11.26.2011: Paisley's AZ Baby Shower

On Saturday, we had planned a big AZ baby shower for little Paisley. She is only a few months old now, and you usually have baby showers much closer to your due date, but this was the only opportunity for the AZ folks to have a gathering with Vince & Sarah.  So, it worked out perfect!!  Christina helped us "host" it and we had it in our clubhouse at our complex. We made a big dinner of Italian food, lots of apps, baby bundt cakes for dessert, and of course great drinks.  The Champagne punch was a hit and something I could seriously drink everyday!  (Probably a good thing I only know how to make it in bulk....ie, not conducive for anything but a party!

Vince Jr & Sarah got a ton of great gifts...mostly cute girlie clothes!!  They got a few things from their gift registry as well as had a lot of stuff delivered directly to their home.  We had suggested that guests bring a children's book for Paisley to start her book collection as well.  It was a pretty good turnout of books!  She will have fun reading them all someday!  We all played a few fun traditional baby shower games....Baby Food Tasting, Dirty Diaper Guessing, and the kids did a Bottle Drinking Contest...which they love (and spent the rest of the night drinking out of their bottles).

The whole day/night worked out well even though the getting ready part was super rushed! Felt like everything was very last minute!  Oh well, it all came together nicely!  Seemed like everyone had a good time.  Here is our group picture, even though quite a few people had left by the end of the night. 

11.25.2011: Temporary Recovery

On "Black Friday", ie...biggest shopping day of the year....some of the group woke up and hit the stores in the hopes of finding some great deals.  Since we were up really late the night before, we had considered hitting the midnight madness sales, since we were up.....however, we opted for drinking wine & relaxing at home.  So, at one point or another, all the adults hit the stores throughout the morning....except me.  I opted for staying home with the kiddos.  Later in the day everyone (besides Vince, Drake and I) decided to head to Tucson to visit their relatives down there for the evening.  Vince, Drake and I went over to Jan & Glenn's house to have dinner and catch up with them. Eric, Karissa and the girls were there too.  It was a nice break of not cooking or cleaning for the night!!  However, we were all so exhausted, I probably would have opted for sleep in leui of food! :)  It was a good visit though and am glad we went!  I gave my camera a break for the night though, so no pics.

11.24.2011: Thanksgiving Day

For Thanksgiving Day, we had a FULL day of cooking and getting ready fo the big dinner.  We made a huge turkey, 2 big hams, potatoes & gravy, dressing, greens, rolls, etc.  We spent the day just hanging out at the house.  The kids played DS's and texted each other while sitting on the couch.For dinner, Greg, Thelma, Brian Greene all came over to join us.  We had a great evening eating, drinking, laughing...we were stuffed and could not even move after dinner.  I sat on the couch and was just done!  Luckily the kids chipped in and cleaned the entire kitchen for us...it was great and very much appreciated.  Wonderful Thanksgiving day at home!

11.23.2011: Wednesday Family Dinner

After we all got back to the house, we started the cooking and prepping for dinner.  We used up the last of the most delicious EVER marinade for chicken, of which Vince has become famous for.  However Lawrys had decided to discontinue the blend for some ridiculous reason....even though it was by far the best ever, ever, ever!!  Anyways, we had a bottle left of it and were saving it for tonight!  So while everyone enjoyed the evening together, we had a great dinner!  We also went through some great champagne and wine.  Some of the nieghbors stopped by outside and we all visited with them too.  We considered playing some board games, however the night got very long and we were wiped out!