18th...

We love what each of our children "bring" with them when they come into our lives,

we love that they are just born with it...

we especially love what Caitlyn

"brings"

to our family and have loved it now for 18 years straight!

thanks

and

HAPPY 18TH BIRTHDAY!!!

we love you....

.

planning ahead which takes me back to memory lane...

With the holidays upon us, I've been thinking...... (I know, right!)

Christmas falls on Sunday this year,

remember last time it fell on Sunday, about 7 years ago....

I do,

I remember it well, it was one of my favorite Christmas'

because,

we called Santa that year and asked if He could come on Saturday

instead of Christmas Sunday,

and of course,

he was happy to do so cuz that would mean one less chimney he had to shimmy down

and he appreciated all the time he saved that night...

and,

we were happy cuz we woke up Saturday morning

and opened all our gifts and played and played all day long,

and then....

when we woke up on Sunday Christmas Morning,

we ate a delicious breakfast

got ready for church

and we were able to feel the spirit all day and enjoy what Christmas is really all about!

so,

yep,

you guessed it,

we are doing it again this year too,

(along with something else we've never tried before).

and we're excited.

I've already made the call into Santa and he's all on board,

he even asked if we could tell our family and friends cuz it makes it so much easier on him,

and then....

Santa will be able to enjoy his Christmas Sunday too!

i like my tree, i do, i do....

I was just about ready to "pat myself on the back"....

cuz i was liking my decorated tree this year,

(as opposed to other years)

and then,

boom........ 6 balls down!!!

but,

remember our "family word wall" in our old house,

well, I didn't have a wall to do with it again,

so,

I took the black words and spray-painted them white,

and put them up on my tree, it gives it a nice little "pop".

we bought some new ribbon at Tai Pan Trading Co. and decided to go with new colors of

red, lime green and white,

everything else was from last year,

with just a few simple changes.....

and wahla.......

i like my tree,

i do, i really do!

As promised......

Our first Halloween in Utah!

according to Spencer and Lynzie,

4lbs of candy in a pillowcase

was a total success!

tree lovers...

For Family Home Evening tonight,

we watched the kids as they put all their ornaments on the

"kids tree".

as parents...

its fun to see 20 years of little ornaments and school memories

as kids...

they are proud to display there own treasures of memories.

4 kids plus 20 years = a tree chuck full o' love!

(and of course, even Sadie has her own little ornament!)

The Giving of Thanks....

All of my family was able to come together for Thanksgiving this year,

(except Steve, Kurt, Candice, Caitlyn, Kyle and Tanner)

even still, it was nothing short of a miracle.

Having all those people together gets a little crazy sometimes...

but the food was good.

oh, the annual making of the "chop suey"

it was amazing to see the twins again....

no one could tell them apart,

and there mother dressed them the same just to mess with us!

they've grown just a tad bit in the last 3 years huh,

from 4 lbs to over 25....

I made "turkey bread baskets" they turned out pretty cute.

Thanksgiving 2011

thanks Kristen for all the pictures!

Happy 19th Birthday!!!

We love YOU and miss YOU and we will see YOU soon!!!

Happy Birthday baby girl!

Cardall Cousins...

One thing that I've loved about moving back to Utah is family!

these past 2 weeks I've been able to get together with cousins again,

we've lunched at Cafe' Rio,

we did the Twilight movie thing last Thursday night....

and

today we celebrated the soon-to-be-arrival of Jack!

and they are just as funny as they are cute!

(thanks Chrissy for the picture)

I've loved being able to reconnect with family and friends again.

it's been a month...

Oh, so much to document!!!

I finally found my camera cord, but for some reason it's not down loading my pictures,

and who can have a post without pictures!?!

but, I will get my pictures up and somehow downloaded....

I have a lot of good ones,

like, Halloween just for starters,

this year was one.of.thee best!!!

we've done a few fun things lately...

like winning the Chili Cookoff last Saturday night in our ward,

have I mentioned we have the best neighborhood and ward? hummm.

Caitlyn had her last Young Women In Excellence night,

it was nice as they had all the girls display things about themselves,

it was fun getting to know the girls and leaders just a little bit better and we had fun putting Caitlyn's display together.

she's an amazing girl, my Caitlyn and a great cookie baker!

(inside joke)

Just getting ready for Thanksgiving and feeling very blest to be able to see family and loved one again, that we only get a chance to see every blue moon!!!

so thankful to my dad who made it all possible.

although,

Candice is still in Texas for this holiday and so it's bittersweet,

but, we have a little surprise in store for her....

I love the holidays and I love traditions....

I'm going to be making "chop suey" candy which is a tradition that we can't live without,

started by my dear grandma Norma B.

in years past, I usually made one big batch,

but this year, I think I'll be up to my eyeballs in chop suey cuz so many of us will be together again,

without saying any names, I've been approached with making a whole batch for one particular person who said he'll even pay me for materials and time!

and that he would just eat chop suey instead of Thanksgiving dinner!!! ha!

bring on the chop suey!!!

a very good day...

Liz gave me a fabulous birthday gift....
(she always does)
a bath to cook my bottled peaches or what ever i desire,
and a little magnetic stick thingy to get the lids out of the boiling water without burning your little fingers!!!

I love her!

that sight is pure beautiful!

they all "popped" and sealed.....success!

I love Liz
we had fun bottling peaches,
it was fun and relaxing to sit and peel, drink propel, watch a movie with the kids with a fire in the fireplace and snow on the ground, just a little snowstorm!
we had so much fun,
where going to do it again next week and bottle potatoes!

