Thanksgiving Weekend at the Egberts

Well, Thanksgiving is always a special time of year for us. It's time to think about all of the blessings in our life, and spend time with family and friends. Sometimes it's hard to see all that we are thankful for when we've had such a difficult year. We have lost many loved ones, and have dealt with some personal challenges. On Thanksgiving it was nice to look beyond all of that and realize that we are a truly blessed family. We have jobs to go to, a beautiful house to come home to, healthy and happy children, and love that goes beyond measure.

We were planning on a small Thanksgiving this year. We didn't want to travel and we weren't planning on company. I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but one at a time, family decided they would be able to come see us for the holiday, if we didn't mind. Of course we didn't mind! It's been hard for us being alone in this town. It's nice to have company, and it's really nice to see family that we don't get to see very often. My Mom even made it out from Colorado! All in all there were 8 kids and 7 adults....the biggest group that has ever been in our home! Thanks to those of you who could make it. We loved having you and hope we can do it again soon!



Jared....he was doing a lot of the cooking! I thought it would be a nice touch if he posed in my apron. I love it!!

Me.....my husband wanted a picture of me with the turkey. I have no idea what is on my shoulder....weird.

Eating dinner....Peggy (mom), Catrina, Greg, Jade, Tabytha, Chris, and baby Morgan. I'm pretty sure we all ate too much! Jared is missing, cuz he took the picture!


My sister Tabytha and her husband Chris, sharing a plate of yams! Ahhh how sweet!

Kids, making a mess in the office. They are sooo dang cute aren't they?! Peyton loves having his cousins to play with.

My nephew Bailey....apparently pirate hats are in on Thanksgiving! He's a sweet boy!

My baby Peyton....so handsome!

My brother Greg and his girlfriend Jade. They don't have kids so I think they were bored/annoyed about half of the time....lol. It was nice to see them though!

Caile and my niece Morgan. Caile loves the babies, and she does pretty well trying to keep them entertained :)

My niece Kaydence, she is so beautiful. She asked me for lipstick about every 30 minutes, and she knew just where to find it in my purse! I love that little girl!

My nephews Kaden (left) and Isaac. They are so dang cute! And I love the matching pajamas!

Josh and Peyton....what good brothers! It's really hard to get Josh in a picture. Sorry, this was the best we could do, lol!

Sensitive Boy

I really believe I have the most sensitive 4 year old son on the face of the planet. Last night, after watching Kung Fu Panda (for probably the 40th time since we bought it) the credits came on with this very melodic oriental style song to go with it. I was sitting at the computer when Peyton stands next to me and asks, "Mama isn't this a beautiful song?" I said, "Yes buddy, it is." I looked up at him in time to see his eyes tearing up. He said, "It makes my eyes water." Then this morning, after watching the same movie again, he did the same thing! How does he understand it's a beautiful song....and I really want to know how a song can move a 4 year old to tears!? He is so amazingly sweet and sensitive sometimes! I love that little guy!

Halloween

Halloween was interesting at my house this year. I had to work, so I was frantically trying to do costumes and make up before I left for work. My hubby bought a new camera for the occasion (since we still haven't found our other one *sniff*) and it works great! I thought I'd better post these pics since Halloween was like 2 weeks ago! Costumes this year were very clearly store bought, without much thought or effort. There wasn't enough time to do much else. The kids were happy though, that's all that mattered!



My husband, Nacho Libre! This was so hilarious....he gets all in to dressing up for his work's costume competition every year.


Peyton, a little Pirate! I think his favorite part for sure was the sword. He's so dang cute!

Mommy, the nurse...lol. At least I'm sorta festive thanks to my loving husband buying me new scrubs for the occasion!

All the kiddos! They look ready to go get some treats! I love Halloween!

Caile, the Native American Princess. I could've been more inventive....but I just didn't have the time. She looks cute anyway!

Joshua, the skeleton. It's supposed to be a bloody skeleton, but he cracked the plastic part that holds the blood while at school and the blood leaked on his shirt. Oh well...it still works lol.

Photo Tag!

I wasn't tagged by anyone....I saw this on someone's blog and thought it was hilarious! Enjoy!

Read after the last picture to see if you've been tagged....The rules are, you have to take 10 pictures of the following things, and you have to do it right away. No straightening, cleaning or wiping your child's nose (I mean it!). Then tag 6 others!



Dream Vacation: My favorite vacation so far was the cruise my husband and I went on through the Mexican Riviera. We had so much fun....we slept in, ate as much as we wanted, and saw some beautiful things! As much as I love my kids, it's just not a relaxing time when we take them with us. They get their fun vacations too, but my dream is to have another relaxing vacation...maybe Hawaii next time, with just my husband and myself. It will probably be 20 years from now, but we will get around to it!

