Thanksgiving

I heard an idea about using every Thursday to share things that your thankful for so it's not just on Thanksgiving. I thought it was a pretty good idea, so I think I might try it. I would have posted on Thursday, but I wasn't feeling too well. Unfortunately I got either the stomach flu or food poisoning on Wednesday afternoon. I was pretty wiped out on Thanksgiving day and watched while everyone else enjoyed the dinner. I was so glad that I wasn't still sick that day though. Here's a few things that I'm thankful for....

Answered prayers
When Auburn talks to my stomach saying, "Hello little brother."
Clear, cool nights when you can really see the moon and stars
Hearing my kids laugh and play
A warm, comfortable bed to sleep in
A nice, hot shower.....especially when you're sick
A living prophet
Having the time to sit and hang out with your family, watch a good movie, and relax

A quick word about Pres. Monson. I went visiting teaching the other day and the person we went to visit is inactive. I pulled out my Ensign to share a message from the conference talks and she saw the picture of Pres. Monson on the front. She said something to the effect of, "I love Pres. Monson." I told her that I did too. Then I shared a quote from him and while I was reading, she began to cry. The words had touched her so much that it brought her to tears. I'm so thankful to have a living prophet. He is so good and kind.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!!!

HELP!

Do any of you know how to do this:

***REMEMBER*** you must change your template to minima before applying the background. ***
They have this at the top of the page on Cutest Blog on the Block when you want to choose a new background and I don't know how to do it.

Also....for those of you who have private blogs, do you have any tips on making that easy to do? I could probably figure that one out, but it you have any ideas I'd love them.

Thanks!! Happy Thanksgiving Eve! :)

Gas Prices

I just wanted to mention that we only spent 35 dollars to fill our tank today! When the prices were around 4 something a gallon, we were spending over 80 dollars. I NEVER thought we would see gas prices below $2.00.....NEVER! One more thing to be thankful for today. :)

8's Tag

8 places I like to eat…
PF Changs, Macaroni Grill, The Athenian, Crown Burger, Fiesta Guadalajara, Cracker Barrel, Dragon Hill, McDonalds (I always have to order the 2 Cheeseburger value meal with an orange drink...love their fries)

8 shows I like to watch…
Pushing Daisies, The Mentalist, Masterpiece Theater, Ace of Cakes, Good Things Utah, Studio 5, Rachel Ray Show, NCIS (Brook got me hooked)

8 things that happened yesterday…
went to church, went to choir practice, checked to see if we got tickets to the Tabnernacle Choir's Christmas Concert - we didn't :( went visiting teaching, hung out with family at my mom's, looked for boy names, read Auburn her bedtime story, tried to read my scriptures before I fell asleep

8 things I love about Fall…
changing leaves, sweaters, soup time, weather that isn't too hot and isn't too cold, my birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving, can put the yard and garden to sleep

8 things on my wish list…
healthy baby, birth without complications, bike (mine got stolen), laptop (I really enjoyed the one I used for work), rice cooker, portable DVD player (ours is broken), slr digital camera, white Christmas

8 people I’m tagging… whoever would like to do it

IT'S A BOY!!!!!

WOW! It's official....we have a little boy on the way. I'm going to need to switch gears now. The large bins full of girl clothes aren't going to work this time. Lauren won't be too thrilled, but she'll get used to the idea. At least the girl's favorite color is blue. Now we need to find a name. I had a girl name picked out, but not a boy name yet. I usually like something a little bit different since our last name is so common, but not too different that they would get teased. Everytime Brook watches baseball and they call out Coco Crisp it makes me bonkers. Why would parents do that to their child? At least Lauren won't be pushing for the name Salsa anymore. AGGGHHH! Brook was looking through the baby name book and said jokingly, "What about Salsa?" Lauren liked it....I said NO WAY! Salsa is a condiment, not a name. Lauren said it was a good Spanish name. I told her we weren't Hispanic. Anyway, I'm excited! If you look at the picture below you might be able to see, in the words of Lauren, his "little wooglie thing".

Locks of Love

After Erin had her hair cut for locks of love, Auburn wanted hers cut too. Her hair was so beautiful, but it was always getting tangled, sticky and she wouldn't let me do anything with it. She was so excited to go and show Erin when we were done. I love how kids are so aware of others and willing to share what they can with them.

The BEFORE pictures

Here goes nothing

Time for the style

Some little girl will be glad to get that beautiful golden hair. Look at that smile. She told me yesterday that when her hair is long again in October, she wants to be Alice in Wonderland for Halloween.

Potatoes

I was reading about Brooke's sweet cravings on her blog. It made me think about my craving for potatoes. I can't seem to get enough of them. I love potatoes anyway, but since I've been pregnant the cravings have heightened.

I will eat them in a house and I will eat them with a mouse (ok, that might be a little extreme for me). I will eat them here or there. I will eat them anywhere!!!

I fill like Bubba Gump with his shrimp. Funeral Potatoes, Mashed Potatoes, Fried Potatoes, Roasted Potatoes, Baked Potatoes, French Fries mmmmmmm, Hash Browns, etc....

