Wednesday, November 30, 2022

Thankful, Grateful, and Blessed

Thanksgiving is always a great time to reflect on what were thankful for. We love making our Thankful tree that looks so bare in the beginning of the month, but by the end of the month it is full of so many things we are blessed with. 

I got to go with Makayla to one of her last primary activities. They went to the South Jordan historical center. They had a section that was all about the Bingham copper mine, so we took a picture of Makayla next to this miner to show Tyler since you know, he's a mining engineer and all. I am so lucky I got to go with Makayla on one of her last activities. Can you believe she will be in Young Women's next year?


This is my old boss Kalene. I ran into her on our way to the Utes game. 
The girls finally got their dance pictures back, and oh my goodness, our girls are amazing, talented, and beautiful. 






All three kids got to be in the primary program at church. This is Makayla's last program, and although I was sad about it, she was not. Makayla seems to think she is too old for primary or something? They all did a great job on their parts, and I especially loved that I got to sit with Tyler and enjoy it this year instead of planning it. 
Craig and Terry stay at our house on weekends they come to the big city until their house is ready. Our kids decided to make their room into a hotel room, complete with towel animals. They are the cutest. 
Its hard to tell in this picture, but Bella has her toy stuffed animal in her mouth and is lying on her back playing with it. It was so cute. I tell you, this dog has brought so much joy to our family. 
She laid on my legs for the longest time like this while I gave her a pawsage (paw massage). 

On our way to Thanksgiving dinner. My hair and makeup was on point this day. 
Gotta love these little stink bugs in the backseat. They are the best kids and I am grateful every day they are mine!
This year for Thanksgiving we had "Soup and Sides" at Bill and Bonnie's house, then we came back to our house and had my family over for a traditional turkey dinner. I'm grateful for the holidays I get to spend with family.
Do you know one of the funnest things about Makayla? She likes to go Black Friday shopping with me. I remember years ago when I would go out by myself and see mom's shopping with their daughters and I longed for the day when I would get to do that with my girls, and now it's here! 
All the shopping required a short breakfast break at Kneaders. 

How do you know Christmas is close? The first major snowfall of the year. Brynnli was so excited to get on her snow clothes and spent hours playing outside. 

Yep, our hearts and our thankful tree are full this year. 

Saturday, November 26, 2022

Disney Dinner

We all had so much fun at Disneyland a month ago and I have been wanting to bring a little Disney home with us. I saw some people on Instagram do a "Disney Dinner" and thought it would be something fun for us to do together as a family. Basically we choose a Disney movie and make dinner that goes along with that movie. 

Our first Disney Dinner was Princess and the Frog. We made homemade beignets and had jambalaya for dinner because that's Tiana's special that she makes at her restaurant. Dinner and dessert were a total hit. 





Our next Disney Dinner was Lady and the Tramp with spaghetti and meatballs because of this iconic scene in the movie. 

Sometimes we even let Bella sit at the table with us while we eat and we sneak her a few goodies from our plate. 
Our third Disney Dinner for the month was Toy Story and homemade pizza because in the movie the characters get lost at Pizza Planet. The kids had so much fun making their own pizza with their toppings. 



Unfortunately we are newbies at making pizza and didn't use the right paper to cook on and our pizzas burned. 


Don't worry, they were still edible and since then we have perfected our homemade pizza recipe. 


 We love this new tradition and especially love that they kids help make dinner. Stay tuned for more Disney dinners. 

Saturday, November 5, 2022

The Last Occie Evans Award

 After Brynnli's baptism, we had a family party at our house and then headed to the University of Utah football game because we got to present Occie Evans award. This is the last time we will be able to present this award because the university is going to present it at the year-end student-athlete banquet. We all decided to take Trax to the game. This particular day also happened to be Camden's 9th birthday. We started singing Happy Birthday to him and before you know it the whole trax train was singing right along with us. Cam was laughing so hard the whole song. 


The fooball game was so fun, but so cold! We had the best seats that were so close to the field. 


See that person in the back with the red Utah hat on? That's Lynn Roberts and we all like to tease Tyler that he has a crush on her. Not really, but one time he had a shirt with Lynn Robert's picture on the front and he slept in it like every night, so we like to tease him about it. 
Before we presented the award, we got to go on the field. About this time it started to rain. 


The Occie Evans Award is presented annually to the outstanding senior female athlete in a team sport. The award was established by Tyler's great-grandpa Occie Evans back in 1978. Makayla got to hold and present the award to Dru Gylten who played basketball for Utah last season. Needless to say, Makayla was pretty stoked she got to present the award.
Karly took some pictures of us on the field from her seat


We made it on the big screen!
Colton took this picture from the field

We will probably never get the opportunity to go on the field again. One last picture to remember!

What a fun opportunity for our family to present the Occie Evans Award for the last time. It is an experience I know we will never forget.