Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving we were with my family. We decided to go to the church for a change of venue. I don't know if I'd want to do it again, but it was better than I thought it would be. Of course any time I'm with family, I'm happy so it was a great day for me. The food was great (especially the desserts :-) I hope that you guys had a good holiday!

Sugar

The whole fam, getting ready to eat

My nephew is taller than me now

Sugar stayed up way too late

Too long of a day for Ty I guess :-)

My Fam

I really love these two people more than anything else in the world. And I absolutely love this picture so I decided to post it. It makes me smile every time I look at it, and it just brightens my day. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, I hope you enjoy spending time with your family as much as I do.

Yes, I'm alive

I've been feeling like quite a scrooge this month. I never really like to focus on Christmas before Thanksgiving but this year I've been getting irritated thinking about it. So I decided to analyze myself a bit. Here are my reasons I came up with:

1. Time is going too fast. I feel like it should be November 5th. I only have 11 weeks until my due date, so that's a little freaky. I want time to stand still for a bit.
2. I haven't started my Christmas shopping. Yikes
3. The main reason is because I don't like to overlook Thanksgiving. I heard recently that Thanksgiving is strategically placed right before Christmas for a reason. I really don't like feeling greedy and about everything that I want and that I want to buy for others. I think it is so important to focus on what we are grateful for. Last night for family night we talked about gratitude and made lists of things we're grateful for. I realized that the first half of my list was nothing tangible that you can buy. It made me realize that I can enjoy this holiday season while I focus on my family and the other things that are important to me. So instead of panicking that I haven't done any shopping and don't have the money to go shopping, I know that everything will be okay and that we can have a great holiday season.

I do love the holiday season and I'm determined to get in the spirit. I may finally tune my radio to Christmas music today and I started reading a Christmas book. Last night we even watched the new Disney's A Christmas Carol, it was ridiculous, but the important thing is that I focus on the positives of the season and those I love. I hope you all are getting in the spirit of Christmas and enjoy time with loved ones!

18 Months

She absolutely loves sitting in things that are just her size.

We watch Playhouse Disney everyday

She loves to dance!

I can't believe my little girl is 18 months old today! She is growing so quickly. She learns new words all the time and amazes me with her capacity to understand. Her favorite thing to do is draw. Recently she has started helping me cook and put on make-up. Both are a little messy but she loves doing what I do! I love her so much and the faster time goes by, the more I realize we should try to slow time down and enjoy the little things in life. I feel like at first I just wanted her to grow and develop and always waiting for the next stage, but now sometimes I wish I had that time back so I can enjoy it more fully. Okay I'm done rambling. Sniff, sniff, time for nursery at church.

State Fair

On Friday we went to the State Fair. It was lots of fun! One of the main reasons I went to was to see my sister's entry and it turns out she took 2nd place! I was very happy for her! I know she spent a lot of time on it. Here's Nic, Ash and Wend at the Boys 2 Men concert. lol They were so funny.

Of course Sugar's favorite part was the animals

Mom and Dad with Sugar at the Rodeo

Sugar was super tired she was so out of it! She fell asleep about 3 minutes after this picture was taken.

At the Rodeo

Guess What?!

That's right, I'm expecting again. Baby #2 is due around the beginning of February. We are very excited and nervous! I find out the gender on the 20th, so we're looking forward to that.

Family Reunion

This weekend we went up to a family reunion for Ty's family and step family. We stayed in cabins up in the mountains. It was a lot of fun, it is nice to get to know the family better. Be prepared for lots of pictures. I love the outdoors so I was a little camera happy. :-)
Here's Ty doing what he does best, acting like a child. jk But he really is so great with kids.
Sugar wasn't feeling too good so she was pretty clingy to me the whole time, but she did find one cousin that she played with a lot! I was grateful for the break!

On Friday it was Ty's mom's birthday so we got to celebrate it all together up there. There was a misunderstanding about dessert, so we ended up with 3 huge birthday cakes. lol I guess it could've been worse and we could've forgotten cake all together, right? I don't believe in such a thing as too much cake. :-)

We did a challenge course again this year. I didn't participate in anything, but Ty had lots of fun. Here's him climbing then getting ready to go down the zipline.




Sugar wanted to join in and be like daddy.


Ty had to do this challenge a couple times. His butt kept hitting the ground so that's why he's holding on for dear life in the next picture. (There were pretend shark infested waters beneath him :-)
If anyone knows me, you know that I absolutely love seeing animals in the outdoors. Well I was ecstatic that we saw so many animals. And the deer up there were so tame. They would just stand there and let you take pictures! It was so awesome and I got closer to them than I have ever been able to.




When we got there, the missionaries who run the camp told us that a trail close to our cabins leads to moose meadow and there have been a cow and two babies and a bull closeby. Well, of course we had to go hiking. I've never seen a moose and Ty had only seen one. So, off we went.
There are some really pretty views up there!
I know Ty's head is cut off in this picture, but I still think it's cute and I look better in it than the previous one, so I posted it. haha
Here we are with Ty's mom.

So, as we were walking, in the marsh we see this:
The cow! But because the grass was so long, we couldn't see the babies or her body at all. I was still super excited to have seen a moose, though.
The next morning, Sugar was still sleeping so Ty and I decided to go hiking again. He really wanted to see the bull. We walked past the marsh from the night before and no moose. I was disappointed, but it was a pretty morning so we kept going. We were about to give up and then I saw this:
The moose coming right up out of some water. She started walking and then heard us so turned at stared for a little bit, then walked up the hill. I was freaking out, I was so excited. Ty was a little bummed we didn't see a bull, but I don't really care, it was definitely the highlight of the trip!

Oh, and on the way home I saw a coyote by our house. So, I'm a pro at spotting new animals now. :-)