A Very Mendenhall Thanksgiving!

I'm late with this post, but it's important for me to note the precious time we spent with David's family over Thanksgiving. We traveled to Arkansas to celebrate his grandmother's 90th birthday on Thanksgiving day! We visited with his aunts, uncles, cousins, grandmother and grandfather and we had a wonderful time and WAY too much food! I think I ate more off of the dessert table than anything else, and outside of my pants being snug, I don't regret it one bit!

Here's the tale of our time on the farm in photos...and maybe a few words. :)

I love, love these photos of David's grandparents!

Where I spent most of my time...You're looking at Coconut Cream (I stayed away from that bad boy), Pecan (I did NOT stay away from that), apple pie (I may or may not have had 2 pieces. In my defense, we were there 2 days), pumpkin pie and birthday cake! Holy moly dessert table...

Dave, his cousin Bailey and his dad, Mark getting the hayride set up for us!

Dave and his sister

Us on Thanksgiving day

In the midst of celebration we had a little plumbing snafu...the good news is that there were several Mendenhall men in the house. There are a lot of chiefs and not many indians in our family. :) This picture makes me laugh out loud! Brothers....

Kate, reading birthday cards to her grandmother...and below, Gloria loving on her daughters in-law as they read their cards

Dave with his sister and cousins

Hayride fun! My sister in law and my mother in law above and Dave and I below

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and are looking forward to a merry Christmas!

Confessions...

I'm currently in survival mode. I have been running between work, doctor's appointments, Bible study, weekend activities with friends and family, etc, etc. While it's all fun, it doesn't leave much time for gourmet Pinterest meals, wreaths made of burlap and pine cones and perfectly side braided hair....What it does leave time for is ordering a pizza (wife/cook of the year), laundry piling up (we'll just buy new underwear) and an unmade bed just about every morning (yes mom, I know that's your pet peeve and you raised me better than that). Hi. I'm Tiffany...These are my confessions...

~ I'm a really good lip reader. Anytime coaches start yelling on the sideline I get the, "What did he just say??" Most of those words aren't proper for mixed company. It also came in handy during the William and Kate wedding. I must have rewound the TV 10 times to get it all just right.

~ I don't eat anything out of the water. Ew, ew and ew!! I've tried it all...from fried catfish to high end lobster tail. It all gives me the heebie-jeebies.

~ I (apparently) have little ears. We were driving one day and Dave looked over and said, "if you had an Indian name it would be 'Little Ears'".

~ I put up 4 large Christmas trees and 2 small trees. My house is currently a disaster because I pulled everything out to get started and I haven't had any time.

~ One of my favorite parts of the Christmas season is getting cards from friends and family! I absolutely love seeing photos of their families and I display them for the entire season.

~ I'm a mother hen. I'm the oldest of 3 and I've always had the "mothering" personality of the group. In college, I would volunteer to the be the designated driver just to make sure it was covered and we all got home safely.

~ I'm totally ADD. Self diagnosed of course. I am great with the dreams and ideas but terrible with the details and follow-through.

~ I hate checking voice mails. When the 1, or 2...or 6 sits there on the front screen of my phone it drives me crazy! But not crazy enough to make me check my voice mails...

~ And finally, if this isn't a great party trick I don't know what is...I know all of the words to We Didn't Start the Fire.

And there you have it folks. Thursday confessions.

One Foot in Front of the Other...

This weekend was the Austin Race for the Cure. We had a beautiful day to celebrate my mom and the many other men and women who have fought this horrible disease that affects so many. Too many.

We had sweet friends, sweet babies and all of my sweet family come walk...

Team Zsa Zsa 2011

Charlie man, above and Sam the man, below (TOTAL troopers! They were in such good moods the whole time!)

My sister- Kristen, Mom and Me

The whole fam! Dave, my brother- Taylor, his GF- Rebecca, Mom, Me, Kristen and Dad

My dad, mom and mom's best friend- Coleen

One foot in front of the other...we'll keep walking 'til there's a cure.

Celebrating my favorite survivor as she crossed the finish line fully healed and got her pink rose.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow....

Blessing Branches...

"Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations."

These branches sit in my garage year-round waiting for the first Christmas card to come in the mail. This year, we decided to bring it out a few weeks early.

I made these little cards and the point is for Dave and I are to write something we are thankful for each day. We're hanging it up so we can be reminded of our blessings during this time of Thanksgiving. We've had to face a few things this year that have been hard and there have been ups and downs, but through it all, God has been faithful. He has been faithful in giving us strength, hope and peace, He has been faithful through family and friends who encourage us and pray for us...the list truly goes on and on.

You can imagine Dave's enthusiasm when I first mentioned that he actually had to articulate his emotions and feelings. But I stood firm and the result has been wonderful. We are blessed. And when you sit down and actually begin to count your blessings it makes it much more difficult to focus on the negative. God is good...all the time. Happy Thanksgiving!

She Said YES to the Dress!

This weekend I had the pleasure of going wedding dress shopping with my sister.

Highlights of the day included:
The red velvet cake at lunch
Kristen looking STUNNING in every dress she tried on
Mimosas at the bridal salon
Watching the other girls trying dresses on...everyone's style/taste is so different!
Me taking a blusher out of the case to try on and mom saying in her "gritted teeth" voice, "Put that down before you get in trouble!!" :) I'm only 30...
The champagne toast they brought us once she found the dress! So fun.

And highlight numero uno....
Kristen, bursting into tears when she found The.One. Don't worry that my mom, Carole (her future MIL) and I all followed suit by bursting into tears too.

I love you, Sissy! You stunning bride, you!

Happy HOWL-o-ween!

From our crew to yours, hope you boys & ghouls had a really fun HOWL-o-ween!

From Scarecrow Jake, Dr. Rookie, and Head Cheerleader Maggie!

(If anyone from my HS is reading this...yes, that is my cheerleading uniform. Mom and I were cracking up!)

Dr. Rookie, ready for the trick-or-treaters!

We had some fun carving pumpkins! Mom and Nana were gutting theirs and dad was in charge of cutting the tops off of all of the pumpkins.