Thanksgiving 2014

Our Thanksgiving was a little bit different this year, and that's okay.

We spent a few days in Provo with my parents and my brother's family.

My sister-in-law Anne was due with baby #3 the day before thanksgiving so she wasn't up for travelling.

We got to do some really fun stuff and spending time with family, wherever we are, is always the best.

We ended up staying four days/three nights in Provo (Mark surprised me with the third night!) 

so, of course, we swam in the hotel pool as much as we could!

Even though, in this picture, Sam looks a little freaked out, he absolutely LOVED the water.  

It was so hard to keep him safe.  He wanted to jump right in with the rest of them. 

Thanksgiving Dinner...was eaten at Sizzler!

Kind of different!  It tasted great though.

The only problem....NO Leftovers!

You could order off the regular menu, but they did offer a more traditional Thanksgiving Dinner.

Most of us ordered that.  Mark ordered Shrimp.  Silly Boy!

After Dinner, we drove to my Aunt's house and visited with her and her kids for awhile.

We don't get to see them that often so it was great to see her and my cousins.

On Black Friday we joined the herd of people shopping (although definitely not the midnight crowds).

We explored Cabela's for a couple of hours.

The kids enjoyed seeing all the animals, real or stuffed!    

After Cabela's we drove downtown to Temple Square.

This is the reason Mark surprised me and let us stay another night.  

He know I really wanted to see the lights.  Sweet huh?

It has been a REALLY long time since I had been on Temple Square, for more than just a wedding ceremony.

and the kids haven't been, really, ever.

So I was grateful my family was willing to humor me and go visit.  Even Anne who was two days over due!

The lights, of course, were gorgeous.  And I absolutely LOVED the spirit I felt as we explored the grounds.

It was definitely a perfect way to kick off this Christmas season.

The next day we drove around Provo, reminiscing about all the fun times we have had there.

For never living there, we sure do have a lot of memories.  It was really surprising.

And then we stopped by the Temple. 

Afterwards we went back to Cody's house to say one last goodbye!

Silly Kids! 

And then we began our journey home!

Somewhere between Malad and Pocatello, I mistakenly gave Sam some chocolate.

What was I thinking? 

Thank you Cody and Anne for letting us come for Thanksgiving.

Thank you Sizzler for being open on Thanksgiving so that we could enjoy a yummy turkey dinner.

And thank you Mark for letting us stay another day, 

so that we (along with everyone else in the Salt Lake Valley) could see the lights on Temple Square.

This was a Thanksgiving I will never forget!

Happy 10!!!

So we were actually in Boise the weekend BEFORE the weekend before Thanksgiving.!  Whoops!

But the "real" weekend before Thanksgiving was just as special!!!

Mark and I celebrated out big 10 year anniversary!

Can you believe it?  I sure can't!

TEN years married to this Hunk!!!  OW OW!!!

How did I get so lucky!?!

Look at our baby faces!

So for our anniversary, Mark let me choose what we were going to do!

I had about a billion things I wanted to do.

But I finally decided I wanted to go back to where it all began.

We went through a session at the Idaho Falls Temple, ate in their cafeteria, and then did a little Christmas Shopping. 

It was great!

We haven't changed that much, have we!?!  HA!!!

I heard on the radio today that most couples feel that their tenth year together is the worst!

It use to be the seventh, but I guess it's changed.

I would DEFINITELY have to say they were wrong.

I've never been more in love and happier than I am now!

Babe, I love you more than ever before, and I didn't think that was even possible.

You are the perfect one for me and I am so blessed to call you mine.

Happy 10!!!  Love you! 

Pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving!

We were in Boise the weekend before Thanksgiving.

Mark had a class and the rest of us couldn't resist the opportunity to visit family.

It was great, because Mark's parents drove up from California to be with us too.

Boise is usually an escape from our Rexburg winter, but believe it or not, it was more winter there than at home.

It pretty much snowed the entire weekend.

Thankfully I had packed the girls winter clothes.  The kids spent A LOT of time outside!

Uncle Tyler won the award for coolest uncle that weekend!

He hitched up not one, not two, but like FIVE sleds to his four-wheeler and pulled all the cousins 

(and most of the neighborhood kids) all around the local streets.

Just look at all that snow!!  ....In Boise!!!

I seriously LOVE this picture!

When they weren't on the sleds they were playing in the snow!

Grandpa and Grandma arrived Friday night and brought with them one of Grandpa's Giant pumpkins.

Grandpa and the older girls harvested the seeds and shared them with us so we can grow our own giant pumpkins.

After they harvested the seeds, one of the kids (or maybe it was grandpa) had the idea to draw on the pumpkin.

They kids had a ball.

On Saturday we had a delicious thanksgiving dinner.

Grandma and the kids were in charge of centerpieces.

They did such a good job, didn't they!?!

After church on Sunday we packed up our things and headed home.

The weekend went entirely way too fast, as usual.  And the girls keep asking when we can go back.  Soon.... hopefully!

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I am truly grateful to be a part of such an incredible family.

I couldn't have asked for better in-laws!!!

And I am so grateful that my kids have cousins to play with and that they get along so great!

I am very blessed!

Halloween 2014

Halloween day was CRAZY busy.

It seemed like we went from one class party (I helped with Hannah's) to the next (I was in charge of Abby's). 

Throw in a super cute Halloween program (Abby's) and lunch with "Ms. Thompson" (she needed dry ice for some spooky experiments so we brought lunch too!) and we barely had time to breathe!  

It was exhausting!

So that night we spent a few hours relaxing at my parents so the girls could pass out candy to the trick-or-treaters.

That's our favorite part of Halloween and we get like no trick-or-treaters at our house!

