With a Grateful Prayer and a Thankful Heart

Today, I am grateful for...

a wonderful husband who I love so much and we got to have a great Thanksgiving dinner with at the Coast Guard station.

two beautiful children who make me laugh and smile all the time and always make me happy that I'm a mother.

 a great family of moms, dads, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, and everyone else who support us and help to keep us going.

the knowledge of the gospel and of the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for all of us.

the beautiful place that we live in and the good friends we have.

the amazing life that I get to live everyday.

Halloween 2010

This year we celebrated Halloween by going to a trunk-or-treat and Halloween carnival at our church on Saturday night.  It was a lot of fun, and Kennedy in particular had a blast.  She dressed up as a ladybug this year.  Here's the costume as it should be.

Way cute.  And here's the really cute shot after she decided to start posing that I couldn't resist putting up here.



Unfortunately, it was chilly and slightly rainy on Saturday, so we had to add a little bit to her costume to make sure that she was warm enough.  It turned out pretty cute too though.

We volunteered to use our trunk to pass out candy.  Brett devised a system where he could keep his hand in the bottom of the candy bag and grab kids when they tried to pick a piece.  They had fun with that, and Kennedy would laugh hysterically when the kids got scared.  Noah was a trooper, staying out past his bedtime dressed in an outfit that was slightly tight and that he didn't like very much.



The carnival at the church had some fun games set up for the kids, but Kennedy's favorite was the cake walk.  It was actually just musical chairs and you won a cupcake just for playing, but Kennedy couldn't get enough.  She played 4 times (she only got a cupcake twice though) and was laughing so hard about running around in a circle and Brett throwing her into chairs.  We got rained out from passing out candy, so we went home earlier than expected, but the kids had a great time and we enjoyed watching them have so much fun.

Annual Pumpkin Carving Party

We were sad this year that we live so far away from the Waddoups because for the last 4 years we had invited them over to carve pumpkins, eat dinner and watch a scary movie.  We had our party just with our family this year though, and we had a good time.  We ate pizza and watched It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown with Kennedy.  Our pumpkins turned out wonderfully too!  I'm really proud of mine.  Usually I just do your typial triangle eyes and smile, but I opted for something a little different this time and it turned out great!



Brett's is always extremely intricate and takes him hours and hours to clean and carve.  This year it was just as intricate, but I think he's speeded up a little bit, which is good, because we had time to watch a movie afterward too.  Here's his rendition of Frankenstein's monster.



Kennedy picked out the ugliest pumpkin in the whole bunch when we bought them.  It looked dirty because it's skin was more like a cantaloupe than a pumpkin.  She requested that a ghost be carved into hers, so Brett freestyled one.

The best part about her pumpkin though was that we let her color it with Sharpies.  She used purple and green, and somehow managed to color it for probably 30 minutes straight without getting a fume headache.  She is very proud of the end result and had a great time carving pumpkins.

Azalea Festival 2010

Here in Brookings they have the Azalea Festival for Memorial Day weekend. It was crazy! I think every single person who lives here was out and about on Saturday. Brett was marching in the parade doing color guard, so Kennedy, Noah and I headed down to the main street in town to watch daddy march. Noah was just chill, but he didn't like the sun in his eyes.

Kennedy was getting excited for the parade, even though she had no idea what a parade was up until that point. All she knew was that she was outside, a bunch of people had balloons, and we were going to see daddy.

Brett was the first in the parade line after the police cars that headed up the whole thing. I'm sorry I didn't get better pictures, but I couldn't zoom in. See the white flag? Brett is carrying it.

We stayed for a lot of the parade, but holy cow, the first 15 minutes of it were fire trucks and ambulances that kept putting on their sirens. It was annoying and loud and both of my kids were getting scared. Noah was crying and Kennedy kept giving me hugs and burying her head in my shoulder. We met up with Brett afterwards and headed to the farmer's market. There were some good looking things there, and I'm hoping that they'll get even more as the summer goes on. We went to Fely's after that to try one of their hamburgers. Oh my gosh, they were gigantic!

I don't know how I even ate as much of it as I did. It was crazy huge. On a food note, check out my cooking blog! I finally updated it with two new posts. After that we headed to a small fair down the street and bought Kennedy a princess crown and wand, which she wouldn't keep on long enough for me to take a picture of. She did, however, keep Brett's sunglasses on long enough for us to snap a shot.

Upside down of course. We rounded out the evening by eating homemade Veggie Minestrone and watching Muppets from Space as a family.

