Secret Santa

I got to do the most amazing thing today. It started off my Christmas season perfectly. Listen at http://www.971zht.com/pages/secretsanta/, but grab a couple of tissues, its a tear jerker.

Growing up

Before the weathers turned bad I wanted to get some more pictures of my kiddos.

So we headed to Beus Pond in Ogden, its beautiful there. Yesterday, we had a minor problem and today again we did, so Lexi is not allowed back there....LOL Yesterday, she was chasing ducks and fell into the pond and today, she was chasing her brothers and split her lip open. She is one tough girl though, I think her Dad hurt worse than her.

I love this pictures. I recently learned how to use my black & white option and it looks amazing. I have more pictures, but can't share them yet as some of them will be Christmas presents and then I will have some at the top of my blog or atleast try to put them there.

I love my babies so much, I just wish they wouldn't grow up so fast.

Setting up Christmas

We have officially put up Christmas. It is such a work of art trying to figure out where everything is going to go. I still need to figure out a place for my stockings and get a new nativity set, I have been eye balling the one at Costco, I may purchase it on Friday, we will see.

This girl wasn't much help, she had 500 ornaments on one branch, the poor branch was touching the ground, it was quite hilarious!!

These two boys loved it so much they could set up trees everywhere.

Love this picture.

I should be mad right now at my Husband, but I can't be. He mistaked our new tree for something else and took it to the dump. Our new one was a lot bigger and was just white lights, I loved it. But its a good excuse to get a new one at the end of the season and we just used our back up, its still pretty, but nothing like last year.

Love my little monkeys, they are what makes the Holiday Season so much more FUN!!!

And the rest of the decorations. I'm excited, Christmas isn't very far away, we are making our list of things we want to do, we have some very busy weekends ahead of us.

Black Friday / 28th Birthday

YES, I turned the BIG 2 - 8 today and even though I am one year closer to my 30th Birthday, I still feel like I am 21. LOL

I by far had the best Birthday ever. My Husband SPOILED me majorly!!!

I didn't go shopping late last night, I hate it because you spend the entire day recovering and I didn't want to spend my Birthday that way, so I spent, got up, put Christmas up (next post), got ready and headed out around 10am. It was perfect.

First STOP:

Can you guess? New shoes, not just one pair, but TWO. I love my new K*Swiss, never had a pair and they are the most comfortable pair EVER.

Then we hit up Walmart, where I did some Christmas shopping, can I tell you how good it feels to know I have my kids big gifts out of the way? Well it feels good, I got jammies, toothbrushes for stocking and some odds & ends to tie things to together. I will officially be DONE next weekend.

Then we went to lunch at Chick-Fil-A, that place is a nightmare, but totally worth it.

Then we went to Costco, where I got spoiled again...

Yes, I am the proud new owner of Adobe Photoshop Elements 10. I am in love already. And although I would love to have the CS4, my budget just doesn't fit that in, maybe in a couple of years. I can't believe how expensive it is.

Then it was dinner at Garcias and now time for some RELAXATION.

Happy 28th Birthday to ME!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

I way love Thanksgiving, I always have the best time with my Family! We laugh so hard that by the end of the night not only do we have stomachaches from eating, but from laughing also.

I love my 3 babies to pieces. I am so thankful these three, I hope they know ONE DAY how they mean to me.

These two monkeys went up and down the hill a couple of times. I love the giggling out of Lexi, she loves when her brothers pay attention to her.

And this big boy helped his Grandma with leaves, what a sweet guy he is. He even carried them to the garbage for her.

Ashton learned how to skateboard and was showing me his moves.

He loves to show off.

Jax hard at work whiddling (I think thats how you spell it). He gets a pocket knife from his Grandpa and a stick and pretty much makes the stick raw.

My tiny dog, I love her.

My Son colored his belly button pink with permanent marker, oh the JOY of a five year olds.

My Aunt Joy and me. Love her.

