Trying To Smile With Your Cheeks Frozen

Tara wanted to do family pictures but we weren't able to do them in the summer like we usually do because Morgan was busy all summer and couldn't come home.  So we had to put it off until Thanksgiving weekend.  I was glad we didn't have any snow to go walking through, but it was freezing!  We couldn't keep our hands warm and kept wanting to put them in our pockets.

They turned out pretty good considering how cold it was.  We could only stand being outside for about 15 minutes so we busted it out!!

Giving Thanks.

Josh and I decided to have a quiet Thanksgiving at our house this year.  We have always tried to switch years with his family and mine.  It never seems to work out when it's his family's year so we always end up at my family's, and I don't complain.:)  But this year was Josh's year and we decided to stay at our house and have his mom up with us.  It was just great.  It was quiet and awesome.
On Tuesday night, we had Thanksgiving dinner with my family while my nephews were here.  We had a great time with them and a yummy dinner my mom prepared for us.  I made my great-grandma's creamed corn, which is my assignment every year.
Gavin and Branson love Josh.  They just want to jump on him and play, and Josh lets them.

 I love watching him play with them.  I hate having to split the holidays or plan the holidays around when we have them, but they make it so worth it.  I love those little guys so much.  It was a great holiday with my family.
Rosie rode the Frontrunner from West Valley to Ogden and I picked her up.  She was supposed to be dropped off in Pleasant View just north of Ogden and I drove around the area where the address was and did not see a train station anywhere.  It was after 9 at night and was getting nervous for her being alone in the dark.  She called me and said she got dropped off at the main Union Station in downtown, scary Ogden so I booked it there to get her.  She told me she would stand under a street lamp and wait for me.  I finally got to her and got her home!
We got up the next morning and I started dinner.  We bought a smoked turkey that was delicious!  I made PW's mashed potatoes and those babies were so dang good.  You can't go wrong with butter, half and half and cream cheese.  I know it's lame but I've never made mashed potatoes from scratch so it was kind of fun.  I remember watching my mom do it all the time growing up.

I also made my creamed corn again, mashed sweet potatoes, then all the other fixings.  We ate the delicious feast, then just relaxed and watched movies.  It was perfect!  I made a pumpkin trifle for dessert that was so good, too!

Here's some of the things I'm thankful for this day and everyday.
*My life*
*The Gospel*
*My Husband*
*Our Furbabies*
*Our Families*
*Our Jobs*
*A Warm Home*
*Our Health*
*Our Friends*
I hope you all had a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Dracula

We went down to Cedar City this weekend to see Morgan in one of her last plays at SUU.
We headed out of town with Tara and Atty riding with us while Cody was golfing in Mesquite at about noon.  The roads were okay, there was a big accident through Ogden so we got detoured but got to Cedar at about 6pm.

 We went and checked into the hotel room and then went to get some dinner.  Morgan needed some more tights so we ran some to her then went back to the room to eat and meet Cody.
We were going to the 11pm show so we just relaxed in the room with Cody's niece while his dad, brother and sister-in-law went to the 7pm show.  I was dozing off a little bit on the bed while Tara watched movies with Eva.  They came back and told us how it was and then we got ready for our showing.  Somewhere along the way during the weeks before the play, we had heard that the 11pm show would be more gory so that's why we decided to go to that one.  That apparently was not true, but we headed in.  The theatre was really small, a lot smaller than I was expecting.  It seated maybe about 70 people.  The play was really good.  Morgan did a great job.  It was great to see her do what she loves so much.

We got back to the hotel after 1am and crashed.  We got up the next morning, went to breakfast and then hit the road back home.  It was starting to snow a little bit as we got back up towards home but nothing too bad.
We love you Morgan, you did great!

Snow, Snow, Snow.

When I left work yesterday it was snowing pretty good.  This was at midnight, so pretty and peaceful out there.

 The view today.

The cats enjoyed basking in the sunshine coming in the window.

 Snow storms are so pretty if I am able to be at home snuggled under a blanket with Josh and the animals.  Just sitting on the couch.  I hate that winter is here, I hate that it will be 6 months here in northern Utah until spring/summer arrives.

Family Weekend

Austin and Alicia surprised us Saturday morning by coming up for a visit.  We were being lazy and they hung out with us pretty much all day.  We went to IHOP to get lunch and then came back to the house and everyone took a nap.  Raedyn and I slept in the chair for a long time and I loved holding and cuddling him.  

He loved loved loved when his Uncle Joshy got his guitar out and started singing.  He is so cute!

