Wow, what a crazy month!

I haven't updated the blog in a few weeks, because this month has been cuh-razy! We had Nick and Crystal's wedding on the 14th, and we had lots of fun getting ready for that.

We had a very fun hen party for Crystal, which is like the English version of a bachelorette party. We all dressed up emo-style -- as depressing as possible -- and Crystal had to wear bright, happy colors. Then she got to do all sorts of embarrassing things around Olive Garden, like ask strangers for marriage advice and do the wedding march around the restaurant. She was such a good sport! You can check out the pictures of that fun night here. It was a hoot!

Nick and Crystal's wedding was so beautiful. We had a wedding breakfast at Mimi's Cafe (yum!) and a beautiful ceremony and reception at my parents' house later that day. Sammy was especially excited to get to be at the actual wedding, and both Sammy and Josh are very happy that Crystal is officially their aunt! They really like her, as do we all! Click here to see all my pictures from the wedding.

A few days later we drove up to Washington for Becky and Richard's wedding! You can click here to see pics from the wedding and the rest of November. As usual, we drove all night and Dan did nearly all the driving -- it's a darn good thing he's such a good long-distance driver, because we'd never get to Washington if he weren't. I'm usually good for about an hour and a half per trip. It was so fun to be with all our Washington family, especially since it was the first time for Sarah, Jana, Grant, and Great Grandma and Grandpa Hill to meet baby Eliza. The temple ceremony was so wonderful, and Becky and Richard are just so sweet together. The next day the kids and I went with Grandma and Grandpa, Sarah and Cole, Chad and Esther, and Jana and Grant on the foot ferry to Bremerton to play at the cool little fountain park at the ferry dock. The boys and Uncles Chad and Grant all had a grand ol' time throwing rocks into the water, and we even got to see some cool seals (sea lions? I'm not sure of the difference) hanging out on the shipyard dock and barking like crazy. It is so fun to watch the boys with their aunts and uncles -- they have such a great time. I'm pretty sure Sam and especially Josh regard Chad as their personal property. It will be interesting to see how they react to Chad becoming a dad in January -- it might be harder for Joshy than getting a baby sister was!

After a trip that was much too short, we headed back home. This was seriously our best driving trip ever -- the kids slept most of the time and were pleasant when they were awake, Eliza slept almost the entire time the car was moving and had no diaper blowouts, there was minimal throwing up... What more could you ask of three little kids on a 16-hour drive?

I spent the next few days working feverishly to get ready for a gift and craft fair I was going to have a booth at after Thanksgiving. My dad had generously let me use his laser engraver to cut the snowflake ornaments I'd designed, and my mom was kind enough to watch the boys while I worked on them. They turned out beautifully, but it took a lot more time than I thought it would. Doesn't everything?

And then Thanksgiving -- hooray! We started out the day with the joys of Cafe Papa, Uncle Terry and Aunt Gae's tradition of a big breakfast with "thin buttermilk pancakes," liberally covered in butter and sugar. This is delicious. Then we all headed over to my parents' house and had a great time getting the big dinner ready and then celebrating with my Uncle Scott and his family. The boys stayed with my mom so I could do the craft fair during the weekend.

At the craft fair I learned that doing craft fairs is really not my thing... The first day was reeeeaaaallllyyy slow and I only sold two ornaments, but the second day was better. I at least sold enough to pay for the booth and some of the materials, so if I can sell the rest of the snowflakes I should make a profit. I'm going to be listing them in my Etsy shop as soon as I can get some pictures taken. Here's a picture of my booth at the fair:

It was an interesting experience, but I can definitely earn more money if I devote the same amount of time to my graphic design work. But I did meet a really fun girl running the booth next to mine, and I ran into an old friend from high school that I hadn't seen in 10 years, so it wasn't a total loss...

So here we are at the beginning of December, and I'm tired just thinking about. Thursday is Joshy's birthday -- he'll be 3! -- and on the 13th Sammy will be 5. I love the Christmas season, but I'd be lying if I said it was relaxing... Ah well, better go start digging the Christmas decoration boxes out of the storage closet! Thanks for hanging in there through this novel-length blog entry!