What Does Your Thanksgiving Meal Say About You?

What Your Thanksgiving Meal Says About You

When it comes to the holidays, you follow and love the big traditions. You look forward to them every year. You see the holidays as a time to think about what's important to you. It's a good time to reflect and regroup. You like the more adult aspects of the holidays - parties, cocktails, and having time off from work. During the holidays, you are likely to feel comforted. At your worst, you feel a bit over-indulgent. You consider yourself to be a bit of a purist, and you're proud of it. You tend to spend your holidays doing everything and anything. You really get into the holiday spirit.

What Does Your Thanksgiving Meal Say About You?

Twilight the Movie - in review

So I loved it! We readers are a tough crowd to please. I have heard some pretty harsh critiques about this movie and to all of you haters I say, get over it! It's a movie - you must have known going into it that what you pictured in your mind could not possibly be attained on screen. EDWARD IS A VAMPIRE!!! He's not real - no human man could possibly be as beautiful as our fake friend Edward - unless, of course, you have met my husband Nick. Giggle, giggle! Anyway, sure, Edward was tall enough, handsome enough, blah,blah,blah, but it was entertaining and wonderful to see creativity put to the big screen!!! I give it 4 1/2 stars! So I would suggest all loyal readers just get out there and see it - or wait for it to come to redbox! It will totally worth your time!

CD Review

I have expressed before how much Nick and I like David Archuleta. We are true fans. We sat in a sea of screaming 12 year old girls to hear him live - now, that is dedication! The day after his CD came out, we went out and bought it. I would like give you my personal review here! The CD is GREAT overall. There are a couple songs on there that are a little weird but 98% of the CD is wonderful, catchy and totally showcases his fabulous voice! My favorite tracks are:

Track 1 - Crush

Track 4 - My Hands

Track 5 - A Little Not Over You

Track 7 - Running

Track 8 - Desperate *FAVORITE

Track 9 - To Be With You

Track 10 - Don't Let Go

Track 12 - Angels

Bonus Track 13 - Works for Me

He is getting mixed reviews - not based on his voice, but his innocence. One reporter for Rolling Stone posed the question, "Is he 17 or 12?" based on his innocent lyrics. It's sickening that a CD that isn't filled with sexual promiscuity and vulgarity would be judged as boring. Sick world. I am so glad that David A. is sticking to his moral guns and making a CD that he can be proud of! You will always have fans in the Long's!

I came home to this yesterday

Before After

IT'S DONE!!! Nick painted all day yesterday and when I came home I got to see the finished product! I love it so much and know that Brady will love it too! Nick worked really hard and it shows! He did a fantastic job! Daddy duty #1 completed!

Happy 75th Grandma

My grandma turned 75 on November 4th so my mom planned a surprise birthday party for her! On Saturday we all went up to her house and surprised her with food and gifts! It was a really great day and she was genuinely surprised! She cried and thanked us over and over again! My grandma is a great woman. She has touched the lives of so many people and I am so grateful to her for so many things. Without her, I wouldn't have the gospel in my life. She is the one who welcomed the missionaries into her home many years ago and got baptized. This is a gift that I feel grateful for on a daily basis! She is also the most kind-hearted, loving person who holds no judgement for anyone. My mom created a survey for everyone in the family to fill out where we shared our fondest memories of her. My mom took those surveys and pictures and made her a scrapbook that she can read over and over again. It took a lot of time but I know my grandma will read that book over and over, and hopefully, come to know what we've known all along, that she has left a legacy behind that has personally touched each and every member of the family.

Happy Birthday Michele

Nick's youngest sister, Michele, turned nineteen on the 13th so we got together Friday night for a little fiesta! We went to Sakura's and ate the best food and then all traveled back to our house for a big sleepover and movie night! Michele is such a great person. She is living with us until she leaves for college in January and it has been so good to spend this time with her! She is so funny and sweet and we will really miss her!!! So, happy birthday Michele! We sure do love you!!

Nick feeding cheesechake to Brooklyn with chopsticks - he REALLY likes cheesecake!

The party people!!

The next winner of the "Sexiest Legs" contest is....

