Thanksgiving Vegas Style

Jeff and I proposed hosting Thanksgiving at our house this year and lucky for us our families jumped at the idea. Most of our family hadn't seen our house yet and it was the perfect way to celebrate our new home and the friends and family who helped us get where we are and of course Thanksgiving and stuffing our faces with turkey and other delicious holiday favorites. I cooked my first turkey, with the help of a little homework, a few phone calls to my grandma and the internet of course. It turned out pretty darn good if I don't say so myself but I have to admit, 'cleaning' it out, preparing and cooking it kinda, well pretty much ruined it for me. Yeah sad story. Oh well, the candied yams are always the star of my holiday anyway. The kiddies were adorable, Scout was in heaven and got his exercise being chased by Warner and Lollie and the rest of us were just happy to be together and enjoying the gorgeous weather! 

can you find Scout?

 Jeff was pretty excited when Red Bull came out with their new flavors. Early Christmas?

my Turkey, it's not burned its just toasted butter people

The COOL table. Ahh Yeah!

 the spent Thanksgiving afternoon/evening playing off our dinner at the 'music' park. (it plays music while you play on it, sweeeet)

How cute are these two??

 the next day we made our way back to music park, it's THAT awesome

 that night we went to the Ethel M. Chocolate factory for the tour and to see the lights

 she could be ours

Jeff went the morning after turkey day and rode around Lake Mead with some friends

 Scout was exhausted when everybody left and slept for about 24 hrs. must be rough!

Hopefully one of these days Ab will send me the pics she took and I can update the post :) haha Ab love you

Mustache Mafia

We were super excited to be running our first Ragnar this year with our cousins and friends in the gorgeous Vegas fall weather. The weather surprised us and took a turn for the cold, wet and windy the weekend Ragnar took place. Despite the weather we had a blast with our van mates and ran some of our fastest miles and recorded some new personal records. 

Van 1

L to R: Jeff, Cass, Danny, Carissa, Brandon and Eric

 It was just a little bit cold at the starting line. It may or may not have been snowing.

 Getting ready for my leg at the 3rd exchange

jeff's first hand-off

 The spirit committee, aka. Carissa. She had enough spirit for all of us!

 The Van

after the rain only half of the Hall of Fame was still intact

 almost done!

finish line at Lake Las Vegas

Poor Scout spent his first night at puppy boarding school while we were 'gone' and was more than excited when we went to pick him up Saturday afternoon.

More pics to come

Nanny Diaries

As most people know by now, Jeff and I got new jobs around the same time. We are both working with kids, ironic? Maybe we should just have our own... That's a joke!

Anyway, I took a job as a full-time nanny for two little boys. Nicholas is 6 and Jack is 4, their mom is a doctor and so I am pretty much the stay at home soccer mom type right now and I absolutely love it. Of course it comes with it's challenges and I get fired on a daily basis by Jack when he doesn't get his way but it's very rewarding and fun and the schedule/pay couldn't have been a better fit for me right now. After leaving Utah and a job and coworkers/friends that I absolutely loved and then hating my job to the point where I may or may not have cried on a daily basis for the next 2 years, I feel so grateful to have found this job!

These are my adorable boys!

 Jack is a little lover and always thinking of others. Whenever we go to the store and he gets to pick something to buy he always picks something for Nicholas, who goes to school all day. He also tells me multiple times a day that he loves me and never lets me leave their house before giving me a kiss and a hug. He can't stand to love when we play games and will quit playing if he is losing but if he wins then he tells me that we are on the same team so that I won too. he's darling!

Nicholas is handsome and so funny. He loves to quiz me on his school stuff to see if I am as smart as him. He loves to play jokes and is rough and tumble, him and Jack love to wrestle but it often turns from fun to downright dangerous. He is quite the daredevil and loves to try new and crazy things. He hates doing homework but is very smart!

October

October was a great month at the Seare household. We had visitors, our first ever trick-or-treaters and made a visit of our own to Utah. 

Chris and Tess came down and their stay consisted of what we love to do best, Catan. We probably stayed up until 2 am playing. I almost won, almost! Chris also brought with him some gorgeous Tiger Wood and installed it in our den. He's the Bomb! Thanks Chris!

 We had a Halloween Party of sorts where we took part in a serious pumpkin carving contest, made some delicious carmel apples and played games.

 Jeff and I stole away to Utah for the weekend the end of October for Grandma Sorenson's 90th birthday. She is an incredible woman and unconditional loving grandmother and I feel so grateful to be apart of the Sorenson/Seare family.

