Thanksgiving 2010!

For Thanksgiving this year we went to St.George to see my family. They boys didn't like the drive but had so much fun when we got there. The became best friends with their cousins, especially Brent - my uncle Karl's youngest. We stayed Wednesday night to Thursday but came home that night. We always do our family reunions/holidays now because our family is so big we can't fit in my Grandma's house anymore!

I always love when I get to see my family. Since I grew up down there I love going back. I love being able to visit my Grandma, aunts, uncles and cousins. I miss everyone so much in between visits.

Some of our fun:

Happy Birthday Jaydyn!!

My baby turned 8 on November 11th! I can't believe he's 8 already. Time has flown by. He is such a loving fun child. He always makes me laugh and is coming up with jokes or stories to tell.

For his birthday we did dinner with just our family. He got to choose and it was McDonald's. We stayed for ages so the boys could play and then came home and he opened only a couple presents from us then. That Saturday he invited over 10 friends including his cousins. They played laser tag, watched a movie, played with all the toys, decorated cupcakes and had a blast.

Jaydyn had a great birthday. We love him so much and are so glad he is part of our family!!

Some of the fun:

Happy Halloween!!

This year Adam and I went out for Halloween. We went to Harry O's in Park City with our friends Ian and Emily - it was a lot of fun! We had a blast dressing up.

It's kinda dark, the flash got messed up.


Ian and Emily:


The next day we took the kids trick or treating. Since we live in Utah we celebrate holidays on Saturday if they fall on a Sunday. On Friday my mom watched the kids and they went trick or treating around her neighborhood and Saturday afternoon we went around Provo City to the little thing the city puts on. Trick or treating has definitely changed from when I used to go! Now it's all about making it safe and easy for the kids. I remember going out with my friends as soon as school was out and going door to door for hours but not anymore. I kinda miss it being like that!

Nik hated the mask because of his glasses so he wore it like this - he's a goof!






We went with my mom, my sister and my nieces.






Kira and Jaycee didn't want their pictures taken but you can see them, kinda, in some of the other pictures.

I also have to post this. A friend of mine sent me this in a text - took him 3 1/2 hours!! We are all huge LOTR fans and play online together - his pumpkin even has the sindarin lettering on the crown.

Dieting

Adam & I both decided to try the HCG diet. We researched everything, talked to people who had done it and made the decision. Basically, for those that don't know, you can do injections or drops of the HCG hormone. We chose drops. We take 6 drops 6 times a day for 3 weeks and can only eat 500 calories. This seems like very little but the hormone is using all that extra fat your body stores so you are actually getting 2500 or so. Pregnant women have a high amount of this hormone and the extra fat is given to the baby. This is basically the same thing - no there are no side effects lol Adam is not turning girlie on me.

We started this on Tuesday 9/21 and so far have lost 7lbs and Adam has lost 8lbs. The hardest part for Adam is not being able to eat when he wants. He is used to snacking or making a really good meal and this just doesn't happen with this diet. The hardest part for me was quitting pop but I did it! The headaches weren't as bad as I've had in the past, mainly due to how much water I have to drink each day. They tell you to drink at least 2L or more. Your meals are: Breakfast - as much coffee or tea as you want, has to be plain though - no sugar! You can add Stevia to it, which helps from what Adam said. Lunch - 100g of meat - can be chicken or steak grilled or broiled or white fish, 1 serving of veggies and 1 serving of fruit. Dinner - same as lunch. They give you a list of what fruits and veggies are okay as well as how much is considered a serving. Same with the meat.

You are supposed to give up all bathroom products since most of them have oil but that's something I'm not willing to give up. I can't imagine going 3 weeks without deodorant, shampoo & Conditioner, makeup. Sheesh!

Anyways I'll update on how it goes next week. Our first week we've done great!

Bella, meet the door...