.....our little buddy! We just got back from our first BPP and everything looked good. Look at those legs - we are going to have the beat the girls away with a stick!! More seriously, though, I just feel blessed - so blessed. We got to see his face and he is his daddy's boy! We can't wait to meet him!

Husband Tag

I got tagged - so here goes nothing!

• What is your husband's name? Nicholaus Stephen Long
• How long have you been married? It will be 4 years on December 28th!
• How long did you date? Long enough to know that I wanted to be his wife! Truthfully we had a whirlwind courtship but it was right - I don't regret a thing. Met in May, hung out everyday, started dating in September, got engaged in October and married in December.
• How old is he? 27
• Who eats sweets? Both - pretty equally actually.
• Who said I love you first? Can't remember - probably me!
• Who is taller? Nick is by a few inches.
• Who does the laundry? This is one household chore we share pretty equally.
• Who pays the bills? I pay the paper ones but Nick does all the online stuff with our accounts and budgeting. Let's be honest - he is WAY better with money that me!
• Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? We aren't side people - we are, "Amanda needs to be closest to the bathroom" people. Wherever we live, I just sleep on the side closet to the bathroom until we moved into this house. I couldn't sleep on my left side and be able to face nick if we we were talking in this new house so we switched - I am on the left side now. Is that more than you needed to know?!?!?
• Who mows the lawn? He does and does it without complaining. I love this about him because I really don't like doing it.
• Who cooks dinner? I do and I really like doing it! I think it's the best to work hard on a meal and feed it to the people you love.
• Who drives? He does. He is a better driver and I like to fit naps in wherever & whenever I can!
• Who is the first to admit they are wrong? Nick is really good about this - I am way too stubborn.
• Who kissed who first? Let's not get into this. I am sure Nick would LOVE to tell his side of the story!
• Who asked who out first? Nick did - he called me on his way home from work and asked me to dinner. We went to J&P's for our first date and this restuarant is still special to us - we had our wedding luncheon there.

Nick's the best! He is everything I could have ever dreamed of - I adore him!

The weekend I realized I couldn't live without him!

He's goofy - he makes me laugh!

Most importanly, he loves me!

And I hope this little guy is exactly like him!

I tag Krista, April, Erin & my mom!!! Please do it everyone - I want to read your answers!!!

Trix are for kids.....and pregnant people!

Since I have been pregnant, I've been asked over and over what crazy things am I craving. Up until recently, I really hadn't had any cravings. No late night must haves, no I can't live withouts. Notice I said up until recently! Lately, all I want to eat is cereal. I literally could eat it for every meal and never get tired of it! I went to the grocery store on Monday and cereal was on sale, 3/$5. That was the happiest moment of my day. I bought three of the most glorious boxes of cereal and I have put a pretty dent in one of them already. I was never really a breakfast person until I got pregnant and realized that I woke up starving every morning. Now, I can't wait to wake up and eat a nice bowl of cereal with ice cold milk on it! Mmmm, I better stop, I am making myself hungry!

My Heart is Full

Wanna Dance?

My best friend, April, has been out here visiting from Colorado. I went up to her sister's house, who lives in Taneytown, to see her one last time before she leaves on Wednesday. (I will post pics of our weekend as soon as I remember to download them off my camera :-)) Anway, I left their house around 9:45pm and started the drive home. It's about a 45 minute drive, most of it through windy, back roads in the dark. The drive was going fine until I hit Woodbine Road, which is the road I live on. There weren't many other drivers on the road so I had my brights on. Out of the corner of my eye, I see all these glowing eyes the my right. I slow down assuming they are deer and wait for them to make their move. There were three of them just standing there. Fortunately, I had the luxury of waiting around for them because no other cars were in sight. Suddenly, two of them dash across the road. Good - we're down to one lowly deer. Now, this deer was a little peculiar. Let me explain. Have you ever been walking down a hallway and someone is coming at you from the other direction and you two meet and proceed to "dance" as you decide which way you will go and which way they will go? It seems to go on forever as you two bob back and forth, smiling and awkwardly giggling, hoping somehow this awkward dance will end? Let's get back to the deer. The lowly deer walks out in the road in front of my car. He is now looking right at me. He is just looking at me! I am thinking, okay, move along you little wombat. I begin to realize he is no hurry to go anywhere so I inch forward a little bit thinking this will scare him. Uh, no, he is absolutely unfazed by me. He just backs up a little bit and moves to the right. I am getting annoyed at this point so I honk my horn. He cocks his head like our black lab. I inch a little more - he inches back, this time to the left. I quickly have flashbacks of that horrible hallway "dance" - and it is with a deer no less. I am done playing at this point so I really honk this time - really leave my hand on the horn to scare the stupid thing. As I am honking, I start moving towards him and I don't plan on stopping this time. Suddenly, it was like a light bulb went off in his puny head, he dashes off like his two brothers did ten minutes ago. Okay, okay this whole experience probably last 2-3mins tops but it was so weird. Though I'd share!

