Boo!

Halloween is here!

As per our family/close friends tradition, we all went to Jackie & Dennis' for Halloween. Branden had to go to work. :( After a VERY long wait, the time to go trick-or-treating had arrived. Bella ended up with me rather than waiting for her little sisters who stayed with their mommy and daddy and family. However, there was NO WAY that Nikh was going to wait for those slow pokes. She didn't care that she was the smallest one, she was going to keep up with the "big" kids. And she did! It was too cute to watch all of them-including Nikh-go up to the houses and say "trick-or-treat" with their bags open and ready. Let's just say that Nikh caught on really quick!

Being a Mommy

Being a teacher definitely has it's pros and cons. One of the biggest cons for me is that I don't get to do the "mommy thing" to help out at school. I would love to volunteer on a regular basis at the school, etc. I did get the chance to do a little of that when I signed up to go with Ember on her fieldtrip. We went to This is the Place Heritage Park and to the zoo. And of course, that day just had to be the day of the first snow storm. (we have had bigger since then!)

This is the sky/mountain up there at the park!

Our first stop was to a small house where we learned about pioneer life. We even got to try out some of the chores that would have had to be done during that time.

Washing clothes 

Ironing

Cooking over a fire

Churning butter

Sweeping

Practicing how to milk on the "milking bears"

Then we were off to another house where we learned about how to make yarn from wool right off the sheep.

Waiting for lunch!

After lunch, we were off to the zoo! These cute girls were so crazy! They wanted to take a picture together at all the statues and things we came to. Here we go!

My little birds

It was so fun being Mommy. I wish I could do it more often. I think the best part of it all was the fact that Ember was really happy that I was there. It made me feel so special.

Pumpkins!

It's that time again. You know, the time where you have to decide whether to paint or carve pumpkins for your front porch. Painting won!...Except with Branden. While I absolutely will not grab a handful of the slimy, mushy innards of a pumpkin, Branden will. 

After having a good time picking out our pumpkins out at the pumpkin patch we headed home to paint. Branden worked on his carving his while the kids and I happily painted ours. Kelly even came over to help and ended up carving one of her own! Nikh was definitely concentrating on making her pumpkin the best!

Happy Nine Years Sweetheart!

     I think I might just have the sweetest man on Earth. No, Seriously!  Back around April of this year Branden called me at work one day to see if it was okay if he bought my anniversary present now. He said he found a deal on Google Offers on something he's been wanting to get for a while and he has the money to get it. Sure! Why not!
     When I got home I saw he had labeled an envelope with "Do not open 'till October 3rd!" Well now my interest has been piqued, but I really like surprises. So I only asked him one question, " Are we going anywhere?" To which he said, "yes." But I told him I wanted to be surprised and to not tell me. Now if you know me, I don't have a really big problem with waiting for things like this. Yes, I get excited! Yes, I want to know! But...I am willing to wait.
     Over the next six months, I only caught a few glances of that envelope as I was cleaning. It always made me smile and then that was that. Until October 3rd.
When the day finally came, I was actually having a pretty bad start to my day so I didn't open it until after school. I honestly was so happy knowing I would be getting away from it all for a couple of days.
     We were headed for Park City! Hot Rock Massage and a fine dining dinner included!

DAY 1
That morning we got the kids dropped off at Aunt Dee's and we were on our way! Our room was beautiful! Big bed! Cool bathroom! (The shower head was in the middle of the tub pointed straight down like rain). And it was nice knowing we had a small kitchen if we wanted to save or buy anything.

I totally want my future tub to be like this!

After looking up some things that we were interested in doing we headed over to Main Street. Those old buildings are fun. We also found out that Thriller was playing at the Egyptian Theater for the weekend, but was sold out! We ended up first on the wait list.

Our hot rocks massage was scheduled for 4:00. I love being toasty! Branden thought it was on his warmth threshold! :) It was nice to relax.

Dinner was at 5:30. We had a set menu, but it couldn't have been more perfect. Caesar salad, fillet mignon with mashed potatoes, mushrooms, and onions. And beignets for dessert! Yummy!

