Eli Decorates The Tree!

It's good to be home!

What a busy weekend. Our Thanksgiving weekends are always so fun, but very busy.

We start the weekend off on Wednesday having dinner with Ryan's family, then all the guys are off to the basement to have a LONG night of Halo. They usually have 2-3 screens set up, and 8-12 guys who play Halo until the wee hours of the morning. This year I believe it was until 4:00. The girls stay up, not quite as late, talking, watching movies, doing hair, you know girl stuff, while the kids run wild until they crash! It is always a big fun sleepover at Grandma's, where you sleep anywhere you can find a spot.

Then thanksgiving morning we get up and have yummy biscuits and gravy. Then its time to relax and watch football while we are all sleep deprived. Turkey dinner comes next , and it is always delicious.

We then pack up and head to my mom's house where we either have something random for dinner, or no dinner at all , just dessert with my family, since my brothers and I have all already had a big turkey dinner with our spouses families, and after all you can only eat so much turkey. (Of course Ryan begs to differ, he could probably eat three turkey dinners in one day).

Then it's sleepover time at my moms house too.

Friday morning comes VERY early when you stay at my mom's house. She is one of those CRAZY black friday shoppers, and she drags me along. (Ok, she doesn't have to try very hard to drag me. Everyone knows I love to shop, and although I don't get up at 4:45 on a regular day to shop, once a year it is kind of fun)! after a few fun hours of shopping I go back to pick up my cute honey and kids, who by the way only woke up about 20 minutes earlier, we head back to our house to veg on the couch, just waiting for naptime. We take a shower and a nap and wake up just in time to go meet my two brothers and thier families to watch the lighting of Temple Square, well we all got there late, so we didn't really see the lighting, but we did walk around for awhile and see the lights. It was very beautiful, and it really gets you in the Christmas spirit, if you don't focus on how cold you are.

Every Saaturday after Thanksgiving we go to my Grandma's house in Bancroft, Id. I believe the population is about 20. Just kidding, but it is very small. We have a BIG Thanksgiving lunch with all of my extended family at the church. It is always so much fun. Even though this year some people decided they needed to stay home for a football game. Whats up with that? And another cousin didn't come becasue she is expecting a baby anyday, I guess she wasn't willing to take the risk to deliver in a small Idaho town. It just wasn't the same without you guys!

Of course Ryan came over during half time to grab a plate of food and then was back to watching the BIG game, which we were all happy that the righteous team won:) because when those cougars lose Ryan is very grumpy, and I didn't want everyone to suffer the rest of the weekend!!

After turkey lunch we all head off to Lava Hot Springs and sit in the hot pots, and have Pizza. Oh it is heavenly, and so, so fun. Then back to the hotel where we crash! We head home Sunday, where we can finally really relax. The Holidays are so much fun to see family and have fun, but I have to say I am glad to be home.

Now it's time to decorate the tree! Yay!

My Eli is 3!

I can't believe it has been three years since I became a mom. I have had some of the happiest days of my life, and some of the most frustrating days of my life in those three years, but the happy days out weigh the frustrating days by far.

I am so lucky to be able to be the mom to this great little boy. He has so much energy and is very curious. I think he has asked more questoins in his short life span, than I have in my whole life. He gets that from his dad. He makes our home such a fun place to be, and a day doesn't go by that he doesn't make us laugh. He is truly such a wonderful little boy, and I am so blessed to be his mom.

We actually celebrated his birhtday last Sunday since we had so many family in town for Hallie's blessing. Eli told me about 2 month ago that he wanted a Bob the Builder cake. So of course that is what he got. (Thanks Anne Marie for letting us borrow Bob). We had so much fun eating cake, hanging out with family, and opening presents. It was such a great day to be able to celebrate both my little angels on the same day with most of our families. (We missed you Brian, Britt, and Cole). Eli's bob the builder cake

Hallie's heirloom dress

We finally blessed Hallie on Sunday. There were three other sweet little girls blessed on the same day. (Anne Marie's was the cutest, besides Hallie of course). Hallie was by far the biggest. More than one person made the coment to us that Hallie was so much bigger than the other babies. I think all the other babies were 5 or 6 weeks old, and our Hallie was ginormous at 4 months old.

