Tsadakah said, "Guess what mom, Uchtdorf has a oo sound in his name!" I'm so proud of her that she knows who he is!

ThanksgivingS

So, we had 3 Thanksgivings! Talk about over eating! Luckily all those dinners were not on the same day. Mike's family decided to do it on Saturday and mine decided on Frieday so Thurday was wide open. So we celebrated it ourselves. Mike brined the turkey and stuffed it with hebs and spices. It tasted delicious!

I wanted to really keep everything healthy because I knew we had 2 others to gorge on, so we had unsweetened yams, salad, corn, and cooked carrots with our turkey. We also had crissantsand apple-raspberry juice. We talked about what we were thatnkful for and that was that. It was a wonderful simple day.

I got the dishes at Walmart for a buvk! lol It was the best thing for the little ones who have a tendency to have butterfingers. They weren't fancy or expensive, but they were fun!

The Fershtut party was done at a church. It was put on by my sister, Leah. She did a great job! Her husband brought a movie to project on the wall and planned a fun candybar game. My mom went all out on the decoratns! I think that because she didn't have to work so hard at her house that she was able to spend time on the stuff that she really loves to do, DECORATING!She made these placemats, and the stuffed turkey and also bought a whole bunch of gourds. She made a felt covering to fancify the stage. It was all beautiful!

The food was amazing! It was all homemade original Thanksgiving traditional food! It was so good I couldn't say no! hahaha

Eliannah kept smiling with her mouth open and it was showing her food. I took this picture like $0 times! I guess I need to work on her manners more. heehee, but she loves to read the book Polite As A Princess. It is so wonderful for teaching lil girlie-girls! guess we better read it more often. She actually asks for a napkin all the time. :)

Zeke, Simcah, Stratton, Hayley, Carson. My mother made these place mats. She also made the cloth stuffed turkey! She is The most amazing seamstress! I love that about her. I admire it a great deal and wish I had a greater desire for it!

Next we went to Mike's family for Thanksgiving. This is the long table of ethnic foods that we all sampled and shared! It was so fun! I love this. We had food from Mexico, Peru, Heiti, the Islands, Israel, and Brazil.

Eliannah fell asleep snuggling with Grandma Carol! So sweet! Since they came in October to visit, by kids have been so much closer to these grandparents and I love that!

Friends of Mike's family came as well bringing teens and other such. Their daughter was reading to MiKylah and it was so cute! She was listening and eating her lil snack, happy as can be! she is so my little darling!

For an activity we played lots of games. (One thing that I LOVE about Mike's family) First we played Fruit Basket, which is always a blast and even the kids can participate.) Then we played Human Foosball. (Mike's sisters that got everything neeed for this game were amazing!) Then the men played b

Veteran's day

Don't forget about Veteran's Day! Its a special holiday too. Every now and then I have a great memorable one. This year I spent it reflecting on the service of a very special veteran, my Pop Pop Leonard. He was so handsome in his uniform! He was such a good and honorable man. I am so grateful to him for all that he did and all that he was. His memory will always and forever be with me.

My dad talked about something that he read in the paper about Abraham Lincoln dedicating the holiday of Thanksgiving as a national holiday during the time of war, when people needed hope. They needed something to remind them to think of the things that they are grateful for, they needed something to renew their vigor for what they were fighting for. I love the fact that we have lil patriotic holidays all year round. This reminds me that I am thankful for the sacrifices that the servicemen have given so that we can all be free to worship God as we see fit and that men and women of all races can vote, choose and live in peace and plenty.

God Bless America, the Land That I Love!

Halloween

just for a fun change of pace i am going to do this blog backwards. (chronologically) So I loved the Halloween was so warm! I hate having to cover the costumes I spent hours making with coats.

I set off to take all three kids myself while Mike manned the door. It was SO MUCH FUN! I love my new house and my new neighborhood! I love the bazillion cultasacs around here and I loved that Tsadakah wanted to stay out longer than I would let her.

This was important to post because I think that there were so many Rapunzel's this year that I really needed to have something that set her apart, like that fact that I put the flowers in her braid. I didn't see anyone else do that so I was feeling pretty unique. And people loved it.

At the grocery store we saw a family with a Rapunzel and a Tinkerbell about the same ages as our girls. Their dresses were store bought dresses and Tsadakah said, why didn't you buy my dress mom? *sigh! (I am a detail oriented person and I have to have it down to the detail of the movie. I think that the store bought ones are just not close enough for the money that they want for them.) So then the father of the girl came back in and said how did you make that dress? Its so great and accurate! :) yay! At least someone appreciated it!

Also while the kids were playing on the bounce house slide at the grocery store I heard a mom call her daughter over and say, "look who that is! Doesn't that look just like Rapunzel?" Yay again!

The whole crew: MiKaylah, the pony, Mommy, the witch, Eliannah, Tinkerbell, and Tsadakah, Rapunzel.

I love putting make up on Tsadakahs very long lashes. Michael does not like it. lol

We also carved pumpkins with my parents the night before. It was so fun to see the girls excitement. Tsadakah wanted hers to be a silly clown. Michael obliged. Eliannah wanted hers scary! Mike was excited to do hers. lol These pumpkins came from my parents garden. It was wonderful!

