Turkey Day in Ohio!

Well, thanks to some great friends we were able to have a wonderful holiday away from "home." The night before Thanksgiving we had a "PIE PIG-OUT" at the Johnsons which i think is such a fun tradition they have started! The idea is to be able to enjoy the wonderful pies when you aren't completely stuffed from turkey dinner! (It also means pies two days in a row)!!

We had our Thanksgiving dinner at the church house with some other families from the ward. This is something a bunch of the other ward members do each year so we were very glad to be there!Everyone pitches in and brings part of the meal...as you can see, nobody left hungry!
Me and Brett with the Williams fam
The Passey's and the Royce's
And of course, what would a get-together at the church be without any basketball goin on?! Brett was pretty proud he won a round of Poison! We really enjoyed our Thanksgiving! Thanks a ton to the Passey's and those others who helped put it together!

Later that night i convinced Brett to string the lights up on our tree...i get so frustrated with lights! Our tree looks tiny in our front room! It was a little 6-footer that fit so perfectly in our cozy basement apartment. We are fortunate to have a little more room now! We decided to put the tree up, even if we only get to enjoy it for 2 weeks before we go to Utah! Sorry, i guess i didn't get a pic of the finished project! (Go to the archives from my old blog...it looks the same as last year!!)
I love to turn off all the other lights and watch tv while the Christmas tree is lit! I am so excited for the Holidays this year! I even went out shopping the day after Christmas (Jaimilyn, are you proud of me?!) I didn't go out at 4am, but i did still hit a few good sales at 10 am!

We have been SO blessed, especially in the past few months with so much change in our lives and it has been a pretty smoothe transition! I have a full time job that is going well, Brett is doing great in school and we are so grateful he has the opportunity to further his education. We have wonderful family and friends back in Utah that give us so much love and support. We have met so many wonderful friends that we consider "family" out here and we already know we will be sad when the time comes for another big change down the road when we have to leave them. We have an awesome ward that have welcomed us with open arms. We are so grateful for the gospel in our lives and for the blessings and opportunities Heavenly Father shares with us every day!

card group

Here are some cards from this month... mostly some ideas for you Min! Mine's the first one...they are always pretty plain compared to the others! I'm always so impressed by all the girls' creativity in our group!

Visitors....A LOT OF THEM!

My mom and 4 brothers (+ 1 girlfriend) came out for the weekend last week. We had quite the full house, but it was a good time! This was the first "family trip" since Disneyland in 1994...so it's been a while! They were supposed to arrive at 11:30 pm, but due to some re-routing they got to Columbus around 12:30 am! Brett was in bed and Bridger had come earlier in the week for business and had also already crashed for the night. so i made the trip to the airport and was SOOO excited to see them....Apparently Kolby was happy to see me too! :)Around 2am we were still all up talking and laughing and the boys decided they were hungry, so we went for a food run (which so reminded me of summer nights in high school) 6 of us piled in the truck and the only thing still open was Tim Hortons, but they were pretty much out of everything we ordered so we ended up with a few sandwiches and some donuts...pretty healthy eh?! From L-R is Mom, Kade (27), Brody (19), Kolby (17) and Diane (Kade's girlfriend). THis pic was taken at about 3am which was SO NOT happening with my schedule!

I took Friday and Monday off work. Friday we went to the Columbus Zoo while Brett was at school. My fam are total animal lovers so even being "grown" kids they all really enjoyed it!

We took pics of the animals, but for some reason i find the Brklacich's a little more entertaining!

For some odd reason, the boys find it necessary to RIDE everything! (too bad Cedar Point was closed!) Maybe these statues are just an easy 8 seconds compared to what their used to!

You probably had to be there for this one...but Kolby and Brody had to prove to eachother that they could jump/clear the garbage cans. I thought i was going to pee my pants! Kolby made it by a mile....of course he is still in HS athletics, constantly working on his physique and also a little taller than Brody...Not to mention, Brody didn't think to pull up his saggy pants, so his effort was a little too close for comfort!! He barely made it! This is actually a picture from his 2nd jump which he did much better than the first...he couldn't have cleared that first one by more than and inch! I had tears streaming down my face after his jump...i couln't stop laughing! Those boys...always good for a laugh!

To The Game We Go...

Fortunately all 8 of us were able to go see the Buckeyes play (get beat) Illinois! A family friend who runs the auction here in Ohio gave us tickets for the game (thank you Mark!)...the seats were pretty dang awesome! We made sure everyone geared up in their scarlet and gray!