Hallie was very lucky to be blessed in such a special dress. A while back my mom mentioned that maybe she would cut up her wedding dress to make blessing dresses for her grandaughters. I wasn't even pregnant at the time and so honestly didn't think much about it.

Then Hallie was born. I knew she needed a blessing dress, but had not remembered that my mom had mentioned making one. Then I was out one day and saw the most beautiful blessing dress. Well I was in love, and decided that was the dress I wanted for Hallie. (The only problem was, I saw it from the window because the store was closed). I thought I would just go back the next day. Then I remebered that my mom had mentioned making one out of her wedding dress. Well, I wasn't so sure that was what I wanted. I mean, my mom's dress was old and yellowing, and what if it didn't turn out, or I couldn't find a patterned I liked, yadayadayada. So I thought, well, she hasn't brought it up again, so I will just act like I forgot, and buy the one I saw. That night I couldn't stop thinking about my mom offering to make her dress, and I didn't want to hurt her feelings, so I finally decided I would call my mom and see if she still wanted to cut up her dress, and make Hallie's dress. (I was kind of hoping she would change her mind). Luckily, she still wanted to do it, and to make a long story short, kinda, Hallie was blessed in a beautiful dress made out of her grandma's wedding dress, and made by her grandma. Some stitching was even hand sewn by her great grandma.

I think her dress turned out absoluteely beautiful. I am glad that I chose to have her blessed in a dress that has major sentimental value, instead of just buying one off a rack.

Her great grandma(the same one that helped with the dress), also crocheted her a beautiful blanket that was so elegant, and looked perfect with her dress. I love both the dress and the blanket so much.

We are so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends. We are so thankful for everyone that came and supported us.

The tag post

Here are my 7 things:

1-I HATE to cook. And I mean hate with a passion. When I was first married I would always get sick around dinner time. I finally realized I was making myself sick, because I had to make dinner. Luckily I married a guy who was understanding, and when I told him it made me sick, he said it wasn't worth making yoursef sick over and told me only to cook when I wanted to. He probably regrets that comment. I only cooked about twice a week after that. Then once he started working from home he started cooking every night. I have not made dinner about 8 months. Yes, I am very spoiled.

2-I have a Bachelors degree in Psychology. I love Psychology. Sometimes I miss working in my field. Maybe one day I will go back to school and further my education, but right now I love being able to stay home with my babies.

3- I am a big worrier. I worry over everything!! Did I turn off the stove?, are all the doors locked?, is something going to happen to my family?, did I miss a really good sale?
It drives Ryan CRAZY!! The worst is when I am worrying in the middle of the night and can't sleep, so I wake him up, and I then I get mad because he doesn't stay up and worry with me. (he is a lot more practical than me).
Unfortunately Eli is exhibiting this very same worry trait.

4-I LOVE surprises. They are just so fun! Whether it is a big surprise or a little surprise I love them. Even after 6 years of marriage, I don't think Ryan has figured this out.

5-I am very scatter brained and disorganized! I forget everything and easily get distracted. Me and my house are always a mess and disorganizezd. I am late for everything! (things I am working on).

6-Spending time with Ryan is one of my favorite things! I never get sick of it! (although I think he gets sick of me). Having him work from home has been heaven to me. I love knowing he is just right downstairs. I love spending time with my kids too, but I need a break from them every once in awhile.

7-I love summer and anything that has to do with summer and sunshine. There is nothing better than sitting in the sun. Everyone just seems so happy during the summer. I wish it could be summer all the time.

Danielle I am tagging YOU!

Happy Halloween! (Late).

Well, I am a little late posting this, but better late than never right? As you can see we had fun dressing up this year like the characters from Peter Pan. Isn't Ryan a great Captain Hook? And Hallie makes such a cute little Tinkerbell. I had fun getting our costumes together, but to be honest I am so glad Halloween is over. Once it finally came I wasn't really in the Halloween mood.

It was fun to see Eli get so excited. This is the first year he really understood what was going on. It was so cute to hear his cute little voice say, "Trick or treat" at each house. He did not want to stop.

The thing I hate about Halloween is you go out and get tons of candy, but then you always have tons left over from what you were passing out, so then you end up with more than you started with. I guess for some that is good, but for some reason this year I was not amused by the fact that I have all this candy laying around. If anyone wants more candy (Alish, I hear you are a big fan of candy), come on over and I will give you some.