This sounds really bad, but I even donated to one of our local PBS stations so I could get the free gift.

Yes, I have a problem. At least the money went to a good cause and I am a PBS nerd. Anyone have a good potato recipe? :)

Halloween....a little late

The girls had a fun Halloween this year. Especially because they had the day off of school. We had the Halloween parade at school the day before. I got to help do the party in Auburn's class since the head room mom had a family wedding to go to. I had the kids use toilet paper to turn their partner into a mummy. Then we played bingo. We had a ward Halloween party that night at the church. We did a trunk or treat after dinner in the parking lot. Brook dressed up as a referee and I dressed up as a entamologist. I went to the dollar store and got goggles, and lots of bugs to sew onto my jacket. Then I borrow one of my parents butterfly nets. Lauren loved the huge squishy centipedes that I found. I wish I would have had someone take our picture. The bugs looked really cool. The girls wanted to go trick-or-treating with cousins, so after going to mom's for chili and pictures on Halloween, we went to Mel's neighborhood. It was such a warm night...very unusual around here. We're used to having thick coats, thermals, and gloves. The other thing that was strange was that they didn't do daylight savings until after Halloween so it was really light outside. We went out and made the rounds, then Brook took them around another block, and then Lauren went with Erin to her piano teachers to play a song and get a big treat. When they were done they hit more houses. Thinking about it makes me tired. I wish I had a better picture of Auburn's costume. She had a black and orange striped hat with black and orange stripped tights.

Lauren as Kim Possible

Auburn as a witch

With cousins on Grandma's porch

(Our yearly tradition)

Our 2 little witches

4 More Days

Only 4 more days until my second ultra sound. We'll get to find out what the baby is this Thursday. Auburn is so excited!!!

Today while we were at mom's Lauren said she could see the dust flying around in the room because the sunlight was shining brightly through the window. Mom said, "That's why you have hair in your nose. Heavenly Father thought of everything." Auburn said, "Yeah, he even made a place for the baby to come out." Lauren said, "Yeah, the hospital" :) Then Auburn said, "No, a place for the baby to go." So Lauren said, "It goes in the crib." I think Auburn was getting frustrated because Lauren was totally missing her point. She said, "No, where it goes while it's still inside." I kept my laughter inside and just smiled really big. They crack me up!

DISNEYLAND (part 2)

Top 3 Experiences at Disneyland

1. Meeting Donald Duck

2. Learning to draw Disney characters at the animation academy

3. Meeting Ariel

Lauren after the It's Tough to be a Bug show. She loved it...Auburn screamed and cried. A little too intense for her.

Sitting on the popsicle stick bench in the Bug's Life area.

This was one of the best experiences of our whole trip. They had a place in California Adventure called the Animation Academy. Ever 30 minutes they had real Disney animators show you how to draw some of the favorite Disney characters. Both of my girls love to draw so I thought it would be fun to check it out. I thought you could go in an choose what you wanted to draw and they'd have instuctions, but it was set up like a large college class auditorium. The animator was up front on a stage with a camera on the page he (or she) was working on. It was projected up to a large screen so everyone could see clearly what they were drawing. The first one we went to was Goofy. The girls did really well. We wanted to check and see if they were going to do Donald (of course) and the animator said they had just done it that morning. He could tell we were disappointed and that the girls were huge fans from their getup. He said, "Well what time can you come back today? I'll change one of the other ones for you." We decided that 1:30 would work out well so he called and changed the schedule. We came back after taking in all the Bug's life attractions. He was great with the girls the whole session. They sat on the front row and he kept referring to them as his friends that were Donald Duck fans. At the end, he gave them his drawing of Donald Duck. It was great! The girls love to tell people about that experience. It was a little bit of Disney "magic" for our whole family. (Lauren's holding up her drawing....the other one is the animators)

Chip & Lauren
We never got to meet Dale

Lauren & Belle

The girls with Ariel. Ok, so Auburn's favorite princess was Belle and Lauren's was Cinderella, but after they met this Ariel they changed their minds. She was so cute with the girls. Even though there was a long line waiting she acted so excited to meet them because of their red hair, and told them that their freckles were mermaid kisses. She told them about her sisters and when we were getting ready to leave she said, "I wish you could stay here with me." They loved her! She was one of the best characters we met the whole trip.

Meeting Belle again. Lauren's second time, but Auburn's first. She wouldn't wait in line the first time because she was sooooo hungry. :)

The girls meeting Jasmine. Sorry Jasmine fans.....she was kind of lame.

Stitch was so funny. He saw all of Lauren's Donald gear and made her pose like a duck with him. You can see Auburn in the background. Wanting to meet the character, but being a little shy.

Sorry this one was for me. I wanted to take my kids on this ride soooo bad, but it was closed for refurbishing until November 20th. We did get to see them testing it out with large water jugs loaded onto the boats while we road the train.