Big Day for the Long's

Yesterday was a pretty exciting day for us! First of all, Nick had his interview at Georgetown for their nurse anesthetist program. He felt really good about it! This is one of our top choices so having him get an interview was pretty awesome and then having him feel good about it was even better! I went down with him because we had two baby appt's as well - a 28 week growth screening and my regular OB appointment. Baby boy is growing great and falls in the 55% so that's good. We also found out that they are going to be inducing me on January 14th. After talking to my OB, she said that even if I was doing this good until the end, they would still take him early because babies gain a lot of weight at the end and that could cause complications for us because my kidney is in the front and it could possibly make it hard for him to get out! To make sure all is well, I have to go get biophysical profiles once a week now just to check him out! I feel really blessed to have this doctor caring for me and the baby becauase she really wants us both to be healthy. I know they wouldn't do anything that wasn't safe for me or the baby. Nick and I can't believe how quickly this whole thing is happening and that we will soon have our son here!!!

Quick Trip to Utah

Last weekend I was able to fly to Utah to meet my newest nephew, Christian, and attend his blessing. My whole family was able to be there, except for Nick because he had to work.I left Friday morning so I got there just in time for the Halloween festivities. After the little ones went trick-or-treating, all the siblings went to a Martin Sexton concert where they would be holding a costume contest. Krista and I decided last minute that we should do a Wizard of Oz theme. So we came home and got to work. I was the Wicked Witch, Krista, my sister in law, was Glinda, Tom, my oldest bro, was the wizard himself, and Josh & Adam, my two younger bro's, were my flying monkeys. For pictures sake, we dressed up my niece & nephew as the tin man and the scarecrow. It was so much fun getting ready and spending the evening with my siblings. We hardly ever get to do this because we live so far apart - it was such a blast. Unfortunately, we didn't win the contest but the security guards told us we totally should have won and we were their favorite costumes! Here's a couple of pics!

Adam spray painting his wings

Uh, giving Josh a monkey chest. This is a very prego looking shot of me for all my friends (APRIL) who keep bugging me to put one up!

Krista & I - I am going right for the jugular!

The whole group!

The concert was really great and it was so fun to be with my family. On Saturday, one of my best friends, Jeni, drove down from Logan to see me. It was so great to see her! We got to catch up on everything and she got to meet the newest edition to our family.

The rest of the day we just spent together, hanging out, playing rock band and getting ready for the luncheon after the blessing. Per Lewis tradition, we played games together that evening! It was such a great weekend. I love my family so much and really feel like they are the best people in the world so it's hard to be so far away from them. The blessing on Sunday was beautiful. It was so great to see my dad and all my brother's in the circle blessing this new little baby. It reconfirmed my testimony of eternal families and the only thing that could have made it better was if Nick were there too!

The nursery.....so far. Oh and a bat!

A couple of saturday's ago, Nick and my dad started on the nursery. My dad is a bit of a jack of all trades so we enlisted him and his tools to help with the project. They worked really hard most of the day getting the chair rail up. VERY EXCITING!!! Before that, Nick had been priming for a couple of days to cover up the purple that was there.

Anyway, while they were working, we saw this little guy in the window, stuck between the screen and the actual window. They decided to open the window and try to get him to fly outside, but instead he landed on the window sill - and he was not very happy about it! After a couple of photos, they managed to push him outside with a ruler. Even with this exciting diversion, they finished the chair rail! So now all we have left to do is paint!