Thanksgiving 2009

Thanksgiving came and went so fast this year! We had a house full of people, but that is what makes it so much fun and memorable. Ben and Aubrey came down from Kansas to spend the weekend. Thanksgiving dinner was at our home this year and we had about 20 people! We had a great time, but of course I forgot to take photos...too busy eating I guess :-) We all got up early to brave the crowds the day after Thanksgiving. We thought we had a good idea splitting up, since there were so many of us. But I think the crowds won! Chad and I decided this year might be the last year we do that again. It's too crazy these days! Anyways, we did lots of other shopping, eating, shopping, sleeping, etc. We enjoyed an early Christmas with them and we were so sad to see them leave.

Sporting their new jackets from Robin & Dave

Alana's baby shower

Back in Novemeber Talan and I went to Oregon to throw my sister, Alana her first baby shower. Since we couldn't afford 3 tickets to Oregon, I decided to take Talan before the baby was born, since he really has no interest in babies. Jaeden on the otherhand was fine with that decision, because she will be going up with me in a couple of weeks. She wanted to wait until the baby came, she's such a baby lover! We had the shower at a little mexican restaurant and it all turned out so cute! Thanks mom for your help!

I am proud to annouce that Alana just had her baby on New Year's Eve and I'm so excited to meet my little nephew! I was able to view the birth and be there for this special occasion via skype....LOVE IT! I was so happy to be apart of it even though I was miles away. Thanks Chad! I will post pics of him soon, but here are some from the shower.

Just so cute!

I just had to post these cute pics of Jaeden and Talan.

Talan turned 4!!

So Talan turned four in early December, and yes I am finally just getting to blog it. One of my news years resolutions is to keep up with all of my blogging. Mostly for myself so that I can make this into a book each year for the kids. So I'm back playing catch up!

We had a small celebration for Talan's BIG 4th birthday!! We kept costs low this year and had pizza, cake, ice cream and then headed to Jump N' Shout for open bounce (got a great deal for free bounce!). The kids had a great time and were beat within an hour. Luckily for us, as we left and went outside there was a car show in the parking lot. Santa was there taking free pictures and handing out donuts and hot chocolate. All the kids were so excited to see Santa and it made for an even better birthday party! We hit the jackpot! Happy Birthday our sweet boy!

New doo!

Jaeden finally got her wish, short hair!! She's been begging me to let her cut her hair short for some time now. I was hesitant and really wanted to grow her hair long, but I gave in. I actually really like it and she's sooooo happy!

Oct. 31st 2009

We always love carving pumpkins. This year we did it on Monday night, so by Saturday night they were looking pretty sad. But I think it added to the halloween spirit. Surprisingly, Talan didn't like getting his hands all gushy this year, but rather wanted control of the knife..surprise, surprise! Jaeden on the other hand was all over it!


The weekend prior to Halloween was our church ward trunk-or-treat. Here we all are: I was a southern belle, Chad was "Rich" (his dad), Jaeden was a cheerleader and Talan was Indy! We had a great time and the kids got their first of many doses of candy. I took second in the costume contest (thanks Aunt Esther!).We had a great Halloween with friends and family. The Tibke's and Magsamen's came over bearing food! Pizza, salad, pizza and more pizza! We fed the monsters and we were off! It was a great night for trick-or-treating, the weather was perfect! Talan was the infamous Indiana Jones. He loved his drawn on shaggy beard and everyone got a kick out of it. Jaeden was a cheerleader with pink hair...just in case you can't see it! She had been dying to have pink hair, and didn't seem to matter if it went with her costume. You couldn't miss her. Good looking group!
Aunt Jordyn and Jaeden Thanks for Aunt Robin and Uncle Dave, who stayed at our house to pass out candy. It was so nice for both Chad and I to go with the kids. I think they had more fun than we did...those poor trick-or-treaters, so sorry!

A day at Mission Beach

Our second day in SD was spent at the beach. We ended up with a warm sunny day, so the beach was perfect! The kids loved building sand castles, jumping waves, finding shells, and taking walks. Surprisingly, Talan got tired of the beach..which is a shocker from the previous year when we couldn't get him off! So Chad took him back to the hotel and they went swimming at the pool. Crazy boys, we have the WHOLE beach to swim in! Jaeden & I didn't want to leave, so we started playing. Then a little girl found Jaeden and they started playing. Ahh, time for me to lay down, relax and listen to the waves! Well that was short lived. The little girls father came over and talked my ear off for about 2 hours and had his little 6 year old daughter picking up on women walking by. I was so embarrassed to be sitting by him as women would look over at him, probably thinking I was part of his pick-up scam. I was praying that Chad was going to come back and save us, Nope! I finally had to make an excuse to get up and leave. So I was a little annoyed that we had to end our beach day early because of some perverted man!




We ended up having a nice relaxing day and took an evening cruise on the bay.