It was a great day. And today will be another one! Thanks to Katie and Wade Heath we will be able to go out on a real date without the kids tonight for our anniversary! We're thrilled to be able to see a movie and go out to eat on our own. Our anniversary isn't until Wednesday, but with Brett's new schedule starting soon and Wade's schedule being so hectic, tonight was the best night.

I know that I haven't been putting up too many pictures of Noah, but that's because they all look exactly the same. He's been smiling a lot more the past few days, and talking a lot more too, but I haven't been able to capture any of it on camera. So here are some pictures to tide you over.

His little onesie says "Future Coastie" in honor of his daddy. So for Memorial Day, thank you to Brett, my brother Blake, and all those who are serving or who have served in the military!

A Faraway Valentine

Even though Brett can't read this, I wanted to put up a Valentine's post. I just wanted to say how much I love him. I've always appreciated him, but these past 2 weeks have really shown me how much he does for me and Kennedy. He is such a wonderful support for me, and I miss him everyday. I am so proud of him for going through boot camp - especially since I'm pretty sure that he hasn't gotten a letter from us yet either! He is such a strong man, physically and emotionally, to be able to go through something like that all by himself. He is the best husband and father, and my best friend. I am so happy that I married him, and I can't wait for this next 6 weeks to be over so that he can come home to us! I love you Brett!

UPDATE: I got a call from Brett! He had to be extremely professional and he could only talk for 3 minutes. He was calling from his company commander's phone, who was standing behind him listening and throwing insults at him the whole time. But he got to call! I think it was a huge privilege, because as far as I can tell, no one else in his company was able to call anyone. He said that he's doing well. He really only had time to ask how we all were and tell me he loves me (which was followed by barfing noises in the background by his CC), but I haven't heard a word from him in almost 2 weeks, so I don't care what was going on in the background or how long it was. I should be getting a letter or two this week, so I will have more of an idea how he's doing. Just thought I'd let you all know the great news!

Ice Princess

While we were in Texas we took Kennedy ice skating at the Stonebriar mall. She looked absolutely darling in her skates, even though they were slightly too big. She was most definitely the smallest skater out there.

She kept getting really frustrated trying to walk around in her skates, but once she got out on the ice, she was fine. Being pregnant and having a weird center of balance, I opted out of the skating, but daddy was happy to carry her around the ice.

She was really unsure of herself, but she loved going really fast. She lasted a lot longer than I though she would too.

Here she is going out on the ice with Grandma and Mark.

Mark was helping her skate quite a bit too.

It was definitely a hit. When we left we passed by the rink again and she made us stop and watch the skaters for a little while. We took her on the carousel while we were there too and she cried when she had to get off. She was cracking up while the horse was going up and down. After that she got really cranky and we had to leave, but it was definitely a fun day.

Christmas Morning

We had a great Christmas this year with lots of family and tons of presents. Seriously, they just kept coming. We all got spoiled, but Kennedy really took in a haul. We left probably 97% of what we got in Texas since we'll be back there in 3 weeks anyway. We did get a nice surprise with a white Christmas too! Apparently it's the first one that Plano has had in 80 years. Brett was really mad because he thought that by getting out of Utah we wouldn't have snow. Unfortunately for him, we had about an inch and it was pretty cold. Kennedy woke up around 7:15 that morning and we went to go get her. She slept in her new Christmas jammies that were really cute.

Yes, I look extremely pregnant in that picture, and Kennedy looks very sleepy. When we started opening presents, Kennedy and Wyatt didn't really differentiate between their presents and just played with them all. We had to try and get Kennedy to come back and open presents because she was so interested in what she or Wyatt had opened that she wasn't interested in the next box. Here she is hoarding all of the books that she got - or trying to at least. They wouldn't all fit in her arms.

She ended up getting 3 doodle pads this year, and Wyatt got two. Apparently they weren't enough. She stole Wyatt's pad and had them both going at the same time.

Kennedy and Wyatt both got potato heads to play with, but they weren't satisfied with their own. Here is Kennedy with Mr. Potato Head and Wyatt with Mrs. Potato Head.

My cousin Orion (who is almost 3) and Kennedy both got tents for Christmas. We set up Orion's tent at my grandparent's house and Kennedy refused to come out of it. Wyatt would open the flap and look in and Kennedy would scream and laugh.

Kennedy and Orion kept going inside and playing together, which was really cute. I think Kennedy spent at least 60% of her time in that thing. Good thing we have one too.

We loved Christmas this year and had a wonderful time. We love being with family and are excited for Kennedy to be able to go back and play with Wyatt for a couple of months!

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

As you know, we headed down to Texas for Christmas this year. Kennedy and Wyatt took to each other right away and played the whole time we were there.