Before the game we joined in on some of the festivities....the ones that didn't include alcohol! We were a little late for a seat at the "Skull's Session" which is basically one huge pep rally at the old basketball arena, but we did get to watch the band and football team make their grand entrance...this event starts like 2 1/2 hours before game-time.

It was pretty cool to be right there....the drums make my stomach rumble! Everyone gets so psyched! There's tons of stuff going on during game days. We jumped in for a cheesy picture with some of the BIG 10 trophies!

We were at the 45 yard line about 28 rows up....not too shabby!!
Kolby was way excited to be there...that kid eats, sleeps, and breathes for football!

This lower shot is a pic of our seats in the student section...
taken from where we sat at that game!
We are normally about 5 rows down from the left side of the jumbo-tron...
up in the nose-bleeds!

This is the famous "Script Ohio" that i've metioned before.

We had a good time even though they lost :(
I've never heard 105,000 fans so silent as they were at the end of the game.

On Sunday we had Thanksgiving dinner! MMMM...it's been too long since i've had Momma Max's home-cookin! Heaven knows i've never had to cook the turkey!

But, i learned a lot this weekend and i think i can do Thanksgiving dinner next year if i have to!

My fam loves to play cards...it's usually Kanasta, but we taught them a game that the Bailey's taught us back home called "5 card MOW"...you anderton's know what's up!!

It's the best to play with first-timers....if they have a good sense of humor! Yes, momma max is laughing so hard here she's crying...and then came a little bit of snorting which made the rest of us laugh harder than we already were!

Kade and Diane were good sports...also, lots of laughing goin on!

Saying Goodbye! We were so glad to have company! For some reason this goodbye wasn't as hard as it was in August...probably because we'll be back in Utah in 3 weeks! Yahoo!

Candied Almonds

Here's my first attempt to post a recipe! This is what i did after the trick-or-treaters came by... This is the homemade version of the "warm nuts" you can buy while shopping at CABELA'S! :)

INGREDIENTS:
* 2 1/2 C. almonds
* 1 C. sugar
* 1 C. water
* 1 tsp. cinnamon
* 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
* 1 tsp. salt
* 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

DIRECTIONS:
* Heat nuts in oven at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes, stirring often so nuts don't burn
* On the stove top cook: sugar, water, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and salt to a soft ball stage on Med-Low heat WITHOUT STIRRING for about 30-35 minutes, or 236 degrees.
* Remove from heat and add vanilla and nuts.
* Stir gently until mixture becomes creamy.
* Turn out onto a greased cookie sheet/plate.
* Break nuts apart as they cool.

*TIP* if you don't have a candy thermometer.....soft ball stage takes about 30 (or so) minutes...you can put some cold water in a bowl and spoon a little of the mixture into the water....it's ready when you can take the mixture in your fingers and it feels like a "soft ball!" If the mixture is stringy or not holding together it's not ready yet!

These usually taste really good the next day! They are great neighbor gifts for the holidays!

Random Happenings

Well, sadly enough...this is about all the festivity that was produced from our home this past Halloween! I took some "spooky" cupcakes to a birthday potluck at work.Brett and i were pretty lame this Halloween! I did however snap some pics of our favorite trick-or-treaters!
This is Rusty the hot dog! Isn't he so cute?! He's Meg and Brett's puppy! I think he's playing "dead" here!
Taylee was one cute chicken!
Tate was a monkey and his little brother Boston...a banana!! I passed out candy to a lot more trick-or-treaters than i thought there would be while Brett studied for a big exam! Hopefully next year we will get more into it!


I had to post this next pic....thanks to Brieanne back in the O-Town! Most of you know how much i love softball and i was really sad to leave the teams i'd been playing with for the past 4 years or so. Our "old" team won the Fall Ball championship this year so Bri sent us some memorabilia (sp?) to let us know we were missed! She threatened that i have to display the plaque somewhere in my house, so if you see it, don't be alarmed! ha ha ha The duffle bag is pretty sweet...Clearfield City usually gives out pretty decent prizes to the winners (aside from the weird bucket cooler we won last summer)!On another subject....I was trying to think of how many times since i've known Brett that he'd been golfing. I would take a wild guess that i was maybe a handful of times....well my friends, times have changed! Apparently "dentists" need to know how to golf! Since we've moved to Columbus (it's only been 2 1/2 mos)...it would be safe to say that Brett has golfed 15-20 times! He and a few of the other dental students have really liked to golf on this little course that is across the street from our church. I think Brett went golfing 6 out of 7 days before school started while i was working! The weather has been very mild here (so far) and the boys like to get out on Friday afternoons for a round to help wind down from the week! All i know is he' s gotta be able to give Tiger a run for his money soon.... :)