Jeff and I camped at home on Halloween in hopes of having trick-or-treaters at our home. This adorable little lady took the prize for our very first and most cute trick-or-treater at the Seare house. Thanks for coming Macey!

Billy Goat's Gruff

For the past 16 years (literally every year for 16 years) my dad has put in to get his Goat Tag. *For those of you who don't hunt or know anyone that does, that means he entered into a lottery to get a chance to hunt a Billy Goat. Every year he would tell us it was his year and sadly every year he would end up tag less but earning a point to help him out the next year. (think Hunger Games only for a good reason) Anyway, this is getting wordy so.. Last year my dad was the only hunter in Utah with maximum points so we all figured he would finally draw out his tag. To all our disappointment, somehow he did not. So this year when it came time, I'm pretty sure we were all praying for it to happen for him.

1. So he could finally get his goat and we could stop hearing about it :)

2. He isn't getting any younger (DOH!) and billy goats don't exactly live in the flatlands. It's a strenuous hunt and you have to be in great shape to be successful. My dad IS in excellent shape but seriously not getting any younger...

3. Hunting is expensive and well $$ doesn't grow on trees

Long story short. HA RIGHT?! Dad finally drew out and prepared for months, hiking every week to get in shape and making sure all his crap aka. hunting gear was in mint condition. He headed up? Down? can't remember where the hunt was but anyway he went with 4 hunting buddies and after leaving camp at 0600 he finally shot his Billy at 7 o'clock in the evening. It took them another hour or so just to get to him and then another 2.5 hours to clean him out, in complete darkness. The men split up the meat and dad carried the head and cape and they headed for camp. 4 hours later (mind you it's now 230 in the morning) they made it back to camp. They had nothing more than one water bottle for each guy and some fun size candy bars all day but it was totally worth it, dad finally got his goat!

I can't wait to get my gorgeous goat rug for Christmas. Just Kidding Dad ;)

Juice

*I realize I haven't posted anything more about the house. We love it and are spending our time (and all our $$) to make it beautiful. When it is ready, you will hear more about it.


Now on to our "juicy" new blog post. Jeff and I have started, as of today, Day 1 to be exact a 10 day juice cleanse. Jeff has been calling it a diet but I prefer to call it a cleanse. In fact, if you are wondering why we would ever do such a thing, our inspiration if you will, came from another documentary we watched recently. Get on Netflix and watch Fat Sick and Nearly Dead, it will answer all your questions and I'm guessing you will probably be joining us very soon. Maybe not, but I bet you will at least think about it.

Today was Day 1. We woke up and weighed ourselves, like I said we are not calling it a diet and that is not the reason we are doing the cleanse either but, if we happened to lose 5 or 10 or 15 lbs, I don't think either of us would complain. :)

We started off breakfast with a simple and super delicious,

Carrot Fruit Juice:

4 large carrots
2 apples

It was so yummy! I could drink that stuff all day.

Lunch is the one meal where neither Jeff and I are home so that makes juicing a bit difficult and without access to a fridge (Jeff) we just decided to forgo juicing for lunch (only on the weekdays) and just eat fresh fruits and veggies and nuts. It is a bit unconventional but you have to make it work for you and that's just what we are trying to do.

After starving and having a good but let's be honest, rough first day dinner was a juice called Lunch in a Glass. It sounded wholesome and filling.

Lunch in a Glass:

2 Tomatoes
2 Carrots
1/2 head of Cabbage
2 Celery Stalks
1 Broccoli head

It was anything but wholesome and feeling. In fact, it had a hard time wanting to stay in and fill by belly. I don't repeat, I DON'T recommend this "juice" to anyone! We drank half of it and out of determination to finish and not let it waste we juiced 2 granny smith apples to help it slide down the chute (and stay!) It didn't make it delicious but knowing the apples were in there just made me feel better. We decided no more full veggie juices for us, they definitely need to be supplemented with yummy juicy fruits.

Overall, Day One started strong, we felt weak in the middle of the day, determined at dinner and desperate just after. We have resolved to take it one juice 'meal' at a time and see it through for the full 10 days.

Let's hope Day 2 is a bit easier on the taste buds!

making breakfast

yummy Carrot Apple juice

Dinner

Don't let the smile on my face fool you, I'm about to cry out of dread!

Bottoms up

PS. a big Thank You to Dave and Becky for our Housewarming gift, a brand new shiny Jack La Lanne juicer!