Glenn's birthday

Glenn's birthday was actually on Thanksgiving, but we waited until later that weekend to celebrate. He requested cheesecake for his birthday, but since he is a far superior baker, he was also the one to make it. Don't feel bad for him, after all the dieting we'd been doing, baking a cheesecake was a dream for Glenn.

Glenn is now thirty! Thank goodness because I've been lonely in the thirties by myself, haha! I'm glad to be thirty with him, and I look forward to turning forty, fifty and sixty with him. I am crazy about this guy, I feel like our relationship gets better with every year. He's kind, helpful, and in his own goofy way, he makes me laugh. Okay, I'll stop being sappy now. LOVE YOU GLENN!

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving was fabulous this year. We spent the weekend with our friends the Simonsons. It's been so fun having them close, Heather and I have been friends since we were twelve and she's basically a sister. It's also nice because they have a nice sized house with four kids that my kids adore. When we go there, we basically don't see them the whole time. It's nice that they have such a good time too.

I didn't take near enough pictures, but that's because they would have mostly been of four adults high on food, company and sleep deprivation. And speaking of sleep dep, I tried my hand at Black Friday with Heather that night. We left around 8pm and got back at about 4am. Holy cow, people are CRAZY!! Seriously, you could feel the tension in the air as we waited in line to get into Toys R Us. By the end of the night, even I was ready to cut a man if they tried to cut in line. It was an adventure, and we had a great time, but I can't say that you'll see me out there again any time soon.


Thank you weather for being nice enough to send our kids outside!

Deviled eggs and a veggie tray. My pre-Thanksgiving must-haves.
Chocolate French toast for Thanksgiving breakfast. It was important that we gave our stomach a workout before the actual event.
Emmy, Heather's oldest. She was our wingman in the kitchen.

Halloween 2011

We had a busy and fun Halloween this year. It seems the older my kids get, the busier Halloween becomes, we always enjoy it though, how can you not like a holiday that's centered around candy?

Our day started with Jayda's class party and parade. The party was cute, but I don't think Jayda knew what to do with me there. I tried to sit back and just observe so that she wouldn't feel suffocated by her mommy. My kid's growing up!
Playing a game, the penguin is her teacher Ms Cmeil, she's been wonderful!
I had to take a picture of this because that girl was going to town on that hat. I've never seen such serious chewing. She's a chewer, it kind of drives me crazy.
Jayda and a few of her cute friends. I've been lucky enough to make friends with their moms as well.
When I was asked where Jayda was, I told them to look for the walking hat. It made it easy to spot her, haha!
Love this girl!

Later that night we geared up and got ready to trick or treat. We stopped at The Petersons who managed to fit the neighborhood in their apartment for Abby's birthday party. It was a fun way to see everyone before snagging candy.

Jayda, Skyler and their adopted brother Jack. We love him!


The kids, including the birthday kitty cat at the Petersons. Deborah threw a rainbow party for her, it was so cute!
Hitting the neighborhood. The weather wasn't too bad, we covered some good ground.


Our four year olds, Jaden, Jack and Skyler. I would have loved to get a picture of Ryley and Jayda, those two are total BFF's, but they were taking their craft seriously, and I was never able to catch up to them quick enough, haha!

Sky's Halloween party was postponed to Monday since his teacher was sick on Halloween. He had a great time too. There was a parade and presentation before I left him to his festivities. While he was walking in the parade his lifted his goggles to wink at me!! It grabbed the attention of the audience and melted my heart. Where did this charmer come from?




It was a good Halloween, and for the record, it's now December, and I just barely threw out the rest of the Halloween candy.

Halloween Party

So here's the story of the Halloween Party...

Every year the ward has a big old Halloween Party, and this year the primary was in charge. It was also going to be a chili cookoff, and we expected everyone to come. So, for two months me and my counselors and secretary plotted and planned. A million emails were sent, a ton of things were purchased, and we had it scheduled right down to the minute. It was going to be a kickin' party.

And then it snowed, and the party was canceled.

I was initially devastated, as was my presidency, there may have been tears. But in hindsight, I would have been even more sick had someone actually been harmed due to the bad roads. Oh well.

Luckily, we ended up having a fantastic time thanks to Tiff and her last minute party planning. She invited us as well as some other neighbors over to eat all the chili we'd prepared and show off our costumes. Later in the night, the kids came down the hall to our place to do the craft that they would have done at the church party. All's well that ends well.





How freaking cute are they? I loved this idea!
Jayda made Skyler a parachute for his pilot's costume. Loved it.
My witch and my pilot. One day we might actually coordinate costumes, but hey, they both fly right?

Priceless

This is one of those stories that I have to write down because it was Jayda-classic.

A few months ago when picking up Jayda from school, she mentioned that she got detention. When I asked her why, the conversation went a bit like this...

"Why were you in detention?"

"Because (random boy) called me hot, and not like the sweaty hot, the Hollywood kind of hot, and it's inappropriate!"

"So why were YOU in detention?"

"Because I punched him in the stomach."

I pretty much laughed the whole way home, a bit stumped at how to respond. In a way I'm glad that she's not a girl willing to be objectified, but in that poor boy's defense, he probably just felt that he was paying her a compliment. Either way, violence is not the answer, so we discussed alternative ways to deal with those kinds of situations. Ah, let the girl drama begin, those teen years are going to be fun.

Alien Invasion

One of Jayda's assignments was to disguise a turkey to not look like a turkey anymore so it wouldn't get eaten. We decided to turn it into an alien, and a psychedelic one at that! I think it turned out pretty awesome, and very well disguised.

Freddy Hill Farms

It's so hard to believe that this is our FOURTH year going to Freddy Hills. We have gone every year, I should really make a Freddy Hills collage. Tiff put the trip together this year and we had a great time. Sky had a blast on the hayride, picking a pumpkin, going through the maze, down the slide and eating ice cream. I think when fall comes around next year, it's going to be weird not going again!

Their faces right here cracks me up!



I just love that fuzzy little head.

Activity Days Melted Witches

I was able to go to Activity Days taught by Noelle and Jamie and had a lot of fun with the girls. They made these edible melted witches, aren't they adorable! I'm really love these kids!

Carving Pumpkins

We were sure to carve pumpkins this year, always a good time, especially if your son dry heaves at the very thought of touching pumpkin guts. True story. No way was he sticking his hand in there, it was hilarious. Jayda dug right in and we all helped to carve. We got some tasty seeds and cute pumpkins out of the night.