Gratitude

We just returned home after a nice long holiday at my sister Melanie's. We had such a great time! I always love spending Thanksgiving with their family -- as do our kids!

I have so much to be grateful for - wonderful family and friends. Health, the gospel, living in a free country, education... there are SO many things I'm grateful for! Below you'll find a little recap of our trip... I slacked on the pictures, but you'll get the gist.

Here's Hailey & I w/ my neice Abbey after her performance of The Nutcracker. She is SO talented... and so adorable w/ all her animated expessions on-stage :) I was totally cracking up at how expressive she was!

Mel (my sis) Britt & Abbey

Britt & Hailey :)

BLACK FRIDAY!

Okay - I have to elaborate here a little - we totally knocked out a new method for avoiding all chaos in stores on black friday! As soon as we would walk into a store - my mom would immediately go get in the front of the line & let one person in front of her at a time while my sis, niece & I shopped - then, When we were all ready, we just went to the front of the line where she was waiting for us :) So we hit... Kohl's at 4am, Old Navy at 5am (OMGosh! - 50% off all Jeans!! Yay!), Target at 6, and the Mall afterwards (where I got Jenna the CUTEST christmas dress that is White w/ black polka dots!)

I love this tradition of going shopping the day after!

Hailey & Abbey gearing up the "kid" table for Turkey dinner!

My favorite part - Dave & Bill (my BIL) doing the dishes after dinner... also one of my favorite parts of THanksgiving :)

My Nephew Ben playing w/ Derek - arent' they cute guys!?

Brandy & Koby & kids - a family in my sisters ward - came over for dinner - and Brandy made the dang cutest little place setting pieces - Turkeys out of Oreos, candy corn & whoppers :)

My mom & Mel - gearing up for the final touches of food :)

Hailey & Abs were so good at keeping Jenna busy while we were getting the food rolling! Yay for good helpers!

If I can find the pictures from our TUrkey Trot 5k from Thanksgiving morning I will post them - I was pretty tuckered out... only did it in 30.15... definitely not my best time - oh well :) It was a great run, and a great tradition that we do to start off the day! :)

Oh my stinkin' cute!

Okay - here are Jenna's official 3 month pictures. I can NOT get over how DARLING she is! I love when good pictures just capture how sweet your child really is! Once again - I "heart" Dana Holcomb - she did a great job w/ the pictures ;)

Not to toot my own horn, but... HONK!

Okay - so today I got my oil changed, and I had a headlight out. They wanted like 25$ just to replace the light. I told him I'd take care of it myself... he looked at me like yeah right.. So - I went & picked up the light... changed it - and.....

...VOILA!... Light's a working :) I love it when mechanics treat women like imbiciles... seriously! Although I prefer not to be a grease monkey - I can figure out a thing or two... :)

Memory Tag :)

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Jenna - 3 months old!!

I can hardly believe that Jenna is already 3 months old! It has FLOWN by! She is getting so big & fun! We love her happy personality! Here are a few shots...

Vampires & Indians

So tonight was the big night! The Opening of TWILIGHT! Some friends & I decided it would be a great idea to go to the 2:35AM showing. We actually made it a bang of a late night by doing breakfast before hand -so I missed some precious hours of sleep, but it was a great time!

Okay - so I won't make any spoils (but if you already read the book - there aren't any surprises) - but the movie was good! Better than I expected, and I wasn't a big fan of the casting for Edward, but he totally grew on me by the end. So - GO SEE IT AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!

(Emily, Me, Amber, Danielle & Lora)

Here's my little "Wild Bear" (That's his indian name). Derek got to make his indian garb at preschool & was LOVING (and still is) banging his drums! SO CUTE! Not his most flattering pose, but at least he held still!

Hailey's 4th Grade Program

Hailey had her 4th grade performance last night - It was called "Utah - this is the place". Each class had a presentation - Hailey's was on the Native Americans in Utah. She is on the second row w/ a blue feather - (third in from the left). She did a great job, and it was really cute!

After each class had performed they did line dancing. It was hillarious because they had a dance partner... i.e. all of these 9 & 10 year olds had to dance w/ someone of the opposite gender. They were all so embarrassed.

Anyway - the videos are a little wobbley because I had to do the videos on my regular camera... but hopefully you can get the jist of it! :)

Such a Mama's boy

Okay - this is one of those cuter than cute things about Derek! Dave & I took Derek to a movie today, and on our way home we passed the new temple out by Daybreak. He looked over to it and said "can I get married there when I'm bigger?" so I told him he could, and that he could find a girl to marry him... so he paused for a minute then said "Mom, can I marry you?" SOOO CUTE! Dave told him I was already taken, then he asked if he could marry his Auntie Michie (my sister Michele), and I explained that she was already married. THen he asked if he could marry Jenna.

Cute little Derek... I thought that was so darling, it totally melted my heart! What a sweet boy - I'm glad he loves his Mama!

Jenna's Blessing & Brittanie's Bday!

We have had a whirlwind weekend w/ family & friends visiting - but it has been wonderful! Sunday we blessed Jenna, and also celebrated my niece's 18th birthday! I thought Dave gave Jenna a very sweet blessing, and it was so nice to have the fam there! Here are some of the pictures from the festivities :)

My Dad w/ Derek & Jenna

Don't you LOVE her smile!?

Brittanie's big candle blowout! :)

Derek went on a dress-up rampage... here he is in the Tigger suit w/ Britt :)

Our friends & old neighbors Bobbi & Dave w/ their son Caleb

One of Dave's oldest friends Aaron & his wife Katie

My brother Steve w/ his wife Jenny & son Eli

Parades, Parties, Pumpkins & more!

Once again blogger has reversed my picture order... but we'll go backwards :)

Derek raked in the loot on Halloween last night! He braved the rain showers along w/ Dave & my dad to hit up lots of houses in the neighborhood.

Here is Hailey at her school parade... it's pretty funny how quickly the kids race through the line!
Jenna-Boo! Doesn't she look extra spooky in her Halloween outfit!?

Derek has been LOVING having his Grandma & Grandpa here!

Jenna in her FIERY chili-pepper costume

Derek arriving back w/ his Halloween treats :)

Hailey and her self-portrait w/ her pumpkin :)

Dave trying to do a miracle number on his -- sadly it broke off partly when he tried to take the pieces out... dang!

Us working hard over our pumpkins!

Derek scooping his "GUTS" out of his pumpkin -- he really didn't like it, but I refused to do it for him... I don't like scooping the guts!

Preschool Parade! The kids walked around the block, and loved every minute of it!

Doesn't Derek make a darling army man (even w/o his hat!?)

The kids decorated cookies at their party - can you imagine the amount of double dipping/licking was going on here?? They loved it!

It was a fun HALLOWEEN! We had fun w/ all the usual activities & celebrations! It really is a fun holiday to see the excitement - especially in little children! :)