Mary and Joseph

Chad and I were volunteered to be Mary and Joseph at this year's Primary Christmas party. We had NOTHING to wear. We don't even own robes. So, I decided to make the costumes.

This would normally be a great idea, except that I have been working long hours at work and Chad and I had accepted way too many Christmas "get-together" invitations (which by the way was TOTALLY worth it - December was a BLAST!).

I basically left ALL of the work until the Friday before (the party was on Saturday at 1). I sewed all Friday, as it was an off-Friday at Lockheed, and Saturday morning until 12 PM - Yes, I finished 1 hour before the party...).

Nonetheless, I think they turned out pretty good.

This is us looking at the fake baby Jesus.

"Service Turkey"

This month's theme in the Primary at church is Service.

Chad and I were assigned to teach Sharing Time in the Junior Primary (for those of you not of my faith - Primary is Sunday school for the 4-11 year-olds (Junior Primary 4-7 year-olds, Senior Primary 8-11 year-olds) and Sharing Time is one part of primary where a lesson is taught. The lesson usually involves an activity because the kids are so young...).

I read the manual for our week's lesson/activity, but the previous week had conveniently already used our activity (I don't blame them, the activity set for their week was pretty boring...). So, we had to come up with something of our own.

Seeing as this is the last Sunday before Thanksgiving, the "Service Turkey" was born...

Hopefully you can see that this turkey is sad... (NOTE the sad eyes and crossed hands/wings)

The kids will spin the wheel and it will land on someone/some people that they can serve. They will then tell a way that they can serve/help that person/those people.

Yes - I know that you can still tell that we used the Twister spin wheel...

We will then write the act of service the children suggest on the feathers and attach them to the "Service Turkey."

THEN (imagine feathers on the picture below) the "Service Turkey will be happy (NOTE I switch out the old eyes and open the wings! -it is hard to show a turkey as happy...)

BECAUSE serving others makes us happy!

Don't worry we will throw in some wonderful scriptures and bear our testimony about service...hope this works!

Wish us luck! (20-25, 4-7 year-olds - should be interesting... BUT FUN!)

"Mo"-vember and Cupcakes :)

Chad is participating in "Mo"vember at work. To participate you have to be clean-shaven as of October 31st. Then you cannot shave your mustache for the entire month. No beard, no goatee, no side-burns - just the glory of a single mustache.

Movember is for prostate cancer awareness and each contestant is sponsored to raise money/awareness. Go to the below website for more detail.

www.movember.com

The stache 13 days in...

I love having a husband that is easy going and fun; however, I hate the mustache. I am looking forward to December for more than Christmas this year... :)

As for me, Chad's sister Katie always makes awesome cakes and cupcakes. While we were at her home for Halloween she got me hooked on these really fun cupcake books (link below).

http://www.hellocupcakebook.com/

I made these last night for a game night, for co-workers and really just for fun!

They are cherry, blueberry and applies pies :)

Can you tell?

More fun cupcakes to come!

Halloween Thuggets

This year for Halloween Chad and I went up to his sister's house for their annual Halloween Party.

It was a lot of fun!

Chad and I had a REALLY hard time coming up with ideas for costumes this year. We went from Zach and Kelly (from Saved By the Bell), to Fandango Puppets, to Homer and Marge Simpson, to the below...

I came up with both ideas and at least Chad's turned out pretty good.

For background information for those of you who do not watch the NBA. Chris Anderson is known as the "Birdman" and plays for the Denver Nuggets, also known as the "Thuggets". He is my favorite player (not for his skills (although he used to be one of the best blockers in the league), but for his theatrics)

Recently, the Birdman tattooed "Birdman" across his neck. In his honor, Chad's costume was born...

NOTE: Kenyon Martin also plays for the Denver Nuggets. His girlfriend kissed his neck so that he could tattoo the outline of them on his neck...we also paid tribute to him :)

Behold, Chris Anderson in all his glory (minus the neck tattoo - I could not find a picture of it in less than 10 mins, so I gave up...)

I think Chad looked a lot like him!

AND...I was a cat...

