mid-Nov-mid-Dec

We managed to have some fun during the months of November and December.

The most important thing was celebrate Damon's birthday.  Birthday's are amazing.  It means you have another year to celebrate life and have new adventures.  Damon just wanted a nice quiet evening at home with cookies for dessert.  He does love cookies and we love him.

For Thanksgiving we went to Arizona to visit the Melanson's and other friends.  We had such a wonderful time visiting with them and the rest of our friends and family we have there.  Arizona is such an easy place to love because that's where I spent my childhood.  It's a very comfortable feeling.  Everything is familiar.  We had a grand time there.

 We stopped by Glen Canyon Dam on the way down to Phoenix.  It was quite the drive.

 I have pictures of these kids over the years.  I love watching them grow up.

  No trip is complete to Phoenix without stopping by Mary Coyles.  It was made even better when going with the person I spent most of my childhood with. We had a nice visit with Amanda's family.

 As a family we went out to Midway and went on a sleigh ride.  It was so pretty and so much fun!!

We also went to the tree lighting ceremony at the park near our house.

We had lots of gatherings at our house during December.  Two fun ones where the snowman building activity with friends and the Gingerbread house activity with family.  Both evenings were really fun.

 We had our Ward Christmas party, Lily had her ballet recital and Noah had a band concert.

Pictures from the gingerbread house building party and dinner.

Thankfuls in November

November has started out just as busy as the rest of the months, but with a focus on being grateful.  It isn't difficult to look around and be grateful for what we have been given.  Every breath is truly a gift.

On November 1st we woke up before dawn and headed down to Provo to pick up my nephew and then drove down to California.  We stopped in St. George for a visit with Nana and Papa and some breakfast and then continued onward towards Mortensen Manor and then on to San Diego.

After being in 30-40*F weather the warmth of San Diego felt especially wonderful.  It was such a fast trip, but it was such a great reunion.  We were able to see lots of our friends and enjoy the nice warm weather.  We are so glad that we could celebrate Kaitlyn in Mark's wedding with them.  I'm so grateful for the friends I had while living in CA.  They may it so much more fun.

We had dinner at Corvette Diner.  It was so fun to be down near the water!

The Triplets reunited.  These girls hadn't seen each other in over a year and didn't want to spend one minute apart.  When it was time for us to leave the girls just cried and cried (Lily continued to cry a couple days after we returned.)

 Lily just loves her old babysitters.  They really were something special and we loved them being part of our lives down in San Diego.  I couldn't have asked for better girls to babysit my kids while they were growing up.  They were such a blessing to our family!!

Fall Field trip

So my kids have never really seen fall.  We had fall in Oregon, but the kids don't really remember that.  It's our first Fall up in the mountains and the kids have been amazed by the ever changing colors.  Damon decided to take us on a fall field trip down to Payson and do the Nebo Loop drive to enjoy the fall colors.  They didn't disappoint.  The kids loved seeing what Fall really looks like.

This picture looks like it belongs in an Eddie Bauer catalog with the scenery and my clothes.

 I wish it could stay Fall until Spring. I know what is just around the corner and I am trying not to think about that right now.

Life continues...

Seems like blogging has taken a backseat to everything else lately.  Either I don't have the energy to blog or I just forget.  It has definitely taken a back burner in life lately.

Fall is in full force here.  We've had a couple of snow storms, we are all wearing fleece more and the flannel sheets have made it on the beds.  It's getting cold.

We've been busy but have had fun as well.  Here is a catch up of all our doings.

Football-

Swim Team-

Volleyball-

Family/friend visits-

Braces off-