If I told you I spent the whole weekend admiring Jodi's fabulous rack, is this what you'd expect to see a picture of?

Oh, yeah!

Jodi got a new dishwasher with this third rack on top for utensils, which I think is brilliant.  I coveted it during our entire stay.

Shut up.  We all have our own definitions of fabulous racks.

Today was all about resting and sleeping off the mountains of food we ate yesterday.

At a recent trip their family made to Lego Land, Jodi admired a Christmasy Lego house set, which Jeff secretly bought for her.  He gave it to her last night, and she started putting it together today, with lots and lots of help.

I couldn't help but admire the little tool shed.  My dad would be so pleased to see all the Lego tool hangers.

The kids also played a rousing game of Hide-and-Seek.  Believe it or not, this is Bailey seeking.

These two ghost-like figures are Jess and I at Catching Fire, which is how the twelve-and-up crowd finished the day.  Perfect.

Thanksgiving morning started for us just like it should--with a rock concert.  The Maniacs put on quite a show. Ryan and Luke did all the cool moves and rock band faces, while Erik on lead ukelele softly strummed and sang "We are the Maniacs" over and over.  It's all about the music for him.

Jodi spent all morning making NINE pies.  Nine!  Here she is with seven of the NINE PIES she made.  Did I mention she made NINE PIES??  Nine delicious pies.

We had every single ingredient for the perfect Thanksgiving dinner.  It was quite a spread.  Jodi invited the sister missionaries from her ward to join us, so we had a lovely party.

See how happy we all are?  That's because after eating all the turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes--yada yada yada--we still had NINE PIES to look forward to.

And, of course, a hot game of Mormon Bridge to finish it all off in style.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We intend to!  

Well, sort of.  We'll sleep under the roof of Jodi's house, which is under the Amarillo sky.  Still counts, right?

We arrived at Jeff and Jodi's house in time for dinner and video games.

And much, much Fantasy Football discussion.

Let the Thanksgiving Festivities begin!

Survival of the Fittest: Bitner style

This is what the seven-year-old of the species does when his maternal figure will not get her lazy butt out of bed and all he can find for breakfast is last night's pizza in the fridge.

So, the kids are off school this week for Thanksgiving, and this is the scene that greeted me when I woke up this morning.

And this is what had them so engrossed: the Duggar Family Flea Market.  We love the Duggars, obviously.  I'm pretty sure Michelle Duggar is the nicest person on the planet.  And, that includes Tim Gunn.

 I have a great idea for a reality show--I think we should put Tim and Michelle in a room with hidden cameras and see which one of them cracks and says something catty first.  My money's on Tim losing it.  There's only so much time he could spend looking at her baggy t-shirts and denim skirts before he'd have to say something.

We may be the biggest schmucks on the planet, but today we bought a car for Jessica to drive.  After the 'incident' with the Durango, our car-buying enthusiasm was severely dampened.  But who are we kidding?  Once Brad got all his juices flowing on various dealer websites, there was no way he was going to stop until we had a third car in our driveway.