Thanksgiving

Dustin's family came down here this year to celebrate Thanksgiving with us. It was nice because it was only a week in between seeing them, because of our trip to Utah. They came Wednesday night and were here until Sunday. We had a yummy Thanksgiving day meal, and that evening my friend Elena came over with her triplets. She brought us stuff to make Mexican hot chocolate with. It was fun to see them and get to visit for a while. After they left Gloria, Shalise, and I took off and went to see "Twilight". I had such a good time, it was fun to go out with just the three of us. I liked the movie, but I have to admit, I was expecting more from it. I guess the books are always better than the movies, and I think that is true with "Twilight".

On Friday we just kind of hung out and went to Wal-Mart. I didn't think there was anything that exciting, certainly nothing to go at 4:00 AM for. While most of us went to Wal-Mart, my brother-in-law Jeremy took Dillon, Ashlynn, and Danica to the park to play and ride scooters. The kids all love Jeremy, he is so good to play and do fun things with them. On Saturday, some of us went to the Swap Meet. Gloria and I enjoyed it, but the rest of them didn't so much. I just love to look around at stuff and find good deals, I probably could have spent a long time in there. Then that night we loaded up and went to the "Gift of Lights" at Sunset Park. It is a huge display of lights that you drive through. The kids and Trent especially loved doing this. Sunday everyone left, and the kids of course, cried and cried. It is always hard to say goodbye to family when we see them. We had a great time though, and are so glad that they all came.

I do not know what I was thinking, but I did not take any pictures of Thanksgiving! Don't ask me how that happened, because I usually take pictures of everything! I only managed to get a couple of the "Gift of Lights".

Trip to Utah and Idaho

Some of you knew, but many of you did not, that Dustin was out of work for several weeks. Arco, the company he works for bid on a job and got it, but it was taking forever for it to start for some reason. So, he was home and the kids were out on Track Break at the same time. I kept saying it was like some kind of never-ending weekend. Anyways, because of this, we decided to take the opportunity to go to Utah and visit. I also was able to take the kids and go to Idaho for a couple of days. It was so fun to see everyone. We enjoyed it so much, I don't think any of us really wanted to come back. The only reason I did was to sleep in my own bed. While we were in Utah, my neice Danica had a birthday party at this place called Back Yard Adventures. Here are some cute pics from that day...












I took the chance to go up to Idaho for a couple of days since we were already that far. I had not been there in a year and a half. It was so great to see all of my family. Even though time was short, we were able to see my parent's, all of my siblings (except Brandon), my nephews, and all of my Grandma's. I miss all of them so much. The fun thing about this little trip was that we totally just showed up and surprised them. My Dad and Janalee had no idea that we were coming. It was funny to see their expressions when we showed up there. I made my kids take pictures with all of the grandparents. First of all because it is so few and far between when we see them, and because I realized that I don't have enough pictures of the kids with all of them. I really thought they all turned out great....

















Sidenote:
While I was in Utah, I was able to go out and have dinner with two of my good friends, Sydni and Jeni. We are all from Idaho, and have been roomies, and just go way back. It was great to see them and get to visit and catch up. Thanks for the good time Girls. :)

Update on Samantha...

I've had some of you ask about Samantha and if she qualified for the Child Find program. She did qualify and started going to a pre-school last week. She is enjoying it so far, and her teacher says that she has been behaving well. We were really lucky because there is a program in the same school that Dillon and Ashlynn go to, which is just right across the street from our neighborhood. So, I am just able to take her and pick her up everyday. She goes Monday through Thursday, from 12:45 to 3:26. So, I am back on the Kindergarten schedule that I was on with Ashlynn last year. Anyways, we are hoping she will keep adjusting to the change. She has had kind of a hard time in the evenings after she gets home, I think because she is so tired.
Here are some pictures of the Thanksgiving Feast we were able to attend at Samantha's new school:

Sleeping Beauty...

One day Dustin found Ashlynn asleep on the couch like this. He thought it was cute and decided to take a picture. What a funny girl.... :)

HALLOWEEN

Our ward had it's Trunk or Treat the night before Halloween. I always try to decorate my trunk cute. Here is what I came up with this year....



This year Dillon dressed up as Indiana Jones, Ashlynn as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, and Samantha was a Witch (she said she was the "Wicked witch of the west", hee, hee!). The Trunk or Treat was really fun, our ward activities are always so fun and well put together. We had a great dinner, there was chili, hotdogs, and nachos, and desserts. There were carnival games for the kids, and a big bounce house set up in the gym. After dinner and the games, everyone went out to the parking lot to trunk or treat. I think the whole "trunk or treat" concept is such a good idea, then I don't have to take the kids around the neighborhoods to people I don't even know. The idea of that makes me a little nervous, you just never know. Oh, and there is this guy in our ward that always takes pictures at the activities. His name is Brother D'Arcy, and he always does such a great job. He always has the cutest back-drops and props. Good thing he took a picture that night, because I couldn't keep my kids together long enough to take any....



On actual Halloween, we decided to go to the Springs Preserve. It was pretty fun for the kids. They had a lot of lights and scary stuff, and they let the kids go to different posts through out the park and get candy. That night Samantha decided that she did not want to be a witch anymore, but that she wanted to be Cinderella. So, she was two things for Halloween this year.... oh, well, what do you do? Dillon on the other hand decided that he did not want to dress up again for Halloween, he figured doing it once was enough. Again, what do you do? I just figure, you have to pick your battles, and that is not one that I wanted to fight. Ashlynn was just happy being Dorothy, I'm so glad that she just goes with the flow most of the time. :) Here are some pics of our Springs Preserve Halloween:

Dance Recitals

The girls both had Dance Recitals in October. This was Samantha's first time in a dance class and she did a great job. Ashlynn has been in a few different classes and is improving all the time. It is so fun to go to these little recitals and watch what they have learned. Stephanie Baker does a great job teaching these little girls.