On Christmas Eve we decided to go down to Grapevine to see the ICE exhibit at the Gaylord Texan hotel. Apparently it was supposed to be pretty cool with slides made out of ice and such. It was Grinch themed and you could actually meet the Grinch. The weather was pretty bad (it snowed and we had a white Christmas!), we didn't have a toll tag in Christine's car, and we got lost so it took us an hour to get there. The walk to the exhibit was excruciating in the freezing wind, and when we got there they said it would cost $50 for just us 3 to get in and that their next available time was 2 hours later. Needless to say we did not go in. We just took pictures outside.

Kennedy and Wyatt loved the train they had set up. Kennedy actually cried when we made her get out of it. Then we all decided to pile in. Brett and I barely fit in that little teeny car.

In the lobby of the hotel they had a bunch of Christmas displays set up, including trains, villages, and a life size gingerbread house.

It didn't take us nearly as long to get home, and even though we didn't get to go in and had a huge ordeal in getting there it was fun to spend time with family and have some fun taking pictures! More Christmas pictures to come in the next few days!

Must Have Been Old Santa Claus

We had an early Christmas this year because most of Kennedy's presents and a few of Brett's were much to big to lug down to Texas. Brett got a deep fryer, Monopoly and Punch Out for the Wii. I got to open some books that I had asked for and Lego Indiana Jones for the Wii. But Kennedy's presents were what really prompted us to do this. So on Friday night we set up all of Kennedy's toys and had her come out to them on Saturday morning. Here's what it looked like before she saw it.

Yes, she is a spoiled only child. I came out and started the Mickey Mouse train going so that she would come to investigate. Sure enough she didn't know where to start. She just kept yelling out random things like, "Mickey!", "Bear!", "Ball!", and "Choo choo!"

She absolutely loves the little couch we got her that turns into a bed with a built in sleeping bag. She changes it from couch to bed all day long and loves to sit in it.

We also got her a jumbo Mr. Potato Head pack that has over 50 parts. It's really messy. She likes to try and dress in all of the hats and such that it came with. She did this one all by herself.

She was so overwhelmed! Little does she know that she gets to have another Christmas, although it will be smaller, on Friday. It was so much more fun to see her have a great time with her presents this year than it was to see her open them last year. She didn't care nearly as much. It was so fun to set everything up and watch her face when she came in the front room in the morning.

Later that morning we went to go see Santa at the mall. Last year we got really lucky and were just able to walk right up to him. This year however, we waited in line for an hour to see him. Lately, very much out of character, Kennedy has had random bouts of clinginess. If we start holding her, she all of a sudden doesn't want to leave us, and she freaks out for the first 5 minutes that we leave her to go anywhere. Unfortunately, one of these bouts happened right before we got to Santa.

I guess we have to have some pictures of her freaking out. It's just classic. Santa was a good sport and we snapped pictures as fast as we could.

She was seriously struggling to get away. She kept talking about Santa all day long as if nothing had happened. Brett told her it was a good thing he'd already come, because after the way she had acted he probably wouldn't have brought her anything. Later that night Brett and I went up to Salt Lake to the This is the Place Heritage Park for their Christmas festivities. It was really fun! They have an entire village of old buildings (some relocated and some replicated) and they were all dolled up for Christmas. We watched a puppet show, saw some people making candles, and did some square dancing. We spent a great day together and really had a blast!

Lucky Stocking

Brett's work had a competition last week for the best homemade stocking. That morning, Brett decided that he wanted to enter and improvised. He grabbed a company shirt, scissors and some present tags and went to work. He sent me this picture later that day. He stapled the shirt together and folded a sleeve over for the top. The company logo is in the middle. For a shirt, staples and 15 minutes I thought it turned out pretty well. And so did the rest of the company! Brett won first prize which was a $50 gift card to Cheesecake Factory! I was so excited. Brett is ridiculously lucky when it comes to contests, and I'm really glad he won this one.

O Tannenbaum

Despite the fact that I couldn't keep anything down until about 1:00 yesterday, we went out and got our Christmas tree. We found a beautiful grand fir at Lowe's and had a great time decorating it. It's so puffy! It looks huge in our apartment and I love it. Brett's sister Jamie went with us and got a tree as well. They decided to attach it to her car by roping it through the windows without realizing that she wouldn't be able to get into her car afterward. So poor Jamie was getting shoved in and out of her car through the window. We now have a house decorated for Christmas and are ready for that holiday cheer!

Oh Baby!

Oh man did Brett's turkey turn out beautifully on Thanksgiving! I wish I had taken a picture before it got carved up, but it took an hour longer to cook than we anticipated so it was in high demand! It really was wonderful though, and the gravy was pretty much the best gravy I've ever tasted.

