Thanksgiving Part II

To start off the holiday, Annie and I ran a 5k in Draper!

 in the car before the race...

Mandy and Chantelle joined us!

AFTER the race! excited about Annie's first 5k!!

Then off to the Glenns' for wonderful food and fun company :) here we are with Grandma Glenn!

And more of the group! (missing a lot...)

Annie and I then went over to say hi to the Stonemans! They fed us wonderful pie and we had fun visiting and joining in a Christmas sing-a-long with the whole group! Highlights:
*the grandsons getting super excited when they heard annie and I were there! Then some confusion...turned out they heard "a lizard is here!" Turns out cousin Liz is NOT as exciting as a real lizard.
*Calvin's dance during the group's rendition of "Feliz Navidad"
*Gunther requesting an encore of "Feliz Navidad"
*Little Kayla correcting Uncle Augie's confusion with the page numbers again and again
*Playing football with Grahamburger :)

OTHER WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS:
-> Fun shopping day getting Josh's Christmas package all put together with Annie.  Now today we'll get it shipped off to Mexico!
-> A fun visit with Michelle! (and a repeat of our favorite past time: singing at the piano! it'd been way too long!)
-> Michelle and I headed over to Lori's house for a visit with the whole Riches family! love that house. intense mario kart tourney.  reminiscing. teasing kristin. the usual.
-> movie marathons with annie! holiday inn, random chick flicks on TV while waiting for our jello creation to set up, anne of green gables AND anne of avonlea (the gilbert version...where you skip any part without gilbert in it), and the music man!

Annie and I were so grateful to our extended family for making us feel so welcome! We missed mom and dad in Russia, the Bosters in Texas, the Shawcrofts in Colorado, and Josh in Mexcio...but we are certainly grateful for skype this year!! technology is a great blessing in my life as my family is scattered around the world.  I'm also very grateful for my dear sister Annie holding down fort here in the family home so I have a place to come home to :)

More than anything, I am thankful for the Atonement of my Savior, Jesus Christ.  I am grateful for His ability to do it, His willingness to do it, and His love for each of us that motivated Him to do it.  I am grateful that it makes it possible for me to enjoy peace, healing, and progression. I'm grateful He never gives up on me :) He is my truest friend.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

my michelley is married!

My cousin/friend (or shall i say frousin?) michelle got married a little over a week ago! we grew up together: being the bawl babies, wearing matching dresses even though i was in utah and she was in hawaii, gluing/tying ourselves together so she couldn't go back to hawaii and leave me again, going to school together starting in 3rd grade, sharing the "psycho-crazy cousin vibe," meeting up after school in elementary and getting out monopoly jr every time without even speaking first, calling each other every day after school in jr high (even though we'd just been together all day) to tell each other stories from the day (michelle what did we call the stories? it was a fruit wasn't it?), belting out disney songs in my kitchen, spending many weekends just sitting at the piano . . . me playing as she sang, having the same bed spread in college even though we were 3 hours away, and just having a lot of good times with ourselves, family, and friends. now she's all grown up and getting married!! i'm so grateful that everything worked out so that i was not only in utah for her wedding, but endowed and so able to attend her temple ceremony. i think some things are just meant to be :) her new husband taylor seems like a great guy and i think they are both the luckiest people alive. here are some pics from the occasion. I LOVE YOU MICHELLE!

(i didn't have a man to dance with, so i grabbed the cardboard cutout of andrew :) we missionaries have to stick together!)

RASCAL FLATTS!!

ok, secret confession. i am addicted to country music concerts. it all started when heidi tuttle invited me to keith urban back in high school. i didn't know a ton of country then, but now country music is just part of my heart and soul :) that AMAZING concert was probably a good reason i started to love it. so far i've seen these favs in concert:

Keith Urban

with heidi, mandy, kenzie, vanessa, dani, and other high school girl friends too . . . i just can't remember who for sure!

Rascal Flatts
with abby, angie, ka, mitch, willie, heidi, kathryn, and dan! freshmen year of college. only downer was we were on practically the back row, but SO fun

Kenny Chesney
with michelle and angie. michelle was cute enough to share her birthday present with me!

Dierks Bentley
opened for kenny

Carrie Underwood
i saw her open for both kenny chesney and brad paisley.

Brad Paisley
last minute excursion with angie and our friend michelle from upstairs in wyview! we got to sit in a box for free!

Diamond Rio
date with my friend jake at the fair! small concert and so fun

Tim McGraw
went with janelle! it was going to be my last concert before the mish, but because i'm still here and leaving in april, i HAD to catch another one! hence . . .

