Turkey Day Rundown

Yes you are seeing this right. It's almost Christmas and I'm just NOW blogging Thanksgiving. Wow. I need to face the facts. Working full time + grad school + house projects + trying to have a social life + holidays = Kala not blogging a whole lot. But man do I have lots of pictures to use! I'm coming to terms with the fact that not everything from the last month is going to be blogged. Oh well... what can ya do!

For the second year in a row Trent and I were blessed to enjoy the company of both our families. It's really nice that we don't have to pick and choose what side to spend Thanksgiving with. Instead we can celebrate all together! All of us (even me, shocker I know!) make a few things and eat up potluck style. It's awesome.

More of the spread...

Last food shot.

Can't tell if my brother is overjoyed about the food or just hates my picture taking.

The McMillan men, my grandpa, dad, and brother, starting the buffet.

Jeryn's first Thanksgiving feast!

Ashley tried giving her some mashed potatoes and just like her strange mother ;) Jeryn didn't like them. Who doesn't love mashed potatoes?!


This holiday is all about the F's: Food. Family. Football. Fun.

Jeryn finishing off the night with a nightcapper with Great Grandma Geneva.

When I married into the Olivier family and we started hosting Thanksgiving here in Gardner, I was pleasantly surprised and thrilled that they were all about the Black Friday shopping! Growing up in KC my family avoided Black Friday like the plague. I did not share this opinion but there's no way I could ever get anyone to go with me. Until... I got married :) We all form our game plan and gather our ads on Thursday night, we'll break into teams, get up at 3-4 a.m. and then hit the stores! I love the madness! This year we did 12+ hours of shopping. Us girls got home about 5 o'clock... to then turn around and go look at the lights at Longview Lake. It was a very successful day :)

Jeryn on Black Friday morning: If you're not laughing out loud at her hat there's something wrong with you.

Her outfit was from me and Uncle Trenton for Halloween :) I loved it!

Her cute little ruffle butt!

I think she's pretty awesome too :)

Hook Me UP!

As if getting 50 FREE photocards this year (just for being a blogger!) wasn't enough... Shutterfly decided that if I embedded my project on this here blog they would give me a $25 gift certificate to use too!!!! Say WHAT?!? Please tell me I've peer pressured you enough that you have decided to:
a. Start using Shutterfly
b. Start your own blog ;)

Those 25 big ones could get quite a few pictures printed out so I can actually start the honeymoon scrapbook before our three year anniversary rolls around this summer. Yikes.

Seriously Shutterfly... if I wasn't already happily married to this smokin' hot boy named Trenton, I'm pretty sure I'd be head over heels for you :)

ChristmasCard 2010

Seasonal Chic Noir Christmas Card

Shop Shutterfly for unique, personalized Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Hook Up from Shutterfly!

It's the most wonderful time of the year! One example why I'm celebrating this holiday season... 50 free photo cards from Shutterfly. Yes, you read that right. 50 FREEBIES if you are a blogger... woop woop!!! I've been a Shutterfly gal for years now. They store all my photos on their website, they do all my holiday cards, and I LOVE their photo books. And that's coming from a scrapbooker who normally looks down on those kind of books cause I'd rather do my own haha. I have done 3 photobooks now. I first made one right after our honeymoon in Puerto Vallarta. I knew it'd be years before I had time to scrapbook that wonderful week (I was right... it'll be 3 years this summer) and I wanted to have something that was easy to tote around to show to friends and at work. Then I made my parents a wedding photobook for a gift, and I did another photo book after our one year anniversary hot air balloon ride and other anniversary celebrations. Call it good luck or fate... but two of those books have been FREE. Around the end of July I always seem to get emails from them with a coupon for a free photobook. Shutterfly... I heart you.

Here's some links you can use if you're wanting to check them out yourself.
http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards
http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards
http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery

And be looking for the Olivier Family Holiday Card... coming soon to a mailbox near you!