 Sunday was Josh's cousin's baby's blessing so we went down to South Jordan for that early in the morning.  Their church starts at 9am so we had to be up and out the door really early, especially when we're used to 11am church.  It was a great blessing and awesome to see a lot of the family there.
I'm so blessed to have my own awesome family, but then to be married into Josh's great family is just another blessing.  I don't have the monster-in-laws and I'm so thankful for that.  I love when we all get together.
After the blessing we headed over to Josh's Aunt Renee's house for the lunch.  The food was so good, I could have eaten the desserts all day...so yummy!  It was great to hang out with everyone.

Josh's cousin Ernie loves the babies!

And Raedyn and Ryan love him, too!  Ryan is the little guy in Ernie's arms, he was the one who got blessed.
There are few people who I get excited when they get pregnant.  Mark and Suzanne are those few.  They had been married for over 10 years and tried everything they financially could to get pregnant and they never did.  They quit trying. Then all of a sudden 3 or 4 years ago, Suzanne got pregnant with Bryn.  She was such a blessing to them and is so cute.  Then they got surprised with another pregnancy, this time a boy.  Ryan is just the cutest little guy and is such a blessing to Mark and Suzanne.  I'm so happy for them!  I wish I would have gotten a picture of their cute little family but it was crazy.
We went by Shannon's to see her, Arnold and the kids before we headed home.
It was such a fun day and we were so happy we could be at Ryan's blessing.

While We're On The Subject...

Here's some pictures of my past Disney trips, I cherish these pictures!
My Grandma took us all to Disneyland when I was about 3 and my brother was 6 or 7 months old.  My poor mom, dealing with both of us in Disneyland without my dad!

My aunt Aspen and I on our first trip to Disneyland!

Aspen and Jedd

My mom sent this postcard home to my dad.  I love it and love that they've kept it all these years.

Me, Jade and our aunt Amanda

Putting our toes in the ocean!

Then my second trip when our parents took us when I was about 11 or so.

(Welcome to my awkward years)

Fantasia Mickey!

 Then the 3 of us crashed!

We also went to Universal Studios on this trip.

And Sea World.

 I'm still working on getting the 2 tubs of pictures from our childhood scanned into my computer and I'm so thankful to have these!

Disneyland Day 3

We walked into the park for our 3rd and final day.  I loved the Halloween decorations and the character pumpkins at the entrance to the park.  Minnie is of course my favorite.

 We finally got a picture in front of the Mickey pumpkin!

We went to Minnie's to have breakfast with the characters.  Oh my, it was the best breakfast we had while there.  The french toast was delicious, they bake it with brown sugar on top!
We didn't see many characters while at breakfast.  Captain Hook did walk past us and despite the effort of the kids around us to get him to stop, his chaperone said he'd be back.  He never came back.  There was one of the mice from Cinderella but that was about it.
Brodie enjoyed ripping apart the napkins and giving me the pieces, though.  He is so stinking cute!

After breakfast we walked over to Frontierland and got on the Tom Sawyer ferry for a ride around the lost boys island.

 We stopped in front of one of the stores in Frontierland for a show that Tristan got to participate in!

Those kids are so cute!

We walked back over to California Adventure and rode Soarin' Over California again, loved that ride.  It's a motion simulated ride that takes you over parts of California like the vineyards and the Golden Gate Bridge. Then we went in to the Aladdin play.  It was a very welcome play since we got to sit down!  Our feet hurt so bad and I think all of us adults may have slept for a minute or two!  But the play was excellent and the Genie was hilarious!
We were walking out as The Incredibles came down the street for a show.

The dreaded Tower of Terror

We went to the rest of the rides we wanted to ride and see before we had to leave.  We had made reservations to eat at Goofy's Kitchen that night.  We went back to the hotel and got ready for dinner.

 They had mac & cheese pizza and PB&J pizza (my favorite!) and the rest of the buffet was good as well.  It was fun for the kids to see the characters that came through.
We went back to the hotel for our last night and crashed.  We were all so tired from our 4 days of Disney fun!

Here's the view out of our hotel room.

We woke up the next morning and got packed and ready to go home.  I didn't want this vacation to end!  But we got packed and down to the valet to get everything back into the van and headed back to Henderson.
While we were stopped at a gas station, Jaimee got a phone call from her sister telling her that their father was in the hospital with heart problems.  It was very scary and he ended up having triple bypass surgery yesterday.
We were going to spend Sunday night at Jaimee and Jason's but decided to head back home when we got to their house.  So we hung out with them for a while and then back on the road home at about 4pm Vegas time.  Jaimee kept us up to date on how her dad was doing as we drove home.

It was a long day in the car but we were happy to get home to the furbabies we missed!  We got home at about 2am and crashed hard.  Luckily I took Monday off work so I could sleep in and get back into reality.
Disneyland was so fun, I want to go back every year!  Josh and I haven't really been on a vacation since our honeymoon 8 years ago so it was great to get away for a few days.