A Thanksgiving birthday, and a BIG surprise!

I think this has been the most exciting Thanksgiving ever! We hosted it, and it just happened to be Mike's sister Kara's birthday on that day too, so the kids and I had fun decorating our house for a birthday party on Thanksgiving!

We made this poster for Kara - the kids had a blast paintng the glitter onto the letters and putting sparkly foam stickers all over it. Ashton took the left side and Brayden did the right!I LOVE decorating and was so excited to have the excuse to do more than just typical Thanksgiving decor! Here's Brayden with her new haircut she had done the day before - it's way shorter which is how she wanted it, and I think it turned out way cute!Brayden loved helping! She had this idea to make a flower bouquet and made this cute picture for Kara. Ashton drew a picture for her too but I forgot to get a pic of it - it was another x-rated one though, so it's probably better not to put it up here! :)We thought WE were surprising Kara with all the decorations for her birthday, but little did we know the HUGE SURPRISE that SHE had in store for US...

So after everyone showed up at our house, before dinner we all gathered in the kitchen to sing Happy Birthday to Kara, and we got Mike's brother and sister on the phone who weren't with us so they could join in too. After we sang, Kara started opening a present from Mike's parents, and we noticed that she was pulling out boy baby clothes...We were all like "What the heck???" and she announced that SHE'S PREGNANT! 15 weeks along and they already know it's a boy! This was a SHOCK to all of us, but beyond exciting! I think I'm more excited about her being pregnant than I have ever been about anyone else before. Her and her husband, Steve, just lost their daughter Emmalee to liver cancer the beginning of October. They knew back then that they were pregnant and were able to tell Emmalee before she died. This to me just shows the love Heavenly Father has for them and their family by giving them this gift of life, something so amazing to look forward to after all they have been through this past year. It wasn't planned but I can tell they are so happy and excited! This little baby boy is such a miracle! I am so happy for them!

After that big announcement, we started dinner. OH MY GOSH we had a lot of food!!! I think every square inch of our kitchen was COVERED! This picture doesn't do it justice!Not to mention the desserts, we had probably around 10 pies...(They weren't all in this picture, they were spread out everywhere!!!)Kara's giant Costco birthday cake Steve brought...And we didn't think to coordinate with Steve so Kara got 2 birthday cakes! This messy-looking cake is an icecream cake Mike and I made! I guess people liked it though, this is what it looked like just a couple of minutes after pulling it out!We had such a fun Thanksgiving and were so glad we got to spend Kara's birthday with her, and LOVED her surprise for us!!!

So proud!

I wondered how Brayden would like school, thinking the excitement of kindergarten would wear off and worried that she would get tired of it and homework and everything, but I'm so happy to say that she still absolutely loves it! She loves it so much that she was actually disappointed to go on break! (Which she is still on now for another couple of weeks!) She loves homework and even makes homework for herself if she doesn't have any. She also started playing teacher teaching Ashton things and doing different activities they get to do at school with him! One thing they do at school is require us to read to our kids or have them practice reading for at least 20 minutes a day, then when they read 100 minutes a week for the month they get a dog tag to go on their necklace. We were already in the habit of reading to the kids every night to get them to go to bed, but if we ever miss a night Brayden is always so on top of it, making sure we read to her or she tries to read on her own. She doesn't want to miss getting any of her dog tags! In fact, last week they had a Literacy Family Night with special guests like a children's book author and an illustrator at the school and had told the kids that the only way to get one of the dog tags was by going to that. Brayden BEGGED us to go because she couldn't stand the thought of not getting one of them! Mike took her because I wasn't feeling well, and she came home glowing and so proud of her newest dog tag! It's so funny but so neat at the same time that she has so much excitement and motivation to achieve her goals. She surprises me everyday with her love for learning, her talents, and everything she does! I hope she can keep this up for a long long time, because it will take her far in life! I am inspired by her and hope to gain some of that same motivation and excitement for my own goals in life. I love you, Brayden, and am so proud of you!

Birthdays, birthdays!

It seems I know a crazy amount of people with November birthdays! 2 we got to celebrate in the last couple of weeks were my dad's on the 10th, then Mike's mom's on the 16th. I also want to say Happy Birthday to my grandpa who's birthday is today! Love you, Grandpa!

This was the first time in 12 or more years that I got to celebrate my dad's birthday with him! I feel so lucky to have them living so close now after so many years of being so far apart! Just Brayden and I were able to go, Ashton was sick so Mike stayed home with him, which I have to admit was so nice to just go and relax with my family!

