we travel to utah just to eat pie with our families

Oh my silly silly, Lindsay loo. We all went out to brunch at Little America, for my dad's birthday since it's at the end of November.

Can you believe her poses? Such a diva.

One of Maloree's dog friends (we call her dog training friends her dog friends) had some German Shepherd puppies, and Mal brought some over so I could see how fluffy and cute they were.

SO FLUFFY AND CUTE! This one is Absolute, and she's adorable!

Yaaaaaaay for fabric shopping!!!!!!

Since Nick and his wife would be in Rock Springs with her family for Thanksgiving, we all had dinner together the day before at my parents house.

At the end of dinner, my mom asked me to go upstairs with Lindsay to check on the new kitty, and when I came back down, there were balloons and cake and they started singing Happy Birthday to....


...me! Since we don't come home for Christmas, and since my birthday is 2 day before, we don't get to celebrate my birthday together. 

I was so surprised! My mom and Stevie came up with the idea, isn't that awesome? My mom ordered an angel food cake with cherry frosting from Parson's, one of our favorite bakeries. It was the first dessert I'd had in over a month and a half.

It was divine.


My family had always been so good at celebrating my birthday, I'm so grateful to them for that. So thanks, family. I love you.

Both my sister and my brother must be patron saints of rescuing animals. 

This sweet kitty found her way into the parts department at his work, and even though she is chipped, they can't get ahold of the owners, that live somewhere in the midwest. They figured that they must have come through in a camper or something, and she got out somehow. So now they have 4 cats.

Ryker is very sad that the new kitty won't play with him.

It's pie time! Nan came over and we made pie. Mmmmmm!

That crust was amazing. It was SO EASY to make it look great. Recipe found here.

We may have also had cake for breakfast. Nothing beats two best friends eating cake for breakfast, laughing and blabbing, while pies bake in the oven. 

I miss you so much Nan, but when we do get together it's like we've never been apart. Thank you for being the bestest friend ever!

Danny snapped this shot of his dad at his family's feast. I think it's pretty awesome.


"Craig explains something."

Here is my cherry pie, all ready for the oven. I used this recipe. I ordered organic tart cherries from Northwest Wild Foods and they were amazing. I highly recommend them if you are a cherry snob like me.

My very first cherry pie (I usually stick to cobbler) along with my very first lattice pie crust. I'm very proud of myself!

It was so amazing. So, so amazing.

I also made this huge disappointment.

 I love banana cream pie, but I don't so much enjoy slimy bananas. All the recipes I found have vanilla custard, and sliced bananas, so I had this idea to make banana flavored custard instead, because while I like my bananas on the verge of rotten, my whole family likes them green. (ewww) 

What I didn't know is that cooked bananas turn brown, no matter what you do. So while this pie looks just awful and gross, it's not. It's heavenly.

Must work on this.

My mom put these amazing vintage pillowcases on our bed for us to use, aren't they gorgeous???

We had lunch with Nan, Mike and the boys before we headed out. This little guy is ALL over the place. Hey little man, wait for me!

We were so very naughty while in Utah, we were drinking soda again. Yikes. Here we are, his and hers, toasting to our last ones before boarding the plane.

Thanksgiving

(still playing catch-up...)

I love seeing the mountains as the plane lands in salt lake city.

We had very important business to attend to right as we got into town. Cheesesteaks, a fabric store or 5, Hobby Lobby, and the dentist. 

My teeth are not so good, so I have to get them cleaned every 6 months, even though I floss daily. Danny has been to the dentist exactly three times in his life. Once when he entered the Marine Corp, again when he left, and the tuesday before Thanksgiving. He has never had a cavity, and his numbers were better than mine. Arghfnghrunv genes.

But hey, I got great creativity and metabolism in mine, so you can keep your perfect teeth.

One night we picked up some take out from our fav Bombay House, and took it over to Mike and Nan's for an indian feast. Mmmm. Bombay House.

This lil guy sat on my lap for a half an hour before he went to bed.

Cuddling.

Taking selfies.

I love him.

(it doesn't seem like that long of a time, but I havent seen him for a few months so having him warm up right away was delicious.)

Iris right before she went to bed. That's why she looks so nice and tranquil.

Ryker is huge, and likes to bark in my face. I think it's just his way of saying HI AUNTIE THAT LIVES SO VERY FAR AWAY I MISSED YOU! But Maloree says he's being naughty.

This pumpkin pie was the most amazing pumpkin pie I have ever had. My mom and I made it. I'm gonna haveta make another one....soon!

(Yes, that is the only Thanksgiving related photo in this post about Thanksgiving.)

He's only gonna get bigger!

Lindsay loo and Henry. Look at his cheeks!

I started taking some photos...

...and I asked Van to do something CRAZY. This is what I got.

Then he took me by the hand, and said "come!" and led me into his room. Then he showed me the toy bin under the bed that he wanted. I pulled it out. He was madly searching for something...

Say cheese!

He remembered his camera! The one I special ordered for him last Christmas! OMG melt my heart!

Then he wanted to use my camera, and he took this fabulous photo.

Henry boy. Oh, the sweetness.

And the seriousness.

He is such a happy, chubby little cuddle bug. So content.

And then we got on a plane to go back to San Fran.

Knowing we didn't have any delicious leftovers waiting at home to gorge ourselves on, we drove straight to In N out for dinner.

...and then bought some doughnuts for the weekend. 

lost & found

Before I delve into birthday and christmas details- I thought I'd share some photos I completely forgotten about that were taken over thanksgiving.

Getting on the plane to go home.

Visiting Danny's dad at the shop.

Danny's grandpa and grandma as babies. Danny's baby photos look exactly like his grandpa. 

P.S. I can't wait to have a chubby little red-headed Coates baby someday...

Van in the toy bin. 

I love this kid!

Cheeto kitteh relaxing with me before we left for the airport.

I love how horribly grainy this photo is. It almost looks like one of those dot paintings.

the belated post about thanksgiving

Seeing as how it's almost Christmas, I thought I'd better blog about Thanksgiving. Whoa, have I been busy for forgetting to blog about that. 

We flew home to Utah for 6 days, stayed with my parents in the new guest bedroom and had lots of fun meeting up with friends and family. 

Lindsay with Lindsay Olives. 

Lindsay eating said olives.

Maloree and Kaci, Cory's dog. 

My mom's famous apple pie cheesecake. Mmmmm!

On Saturday, we had a nice family brunch all together since Nick and Stevie were in Wyoming for Thanksgiving.

This is Cheeto, my brother's newest kitten. She is so sweet, yet so wiggly. So I was very surprised that I got this good photo of her. Or maybe not, I took like 458679 of them.

Mal and the kitten.

Hahaha! Danny and the kitten. 

"It's almost Christmas, you know!" Says loo-loo moments after finishing her Thanksgiving meal. Always looking ahead, that girl!

A family photo in the very bright sunlight on the brand new porch. You will notice that Cory, Mal's boyfriend isn't here. He was in Texas for his brother's wedding, so he missed out- but Mal made up for it by including Pitri the cat on her lap. 

And here's one with my dad's aunt Mary, my grandma's sister. She came into town for the holiday- it was so nice to see her! She always has the best stories.

I have been SO CRAZY this week. Sewing custom dolls, sending out packages to lucky little girls almost daily, making 100 cupcakes for Danny's work party, dog sitting little Coco. 

I hope I can get all the sewing finished this weekend and get my presents sent out so I can relax next week- I have a minor surgery scheduled for monday that I promise to tell you all about, later. We've decided to stay here for my birthday and Christmas, so it should be pretty low key. 

See you on Monday! (well, sort of.)