Harry Potter #7- Part 1

You might remember from this post back this summer what a diehard I can be sometimes when it comes to favorite movies... especially multiple part series like Twilight and Harry Potter. They are the movies that I count down to and watch the trailers countless times for months. There are some days I'll even watch the trailers at school so I can watch them on my LCD projector that fills my whiteboard. If I turn out the lights it's almost like I'm at the movie... not that I've done that or anything. Anywhoo... back to the post.

The last Harry Potter (#6- The Half-Blood Prince) we got to go see the early premiere the Monday before it came out. I died. I even answered a trivia question to win a prize pack. Nevermind that the question was for the 15-18 age bracket and Trent could hear me shout my answer while he was using the bathroom outside the theater. Being a natural loud mouth + backrow seats in the BIG theater= Kala screaming a trivia answer. That time I won a shirt, hat, poster, flashlight, pen, lanyard, and poster. I was so happy I could cry. Then we got to see the early premiere of Eclipse the day before it came out. I won a pen cause that's how I roll.

A couple weeks ago Trent's boss, again, won 6 tickets to the latest Harry Potter movie four days before it was released. BFF Jobeth almost ended our friendship because of this ticket-winning-situation cause she's diehard like myself. As soon as school ended (but not before some hard-core bragging to make my 5th graders jealous hahaha!) I raced home to don my previous Harry Potter prizes.

Harry Potter Quidditch T-shirt? Check. Harry Potter hat? Check. Totally not acting my age? Duh.

And in true fashion, I made sure to grab some free posters. One for me, one for Jo, and several, several to bribe my students with ;) If there was "Limit Only One" poster... I didn't see it! Now the countdown is on for #7- Part 2 that comes out this summer. The grand finale of the whole Harry Potter series. If I cross my fingers now... maybe Trent and his boss will make this a 4-peat and win early tickets again. If not... expect another campout blog post from me and Jo!

The Halloween Post

The brass candlesticks I rescued from Goodwill to spray paint for my fall decor.

Here they are after a couple coats of glossy black spray paint. I love them so much they're staying much longer than just for Halloween.

They are pretty awesome all lit up!

The fall stuff on our shelves in the den.

A part of our October date night that Trent planned

Is this not the cutest pumpkin you've ever seen?

She's working on her flexibility for her future in cheerleading, right Ashley?

We adore her :)

I love this picture of these 2 talking to each other

Jeryn slept during the carving part but she got to do a photo shoot with the pumpkins before she headed to bed.

Carving away

Ashley trying to repair Jerad's Einstein debacle ;)

The results from a couple hours work!

The carving crew

Me and Trent's pumpkins... and my favorite little white gourd thingy that looks like a ghost. Or a Pac Man creature. You decide.

Jeryn with her football player aunt and referee uncle.

Flag on the play ;) Heading to Jess and Kenny's annual Halloween bash.

As we were driving into Olathe we passed the Ghostbusters car... it was awesome!

The 2 football players.

The reactions to Mikkel's costume. Not exactly PG material for my ole blog. We'll just say you don't want to see what's hiding under his coat.

The most expensive part of his costume... his $55 velcro kicks haha.

My Heisman pose

The school girl with her Nebraska football player

Ken and Barbie

My favorite army brat ;)

The crew at the Carlson's

All us girls with our costumes

Cutest ref I've ever seen ;)

Beer Pong Champs

The Sprague family... Charlie Brown and Linus... adorable!

Jeryn the pumpkin

Trent thought it'd be funny if he brought out the Chucky mask to see what Jeryn would do...

I was so mad at him for putting it on and trying to scare her! She was real curious but then started crying cause he jumped at her. Big meany.

Jeryn with her fur cousins

The Gorney family

The Kennedy family with their little monkey

Caysie and her handsome little Nemo

Buzz Lightyear and Nemo are BFF's

The Lawrenz family

Harlee the witch

Bentley the devil. Very fitting costume for him.

Our pumpkin decor

Babysitting the prettiest girl in the world. Holding her while she sleeps melts my heart :)