Ward Christmas Party

We had a great time at our wards Christmas party.  We were able to help decorate the gym for the dinner, and it was beautiful. Our neighbors Max and Donna did an amazing job painting, creating, and putting up the decorations.  

We had a chicken dinner, and then they had a video presentation, that was honestly super boring and went on forever.  But after that was done, then Santa came.  The three younger kids told Santa what they wanted (Josh said he wanted a low interest rate on his mortgage - silly kid).  Then we got a family picture with Santa.   

It is always fun to spend the evening with our own little family and our ward family.  It really is a great way to start the Christmas season.

December Happenings

These months are going by so fast.  I can't believe it is already December.  We have been having fun.  We decorated for Christmas and the house looks really nice.  

Tony has been making his famous Chex Mix and the girls enjoyed helping him make it.  They said they love the Christmas traditions of making Chex Mix and caramels every year.  

We also got a gingerbread house kit from Margie.  She kindly gets us one each year.  Tyler wasn't interested in decorating it, but the other three kids did.  They each took a side and section and decorated it however they wanted.  I had some extra candies from Halloween that I got out to add to their collection.  They all did a great job and were very creative.  

They love to decorate the house and ginger men, but I think they like when they are done so that they can eat the frosting and then the candies off the house even more.  It is a fun tradition and I like that most the kids still like to do it.  

I was able to sign up Megan and Allie for a rock-climbing clinic right before Christmas.  They said that they had fun doing it, but they probably didn't want to do it again.  The clinic was only for 6 grade and younger so that's why only the girls were able to do it.  I am glad that they were able to try something new.  It is such a fun time of the year and we're blessed to get to spend so much extra family time together!

Tyler Ask and Answer to Winter Ball

Tyler asked a girl from our ward, Katie, to the Winter Formal.  It took her a while to respond because she had to get work off, but then she finally did.  He is excited to go to another dance with a new date. 

Thanksgiving 2023

We had a good Thanksgiving.  It was a nice chill day.  We enjoyed hanging out at home in the morning.  Then in the early afternoon we went over to Margie's house to help with dinner and Tony went and picked up Nana from her apartment.  

It was nice spending time with Nana.  We haven't seen her in a while, so it was nice to chat with her.  Brennen was also there with us.  Suzanne, Tim, and Gabe went to Orlando for Thanksgiving to spend time with Cortnie and Landon and also to go to Disneyworld.  

It didn't take long for everything to be ready to eat.  We all then had a great meal together.  After dinner Tony and I did most the cleanup while Margie and Nana went in the front room to listen to the kids play the piano.  I had them bring the songs that they've been practicing.  Allie also sang Nana a song that she learned in Primary.  Margie and Nana both seemed to enjoy listening to the kids.  After they were done, Nana was able to play a few songs that she could remember on the piano.  That was a treat.  He eyesight is so bad; we were all impressed.

The kids then helped Margie bring up some more of her Christmas villages and decorations.  After it was all up, we had pie.  It was yummy per usual.  We then hung out until it was time to go.  We got to take Nana back to her place.  It is a treat to get to spend a little extra time with her.  We then went home and had a chill evening at home.  It was a nice, stress-free, fun time with family day.

20th Anniversary Trip - DCA & Disneyland: The Day it Rained

This day we started at Disney's California Adventure.  The weather said there was a good chance of it raining this day, so we took our rain gear and got going on some rides.  We were able to ride a bunch of fun rides before it started sprinkling.  We just put on our ponchos and continued on with our day.   

We did everything that we wanted to do at DCA, so we then went over to Disneyland.  This is when it started raining harder.  This made things tricky because they close some of the rides when it is super wet, so that makes other lines really long.  We went on the rides that we could and then once it got dark, we decided to call it a day.  We had tons of fun and we loved spending these days together in Dinseyland.  

The next day we were able to sleep in and then eat breakfast at the hotel.  This was our free day.  We were going to have Monday be our free day, but the weather showed rain Thursday, so we changed it.  Funny thing was that it rained worse on Wednesday and hardly at all Thursday.  I wished that we didn't have to make reservations so that we could have changed our dates once the weather changed, but it's ok.  We survived going in the rain.  It used to be that rainy days were slower, but with the reservation system people have to go when they have their reservation, so not so slow anymore.  

We went to the Disney Outlet store and walked around Downtown Disney.  We ate lunch at Tortilla Joe's, and it was super yummy.  We then finished walking around Downtown Disney before driving over the Joe's Italian Ice.  We got an ice cream to share, and it was, of course, the best.  We then went back to the hotel.  We relaxed in the hot tub that the hotel finally fixed.  Those jets felt so good on my achy feet.  I then started packing up our stuff so that things would be ready for us to drive home the next day.  The drive home was smooth, and we had such a great trip.  It was so nice going away just the two of us.  I sure do love Tony and the lives that we have built.  I am a lucky and blessed lady.

20th Anniversary Trip - Disneyland Day 2

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to us!  This was the official day.  We started back at Disneyland this day.  We had a lunch reservation at the Carnation Cafe.  We really like their country fried chicken.  It was super yummy.  

