Saturday... Goodbyes!

We had to head back home on Saturday afternoon. We spent the morning at the Soh's, watching movies and eating Nicole's delicious homemade peanut brittle! It was really hard to leave... AGAIN!! But we're so glad we went! We had a blast. We met the Holmes on the way out of town at Salsarita's for a late lunch. It was yummy and good to see them one last time! Who knows when we shall meet again! They are headed to the West coast at the beginning of the year. It was good to get our kiddos together one last time. Jilli will miss Lucy so much! They are such good buddies! Good thing we have blogging to keep us connected! :)
We drove home and got things put away on Saturday night before going to bed in our own beds. I am so thankful that we were able to have such a good weekend! Such a blessing!

 

Jilli and Lucy

 

The Holmes

Friday Festivities!!

Princeton picked up Jilli and carried her for a bit... she was being coy!

Miah with his candle

Here is Scrooge and Jacob Marley's ghost!!

Jessi

Friday was fun! We woke up and dropped Chris, Jilli and Miah at the Holmes' for video game time and then Terina, Jessica and I went to the Soh's for Card making time!! I got all my Christmas cards finished!! Yay! Now all I have to do is write a little newsletter and mail them off! I am so excited! They turned out really cute and I had a blast doing them with my friends!! Time just flew by and before we knew it, it was time to go downtown for the Dicken's Christmas Festival! We had so much fun downtown and it was even a warmer evening so it made it very enjoyable! They handed us all candles, which we lit later, and we walked the streets checking out the booths and the actors portraying different Dicken's characters. Then they had the whole Christmas lighting ceremony where the whole street lit up with Christmas lights followed by a fun fireworks display! It was awesome!! Jilli thought the fireworks were a little loud... but she survived. Afterwards, we went to the new Panda Express they built (just because we moved away!!!) and then sent both Jessi and Miah to the Soh's home for their first sleepover! Yay! Chris, Jilli and I went back to our hotel. Jilli and Chris slept and I snuck out for some late night shopping with Terina...the shopping queen! Such fun!!

 

Chris and Jilli!

 

Looking out over the crowds

 

Nicole and Jessica

 

Me! All bundled up!

Thanksgiving Day!!

We woke up early on Thanksgiving morning, we got all dressed and loaded up the van. With the kids watching movies in their DVD players, we headed north for a few hours to our friend's home in North Carolina! We made it there in plenty of time to lend some moral support to the finishing touches of our Thanksgiving dinner! The other guests arrived around 3 and we sat down to enjoy the feast!! It was awesome! Delicious food and great friends, The Soh's, Holmes, and Kimsey's. We ate till we were stuffed and then watched the kids work off their energy and played a few rounds of Apples to Apples. The pie was to die for!!! MMMMMM!! I had pecan and Chris had several pieces of pumpkin. Delicious! My favorite was the round of Pictionary we played - girls against guys!! The girls won, of course!! I think we all helped our stomach muscles get their laughter work-out for the day! It was awesome! I am so thankful for great times and good memories, delicious food and good friends. What a blessed day we had!

 

Chris rocks as driver!

 

Cute kids!

 

Jilli keeping busy!

 

We arrived!!

Princeton and I... Ready to EAT!!

Jilli and Lucy... Ready to EAT!!

The spread!!

The kids' table!

Chris trying to nap with Jilli!!

Bolt!

 

 

We went to see the new Disney movie, "Bolt!" on Wednesday night. It was a really cute show and we enjoyed the antics of the little hamster! After we got home we finished packing and got things ready for our trip to North Carolina the next morning! Yay!

Breezy and Cold...

Today is quite breezy and cold. The leaves on our backyard tree have finally all fluttered to the ground. It was a great sea of leaves in our backyard and the kids had big plans for piles and jumping... but the yard crew came around today and blew them all away! Man!! They will be disappointed, but I'm glad to be able to see the ground again - I'm all about neatness... :) There are a few leaves still clinging to the bare branches and Jilli and I have been sitting here watching them shiver and shake, trying to guess which one will release it's grasp next! It's sad to see our tree with bare branches. Oh well! Spring will be here in no time! I can't believe it's almost Christmas! Crazy how quickly time flies!
We have big plans for Thanksgiving and I can't wait for Thursday to arrive!! We're headed up north to spend Thanksgiving with the Soh family and the Holmes family! We can't wait!! It's going to be great food and good friends and loads of fun! I am also planning to work on my Christmas cards alongside Nicole and Terina. It's so much easier to get a project like that done when you have company! I hope they turn out cute! I'm still not sure what I'm doing.
We're thinking our Christmas plans this year will NOT include a trip home. We are really bummed about it... but at least we have Chris here this year!! Yay!
I almost have all our shopping done and hopefully now we can get everything packaged up to mail home. Ahhhhhh the Christmas packages!! Sweet! I lit a candle today that has made our home smell delicious - like I've been baking all day but without the calories!! Hee hee!! I love that!

My Girls

Jessica and Jilli built a little house with the pick-up-sticks on Saturday afternoon and I snapped some photos of them. I still had my camera set on B&W so they look very chic! Such darling girls!!

Twilight Night!

