More T-giving 2008

Here are the pictures to go along with my earlier recap...(sorry, to be so late posting these). I realized as I was going through the pictures I took while I was home, that we did a lot of things but unfortunately I don't have pictures for very many of them. (I'll blame that on Caleb since he had our camera for nearly a week while he was in Moab riding motorcycles with his brothers.)

I have so much to be thankful for. The list could go on and on. I am so blessed to live in this free country, to have the Gospel in my life, to be sealed for all eternity to my best friend, to have my beautiful little girl (and soon to be little boy), great friends, food to eat, a roof over my head, my Savior Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice for all mankind,,,just to name a few.

My sweet sisters-in-law, Kynda and Marisa, were so kind to throw a joint baby shower for myself and Caleb's cousin's wife, Jen, (who's also having a boy in Jan.). Thank you--It was so fun!

My wonderful mom gave me this darling baby boy blessing outfit! I can't wait for him to wear it.

My good friend, Heather, and her mom, both made me blankets complete with burp cloths! They are both so talented.

My mother-in-law sewed Jen and I each one of these blankets in honor of our husband's LOVE of motorcycles. (Lorna, I still can't believe you found such perfect material!)
My mother-in-law, Lorna, and I

My sister brought her new three month old Golden Retriever puppy home and he was so cute! Unfortunately he liked to chew on Caysja and she was pretty scared of him. "Grandpa, save me!"

Aunt Chalise and Caysja. They share the same B-day exactly 20 years apart!

Thanksiving Dinner with my whole family! (Yep, I just have one sister and that's it.) It was so delicious! But better than the food was just being with everyone I love.

Later that night, my mom, Caysja, and I went for a walk around the Greenbelt to feed the ducks. It got dark fast, as you can tell but it sure was a beautiful day!

Caysja loves my parents! She would ask them about 20 times a day to take her to go see our cats outside. Let's just say she's a little spoiled being the only grandchild and all...

Out to eat at one of our favorite restaurants in IF--Peurto Vallarta. YUM!

My cute friend Heather is super crafty and always coming up with the best ideas. While I was home she helped me make this hair bow hanger as well as the 5 ribbon flower clips. Thanks, Heather! I LOVE it! I really needed something to hang all of Caysja's hair things on. Now I just need to find a picture to go in the frame...

Here it is with all of her hair bows on it. They just barely fit!

In other news... I went to the Dr. today and I only have 17 more days to GO!!! Yippee! This has been a really long pregnancy. I'm actually dilated nearly to a 2 and 75% effaced, so my Dr. seems to think I may not make it to my due date. I'll be VERY shocked if that happens though. I can't wait to be DONE being pregnant, but at the same time I'm not ready for this little guy to come yet! There's still so much I need to do. I would really like Christmas to be over and done with before he comes, but we shall see...

CONGRATS to my two good friends, Alissa and Kristy, who just had their babies! (Alissa had Camden a little over three weeks ago, and Kristy had Noah on Sunday.) It's been so fun to be pregnant with the two of them! Now I'm the only one left...

Thanksgiving Recap...

Sorry to all those of you who read my blog. I know I've been so slow at posting lately! We had a WONDERFUL two weeks home in Idaho Falls with both of our families for Thanksgiving. We really needed it. And no, I didn't have my baby on the 14 hour drive to or from, thank heavens! I only have 23 more days to go though, and I can't wait! I am measuring a little small, so I'm prepared to go late like I did with Caysja. We can't wait to meet our little man!

Some of the highlights from our trip home:

• Attended our neice's 2nd B-day party
• SHOPPING at all my favorite stores they don't have here in AZ (including "Black Friday")!
  
• Saw "Twilight" with my sis-in-laws (not too impressed...)
• Saw the movie "Fireproof"--it was really good!
• Went to Michael McClain's "The Forgotten Carols" with my mom
• Attended the Idaho Falls temple
• Met my little sis's Golden Retriever puppy dog, Bentley, for the first time (he thought Caysja was a big chew toy!)
  
