Thanksgiving!

This year Alex and I went to Alpine to spend Thanksgiving with Alma and his family. We spent the whole week playing with the kids, hanging out. and eating YUMMY food (his house is like a restaurant, a delicious restaurant!). We had A LOT of FUN!

On Thanksgiving day we took the kids to the park for a pre-meal workout.. (Alma made me go running earlier in 30 degree weather for our pre-meal workout! Not FUN!)

Valeria and Momo swinging

Alex loves the monkey bars

All the delicious food... I didn't have to prepare any of it (which was a nice break!)

Yum Thanksgiving

After we ate and put the kids to bed Alma, Valeria, Veronica, Clint, and I drove to Park City for some black Friday shopping! I have NEVER done that before and I will NEVER do it again! I was cold and tired... There were some great deals, but was it really worth waiting in line at Old Navy for 40 minutes?? Probably not! We didn't end up getting home until 5:30!! Then I got woken up at 7 by Alex and Kaitlin!

On Friday we drove downtown and took Trax to see the lights at Temple Square

Alex and Momo

~I LOVE the lights~

We went up to the ROOF to say "hi" to Lo.. This was our awesome view!

Cooking/Crafts..

I had to practice my pie making for Thanksgiving (although I didn't end up making any pies anyway!). Lo and I made this strawberry cheese pie, with homemade crust! Homemade crust happens to be one of the EASIEST things I've ever made and it was SO delicious! I love pie.....

I had some Christmas pictures of Alex done.. and they turned out

super cute!

So I made a couple of Christmas frames using scrapbook paper and decoupage! Then I glued ribbon on the back and connected them... I am SO not crafty so these frames (that look like a first grader did them) are a BIG crafty step for me...

I might be a little proud of them, although it would have been hard to

mess them up (look at that cute pic!)

Thanksgiving program

Alex's first school program!

Dressing up like pilgrims and Indians.... Then a big Thanksgiving feast! Kindergarten is so much FUN!

Zandy's Par-Tay!

Zandy throws the best parties, probably because she is SO super cool!!




-Ketchup Zandy & Octomom Jessica












-It's Frodo!! his costume was awesome! Little baby Maxton (I get to babysit him!)

We had lots of yummy food (so many cookies..) Annette made chicken worm soup (it looked disgusting, but it was delish), I brought a yummy Pumpkin cheesecake from Costco...





Ladybug Macie, Vampire Addy, & Alex Iron man

Thanks ZANDY!! I can't wait for the Cheese & Chocolate party!

Happy Happy birthday to my baby!

I remember when my baby actually was a baby... It seems like so long ago (6 long yrs ago!) and now he's a little boy..
.










A super cute little boy, but he'll always be my baby!

I don't have any baby pics on this computer... But he looks so little in these!

PART 1 of the celebration:

He decorated his own cake, I think he did a good job! He got all the candy out of the closet and tried to use a little of everything...

Nic and Laura gave him a severed foot, we got to eat with it at the dinner table! FUN!

This is just disgusting! I was gagging for her! My family is really weird.. All night long Nic and Laura were playing with the severed foot.. They cut it open and discovered candy bones inside!! They were so pleased with themselves they kept talking about going back for the severed hand!

PART 2: Alex, Lo, and I went to the planetarium
We went to a 3D movie I have now been traumatized for life!!! They introduce you to a caterpillar and a praying mantis... Of course everyone likes the caterpillar more because she's going to turn into a butterfly... But I cared about that praying mantis too! I didn't want him to be eaten by the lizard... I was worried when he shed his hard outer skin and he was vulnerable... Well the caterpillar turns into a pretty butterfly... and there she is eating nectar from a pretty rain forest flower when... CRUNCH! The praying mantis eats her!!! Then he discards her pretty wings into the river below and we watch them float away. WORST MOVIE EVER! No one wants to see a butterfly die! It was mean... I'm still not over it!!! Then I started to wonder how they were able to follow the same praying mantis and caterpillar/butterfly over the duration of filming.. They were in the rain forest!! I think they placed those bugs where they wanted them for their own movie ambition! I bet they killed that butterfly on purpose so they could add drama! They probably weren't even really in the rain forest!!! I am really mad at that movie! Next time I am sticking with Deep Sea 3D!

After the devastating death of the butterfly we went to Leatherbys

I love Leatherbys... So many good ice cream memories... And they have the best fries and fry sauce!!! Alex kept saying "I can't get over these fries! They're SO good" (I have taught him well!)PART 3: The actual birthday

Blowing out the candles

Building legos (that's what I do ALL day long because they fall apart SO easily! I use to think Legos were SO awesome.. I'm beginning to hate them!)

Oh baby! The pizza! If you've never tried the gourmet vegetarian from Papa Murphys you have not lived!! It is the BEST!!! Even Alex likes it!

Dern Legos and the cake! Cupcakes... I had to buy 3 bags of M&Ms just to get enough orange ones!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEXANDER!!

Weekend Awesomeness

Friday- I've always wanted to hike delicate arch... Alma and I decided to make the 4 hr drive to Moab so I could live the dream

It was pretty dang diddly dang awesome! I somehow survived the hike up slick rocks and I didn't fall once! I don't know why but I thought the arch was going to be smaller (you know like it is on the license plate!).

Posing with the arch

Looking up at the arch (cool!)

Hey! How did these get in the car!! It's Alma's fault.. He loves krispy Kremes and he forces me to eat them!! I got one right off the conveyor belt for the first time.. It was heavenly!

Ok back to the arches... The donuts distracted me for a minute..

Balanced rock

-Driving home from arches-

I'm obsessed with the moon.. This picture doesn't do it justice. It was the highlight of the drive home! Oh that and the empanada from Taco Time... Yum!! I wish I had a picture of it.... Good times!

Saturday we went up to park city to check out the slide and coaster.. It was really, really cold (I miss you summer!)

RollEr CoASteR!!

Conference on Sunday... The temple is SO pretty, even when the weather isn't!

Yes it was raining and yes we forgot to bring an umbrella...



-Conference highlights-
-The Prophet... It's overwhelming to feel the spirit when he walks into the room!!
-MoTab!! They're so good (and their facial expressions are entertaining)
-Elder Holland's talk... Can we make everyone listen to that!!
-Being on TV.. oh wait that never happened.. There's always next time!

I love conference... But I do have some not so high highlights-
-People bringing snacks to eat! Hey I was hungry too, but I'm not 5.. I lived 2 hrs with out eating
-Cell phones going off... Why does that remind me of my mom??
-Flash photography when they tell you repeatedly "No flash photography!"
-Teenagers... Need I say more!!
-Losing my shoe twice because the ground was so wet!!

And finally the best part of the weekend.... Drum roll please.......

Watch out world!!

Rachel now knows how to make mango sticky rice! If my clothes are looking a little tight... This is why!!