Happy Thanksgiving!!

I've come to conclusion that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Now don't get me wrong, I love Christmas but there is something that is so simple about Thanksgiving. Maybe that's the reason I love it - because it's simple. Being thankful for your blessings, delicious food and family, it honestly doesn't get better than that. (My mom will cringe when she reads 'simple', she'll be thinking what's simple about cooking a meal for over 30 people? - I get that but you have to agree that it's a hundred times more simple than Christmas).

This year as a family we made a list of everything we're grateful for, I wanted to see how long we could make it - I think we got to 156 things we're thankful for. Next year will start sooner and try to get to 500. After you get passed the normal (but most important ones) such as family, Jesus, Temples, scriptures etc... the rest become very random. I found out my kids are thankful for pillows, leaves, carpet, pilgrims, teeth, x-box, bunny rabbits etc... The funniest is when Court started saying she was thankful for tables, chairs, bowls, plates. Jake stopped her and said "Court, are you just looking at things and saying you're thankful for them?" This cracked Scott and I up as it's one of our favorite movie quotes from Anchor Man "I love lamp".

Sorry, that was kind of random. Back to Thanksgiving. What I'm most thankful for in my life right now is- my life. I know this sounds really general but it's true. I love everything about my life including the sometimes bad stuff but thankfully it's mostly good stuff. I'm thankful for my amazing husband, my beautiful and healthy children, both our families, the gospel, our Saviour, my health, my home, being able to stay at home, Scott's job, my friends, my Aunts and Uncles etc... My list is truly endles and I'm thankful for this as well.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Oops! Forgot to Post Courtney's Dance Recital

I realized that I never made a post about Courtney's Dance Recital. Oops! Oh well, better late than never I guess?? Lol!!

Last year we started Courtney in Dance and she loved it. She absolutely loved it. In her dance class was her Cousin Aiva and her friend Raini which made it even more fun. At the end of the year they had a Dance Recital and performed two Dances. A Bumble Bee Dance and a Flower Dance. Both were adorable but definitely the Bumble Bee Dance was the cutest.

These are the special curlers we used to make her hair super cute!

Courtney's friend Raini and cousin Aiva

Courtney had so much fun that we are now into our second year of Dance and like last year she is still loving it!!!

Jake is 8!

It's crazy to believe that our little Jake is now 8 years old. It's even crazier to think that he's going to be baptised in a few weeks. Crazy! Crazy! Crazy!

When Jake came to us with the idea of taking his friends to Chuck A Rama for his Birthday Party (an all you can eat Buffet) Scott and I started laughing but when we realized he was serious, we thought - why not?

Saturday morning four of Jake's friends and his cousin Logan arrived at our house and we were off to Chuck A Rama's. We let the boys sit at their own table and then let them go to down. I think the record was ten plates and I think nine out of the ten plates was dessert. The boys had a ton of fun. After stuffing themselves we took them back to our house to open presents and let them hang for a couple of hours. I have to say it was the easiest and cheapest Birthday Party I've ever done (a big thanks to my Mom and Dad who joined us at the restaurant and gave us some Kid's eat FREE coupons).

Jake's actual Birthday fell on Sunday. Jake had to wait until after church to open his presents because his Dad was at early morning church meetings. Jake said it was the longest church 'ever'!!! After presents we ate a big BIRTHDAY brunch which consisted of all of Jake's favorite breakfast foods; pancakes, eggs, ham and scones. Later that evening we headed to Grandma's house for dinner and Birthday Cake!!!

Happy Birthday Jake!! We love you!!!!

Pumpkin Patch Bust

I don't know what it is about my kids but they either have the worst timing for getting sick or they can't handle anything fun. Here are just a few of many examples - tell me if you can't see some kind of pattern.

1. Jake's 1st grade field trip to Dinosaur Park - the night before he throws up and misses it.

2. Halloween Night - Jake's trick or treating but gets a stomach ache and I have to take him home and he misses out on the rest of the night.

3. Lagoon day with Scott's family - The night before Jake throws up and gets a fever and we can't go.

4. Courtney's first day of pre school - The night before she throws up and has to miss her first day.

5. The latest one - Courtney has her first pre-school field trip to a Pumpkin Patch. When we arrive she starts acting grumpy and won't smile. The whole time she complains of a tummy ache, we end up having a miserable time and leaving early.