Yes, those are potato chips with some sort of vinegar on top. Hmmm...

Off to wait to see if we got in to Thriller. It was fun to walk by the theater. They had a bunch of the dancers all dressed up walking on Main by the theater totally in character. We decided to shopping while we waited. At 7:28 Branden apologized that he had not looked into it sooner. Literally 5 seconds after he said that we got a call...We got tickets! The dances were so much fun! And the creepy dancers even walked the aisles and empty seats trying to scare you. So funny!

DAY 2
After checking out of the Spa/Hotel we went for breakfast at the Eating Establishment. It was so good. In the meantime, we bought and mailed a postcard to the kids. We thought they would get a kick out of receiving something in the mail.
Then finally...Shopping! at the outlets.
Too much money later, we headed home.

I love that my husband has fun surprising me after 9 years together. And that even, as well as I think I know him, he does something very unexpected and surprises me all over again. I am still learning new things about him that I thought I knew...but maybe that's just my brain forgetting. :) I can't wait to see what the next nine years have in store for us.

I love you so very much Sweetheart. You truly are my everything...and more.

Who Turned 50???

My Madre! 

My crazy, plans-at-the-last-minute dad decided he wanted to plan a surprise party for my mother's 50th birthday...2 days before the actual day! Since he has never done anything like this before he figured it would be the perfect surprise since she would never suspect.
Well, (to make the story short..er) he enlisted my help. After getting a hold of everyone and planning the food, everything was set. That's when everything started to get a bit out of control.
Mind you, I was busy on a girl's day out clear up until the party was about to start. So when I am literally running into Cafe Rio with our 20 person order and they tell me they are about 15 minutes behind, I start to worry...but only a little. FORTY minutes later, they finally have it all...oh just kidding! We are still one order short! Ugh!
Finally, the time has arrived. We all wait quietly in the basement...Surprise!
Nope, just my dad. My mom is in the car starved and grumpy! She won't get out of the car. My dad had taken her to Home Depot to "wait" for Jackie and Dennis to be ready to go out for dinner (they were waiting with all of us in the basement :) ) She kept wondering why they were waiting for them at Home Depot while Jackie was still "washing her hair."Now, for those who know my mother, you do not keep her from eating when it's time to eat. She gets REALLY grumpy. My dad had to tell her that he forgot to turn off the sprinklers to get her to go back home!
He then comes back a second time, alone. She's getting really mad at him! We tell him to tell her the basement is flooding and she needs to come look.
SURPRISE!
The look on her face was priceless. It was the "why in the world are you dragging me to the basement when I am starving look."

Needless to say, it was fun!

Girls Day Out!

Okay, this has got to become a tradition! I am NOT and never have been a shopaholic. But!...going to the What a Woman Wants Expo is so much fun! This time it was Katia, Kelly, MaKayla, and me who went. While I was a little disappointed that it was a little smaller than the one in April with Shelbi, it was still a whole lot of fun! And this is coming from me! So it MUST be good!
I was able to get a couple Christmas gifts, a necklace, a manicure, a shirt, some way cool curlers, and the neatest picture holder thingy. The picture thing is made of wood and instead of changing one picture per frame, you just have to slide the pictures in on the side and you can put up about 18 pictures in one place!
And as far as the curlers go, Katia and I bought a double pack together and then split them up. We had fun trying to get it to work for the first time on each other!

I finally got it right!

Thanks for the fun girl's day out! Let's go again in April!

I'm 2!

I love our little family birthdays. No need to make a huge thing for just a small peanut who won't remember. Nikh is two! And I can't believe it's been that long already.
This little girl is the biggest 2 year old drama queen! Anything that she is feeling is expressed in the biggest way. If she's happy...you know it. If she's angry with you... you know it! And anything in between.
She is still small for her age and I absolutely love it! I almost wish she could stay little forever. She loves Elmo. Hence the Elmo party. Though I was sad about her cake. She was supposed to have an Elmo and Abby cake, but the lady messed up and we ended up with a boy, Elmo and Cookie Monster cake. At least it tasted good!

This is much more fun than a sticker nose game!

Thanks to all our family that were able to make it!