It was really nice to put my feet up and let the girls do all the work!

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Sam was so done with Halloween!

Lucy Lou - 3 years old!

So my 2014 folder of pictures mysteriously disappeared the other day.  The ENTIRE folder!!!
Let me tell you, I was devastated!!! It was honestly the closest to depressed I have ever felt!
My pictures are a big deal!!!
It put me in a major funk for a couple of days while Mark and I desperately tried everything to recover it.
Thankfully we were able to salvage some of the pictures (Some unfortunately are goners!)
It has been a major pain reorganizing them and I have for sure learned my lesson on backing them up.
But since I'm not finished wading through partial and out of order pictures,
we are going back in time for the pictures in this post dedicated to my dear little Lucy girl.

Lucy Lou has seriously come out of her shell these last couple of months.

I think it's because the older girls are gone to school and it's just me and her and Sam at home.

It has been really fun to see her personality develop.
She's clever and silly and kind and happy.

Here's a little bit more about my favorite little three year old.

Lucy has always been my quiet and content little girl and never really had much to say.

Up until recently that is!  She has finally found her voice and has become quite the little gabber.
She is still be pretty quite at times, but if she's in the mood, Lucy will talk your ear off.
Besides holding full blown conversations with me (which is awesome), she also LOVES to sing.
I'm super impressed with how many songs she really knows.  Thank you Nursery teachers!!!
We sing "I love to see the Temple", "I am a child of God", "Popcorn", and "Sunbeam" on a daily basis!

And most the times she has to sing it by herself.  She seriously covers my mouth if I try to join in. 

 I think because Lucy was my third and I finally felt like I had this mom thing down.
I had successfully seen two other girls through the toddler stage so I'm feeling pretty darn good!
And because I also realized how fast these sweet little babies of mine grow up,
Little Lucy has gotten away with a little bit more than the other girls ever would have.
For instance, I never really pushed the veggies on her.  Or picking up the toys.  Or even clearing her plate.
But we've been working on that lately and she is becoming quite the responsible little girl!

 Miss Lucy loves to do anything the older girls are doing.
She loves to ride bikes (She insists on riding Hannah's bike!), swing, dance, jump, color, read, etc.
She does a pretty good job keeping up with them too and I am so grateful they are willing to include her!.
When it's just me and her at home, we usually play a game...or two...or three.
Her favorite games as of late are Zingo, Memory, and Wash and Dry Bingo.

I have also been impressed with how much she has picked up from the girls just by listening to them.

She knows her colors, her alphabet, and counts to almost 20 (she skips a few numbers but hey!)

On the flip side, however, she's picking up some not so sweet things from her sisters too.  Ahem...sassiness!

It seriously amazes me what they can learn when you don't even think they are listening.

Her measurements at her three year appointment are...
Weight - 33 1/4 lbs (76%)
Height - 37.5 inches (65%)
#1 in Weight and Height compared with the older girls.
She's growing like a weed and is really starting to look so grown up.

 Oh Lucy Lou, you are such a joy to our family.
You make me giggle daily and I cannot imagine life without you.
Thanks for bringing such a sweet spirit into our home.
Love you to the moon and back!

Love Momma!

Lucy's Birthday Parties!!!

Yep, Par-TIES!  As in more than one!

Lucy was one lucky little girl this year and got to celebrate her birthday multiple times.
I had originally planned one really big party on Halloween, but we ended up having two little parties before instead.

On Monday was FHE/Party #1.  Nothing wrong with doubling up right!?

We invited some friends over for dinner and then carved pumpkins.

 Kennedy was sweet enough to help Hannah carve a Unicorn.

 Abby cleaned and carved her pumpkin all by herself this year!

 The Chambers were awesome and brought Birthday cake to celebrate!. 

 And even a present!

I invited them to come for FHE and they turned it into a full blown birthday party!

 Lucy loves Hadley! 

She's talked about inviting Hadley to her birthday party for weeks!  (Hadley AND Ruby!)

 I think at this point Lucy finally got what the whole Birthday party thing meant!

Monday was the perfect prep for her actual birthday on Wednesday.

On Wednesday we began the day with pancakes!

It's becoming a little tradition for Mark to make a pancake into the number of years the birthday girl will be.
Here's Lucy's number 3.

That night we would be celebrating with cinnamon rolls, so Lucy got to help me make them!

Baking with my kids totally stresses me out, so I don't do it that often.  So for Lucy this was a special thing!

That night the celebration started with a REALLY big hamburger at Big Jud's.

I told my mom not to let me forget to get a picture of the hamburger before we ate it, 
but wouldn't you know it.... I totally forgot!

After dinner we went to the Straw Maze!

This was us before we entered the maze... about 2 minutes into the maze the older girls weren't so happy.

They seriously started panicking.

 We made it out about 30 minutes later and the girls were much happier.

Outside the maze was a fun little playground, so we spent a little while playing on the slides.

They also had a couple of these super huge wide tires to roll on (and in!)

The kids had a blast.

Yes, even this big kid!

The girls AND Sam could have stayed there all night.

However, we had a party to be at so we had to leave.

We met a few more family members back at my parents house for cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate.

Singing to the Birthday girl.

I LOVE that she's snuggled up next to Uncle Nickle!

"Three"!

And then we opened presents!

"The tongue" is a total Bates thing.  Right, Uncle Mike? 

All she wanted was a "handy dandy notebook" (remember Blues Clues!?!) and the poor girl didn't even get one.  

I did tell her once she was potty trained she would though.

Thankfully, this girl is easy to please and she loved everything she got.

Lucy Lou, I hope you had the happiest of birthdays!

We love you sweet pea!