RASCAL FLATTS AGAIN!
2 weeks ago with abby and annie! SO much more fun to see them up closer. ah it was so fun! here are some pics!
waiting for them to come out!!

rascal flatts!

Here they are singing "my wish" (we videoed it for you mom! love you!)

(note to self: don't ever sing at a concert while videoing because you're louder than the actual performers)


hmmm i was going to upload another video, but it's just taking too long . . . BORING. maybe another day. anyway i love that i got to go to my last country concert for 18 months with abby and annie! GOOD TIMES! ah yay for life and yay for being a secret cowgirl :)

i love reunionizing . . .

i got to see so many old friends this weekend! we had a friend bridal shower for michelle on saturday and i was so happy so many came! this pic was taken after a lot of people had already left, but i still love it. it was so great to see you all!!! oh and the boy is michelle's fun fiance taylor :) what a champ to come meet us all. congrats you two! next time i see you will probably be at your WEDDING. c-r-a-z-y.

glenn family fun . . .

we've had so many good times with my mom's side of the family recently that i had to post some pics! first off, my grandma's birthday back in january! we partied at don and rachelle's, and even though we were missing some people, we had a darn good time arm/leg wrestling and just chatting. happy birthday gwamma gwenny! (i'm debating about posting any of the leg wrestling videos, but i'm too tired, so maybe another time)



this past weekend we had a glenn family bridal shower for michelle! we had a blast eating food and watching chick flick clips! i didn't take many pics but here they are!

little james was a champ and roughed it as the only boy in attendance :)

last night jamie drove to provo to take us byu girls out to dinner! she's the sweetest. we had an AMAZING dinner at PF Chang's complete with lettuce wraps, the wall of chocolate, a marriage proposal a couple of tables over, and a proposal for abby from our waiter! :)

i love all you glenn people!

THANKSGIVING!!

I had an amazing thanksgiving! We just had a quiet shindig at home, but the whole fam was there! It was especially fun since the Bosters have recently moved to Idaho. (we miss you guys!) They showed up a day early and surprised us all which was fun. What more could you want in a weekend? family, good food, JAMES, and lots of christmas movies :) As Gibbons family tradition has it, we always watch "White Christmas" Thanksgiving night to open up the Christmas season. I never let myself get TOO excited about Christmas until we watch it. I also got to see Michelle and meet her fiancee! Even though she whooped us in power scrabble, I'm not still bitter. Too bad I got sick too though :( my cough makes me sounds like an old man who has smoked his whole life. But I guess there could be worse things huh?

Here are a few pics of the weekend including some from our family photo shoot! I don't have it with me, but I will soon post PROOF that me and my momma went shopping at 4 am the day after Thanksgiving . . . something I didn't think would ever happen. It's kind of a goofy story since we didn't buy anything, we just needed the security tag removed from a shirt we bought on Wednesday so I could wear it in the family pics. We DID get free snow globes though, so that combined with the memories made it well worth it hehe :) a picture to come of our 4 am loveliness!

Getting the food ready! Dad's apron is the best: "Grill a Judge"


Some quality play time with the boy, gives me a good excuse to do the things i secretly want to do anyway, like put baskets on top of my head :)

THE FAM!

"Sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters!" haha White Christmas reference . . .

our little josh is all grown up now!


the sibs complete with jonathan!

my parents looking "young, modern, and popular" ;) but seriously! what a handsome couple!!

Well those pictures mostly sum up what I am thankful for this thanksgiving, the wonderful people in my life, especially my family! The past few weeks I've reflected a lot about the people that mean a lot to me and how much joy I get from my relationships with them.

soundtrack to my life . . .

So randomly last night I was putting away laundry (that's not the random part yet) and I got to thinking how awesome it would be to have a soundtrack to my life! Mostly cuz I LOVE music and there's just so many songs that characterize certain times in my life!

So I started thinking of all the songs that just remind me of my childhood (like James Taylor, David Benoit, Simon and Garfunkel . . . all the stuff that Dad listened to, plus those awesome songs we'd listen to with mom on the way to preschool!), junior high (backstreet boys are a fav . . . still hehe, and mine and michelle's disney dance parties in my kitchen? classic), high school (too many to even name here, but ones that remind me of being an SBO, being in the school musical, school dances, concerto night, and just good times with friends), and the college years (I have different songs that remind me of EVERY semester/summer and the friends I had and girls I lived with . . . I could make a whole soundtrack just of living with Ang and Ka I think!). There's piano pieces I've played, songs from EFY counselor times, songs I'd listen to as I cleaned up after banquets in the JSMB on temple square, songs that remind me of amazing friends I've had, songs that got me through hard times, favorite hymns that either comfort me or just express my testimony of my Savior, songs that remind me of the fam, songs that just scream Christmastime in the Gibbons' house, and songs that are especially fun to dance to, be it cha-cha, waltz, WEST COAST SWING, or country swing dance!