As long as I can remember my dad has always had pineapple upside down cake for his birthday! Brayden with Uncle Cameron!This is a picture Ashton made for my dad for his birthday. Before taking it to my dad I asked Ashton what it was, and he explained it's a face, and that no, the small little scribble at the bottom was not a beard, I'll give you one guess as to what it was...yep, it's a boy body part that Ashton now has to draw on everything he makes! Anyway, my dad got a kick out of it, so that's all that matters!Brayden spent a lot of time on the pictures she made for him!This one was actually a color by numbers picture she made up herself for him to color! So cute!My dad got a lot of clothes, including a sweatshirt I gave him. He wore it the rest of the night so I think he liked it!For Mike's mom's birthday we went with her and Mike's sister Kara to the Red Rooster Waffle Company. It's a family owned restaurant close by us, and slowly becoming one of our favorites! We ordered a ton of food and just shared everything, it was so good! I had no idea they had ribs there that Kara ordered and shared - they were the best! Definitely recommend them! Anyway, here's a pic Mike got of his mom on his phone at the restaurant, it's not the best quality but I thought it was cute!Then we went back to our house for cake and to open presents and cards. The kids had picked out the card for Nana but I forgot to get a picture of it - they thought it was hilarious though, it was a hologram of a cute little chihuahua that when you move it its head gets big with a giant toothy smile! The kids thought it was the best card ever and made me get it for her! They also helped me pick out the cake!Mike had to relight the candles a couple of times because Ashton kept blowing them out! Nana was so nice to let the kids help her blow them out when the time came though!

The Wizard of "Claus"!

Saturday we went to our stake's production of "The Wizard of Oz". Before we went I told Ashton what we were going to go see, and he somehow misunderstood and got all excited to go see Santa Claus! I tried to explain it to him but he just wasn't getting it. At the play Ashton kept asking when he'd get to see Santa Claus. We tried explaining it again, but I think the more we tried to explain the more confused he got! When the wizard (who Ashton believed to be Santa Claus) first spoke, Ashton asked when he would be coming out to give him a present. Besides waiting for Santa Claus the whole show, Ashton really got into it and sat through it pretty well, which surprised me because it was 3 hours long! He did embarrass us a little, like when my dad explained to him about a tornado coming, Ashton stood up and yelled, "There's going to be a tomato!" And then when the witch melted he stood up and yelled super loud "The witch is dead!" Gotta love my super not-a-shy-bone-in-his-body child! Anyway, so, tonight it just so happened that when we turned on the TV "The Wizard of Oz" was on, and Ashton got so excited and said, "Yay, The Wizard of Claus!"

So You Think You Can Dance!

If I could live my life over again I would be a dancer. I never took lessons or anything and have always regretted it. There's just something about it that really gets me, I love watching it more than anything! Last night my mom and I went to see "So You Think You Can Dance" on tour and it was AMAZING! The dancing was even better in person - you could really tell how good the dancers really are! And it was surprising in person to see that some you thought weren't as good were actually better than the ones you thought were the best. They were all incredible, though, and the whole show was really well done. If you are a "So You Think You Can Dance" fan you'll definitely have to check out the tour if you get a chance, it is more than worth it! I got so many great pictures but tried to narrow them down the best I could! I'm really bad at that though!

This is us right before leaving - the kids had to be in the picture too! They got to stay home and play with Mike and Grandpa!We had GREAT seats!Janine and Phillip kept coming out acting like they wanted to do their cheesy Russian routine and no one would let them, but then close to end of the show they snuck out and did it, then the rest of the cast joined them for a cool Russian routine!This was one of those ones that you never really knew how good they were on the show. Kaitlyn should have made it further, she was my favorite girl solo of the night! I didn't think it on the show, but now I think she's one of the best!

Busy Halloween Week!

Between our party, dance class, church, school, Mike's work, and then actual Halloween, we kept super busy last week! Lots of fun though, and lots of pictures ahead as usual...

They had a little party in Brayden's dance class and even prepared a "Monster Mash" dance to do for the parents at the end of class - so cute!

Church Halloween party!Ashton with his friends, Trace and Drew doing the cake walk!Brayden with her friends Sadie and Olivia!After the church party I wanted to get pictures of the kids because I didn't have time before the party, but they wouldn't stay still so I just kept snapping pictures hoping to get a decent one - this is what I ended up with! I didn't tell them to do this, this was ALL them...Brayden about to take a bite out of Ashton's neck! (I never knew they were such little actors!)My sweet vampire Brayden ready for her school party!Wait, did I say sweet?Every year the kids get to go trick-or-treating at Mike's work - they love it because it doesn't take long before their pumpkins are FILLED!After trick-or-treating at Mike's work we headed to my parents' ward's Halloween Party for a chili cook-off and trunk-or-treating! A funny thing about Ashton was he kept his scary teeth in from the time we went to Mike's work until he started eating at my parents' party, so for about 3 hours straight! I have never heard him so quiet ever! He was very dedicated to his costume! Here are my mom, Ozzy Osborne, I mean my dad, and the kids!Halloween Day!
I was tired of doing Ashton's makeup so we just threw the mask on him for trick-or-treating! Only problem was, he couldn't see very well, so trick-or-treating took FOREVER! He refused to take the mask off for even a second though!Who says vampires and werewolves don't get along?About to go trick-or-treating around the neighborhood!Our entry way set up for trick-or-treaters!Us with our little monsters!