Thanksgiving Week

Before Thanksgiving:

We had family here starting the Sunday before Thanksgiving! We had a few things planned, but nothing to exciting! We met a friend at Jumping Jacks, which was a hit! We will definitely be going back when it's to cold outside! This was Tanner's first time jumping and he loved it!

Jackson getting ready to head down the slide and catch his cousin Kyle! Miss Courtney supervising the boys while grandma and I made sure everyone was being good and Tanner wasn't killing himself!
On Wednesday everyone was finally here! Jackson had cousins to play with and boy was he in hog heaven! It isn't very often that we all get together with Carter and Kyle. They live in Bakersfield and Carter started school this year. So life away and visits make it hard with visiting the cousins.

Thanksgiving Day:

Chris and Penny deep frying the turkey! Oh it was so yummy

Kristle & I after our belly's were FULL! My brothers girlfriend who we love dearly! Hopefully she'll be my SIL!

The Fam Damnily before we were getting ready to eat! Did I mention there were 23 people at our house for Thanksgiving! This is what it's all about. Family, food and loving each other. I love being around my family, I just wish everyone was able to make it!

The spread!

My SIL Lauren taking a picture of me, so I took a picture of her! (Lauren you better post yours:)

My mom and step-dad Larry carving the turkeys! They did an awesome job and so did everyone else who brought and made something! Thank you all for helping. We had a ton of food and it fed us for days after!

Warm it up mom!

Everyone being themselves and enjoying one another company! I love how each group is doing something!

Caught Jackson tasting the turkey before it was time to eat! Little turkey!

The Day After Thanksgiving:

We had family group pictures, went to the movies, swimming, celebrated Lauren's b'day, ice skating and sat in the spa with In law siblings! Great times and great conversation!

Lauren and Penny watching the boys swim!

Tanner man and daddy swimming in the kiddy pool!

Lauren just finished blowing out her candles! Happy Birthday Lauren!

Olive fingers! We didn't even have to show him! He did it right away! Smart little cookie!

After putting the kiddos to bed, us adults and teens headed out to the ice arena down the street and skated our little legs off! Boy was that fun and scary!

I always have these visions of falling and someone skating over my hands and cutting my fingers off! What a great thought and luckily that didn't happen! lol

Courtney and I holding hands and skating! It seemed to make it easier holding hands. Plus we would whip each other around!

Daddy and tanner looking at a airplane magazine! Relaxing and enjoying some quiet time before bed!

The last night here was just my family. My mom was getting some loves from the boys! She loves them so much and misses them dearly!

We had a great Thanksgiving with both of our families! We hope you did as well and enjoyed the time you had with them. I know we did and appreciate every single one of them!

Family is what it's all about!

Snow Days

As you can see we got some snow! lol This was just a few days after we got home from Fresno. We were being lazy after all of our traveling and because it was super cold outside and all of a sudden we noticed that is was snowing! I don't think I've seen Jt get that excited in a while. He was jumping up and down and as fast as I could blink he had his rain boots and sweat shirt on. He was ready to go and experience it! He's been to the snow before, but never lived in it! At one point he told me that this place was better then Fresno. (I don't think so buddy)

Well, He loved it and didn't last long before his little hands were Rosy red!

Our house covered in snow! I am just waiting for the next month when it really starts to fall and doesn't melt. They recently put up poles to mark how many feet of snow we get, so it has to be coming soon!
Here is when it started to come down. It came down harder when I put the camera away and stood at the back door watching it with the boys. It is literally breath taking to see this all happening before our eyes. I am just so glad that the boys get to experience all of this. I've been telling Jeff how we've experience one extreme to the next as far as climates. Mississippi was hot and humid (t-storms,tornadoes that we never got to experience, but heard the alarms a couple times) Tucson was just hot and now we are here and it's freezing + it snows.
Jt playing with his Dinosaurs. He left them out and it ended up snowing a lot more and we couldn't even see them! lol He got a kick out of that!
Just a random one! thought it was kind of cool to have icicles hanging off of our house.

Definitely love seeing this, but knowing we are stuck in the house and can't leave really takes a toll. We have been doing some school work and coloring a lot. I've even taken up some crafts!

Halloween 2011

This years Halloween was great other then sitting in the car for 7 hours! It was great because Jeff was with us and he has missed the last 2 Halloweens for some kind of training!

We ended up getting home from Fresno around 4 something and we literally jumped out of the car, unloaded and changed the kids to head out and let them get some candy! The only bad thing is that this area is mostly vacation rentals.

They had maps of the houses that were participating in handing out candy, they placed pumpkins outside and we ended up having to drive to most of the houses.

So the boys were stuck in the car again, but I think they liked it, it was 40 degrees outside, but with the wind it felt more like 20! I'm not kidding! It was drastic change from Fresno.

Here is Jt in his Bumblebee costume!

T-man as a skeleton. These are actually pjs and Jt wore them when he was 2! Next year we will buy him a new one!
One of our friends house.
We definitely had to hit them up for candy!