Anyway, I sat down, opened up itunes, and started compiling this soundtrack. When I first began I was thinking I'd get like 20 songs and make a cd and make it my soundtrack! Finally around 11:30 pm I had come up with 116 songs!! Way too many! That's even after cutting it down. I need to cut it down more and be harsh and get rid of ones that I simply love and keep ones that REALLY remind me of a time or have had special meaning in my life, but it's so hard!! I've gotten teased by countless people who have noticed that there are a MILLION songs that will make me say "Oh I LOVE this song!!" when it pops up on the radio or my ipod or whatnot. Anyway, the only point to this post is to express my love of music and the big influence it's been in my life. I LOVE IT!! Maybe if I get the soundtrack cut down to a reasonable number of songs, I will share it with you all :)

HALLOWEEN!!

Ah halloween. I think I've always loved getting all dressed up . . . more the pretty kind of dressing up than the bloody, scary kind of dressing up . . . this illustrated obviously by the fact that I think I was a princess 4 years in a row in my younger days! K so it might have only been 3 but still. One particularly embarrassing halloween was when michelle, lori, and I were aliens in 6th grade. If i remember right we made our own spaceship . . . with cardboard boxes and green bubble wrap? Yeah not my proudest moment. Later in high school and college I wasn't very into halloween but the past two years I've just LOVED it for some reason! I think it's just the opportunity to transform for a night and be something other than just . . . liz. Last year I dressed up in THREE different costumes for different occasions. Yeah I was hardcore: mad scientist, pirate, and a 50's girl I think. The mad scientist costume with Jane was an ultimate favorite:

yup, our beakers had dry ice in them . . . talk about legit

And this is a favorite picture of me and jane . . . I feel like it just catches our personalities perfectly on camera. Love you jane!

This year I was a bee! I thought it was really funny because of the wasp infestation we've had in the lab (see my first post . . .) but I think I was the only one who thought it was hilarious haha. Also I just love cheap homemade costumes. For instance, my wings were found in the family costume box so FREE for me, a yellow shirt and some electrical tape and you're in business! I think I was kind of a fun bee, but we'll let you judge for yourselves:

Mandy and I at her halloween party. She was a butterfly!

Willie! This picture is so us I just love it.

I was sad that I missed the fam's partying (cuz rumor has it that my Pops was spiderman!) but all in all I feel like it was a pretty fabulous halloween :)

return to the game...

So it's official, I've returned to the game of soccer after an 11 year absence! (at least it was around that time . . . ) The last time I was on an official soccer team, we were the POISON IVY and I think we won 1 game total haha. I always played defender because "I was good at it" as the coach said. I always knew that it was just because I didn't have it in me to be a forward haha. Highlights from the Poison Ivy include:

*Being on the team with 2 of my best friends, Michelle and Lori. We carpooled together so it was awesome. I seem to remember an inside joke about seeing large spoons in somebody's yard?? yeah hopefully they remember that or I'll feel pretty stupid . . .
*Nobody on the team knew my name I don't think. They all called me Tiny instead! I can still hear the cries . . . "pass it to Tiny! pass it to Tiny!"

So my new team is an intramural soccer team thanks to my good friend Janelle for letting me join! We are "Team Awesome" for obvious reasons, and all the girls on the team are super nice and WAY better at soccer than I am. I'm just so grateful they're letting me cramp their style since I am always looking for fun things to occupy my time these days. Highlights from last night's game include:

*We won! 2-1. (no i did not score a goal...real shocker I know)
*My most embarrassing moment of the decade... yeah after we scored they were taking it to half field. In a moment of stupidity I forgot we had just scored, wondered why no one was kicking the ball, and ran up and gave it a good kick! Then I hear the referee blowing a whistle and a girl on the other team saying "hey you can't do that!" and I realized what was going on. Haha those poor girls on my team. Ah the embarrassment, I can't believe I'm putting this moment up on the internet. Oh well, hopefully it gives y'all a good laugh. Let's just say I won't be doing that again.
*The nice girls who told me I did a good job! I think they were just being nice, but hey at least they were still talking to me :)

Well I wish I had pictures to post...blog seems boring without them. I'll have to take some. Anyway I must say that soccer is way fun! I'm glad I returned to the game...and hopefully I improve as the season goes on...