Samantha's Late Night

Samantha's 10th Birthday was Wednesday and she had a "late night" with 5 of her friends on Friday night. We had a lot of fun. When everyone arrived, the girls all made their own personal pizzas and then frosted their own cupcakes and had snacks and watched movies. There was lots of energy in our house, but Samantha had a great time and I still can't believe that she is 10. One of the gifts that she received was a messenger bag that she was able to decorate herself and do iron ons, etc...She had a lot of fun and we completed that today. She really loves to do any sort of craft projects.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

We decorated the Christmas Tree this week and the girls really enjoyed that alot. I took a few pictures and although they did not all turn out great - at least you can see. We also started a tradition a few years back as we could never find a tree topper that worked for our tree so we asked the girls to make a star for us. Every year the girls take turns and make a star for us and it has been fun. This year was Sophie's turn to make the star and Mark helped her put it on the top.

Our Turkeys...

Yes, for those of you who do not already know, we do have Turkeys and are at a point that will probably be with us for only a few more weeks (if you know what I mean??) They are absolutely huge!!! Mark let them out to roam around the other day and it was quite funny how inquisitive they were - I took a few pictures and even a video as they actually came right up to our sliding glass door and were rubbing it into the dogs - HA. It really was quite hilarious.

Samantha Turns 10!

Yes, 10 is what I said - I can hardly believe it! Samantha celebrated her 10th birthday and it seems just like yesterday that she was born. Time goes way too fast. She went to school today and after getting home, we all went as a family and celebrated at Red Robin - she loves that and she received an ENORMOUS piece of Mud Pie - boy was that delicious! We came home and she opened her presents and was very excited as she got a text messaging system to text with her friends, a latch hook kit and some gifts from Sophie. We are working on her birthday cupcakes for her party on Friday. She is having a "late night" with some friends and is really looking forward to that. She is so grown up!

Thanksgiving Week in Boise

I know it has been awhile since I have updated the blog, but we returned from a very relaxing week up in Boise over Thanksgiving. It was so nice to see my Mom and sisters and family - it had been too long. We arrived in Boise on Sunday, November 23rd and left to come home this past Sunday, November 30th. It was a great week and filled with lots of good food, fun and relaxation! We stayed with my sister, Larissa and her husband Jim and my adorable nephew, Brenden. We took the kids to the park on a couple of occasions to play with their cousins and another day to celebrate Samantha's upcoming 10th birthday - the kids had so much fun and what a great park. Grammie wanted to take the grandkids to the Zoo while we were there so that was a lot of fun as well. It really was a great zoo, it sits on 11 acres and had some really amazing animals. I included some of the lions and tigers in my pictures - you were able to get very close, very cool. Thanksgiving Day was lots of fun and Mom made an awesome dinner with a huge turkey, homemade stuffing, sweet potatoes, etc and of course homemade pies (apple, pumpkin and huckleberry cheesecake) - needless to say - I was not hungry much while I was there. The day after Thanksgiving we avoided shopping and had no desire to be in the crowds of people. We visited my Dad's grave for the first time since he passed away as well as my sister Leanne's since she is now buried next to my Dad - the VA Cemetary really is beautiful and it was so nice to finally be there. The kids also got to frost Thanksgiving cookies with their cousins as well and they so enjoyed that. Saturday night, we decided to do a girls' night with all the sisters and Mom and we had so much fun - we all had dinner together at Larissa's and the guys all rotissieried a prime rib (YUM) and then we went to my Mom's for a movie and relaxation. FUN was had by all. Overall it was a great week that really seemed to just fly by and we miss them all already ~ it was so nice to be together with our family. We missed my Dad so much, but know that he was there with us in spirit and we know we will see him again someday. We are so thankful for our family!

Mark Turns 50!

It's official. Mark turned the Big 50 today. He wanted it very low key and just wanted to spend time with us so we had a nice evening. Mark really wanted his famous "Portuguese Spaghetti", but unfortunately for him, mine never tastes as good so he wanted to cook it for all of us - IT WAS SO DELICIOUS!!! We're stuffed right now. Then we got him a chocolate and peanut butter cup ice cream cake and it was awesome as well!!! The girls each made him their own cards and gifts and it was a lot of fun. For Mark, it's just another day, but he is officially 50 now.

