Family Pictures

Every year Jim's brother that lives in Portland comes to Utah for Thanksgiving. Since it's pretty much the only time of year everyone is together we do a large family picture and we also do our individual families at the same time. I like it because it's a good way for my little family to update our pictures each year. In the past we have done it at the amphitheater by Mount Timpanogos temple but this year we went to Murray park up in Murray. There were so many great spots for pictures, we loved it up there. We got together Friday morning (after Black Friday shopping of course (I had been up since 3:30 a.m.)) for pictures then we went to lunch and a couple of movies. It's always a fun day spent together with family.

Tutu's

To prove that I am not a total idiot at crafting stuff, I had to post this. My sister Kelly and I made some adorable tutu's for our girls. They are just like the ones you can buy at the mall, but since we made them, they were much, much cheaper. This is how grandpa thinks you should wear them...


And here is Ally showing him that he had it on wrong...

My First Attempt at Sewing

I volunteered to make 10 chair pockets for Andrew's class. Okay, I am not a sewer, I have not sewn since 8th grade home ec class but I figured my mom or mother in law who are great sewers could help out if I got stumped. I ventured out and bought the material, I could handle this out on my own, right? Wrong!!! I even washed and dried it like the instructions told me to do. My mom came over a few Saturdays ago to hang out with me and the kids while my dad and Jim went golfing. I asked her to look at the chair pockets and see if my idea of how to do them was correct. I started pulling out the material and my mom's eyes got huge. I couldn't figure out what was going on. She asked me how much material I got. I told her I got the 13 yards the lady told me to get. My mom couldn't believe how much material there was for the ten chair pockets I was supposed to make. This is what it looked like...

(it's hard to tell by the picture how much material is really there)

Well, come to find out I got 90 wide instead of the 45 wide I should have gotten. Now I have enough material to make curtains for Ally's room and few other rooms in my house. I have learned that I shouldn't even buy the material for projects like these without somebody who knows what they are doing. The good news is that my mom helped out by making the pockets (I was quite frustrated with the project) and they turned out perfect!!

Husband Tag

My sweet friend Liz tagged me and since I'm not always the best at telling my husband how wonderful he is and I ALWAYS take him for granted, I decided I would do this.
1. how long we've been married: 11 years.
2. how long we dated: We met in January, were engaged in July and married in September. A pretty quick courtship, but when you know it's right, why wait??
3. who eats the sweets: Definitely me!
4. who said i love you first: Jim.
5. who is taller: He is taller. Although, I get pretty close when I have on high heels and he has on no shoes.
6. who sings better: Jim! No doubt about it.
7. who is smarter: Same as above, he is definitely smarter and thankfully my kids are following after him.
8. who does the laundry: Me.
9. who pays the bills: The bank. We do all but two of our bills through direct pay and I pay those two after being reminded by him.
10. who sleeps on the right side of the bed: If you are looking at the bed, him.
11. who mows the lawn: Usually Jim, but since he traveled so much this summer, I have done my fair share this year.
12. who cooks dinner: Me.
13. who drives: Jim, even on long road trips
14. who admits they are wrong: Whoever is wrong. Just kidding, we both do, sometimes it just takes longer than others.
15. who asked who out first: Jim asked me out.
16. who wears the pants: Definitely Jim.
17. what does he do that surprises you: When he does something out of character like pause the BYU game so he can go play baseball with his son.
18. what is your favorite feature on him: Do I have to pick one? His hands, they are very manly and strong.
19. what are your favorite qualities about him: He is very caring and sensitive.
20. does he have a nickname for you: Can.
21. what is his favorite food: Sushi, but since I don't like it he rarely gets it, unless it's for lunch while he is at work.
22. what is his favorite sport: Football, baseball, basketball, golf (I don't think there is a sport he doesn't like, okay, besides women's basketball)
23. what is your favorite thing to do as a couple: dinner and a movie (that might not be our favorite thing to do, but it's what we do when we get the chance to go out).
24. does he have any hidden talents? He plays a mean guitar on Guitar Hero (just found this one out yesterday and the day before)
25. what do you admire about him: How hard he works for our family and how much he loves me and the kids and would do practically anything for us.

Daddy's Princess

Sunday after I got Ally all dressed for church she started twirling back and forth and said she looked like a princess. I told her she was a princess, my princess. She then said, "No, I'm Daddy's princess." So much for Mom. She really is a daddy's girl. It's always fun at night 'cause as soon as either of the kids here to garage door go up, they are running and opening the door for Jim. You'd think I torture them all day. No, it really makes me happy they love their dad so much and they have something to look forward to in the evening.

A Happy Halloween

Our Halloween this year was quite, I don't know if I should say, entertaining, but it was interesting. I spent the afternoon volunteering at Andrew's class. He goes to the charter school here in Spanish Fork and they don't do traditional Halloween activities. All costumes, activities, food, etc. had to deal with what they were learning which was everything Egypt. We played games they played in Egypt, sampled some of the food they ate, etc. It was really fun. After school I went to Provo to pick up Ally, Kelly watched her while I was at the school. We hurried home to get ready for trick or treating. I started making my traditional taco soup and some caramel apply crisp for dessert. Our friends the Cabreros' were going to come over for the traditional Halloween dinner get together. They had to run to their grandma's work to see her for a little bit so I decided to take the kids out before dinner. Jim stayed back so I asked him to take out the apple crisp. The kids and I had a lot of fun walking around the neighborhood. Ally started complaining about her feet and legs so I decided we had enough candy and we headed home. I walked in the door to a burnt smell. I asked Jim if the soup burned and he told me it was worse. I couldn't figure what could be worse. Then I saw it. I accidentally left a burner on and Jim put the apple crisp on the burner. The 9x13 Pyrex dish exploded. Glass and apple crisp went everywhere. Poor Jim had to clean up the mess while the kids and I were out having fun. The bad news was the glass went into the corn bread and we couldn't guarantee it did not go in the soup. We figured it was too big of a risk so we had Halloween pizza this year. We still had a fun traditional dinner with the Cabreros' just with pizza instead of soup. The kids had fun playing together and doing leftover crafts from our preschool Halloween party.

A Night of Fun at Cornbellys

Last week Jim had a work b-b-q so the kids and I met Kelly, my mom, and my mom's friend from California at Cornbellys. I have to say that place is amazing. There was so much for the kids to do. The girls loved all the princess fun and Andrew loved the pedal go carts and the giant air trampoline.
He did not like the haunted creature and neither did grandma, they broke out halfway through. They enjoyed the duck races, swings, slides and the other activities for young kids.

Ally loved the little Farmer's Market. She had fun selling vegetables to Judy and me. And she especially loved the Pumpkin Princess.
What made it even better for the kids was the stop at McDonald's for dinner on the way home. It was a really fun night. I want to make it a yearly tradition, which I'm sure the kids won't complain about. They really had a lot of fun and so did Mom.