Phoenix for the Holidays

Pete and I had the great pleasure of being able to go to Phoenix for Thanksgiving this year! Pete was especially excited, as he had not been home for about 6 years so he was very excited for his mom's cooking!

We spent the actual Thanksgiving holiday with my family in Sioux City at Melissa's house and then this past weekend, December 2-6, we went to Phoenix and spent the holiday with Pete's family.

While in Phoenix we also had a chance to celebrate a little bit of the Christmas holiday as well.  We went to the Phoenix Zoo and saw the zoo lights and we also went to the Morman Temple and saw the lights they have.  Both locations are covered in lights and quite a sight!  We loved all the lights and the time with the family. The kids especially loved the lights!  Uncle Pete and Aunt Becky were in full force this weekend...Kady and Brent wanted to spend as much time with us --- as we did with them --- since they only see us a few times a year, if that.

One of my favorite parts about traveling is walking up the ramp from the terminal and seeing your family standing at the top of the ramp waiting for you.  We were greated by Mom, Dad, Kady, and Brent.  Kady and Brent were so happy to see us...they even pointed out quickly "I SEE UNCLE PETE AND AUNT BECKY!!" They were so excited and so were mom and dad.  Its great seeing everyone!

We had Thanksgiving on Sunday with all the family! Cousin's Crystal and Paul and their son Matthew, Cousin's Melissa and Fernando, Aunt Carol, Grandma Baker, Mom, Dad, the kids, and Brad (Pete's oldest Brother).  The kids and adults all enjoyed the Wii.  We usually were playing Wii Sports but we broke out the Wii fit for Thanksgiving...haha...it was fun to watch everyone interact and to spend time with the family outside of a wedding atmosphere.  (I met almost all these relatives at the wedding in June!).

Here are a few pics from the weekend.  I hope you enjoy! We sure did and can't wait to go again and spend time with the Casarotto's in Phoenix!

Kady and Brent at the Zoo Lights

Pete and I at the Zoo lights

The kids LOVE their "Blankies with Sleeves!"

The Casarotto Men

The Casarotto Women

Pete and I with Brad, Pete's oldest Brother

 Uncle Pete, Kady, and Aunt Becky doing a little shopping before school!

Uncle Pete and Brent throwing the baseball a few times

The Casarotto Clan! Great times!

Thanksgiving is a time to be Thankful

Thanksgiving is 2 days away...you know what that means right...????? If you guessed Turkey and great food you are partially right but the main excitement is a few days off work!! WOO HOOOOO!!!! Wow...what is the world coming to when we get that excited for a day off...when we used to get excited about no school! Snow days! Cartoons! woo hooo!! Anyways, I work a half day tomorrow at my full time job and then a shift at my part time job and then I am off from both jobs for a few days! So excited!

This year we are all going to my sisters house in Merrill, IA, for Thanksgiving! I will be a great time with family and lots of food! It will definately be a good time! My mom, sister, and I are braving the elements (elements being CRAZY Shoppers) and going to do some black friday shopping in Sioux City Friday...I'm sure there will be a post about that later!

Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful for people and things in your life.  I have alot to be thankful for this year.  Instead of just reciting a list of people and things to be thankful for I thought I would do a small little picture slideshow :-) (In no particular order...) Enjoy

     

My Grandparents -- truly blessed to still have all my grandparents in my life!!!

 

 My Brother and Sister In Law :-)

 My Sister and Brother in Law :-)

My Mom and Dad --- are they just the cutest!

My Mother and Father In-Law :-)

Debi and Kim - my "extended" Family :-) They are the best!








Friends, Friends, Friends ... I am truly lucky! I have some great friends in my life!  Obviously I could list 100's of photos...but here are just a few :)

 

 

Last but definately not least is my great husband! I am so blessed to have someone love me as much as he does :-) I love him just as much too!

 

 

I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving with Friends and Family!!

Update on the house....

................................THERE IS NO UPDATE..........................WE ARE STILL WAITING.....

HOPEFULLY BETTER NEWS TO COME SOON! STAY TUNED!

The Zambonie and some Chocolate Cake...

