Thankful!

This Thanksgiving, I'm feeling very thankful. We had an amazing year. In no particular order..

*I'm thankful for my friends and family. Chase and I both have wonderful, amazing families who have supported us and been there for us no matter what. I will always be thankful and grateful for all of them. I am also extremely grateful for the wonderful friendships I've built over the years. I have met some amazing women, and their support and understanding has helped me out so many times. I am EXTREMELY thankful for my best friend, Mandy. She is such an amazing woman, and never fails to be there for me when I need her.

*I'm thankful for The Monks family, who have not only given me a job, but another family. I am so grateful they have let me stay through all the chaos of Hunter's school situation.

*I'm SO thankful for my wonderful husband. He is my rock, and is always ready to stand by my side. He is an amazing man, and father. Hunter and I are so lucky to have him in our lives. This year, I have felt like I've been on rock bottom, and Chase did (and continues to) build me up in every way he can.

*I'm very thankful for my parents and Chase's parents for all their help with our wedding. We couldn't have done it without them, and I am so blessed that I will always have the memories of my wonderful wedding day. I'm thankful for everyone who came to our wedding to show their support for our relationship - it meant so much to us. I'm thankful to Victoria for forever capturing our memories on the small budget I had!

*I'm thankful for Al and Brandi for giving us a wonderful honeymoon. Chase and I had never traveled alone before, and getting away together was something that was much needed. We will never forget our time in the Dominican Republic.

Again, I don't know why this keeps appearing. It's really driving me crazy...

*I'm thankful for my son. Hunter is such a fun, happy, amazing little boy. Of course I'm a little biased, but my Nutner is the best! I am also realizing how lucky we are that Hunter is such a healthy little boy. This entire year was antibiotic free, and I'm very grateful for that!

*I'm thankful for Hunter's teachers and new school friends who are expanding his world in such a positive, happy way. It's so beautiful to me that since day 1, Hunter has loved going to school.

*I'm thankful for Chase's wonderful job and coworkers. Chase got his promotion earlier this year, and we were both very grateful for his new opportunities at RE/MAX. His promotion was well earned, and we were thankful that his boss continues to see his potential.

*I'm thankful for my doggies. Sometimes, they drive me crazy. Almost every day they do something to annoy me. But, I love them so much, and my life would not be complete without them!

*I'm thankful most of those closest to me still have their jobs. My Mom did lose her job a few months ago - after 30 years of service. I'm thankful that she's seeing where other doors may lead her, and hope they lead her somewhere wonderful. She deserves it.

*I'm thankful for my Hyundai Santa Fe. It seems silly as it's such a materialistic thing, but, it makes me happier that it's so much easier to get Hunter and his friends in and out of the car. It makes me happy that I can take my dogs with me. It makes me happy that I have lots of shopping bag room!

And last but not least...

*I'm thankful for the experience I went through this year. It's showed me things about myself, and has taught me so many things. It brought so many raw emotions to the table that it really made me sit down and look at what I AM thankful for, and to realize the MANY blessings me and my family have. God would not put us through these things if He did not think we could get through them.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! GOOO BRONCOS!

New Moon. Gag me.

*SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT* This blog entry contains many details of New Moon. If you haven't seen the movie and are planning to, I would stop reading now.

Chase and I saw New Moon yesterday. I'll start this out by saying I disliked Twilight. In fact, I watched it the other night in preparation for New Moon, and was so disgusted, I had to turn it off and watch it over a 3 night time period. I would love to discuss why I hated Twilight, but, they are the same reasons why I disliked New Moon...

I don't know why this is in the middle of my blog. It's broken. Eventually I'll figure out how to fix it...

Okay. First the positive...I loved this part of New Moon...

Hot! I used to love Taylor Swift. Now, I'm just downright envious....

I actually really liked all the werewolf scenes. If you removed Bella.

Moving on..

