Giving Thanks...

We spent Thanksgiving day at my Grandma Smoots house. It was great to have all my brothers and sisters there. The food was delicious as always. We have my Grandma to thank for everything. She is in her eighties and still cooks most of the dinner herself.

My Grandma and the girls getting ready for the game. We pinned the feathers on the turkey and told what we were grateful for. Parker had several turns because he would remember something else he wanted to say. He was thankful for Thanksgiving, his new brother Hayden, and grandparents. It was cute to see him so excited to share his thoughts with the family. The kids also performed a thanksgiving song that Parker taught everyone. He learned it at preschool. My favorite line of the song is, "we were all much thinner, before we came to dinner, me oh my!"

We made our traditional visit to Park City to choose out an ornament for the Christmas tree. It was fun to have everyone there. It is crazy to think that last year Hailey, Brady, and Hayden were not even born yet. Our family has really grown in the last year.

We started decorating for Christmas on Sunday. The kids were so excited to open the boxes and get out all the fun decorations. They were putting ornaments on the miniature tree that was mine when I was a little. They were being so sweet together and it was one of those moments I wanted to capture with the camera. I am so thankful to have a loving family and for all the great traditions that we have together.

BYU 26 vs Utah 23

GO COUGARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New Moon!!

I just went and saw the movie New Moon! Last month I got two tickets in the mail from Lehi Pediatric dentistry. They said I was invited to a special pre screening of the movie. They really know how to get on the good side of all the moms. I decided to take my step mom Loni with me. She is the one that first introduced me to the books.

It was great not having to wait in a huge line and having a really good seat for the movie. The movie did not disappoint and was just as good as Twilight. It was fun watching the movie with so many other women. We laughed and made comments at all the same parts. We enjoyed it so much that we left wanting more. It really had a cliffhanger ending.

Loni and I had a fun time getting are pictures taken with all the cutouts and posters. We really liked this one with Jacob and Edward. I won't say too much because I don't want to spoil the movie for everyone who still wants to see it.

Aloha!!!

GREETINGS FROM......our ward Luau! ( I wish we were in Hawaii right now) On Friday night we had a ward party. Our whole family dressed up for the occasion. Thanks to Grandma Loni both the girls had hula outfits to wear.

The food was really great and there was plenty of it. They had Kalua pig, rice and all kinds of salads. Parker was digging into his cake when we took the picture.

Dad even decided that Hayden should have some cake too! Hayden's facial expression showed that he didn't like it very much.

They instructed all the kids on how to Hula dance. Halle looked so cute up on the stage!! She wasn't one bit stage fright and followed all the instruction really well for being only two. It makes me excited for dance lessons in the near future.

They had our bishopric come up and dance for everyone. Our bishop is the one in the skirt. We couldn't stop laughing. It was one of the best ward parties I have ever been to!

Halloween!!

We grew this beast of a pumpkin in our garden this year. It weighs almost a hundred pounds and we have another one that is around fifty. The interesting thing is that they never turned orange. We are not sure what kind of pumpkin it is... Mckenna got the seeds from her school a year ago and we decided to try them out.

It looks really creepy all lite up. If you look closely you can see Hayden's little hand reaching in the mouth. It was amusing watching Kev carve this massive pumpkin with a butchers knife. He said that it wasn't to hard to carve because it had a soft consistency. It was crazy because the walls of the pumpkin were about three inches thick. Several of our neighbors asked if they could have some of our pumpkin seeds for next year.

I had to include this cute picture of our Hayden. It was his first Halloween and his Aunt gave him this cute onesie to wear. We love to see this little guy smile!

Parker was so excited to finally wear his Woody costume. It was great to see him smiling and happy after so many days of being sick. After eight days with a fever above 101 we found out that his flu had turned into Bronchial pneumonia. We were so thankful that the antibiotics started working and he was better enough to go trick or treating.

Halle looked darling in her bunny costume. It was another costume that Mckenna wore when she was her age.

A fun picture of all our kids in their costumes. They were so excited to go trick or treating in our neighborhood.

I really liked this picture of Halle and Hayden. He loved reaching up and grabbing her bunny ears.

Mckenna was our 50s girl this year. She loved being all dressed up in her poodle skirt. Grandpa Foster bought her special earrings to wear for the occasion. They have a battery that attaches to the back of the earring causing them to light up. They looked really cool in the dark.

Halle cracked me up with how she would sit down after every house and try another treat.
She definitely has a sweet tooth.

We ran into Kev's deacons while we were out trick or treating. The Waldo costume was my favorite.

My favorite part of Halloween is enjoying a Reese's peanut butter cup and watching a scary movie.

Down with Swine...

One week ago today Parker's preschool teacher called us saying that her kids had the H1N1 virus. The next night Parker got a really high fever. I took him to the doctors and they said he had the virus. The sad thing is they can't to anything to help unless the patient is at high risk or under the age of two. So we put Parker on Motrin alternating with Tylenol to help with his fever. It breaks my heart to see how miserable he is. His eyes droop and our blood shot red and his cheeks are bright pink. He just has no energy. On Friday Halle came down with a fever. They were both miserable all weekend. We got a lot of calls from worried family members asking if they would be hospitalized. The media has made such a hype about the virus that people think it is more serious than it is. It is similar to the normal flu and may only be fatal in those with preexisting medical conditions. On Sunday I came down with a fever as well. I am so thankful that Kev was home for the weekend because I couldn't do much of anything. The virus affects everyone differently. Thankfully, my fever went away after 24 hours. I have had to take extra precautions to not let Hayden get the virus. He is in the high risk category because he is under two years old. It has been hard not to kiss him and keep him away from all of us. We have been blessed that he hasn't come down with anything. My chlorox wipes have been my best friend this past week. I wipe down everything multiple times a day. We have gone through so much Motrin and Tylenol. We started out with new bottles and they are almost gone. My ear thermometer has been a lifesaver. We have been taking temps every few hours all day long. My hands are raw from all the hand washing that I have been doing. I make sure to wash my hands every time that I even touch Hayden. Parker has had it worse than anyone. We took him again to the doctor's today to see why he is still running a fever. He still has the virus and we just have to wait for the fever to break. Kev gave him a blessing tonight and we are praying that he will get better quickly. We really want the swine to go away so we can enjoy the Halloween holiday.

Fall break!!

Mckenna had a couple of days off from school so we decided to do something fun. Kev was able to take a day off from work so we went to Park City. My Dad is always glad to let us stay at his condo in Park City. The kids love it! They get to sleep in the pullout bed and watch the Disney channel.

The resort has a huge pool that is part indoor and outdoor. We enjoy swimming there all year long. Parker is at the age where he has quite the imagination. As we were relaxing in the hot tub he told me some of his ideas. He told me he was going to swallow up the whole pool and hot tub in his mouth. He informed me that it would be hard work and take all day. Then he would go home and spit it back out so we could have a pool.

We decided it would be fun to take the kids on the alpine slide. We were lucky because it was the last weekend they were open before the winter. It was such a nice day. The fall leaves were beautiful.

Parker wanted to go down the slide with Daddy because he goes fast! They both have the need for speed. They didn't brake once and caught up to the girl that was in front of them.

Mckenna was happy because she was tall enough to go down by herself. It was fun to see the huge smile on her face.

We couldn't resist stopping by the chocolate store while we were there. They had this fun ski lift bench for the kids to sit on.

Hayden was happy just to spend the day in the baby bjorn. It was his first overnight adventure away from home and he did really well. He turned three months old on Saturday.