The month of November has started with alot of laughter, friends, and family.  Mom's birthday was Friday and it started with surprises...I made mom a big chocolate cupcake, with chocolate filling, and homemade chocolate frosting...I put some candles on top and it was perfect....

Then later on that night we all went to the UNO hockey game where another surprise was in store for mom....dad was able to pull some strings and get mom on the Zambonie between the first and 2nd period.  Mom had no idea it was coming and she had so much fun! See the pics below!!

It was a great surprise for mom's birthday!

More of October...

October has been a month of alot of fun. Last weekend my sister, sister in law, and I all did trash the dress pictures.  If you google trash the dress you will see girls doing anything from paintballing in their dresses to jumping in mud pits...well my sister, sister in law and I did one of these photo shoots but we didn't completely trash our dresses...the worse we did was stand in a fountain...but did I mention it was about 45-50 degrees out and cloudy NO sun....so the fountain was COLD...but man was it fun...here are some teaser photos for you to enjoy :-) More to come later

More to come later :-)

Which brings us to HALLOWEEN 2010.  We had a great time at the Annual Halloween Party at our friends house...every year it is lots of fun and friends.  Here are some pictures below....

Shannon, Karie, and I were the "Black Eyed P's" aka Black Eyed Peas :-)

Pete was "KeithStone" aka KeyStone (The guy from the Keystone Light commercials!!) Fit him well :-)

Me and my Keith Stone :-) Love him!

Hope everyone had a Spooktacular Halloween! We had another night of memories! Bring on the next holiday!!!

October Birthdays

October is a busy birthday month for our family.  Dad, Melissa, Grandma Hultgren, Greg, and Clay all have birthdays in the month of October.  Dad turned the big 50 last weekend on 10-10-10 and then Melssa turned 31 yesterday 10-16-10.  Today we had a surprise 75th birthday party for Grandma...whos birthday is 10-19 and then Uncle Gregs birthday is 10-20 (or 10-21).  Perfect day for the event! We met at the Fremont Airboat Club got everything set up and then waited for the guest of honor to show up.  Grandma was pretty surprised when she pulled up and saw about 50 of her closest family and friends there.  It was a great Fall day and a great time with good friends, good family, and great food :-). 

Here are some pictures from our October Birthday Weekend Celebration:

Soooo we put the number candles on Melissa's cake/pie...however Hy-Vee had ran out of the number 3 candles so we put a number 4 on the candle so it said "41 instead of 31"  This is the Melissa's shocked face! She was a great sport about it!!

Grandma with her cake that Melissa made for the Surprise Party...it was Tasty Goodness!!!

Here is our family portrait, minus Clay.  He had to work today so couldn't make it.  Grandpa, Grandma, Greg, Carolyn, Mom, Dad, Marta, Derek, Melissa, Pete and I :-) :-)

 

Waiting...I am not a good "Waiter"

So have you ever wondered how much in your lifetime you spend waiting? I mean if you take a moment and think back on things you waited for...wowza....there is alot of it! Examples: You just cant WAIT to move out on your own, you wait for a dinner at a fancy restaurant that doesn't except reservations, you wait for the perfect someone to come into your life, you wait for the perfect job, you wait you wait you wait. 

Well we are currently waiting on a big decision.  We put in an offer on a home in Blair.  People are always like "Blair...really?" But what it comes down to is Blair was a big part of our relationship.  We both lived in Blair for 4+ years and Blair is a nice small community, Great schools, and well lets face it...alot less to live in Blair then Omaha.  ANYWAYS, we put in an offer on a home and it was a short sale so we had to wait for the sellers to yes(which they did!) and now we are just waiting for the bank.  See in a short sale, its basically the Banks decision...they are the ones that are going to say heck yes you can have it or no way you can't have it! Our agent as well as the agent from the home, both said it could be a few days....we are going on 8 business days that we still have no word from the bank.  I'm trying not to get our hopes up but it is a great starter home and we both liked it!

So while we sit here waiting for a response from the bank...I am sitting back thinking about all the waiting I have done in my life...would I do it all over again....Heck yes... :-)

Wordless Wednesday