This Thanksgiving we are thankful for:

Abbie

1) Church

2) Family

3) Temples

4) School

5) Friends

6) Andrew the guinea pig who is my best buddy.

Avery

1) Family

2) Trees

3) Animals

4) Cousins

5) Jesus

Aliza

1) Sisters

2) Mom

3) Dad

Mom

1) Our Families Health

2) My Testimony

3) Wonderful and supportive family and friends.

4) A new home that we can be together in as a family.

(We finally get to move next week. Yipeeee!!!!)

5) The best kids and husband ever!!! ( I am very blessed )

Dad

1) A house

2) Family

3) Good Health

4) Las Vegas Weather

5) Grateful that Andrew (the guinea pig) does not have ring worm after all.

Halloween!!!

Our Halloween celebrations started out this year with school parades and parties. I think the Halloween parade is one of my favorite things all year. I love seeing all of the kids dressed up and so full of excitement. Of course taking a picture of the kids in the parade is close to impossible. Once you get a gymnasium full of family members packed in as tight as sardines, and then add all the kids running by in the parade you only get a quick glimpse (if you are lucky) of your own kids. It still was so much fun, and I do hope that they do parades in Vegas.

It wouldn't be Halloween without carving pumpkins! This year I was smart enough to buy a little carving set. I don't know why I haven't done this in years past, but it was well worth my four dollars. It came with easy to use patterns for the kids, and carving tools they could actually use themselves without me worrying about anyone cutting a finger off. Where have I been all these years?

We carved a total of six pumpkins in all. These huge pumpkins were from Grammie and Gramps garden, and were so much fun to scrape the goo out of. Toasting the seeds has turned into a new tradition at our house also. Yum!

This is my beautiful Vampire, and Minnie Mouse who was telling everyone that she was a cat after Micah did whiskers on her face. So, I guess really she was a meowing mouse to be exact. Aliza was the funniest to watch this year with her not remembering a lot about Halloween last year. She was a little shy at first about the whole thing, but it didn't take long for her to catch on.

Abbie dressed as an artist this year. She had such a great time making this costume. We splattered paint all over her clothes and palette. She wore a sash stating "World's Best Artist."

We were really glad that dad made the trip to come see us for Halloween this year. It was fun to go Trick or Treating around our old neighborhood, and see our old friends. Everyone was doing a double take with Micah around, and many others were really confused to why we were there. We are hoping to hear this week if we get our home or not. But, I think we have said that for a few weeks now. Everything has been sent to the negotiator, and we are just waiting to get his go ahead. We are keeping our finger crossed that we will be in our new home soon.

Fall Fun

There are so many things that we love about this time of year. Here are a few of our favorites.

Pumpkin patches are the best when you can pick the perfect carving pumpkin yourself. We have completely filled up grandma and grandpa's front porch. Can't wait to let the carving begin.

This is a pathetic picture of us on our way into Cornbelly's @ Thanksgiving Point. My lens was dirty, and then my battery went dead right after this picture. This is one of our favorite traditions. There is so much to do that we spent at least four hours jumping, riding, playing, and trying to make it through the corn maze (which we somehow ended up in the big corn maze from the kid corn maze and had to ask for help out. How embarrassing.) I think this is my favorite fall activity by far. We could have spent a lot more time there if it wasn't getting cold and dark. We will have to make a special trip up each year just to hit Cornbelly's.

The witches are always a must see @ Gardner Village each October. Each year we go it gets busier and busier though. We did find all of the witches on our scavenger hunt list so we could get a cookie.

Abbie getting a witch hug.

Our tradition of making carmel apples is a lot of fun. These gooey treats are the best.

Our costumes are ready to go, and the countdown is on for Halloween. We can't wait!!!

Grandparents Day

Today I was able to attend the rehearsal for the big first grade "Grandparents Day." They have been practicing for weeks to prepare for all of their grandparents to come watch them perform. I don't know what it is about these sweet kids singing, but it always brings tears to my eyes. I know it is ridiculous, but I'm always trying to hide my tears whenever there is any kind of performance. Their voices are just so sweet.

I realized after I took pictures that the lens was sooo dirty. So everything has this lovely "blur" look to it. I think she is still cute even if it is blurry (but I'm a little bias.)

It's blurry and shaky, but you get the just of it. They are going to be great tomorrow for the big day.

Another Trip To Vegas

Last week the girls and I took a trip to Vegas to see their dad. Luckily the St. George Marathon was that weekend, so we had other family members making the trip. I decided it would be a great time to head down and visit. I don't know why, but making that six hour trip alone with the girls makes me really nervous. My in-laws were nice enough to follow behind us just in case we needed anything. The girls did great in the car, which was such a relief (since we will be making that trip quite often when we move.) The trip worked out even better when Micah's brother and his wife had their first baby the night before. It couldn't have been better timing. So, of course we made a pit stop in St. George to ooh and aah over cute baby Brooklyn. We were so excited to meet the newest member of our family. We then headed off to Vegas where we met up with Micah and see our new home. It was the first time the girls were going to see it, so I was a little bit nervous to their reaction. Luckily it was a hit. The first words out of Avery's mouth were "Abbie did you see those front doors." From then on out I could hear the excitement in their voices as they ran through the house checking out every room and closet. They had already picked out their own rooms from the pictures on the internet, but to actually see them in person was a lot of fun. Over the past week many friends and family have asked them what they liked best, and they repeatedly answer that the coolest part is the laundry chute. We then went out for dinner with Micah's family celebrate his birthday. It was a perfect evening.

