures we all headed back home and began to work on the feast....well, the ladies did. Shocker, right??? The guys headed out to go clay bird shooting. I SOOO wanted to go with them, but I couldn't leave Mom with all the kids to get the meal done. In hindsight - maybe I should have gone. You'll read why in the next post: "Sugar: my nemesis."

Chris took the camera with them, but kinda forgot until they were almost done. So I will share a few.

We all know that Chris is "Mr. Safety Man." So when I asked him for some little tidbits from the after noon, what I got was this:

"There were no designated weapon handling & shooting spots....." There was definitely more said, but pretty much it was a little scary for him. What can I say? He is SERIOUSLY all about safety. When they shoot for police training there is alot more organization. Seriously - nobody wants a bullet in their butt!

The feast, family pictures, shooting things, dishes...can anything else be squeezed in today?

Seriously, the only downside to a few days together is a very packed couple of days. The morning started...too early in my book...with the hustle and bustle of getting everyone ready for family pictures. We all decided to wear brown. Did you know that there are sooo many different shades of brown? Take my word for it - there ARE! But we all looked fabulous. We drove into town and chose a loverly spot on the SUU campus. It took some time to get everyone together & ready. There were some tears, some laughing and a pinch of the fabulous JC Penny's posing. But I think we got at least one picture of everyone that we can work with...maybe.

(Dear family, I know this wasn't the best one, but it is hard to see details when you pick them for the blog.)

We all took the opportunity while all dressed with hair & makeup done to get family pics too. I think I may actually get our cards out earlier this December!! YAY!! What do you think??? The only one missing is our "little" Minnie. So I have to decide on how we are doing our cards & include a shot of her too. (Because, I really like how I look in these pics & I don't want to try to get it all to work together again to have her in the picture with us. Is that bad of me??)

Seriously, I am SMOKIN'! Anyway, here are the rest of the troops. I am the oldest.

I put our individual family pics down in order of age. (I am only including my siblings names so you all have faces to go with the names.)

Jennie & her family

Crystal and her family

Patrick & his girl

After we were done taking the serious pictures all the kids started chasing Grandpa around the field. They finally caught up with him and took a little breather on the bench.

This one comes with a funny story. Jennie wanted to have a fun picture of us all jumping off the bench onto the ground. We took several takes - all funny - but this one wins the blogworthy award. Mainly for what happened immediately AFTER this was taken. Look closely, can you see how Jennie & I look like we are touching feet? Well we are. We totally hooked our feet together on the jump, she proceeded to the ground & I just came back down on the bench...Jennie's toe had come out of her show! They were like the Mary Jane type, so somehow my foot practically ripped hers right out of her shoe! We were both laughing so hard. I guess that's our lot in life. It's not alot, but it's our life!

I realize that it is going to take a few more blogs to get the entire weekend in. I wouldn't want my devout fans to miss out on any details...so I will continue this day in at least 2 more shorter blogs.

3 AM and all is WEELLLLL!

When the family gets together things get a little CRAZY!!

I love it when we can all get together for a few days! This weekend marked the 2nd Lyndaker Family Reunionwith optional Thanksgiving Fiesta. We all converged on our parents home in Cedar City. It was fantastic because everyone made it...seriously...it is a feat for that to happen especially when most of the hubbies involved do not have the best schedules to work with. They came from over the mountains (NV) and through the woods (Texas) to get to the grandparents house. Things started pretty well, just catching up and seeing nieces & the nephew whom we hadn't seen for over a year or more.

The house was filled with many kids. Mine are the oldest - with one exception (31, 8 & 5, then Jennie has 4 (33, 5, 3 & 1), Crystal has 2 (24, 4) and Patrick is 22 (my little bro.) I must say that it wasn't as loud & crazy as I was expecting! You see, at our last gathering, Jennie's wee ones REALLY liked to scream at the tops of their lungs. Still love you Ethan & Rory!

I cannot recall anything major that happened that first day besides just being goofy - like always.

But that NIGHT was hilarious! Imagine this...3 sisters all hopped up on sugar, ALL 6 little kids are sleeping, it's after midnight, we are sitting around the dinning room table with the game of Scattergories laid out before us. There were alot of GREAT answers....Jennie shared her "ta ta's," Dad was yelling "lingerie" repeatedly in Jennie's ear...funny thing was, we had rerolled the letter and it wasn't an "L" anymore...I know there was more but at 2 am I was running on fumes & sugar. Many times we had to have a " potty break" in between mass amounts of laughter...and you know how difficult holding it in gets after you have kids. Too bad we didn't video tape it because I KNOW you would have enjoyed it! Sadly, there are no photos of our game playing. I bet we wouldn't have even been able to hold a camera up, let alone take a shot between the hysterics - it was hard enough holding the pencil & writing words!

"Why Does DAD have to babysit us??"

I really want to know how many other Mom's out there have heard this and any similar variations from the wee ones in their home.

Seriously, I have realized that when I am with the girls, they would never even consider saying that I am babysitting them. I am just being Mom & spending time with them - most of my time actually...

HOWEVER - when I am leaving for a few hours at night, I get this comment! "Why does Dad have to babysit us?" Why is it different? I have to just tell them this, every time: "WHAT?? Dad is not babysitting you - that is just called 'being a Dad.' "

Thanks for the supprt!!

I know my blogging fell behind, but I wanted to post the fabulous Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk we did Oct. 11th. We got a fabulous group of Pampered Chef ladies and friends & family to join our team to help make a difference.

I was able to get our entire family involved! It sure was a cold morning. (I think they should have had some hot chocolate available at the water stations....what is better to keep you going than chocolate in it's liquid form, right??) We met at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City for our 4 mile walk. The girls were troopers. Christianna started to get the whiny bug after a mile or so, but she kept going & did the entire walk. Victoria brought her friend Lacey with us too. Chris actually ran around the park for a while and then met up with us - those crazy runner types....

This is Debbie, my Director and wonderful friend. So for all those people I have mentioned her to, here is a face to associate!

We were so lucky. The weather held out right up to the end. It seriously started to rain/sleet as we were walking to get a team photo, just before we headed home. It was an awesome day. I was so excited to be able to raise 170.00. I wish I could have done more, but with moving in - well, I will work much harder on it next year!