It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.....

One day I took a look around and realized with the first big snowfall,

the Christmas performances,

visits with santa,

our annual Christmas card photo,

decorating the Christmas tree,

gifts from wonderful friends and loved ones......

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Wishing you a wonderful and meaningful holiday season.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was hosted at my house this year. It is always such a wonderful time to reflect on all of the many things we are thankful for. It is always wonderful to have the family over and just spend time together. We ate, laughed & talked, ate, watched football, ate some more, played cards til late in the evening (I still think Bryson was cheating) ha ha, ate yet again then went to bed. What better way to spend the day with family!

Happy Birthday Bud!

Jordan recently had his birthday.....where have those 13 years gone?! He had such a good day. And was even surprised to have his friend from St. George come and visit.

He decided to invite a few friends to Jump on It. This place is quickly becoming a family favorite. I did have to laugh at some of the warning signs, though.

Do you think they are trying to tell us something?

At the end of the day everyone had a great time....and no injuries, well major ones anyway. ha ha

FYI

Just a side-note. If you are wondering why Jordan is M.I.A. he wasn't in any of the recent pictures. If you know him well enough you will know he avoids the camera like the plague. On Halloween he was off with friends - no Halloween costume this year and he missed all the excitement. His birthday is soon and I will definately have a post all about Jordan, whether he likes it or not. Just don't want anyone to think I have forgotten my main man!

The royal treatment

For Halloween my girls were in for a HUGE surprise. Our friend had asked them what they were going to be for Halloween. McKayla was going as a cheetah. Kamryn and Morgan were going as princesses. With that in mind, he told me every princess needs a horse-drawn carriage, and started the task of finding one for the princesses and royal cheetah cats!

The looks on the girls' faces were priceless as they opened the door expecting to see trick-or-treaters and saw Angelo and Rod dressed as royal footmen ready to wisk them away in their royal carriage. They definately acted the part with accents, tights and all! (It takes real men to pull off outfits like these)

At every house the girls were 'escorted' from the carriage and walked along a bright pink carpet to go knock on doors for candy. When they returned they were 'escorted' back into the carriage to be wisked away to the next house.
They had such a wonderful time. It was so sweet of our friends to go through all the time and effort to make it a memorable night for the girls. They told me it was the best Halloween ever! Morgan talks about it all the time and how she felt just like Cinderella.

G.N.O. (Girls Night Out)

Kamryn, McKayla and myself recently had the opportunity to attend the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus concert. The girls were so excited to go and I felt lucky to have purchased tickets when I did as it was the fastest selling concert in history.

Once we were there you could just feel the excitement in the air with all the little Hannah Montana fans running around. The concert was great, and we had a great time together.

We were also able to meet up with my nieces Shae and Mykelin at the concert. Of course what night would be complete without dinner at the Olive Garden? Such a fun girls night out!

First lost tooth

McKayla came home from school the other day with a big grin on her face. She said she had a surprise for me. While she was in school she lost her very first tooth! She was so excited for the Tooth Fairy to visit her . It is strange to see big teeth coming in where her little tooth was. She is growing up way too fast.

The circus is in town

We recently had the opportunity to go to the circus. We all had such a great time. Here are a few pictures of some of our favorite parts at the circus.

Pumpkin Walk

There is an annual event at the girls' school called the pumpkin walk. It is such a fun tradition where each class decorates pumpkins according to a theme based on positive character traits.

McKayla's theme this year was: I am 'grapeful' for_____. Her class decorated their pumpkins like a bunch of purple grapes. She filled in the information with, I am 'grapeful' for my family because they love me.

Kamryn's theme was: Friendship is so easy a caveman can do it. Her class decorated their pumpkins like cavemen. On hers she wrote, "I'm a friend when I include someone in a game"

My little lady

I have this tradition with my girls that when they turn 3 they get to get their ears pierced. We have been telling Morgan since her birthday in July that we would go get her some earrings. The day finally came and we took her to get some. She was so excited, (she had no idea how those cute little earrings were getting into her ears). She picked out the most adorable little pink flower earrings and sat in the chair like such a big girl.


Then.......wait, what are they doing?

Ouch! That hurt!!
Hold on, I think I have earrings
So that is how they get in my ears. I love them!


Editors note: No tears were shed in the ear piercing process.

Happy Birthday Kamryn!

Kamryn recently celebrated her 10th birthday. Can you believe she is 10 already? She wanted to take her friends to this new facility called Jump on It. It has over 9000 sq. ft. of jumping space. There are trampolines that are connected so you can jump from one to another. They cover most of the area. And are so much fun to play on.

Then they have a few inflatables on the side to play on also. There are other things like velcro walls, etc. but we didn't venture into them.

The girls had a ball and were totally worn out by the time the party was over.

I'm sure everyone slept really well that night my kids sure did!

Kamryn had a great time at her party. Happy birthday Kam!!!

Little miss Mo

Morgan just cracks me up sometimes. There have been several times at night when I go to check on her and can't tell which is the back of her head and which is her face. When I go to move her hair off her face I find out it is actually the back of her head! All of that hair just goes everywhere.

This was one of those nights.

Annual Family Boating Trip

I'm finally posting some pictures of our annual family boating trip. It has been a tradition in our family for the past 9 years to rent a boat and spend the day fishing, swimming and eating! The kids look forward to it every summer and can't wait until the day arrives. The past two years we have rented a room at the lodge that has 6 beds and fits both families, plus dad comfortably. We stay up way too late and enjoy playing cards, laughing and spending time together. This year the adults were probably a little too loud and had to be reminded to quiet down. It has been fun to watch over the years as our families have changed. New babies have been born, nieces and nephews have gotten married, etc.


McKayla loves catching the fish, but is terrified once they are in the boat flopping all over the place. Her princess pole always brings her luck!

Morgan is ready to catch a big one with her Barbie pole but later gives up when she realizes you actually have to wait for them to bite.

Jordan, Kamryn, and Mykelin were determined to go swimming even though the water was freezing.





The true sign at the end of the day that this was another successful boating trip......everyone was exhausted!