I had to take this picture of Avery entertaining herself. She bought these glasses in the dollar bin at Target, and wouldn't take them off the whole trip. She is too funny.

On Friday morning Micah's family headed to St. George to prepare for the marathon, and we stayed in Vegas to spend a few fun days together. We found this great spot in Henderson where we were able to watch a movie outdoors, ride a carousel, and listened to a live band which the girls loved. All of the kids were just running around in an area by the band just dancing and having fun, and Aliza was hilarious. Boy can that girl groove. Micah and I were just chuckling at her moves throughout the night, but little did I know she was quite the crowd pleaser. When it was time to go I went to pick her up and several people approached me wanting to know how old she was. They kept stopping me just wanting to let me know how entertaining she was. I wish I would have recorded it.

We found a great spot called "Springs Reserve" which was so fantastic. We spent almost the whole day there on Saturday, and didn't see even half of it. Luckily we bought an annual pass, since it was the same price as paying for full admission, so we can come back often. They had all sorts of fun educational activities for the kids. We can't wait to go back and explore again.

This is Abbie's version of Hotel Nevada. They had a area where they could build their own city. The girls together built a small town out of these foam blocks.

At the reserve they had all types of "Nevada" creatures to look at and learn about. We were able to watch them feed the lizards, and we learned a lot about Nevada. We had a fantastic trip, and again can't wait until we can be there together. Micah's sister Myndi did fantastic on the marathon, and we were so grateful to spend fun times together.

Our Move

What an emotional few weeks we have had. We have spent the past few weeks cleaning, moving, and adjusting to life without our home. Just so you know this post is not for complaining because I know this move is the right thing for our family, but it has been very hard. I LOVED our home and neighbors. I think that I am really emotionally attached to this home because of all the hard work we put into it. Over the corse of eight years we truly made it OUR home. Putting in a yard, finishing the basement, and painting every room one at a time to mention a few. We are really going to miss it.

Luckily my parents were kind enough to let us move in with them so that my girls could still attend the same school. We miss our friends and neighbors terribly. They are still so sweet to invite me over every once in a while to just catch up or for the girls to play. I will always miss just heading out my back door to the neighbors any time of the day. Sometimes that was my sanity break. I don't know how I am going to live without that.

In trying to keep the move "fun" we did have a few fun going away parties. We had a few BBQ's with friends and a small going away party for a few of Abbie and Avery's school friends. It's kind of strange because they can still see their friends at school, but we can't just call and invite them over to play anymore.

This is Abbie with her friends Kaycie and Courtney. They had a great time at the party making picture frames to hold each others picture, eating yummy snacks, and just spending some fun time together. They are all excited to be pen pals.

I couldn't for the life of me get a good picture of these three. They were all being too silly.

On the day that they were packing up our house (we were given movers to pack and load our stuff into storage) our hamster of three years died. We knew that she wouldn't last much longer, but she chose that day of all days to die on us. Abbie is always insistent that we have a full funeral when any of our pets die. I will never forget us having this "funeral" in the backyard while the packers were just working around us. They must have thought we were absolutely crazy.

Well, Micah is still in Las Vegas without us. We miss him so much and can't wait for our family to be together again. We did put an offer in on a home but it is a short sale which basically means that it will take a long time to go through the banks process. They gave us an estimate of sixty days. We have heard a lot of horror stories of it taking much longer so lets hope that we are not one of those cases. We feel blessed that our agent in Vegas worked so hard to get us this home. Within days homes are being sold. She really had to do some sweet talking for us to get the contract. The first home that we put an offer in on had fifteen other offers. Needless to say we didn't get that home, but everything happens for a reason I guess. We both feel like this home is where we need to be. It has everything we need, and it's in a great area with one of the best schools in the state. Lets all keep our fingers crossed that it all works out.

On September 5th we were able to attend my nephew Zain's wedding and reception. We were so excited to be in attendance to celebrate this wonderful day with them. It seems as though we were waiting for this day for a very long time. Everything was beautiful.

What a great couple!

They had a beautiful backyard ceremony with the cutest flower girls I have ever seen.

Saying the I do's.

Both of my girls were just ecstatic and honored to be asked to be flower girls. They were practicing walking down the isle for months beforehand. When they got to the end of the isle there were quite a few pedals left in Avery's basket. I looked over to see Abbie giving her a lecture about not using them all and throwing them on the ground right during the ceremony. Nothing like distracting from the bride and grooms marriage vows. Abbie takes the job of flower girl very seriously.

It was a beautiful day. Congratulation Zain and Steph!!!