Thanksgiving Trip

We spent Thanksgiving in Las Vegas where Seth's side of the family gathers every year. Before the kids came it was easy to zip right down. Since the two munchkins we have not been, so after four years we knew it was time to make the trek. Luckily Melissa decided to come along too so we had extra help and it was just really nice to have her with us. We first spent a day in St. George and went to this new park because it was like 70 degrees! My new goal in life is to become a sun bird ASAP!

Maggie's new best friend...Gretel. Seriously, she spent the whole trip pointing at her and saying, "puppy, puppy, puppy" It was so cute I might have to post a video.

Thanksgiving dinner was wonderful. Benjamin especially enjoyed his Turkey M&M. He did eat some traditional foods too.

Mom slaughtered everyone at Tribond.

You can't go to Las Vegas without hitting the strip. So Melissa and I took off. We found what is apparently the largest chocolate fountain. It was a little underwhelming, but we had some descent chocolate ice cream. We also met up with my good friend Shelley who was visiting another friend in Las Vegas for the week. We got all caught up on teaching stories and getting to work on our masters projects.

Then we caught a show of the dancing waters (seen below). We did some shopping AND some random guy asked us if we wanted to go clubbing!!! I only wish I could see the terrified face I gave him, I don't even remember what I said as we walked on.

And the highlight of Seth's trip...In and Out came to St. George. He got to go twice. On our way home we waited in line for a little while. It reminded me of when Krispie Kreme was huge in Orem around 2001. It was worth the wait. Pretty tasty hamburgers for the low price.

A Jungle Halloween

Just before going Trick-or-Treating we got this great pose! Overall he did a great job but much to Mom and Dad's dismay he did not last long. He just wanted to get home to start eating his candy. And the very first thing he wanted to eat was a package of fruit snacks! Crazy kid! We tried so hard, but he just did not realize how many houses were out there ready to give him more candy. Here is Maggie as the sweetest Lion ever! She is greatly enjoying pieces of a cupcake at the ward party.

The full shot of the Lion. I let her play with her toothbrush to distract her from the obnoxious hood I made her wear. It really didn't take long for her to get use to it and she wore it the whole night!

Benjamin had tons of fun decorating his pumpkin. Way better than last year when he threw a fit because we wouldn't let him use the knife.

At the ward party all Benjamin wanted to do was the Cake Walk, which was great, it entertained him for a long time. And he only needed one cupcake. In the pose above he is really playing the elephant part well; holding up the trunk while making the elephant noise.

Benjamin and Maggie with neighbor friends at the ward party.

The Weekend

On Saturday we took a little trip to a small Pumpkin Patch we had never been to. It was pretty cute with a big red barn and a large field of pumpkins to pick your own. At the Patch they had this cute set-up to take pictures. Great scrapbooking material was exactly what I was thinking! And I guess blogging too.

Although his face doesn't show it, but he was way more excited about picking a watermelon than a pumpkin.

Maggie's first pig tails!!! I made the bows to match her dress and I plan to make hundreds more.

Benjamin running around the house keeping from getting his picture taken. This was the first Sunday wearing a white shirt. The tie will come later, we are taking small steps.

Fun Halloween idea! Not my idea, totally Martha Stewart's. Nutter Butter cookies, melted white chocolate, and mini chocolate chips. Cute, uh?

This has been the best semester because it's the first one that Samantha, Jeff, and Melissa are here all together! We love having them over most Sunday nights. Sorry Sam, you didn't make the blog; next time.

Maggie loves to feed us her bottle. I guess Jeff didn't want any.

Thanks Mom for the super cute pj's!

Big Boy!

Benjamin is potty trained! See the 'Cars' underwear, and out in public and everything! He must have been plenty ready since he caught on really fast. I had a couple days off last week for fall break, and thought now is the time. We had the timer going off every 15-20 minutes to just go and try. He only took that craziness for one day, then decided he could go all by himself whenever he needed to. On the second day, (Friday) we had to leave the house for his speech therapy so I thought we should put on a pull-up. He still wanted to wear his underwear so I said okay, let's go! And he did amazing! No accidents the whole time! We even went to the park afterwards. I should also say he was bribed with tootsie-rolls and dumb-dumbs whenever he went in the toilet. We are starting to break that because he has had a lot of candy in four days. And of course a super sweet picture of Maggie.

Tagged Twice

I was first tagged by my friend Shelley.

You go to your fourth photo file and post the fourth picture from that file.

I was so HAPPY to see this one! It's Grandma Stephenson and two day old Maggie. We were so lucky to have Grandma come just before Maggie came, since I was induced it worked out perfectly. So Grandma got some good Benjamin time while we were at the hospital and then got some good Maggie time at home. We are always so glad when Grandma comes to visit.

We LOVE you Grandma! And we promise we won't make you watch the kids for a whole week all by yourself PLUS help clean a new house in the middle of the night before inspections!!! We owe you big time!!!
I now tag Misti, Noelle, Brittney, and Emily

Then I was tagged by Noelle. So here it is goes.