So, the question is - is this all just a crazy coincidence and my kids have the worst luck ever??? Or, can they honestly not have fun or can't handle the idea of fun and some how they make themselves sick??? All I know is I'm getting sick of my kids getting sick on the 'fun days'. Grrrrr!!!

Here are some pictures of Courtney's field trip to the Pumpkin Patch. You can tell by her eyes that she's not feeling well.

Courtney's friend Emma

Poor thing.

Halloween

Returning home with only a week left before Halloween Scott and I tried to do as many Halloween activities with our kids as we possibly could. We went to the pumpkin Patch and saw 'Scary Pumpkin Man', put together costumes, went to my parents ward's Halloween Party, went to a Corn Maze, carved pumpkins etc... (Sadly all of these pictures were erased from my camera).

I still can't get over how warm Halloween was this year. It was definitely a picture perfect Halloween. This year Jake dressed up as a Boxer. He came up with the idea and put his costume together (thanks to all of his Dad's fighting gear in the basement). Courtney was a Bumble Bee. She really, really wanted to be Rapunzel (she was Rapunzel last year) but I really, really wanted her to be a Bumble Bee. In the end we compromised, she was Rapunzel for her Birthday Party and a 'Princess' Bumble Bee for Halloween. It was a win win!!!!!

Jake at his school's Halloween Parade.

Halloween afternoon we carverd our pumpkins!

Trunk or' treating at Dad's work

Pizza and salad at my Mom's house before Trick or Treating

The ice cream house! Who doesn't like to trick or treat for ice cream???

We ran into our cute Dunyon cousin's. Darling!

Half the night we trick or' treated with my family and the second half we trick or' treated with Scott's family. Best of both worlds.

It's always fun to end the night at Grandma's house with yummy hot Chilli and fresh rolls

Courtney's 4!!!

Our little Courtney is 4 year's old!!

Saturday morning we had 6 of Courtney's little girl friends over for a princess party. They all came dressed up as princesses. We painted nails, made princess magic wands and of course had cupcakes. All of the girls were so well behaved and all so darling.

The only down side of the entire party is that I lost every picture I took except for one. I took a ton of pictures but sadly my camera somehow deleted them? Along with half the pictures on my camera including the recent Halloween parties we'd been to. I was extremely upset but I'm slowly getting over it. I'm just thankful for the one picture I have especially because it's a super cute one!

Courtney with her little girl friends. Are they not the cutest little girls ever!!!

Logan and Jake were my big helpers at the party.

Sunday we had Scott's and my family over for a family birthday party. My Mom brought over this cute princess cut out. I had also taken a picture with all of Courtney's friends but like I told you - it's gone :(

Halloween morning and Courtney's real Birthday!

Cruisin!

We're back from the best vacation EVER! My hubby surprised me with a 7 day Mexican Riviera cruise for my b-day/10 year anniversary. We went with two of Scott's brother's and their wives; Matt and Gidget, Tommy and Amber. The six of us had a blast starting with a road trip to LA, then 7 days on an amazing cruise ship and then the ride home. In total we were gone 10 days and I honestly can't express in enough words how much fun we had.

Before boarding the cruise we spent a night in LA at a gorgeous hotel. That evening Amber had gotten us a good deal on a new show called Battle of the Dance. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into, all we knew were that the tickets were regularly $50-$80 and there were dancers. To make a long story short all I have to say is, it was the worst food and the worst show we have eaten or experienced. We ended up leaving early because we couldn't stop laughing. It was definitely a funny way to start our weeklong adventure.

I like the top left picture of Tommy shooting himself. Lol!!

After the show we took a walk in Down Town Disney

Sunday morning we enjoyed Church with the local LA people then around noon we boarded our ship. We looked a little fancy boarding the ship wearing our Sunday clothes but it was all good.

Here's our awesome ship, it slept 3,500 people and at least 1,500 workers. It was huge, gorgeous, clean and best of all I only got lost once.

So not to bore you to death with small details of every thing we did the whole week. I'll just list my top 5 favorite things. Then you can enjoy the rest of the billion pictures below.