Tsadakah's scary face.

The whole group.

The night before that was our ward party. It was fun, but we were very late. most people were out of candy and didn't come by our trunk. oh well.

Big scrumptious doughnuts.

MiKaylah with my dad.

Tsadakah

Eliannah

Mike's parents were also in town. I don't know how we missed taking their picture but they were really fun with the kids too. They came with us to almost everything and they stayed for our first talk in our new ward. All in all it was a full to the max fun Halloween.

Just a lil bday paty!

So my nephew, Zeke, turned 1! My sister, Simcah, always throws amazing parties! Not just that, she does some of them twice (in St. George + Layton) She is supermom! Look at that decadent cake! It is made from scratch! Don't you just want to lick the screen?

Her is Zeke. he is a happy baby...ALWAYS! his nickname is Jolly, because he is sooooo happy.

Here is the beautiful owl cake that went with the owl party theme. Is

n't she great! Well we took the head off to be the part that he got to DIG into. It was really really funny because he was totally freaked out that we decapitated his cake. So I suggested that we turn it around so that the eyes weren't looking at him. That seemed to calm him down a little bit. Then when he was just about happy again, my dad (what a prankster he is) turned it back around and moved it like a puppet saying, "hello, I am the owl." Well that was IT! He really freaked out, trying desperately to escape his high chair and clawing away as much as he could. All I could do was laugh! It was all too funny!

Ha Ha!

This Pinata was also AMAZING! She completely made it from scratch as well! instead of a bat it had streamers that the kids pulled on.

Another funny story, you can see that all the kids were getting involved with the opening presents. Especially MiKaylah, who went as far as to climb up onto the chair. She was sitting on the edge of the armrest trying to get the toy he just opened. He eventually had enough and he pushed her off the chair.

Halloween Party

mY FAVORITE HALLOWEEN ACTIVITY THIS YEAR WAS A PARTY AND THEN HAUNTED HOUSE THAT WE DID. iT WAS REALLY REALLY GREAT! wE SHARED IN THE JOY WITH dEBBIE'S FAMILY, sTEFANIE'S FAMILY, AND bRENT'S FAMILY. HERE ARE ALL THE KIDS EATING THEIR MONSTER PUDDING CUPS.

cLOSE UP OF THE MONSTER PUDDING CUP AND bROOKLYNN! tHANKS TO bROOKLYNN, sARAH, AND bOBBIE FOR THE BEAUTIFUL MONSTER ART.

tHE DINNER! wE SERVED WHITE CHICKEN CHILI, GARLIC BREAD, ROLLS, AND CHIPS. iT IS SO VERY FUN TO SEE EVERYONE IN THEIR COSTUMES AND FAMILY. i LOVE MY IN-LAWS!

mIkAYLAH AS A PONY! ISN'T SHE DARLING!

mY NEPHEW AS BATMAN. (HES MY FAVORITE SUPER HERO SO i HAD TO POST HIM!)

mY WONDERFUL IN-LAWS, bRENT AND cRIS WATCHED THE KIDS WHILE WE WENT TO THE HAUNTED HOUSE. iT IS CALLED aSYLUM 49! ITS IN tOOELE. iT WAS THE BEST HAUNTED HOUSE i HAVE EVER BEEN TO IN MY WHOLE LIFE!

tHERE WERE PARTS THAT SEEMED SO REAL LIFE! i WAS SO SCARED i WAS THINKING WHEN WILL THIS EVER BE OVER! FOR THE LONGEST TIME AFTER i WAS GIDDY WITH HYSTERIA AND JITTERS. WE TALKED ABOUT IT ALL NIGHT LONG AFTER THAT! LOL. i RECOMMEND IT! GO NEXT YEAR!

Happy Birthday To Mwaa!

So, another year has gone by. My birthday landed on a Sunday, and usually we would go out to eat on the Sat before, but I was just so busy with projects for fixing up the house that I didn't even have time. So we ate in and I cooked my FAVORITE foods. Mike did A LOT of the cooking and he even let me take a nap while he cleaned for our guests, my parents. My in-laws remembered to call me too. :)

So the menu was: Fettuchini Alfredo, Sirloin Steak, Green Beans, and Garlic Bread. Look at my dad and my stomachs! We really stuffed ourselves good!

Mike and Tsadakah, once the camera came out it was "take pictures of me! I want to be in a picture!" that Mike. ;) j/k it was Tsadakah.

Marsha, Rivkah, Eliannah, Tsadakah, Steve.

My cake was peanut butter cake (the batter was awesome!) with fudge filling, Cream Cheese Frosting, and sprinkled with my favorite candy bar, ReesesNutragous! OOH YAA! People were like, "You made your own birthday cake?" When the only day of the year you eat sugar is on your bday, heck ya you make your own so that it can be over the top awesome!

I really worked hard on that cake! It was worth it!

The girls were SO eager to eat it too, that we ate it right after our dinner! We were so stuffed! Well here's to another year as good as this last one, and may 27 feel as young as 21! ;)

*BTW who's gonna write "the things I love about this birthday girl" for us mommies? I mean we post it for our kids when it is their big days, or they are a month older. I'm just saying, it might make getting older easier. lol