Closet: This is the master closet. Really it's pretty big, but after moving 5 times in 4 1/2 years....it's packed with boxes and things that I'm not really sure what to do with yet!

Favorite room: I'd have to say my favorite room is the family room. Please ignore the bare walls and windows....it's taking me a while to move in, lol. I love this room because it's where we spend the most time together. I also love the fireplace on cold days!



Kitchen sink: Nothing spectacular here. We've been trying to soak all the burned pot roast off the bottom of the that pot for 2 days now! I don't think it's ever going to come clean!

Laundry room: There is always clothes on the floor and poop in the litter box...how attractive!

Bathroom: This is the bathroom on the main floor that everyone uses through the day. It's a good thing the toilet lid is closed or you could probably see the pee drippings that are always on the seat from my 4 year old. Now I'm wondering why the lid is closed....maybe he left me a surprise in there!

Refrigerator: There's not much to say about that one, other than I've got left overs that need to be thrown out! I really need to go grocery shopping too....it's looking a little bare. We do have enough condiments to live on for a while though!

Shoes: We don't wear shoes in the house, so this is the basket of shoes next to the front door. It gets to where it starts overflowing and I have to take them all out and distribute to bedrooms, but it really does work! There is another shoe deposit area next to the garage door too.

Kids: So, I only have 1 kid here with me during the day....poor Peyton gets picked on! Just lounging watching cartoons. I think this hilarious because he's not wearing pants as usual. He only puts them on to go play outside. I guess they are too constricting!

Self: I took like 100 pictures of myself (which is really hard to do by the way)....and none of them were good...so here you go!

I tag Tracy, Kimberlyn, Natalie, Diana, Mavis, and Becky! If you've already done this I apologize...don't do it again! If you don't have kids, I know you have dogs...they are close enough lol!

The Heartbreak of a Working Mom

The other night I was put on call for the first half of my shift at work, so I had the chance to get the kids down to bed before leaving. My little 4 year old, Peyton, got in his bed and snuggled up with his big stuffed bear that he calls Sandy. I was tucking him in and told him that I had to leave for work in a while. I don't like the idea of him waking up in the middle of the night, expecting me to be home, and not be able to find me. I gave him his hugs and kisses and told him I loved him. I said, "goodbye buddy, I'll see you in the morning." He said, "Mama, don't say goodbye....because I'll miss you." He had the most serious look on his face. I said, "Ok, can I just say goodnight then?" He gave me his cute little smile and said, "yeah." So, I finished up with, "goodnight buddy, I'll see you in the morning." I was very grateful I was able to have the chance to tuck him in, but wow, I wasn't expecting the heartache associated with it. It really is hard to watch your child cry, as though they will never see you again, while you are walking out the door. After I've worked for a few days in a row, it seems to get easier, but at the end of those days when Peyton gets home from school he always says, "Hi Mama! Are you happy to see me?!" We have a nice little reunion, then everything goes back to normal. It's always been hard for me to leave the kids to go to work, but I know that their Dad is home with them while I'm gone. It makes it a little easier...which is partly why I choose to work night shifts. I guess it's something we will all have to live with for the time being. It's truly tough being a working Mom!

Dieting

So, I finished my 11 day diet a few days ago! Wow, it's a little tough to get through, but I did it! I plan to do it again in the near future too. It really wasn't as bad as I expected, I actually got to eat. I mostly just missed the carbs I love so dearly! My husband said I was grumpy without my sugar, but he can see that I've lost weight already. I lost 3 lbs during that little adventure. I think I expected to lose more, just because of the people I know who are doing it, or have done it. Some people I know are losing 10 lbs in 11 days! Crazy! Maybe next time it'll do that for me. Maybe I wasn't doing something right....who knows. Really though, 3 lbs is good for me. I haven't been able to lose 1 lb. over the last year and a half, so 3 really is good. Especially on my short frame, every pound makes a difference! I hope I can keep going strong with this, it does actually seem to be working for me! Yay! Anyway, thanks to those who tried it first! :)

My Camera is Missing :(

So, I had a whole bunch of things I've been wanting to blog about, and some really cute pictures to go with them.....but suddenly my camera is missing. I've searched everywhere....or at least it feels like I have. The last place I remember it was on my kitchen table. Obviously it isn't there now and of course nobody else has seen it. I'm praying that it is still here somewhere and that my 4 year old didn't sneak it outside and bury it in some dirt. I've questioned him and he denies touching it....but then I wonder about the little friends that run in and out of my house all day long. I don't want to accuse anyone because that's just rude, and it could just be misplaced. I'm so sad though. There were a lot of pictures on there that just can't be replaced. Unfortunately we weren't smart enough to save them all to the computer before something like this happened. I still have hope that it will turn up in some random place, but I'm not counting on it :(. Since tomorrow is Halloween, my husband is out buying a new camera. Hopefully we can hold on to this one!

