A California Thanksgiving

We went to California for Thanksgiving this year. Our darling, new baby niece, Lily, was being blessed and I could hardly wait to meet her and hold that sweet baby in my arms.


Isn't she a doll?

We stayed with Mike and Pepper in their lovely new home. They were wonderful and gracious hosts and we were all so spoiled with Pepper's gourmet meals and hot breakfasts every morning. Our Thanksgiving feast was oh-so-yummy! Everything looked beautiful and tasted as delicious as it looked.

Pepper helps her mom do wedding flowers and she just whipped up this gorgeous arrangement for the table along with several smaller ones too. SO PRETTY!



Pepper had these cute paper feathers at each plate to write what we were thankful for. (Oh, and Ashley is not injured, she enjoyed her Thanksgiving feast with a puppet on her hand)

Ashley wrote that she is thankful for ham. Yes. Ham. I wonder if she meant turkey? But ham is much easier to sound out and spell :)

The feathers then became the feathers of this little turkey. (some of these feathers were from Dash's Joy School class)

Pepper makes the best pies! Seriously. The best. I think she made 5 different kinds! And the winner is... Banana creme pie with Coconut creme taking a close second :)


This is Ashley's "Can I have more pie?" face :) And with a face like that she can have about anything she wants.

The weather was perfect and the kids had so much fun playing and...

just hanging out with their cousins, and of course grandma and grandpa :)





This darling puppet theater (made by Mike & Pepper) was a favorite with my kids. We enjoyed many grand puppets shows during our visit. We were so thrilled when Mike and Pepper gave the theater to us for Christmas - a treasure for sure!

This picture makes me smile because Black Friday shopping makes my heart skip a beat! Really. It does. It's not so much the actual shopping experience, the lines, and the crowds, but rather the excitement that Christmas time is finally here again and this: scouting the sales, making lists, planning a route, and getting up in the wee hours of the morning, is the beginning of all of my favorite traditions that are to follow. We look like a pretty serious bunch - don't we? :)

So, after getting up before the sun, standing in lines in the dark, and getting some awesome deals, we met back up with our guys and the kiddos for a totally kick-bootie Cross Fit family workout at the park coached by Pepper with Mike as assistant coach. We were part way through some pretty strenuous excercises that included squats, lunges, pull ups... when I found out that everything we had done so far was just a warmup. ?!? Say What? This is my "This is going to hurt in the morning" face. Ummm. "OW!" is all I have to say. OW. OW. OW.


I love these two cute little kindergarten girlies in braids. They love each other too.

Luke will follow Ashley anywhere.

Sweet sisters



Since we were not going to see Mom and Dad Buhrley at Christmas this year we had fun giving them their Christmas gifts a little early.


"Ayyyyyy" Wait. Is it this the Fonz? ;)

We also spent a fun filled day at Sea World and of course the beautiful blessing day... check out the next posts for more :)

Thanks again Mike and Pepper --- for everything!
We love you!