Dancing Queen!

Halle had her Christmas dance recital on Wednesday night. She did such a good job! She just loves to dance, which is a bonus for me because I get to help teach her class and watch her learn and enjoy something I love so much!

Live in Thanksgiving Daily

Thanksgiving 2008 - We spent this year with my mom, my brother and his wife and kids, and my sister and her husband and kids. I can't even remember the last time we were all together for Thanksgiving. Having my mom here now has been so wonderful. Of course the food was AMAZING! Yes I will pat myself on the back for my part in it! We hung out, teased each other, stuffed our faces, watched sports, and played games. It was a great day!

Birthday Girl!

November 13th - Happy Birthday to me! I am getting soooo old! Where has all the time gone? It seems like just yesterday I was in High School and now look, I'm 32 years old! It was a crazy busy day and we had to squeeze in my birthday dinner, gifts, and cake. I got some really fun stuff from Parker and the kids.

Happy Anniversary!

Yesterday Parker and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary! I can't believe how fast time flies. It seems like just yesterday that we went on our first date. He still inspires me to be the best I can be. I hope I have done the same for him. Parker, I love you so much and I am so thankful to have such a wonderful and loving husband. You are also the best dad ever! Our kids love you so much. Thank you for everything thing you do for us.

Happy Haunting to All and to All a Good Fright!

Alright, so it is a few days past Halloween but things are always so crazy around here that I am just getting to this. Halloween was so fun this year! We found Brighton's costume first and decided that Logan could be a brave Prince who would save Princess Halle from the Dragon. However, while looking for a princess costume for Halle she saw Tinker Bell and wanted to be her instead. And the only reason Logan agreed to be Prince Caspien was because the costume came with a shield, sword, and crossbow, go figure. A few weeks ago we went to the Pumpkinaze with my mom, my brother and sister and their kids. We didn't get lost in the corn maze even though at times the kids thought we did. They had a huge hayslide for everyone to use, even Jenni, Misty, and I went down it, and the kids had a blast doing it over and over and over again!

Fun Friends at Halloween

We hosted a Halloween party at our house on Saturday night. As always there was good food, good friends, and good times! Some of our friends are quite the characters as you can see by the pictures. We ate a lot of food, played some games, and laughed a lot at each other. I can't wait until our next get together!

School Days

It's that time of year again and school is back in session. Our not-so-little anymore Logan started 3rd grade last week and is so far enjoying it. Already he is doing really well on his work and he likes his teacher a lot. I have been helping his teacher correct papers and am so proud to see that he is at the top of his class. I guess he really is listening even though sometimes it seems like he isn't. Our sweet little grown-up-girl Halle started kindergarten today. I was sad but managed to keep the tears at bay, mostly. She had a great time and loves her teacher as well. It hasn't really dawned on her yet that she will be going five days a week just like brother. She did say that she missed Smash and I a lot. What are Smash and I going to do while they are gone? Today we sat on the couch and dipped graham cracker sticks into chocolate frosting then ate them! I think it will be nice for Brighton to get some one on one time with mommy. I am also hoping to get caught up on scrapbooking and some of my other projects that got postponed when my belly got too big last year!

Parkers life is now complete!

Yesterday Parker and I enjoyed the privledge of attending the grand opening ceremony for the new Karl Malone Toyota dealership. I sang the National Anthem with my sister Amy, and while Parker did catch us on video I am not really sure how much attention he was paying to us because two rows in front of him sat his most favorite basketball player of all time, Karl Malone! Parker could have reached out and touched his back had he not wanted to be thought of as a weird stalker fan. You should have seen him, he was like a kid in a candy store knowing that later on he was actually going to get to meet Karl! It was quite a celebration complete with southern fixins, checkered tablecloths, western attire, a band, karaoke and peanuts (which meant we had to be extremely careful with Brighton) everywhere! They have a small museum full of things Karl has collected or been given over the years. Signed jerseys and shoes from two of the olympic dream teams, gold medals, boxing and nascar memorabilia, other jerseys from various basketball events, rings, signed balls and so much more. But most importantly Parker finally got to meet The Mailman! He shook his hand and they chatted for a bit and then I took a few pictures of them together (which now he wants blown up and framed so he can put them beside the signed balls that he has). Parkers life is now complete. I am surprised that he was even able to go to sleep last night as he was still so giddy when we got home. Our thanks to Andy and Amy!!!!

Ahhh Nuts!

Well, it's official. Brighton is allergic to peanuts. He is also very leery of doctors offices, stethoscopes, people wearing gloves that want to touch him, turning his back on people wearing gloves and pretty much everything associated with doctors. Yesterday at the allergists office they tested him for milk, egg, wheat, soy, raspberries, tree nuts and peanuts. He only reacted to the peanuts and pretty badly at that. He had quite a welt on his back for a few hours.
There is a 20% chance that he will grow out of it, so there is always hope. We will be reading a lot of labels and asking a lot of questions at restaurants from now on.

Wagons rides are much funner than Ambulance rides

We had a little scare last friday with our Smash. He has been quite a picky eater lately, so being the good mother that I am I have been giving him new things to try in hopes that he will like some of them and start eating better. Last friday I decided to try a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch, which resulted in a call to 911 followed up by a ride in an ambulance, with the lights flashing and sirens wailing, to the hospital.

They shot him up with benadryl, epinephrine and some other steroid that I can't remember the name of. They also put in an IV just as a precaution. They watched him for a few hours to make sure the medicine was working. His face was still pretty swollen when Parker finally got to the hospital. It made him so sad to see Brighton like that.

We are so thankful that they got to him in time and kept him from going into anaphalactic shock. It was a pretty close call. We are taking him to an allergist next week to see if it was the peanut butter that caused the reaction. Until then we have a few EpiPens at the ready and are avoiding foods that contain peanuts.

I think that he would much rather go for wagon rides than ambulance rides from now on, although he might still enjoy the lights and sirens, as long as they're not too loud.

Cuddlin' Cousins

On monday night we had a surprise going away party at the Burrup's for Trent, Britni and Camden. Brighton and Camden are always so cute when they get together. Sometimes they wrestle, sometimes they antagonize each other. This time they chose to cuddle, it's almost as if they sensed the changes ahead. I am so glad that we got it on video. We can also use it to blackmail them when they get older!

Just me learning how to add a video.

This is a group I used to sing with. I was learning how to add a video and we only had a couple to choose from. Here I am singing 'Blue Moon' at a High Priests social.

We are pleased to announce that our little Brighton (a.k.a. Smash) has the Bluest Eyes and Cutest Laugh in all of Harrisville. This was decided on Saturday at the Harrisville Heritage Days Baby Contest! Of course we didn't need a bunch of judges to tell us what we already knew!

So, my fifteen minutes of fame are almost up. I had a blast guest hosting on Good Things Utah wednesday. People are still calling and emailing me. So many people at church stopped me to tell me that they watched the show, that I did a great job and how exciting it was to see someone they knew on TV! The experience was something I will never forget! Thank you all for your kind words and support. I have autographed headshots available for everyone J/K!!!!

I'm ready for my close-up Mr. Demille! Don't forget to watch my television debut as a Guest Host on Good Things Utah, Wednesday July 30th at 10:00 on channel 4 ABC!

Well, here we go I guess. We have no idea what we are doing!