I Know My Name!

So, I've never claimed to be the best teacher in the world. Most of what my kids know was learned in school. Even my preschooler learns much more at school than he does at home! I've been feeling guilty about that lately....so I decided that I would be the one to teach my son to spell and write his name. I felt kind of rushed because he's been learning letters at school. I was a little nervous that they would get to it before I could. Anyway, he learned to spell his name out loud during a very long car ride, coming home from Cedar City. After 3 hours of practice (on and off of course), he was able to spell his name to his Daddy when we got home! I've never seen him so proud of himself about anything before! So we started practicing writing his name over the next couple of weeks. I would write his name on paper and he'd copy it. We really only practiced a few times. So, I was really surprised a couple of days ago when he started writing on the white board and said that he was going to write his name. First he asked if I would write it, then he changed his mind and decided to do it himself. I stood there waiting to help him out. I could see the wheels turning in his head between each letter.....and after a while....he did the whole thing by himself! I was so proud of him, and he was beaming with pride. He even posed for the picture I took.....like a male version of Vanna White! I can't believe my baby is growing up. I guess it turns out that I'm not such a bad teacher after all!

Poop, Pee, and Vomit

Well, let me tell you how good my day has been....I woke up to our new puppy (Molly), peeing on the floor. I got it cleaned up just as Peyton walked in my bedroom door. I heard a cough and looked up to see his cheeks fill up. I yelled, "get to the bathroom!" Poor kid was throwing up. I helped him get cleaned up and his mouth rinsed out, and by the time I got to check up on the puppy again, she'd pooped on the floor. At this point I'm frusterated, but got it cleaned up. I was hoping the day would improve from there, but so far today, Peyton has thrown up 4 times, and the puppy seems to take this opportunity to pee on the floor. I think she senses when I'm not watching her. I've cleaned up pee 3 times now. I'm a little worried that this is just how the day is going to be.....I feel like I'm at work or something!

Hubby Tag

Thanks Maureen for giving me something to blog about...lol!

1- Where did you meet? At one of my best friends weddings. We went on our first date almost a year later.

2- How long did you date before you were married? haha...that's a funny question....we "dated" for 4 years....but we were basically married for most of that time, considering we lived together and had a child together.

3-How long have you been married? 1 year and 5 1/2 months :)

4- What does he do that surprises you? He's so good at juggling between 3 jobs and taking care of his kids and I. I'm amazed at how it seems to come so naturally to him.

5- What's your favorite feature about him? His eyes....

6 - What's your favorite quality about him? His sense of humor...he can always make me laugh....even when I don't want to. I also love the commitment he has to taking care of his family; he's one of the hardest working people I know.

7- Does he have a nickname for you? What is it? No not really, just Trina sometimes

8- What's his favorite color? I'd say blue

9- What's his favorite food? Well he's a steak and potatoes kind of guy....but he also loves most italian food and sea food. He'll pretty much eat anything really.

10-What is his favorite sport? I think football is his favorite, but he likes to play soccer with the kids.

11- Who said I love you first? I did, but he said it back....so it all worked out :)

12- When and where was your first kiss? On our first date in March of 2003.....at a club in Mesquite, NV....I kissed him first too....lol....I guess he didn't mind too much!

13-Do you have kids? How many? Yes, we have 3, two are from his first marriage, and we have one son together.

14- What's a hidden talent that he has? He's a wonderful cook, even when he makes up the recipe it turns out good.

15- How old is he? 33

16- What's his favorite type of music? Wow, I guess proabably rock, he likes it all though....even country and techno.

17- What do you admire most about him? how much he loves his kids and his desire to give them the best life possible.

18-What's his favorite past time? Depends on the season! He likes to watch football, he likes to ski/snowboard, camping. He also loves the beach when we happen to get to one.

19- Do you think he is going to read this? Probably not, he rarely gets on the computer during leisure time. He's had enough of the computer by the end of the day.

I tag anyone who wants to do it!

Wow, I'm a Blogger!

So, I wasn't planning on starting a blog......but thanks to a really slow night at work, and some very helpful/informative co-workers, I'm officially a blogger! I hope I can come up with some creative things to blog about, because in reality I'm a very boring person. I'm sure I will do my best to make people believe that I am much more fascintating than I actually am! I've seen some really cute blogs and I'm not sure if I can keep up with all the professionals.......we'll see!