Our Busy Week

Busy week... what a busy, busy week it has been. Cleaning, craft day, nail appointment, babysitting, a funeral etc. I had great intentions to blog but it just didn't happen.

On Wednesday I attended my Great Uncle Leslie's funeral. Les was my Grandma Glenn's brother. She had 12 siblings but Uncle Les was my favorite. We would go to family reunions each year and I always looked forward to seeing him. He was a goofy guy who loved children and was sure to always make you smile. I remember as a child sitting on his lap during our family auction. He would raise my hand to bid on items. I would panic letting him know that I didn't have money to spend. He would tell me not to raise my hand then and again would raise my hand for me to bid on a item. I'd win some fun toy and of course he would buy it for me. He was a great man. My Great Aunt Zina passed away last Thursday and then Les, the last of the siblings passed away on Saturday. I can't begin to imagine the family reunion that is taking place in heaven. It must be spectacular! My Mom, Lily and I headed down to Orem to pay our respects to Les and his family. His Granddaughter Angie is one of my good friends.


So a side story after meeting Jason I returned to Draper and attended SLCC. My first class on my first day of school I sat next to this girl. We continued to sit next to each other and became friends. We exchanged phone numbers in case one of us missed class. One day she called me and after a lengthy conversation about life, school and our boyfriends we hung up and both chatted with our Moms. She mentioned me to her Mom who said that is my cousin's daughter I am sure. Call her and ask what her Mom's name is. When she called I was busy helping my Mom unload groceries and missed her call. My Mom checked the caller id and wondered why her cousin had called. For some reason I also checked the called id and informed her that it was my classmate not her cousin that had called. We argued about it for a few minutes until Angie called again. Sure enough we put two and two together realizing we were related. Her immediate family didn't attend the reunions so I had never met her. We have remained in contact over the years running into each other in the strangest of places. Once was at Thanksgiving Point when both of us were getting our bridals done. Our weddings were a few months apart and we both had changed our location and dates for bridals several times. We just happened to both end up at TP on the same day and the same time. We took several photos of the two of us in our dresses. It was so fun!

Anywho... back the funeral. It was a nice service and it was good to see Angie along with many of our other family members. My Aunt Sheila and Uncle Mike came and captured a cute picture of Lily who by the way was an angel the whole day. My Mom and Uncle Mike enjoyed loving on her.

A quick picture for Aunt Sheila

Today I watched my neighbors kids for her for a few hours. Alex always enjoys having his friends over to play. Here is a cute picture I got of the three of them while they watch Thomas the train. They are such sweet kids. I feel so blessed to leave in a neighborhood surrounded by great kids for Alex to be friends with.

Cheston ( my baby doll from when I was little) Kylie, Alex and Brooklyn

Looking forward to a long weekend with the family. See ya next week!

Happy Turkey Day!

A week before the big day we begin practicing with Alex. He could hardly wait for his cousin Shae to arrive so he could practice what he had learned. " Happy Turkey Day Shae!" he did not care about the oh 18 other people that had arrived at our house to spend Thanksgiving. All his concerns were focused around playing with Shae. So to each of you I hope you had a very Happy Turkey Day!

My preparation for the big day started early with a mass cleaning of my house. I made sure everything was clean early in the week and did my food shopping the week before to avoid the crowds. Nothing is worse then shopping the day before Thanksgiving with a huge grocery list.

Tuesday night I headed off to my neighbor's house for girls night out. It was so nice to enjoy a few minutes away with good friends, food and a chick flick. While I was gone Jason got started on making 15 lb of mashed taters, candied yams and scalloped taters. He said he wanted to go all out or nothing. Let's just say I went to bed after midnight and he stayed up until 4 working his magic. It's so nice to be married to a man that not only likes to cook but is fabulous at it.

