Top Five

Happy Thanksgiving! I am so grateful for the many blessing that I have in my life. I love this time of year that we can truly remember all the things that we are grateful for. Thanksgiving has always been a fun time of year for me because not only is it Thanksgiving, but my birthday usually falls around Thanksgiving too. My Brother's birthday is the day after mine so we usually spend the whole week partying and having fun. People often ask if I like having a birthday around another holiday so to answer the question I have come up with the following:

Top Five Reasons to Have your Birthday around Thanksgiving...

5. Who doesn't want to stuff their face for days and days with Thanksgiving feast, then birthday meals, pies, ice cream, more pie, more ice cream, more thanksgiving feast....follow the pattern several times throughout the weekend.
4. Everyone is in the Partying mood.
3. Everyone is around to Party with you.
2.You can pack up and leave for a few days to go to Fiesta Texas on your birthday and enjoy getting sick on all the rides after you have eaten for hours on end. (refer to #5)
1. You can sit on Santa's lap while at Fiesta Texas and tell him all the things that you want for Christmas that you didn't get for your birthday.

So the answer is YES I love having my birthday around Thanksgiving. We had a great weekend and I can't wait to party again for Christmas!


Crazy Cowgirl
Benson was my bud on most of the rides

How can you resist this face?


Adelyn told Santa she wanted a makeover for Christmas. What child even knows what a makeover is?

Octoberishness

We had a fantastic October! It flew by with all the fun events we had going on! We went to Utah for conference and to visit family, spent some time at the Lexington in Corpus, went to a pumpkin patch, and of course carved pumpkins and trick or treated! Can't wait to see what November is like!

So You Think You Can Dance? Addy CAN!

Announcing the official debut of our very own Prima Ballerina! The long wait was finally over as Adelyn took her first steps into the dance studio on Monday morning. She was so excited she could hardly stand it. I am so excited for her, I can hardly stand it! She is taking tap and ballet and it was so adorable to watch her learn her first dance moves!

Beautiful

Yesterday was a beautiful day. We were able to go to the temple to see Nate's older brother sealed to his wife Kily and son Joshua. It was the first time that all of Nate's family (except for his youngest sister)have all been able to be in the Temple together. One of my favorite things about the gospel is knowing that we can be with our families forever. It brings me peace of mind knowing that Nate, Adelyn and Benson are mine forever! I love my family and feel so grateful to my Heavenly Father for blessing me with such wonderful parents, brothers, sisters, kids, in-laws and husband. I love you guys!

A Taste of the Baltic

Happy Summer! We have been so busy this summer...I'm going to need a vacation from all my vacationing! We had the AMAZING experience of going on a Baltic cruise. One of the perks about Nates business is that he has the chance to win trips that the companies offer as an incentive to write their products. This year was a trip to the Baltic on the Regent Seven Seas cruise ships! We were gone 10 days and had a wonderful time! We started by flying into Copenhagen Denmark. Copenhagen was probably my favorite stop of the whole trip. I have a lot of ancestors that are from Copenhagen and my grandpa also served his mission there. We were also able to see the original Carl Bloch paintings that are very popular in our church and the original statue of Christ that is found also in the Salt Lake City visitors center . We also went to Visby Sweden, St. Petersberg Russia, Helsinki Finland, Tallinn Estonia, and Stockholm Sweden. It was an amazing trip!

Feeling Domestic

The past few weeks I have been feeling so domestic. I have been growing jalapenos, tomatoes, basil, cilantro, squash and strawberries. All my produce is finally blossoming! It is so fun to watch it grow! Then last night we had enrichment and I sewed an apron! I have never sewn anything like that before and I have to say that I am quite proud! It took me 3 hours but I finished! Now I can't wait to cook and wear it!

Look at these Bad Boys!

April Update

April flew by so fast and we are already in the middle of May! I just wanted to post some fun things that we did during April! I guess the biggest event was Adelyn's 3rd Birthday! I can't believe that I have a 3 year old! We spent the day celebrating at the San Antonio Zoo. The animals gave us a great show. We saw a hippo's body lying up against the plexi glass, monkeys swinging in the trees, heard the Lions roar, the elephant threw dirt all over his back with his trunk, and the black bear was playing with all his toys. It is funny to get excited about those types of things, but usually when we go to the zoo the animals are kind of boring. Adelyn and Benson's favorite animal was the Lion. Benson even growled for the first time like a lion! It was a great day! My 3 Favorite Guys!

Adelyn on the Lions for her birthday Photo Shoot

Nate, Benson and the Giraffe

Hippo + the Forts =Funny family Photo

The Girls

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It is really sad but I have never taken my kids pictures in the Texas Bluebonnets. Of course I would find a dead patch with some bluebonnets around it, but that is OK the kids still look cute! I loved the little suit that I found for Benson and Adelyns matching dress. They looked so cute on Easter Sunday!

Celebrate Good Times!

I Love the Weather that we are having! Today we had a great day. My nephew Joshua turned 1 and so we decided to celebrate at Zilker Park. We all had so much fun riding the train, swinging and sliding down the slides. We topped off the day with Sno Beach Sno Cones! It was the perfect ending to a perfect day.

A Tooth and The Toilet

So we have some exciting news to post....Benson has his first tooth and Adelyn is Potty Trained! Yay! I was wondering if this day would ever come for Adelyn and Benson. It seemed like Benson came out of the womb teething, with as much as he was drooling. The poor guy has been dying for some real people food and is finally making progress in the tooth department so he can chew. I am so happy for him.

I am also happy to report that Adelyn has given up her diaper. I was beginning to think that she would be one of those kids that would always wear a diaper. I have made several attempts to introduce the whole toilet training thing to her and a few weeks ago she just decided that it was time and gave in. Today was the first day that we took her to church with panties and she did fabulous. So far we have had very few accidents and I am loving not changing her diapers. I had a goal to have it done before she was 3...and we barely made it! Good Job Addy!

I can't believe that we are almost to March! I keep thinking that I just posted the pictures from Christmas! I guess time flies when you are having fun! We have had a really busy couple of months. We have been traveling quite a bit this month. At the beginning of the month, I was in Utah for a few days for my cousin's wedding, we have been to San Antonio and Corpus. I love these pictures that we took at the beach! The water was a little bit chilly, but that didn't stop Addy from getting almost completely drenched. She loved "chasing" the waves. It was really cute to watch her have so much fun. We will have to go back when we can actually swim!

Had ourselves a Merry Little Christmas

Christmas was filled with so many fun memories this year. It was Adelyns first year to actually understand what was going on and it was Benson's first Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with my family. One of my favorite traditions is to wait at the top of the stairs on Christmas morning before running down to see all of our presents. During this time...my parents had time to get the cameras rolling, turn on Christmas music, and put the finishing touches on all the gifts. Santa brought Adelyn a Doll House for Christmas. She knew it was hers the moment she saw it. We would have had some problems if Santa had brought the doll house for someone else! She also got a Belle dress, which was the only thing that she asked for. If we look tired in any of these videos...it is because we are! Nate and I were up until about 5 and we got up at about 8 to open presents. Of course Benson's favorite part of Christmas was the part that he got to fill his belly...with paper! This kid will eat anything.