Christmas in Vegas

This year we spent Christmas with Jon's family in Las Vegas. It was good to catch up with Branon and Starr whom we hadn't seen for a long time. It was a nice relaxing trip.

While we were in Vegas, we took Julien and Logan to a pond by Jon's parents' house, where we fed the ducks and played with a remote controlled boat. The kids had a lot of fun chasing the ducks out of the water with the boat.

After much anticipation Santa finally came.

We were all spoiled for Christmas. Julien was happy to see that Santa remembered to bring him the Speed Racer car he wanted. I think Oswald was pretty glad about that too. He loved to get inside the box.

Once we got home to our little BYU apartment, we got a phone call from my parents saying that Santa stopped by their house too, and left some presents for us. The next day we rushed over to see what else Santa had brought us.

Logan opened up a nice long satin box, and discovered that he had gotten a real Harry Potter wand. When he saw what was inside, he was so shocked he was afraid to touch it. He believed he could cast real spells. And to this day he is convinced that on his 13th birthday he will go to Hogwarts to study magic.


















Jon was ecstatic to finally open his super cool new toy. A 16G IPOD Touch. I must admit... I wish I had one. He carries it everywhere. He put on the new Batman movie, has a bunch of fun games, pictures, and music on it, has the Internet; he even has the scriptures...it is so fun to play with.

I was so thrilled to get my Breville Juice Fountain Elite 800JEXL juicer. It is so beautiful! I love to make juices. So far my favorite is definitely pineapple orange with a hint of strawberry, but I have also ventured off and made a carrot, celery, apple juice, and to my surprise it was not bad at all, it actually tasted rather sweet. Yeah! I feel so healthy.

Day on the Highway!

On a snowy Friday afternoon, the kids and I built a huge race track. It was so much fun to hook all of the pieces together and create something of our own. We then played cars for a couple hours. The track stayed on their bedroom floor for 3 days. They were sad to put it away, but I assured them that we would be able to make a cooler looking one later. They agreed!!

My TWILIGHT obsession

Can you believe it? After fighting it all this time, I finally gave in.

How it started! To be honest I was curious to see what all of the fuss was about. So I started reading the first chapter of "Midnight Sun: Edward's story." That is when I got hooked. In that one chapter there was so many emotions and feelings erupting from the character, that I wanted to know more about him and about his story. The next day, I picked up the first four books, and ten days later, I was through with the series. I literally did not eat or sleep for those ten life sucking days. And when I did sleep, I was dreaming about the Cullen (Vampire family.) I was consumed by the story and by the characters. I could feel myself becoming a part of the Cullen family (pale from not going out into the sunlight, not sleeping, not eating, having visions of the past-aka dreaming Twilight.)
The next Saturday, Jon and I celebrated me finishing the series by going out to eat at "Five Guys Burgers and Fries" and going to the movies to see Twilight of course. I must say Jon was relieved when I was done. He told me that he missed his wife for that week and a half.

Funny coincidence. The day I got done reading the last book, we received a letter from Jon's cousin from Washington, who's last name is Carlisle. I was so freaked out, I stared at the letter without opening it for a minute or two (yes! I was that obsessed). If you are not familliar with the book, the Cullen family is from Washington, and the head of the household of the Cullen family's name is Carlisle. It was just too many coincidences all at once for me.

Thanksgiving maddness...

Julien, Logan, and I had fun making Oreo turkeys before the big turkey day. The boys both agreed that the best part was eating them of course.


Our Thanksgiving day started out with much cooking. My mom got up extra early to start preparing the thanksgiving feast. There was a lot of food...turkey, ham, potatoes, yams, salad, rolls, cheese...deserts, the list could go on and on.



T flew in to spend Thanksgiving with the family, and my aunt Mary, and uncle Paul we able to join us with my cousins. In total there was over 18 people eating and celebrating with us. Jon and invited two of his friends from BYU, and my friend Delly and her two little boys were able to join us also.





After much eating we relaxed, then burned off a couple of calories by playing Dance Dance Revolution, and Ping Pong. Later, we finished our evening by watching a movie.




I cannot speak for everyone, but even though it was a busy day, I believe that Thanksgiving was a definite success.

The Karate Kid

Yes, that's right, we now have a yellow belt on our hands. This summer, Julien started karate at Bobby Lawrence Karate. It is a very good karate studio in Orem. They have branches all over Utah. And this saturday, Julien passed his very first belt test. He was very excited! He has been working hard at memorizing the school's motos and his form. And we are very proud of his accomplishment.




Julien showing his form.

Julien transitioning from his white to his yellow belt.

Holy HalloHalloween!

What a day! I think that this Halloween was probably our busiest Halloween ever. Between all of the school activities, work/ ward parties.... I thought the day would never end.
10:00- School parade
11:30- Halloween party in Logan's classroom, they decorated cookies, made Halloween crafts, played pin the pumpkin with a candy game, and a fun boo whoo bowling game that I was in charge of with an another mom.
1:45- Photo shoot (you all know I can't resist taking pictures of the kids, they are so adorable, the weather wasn't so great, but I still got pretty good shots)
2:30- New Haven party. The girls I teach performed Thriller, it was a lot of fun.
4:15- Trick or Treating at XO. It has become a tradition that every year we go to Jon's job and trick or treat there. The call center always does an amazing job decorating.
5:45- Trick or Treating in the neighborhood.
6:30- Ward party. They had many games for kids, cake walks, pie, chili, and pumpkin decorating contest, as well as a costume contest, and of course the famous Trunk or Treat.
9:30- The night was finally over, and we all went to bed.

Photo Shoot

Logan the Knight of the Dragons

Julien the Dragon Ninja


XO

Jon's team theme for the Halloween decorations was classical horror movies. And Jon could not resist dressing up as Pin Head. He won best costume and received a gift certificate for village baker, a very good sandwich shop. He had done a very good job decorating his row with chains, skulls, smoke, strobe lights. It was so creepy that most kids did not even dare to enter to ask for candy. Julien and Logan don't look to reassured either.

Trunk or Treat

Five little pumpkins spooking in the dark

For our Family Home Evening activity we carved and decorated pumpkins while watching a cute Halloween cartoon and eating muddy buddys. Above is a picture of our spooky creations. Aren't they so cute?