Wednesday Jason took the day off to help me prep. He finished up a few dishes that morning and helped me with odds and ends around the house. My Mom arrived in the afternoon to help me cook. We made stuffing, green bean casserole and 5 pies. Alex had come down with a cold so Jason was nice enough to stay home with him while my Mom and I went out for a bite to eat. It's not often anymore that Mom and I get to go out by ourselves without time restraints. I loved it!

Thursday morning came too quickly for me. Alex was nice enough to go downstairs and wake my Mom. We had some breakfast and then got busy setting the tables, cooking the ham, turkey, gravy and warming up all of our sides. My sweet neighbor Brooke was nice enough to allow us to use her oven since she was out of town for the holidays. Jason went to work cooking some food here while Mom and I watched the food here. Jason decided this year to take a stab at briening our turkey. After it sat overnight it suggested we cook it for 30 minutes at 500 degrees. My oven did not like that..... major smoke which set our alarm off for the next 30 minutes. Luckily it was worth it.

Our family arrived around noon to enjoy appetizers. This year we had my Mom, Step-Dad, Aunt & Uncle Mott, my in-laws and my sisters family. There were 19 of us all together. Although we had a large group our new house is great for entertaining so I never felt crowded, in fact I just kept expecting more people to show up. It was nice to have everyone together. We feasted on appetizers and when I say feasted I am not joking. I asked my nieces to bring a few appetizers and my MIL a veggie plate. We ended up with that along with a few more things my MIL whipped up. All of it was tasty but I was careful to not fill up too quickly. While we snacked my family helped me with our activity for the day. Usually we stand and each tell what we are thankful for. Although this has been nice in the past it usually ends up being a fast and testimony meeting rather long and with me bawling at the end. I wanted a change. I asked my talented niece Areiann to draw a turkey and each of my family members to trace their hand and list 5 things they were extra thankful for this year. Mine came to be easy.. all things very strong in my mind this year due to my experiences or those around me. I listed 1-my beautiful new home 2-a strong marriage 3- amazing neighbors 4-my ability to have children 5- a stable job.

After a fabulous feast of turkey, ham, green bean casserole, rolls, yams, mashed taters and gravy, scalloped taters, cranberry sauce, and stuffing I was rather full. All the food was super tasty but everyone seemed to comment on the turkey. Everyone was in agreement that it was the moistest tastiest turkey they had ever had. The only compliant was that there wasn't more. My Mom had a smaller bird and since we had the ham we weren't too worried. We will no better next time.

We spent the afternoon chatting, sleeping, playing games, watching UP, searching the Black Friday ads and for some of us being sick. We made more trips to the medicine cabinets in one afternoon they I knew was possible. A few family members tested out all of our showers, Ryklyn being the most famous for that. Late afternoon we enjoyed the fabulous pies, so tasty. Around 9 we wrapped things up and sent our family on their way. I tried to settle down and get a few hours sleep before my alarm went off.

2 am comes rather quick especially when you are tired, pregnant and have come down with a cold. I wasn't about to let that stop my first Black Friday shopping experience. My friend Natalie, her Sister and Mom and were nice enough to let me tag along for their annual shopping event. It was rather eye opening but fun. We waited in the cold for over an hour to get into Kohls. I got some great deals but since family reads this I will have to save my big deal for another post. We made our way from Kohls to Target, Old Navy, and Home Depot. We then had a yummy breakfast at Einsteins and finished our day shopping at the mall. It was way fun! Thanks again girls for letting me take along. All in all it was a fabulous Thanksgiving. Here are just a few pictures from that day. I realized I never did get around to taking a picture of everyone. I was too busy eating I guess.

My two favorite boys

My BIL Mike and cute niece Hilary

Our turkey, if you notice this one happens to have utters. My silly Aunt Pat put her hand there. My sister pointed it out so before the blessing on our food I had her give Aunt Pat a hard time. She told everyone that she learned something new today, Turkeys have utters, thanks Aunt Pappy. I told her she is in charge of bringing turkey milk next year.