Anxiously waiting Turkey dinner.

And then it was time. Funny story about the turkey. My Dad was cutting it and it was all dark meat, we were kind of scared. Well he was half asleep putting the turkey in and put it in upside down. Made for a good laugh.

Bob made Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake, it was AMAZING!!!!

Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Being Thankful

I am sitting here trying to figure out what to say. I'm thankful for many things in my life, but this Holiday Season means so much more than just gifts. I've been struggling the last two days because for the first time in 26 years my Sister is not joining us for Thanksgiving and I am heart broken over it. I don't want to discuss the reasons why, but I feel like Thanksgiving just won't be the same. So I am going to hold my kids a little tighter this day because one day that might be my case for my kids and I hate to think about it. I feel like sometimes we rush life by and we don't really stop to enjoy the moments. I feel like I am in a strict routine and if I step outside the boundaries it just wouldn't feel right, but I think its okay to be adventerous, to let things happen as they come and to go with the flow.

So some things I am thankful for this Thanksgiving week:

My family. My Husband and kids, I love them so much that its hard to describe. Ashton often tells me that he loves me more, but the truth is no one loves more than a Mother loves their children.

My Parents. They are amazing, my rock, my example and my friends. I love them both dearly.

My Sisters. Even though we fought growing up, some of my fondest memories are with my sisters playing barbies, arguing over who was going to sit where in the car, our dance competitions at our house (oh girls!!!), girl horomones (my poor Dad, 4 women in one house), picking out dresses, arguing over clothes and spending the Holidays together. I miss it all at times and I would give anything to have those moments back.

My Grandma. She does so much for me that at times I feel like what she does goes un-noticed, but the truth is, she is spending the day with 3 kids who love her dearly.

My Aunt Joy. She is like the older Sister I never had. I can always rely on her for a good chat or advice. I love her dearly.

My Friends. I have some of the greatest friends in the world. I can rely on my friends for a good talk and everything. Love you Misty, Cara, Sunset and Rachel. You girls don't know how much you mean to me.

My Job. I recently took on a new job and it has been the greatest blessing in my life.

My home. The place I love, the place I enjoy with my kids. I was thinking about this the other day. Some of our greatest memories will be in the house that it will be so hard to sell it when the time comes. How do you let go of a memory?

Photography. I haven't talked about this much. But I recently have started taking pictures on the side as a side job. I will actually be attending my first photography class in January. I'm super excited and plan on making it an even bigger side job (or as I like to call it....HOBBY!) in the next year. The truth is I eat, sleep and live photography, its my stress reliever after a long day.

I also wanted to mention that on Monday I will be on the radio at 9:30am. 97.1ZHT is giving the family that Bob and I submitted for Secret Santa, Christmas. I am thrilled. Its the best feeling in the world. I can't describe it, but its amazing. So listen if you can, I'm sure I will cry, but I love things like this.

I want my kids to realize that there is so much more than gifts for Christmas and I think I am teaching them right this year. My Family has seen a lot and I think my kids realize they have a lot compared to a lot of people.

So Happy Thanksgiving my blogger friends!!!

Our Saturday 11/12/11

Saturday was kind of a BORING day. My kids were dying to get out of the house. I had done crafts all day and they kind of just lounged around. Around 3pm, we decided to go to Syracuse Family Fun Center. I hadn't been there for awhile.

We got the boys passes for the super big trampoline and the blow up toys. We didn't waste our money on buying them for Lex, she doesn't go within 5 feet of a trampoline or the blow up toys they scare the living day lights out of her.

Lexi was perfectly content with riding the train over and over and over and over and over and over.

And while the boys ran wild and crazy, because we all know thats what boys need to do.

Lexi pretended like she was driving.

We then played some minature golf, Jax got really into it. I hate golf, I think its the dumbest sport on earth. But I had fun watching.

We ended our fun with another ride on the train only with big brother.

So our BORING Saturday ended pretty well.