Thanksgiving cruise

Our cruise was so much fun!  My parents took our entire family for our Christmas present this year.  We had such a good time together.  There were so many fun things to do on and off the ship.  We saw comedy shows, watched movies under the stars while sitting in a hot tub, eating lots of good food, shopping and sitting around at the beach.  

This is where we spent Thanksgiving day this year.  

St. Thomas.

It was AMAZING!

Do I need to say more?

I loved every island we went to but I have to say St. Thomas was my favorite.  I had so many eye opening moments being there.  I look forward to the day I can go back.

Emerson had lots of fun riding bikes on the top deck of the boat with Ryan (all the time)!  He loved splashing in the waves on the beach and ate tons of fruit.  He was so excited to go on the "big boat" but when we got on he did not think it was a big boat at all.  He pointed out all the tiny boats in the ocean and said "mama, big boat" it was really funny.

It was hard taking the boys on a cruise (mostly because of the sleeping conditions) but it was well worth it.  We had lots of help from my family so that helped a lot.

Now back to reality, I am looking forward to Christmas.  It is just around the corner!

 

Fall Break

This is how we have been spending Mike's fall break....so far:)

We took Emerson and Madden to the McCormick Train Park in Scottsdale.  He LOVED it!  It was $2 to ride each time and it wasn't really long but he had so much fun we had to take him a few times.

Other than this cute train ride they have train museums and exhibits set up for you to walk around and see.  They have a play ground area and lots of grass to just go sit around and play.  It was a really fun place and I have a feeling we will be going back several times!

After a few days of hanging out with Mikes mom, Mike decided to tackle the big project of landscaping our backyard.  I am so glad he got the urge to do this but it has been A LOT of work.  There is no way Mike could have done this without the help of friends!  

We still have work to do back there but now we have sprinklers and grass!!!!  We are so excited to look out the window and see green, not rocks!  THANK YOU SO MUCH to our friends that came to help us but especially for DAN and JASON!  These two guys saved us and there is no way we would have been done with this (or had a clue what to do) without them!

Now we can get cleaned up and move on to part 2 of our break.....Caribbean here we come!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  We are thankful for all of you!

Halloween

Halloween was lots of fun this year.  On Friday we took the boys to Midwestern to go trick or treating.  They have trick or treating around the school and a fun carnival for the kids to go to.

This is our football player Emerson, Madden our Monkey and Mike.

Emerson was having so much fun running around with his friend Easton.

Madden was so happy in his costume.  Everyone was commenting on how cute he was.  He was happy the whole time and of course, had his dimples on display!

Emerson was loving the idea of going up to someone and getting to take candy out of a bucket.  He had a pumpkin bucket and he kept saying "treat? my pump, pump!"  It was so cute.

This was Emerson playing with the ring toss at the carnival.  He got lots of stuff and by the time we left he had almost filled his entire bucket!

Halloween night was lots of fun (for Mike and I) we took Emerson out trick or treating to a few houses but he got scared and wanted to come home!  Our neighbors all get really into Halloween and decorate their entire houses!  We had TONS of trick or treaters!  I had 3 huge bags of candy and we went through all of them in less than 45 minutes!  Last year we had 1 trick or treater the whole night!

Anyway, after we did that for a little bit Mike and I left for a party.  It was lots of fun.  It was a murder mystery party and I had never done one before but it was great!  We didn't get home until about 12 am and Emerson had just gone to sleep about 10 minutes before we got home!  Madden and Emerson both struggled that night so Mike and I felt so bad for his dad and sister!  They watched the kids for us and that night was in no way fun or relaxing for them but we really appreciated their help so we could go have some fun!

Happy Birthday Lyssie Loo

October 30, 1989 my sweet sister Alyssa was born.  Although me and lyss are 6 years apart we have always been friends, we have so much in common and always have.