• Took Caysja to see Santa Claus at the mall (she didn't like that too well)
• Made a cute craft with my good friend, Heather (pictures to come soon...)
• Caleb went motorcycle riding in Moab with his brothers for 5 days, (popped his shoulder out of joint, but at least no emergency room visits this year)
  
• My sister-in-laws threw me a family baby shower
• Caught up with two of my good friends from college, Melinda and Emily
  
• Attended Caleb's oldest brother's 40th b-day party
• Caysja got to see all 5 sets of her grandparents/great-grandparents still living
  
• Thanksgiving Dinner at my parent's house with all my family there
  

We had a FABULOUS time! Thanks to everyone for feeding us, baby-sitting Caysja, letting us stay with you, etc. We miss you lots already. Luckily the "kitty grandma and grandpa" are coming to stay with us in just three weeks!

P.S. I promise to post pictures of all that we did soon...as soon as I catch up on all my laundry...

We're going HOME!!!

We're going home to Idaho in just three more days!! Caleb's last final will be over on Friday and then he gets two weeks off for Thanksgiving. Technically you're not supposed to travel when you're 34 weeks pregnant, but I don't CARE! I want to go home!

I get to see my little sis whom I haven't seen in a year! Plus I get to go shopping with my sister-in-laws, and get spoiled by my wonderful parents and in-laws! We are so lucky to have so many family members (on both sides) living in Idaho Falls.

I keep telling Caysja, pretty soon we get to see three of your grandmas--the "kitty grandma" (my parents have three cats), the "train grandma"(her great-grandma has this amazing model train set in her basement), and the "motorcycle grandma" (Caleb's mom doesn't have her own motorcycle, but that's what that family of 6 boys is all about so that's what we call her (and grandpas, we're excited to see you too)! Anyway, yesterday we got in the car to run some errands and Caysja was like, " I go Grandma's house--three grandmas right now!" and I had to break the sad news to her that we still have a few more days here in AZ before we can go. Well, she must really be thinking about it a lot because that's all she could talk about this morning at breakfast. Luckily we have three birthday parties to go to this week to keep us busy. Can't wait to see you all soon!

Catching up...

So, I'm a little behind on my blogging lately...these posts really should have come BEFORE the Halloween one, I'm just slow getting them on here...

We are loving the weather! AZ really has the BEST Fall/Winters. (And it's so fun to dress my little girl in something other than her swimsuit finally!)

One day after I took out the laundry from the dryer, Caysja decided to see if she could fit.

Love that cheesy grin!

About a month ago, one of my very best friends from college came to visit her sister in Mesa and we were able to get together with another friend of ours and hang out for a few hours. We went to Cafe Rio for lunch (love that place!) and walked around the Mesa temple.

Caysja fell in love with my friend Jodi and wouldn't leave her alone!

Jodi, Katie, Me

These are some pics from Caleb's B-day (which was obviously a while ago, but I thought I'd post them anyway). Caysja thought the wrapping paper made a good hat.

Our "cards" for Daddy. Do you like Caysja's artwork? As you can see, she went all out!

And his presents...what else does a guy need in AZ besides more shorts??!

I made Caleb a yummy ice cream cake. Caysja LOVES to blow out candles and sing the "happy birthday song". She was practicing all day long!

I also made him dinner "by candlelight" (ribs, funeral potatoes, salad, and a fruit smoothie). Thanks Alissa, for watching Caysja for us!

Halloween F-U-N!!!

Okay, get ready for a super long post, 'cause we did so many fun things this year for Halloween...

Our Halloween started last Wednesday with our ward's Trunk-or-Treat. I love this event every year and our ward always goes all out! Here we are, ready to go after doing the "princess hair-do".

(THE hair do. Have I mentioned how much I love having a little girl??)

