Thanksgiving for real

The Netz-Lafitte's were "guests" at this years Thanksgiving dinner. Our lovely hostesses were Casuree and Nate and Uncle Jill and Boyd. We got to travel to Casuree and Nate's beautiful new house for dinner.

Unfortunately, we ran into some holiday traffic congestion in Henefer.

Only in Henefer! (and sometimes Morgan)

Here we see Uncle Boyd/master electric knife operator doing one heck of a number on the turkey.

Yo Bob was on hand just in case a mashed potato or gravy emergency broke out (he now has mad mashed potato and gravy skillz--see previous post)

Casuree did a wonderful job impressing us with her Rachel Rae cooking. She got a little fancy-pants on us with her mashed potatoes and green beans. She did such a good job that Pancho over-ate and look what happened ( I don't think he was wearing his Thanksgiving eating pants).

The guys made sure we didn't miss the big game (and by big game I mean some football game between a couple of football teams who were playing a football game- I'm such a girl)

After dinner Casuree, our craft administrator, showed us how she can turn this....

and this....

and these....and a couple of these....with a little bit of this...

and some of this.....

with some supervision from these guys.....

Can turn into these super adorable sports bobble-headsHere's Lydon representing the Patriot's (duh)

Aaron representing the Cowboys (NOT THE COLTS!!)

Brennon representing the Bronco's

Chaston representing the Steelers (Holy cheezeball! No wonder this kid is in the top two for the story telling contest for the 1st grade)

Here's Jason representing the Vikings

And the lovely Sarah representing the Eagles.

Even Grandpa Bob got in on the bobble head action. Do I get extra bonus points for naming all those football teams instead of referring to them as "the team with the horse, that other team with a horse, the team with the bird and the team with the big blond guy wearing the hat with the horns"?

After bobble-heading, our co-craft-coordinator, Uncle Jill, hooked the kidses up with this awesome little food goody...

Is there any doubt that this turkey....

who belongs to this turkey....

would ultimately do this to his turkey?

NOPE!!

Thanks Casuree and Nate for being the best-est Thanksgiving hostesses. We had such a good time that Aaron was out cold before we even left your driveway. We should get together again---say, sometime around the 24th?

A Thanksgiving Warm-up Excersise

The Netz-Lafittes had the pleasure of being the "guests" for Thanksgiving this year. But we all know that the best-est part of Thanksgiving is the leftovers. And we all know that when you are the "guests" there are not an awful lot of leftovers to go around. So we decided that the best way to take care of the leftover dilemma would be to cook up our own mini-Thanksgiving dinner that we could pick at on Black Friday.

We started the day early and got the bird in the oven. After that, Shawn and Yo Bob whipped a breakfast to fuel us up for the rest of the cooking.

If you aren't an avid reader of the Pioneer Woman blog, you are missing out! That woman provided us with a photo illustrated step-by-step instructions on how to make mashed potatoes and homemade gravy from the turkey drippings (Don't judge. The Netz-Lafitte's usually get gravy out of a bottle.) We also baked us some Rhodes bake-n-serve rolls (not quite ready to take on the homemade breads yet).

My dad did a fabulous job of carrying on mom's deviled eggs. He got all fancy-pants on us and used a cookie scoop to put the deviled part of the egg back into the white part. He passed Aaron and Brennon's taste test so successfully that he had to hurry and boil up another half dozen for our real Thanksgiving dinner.

Ta-da! Leftovers! We did such a good job that we are going to have to give this another shot again on Christmas.

And just for you Trin---we kept an eye on the Hodson house just to make sure that those ladies didn't get too out of control. I'm happy to report that thinks were calm and quiet at 1:30 pm :)

Happy Birthday Roxanne!

I'm a day late and more than a dollar short but that doesn't mean I wasn't thinking about you! Happy Birthday to my favorite prom queen/head cheerleader/Martha Stuart friend. Your beauty and charm intimidate the HECK out of me. I'm still waiting for you to get sick of that cold ole' North Dakota so that you can come back to me.

I'm sending lots and lots of love your way for your birthday. Do me a favor and share a little bit of it with the Mr. in a couple of days. I hope the two of you find a super happy way to celebrate your birthdays.

Aaron Jean Washing Machine

Is turning 13!!!

13 years ago today I was in Ogden with my mom shopping for a new crib mattress. We had Lydon with us and he was a little cranky so I was packing him around piggy back style as we shopped around. I was having some pains but since I'm not a big fan of pregnancy, I ignored the pain. Later that evening, we were home watching the "Santa Clause" when I noticed that the pesky pains seemed to be constantly timed apart. That was about 9 pm. and we decided that maybe we ought to run on down to the hospital to get those pains checked out. Lo and behold, Baby Boy Lafitte made an appearance at 11:45 pm.

Ever since then, this boy has been loud....

and crazy!!

And even though he won't admit it, he makes one heck of a little brother

Aaron Jean through the years

One month (not one of his more photographic moments)

Six months

One Year

My most favoritest picture of Aaron. He looks like a little man.

It was about this time that we could see a little bit-o-firecracker in him!

Pre-school

Kindergarten (yes, I will take responsibility for this crazy hair-do)

1st Grade (and this even crazier hair-do)

2nd Grade (every 2nd grader should have a toothless photo)

3rd Grade (I know that it may look like it but this is not the same shirt he wore in his 2nd grade picture--we are fond of the light blue shirts with dark blue sleeves)

4th Grade

5th Grade

6th Grade

7th Grade

Happy Birthday Aaron Jean!

You are turning me into an old woman!