It is important to note that when you put bright white lining around your mouth, your teeth look yellow. Hence, the black and white photo. Also, hence the new package of white strips in my shopping cart today...

The Pharos: Halloween 2010 :)

Wings Over ATLANTA

Katie, Tyson and kids came down this weekend to go to the Altanta Airshow, "Wings Over Atlanta."

Here are some pictures to enjoy...

F-18 Hornet (Boeing)

"Blue Angel"

C-5 Galaxy (Lockheed Martin)

F-22 Raptor (Lockheed Martin)

"Air Dominance"

Blue Angels Show

For every choice, there is a consequence.

I forgot sunscreen.

Who would have thought staring into the sky, straight at the sun, would cause a severe sunburn...Apparently everybody else...

**Note** My forehead and cheeks are swollen...AND I was wearing sunglasses...awesome :(

Makeup could not even do the trick. I think I scared some children at church...Guess Halloween came early this year...

PS I love my job :) Who wouldn't love being around sweet jets and airplanes everyday!

Danielle is 23!

Chad asked me in September where I wanted to go for my birthday.

My brother in-law Troy introduced us to this nice restaurant Houstons (thanks again Troy!), and/or there is a similar Brazilian restaurant to Tucanos in Atlanta, BUT life has been so crazy busy recently, all I wanted to do was stay in and relax together... I know, I am lame - MANY people already told me this...

HOWEVER, it was perfect.

The morning of my birthday Chad tricked me with the old pillow-under-the-covers-trick. Once Chad gets up in the morning I usually do too (and visa versa). I guess we only feel OK sleeping in past a normal hour if the other one is too :) Knowing this, that morning he put our body pillow under the sheets so that I would look over and think that he was still asleep too (I have very poor vision without contacts mind you). Sadly, it worked. (We both laughed pretty hard about it later.)

Once I realized that he was no longer sleeping, I got up out of bed and went to the kitchen only to find birthday breakfast being cooked.

He made my favorite - Chocolate Chip Pancakes and Sausage with Orange Juice

Chad had already spoiled me earlier in the week by letting me open my birthday present early...He got me the sewing machine that I have been wanting FOREVER.

It can embroider too!

I have already started my first project - Christmas stockings! - Yes, I know stockings are pretty basic, BUT I have not sewed since my senior year of high school when I kept making my mother re-thread the machine... They are still a WIP since I could only officially use the gift as of yesterday...

I have white trim for the top and black felt for lettering. I will post the final product when they are finished.

After breakfast, Chad told me to get dressed because we were going shopping. He took me to Walmart and JoAnns to pick out all the necessities for sewing... It was really fun.

When we got back from a fun filled shopping adventure, Chad and I made kabobs and watched the Modern Family DVDs.

Halfway through, Chad surprised me with this:

The candles were arranged in a smiley face...

To the left in the picture you can sort of see the single red rose and a note.

This has sort of become a birthday tradition. Chad always wakes me up with a single red rose and a letter for my birthday. I was looking forward to it :)

It really was a perfect birthday...

Thanks Chad!

Adventures...

I am so mad at myself because Chad and I have been doing a lot of fun things lately, BUT I always forget to bring my camera. I think its because I hate how un-photogenic I am. Here are some of the fun things that we have been up to (not in date order):

1. 4 Wheeling and roasting marshmallows at Katie and Tyson's

2. Softball Wednesdays - Go Bombers

3. Murder Mystery Party - we were "Matchy/Matchy" suburban spouses

4. Six Flags Over Georgia - I loved Superman and Goliath!

5. Primary Water Fun Day at the Stake Center

6. Pioneer Day - SNOW CONES and DUNK TANK

7. Six Feet Under in Midtown - Best Shrimp Taco I have EVER had (and first ;) )

8. Sushi at the Perez home - homemade - delicious - best sushi EVER! Goodbye Happy Sumo

9. TACO TRUCK - 99 cent tacos - meat, cilantro and onion with lime drizzled on top = heaven

10. The return of Glee and Modern Family - Enough said

We are just having so much fun here in GA and have SWORN OFF chain restaurants - there are too many treasures in this city.