January...bleh

Well I have been slow at blogging lately. Something about the busy time of Christmas and the long drag of January makes it so I don't want to do anything beyond what I have to. This is why resolutions are hard for me. I keep making them every year which I think is good, because if I stopped doing that, then I would be in a lot more trouble. Isn't January the worst? And it's not the funnest when every single day it just keeps raining. I am excited about the prospect of a new year and new challenges, opportunities, adventures.
Things I'm excited to see and look forward to in 2011: Allison coming home from her mission to Panama, a family vacation that isn't Utah, Idaho, or the coast....hmmmm where to go, Disneyland would be fun!, hopefully a new (and higher paying) job for Dave??? please please please, Taylor turning 1!, what?! Samantha turning 4!! Me turning twenty something, paying off more debt! getting in touch with my craftier side (or trying) with my new crafty tool I got for Christmas....The Silhouette!, Dave's 100 mile bike ride, and so many more things. I'm sure it will be another exciting year!
Here are some Christmas pics from our trip to Utah (with Dave!) this year. Good Times!

I Am The Biggest Loser!

Happy New Year!
New Year. New Resolutions. New TV shows!!
Isn't everyone's resolution EVERY YEAR to lose a few lbs.??
Well now you can watch my friend Sarah do that on National Television!!

One of my best friends growing up is on Season 11 Biggest Loser!! Woo hoo go Sarah!
It's not surprising to see her on TV, she just has one of those great personalities perfect for tv! And now she is really going out of her comfort zone by sharing her emotional struggles with weight, getting pregnant and having miscarriages, and wearing a sports bra with tight shorts on a national television show! Wow. I couldn't do that. Some of the news tv shows like Access Hollywood are calling her "The Woman to Watch"!
Watch Sarah and her mom compete on the Biggest Loser that starts tonight on NBC!

GOOOOO SARAHHHHH!!

Thanksgiving weekend!

The weekend of Thanksgiving was fun this year! My sister Angie was taking a road trip with her son Caden down to California and made a stop up here for Thanksgiving and fun on the coast! It was so nice for me to have some of my family for Thanksgiving! After dinner we drove to Lincoln City and stayed at this lodge right on the coast for 3 nights. Angie and I of course had to go to the outlet mall there and do some midnight-3:30 a.m. shopping, and it was great because it was not nearly as busy as it was last year when we all went up to Park City. And this year we actually found things we wanted to buy!
We hung out relaxing...well most of us did. Dave was in a lot of pain because he played in the turkey bowl and he fell into the end zone with the ball going into his chest. A week later we found out he had broken two ribs! I think he has met his quota of injuries for the rest of the year! No more biking until January. He is pretty grumpy about that. Riding the bus isn't nearly as fun!
Other than that we had great fun eating at Mo's, going to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, swimming, hanging out at the beach, and waking up to Angie pacing the floor repeating the words "block the kick, block the kick, block the kick!" (referring to the BYU Utah game). It wasn't televised in Oregon and the only way we were following it was through Angie's phone. Then Caden yells "They blocked it they blocked it!" And we all jumped around the room, well mostly Angie and Caden did! Ah, sweet victory! I think this was the real reason they won.

We found these Utah shirts RANDOMLY at the Old Navy outlet on the Oregon Coast with only their sizes left. It must have been destiny!
Angie took some great family pictures for us, which we desperately needed. She is a fabulous photographer and these are some of my favorites!







And a couple funny things from our fun weekend!

Happy Birthday!

What an exciting weekend! It is always busy because we celebrated Dave's 31st Birthday yesterday and today is our 6 year anniversary! How the time has flown by!
I was trying to find something I could make that would be a little more sentimental for his birthday/our anniversary and I found a cute paper chandelier tutorial online and thought "that's what I will do!" It took FOREVER to make, but I love how it turned out. I hung pictures of us from the last 6+ years together. Good memories. And Dave liked it so it made me happy! He had both Thursday and Friday off work so we have been able to hang out a lot, which has been nice. Yesterday for breakfast we went and got Sesame Donuts and chocolate milk! Dave love loves Round Table (for whatever reason) so since it was his birthday, we went there for lunch and had all you can eat pizza! After we went and saw the movie "Megamind" which we thought was pretty good, but we realized why we don't really go out to movies these days. One, waaaaayyyy tooo expensive! And we didn't even see it in 3D. Two, it's hard to keep a toddler in her chair during an hour and a half movie. It was still fun though. That night we had cake and ice cream and opened some much needed birthday presents. Ya know...body wash, chocolate, shaving cream, aftershave...good stuff like that.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVE, WE LOVE YOU!!

And HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TODAY! I can't believe it's been 6 years, but they have been great! I am grateful everyday to have found the perfect guy who treats me so well and takes care of our whole family. Love you!

HALLOWEEN!

First of all, this little movie is something my family always watched every Halloween, because my dad grew up watching it too! It's the Donald Duck Trick or Treat video with the witch, and I love it! Sammy and I were watching it over and over the other day while making sugar cookies. That and the Bing Crosby narrated "Ichabod Crane"...another goodie.


Happy Halloween! Not much to say, just a lot of fun. This year Sam was a ladybug and Taylor was a Flower. Both very cute. Sam had a fun party at her Preschool where they danced around the gym in their costumes, went trick-or-treating to all the teachers, sang songs for all the parents, and ate candy! She loved it, and it was so much fun watching her.



Friday night we had our Ward Halloween Party which is always fun, and they did the trunk or treat, which I love, and Sam went trick-or-treating again with her friend Cara, who was dressed up as Simba!



Then on Saturday, we went down to Salem to celebrate an early birthday for Dave with his family, and we took Sam to their ward Halloween party, where they had another trunk-or-treat, and it was huge! I think it was a stake trunk-or-treat or something. So Sam has plenty of candy, and I don't feel bad about not taking her out tonight.



HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!!

Another pumpkin patch..this time without too much incident

The last couple of weeks have been fun for Sam at Preschool. A couple of weeks ago they went to a fire station, which I could not accompany her on that trip, but she came home raving about the 'big fireman' wearing her red hat.

Then last Thursday we went to the Baggensto's Pumpkin Patch in Sherwood. We road on a big wagon pulled by one of those big Jon Deere trucks. it took us to a big pumpkin patch with TONS of pumpkins. It proved a little tricky for Sam to walk around and not trip on a pumpkin every few steps. They also showed us they grow potatoes and even gave us some to take home! Sam, Taylor and I had tons of fun, and were happy not to be rained on!




I am especially happy today, because our Primary Program is over!! I was in charge of writing and organizing it this year, and I let it stress me out just a little bit. Luckily I had a Chorister who kept me sane and is so good about not stressing about things! (wish I was like that!) Our program went over really well yesterday and I am so proud of all those little kids who worked so hard. They got to see me stand in the overflow in the gym with these big elephant ears to get them to sing louder for our very last song. I know I looked a bit silly, but they sang really well. Needless to say, I took a nice nap yesterday after church. And today is the first day I haven't had a headache in a while. So nice. I think it will be a lazy week.

The hits keep on coming

The day started and ended well. What a beautiful day it was today, and being a holiday and the fact that he works for a bank, Dave got the day off so we decided to take advantage of that and go to the Lakeview Farms in North Plains. What a fun place! We have never been there before. We got tickets to take the train to the pumpkin patch and Sam made a new friend. There was another little girl her same age named Sophia, so from the first 5 minutes we were there we made new friends that we got to hang out with the whole time. Fun for us, and for Sam. We all went and picked our pumpkins, took pictures, and then we rode the ferry back. It was when we got back that the trouble started.









Sam was playing on the gravel with her friend and like she is good at, she tripped and fell splitting her head open. I'm actually a little surprised this is the first time since she has started walking that we have had to take her to the insta care. She falls, A LOT. So we said our short goodbyes to our new friends and went to two different places in North Plains to try and get help but ended up driving back home to an emergent care place in Portland.


Luckily she didn't need stitches but will definitely have a little scar. Just a little antiseptic, and some medical glue and we were all set. Our first family trip to the insta care!
Like I said the night ended well. For family night we carved our pumpkins we picked today! Sammy and I worked on her pumpkin. She said she wanted a princess so we did Snow White! We could find Princess Belle, but Snow White was good. Dave even cooked the pumpkin seeds and they are delicious. I guess the only thing we didn't do was save the mush for pumpkin pie!