It was a small Thanksgiving, and pretty much no one went back for seconds. After one plate and half a piece of pumpkin pie I felt sick. And then I realized that I had eaten so much that my belly button was sticking out. For those of you who don't know, towards the end of pregnancy that happens anyway. Mine hasn't done that yet, but it did that night.

And yes, I'm already huge. I'll be 23 weeks along on Tuesday. I've gained about 15 pounds so far which doesn't sound like a lot, but I still had some weight on me from Kennedy, so I got big fast. We have also finally settled on a name for this little boy. We had been going back and forth with lots of names and going through tons of lists, but in the end we came back to Noah. I know it's popular right now, but my name is a popular one and I have survived. In any case, we had a great holiday weekend, full of Black Friday shopping (which Brett got up at 4:30 for) and the BYU/Utah game. Also, I have put some new posts on my cooking blog, so check it out!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I probably will not be posting too much this weekend, so I thought I would go ahead and do my Thanksgiving post today. Here are the things I have been most grateful for lately.

The Atonement of Jesus Christ - I am so grateful that everyone has access to this incredible gift. I am so grateful for the influence it has had in my life and in the lives of those I love.

My Growing Little Family - I'm going to have to go through each of these separately.

• Lucy - Her little fuzzy face makes me happy. On days when Kennedy is being a pill I am always so thankful that Lucy can take care of herself and is so quiet. I love when she comes to lay with me and get a pet - it makes my day.
• Baby boy - I am so grateful that he is growing so well and is so healthy. And even though his kicks are really hard sometimes, I'm glad to feel him moving around. I'm so excited to meet him in March!
• Kennedy - She is so sweet and so happy. In general she is an easy kid to take care of and spoils me big time. She is so smart and I love hearing her pick up on new words and concepts almost daily. I love her more every day and am so glad that she is part of our family.
• Brett - I am of course grateful for Brett. But I am grateful for him everyday. He is everything and more I could ask for in a husband. He brings me so much joy. He is constantly striving to be a better man and a better husband and father. He is so concerned about me and I see his love for me everyday. I am so proud of him for being brave enough to change the path he thought his life was going to take and I am excited to start this adventure with him. I am thankful everyday that Heavenly Father lead me to him and that we were married in the temple for time and all eternity. I love you!

Pumpkins and Boo at the Zoo

I promised pumpkin pictures, and here they are! The two smaller ones are the cute regular pumpkins (the one on the right is mine) and the others were definitely more complicated. The Waddoups came over for our 4th annual pumpkin carving/movie watching extravaganza and Kim and Brett went nuts on their pumpkins. Kim carved a ghost family which was so cute, and Brett went with the Utah Jazz logo.

They turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. :) We had a great time. We got up the next morning to go to Boo at the Zoo. I have been trying to go for several years, but things kept coming up. This year, we didn't let anything get in our way. We dressed Kennedy up in her witch costume, and she was darling.

I'm going to try to get a better picture for you before Halloween, because it really is a cute costume. We headed out and saw tons of kids and families in costume. It was so much fun! We trick-or-treated at a bunch of stands set up around the zoo. Kennedy loved getting all of the free goodies that included pencils and eggnog. Weirdly enough she guzzled the eggnog. We got to see the baby elephant who is only a few months old too.

Kennedy's favorites were the monkeys and the zebras. Every time she saw a monkey she'd say, "Monkey! Ooh ooh!" She really enjoyed seeing all the animals and was really interactive. She was so tired afterward that she even fell asleep in the car, which never happens.

We had a great time with our Halloween activities, but they aren't done yet! On Thursday we are venturing to a haunted house with Brett's brother and sister. I'll make sure to give a full report.

Pumpkin Patch

I had some other cute pictures from before we got there, so hopefully they will upload later. But in any case, we went to the pumpkin patch in Santaquin last night to pick out our pumpkins to carve. We went last year too, and you can look at the post here. Kennedy had a blast. When we got there she just went crazy saying, "Pumpkin! Pumpkin! Pumpkin!" She couldn't decide which one she wanted. But this one finally won out.

We started taking some pictures, but she was so entranced by the pumpkins that she couldn't look at the camera.

Kennedy and daddy made some pretty cute ghosts.

And we became a family of pumpkins too. We had a great time on the hayride and running around the patch. But poor Kennedy did a face plant, and we didn't see the damage until we got back into the light.

Poor thing really got scraped up! This picture doesn't do it justice, she really got some good scrapes on her cute little face. We had a great time! We'll be carving them on Friday night, so look out for pictures then! And I will be updating the cooking blog today with Pumpkin Scones with Autumn Spice Glaze. So far, we're having a great fall!