Thanksgiving

The day before was spent in the kitchen.  Mmmmmm...

 Then we drove past Heber to Daniels Summit Lodge with my parents for some overnight Thanksgiving excitement.

 We had a lot of fun playing games, swimming in the pool (though Cooper did NOT like that part at all!).  The pool was so cold, that I stayed in the hot tub the whole time.  Except the one time Todd and I did a very weak imitation of the polar bear plunge into the pool from the hot tub.  It was polar bear cold enough for me!

 Our feast was quite delicious.  Prime rib, ham, turkey, roast beef, shrimp, salmon, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, salads, cheeses, rolls etc.  I may or may not have tried caramel bread pudding, lemon bars, pecan pie, fruit cobbler, pumpkin roll...

 That evening, we went over to Todd's parent's house for more pie.  You know, since I hadn't had enough desserts yet that day.  I had pumpkin pie, berry pie, lemon, pecan....that's when the sugar shutters hit HARD.

Thanksgiving was such a wonderful day.  We spent the day with so many people I love.  We ate so many treats that I loved.  And so much other delicious food.  Talking, laughing, hanging out.  It was perfect.  I spent a lot of time reflecting on my blessings too.  And I'm overwhelmed at what I enjoy each and every day of my life.

Our Anniversary

My Tenth Anniversary could not have been better!  Todd and I went out to lunch at our favorite sandwich shop and then went to the temple to do sealings.  That was by far my favorite part of the day! I could feel and remember exactly how I felt when we were sealed and I loved every minute of it.

We then headed downtown for an overnight get-away.  A big thanks to my parents for having our kids!  We stopped in at a cute little cookie shop where we sampled and purchased entirely too many gourmet cookies.  And then we went to The Grand America Hotel!  We had such a great time exploring and pretending to be fancy.  It was really fun.  That place is gorgeous.  But the most exciting part of the exploration was when we opened the doors to the Spa and Pool and found water pouring from the ceiling!  For a moment, it looked like we were on board the Titanic!  There were dozens of workers running around franticly with buckets and towels and we turned around and walked right back out without even being noticed.  Within a few hours, they had the water problem contained, but we weren't able to use the hot tub or pool during our stay.

My new rings - which I'm NOT even allergic to like my original.  A nice feature.  Not to mention gorgeous!  Someday I'd like to get my original in platinum.  I'm saving up for that day...

Ten years:

We enjoyed shopping at City Creek, a nice dinner, a movie, and just being able to spend hours together without interruption.  When we got back to our Hotel, we were surprised to find this little cake in our room.  When we checked out, they also gave us a bottle of Sparkling Lemonade from France.  Ooh la la!  

What can I say?  I'm so glad Todd is my husband!

Ten Years Ago

Ten years ago today, Todd and I were married in the Jordan River Temple.

 Definitely one of the most incredible days of my life.  Um yeah, understatement...

 So I thought it would be fun to take a trip down memory lane and look at some of my favorite wedding pictures.

 November 22, 2003 was COLD.  It was 12 degrees that morning while we took pictures.  Though some accounts say 9 degrees...you can see my red fingers in the picture below.  To this day, I feel grateful that the blizzard didn't start until right AFTER we had all these pictures done.  That was an answer to a young bride's prayer!

 Awwww, look how cute (and young) my hubby is.

 I loved Todd so much that day.  I'll never forget the way I felt those moments right before we were sealed together.

 I really like the word sealed.  It makes me happy.

 Yes, I loved Todd so much that day.  And I love remembering.  But it's even better to still be living it.  To still feel what I felt then.  And obviously so much more.  It's amazing what we have shared and experienced and learned together.  The hard things we've conquered.  It's amazing to have each other.

 Ten years later, I'm grateful this day to be loved and to love.

Random This and That

I failed to mention in my post about Cooper a funny thing that I don't want to forget.  He burps.  A lot.  And after he burps for real, he fake burps.  He fake burps even more than he real burps and everyone encourages it because it's so funny.  (Insert mama head shake here).  My dad has a goal of getting it on video, so I'll try.  That doesn't mean you'll ever see it though, since I still never even posted his walking ones. . . Cooper also makes pretty good car/truck noises when he pushes toy cars along the floor.  He's such a boy.

Here's a piece of Ethan's latest artwork.  I thought it was pretty impressive:

And speaking of impressive, his piano playing is really getting fun!  I have been enjoying hearing him play songs with both hands going at once and chords and stuff.  He still loves it like the first week and is very self-driven for practicing.  No complaints there!!

And a month after getting tendonitis in my foot, my toes finally don't feel broken anymore!  The swelling is mostly gone and I am happy to report that I actually believe that my foot will get better now.  It was questionable a few weeks ago in my mind!

My kids keep changing their minds on what they want for Christmas.  It's driving me crazy.  They have NO IDEA how much of my Christmas shopping is already done!  Hopefully we can get them locked in soon.  I have to admit, I liked it better when they were young enough that they didn't know they could ask for anything and I just got them what I wanted them to have.  lol.

14 Months Old

Cooper is one busy guy.  He likes to spend his days in pursuit of forbidden items and if he's lucky enough to stumble upon one, he grins while shaking his head back and forth because he knows it's "no no"!  He also loves playing in the tub.