Bella's Lullaby from Twilight

So I don't know how many of you are TWILIGHT fans out there, but the movie soundtrack was released on the 4th of this month and I can hardly wait for the movie to be released on the 21st. Anyway, I love the soundtrack, but I have to say I was a little disappointed with Bella's Lullaby thinking it was going to be all piano and it ended up hardly being any. Anyway, after a little more research, I found out that originally, it was supposed to be Robert Pattison's (the character that plays Edward) version, but he decided not to use it and I so wish he had as I love it. I finally found it on You Tube so for those of you who have listened to the soundtrack version, let me know what you think of this version in comparison.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72HsHfhxiUg

Halloween Pumpkins

I wanted to add this to my blog this year as this is one of my highlights every year at Halloween. There is an older couple in our neighborhood that gets tons of pumpkins in early October and carves at least 20-30 pumpkins and has them on display for Halloween for everyone to see. This year, I talked to her when we trick-or-treated at their house and she said it is their family tradition and they have done it for the past 20 years. She said they have all their family come over and they carve all the pumpkins. This picture is from my cell so does not show all the detail, but it is truly an amazing site to see. She said this year that they even had someone come from the Deseret News and they were in last Wednesday's paper. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this as much as I did.

Happy Halloween

Well another Halloween has come and gone. This is the 3rd time that Samantha has dressed up (you'll see her posts earlier on the blog) and then Sophie's 2nd time ~ they look a little different tonight as we were out of black hairspray! I attempted earlier in the week to get more, but no one had it and I was not going to try looking anymore after 3 stores, so they went with more natural haircolor, but they still looked so cute!!! They were Wednesday and Morticia Addams from the Addams Family. For better pics, scroll down further on the blog. Anyway, the entire week it has been absolutely beautiful with weather in the high 60's to low 70's and even higher on some days, no precip or anything. Then at 6:00 of course when it becomes time for trick-or-treating what does it do???? It begins to rain, luckily not a downpour, so we were still able to go and the temperature was good so we were a little wet and the wind was blowing, but the girls had a great time and got LOTS of candy!!! They love Halloween and we all went out together as a family - it has become tradition that we all go together as a family! I'm sure our neighbor kids probably don't as those that don't make it before we leave don't end up getting what we have, but our kids sure enjoy it and I guess that is what counts - right?

Fall Colors

I have to say that I love Fall and this year it seems we have finally gotten more of a Fall season and weather, colors, etc. I was noticing today the beautiful colors in my front and back yard and had to take some pictures and share. There are such beautiful yellow, orange, brown, reds, etc - I LOVE IT! The weather they say is supposed to finally start cooling down by Sunday - I still don't think I am ready for winter. I have loved the cooler mornings and days in the 70's - it has been awesome. Enjoy!

Halloween Cut-Out Cookies

I have been promising the girls for the past few weeks that we would do Halloween Cut-Out Cookies so we made the sugar cookie dough this aftternoon and rolled it out and cut out Pumpkins, Scary Cats and Bats and baked them - it was a lot of fun. Then this evening, we made frosting in green, orange, purple and brown and the girls frosted the cookies. I have to say they probably ate as much frosting as they got on the cookies and let's just say they are a bit hyper tonight. Anyway, I took some pics as we were frosting. We had a lot of fun - it's kind of become tradition to do cut-outs around each holiday now.

Fall Festival

Tonight, the girls' school, Providence Hall, did their main fundraiser ~ A Fall Festival! It was really a lot of fun. There was a fee that you paid for your entire family and then you could do multiple different activities for free all around the school. They wore their costumes to the event and were able to do goblin golfing, ghost racing, magic show, races on scooters, I Spy around the school, fishing, they got to be mad scientists (they loved this a lot) and make this funky "goo" and then they also had fun face painting and much, much more. It was a lot of fun for them and great to have a fundraiser that they enjoyed so much!!! The girls this year for Halloween decided to be "Wednesday" and "Morticia" from the Adams Family and we were going to just make up the costumes and the girls actually found someone selling these exact costumes so we were set. They had a lot of fun!

Our "Cabin" Adventure!

We just returned from an amazing, relaxing and oh so needed weekend in the mountains! Mark has a great friend that owns a "cabin" (you'll see what I mean) in the Heber mountains and he let us borrow it for the weekend to get out of town. It's UEA weekend for the girls so they did not have school so we left Friday morning and drove to the cabin for the weekend. This is actually the 2nd time we have been here so we knew what to expect this time. As you will see, this is an amazing "Cabin" - they built it a back in the 90's and it is absolutely beautiful. Most of the Fall colors were already gone and leaves had fallen (I'm making sure that we go earlier next year to take in the spectacular colors)! Anyway, we arrived on Friday afternoon and had a great weekend of relaxation, watching movies, taking walks (as much as you can at 9000 feet - HA - a little different on the oxygen intake), playing games and just enjoying being together as a family. Sophie also lost a tooth last night and we were SO LUCKY that the tooth fairy found her - she was so worried about that! Anyway, I took a lot of pictures and hope that you enjoy. Also, yesterday morning there was even a deer right off the deck of our bedroom just hanging out hiding from all the hunters. Anyway, it was a much needed weekend and we all had a great time and it was hard to come home today. The weather was absolutely beautiful as well - in the upper 70's the entire weekend - who would have thought mid-October could be that way.