So most days I am home and we have no issues with Bella. She suffers from separation anxiety big time though so when Adam & I work there's always a mess to clean up. During the summer we have left her outside. We got her a doghouse so she isn't in the sun and keep lots of food and water for her. Well we received a notice from our HOA that she can't stay back there, even though it's an enclosed patio, so I put her in the downstairs bathroom the other day when I left for work. I only work a few hours and we just don't have anywhere else for her to stay. So now for the fun part:

Meet Bella -



Bella, meet the door -



Yep that's right, she chewed a hole in the door. Granted she's worked on it over time but the hole itself was from one day and squeezed her fat butt through there. She's a big dog - over 50lbs. How she got out I have no idea. She came barreling down the stairs when I got home at a full run, slid on the rug and ran to the bathroom to show me what she did. She was pretty proud of herself till she realized I wasn't happy. Oh well time to get a new door!

Park City!

Every couple years we go to Park City with Adam's family. We stay at the Westgate and just relax the whole time. They normally have it for a week and everyone takes a night to themselves and then on Friday we do a family night. This year we missed having Steve and Tyler there on Friday but we still had a blast. On Friday night the boys always get to do a Treasure Hunt and it's so fun watching them figure out the clues and find where to go.

They added a new pool room since we were there last. It's called the Relaxation room. Only adults 18 years and older can go in there. It has a waterfall in the pool, a hot tub, a sauna and a steam room. It was so nice and relaxing to go swimming without hearing a hundred kids screaming or being splashed the entire time!

I always forget to take lots of pictures but I did get a couple of them.

Girl's Lunch!

Every couple months when my grandma comes up to visit all of us older girls go to lunch. This time we went to Olive Garden. The food was great, after our little gross out, and it was so fun to visit with family.

All of us ( my mom, Jill, Jodi, My grandma and me):


My aunt Jill and Grandma:


My mom, Grandma and me:


My aunts Jill and Jodi, my Grandma and me:


My aunts Jill and Jodi, my Grandma and My mom:

Happy 11th Birthday Nik!!

Nik turned 11 on the 16th. He is so excited to be in scouts now and not cub scouts :) His friend Jackson is in scouts with him and his dad is one of the scout masters so he will have tons of fun!

Nik & Jaydyn went on a camp-out with Mike on Friday, we hung out with our friends Ian & Emily on Saturday and we had everyone over for cake & ice cream on Sunday for his birthday. He got a lot of cool things: some water toys, clothes, money, books, an mp3 player and much more. He is so spoiled :)

I remember when I found out I was pregnant with him and how scared I was. I have never regretted having him so young and would not trade it for the world. He is such a good kid. He is always wanting to help someone and is so patient teaching Jaydyn everything he can. They are best buds and do everything together. We love having Nik in our family!

Family Reunion 2010

For Easter we went down to St. George for my family reunion. It was so much fun and so nice to see my family again! We left Friday morning and when we got down there we went to visit my Grandma Mitchell (my dad's mom) and then went to my niece Katie's birthday party. We stayed with my sister Stephanie at her house and it was nice to visit with her again as I don't see/talk to her as often as I should. Saturday morning we left for the church (our family is too big now to do these at anyone's house) and had lunch and an Easter egg hunt for all the kids. We then went to St. George and met the photographer for our family pictures. We haven' had family pictures since I don't know when. My cousin Bradley will be leaving on his mission in may so this was a perfect time to get every single member of my family together. Here are some of the family pictures we had done: (I am an idiot and forgot my camera so there weren't any of the Easter stuff we did)

My Grandma -


My Grandma & her kids -


Scott's Family -


My Mom's Family -


Karl's Family -


Jodi's Family -


Jill's Family -


The grandkids & Grandma -


The whole family -


It really was great to see how big our family has grown and all because two people fell in love!

Time to catch up...

I figured I'd better post since I haven't for awhile. To be honest it's been pretty slow here, which has been nice. The kids are enjoying school and Bella is protecting us from all the evil squirrels trying to take over the world.

Adam and I are finishing another semester of school. This time around we have Statistics and Research and Spanish. I have to be honest and say I can't stand our Spanish teacher. She is horrible. Guess that's what we get for taking a language class online. If I walk away with a D I'll be happy. We did go buy the Rosetta Stone Cd's so hopefully that ends up helping us.

The boys are counting the days till summer and our pool opens. They have so much fun during the summer. With a park and a pool in our backyard we spend a lot of time outdoors in the summer.

Well that's about it from us, hope everyone is having a good year!