Appetizers

My Mom and Sisters working on dishes

My BIL Mike, niece Hilary and Nephew in law Clay just laying low

My SIL Alanna, Shae, and Alex coloring their turkey pages and making their thankful feathers.



Our turkey day spread


My MIL Judy carving the turkey

The cutest boy in the world

Trying to get a picture of cousin Shae and Alex. He didn't want to cooperate. This one was the best out of 6. Of course it's the one where he is looking at another camera. Little Turkey!

More of our tasty spread



My niece Jillian and her daughter Ryklyn, yes I'm a Great Aunt. She is usually a very happy baby but she wasn't feeling good that day.

Oh yeah.. PIE!



Why is everyone taking pictures of me eating pie?

An array of pies, razzleberry, pecan, chocolate pecan, chocolate cream, banana cream, coconut cream. All so tasty!

Easter

Finally caught up on my blog posting ( see my multiple posts below). Jason had an extra long weekend off we we stayed busy going bowling, shopping, spending time with family/friends and laying low at home.

We had a nice Easter mostly spent just hanging at home as a family. We got Alex a few things for Easter but decided at this age we could really just go low key. Later that day we went to Easter Dinner at my Aunt Sheila's house and celebrated my cousin's little boy Asher's fourth birthday. What a beautiful day if only this week's weather looked as nice. Hope you had a Happy Easter!

Baby Animal Days

Friday we were able to go up Wellsville to the Baby Animal Days. It was a nice day weather wise and fun to spend time with my family. Alex was a little hesitant with the animals when they got too close but otherwise he seems to like it.

Alex with the Easter Bunny. This was after Daddy came to the rescue.

He did not like the big pink bunny.

Shae helped Alex with the Candy Canon

Tasting his earnings

Alex with the Baby Animals

The view from our hay ride. AMAZING!!

Family Night

Feeling a little icky today, I think I have another sinus infection. It's definitely a PJ day for sure. Alex is napping so I decided to go through some pictures I recently downloaded but haven't got around to blogging about.

Here are a few from 1/19/09 ya I know I'm behind. That night we decided to have a family night down at the farms at Thanksgiving Point. It was colder than we expected but Alex actually kept his mittens and hat on so we were happy. Alex enjoyed the animals but wasn't so sure about the pony ride this time around. Enjoy!

I love the behind shots of my boys. Something about Alex walking with his Daddy that always makes me happy.

Checking out the animals with Daddy.

Looking a tad bit cold but was interested in the cow.

Or not!!


Another pony ride, we seem to enjoy these more than Alex does.

Draper Temple

As many of your know the view from our house is pretty incredible. Over the past month or so it's become breath taking. This is because we can see the new Draper Temple from our house. I thought it would be a great opportunity as a family to go to the open house before the dedication of the temple next month. I started making calls and before long we had a group of 15 of my family members excited to go.

Yesterday we met at my house and carpooled up to the temple. We parked right out front so that we could get my Aunt Pat a wheelchair. As a family we were able to walk around and view the inside of the temple. It was incredible!! After the tour we went to Rock Creek Pizza for dinner. It was a such a nice day to spend with my family in such a beautiful place. I feel so blessed! If you live nearby I would highly recommend getting tickets before it's too late. Here are some pictures of my rooms. I searched online for all of these pictures since cameras aren't allowed inside the temple. Enjoy!

The largest of the sealing rooms were marriages take place. Looking into the mirrors for eternity is my favorite part.

Don't you love the detail on these windows?


Draper Temple during the day

Draper Temple at night

The ceiling inside of the celestial room, stunning!

The celestial room, the chandler alone had me giddy, it was gorgeous!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve has been spent at our house the past few years with Jason's family. This year we were able to get a good deal on crab and decided to have it for dinner. Jason's parents and little sister arrived around 4:00 pm for an early dinner. We had a cheese ball and crackers to start then we were on to our steamed crab ( yummy) I also made Red Lobster biscuits & green bean casserole. My MIL brought baked potatoes and coconut cream pie for dessert. Dinner was fabulous!!