I'm just glad they got to participate in the festivities and that we made it home safe! We were affraid they wouldn't get to Trick or Treat this year! So glad Jeff was here to do it with them why I drove door to door!

Halloween Party 2011

Wow! It's been a while since we've dressed up for Halloween. Jeff's been gone doing some kind of training the last 2 years, so he's missed all of the festivities. Especially trick or treating with Jt.

My brother used to host these great Halloween parties every year, but stopped for a while. This year he decided to do it again and being we were home, we weren't going to miss it!

It's kind of weird because I have always loved the month of October, but as a child I hated to dress up. Maybe I was just to shy then, but I've come to appreciate the craziness that comes with the holiday. It's like your inner creativity can come out through your clothes and no one can say anything about it!

This year I decided to be a moth from the Martha Stewart magazine. I ended up changing it a bit, but it turned out great! I had the help of my mother in law who made my cape, Jeff spray painted it for me and I had a wonderful makeup artist from MAC do my face!

Jeff chose to be a rodeo clown, which turned out awesome! He always has creative ideas! He even did his makeup and bought everything on his own without my help!

My makeup! Loved the pheasant feathers!
Jeff and I before we headed over to my brother Scott's.
My brother Jeff and his girlfriend Kristle! She was a gothic pixie and Jeff was Vanilla Ice! Ice Ice Baby! Good ole ebay costume for him! he looked hilarious!

Do I need to say more.... I have no clue who this guy was, but he was so funny! What a funny costume, especially if you want some boobies in your face! lol
Ok, take the margarita from my mom. Aren't nuns supposed to be good!? lol
My mom and Larry being silly and enjoying themselves!
From the left: My soon to be SIL Penny (80s girl), my brother Scott (Brett Michaels), Me and my brother Jeff. Good times with them always! Love my brothers!
Oh boy! lol She was getting her yearly!
Some of the guys!
The Family!
Thank you Scott and Penny for hosting such a great party! We had a great time and can't wait to do it again!

Kids Enjoying Life

I'm not going collaborate to much on this post. Tanner is in his crib and is not going to last to much longer for me to work on this.

This is T man at grandmas and papa Larry's! I love this picture because I have a picture of me doing the same thing with my grandpas boots! He definitely had a hard time standing, but he was determined to stand! To funny and to cute!

Grandma and Jackson carving pumpkins! Cooper loved eating the guts!

What a crummy face you have JT! I love this big guy, I can't believe how much of a boy he is now. His big body, his features and the things he comes up with. Just didn't imagine it this way when he was a baby. I guess I was just enjoying the moments.

Visiting with my nieces and the boys cousins. They had a carving party and the boys loved it. JT loves their neighbor Mason so he was in hog heaven!

T man loves his aunt Penny and she loves giving him raspberries! Love this picture!

Ashley is so good with the babies! Tanner looks like he's not sure, but he loved playing with her!

On our way home from Fresno we stopped to let the boys stretch their legs! They had a blast playing at the park, but brrrr it was cold!

Love my boys!

He loves to swing!

He was so tired he was about to fall asleep in some of the other pictures I took. So funny!

Trying to make a leaf angel!

We had a great time in Fresno and the boys loved seeing everyone. I feel like we see our family more when we live out of state then when we actually lived in town. Now we are all waiting for them to get here for Thanksgiving!

The BIG 30

I can't believe I am 30! I don't feel a day over 25, but my body feels like a 40 yr old! lol

I had the best Birthday ever this year. I got to spend it with my family and friends, but I was missing Jeffrey.

My mom had organized a little surprise party at her house, but if you know me I don't like surprises and I usually figure things out before hand. So I knew something was going on, I just didn't know who was all going to be there.

Well, she got me!

Ashley and I!

Love that she got to spend it with me because I always miss her birthdays:(

I think they should have called the fire department to put those babies out!
Oh no way! This big mouth put them out with one breath! Maybe they were placed close together! lol

I felt so blessed to have all of these wonderful people with me on my birthday. I don't know what it is, but I feel different now that I am 30. I feel more relaxed about things, myself confidence it higher and my self being feels different. I can't explain it, but I love the feeling. I wish I felt this way when I was in my early 20s. I am more comfortable in my skin and just appreciate things more. I know I've only been 30 for a month now, but I started feeling this way months before my b'day. Weird! I am definitely loving it though. Totally looking forward to these next few yrs!

I do however love my life and feel so blessed to have amazing people surrounding me and Thank you all for my special day!

My SIL Penny and I having some fun. I got to spend a lot of time with her while I was home and love her dearly. She was my maid of honor at my wedding and one of my best friends. I can always count on her. Love you Penny!

I celebrated my actually birthday with an old friend. We had lunch and caught up on life. I had a great time talking with her and seeing her face!

Later that day my brother took me to dinner, it was perfect! My best friend for life! Love our conversations and his company!

Thank you everyone!