#11

Lynzie's 11th birthday...

one of her biggest wishes every year is to be able to spend it with her "twin" cousin,

and this year she did!!!

another week...

I can't believe another week has flown by....

just last Saturday, we were in St. George watching a parade and partying,

and today we are watching the

181st semi-annual General Conference....

and next Saturday I'm going to be participating in a little neighborhood tri-athlon,

swimming, biking and running, oh my!

(did I mention we live in the best neighborhood!)

I love this time of year, there is an excitement in the air, and in the change of seasons,

yesterday, I decorated all day with my fall decor. it felt good to pull it out and put it up!

I love Conference weekends!!!

LOVE THEM....

I love the traditions that we've made as a family,

I love the good food to eat, I love the spirit that is felt in our home and in our hearts,

all through conference this morning I thought about Candice...

I love that we will get together with relatives on Kurt's side of the family,

that we don't get to see often enough,

and we'll eat soup bowls and watch the last session of conference tomorrow together.

I love that we live here in Utah again,

I love to be around family and after being away for so long, it's good to be back!

it's one thing that we don't take for granted.

I bought 3 boxes of peaches yesterday,

and this coming week mom and I will go up to Liz's and bottle peaches and make jam.

it doesn't get better than that!

I am so grateful for my parents...

sometimes saying "thank you" just doesn't seem like it's enough,

my point being is, being without them for 10 years while in Texas,

it's so nice to have them close and to see them a lot,

do you know what a joy it is for me to just have them sitting around my kitchen table.

my dad's day off is Thursday and they have been up every Thursday...

I am so grateful for there love and support.

my blessed mom has been imparting her food storage knowledge on us,

and I intend to learn everything I can from her, she has been a huge help to us!

thanks mom and dad.... WE LOVE YOU!

Swiss Days...

This past weekend we went to St. George to celebrate Swiss Days

with my little brother and his family....

We rode out with my dad on Friday night, which took us an extra long time trying to get out of town, we got stuck in BYU game traffic...

( Kurt came down the next morning)

St. George is beautiful,

I'm always stunned and amazed at the beauty of the white Temple with the gorgeous red rocks behind it!

Friday night right when we arrived in town the fireworks started going off,

it was a nice warm welcome for us.... Dave said he called them in for us, what a guy!

then, Saturday morning at the crack of dawn, while Caitlyn, dad, and I slept,

the rest of them ran a 5k race,

then, we watched a parade and waved to MaCall and Ella as they threw candy to us,

they were in the parade dressed as cute little swiss kids.

then, we walked around and checked out all the cute booths,

and enjoyed Dave and Kristen's t-shirt booth, it was hard to choose a Santa Clara shirt because they were all so awesome!!!

then, we watched MaCall play soccer while Dave coached,

then, everyone went swimming, (while I rested for the holidays)

then, Kristen and I went to the Relief Society broadcast at her Stake Center where we ate a light dinner and listened to the speakers and laughed at Pres. Uchtdorf, it was nice to feel the spirit again.

then, we took our kids over to see the Temple, have I mentioned how white and beautiful it is?

wow, it was fun to go over in the dark and walk under the lights of the temple and see it glow.

then, the dad's took the kids to Zero Gravity where there are trampolines everywhere, even on the walls and so they had fun running and bouncing off the walls literally, and thats all they have talked about since we left...

Kristen showed me how to download picasa and how to make collages for my pictures so I've been playing around with that, thanks Kristen.

then, on Sunday, we went to their church and watched their wards Primary Program,

Olivia played a violin trio which was so sweet, and MaCall sang with a group of boys his age, he's a handsome young lad that one, and Ella as she was singing caught Kurt's eye and waved to him. cute!

then, we ate lunch at Cafe' Rio before hitting the dusty trail, we picked up Sadie from Red Rock doggie day care where she got a good report card for being her sweet little self and we drove home....

meanwhile, the guys drove down to Las Vegas to go to the gun show but it closed early for the day, so they drove all the way back home.

It was a nice weekend, and of course it always goes by too fast, and of course, I didn't take enough pictures and even at that, I haven't downloaded them yet...

today...

So today...

(for another little birthday adventure)

I went with my mom and dad to Gardiner Village,

we ate a yummy lunch at Archibald's and then walked around and shopped,

and my mom who doesn't ever buy anything actually bought some really cute decor for her home...

all the little shops had there Halloween stuff out and it was cute,

i got some fun ideas i'm going to try this year...

the weather was absolutely perfect!!!

and

we had fun.

forty5.....9-14-2011

I have so much that I want to blog about, but, every time I sit down to do it, I don't know where to begin or even how to start.....

how do you begin to tell about the most crazy stressful transition across the country........ exactly!!!

so, I'll just start slow and work my way up...

but,

in the meantime, I can tell you about my forty5th that I didn't really want to celebrate but that we did anyway,

yesterday, all my new friends in the neighborhood threw me a birthday luncheon,

we ordered in Cafe' Rio and had a great get-to-gether,

have I mentioned we have landed in the nicest neighborhood this side of the Mississippi???

well, we really have,

we have hit the motherload of neighborhoods!

and I keep thinking

"I can't believe they are being so nice to the new girl"(me) it's kind-of one of those neighborhoods that you dream about but you don't think exist anymore,

especially after we were already blessed with a great neighborhood when we lived here 10 years ago, so yes, we have hit the jackpot twice!

tonight we went to Sundance and did the "Moon Ride"

(for a little birthday adventure,)

we rode the ski lift up the whole mountain and back down all huddled in blankets and watched the moon come up over the mountains,

IT.WAS.FUN.

something us Texans have never done before!

....and ye shall rest from your Labors

Torrey, Utah 2011