After dinner we hung out for a bit while Alex showed Grandpa his favorite movie The Grinch. I love these two pictures of him watching his movie with his famous balloon. He decided this ginormous can of olives made the perfect seat. I had wrapped them up for my nieces who adore olives even though I can't stand them. Alex left the cute paper alone but the bows on top were smashed flat before they made it to Christmas. Can you tell he has on his new jeans that are a tad bit too big for him.

Gotta love the bum

"What Mom?"

I had decided to wait to put out gifts until just a few days before Christmas so that Alex wouldn't be tempted to get into them. On Christmas Eve before our family arrived I had so much to finish up. It didn't help that Alex was into every present. If it was tissue paper in a bag he got into it. He even ripped a bit of wrapping paper before I got it out of his hands. However once it was officially time to unwrap gifts Alex wasn't sure what to think of all of it. His Grandparents spoiled us rotten again this year. Although he loved his new toys he didn't have much interest in unwrapping them.

Grandpa in the background enjoying Alex's reaction

to the tornado of gifts that hit our house.

Alex loving his new Alphabet game. Anything that lights up and plays music is a winner in his book.

We finished taking pictures once Alex's desire to unwrap gifts died. Jas and I however were spoiled with new clothes, tools, food, a printer/scanner/copier, purse, lotions, movies, etc. Alex got a tent, rocking horse, blocks, piggie bank, alphabet game, remote car and a ton of clothes.We were so spoiled by my in-laws that I couldn't believe Christmas was still to come.

Our nice but few gifts we gave them didn't seem to do justice to what they gave us. We got them a new camera ( it's about time they went digital), a camera case and a big basket of food goodies from World Market.

It was a wonderful Christmas Eve. After our family left we got Alex to bed before Santa arrived and then went to work getting our car packed for Christmas and everything ready. After going to bed at 1ish I was up at 4 so I got ready and we left the house at 7:15am to head up to my sister's house for Christmas.

Another post to follow with all of Alex's new toys in action.

Camping?

It's Monday morning and I have a to do list a mile long of stuff that needs to be done at home. I am grateful though that I can enjoy the crisp morning breeze in my PJs knowing I will be home all day with my boy. Life is good!!

I had a awesome weekend well besides my toe issue! I was able to go shopping at Oh Sweet Sadie with friends ( two different days) and bought myself a fun ribbon dispenser. I had Indian food with Jason, did errands and ended the weekend with a trip to the mountains.

Thank you to Laura for a little inspiration our family headed up to Little Cottonwood Canyon yesterday afternoon to enjoy the fall colors. We packed up our new car.. have I mentioned I am LOVING IT... anyway we packed the car with our little portable grill and goodies for dinner. We had salad, drinks, chips, hot dogs, cookies and of course smores. It was a perfect day to enjoy the mountains together. Alex although a little grumpy had a good time getting dirty. I think we will go again before it's too late. Anyone up for coming along?

This was Alex about 5 minutes after we arrived to the campground. He was running full speed and biffed it. He even got dirt in his ear.

How cute this this picture?

What a strange look on my face and a mouthful of cookies for Alex.

I love my buddy!

Going for a walk with Daddy, I love this picture!

Daddy found a stick for Alex, he was thrilled.

He thought he was so big with his stick.

A closeup through the branches of a tree

Jason's attempt at a smile or so he told me.

Alex sat in his stroller while we ate dinner. He kept pulling this face when he would hear a car go by. He was cracking us up.

ahhh smores.. I love them! Sadly I was making my 2nd

smore when our propane tank died.

P.S. Thanks for everyone's concerns about my toe. It is doing much better. The coloring has changed and the swelling has gone down. It's still sore though. It looks more like a nasty birth mark now, I spared you a new photo. =)