Caysja with her good friends, Ian and Miah.

The "princess girls"--Halle, Kate, and Caysja

Doing the "cake walk" with Daddy

Posing by the "scary ghost" (as you can see, she didn't like this too well..."no want to, no want to")

We carved our pumpkin the next day. She was so excited to light it up, she went and got a little birthday candle for it! That really made me laugh.

She is still really into her baby, and she had to show it all the parts of the pumpkin, inside and out.

On Friday morning, we had a little Halloween party at the park for moms and kids. After eating yummy food, the kids decorated pumpkins with markers, paint, glitter, stickers, etc.

The "decorating/planning committee" for the party--Joanna, me, and Alissa. Thanks for all your help girls! It turned out great (even if we did only have ONE orange balloon!)

The yummy food table...(notice the beautiful pumpkin flower pots that Joanna made...very creative).

Since I didn't want Caysja's costume to get all dirty at the park, she wore her fairy costume from last year. Here she is with her friend (and "fellow fairy"), LeiLani.

Midwestern University always does such fun things for the holidays. At 3pm we headed over there to go trick-or-treating to all the professor's offices. Caysja got really into it and it was so cute to hear her say "trick-or-treat" and "thank you". She got a TON of candy! It was also fun to walk around Daddy's school with him.

They had a little carnival inside the cafeteria where we did another cake walk, fishing for prizes, bean bag toss, decorating cookies, balloons, crafts, and more. Outside though was the REAL fun! They had an awesome blow-up slide and "room" to jump in. Caysja was a little scared at first, but she warmed right up to it when her friend LeiLani went with her. I must say she liked it this year a lot better than last year. What a difference a year makes!

And the fun doesn't end there...after the festivities at MWU, we went over the Jensen's in our ward for a delicious dinner and then we went trick-or-treating with them. They invited several other families and their kids and we had a blast! Here are Caysja and Miah being silly.

The delicious dinner! THANKS Diane! Everything was sooo good.

The kids LOVED this part of the night! Homemade rootbeer--a.k.a. "witches' brew". It doesn't get much better than that...(gotta love dry ice).

Family pic right before going trick-or-treating.

Our little princess doing her thing. At one point in the night we came to a house with a "spook alley" in a garage. Well, all the other kids were going right in, so along went Caysja before either Caleb or I could go with her. Caleb went right in after her, but never did find her! She came out a few minutes later and said "again"? I was so proud of her--she wasn't scared a bit! So then we went in again (together) only this time, the strobe lights blinded her and she bumped right into the garage wall on her way out--poor thing!

Diane was so kind to plan some fun games for the kids after trick-or-treating when we went back to their house. This game was to see who could wrap their friend as a "mummy" the fastest! Miah was the one that got wrapped, but then Caysja wanted to do it SO bad, Diane was sweet enough to wrap her as well. She held VERY still.

Our little "mummy"

And now I'm sure you're thinking, "what in the world does this next picture have to do with Halloween?" Well, this is my attempt at catching up on a post that should have been done a LONG time ago! A couple weeks ago was our ward's Super Saturday that I was in charge of and these are the cute, fun crafts I was able to do. Thanks to all my great friends who taught classes that day for me!

This is a puzzle block of 6 pictures. You can turn them to form each new picture. I did all wedding/engagement pics. Thanks, Natalie! I love it. (Unfortunately my camera's flash made the picture look kind of faded or something...)
My friend Sara taught this cute class on holiday blocks. You could choose "BOO" or "JOY" or both. Now I wish I would have made both...Thanks again for teaching it, Sara!
I was able to do one more class on little girl's hair bows, but there was so much going on that day I still haven't finished them. (That's why it's taken me so long to post about this event. BUT, I WILL get them done!) And thanks Abbie, for teaching that class for me! Whew--I have to admit I'm glad that day's over!

We hope you all had a wonderful Halloween 2008! Can't wait for next year...