1. Kristin Stewart can't act to save her life. She's not a believable Bella. The only part of her that I feel sorry for is for the fact that she's an actress who can't act. Eventually, her career will run out. At least, her starring role career. D-List actress coming you're way.

2. The vampires are not beautiful. Not even in the slightest. In fact, Edward usually looks like he's about to lose his lunch. Rosalie is so far from what a normal person might consider beautiful that it almost makes me want to lose my lunch. And what's with her hair? Jasper pretty much looks like death walking. He's pretty frightening...but not in a good, beautiful way. More of a "I think I just saw a ghost" way.

3. Edward looks like's 23. Or 28. Not 17. Not even close. He's also not a very believable teenager. In fact, none of the Cullens are. You would think with all their practice they would be experts. They are not. If I was the principal of Forks High School, I would have kicked them out the day after they started. I did like Emmett in New Moon though. Mostly because he picks Bella up and swings her around - I'm just a fan of swinging around in general.

4. I almost *almost* wish I could watch New Moon again so I could count how many times we pan in on someone's face and hold it there for way too many seconds. I could probably count Edward's nose hairs if I had the fantasies some girls do about Edward and wanted to do so. Pan in on someone's face once, twice, heck even three times, and call it artistic. Do it 745 times, and you could call it obnoxious, annoying, and a waste of valuable movie space.

5. The story line in the books is pretty good. Enough to make you keep reading. Obviously the writing is mediocre at best, but, I'll give it to Stephanie Meyer since she never really set out to be a writer. And it's written for teenagers, so whatever. The story line in the movie almost makes you want to take a nap. It starts out slowly, but, as soon as it catches up and starts to pretend to be a movie, the acting turns so outrageously ridiculous that it does almost just make you want to close your eyes. If you've read the book, the movie you could make in your head would be better if you had any sort of imagination.

6. They left out the whole imprinting thing. Whatever. Fine. Not a big deal in New Moon. But once they have to introduce it for Breaking Dawn, I have a feeling it's going to go downhill really quickly for non-readers. And if they don't ever introduce it...well, that 4th movie is really gonna suck...

7. Edward also can't act. Not only does he look like a stone wall (I get it, he's hard as stone, he's a vampire, ya di ya di ya da), but his emotions are about as stone wall as can be. When he leaves Bella, his emotion seems to be "Now I'm leaving you. Adios." When he sees her again (and shes's ALIVE, YAY!) his emotion seems to be "Hey there. Ready to go to school?" Because his face is the same as that as when he picks her up for school in Twilight. LAME.

A few more things that I liked...

* The scene of Bella running into Volterra. With all the red capes. But, given the details in the book and that would have been pretty simple for a director to set up. I think I just like red which is why I liked that scene.

*Edward wasn't in a lot of this movie. That was refreshing as like I've mentioned before, he's totally not believable and I really don't get how people are in love with Edward. I could get Robert Pattinson, because he's eh-okay, but Edward? Really? With his horrible make up job where his neck is sometimes 6 shades darker than his face? It makes me want to puke, not warm up inside with butterflies.

*We saw it before 2012, which just made 2012 that much more better. Also totally overdone, but, in a much cooler way than New Moon.

Overall, I feel like New Moon is just an excuse to pile thousands of teenage girls into a theater to fawn over Edward and Jacob. It's never going to be "epic" and someday, if Hunter's kids ever pick up this movie, they are going to watch it and go "really?? People liked that junk?" During the movie, I actively considered the fact that perhaps I didn't like the movies because I had a *better* idea of what they should have been in my mind. That thought vanished when my husband (a non-reader) turned to me and said "This movie sucks." Yup, honey, it does. Sorry.

And yes, we'll go see Eclipse. Because I always have hope. But, I think I will always feel like they took what could have been an epic, timeless masterpieces and turned it into a teenage fawn fest.

Hunter's Third Birthday!

Hunter's Third Birthday was a success! We started off the morning right - with a big bowl of Fruit Loops laced with M&M's....the breakfast of champions!