When we were much younger Alyssa wanted to copy everything I did.  If my mom bought her something that she really didn't like all I would have to do is say I thought it was cute and she would start wearing it.  She always wanted to try and look like me (who knows why) but she was always so sweet.  The funny thing is is that I am the one who looks up to her now!  She is such a good wife, sister, friend, daughter, photographer and soon to be mommy.  She has so much energy and is so good at making people feel good about themselves.  

It breaks my heart that I cannot be with her on her birthday because I love her so much!  I pray that Justin will be able to get into law school in Arizona so I can see her more:)  

Here is a picture to show off Alyssa's fun and crazy personality that she has had since the beginning.  My mom always said Alyssa was an easy kid!

Alyssa is not just my sister she is my best friend.  She is always boosting me up and making me feel so good about myself.  I think she should have been the older sister!  

She has made 3 visits to me in Arizona in the last year and I love the time we get to spend together.  

Me and lyss have had soooo many good memories together especially over the last 5 years and I know that will continue forever!  I feel so lucky that I get to be her sister but I would like to think that even if we weren't blood we would still be such good friends!

Lyssie Loo I LOVE YOU!  I hope you have a great 20th birthday because you deserve it!  You are so wonderful and I am so sad I can't be with you on your birthday but I hope you know how much I love you and how important you are to me! 

Fire Station Tour

Today we got to take all the kids to tour the fire station.  I was thinking that Emerson wouldn't be that into it because he is still so young but he loved it!  When we were walking to the car he kept saying "more fire truck mom!"  They all got hats and coloring books.  

Madden was so sweet the entire time.  He just looked around and didn't make a noise!

We were trying to get all the kids to line up for a picture....wasn't going to happen!

Emerson was so happy climbing in the fire truck.  He thought he was so cool.  

We survived!

By the middle of saturday I thought I wouldn't make it through the day!  Mike went to Mexico with some friends from school and I stayed home with the boys.  I thought I would be fine by myself since I am at home with the boys all the time anyway.......I was WRONG!  

Saturday was the hardest day I've had since becoming a mother!  Everything that could have gone wrong did.  Emerson who is normally a sweet, easygoing child was a TERROR!  I don't know what was going on with him on Saturday but he was not himself.  On top of all of his tantrums and destruction and problems, my phone wouldn't work because Madden stuck it in his mouth for 2 seconds.  I could write a novel for all of the things that happened on Saturday, it was that bad.  

Luckily my wonderful friends saved me!  I had several come over to hang out that night and keep me company and a couple more bring me flowers and ice cream.  I felt so loved and supported.  It was so what I needed that night and they were all so kind!  I was starting to feel so homesick during the day and felt so alone.  If I was in Utah I would have my family to help me out or at least keep me sane.  I am SO grateful for these awesome people in my life who made my day so much better on Saturday!  

Anyway, we survived and Sunday was much better, Mike came home!  I am so glad Mike went on his trip but I am even more glad he is home:)  All of these fun experiences make us stronger, right?!

Pumpkin Patch & Corn Maze

Last night we got invited to go to the corn maze with a few friends.  Emerson had lots of fun climbing on hay bales and throwing bark all over the place.

Our little family at the pumpkin patch

This was so funny!  We thought Emerson would have fun going on a ride in one of the cows.  He didn't want to go by himself so Mike went with him.  We thought they would just go around in a little circle but they actually went through a little bit of the corn.  The cows moved up and down and the guys that went with the boys looked so uncomfortable.  I enjoyed watching Mike and Matt take the boys on it way more that watching Emerson on it! They looked like they were getting whip lashed pretty bad:)

Here is the group: the Jones, The Burns, The Harmons, The Gronemans, Us and The Mcclenaghans. In front of the corn maze.  

Emerson liked getting another pum-pum (pumpkin).  They had a haunted maze right there too so anytime a chainsaw carrying scarecrow would walk by, Emerson would get scared and run over to us.  We went to dinner after and it was a fun night.  Good company as always!