5. Matt's Super Man shirt. Everytime I think of this I bust up laughing. Matt happened to be wearing a Superman shirt on the day we were walking the streets in Cabo. The Mexicans kept making comments when they saw him like; "Superman where's your cape" or "Superman why you walking you should fly" the best was "Superman where's Robin" ???? After about an hour of hearing these comments Matt stopped and looked at us and said "I think they're making fun of me" and the funniest part of the story is they really were - this continued all day long. By the end of the day Matt couldn't wait to get on the boat and take his shirt off and watching his frustration made it even funnier. You're a good sport Matt!!!

4. The Zip Line. In Puerta Villarta we found a driver who drove us to the jungle where we were given helmets and harnesses and we went on 12 zip lines over the top of the jungle. Some of the zip lines were as long as 100 yards. It was awesome!

3. Having absolutely no schedule and doing anything I wanted. I loved waking up when ever I wanted, eating when ever I wanted and what ever I wanted. If I wanted to take a nap I took a nap. If I wanted to read a book I would. If I wanted to dance, I danced. I played miniature golf, kareoke, visited with my sister in-laws, played games, sun tanned etc.. You get the picture. Freedom, no stress and complete relaxation was everything I needed. It was perfect!

2. Snorkeling in Cabo. We took a boat ride out to the most beautiful beach and spent 3 hours swimming and snorkeling in the Ocean. It was Heaven.

1. My all time favorite - Dining in the evening. It was fun getting all dressed up, it was exciting finding out what was going to be on the menu, it was hilarious watching the waiters dance and sing for us but most of all it was fun sitting around a couple of hours each night eating delicious food, talking and laughing about the adventures we had that day. I don't think there was a night when we weren't doubled over laughing our guts out or leaving the table with our guts hanging out. (okay, that last part was bad but I couldn't resist - lol).

Our adventures in Cabo St. Lucas!!!

Tommy and Amber were so hilarious together. Look closely at all of Tommy's pictures and all the funny faces he makes in each one. He cracked us up the whole trip!

Our 2nd day in Cabo

I had to take this picture to prove to my kids that I really did swim in the ocean.

More fun on the Boat

3rd stop Puerta Vallarta

Getting ready to zip line through the jungle

They wouldn't let us take pictures while we were in the jungle. Here we are after with our two guides! Sweaty but smilin!

We found a river where we were able to cool off. The humidity in the jungle was extreme.

Our driver took us to a local beach, it wasn't as gorgeous as Cabo's beaches but it was fun to hang with the locals.

No, we didn't catch these fish. We were watching a fisherman clean the fish and he allowed the boys to take pictures with them. Too funny!

Matt and Gidget were a blast to hang with. This was our first vacation we've been on together and I have to say I can't wait for the next one. I knew Matt was funny and I knew he was a good story teller but man 24/7 of his humor and stories about did me in. My stomach hurt so much from laughing. Thanks Matt for entertaining us all week.

I lied. My favorite thing of the entire week was spending 10 days with Scott without our kids. AMAZING!!! He promised me a cruise every two years - I'm totally holding him to it.

Our delicious food. I tried to work out everyday on the boat so I could have the freedom of eating anything I wanted and I can definitely say I did eat - EVERYTHING! The breakfast buffet was my favorite (I love breakfast); bacon, omelets, french toast, ham, croissants, pastries and I ate it ALL!! And the best news is when I got home I only gained 4 lbs. Not too shabby eh! Lol!

The ship had a huge movie screen outside where they showed movies each night. They supplied blankets and popcorn. I loved it!

The last day on the ship was the only day it was a little grey and windy but nothing to complain about.

My hot husband!! If you're wondering about his thumbs up in all his pictures, I have no idea?? For some reason he thinks it's funny???

Each night they turned down our beds and made us towel animals. The monkey was my favorite!

Our small but comfortable and cozy bedroom.

Best Vacation Ever!!!

(I know my Aunts will probably wonder where my kids were. Courtney stayed with my Mom and Sister in-law Elise. And we dropped Jake off in St. George where he stayed with Scott's Mom and Dad. They both had a ton of fun and had lot's of fun stories to share with us. Thanks again Mom, Elise and Margaret.)