It was another great day with lots of fun rides.  We were able to do everything that we wanted, sometime more than once.  We had yummy treats and walked all over the park to ride tons of rides.  

20th Anniversary Trip - Disneyland Day 1

Tony and I really wanted to do something fun for our 20th wedding anniversary.  We thought about going to Florida, but the budget didn't allow that.  So, we did the next best thing and went to Anaheim.  We were able to use our hotel points to cover the hotel and we also drove, so we saved money on airplane tickets.  

We left Sunday right after sacrament meeting.  It was the same day as the Primary Program, so we didn't want to miss that.  We went home, changed our clothes, packed the van and then headed on our way.  We drove a couple of hours before picking up some lunch.  We just ate in the car and continued driving.  We stopped in St. George for gas and a quick pit stop.  The traffic was good for most of the trip.  It was a busy and slow moving down the canyon outside of Victorville.  But we were able to get gas at the Costco in Victorville and we picked up some Mexican food for the road from a local Mexican Restaurant. 

We then got into our hotel about 8:00 p.m.  We unpacked the car and got in all in our room.  I got us unpacked and ready to go to Disneyland the next day.

The next morning, we got some hotel breakfast.  It was decent, price was right.  Then we got our stuff and drove to Disneyland.  The traffic was good, and Tony was able to get us there without any problems.  We parked and then walked down to the trams.  Best first ride of the day.  We then went to Disneyland for the day.

The weather was perfect.  We brought our jackets but didn't end of needing them.  When we bought holiday Mickey popcorn buckets for us, Margie, Suzanne, and Kim we then got a locker to store the buckets and our jackets.  That made the backpack a lot lighter to carry.  Tony was so nice, and he wore the backpack the majority of the time.

The park wasn't super busy, but we did have Genie Plus to help not have to wait so long in the lines.  We were able to get on every ride we wanted to at least one time, if not twice. We got Mickey beignets, tried multiple treats and the breakfast chimichanga this day.  We ate lunch at the Hungry Bear restaurant.  The food was okay, not the best thing every, but not bad at all.

We had wanted to eat at the Plaza for dinner this night, but they had a way long line, and I was too tired to wait for that.  So, we got everything out of our locker and went out of the park to get dinner at The Earl of Sandwich.  They had a longish line too, but we were able to get a table and enjoy our sandwiches.  

We then got back on the tram and walked back to our car.  We then drove back to the hotel and got some good rest.  It was a good day and we had lots of fun.  

November Happenings

It's been a fun November so far.  Josh got to go do baptism for the dead at the Saratoga Springs temple with the youth in our ward and he loved it, per usual.  Tyler had to work, so he didn't go.

Tony and I got invited to go to a Jazz game with a vendor and friend of Tony's from work.  We went with him and his wife and it was super fun.  We ate dinner at Tucanos before the game and then enjoyed the game where the Jazz won by almost 30 points. We had a great time.

Megan and Allie had their Primary Program.  They both did so good.  It was Megan's last program in Primary.  She had three parts, flipped the pages for the next speakers, and sang out loud and proud.  Allie did her part very well and also sang out proudly.  It was so fun to see them both and we were so proud of how well they knew all the songs and had no stage fright at all.  It's crazy to think next year we will only have one kid in Primary.  Our kids are growing up, it's very exciting and scary at the same time. 

We had the most amazing sunset this month and I just had to take a picture.  God blesses us with these special moments.

Josh got to go see the musical My Fair Lady at the University of Utah with his theater class.  He really liked it and had a good time.  

We also found out that Josh got the part of Javar in the upcoming musical Alladin.  He tried out for the Genie, Javar, and the Sultan.  He thought he wanted to be the Genie at first, but after trying out for the different parts, he decided that he really wanted to get the part of Javar.  So, we were all very excited and proud of him for getting the part of Javar.  

Tyler, Megan, and Allie have been enjoying singing karaoke with each other.  They have been singing a lot of the songs from Percy Jackson the musical.  It is so nice to see them doing things together that they like to do and getting a long while they do it.  

Halloween 2023

Another successful Halloween is in the books. 

We went to see the girls walk in the school parade.  It was a cold but sunny day.  The girls were so cute, and it was fun to see them with Tony and Lloyd and Margie.  

Allie found the red cape in our costume stuff and decided she wanted to be Little Red Riding Hood.  So, then we went to the DI to find the rest of her costume.  Megan was excited to be Hermione Granger again.  She still is really into Harry Potter.  I think they both looked so cute.

The boys both wore their Percy Jackson shirts to school as their costume.  I told Josh he needed to wear something else trick-or-treating because it didn't look like he dressed up with just jeans and a t-shirt.  Plus, it was cold, so no one would see the t-shirt.  So, he wore my old M&M costume.  It was nice because he wore his coat under it, and it kept him warm.  

We were able to get Tony to wear wolf ears for a picture, so he was The Big Bad Wolf, but then he quickly took them off.  But at least he humored me for the picture.  They went around the neighborhood and got lots of goodies.  Allie came back and then Tony took Josh and Megan around a little bit more.  They all had a good time and got lots and lots of treats.  Tyler enjoyed the evening at Grace's house where she had a Halloween party.  So, Halloween was a success all around.