Thanksgiving surprise

 Joe had a very special thanksgiving plan for our family. Joe had prepared a treasure hunt for me on Thrusday, November 18th. I was a little weird about it because I was trying to think about all the speccial occasions possible in my head and see if I had forgoten something important but I had not. I continued with the treasure hunt and after I found all my clues I realized that we where going to go to Utah for thanksging. I was very happy since I had not been back to Utah for almost a year and we have never spend a thanksgiving dinner with our families since we moved to Arizona. So I only had 1 day to do all the laundry and 1 day to pack.  

The drive to Utah wasn't too bad. We did have to stop 3 to 5 times for Noah to go the potty. The cool thing is that he did his business every time he called it with no accicents. Now the funny part is that he kept asking to go potty after we had already passed an exit. So he either had to wait or he had to go potty by the trees.

We had a fabouls week in Utah. We visited family and had a wonderful thanksgiving! I am very thankful for my husband who tries to make me happy every day. I am thankful for my children! Parenting can be hard but I sure love them! I am thankful for everyone in our families (Lovon and Bartlett) My thankful list is probably way too long and it never ends because everything I have was given by a kind heavenly Father.

Superstition Mountains

Joe went hiking to the Superstition mountains a couple weeks ago with some people from work. He left home at 5:30 a.m. and didn't come back home until 5:00p.m. The hike was about 4 to 5 hours long and he had a lot of fun. Way to go Joe!

Peek-a-boo

Emma loves to play peek-a-boo especially with daddy. She laughs so hard after Joe "finds" her.

As halloweenish as it gets

Halloween came by fast this year. We, for the first time, carved our own pumpkins as a family. A friend gave Noah a mini pumpkin, which was so sweet of her! So he got to color his pumpkin with crayons. He loved his pumpkin. At first he thought it was a ball and kept rolling it an throwing it. Good thing it didn't break. Currently his pumpkin is in his room, on top of his dresser and it is facing him. How funny is that! Joe carved a scary spider on his pumpkin. He didn't want too but I convinced him to do something new in his pumpkin. Of course I had to draw it for him, but I was happy he carved it. I chose to carve a scary witch, which was fun! We put candles inside the pumpkins and they looked great! I, for the first time, made a craft for halloween, my own candy corn wreath. It was easy and cute and it fit perfectly in my door.

As always, I left the costumes until the last minute and it ended up fine. I chose for us to be smurfs this year. So Noah, Emma, and I were smurf and smurfettes. Joe refused to be a smurf; so, I decided he would go along with us as gargamel (the bad guy on the smurfs). I could not find a black robe for Joe anywhere that was cheap. He just had to wear a black t-shirt, black shorts, red socks and his tennis shoes because I knew I would not find red tennis shoes either. I bought everything blue for the kids at walmart for $1. Walmart had a sale on the kids clothes, so it was perfect! I made the hats from one of Joe's white t-shirts. Noah wore Emma's white tights. For me, I wasn't as lucky as with the kid's costumes. I bought my blue tights, blue shirt, and white shoes at Ross for $13. I found my white dress at a garage sale for $1. That was lucky!

We started trick or treating on Tuesday. The library had a halloween activity for the kids. First we sang songs and then went on the trick or treating getting some candy, bookmarks, silly bands, etc. On Saturday, we had the ward's trunk or treat. We ate some good chili, went on a walk cake, and then we had the trunk or treat. All the trunks were decorated, we even decorated ours...haha we have never done it before. The coolest trunk was probably the one that had Ms. Peanut and an elephant. The elephant's trunk was the arm of one of the sisters. It was a super cute idea! Noah and Emma absolutely loved the elephant trunk.

Noah is 3

My big boy turned 3 last Saturday. We had a very special day for him. On Saturday morning we show him his presents to get him excited about his birthday, but he didn't open them until later. He had a train theme party at the McCormick Railroad park in Scottsdale. We invited a few friends and family to come and enjoy the beautiful weather at the park. Noah had fun with his friends and also enjoyed getting on the train ride at the park. I love Noah very much and I'm blessed to have him in our family.

Enjoying the pizza

Train ride

Noah got this present from dada and mama

One thing that surely happens at home while I'm gone

I have been walking for a few weeks every other day at 5:30 a.m. It was hard the first day I got up but since I have a walking partner, I'm commited to get out of bed and meet her. A couple Saturdays ago, I went on my walk and when I came back the house was a disaster and I didn't even get to see Noah's prank. He had dumped our recycle box on the floor. I can't complain at least Joe got up with the kids that morning.

Noah & Emma in the toy room

Emma is walking way faster now. She looks older too.