thankful thursday

things i am thankful for this week:



**beautiful weather for a motorcycle ride. and a buddy who wants to get in on the action:

i think we look so natural:

**the fact that i may or may not have (allegedly) BEAT somebody in a game of words with friends who may or may not (allegedly) be in the photo above.


which might just be my greatest achievement, ever.


i place it right above marrying russ and birthing my four children:






**mia's fantastic spelling skillz:

(TRANSLATION: "this is an ice cream. it is strawberry. it is yummy.")




**that the 80's dream is still kept awake & alive by my 13-year old's school:

(on the downside, she came to me and described this outfit as "from the 60's". dislike.)

**baby libby's shopping skills.

she went right along to las vegas to search for a homecoming dress, and she couldn't have been any sweeter. or cuter. i think she might possibly be the actual cutest baby in the world.

here she is just chillaxing in the dressing room amongst the 400 dresses we tried on:

**when i find random old photos on russ's cell phone that i've never seen.

like these:

**that the good 'ole candy bar card never really goes out of style:

katie goes to homecoming 2011 with taylor hummel

katilyn went to her homecoming dance last saturday night with her good friend, jordan h.

i couldn't believe how beautiful she looked--it seems so not fair that she received only the good genes from both her father and i......but i'm so so happy for her that i can't even be mad.


her dress was beautiful, thanks to her aunt megan, who's impeccable shoping/bargain hunting skills came into play with a dress that was SEVENTY-FIVE PERCENT OFF:

& much love to joellen for once again making her look like an absolute princess:

7 lessons learned from madame tussauds wax museum

7 lessons learned from our trip to madame tussauds wax museum:



1. using the president's personal phone line is really no big deal:

2. stevekemp is still the world's greatest photo bandit:

3. ALL THE LADIES want to get married to george clooney:











4. george clooney tends to be a bit handsy.  (but i really didn't mind.)

5. lindsay lohan is still not a great role model for the young girls:

6. mia ONLY wanted her photo taken with girls:

(thanks, kamwee for your awesome photography skills)

7. the dads really only wanted their photo taken with girls, too:

9 lessons learned from labor day weekend in las vegas

9 things we learned from our labor day weekend in las vegas:




1. friends accompanying last minute always make for better times. and better jazz hands:

2. it is still possible to milk out your 20th anniversary even 2.5 months after it happened at a surprisingly great new restaurant find:

3. mindi doesn't ever need to ride the new york new york roller coaster ever again in her whole entire life:


****UPDATE 2019 I AM POSITIVE THIS THING DIRECTLY EFFED UP MY ALREADY EFFED-UP SPINE!!!!!****

4. somehow it is possible that chandler will find the only feline in the entire madame tussauds wax museum:

(but we all wanted in on that action):

5. speaking of wax museums and roller coasters....

if you (allegedly) know somebody or are somebody (allegedly) that would be in possession of a counterfeit nevada driver license (again, allegedly) it just keeps paying off.

like in the form of half-off wax museum tickets & free re-rides for all ten persons in your party on the coaster:

6. sipping something out of an adorable container makes it even just a little better:

7. waking up to this view never seems to get old:

8. seeing this view is the reason why we keep doing it:

9. pseudo-suburban gang signs never go out of style: