Thanksgiving '09

This year was a real treat for Thanksgiving! Almost all of my cousins came out along with Monica and her family. We had it at my aunts house which is the house I grew up in for holidays and events, so it had that "home for the holidays" smell!

My cousin Aaron.

His beautiful wife, Joy.

This is how my family rolls... ;)

My cousin, Michele... a fellow blogger.

My poor dad is a kid magnet! He ran around with the kids all day!

Cousin Jeremy with new daughter, Tegan.

His other beautiful daughter, Audrey.

My nephew, Keaton, with the same face I did with Joy. Sorry, it's a signature look...

The four of us grew up in this house together. We used to play "hauted house" and team up to make a haunted room for each other. Awww... memories.

My man, Knox. The hit of the party.

The whole family.

The kids.

Again, my dad was our savior of the day playing with the kids. He played a gorilla all day chasing the kids around. I always wondered why 'Uncle Bud' was such a big hit in our family. He's always just been dad to me. He showed me why this day!

I am Thankful for... my beautiful family, love in my home, a husband that loves me and my children, health, safety, a roof over my head, my talents, the gospel, and on... and on... and on...

New Moon Party

Yes. Like all women, I indulge in the Twilight hype. Like last year, my friend Leanne threw an amazing Twilight movie pre-party except this year she reserved a theater for all 100 women who came! Crazy! But so awesome! I met up with my sister-in-laws for dinner before the party. When we showed up there was an awesome duplicate sign of "Welcome to Forks" in Leanne's lawn. She also had the life sized Edward, Jacob and Bella poster boards in the entrance and movie snacks to bag. There were quotes from the book all over her walls and a "Bella" birthday cake from the movie. I saw friends there that I didn't even realize were invited! She put together an amazing New Moon Jeopardy game from her computer that a few of the educated readers got to participate in for prizes. Amy, of course won the whole thing and got the soundtrack. We went to the midnight showing of the movie. We just walked right in, which was nice since we didn't have to wait outside all night for tickets. It was funny to see our whole group of mom's, giddy and all, walking in together for the movie. The movie was great! I'm sad the last one wasn't directed by the same director. He did so good! It stayed so true to the book. Can't wait to see it again... and the next one!

Beautiful Friends

My sweet Robin came and took care of me and my family last week all on her own time. I love this girl. Practically my sister, I've known her most of my life! She cooked us delicious meals, helped clean the house and took my kids to Sea World. It really gave me some one on one with Knox. I love you RawRaw. Thanks for your selfless love...

Knox at 3 Weeks

I think we are out of the "drama" portion of bringing in our new addition! Knox is an amazing baby! Truly! We are so blessed to have in our family and love him! Just look at his sweet face...

Vegas Getaway

Ozone Roofing, Freddy's company, had timeshare points that weren't used this year, so we used them in Vegas this weekend. We knew we weren't going to do much since we brought the kids with us, but it was nice having Freddy around for help. We basically slept when we could. The kids were so excited about being there, their sleeping pattern was totally off! And with the baby, everything was pretty exhausting! But with what energy we had, we did a few things. We took the kids to see the lions at MGM and took them to the M&M factory. Spencer and Reta, Freddy's oldest brother and wife, went this weekend as well with their new baby Mason. So we all met up and went to the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay. The kids always like that. We made forts in our room for the kids to play in which they loved. We were able to get out one night, thanks to my friend Coleen, and have an amazing dinner at one of those Japanese restaurants that cook in front of you, and that was a big highlight! We made the most of it, but man, we are sure tired.