Oh my- catching up on the last week and more...

I can't believe it's been so long since I've blogged!

We did get some family pictures taken... go here and you can see a few "preview" pictures that we did...

http://onemomentintimephotography.blogspot.com/2007/11/newton-family.html

I guess the first few weeks in November I went through a slump. I didn't go out and exercise, I didn't want to do much... just sit around and play with the kids. Not that playing with the kids is bad, but when I don't feel motivated to do anything else- it is bad.

I think I'm past it now though. The Thanksgiving weekend really did a great job of getting me into the mood and really energizing me to get out of the slump I was in.

We had a family that we are friends with over for Thanksgiving dinner. It was fun to have them over, and I always wonder why we don't have others over for dinner more often because we always have a good time. It was freezing outside, but that didn't stop the kids from running outside and playing. Our friends little boys hadn't brought coats, so we rummaged through our collection of coats and got them bundled up as well. Dinner was fun and it was neat to taste the foods that they traditionally have for dinner. I hope they enjoyed trying the foods we traditionally have as well. They weren't odd or anything- just different foods that our families have traditionally had with Thanksgiving.

The day after Thanksgiving I got up at the insane hour of 3:45am... my friend who had come to dinner always goes and shops the black friday morning sales. She talked me into it with a little nudge from Rich telling me he would make sure I got up and out of bed to go. I picked her up at 4:15am, and we went to Walmart and "scouted" out where the items we wanted were. It was totally fun standing around and joking with the other people there waiting for the 5am time that we could get to the items to happen. We actually got all the items we wanted to at Walmart.

Then we headed over to Target. We made a tactical mistake and went to the Target near the Toysrus, instead of just the Target that is closer to home- I'm sure that one was not as busy as the one we went to. The line was all the way wrapped around the side of the building to the very back corner. We were about 2/3 of the way back on the side of the building. By the time we got into Target a lot of stuff was gone. My friend was still able to pick up some things she wanted though, so that wasn't a wasted trip.

After Target we went over to Toysrus. The line to check out weaved around the whole inside of the store. We grabbed a few things we wanted, and then grabbed a shopping cart and got into the long check out line. Then Robyn and I took turns going and looking for additional items (and running out to my car to get the Toys r us gift certificates I had forgot to bring in) while we slowly made our way through the line to check out. After that we went to Bath and Body Works. I hadn't planned on getting anything there, but after an hour of standing in line there, I found myself with some soaps and lotion and a gift card for someone... ha ha... the bad influence my friend is... making me spend money... lol! No it's all good... :)

After that we went to the Target closer to home to see if we could find what we had missed at the other Target. We didn't, but we did pick up a new Christmas tree for my friend, and some other small things that were not the morning door busters sales, but still needed. Then we made a second trip to Walmart and picked up some wrapping paper and ornaments- stuff we didn't want to stop and take the time to find that morning during the rush...

Between the two of us we filled the back of my van almost completely. We had the back seat folded down into the floor, and I was having to use the back up camera in the van to see to back up, because I couldn't see out my rearview window and mirror...

It was a blast though. I can't remember the last time I've just gone out and shopped and not worried about what time it was to get home, and just had some fun shopping. I got home around noon... so that was 8 hours that we were out shopping!

That afternoon at home we decorated the Christmas tree, and put out the other inside Christmas decorations. We'll probably do the outside ones next weekend. I'm now just ready to go gung-ho and get everything done for Christmas. I would be doing gingerbread houses with the kids tonight for FHE, but I didn't have time to go to the store to get candy to decorate them. I'll probably do that next monday night for FHE.

Oh... also Saturday was the BYU- UTAH game... BYU WON!!! WOOO HOO!!! It was a good game, a defensive struggle, but down to the wire, just like the game was last year.

I also went and exercised Saturday morning- that was great to get myself back into the exercise grove. Hopefully I can keep it up. I went again this morning so I'm feeling good about getting back into that habit again.