 He still loves eating, though he's starting to get picky and loves throwing food on the floor too.  He used to like broccoli and eggs and now they go straight to the floor.  He's very good at signing (not the real signs, but the ones we've made) for "all gone" or "all done" and "more".  Though instead of signing "more", he usually just hollers until you get more food on his tray.  It's not uncommon for him to eat more than his sister.

 Cooper loves to be outside.  He sits there soaking in the magic of the outside world.  After ten minutes or so, he'll start to explore.  I'm amazed at how crazy fast and wiggly he is inside and how long he'll just sit still outside.

 He's walking a little more each day, but still prefers to crawl.  It's not uncommon to see him walking from one place to the next though.  He says "dada" "mama" "oh wow" "ah oh" and when he sees the pictures of Christ in the halls at church (four months until nursery!) he says  "Jesus"!

He can point to his hair, mouth, and nose.  He points at things that delight him, pats his tummy, claps his hands, high fives, waves, and loves to dance to any beat he hears.  He climbs on everything, falls a LOT, loves his siblings and still thinks Dad is the greatest person in the whole world!

Love you Cooper!

One Month

In one month, I'll be singing for the fourth time in the Sounds of the Season Choir.  This choir has been one the happiest and best parts of Christmas for me over the last few years.  I can't really express how much I have loved it and how much it has enriched my Christmas season.  But it has.

If you are reading this, you are invited to attend one of the two concerts.  If it is even half as enjoyable to listen to as it is to sing in, you'll enjoy it!  It's amazing that it's really almost Christmastime again.

October's Ten Things

I'm really slow on this post, but figured better late than never.  I'd like to share ten things that made me smile in October!

1.  The month started off with General Conference and it was awesome!  Definitely made me smile.

2.  Madeline really decided that she wants to learn to read and we checked out a few early reader books from the library and she really was able to read them to us!  So proud of her.  It's really exciting.

3.  The kids were awesome in the Primary Program.  Ethan even gave an awesome talk about why he is excited to be baptized that he wrote himself.

 4.  Cooper is figuring out how to walk!  I've taken videos, but haven't posted any yet.  Sorry!  He's so cute walking though.  It has been so much fun!

5.  Celebrating my mom's birthday at Cornbelly's and bouncing back too.

 6.  All the Halloween Fun

7.  And while we are on the subject of Halloween, I had to smile when I saw what our neighbor who is a dentist gave the kids ... can you see it??

 8.  Our bathroom project is coming along really well.  Just look at our shower now!  Todd painted a waterproof sealer on it and now it's ready for tile.  They should be in this week.  Tiling project this weekend!

 9.  Fall leaves always make me smile!

10.  Volunteering at the school makes me smile too.  Mostly because I LOVE to see how excited it makes my kids when they see me walk in.

October was a good month.  November will be over in a blink.  I'm focusing on gratitude this month, with a smaller focus on trying to figure out how to have a Christmas tree in the house with Cooper...lol!

Our Halloween

Our Halloween festivities began on Tuesday with the neighborhood Trunk or Treat.  Why we had a trunk or treat and then went to the same people's houses again for trick-or-treating two days later, I'll never know.  But the kids sure had fun loading up on candy and hotdogs and hot chocolate.

 Madeline was very festive all Halloween Day, even when she wasn't wearing her princess costume.

 After school, we went for round two of trick-or-treating at my Dad's office.  The kids left with full bags and huge smiles and a mom wondering why we were going for a third time twenty minutes later!  But it sure was fun!!

 Cooper LOVED riding on Todd's shoulders to trick-or-treat.  He only got three pieces of candy (thankfully) and was far more upset about getting off the shoulders than not getting candy.

 We went with our dear friends, and the fun just kept on coming.  I loved watching the girls run from house to house holding hands.  They were laughing and bursting with excitement.  The boys were too, but instead of holding hands, they were wildly swinging their sword and ax!  So much fun!

 Madeline's and Ethan's pumpkins.  Madeline drew the face on the pumpkin herself!

 And here are a couple pictures of the fabulous Halloween artwork that decorated my house over the last week or so.

 I wanted to take pictures of these so I wouldn't feel quite as bad when...cough...they got lost.

 And here is a picture of all the spoils from the week.  Little do they know that this picture was taken AFTER I stole out nearly 100 pieces (mostly candy bars!) for holidays and future birthday cakes and such.  And for myself. Ha!  Yeah, it's pretty insane to have this much candy.  Can you see how many full size candy bars are in the stash???  Aaaaahhh, what are we going to do with all of it?!?!?

The Knight, The Princess, and The Dragon

This year, we decided to copy cousins and do a theme for Halloween.  The kids were really into it and had fun being The Knight, The Princess, and The Dragon:

 The weather was pretty good for us this year again too.  Seems like it was always FREEZING or snowing when I was a kid...

 The Dragon...

 The Knight...

 The Princess...

 The Dragon again so we can see his very fierce face... :)

 The fair princess was trapped in the tower guarded by the dragon.  Luckily a knight in shining armor came to her rescue!

 But Knight, just pretend to get the dragon, ok?!