8 TV shows I love to watch.

1. The Office

2. So you think you can dance

3. The Biggest Loser

4. Project Runway

5. Top Chef

6. Friday Night Lights

7. Good Eats

8. Friends (reruns)

8 Places I love to eat.

1. Texas Roadhouse

2. Rodizio Grill

3. Cafe Rio/Bajio

4. The Melting Pot

5. Tony Caputos

6. Billy Rays BBQ

7. Zio's

8. The Backyard

8 things that happened yesterday

1. Slept in!

2. Watched Conference peacefully in my classroom while getting work done

3. Went grocery shopping for classes

4. Watched more Conference at home with noisy children

5. Laughed and cried during Elder Wirthlin's talk

6. Fed the missionaries

7. Made peach cobbler

8. Played True Colors with neighbors

8 things I look forward to

1. The next time my kids get to see their Grandparents

2. My parents coming to see my house

3. A date with my hubby

4. Seeing friends from Oklahoma

5. Benjamin talking

6. time to scrapbook

7. Thanksgiving in Las Vegas (hopefully)

8. My sister's wedding (we're not making plans, I'm just sayin)

8 things I love about Fall

1. My birthday!

2. Halloween, this will be Benjamin's first time to Trick-or-Treat!

3. The change of colors

4. Not having to rake tons of leaves

5. Memories of watching football all day long with my dad and brother while cracking and eating nuts.

6. Baking Season

7. Chocolate Chip Pumpkin cookies

8. Pecan Pie

8 things on my wish list

1. area rug for the living room

2. blinds

3. drapes

4. large media center/built-in look

5. clothes

6. tennis shoes

7. Best of Becky Higgins' Sketches

8. I can only name eight? I think it's time to count my blessings.

8 people I'm tagging

1. Jenny

2. Lauri

3. Cara

4. Kara

5. Linus

6. Shelley

7. Jenn

8. Jodi

I did it!!!

I finally posted a video that's not sideways! I'm not sure how I did it, but I think it has to do with how I hold the camera when I take the video. Anyway, the kids were just playing one night and I had to get Maggie's cute giggles on video. Benjamin was being a puppy, he's very good at that.

October 1st or June 1st?

We have been enjoying some very nice weather this week! We've just been hanging out in the yard eating popsicles, playing in the dirt, and moving sprinklers around. I haven't posted a picture of the front of our house with the sod and fence yet, so here it is! My super handy hubby made the window shutters with left over supplies from the fence. The garage window will get shutters too. We like them. Here is our front porch view. Anyone interested in being our neighbors? That lot is for sale! The house on the right is in the second group, under the same program we built our house. We wake up every Saturday morning hearing the hammers pounding. It truly is a wonderful sound because it's them, not us.

And poor Benjamin still trying to learn how to ride his bike:( Someday...

Miss Independent

Twice now Maggie has insisted on holding the yogurt container and completely feed herself. I was pretty impressed, I didn't even mind the mess. I thought it was pretty cute.

House Pictures part 1

My very favorite room in the house! I just can't tell you how much I love my kitchen! At first I was a little bumbed that we didn't have a kitchen pantry, but after seeing the space under that counter top! There's more room in there than the whole kitchen in my last apartment! And notice the microwave above the oven, it doesn't take up any space on the counter tops! That is very exciting. AND I got my favorite glass canisters out of storage, also very exciting!

Painting in Progress... Seth still wants to touch up the elephant and add a giraffe, monkey, and maybe a lion. I'm excited to decorate this room too! We all love it!

The kid's Jungle bathroom. The counter tops and tile floor are the same in our bathroom. My alternative motive for Halloween is to have Benjamin and Maggie be jungle animals and then get some portrait style pictures taken and frame them to decorate this room!

My other favorite room in the house! I am so glad we decided to let Maggie have her own room and now she has a real crib!!! No more getting rolled from Benjamin's room to the hallway to the kitchen!

Where's Maggie?

Maggie's letters will probably go to a wall or shelf when we get her some curtains. Can't wait to decorate her room too!

And the best part of our new house, a backyard for the kids to run and play and I can watch them from inside!

Maggie meets Uncle Jeff!!! Welcome back from the mission, (serving the Lord for two years in the Tuscan Arizona mission) we are so glad to have you here up at school!

Trip to Oklahoma

It's always nice going back to the place you grew up. I was very happy to catch a few hard rains and a good thunderstorm! The smell of Daylight Doughnuts and devouring a chocolate Long John brought back lots of memories. I also enjoyed drinking Braums whole milk for two weeks, Blue Bell ice cream, brisket smothered in Head Country bbq sauce, Spinach Artichoke pasta from Zio's AND my mom's chicken enchiladas! Man I love food! I was also spoiled with a nap everyday! Thanks Mom for that!!! It was really a wonderful trip all around, including the plane rides!!! I was amazed at how well both of them did! I kept dishing out the new toys and treats and it worked like a charm! White skin from Idaho enjoying some serious sunshine.

Grandpa with sweet Maggie.

Grandpa and Benjamin working hard.

Thanks Aunt Melissa for the cute dress, sorry you had to work a ton, but we are excited to see you up at school soon!

These pictures were taken at Bounce U, (like Bounce University), pretty cute, anyway I love this pic of Benj screaming because it was so unlike him! After that first slide down he kept going up and down who knows how many times.

Grandma with Maggie.

Aunt Linus and Uncle Greg visiting from OU. Thanks for hanging out with us and for the super awesome pink track suit!

We celebrated Maggie's first birthday a few days early in Ok. Benjamin was a big help with blowing out the candle, opening her presents, and playing with her presents. That's what brothers are for, right?

The before and after of the ladybug cupcakes.

Well, school started today so the house is still not all together. Hopefully after the weekend we will post some pictures.