Does this look like a Christmas card picture or what? The one we had taken with all of us was done by a kind man that doesn't know how to center pictures. Too bad. :(

"L" for Lauren

Lauren's Top 5 Favorite Rides

1. Alice in Wonderland

2. Soarin' Over California

3. Peter Pan

4. Gadget's Go Coaster

5. Toy Story Mania

Lauren's Top 6 Favorite Character's to Meet

1. Donald Duck

2. Alice

3. Minnie

4. Ariel

5. Chip

6. Goofy

Auburn's Top 5 Favorite Rides

1. Tea Cups

2. Soarin' Over California

3. Peter Pan

4. Gadget's Go Coaster

5. Alice in Wonderland

Auburn's Top 8 Characters to Meet

1. Donald Duck

2. Goofy

3. Mickey Mouse

4. Minnie Mouse

5. Chip

6. Ariel

7. Belle

8. Jasmine

Jessie & Lauren

Lauren & Woody

Woody & Auburn

One more visit to Donald's houseboat on the last day.

It was their 3rd visit.

Duck mouth

QUACK!!!!

Mickey's car

Hanging out by the large Christmas tree in Toontown

Riding the train over to the Haunted Mansion. I was a little worried about taking them, but they had fun. Auburn said, "This isn't scary at all." They had it all decorated for the holidays with Nightmare Before Christmas as the theme.


Last character we got to meet before we left Disneyland. Phew!!!! Once when Lauren stood in line we almost got to the front, but Cinderella had to leave to get ready for the parade. Lauren followed her all the way to the alley way where the characters go "back stage". She told her she would see her at the parade. I thought Lauren was going to cry, but she did pretty good. Although, we had to watch the parade again even though we had already seen it. Then when we went to the Princess Fantasy Faire, Cinderella wasn't there, when we checked back the next day they said she was there, but she might be swapped out with another princess before we could get to the front of the line. When we went to California Adventure the last day, Lauren suddenly said, "There's Cinderella!" She was running into a gift shop so we quickly followed her. When we caught up she was waiting by an exit door to make an appearance. We hurried an ran around to the front of the animation building to meet her. When we got out there they asked everyone to come in an meet the characters. We rushed to get in line and we were second, but a huge family pushed in from the side. Kind of disappointing, but finally the girls in front of us got to meet her so it was our turn. The large family was going to try to push in a couple more kids in front of us, but Cinderella kindly said she was going to meet with our girls first. Woo hoo. I thought that was so nice. She was the only other princess that Lauren wanted to meet.

You'll have to check out the Disneyland/World Special on Christmas day. We might be in the footage of Jose Feliciano singing Feliz Navidad. The girls love that song and even made up a dance to it with Jayden last Christmas. When they heard that he was there to film for the special they wanted to go see what he looked like. After standing there for a long time and then watching the whole first take, we got too hot and left. We did get to catch some of the Christmas parade since they were filming it that day too.

**This is for Brooke---you need to go to Disneyland...they still have Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. The girls liked it. **

DISNEYLAND!

We got home from Disneyland on Saturday. A great time to visit since it wasn't busy. We were able to see and do a lot. It was the first time that we took the girls. We all had a lot of fun even though our feet hurt at the end of the day. It really is a magical place for kids, and as Brook says I was caught up in it too. We took 164 pictures, but here are some of our favorites. My kids are going to be talking about this trip for many years to come.

The girls by the famous statue. Auburn actually is excited.

Here's the first ride that they picked. Teacups of course. The were excited to ride it since they saw it on the Disneyland trip planning movie. It was one of their favorite rides. We rode it about 4 or 5 times.

At Donald Duck's boat. We HAD to visit his houseboat since they love Donald SOOOO much.

Minnie was the first character that we met in Toontown.

Goofy was a fun character to meet. Lauren got mad when I fixed her hair that he had messed up.

Meeting Mickey!!

The 'girls' on the streetcar in Toontown.

Auburn hanging out in Mickey's house.

Lauren was excited to have her picture taken by Donald.

Lauren & Alice at the character breakfast. She was really cute with the girls.

Lauren was really into getting the characters signatures and pictures with them. Auburn mainly wanted the main characters and a few princesses. They got a lot of compliments on the signature books that we made. One employee said they were better than the ones they sold at Disneyland.

The girls thought it was so funny that their dad was almost as tall as Goofy. He was Brook's favorite character.

Auburn in the 'A' in front of California Adventures. I love how they decorated the letters for Christmas.

Lauren with Mr. & Mrs. Incredible

Last but not least....Meeting Donald for the first time. The girls were so excited!!! He was the only costumed character that spoke to them. He kissed them and hugged them since they were such huge Donald fans. They had Donald shirts, Donald pins, Donald toys....Lauren told him that he was truly number 1. The second time we met him and saw him we didn't get autographs or pictures, Lauren just wanted to meet him again. He ran up to them and hugged them. He tried to steal the Donald stuffed animal that Kathy gave Lauren. What a great memory! It was one of the best of our trip. The girls had fun trading pins that we got on ebay for cheap. Auburn just traded one and then got a few more. Lauren traded almost all she had to get a fun lanyard full of Donald pins. She wouldn't let anyone have her Donald pin that Aunt Kathy gave her. She said because it was special. Hope we can go again some time.

Stay tuned for more pictures and stories. Just couldn't fit it all in this entry. :)