I was one of those crazy people who went to see "Twilight" on it's opening night last night!! It was worth it though!! I thought they did a great job with the movie. The characterization was a little off, but all of the characters grew on me by the end of the show. We had a lot of fun and a lot of laughs at the silly teenagers that filled over 90% of the theater!! They were so vocal with their approval or disapproval... it was hilarious!! If you loved the books, I'd say you need to get out there and see this movie! There is even a cameo from the author!! If you didn't love the books or never read the books, you should still see this movie. It was action-packed, lovey dovey, and just plain awesome!

 

This is the group of women I went with! They are all from our ward here - very fun women! We arrived at the theater at 10:20p and couldn't believe how many people were there!! We ended up switching our tickets to one of the smaller, less crowded theaters so we could sit together and I'm so glad! We had a really good time. It was definitely worth the tired eyes and lack of sleep I'm feeling today! Oh, how I wish for those teenage days when I could stay up late and get up early, no problem!!

Sick Day!

Poor Jeremiah is home sick today with bronchitis! He is just miserable. I hate it when my kids are sick! Chris took him to the clinic this morning and they didn't get home until lunch time. It was not a good experience. Lots of waiting... I don't understand the health care system here. There was NO ONE there when they arrived and they still waited and waited and waited... Lame. Jilli has loved having Miah home. She is definitely NOT sick and is like a ping pong ball bouncing from toy to toy today. Maybe the sugar from the sucker helped... :)
My sweet brother James came home from his mission in Mexico last night. I was able to call and talk with him and he sounds just the same! It's been 2 long years and I'm so glad he is back home. I can't wait to see what he does with his life now! Hopefully he'll make a trip out here to see us! (hint hint!)
We've had several issues over the past week with our internet and cable company. It's amazing how much we pay for something that works so little!!! Grrr. Chris has called them so much I think they know him by name now... heee hee. It is rather annoying though and seems always to go out right when I have the opportunity to sit and blog!! I apologize for missing some days! No worries... At least I stuck some pictures in today!

Jillian... not sick at all and hopped up on sugar!! :)


Jeremiah... catching some ZZZZZ's

Beautiful Photo

 

My mother-in-law sent this pretty photo in an email the other day. I had to share! I really like it because of the mountains... they make me long for home!

Sunday Night Popcorn

We like to hang out together on Sunday evenings with a huge bowl of freshly popped popcorn. We watch nature shows on Discovery or ones that we rent from Netflix. It's become our little family tradition and now we're quite bummed if we can't spend our Sunday nights like this!!
(Unless, of course, we're spending it doing something much more fun with friends!!)

 

 

 

 

MOVIES!

We had the opportunity to go see a movie last night - just Chris and I! We saw "Quantum of Solace" and it was AWESOME!! It was non-stop action from beginning to end. I think Daniel Craig is the best James Bond ever. He takes a beating and you really believe that he can 'keep on ticking'!
We also bought Kung Fu Panda, Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Tinkerbell this week for the kids. ALL of them are very entertaining, great movies! I think Kung Fu Panda is hilarious! There are so many great lines in it that Chris keeps quoting and making me roll with laughter. Jeremiah loves the Star Wars movie... no surprise there! Jessica just LOVES Tinkerbell! (Who doesn't!) Jilli loves all three. She's easy to please! If you haven't checked out these videos... do it! You won't regret it! Any movies you are particularly fond of lately? We're always up for watching some good movies!!

Package from Grandma!

Grandma and Aunt Becky sent Jillian a package for her birthday full of fun Dora books and a princess puzzle! She was so excited, not only to get the presents, but also because she got a package with HER name on it left by the postman! Yay! She also loved the strawberry flavored candy canes that Aunt Becky put in there to get us ready for Christmas! Yummy! Who needs ucky peppermint ones these days!?! I think Jilli is quite happy to be 3!
 
 
 
 

Book Fair Day!

I think that the day that the book fair comes to town is one of my favorite days! I love shopping for books. It gets me excited. Today, we had a very full evening with Mayor meeting, Dr appointment, homework, dinner, scouts... and it was the Book Fair night too! I decided to walk over to the school with Jilli and purchase our books this afternoon before everything got CRAZY! It was nice to be able to avoid the usual evening rush at the bookshelves. Jilli picked a Disney princess book and I found a paperback of "Pinkalicious" which I had heard so much about and purchased. I bought a book for Miah, "How to Never Grow Up" or something like that. He loved it! It's full of prank ideas and how to's for staying a kid all your life! I don't think he'll have many problems doing that... but just in case! Jessica wanted the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" diary and they had it in paperback! Yay! I also got her a Nancy Drew paperback. Overall, a great day at the book fair! There is just something about fresh pages and the smell of new books! Who cares what's written... I mean... :) Love the Book Fair!

Jilli's Birthday Party!

We took Jilli to Red Robin for her birthday dinner. She told us that was where she wanted to go! She loves their rootbeer floats and the balloons you get at the door! She was so happy all day, even though we had to take her to the doctor for an appointment to look at her ears! Poor kid keeps getting earaches and they always hit on a weekend! She had fun running around with Chris and I since he had the day off. We bought Kung Fu Panda at the PX and if you haven't seen it, you really need to!! It is hilarious! I think she had a great third birthday... Enjoy the pictures!

 

 

 

 

Ice Cream!

The staff at Red Robin came and sang to Jilli and then presented her with a ice cream sundae and a little present! She was so excited! It made her birthday even better!!