Then, we headed to Opa and Oma's house, where we set up for the party while watching the Broncos lose to the Raven's, 30-7...that part of the day was sad.

The party got kicked off at 3:30. We had 31 people partying like 3 year olds at the bash. It's always lots of fun to get our families together. It also involves way too many presents for Hunter...but, oh well! The kid is spoiled.

This year, we went for a construction theme. I had SO much fun with this theme, and it was more inexpensive than you would imagine.

I loved my Caution wrapping job. I was so proud of myself after I wrapped Hunter's presents, I immediately ran upstairs, drug Chase down two flights of stairs and anxiously awaited his response. He said "wow, we got him too many presents."

We went with a yellow and black color scheme since wasting money on Construction themed plates seemed a bit ridiculous to me. Hunter was VERY excited about the "big truck" which we purchased as an accessory to his cake. For the tablecloths, I put my creativity to the max by purchasing plain black plastic tablecloths and then using white duct tape to make them into roads. Very exciting! Chase will remind me in 10 years that I was desperate to find the white duct tape...I wouldn't rest until we had some!

Yay for dump truck cakes! This cake was SO easy and so much fun! I lined two dump trucks with Glade Stick And Seal paper (much easier than foil, saran wrap, or wax paper). Then, I baked several normal chocolate cakes, and one Gluten free cake. After the cakes were cooled, I tore them into pieces, and lines the trucks with them. I topped each layer with a good helper of Chocolate pudding before adding the next layer of cake. For the regular cake, I topped everything with Oreo cookie crumbles. I added gummy worms to both cakes. They wouldn't have been complete without the Construction cone candles I ordered online. Not only were these cakes a huge hit, but, they were delicious without being overly sweet, and cleanup was a breeze. Hunter might get dump truck cakes for the rest of his life! :)

I also handmade 4 or 5 construction themed signs using yellow construction paper. I printed shadowed graphics I found on the internet and used Word to create text documents, and then it was as simple as cut and paste. This is the only one we got a picture of, but we also had a front loader, Work Zone, Party Zone, and Hard Hat Area. Another picture-less detail was the construction cones I borrowed from Sloan and Rafe which lined the walkway to the party. I went a little overboard with a roll of Caution tape from Home Depot as well. I also purchased 12 plastic hard hats from the internet. Some went to party guests, and a few others were used as chip bowls. Again, easy, and no bowls to wash afterwards!

Finally, the kind ladies at the Chambers and Parker Rd. Home Depot Customer Service were nice enough to give me 11 Home Depot kid aprons. I bought a pack of fabric paints and the kiddies had fun decorating their own aprons! Easy, and best of all, free! And no candy because I figured they got enough of that the night before...

I hope all my birthday boy's wishes came true that day...and with the loot he got, I believe he didn't even HAVE that many wishes! Happy Third Birthday Hunter! I love you!

Happy Birthday Nutty!

Happy Birthday to the most wonderful little three year old I know! I hope you have a wonderful birthday today! I hope the Bronco's beat the Ravens, and then I hope you have a terrific party, where all your three year old wishes come true!

We had a great Halloween last night! We met Shawna, Dylan and Dalton for dinner at Red Robin. It was yum, as usual. Then, we went to Trick or Street Mainstreet in Parker with them. Hunter got to go down the big inflatable slide, jump in the bounce house, take his first pony ride, and then get a little bit of candy. He had a great time, and was exhausted when we put him to bed.

Yes, I still carve watermelons as opposed to pumpkins! It's just so much yummier! This year, I managed to find a 32.5lb watermelon at Sprouts. It was HUGE. And it was actually pretty yummy as well! Hunter decided we needed to carve it as Lightning McQueen, so that's what we did! He turned out okay I think!

They had pony rides at Trick or Treat Mainstreet, and Hunter was very excited to ride a horse for the first time! He was cracking up our guide by saying "GIDDY UP BIG HORSIE." Very cute my boy is...