Christmas Day

Christmas was such a fun, relaxing day for us!  We didn't have to be anywhere and were able to play and relax all day.  We opened presents....one of the pictures shows the new family computer that we got. But I would like to point out the desk it is sitting on....Ben made it!!  He did such a great job!  After opening all of the presents, the girls got to finally play in the snow!  We woke up Christmas morning to a huge snow fall.  It was literally the first snow fall of the year!  This year I was actually prepared and bought all of the girls snow pants and boots, and then it doesn't snow.  But it finally did, and the girls played outside with Ben for hours. Then for dinner we went to Bucca di Beppo's, an Italian Restaurant, for dinner....our little family tradition.  Because who wants to prepare and clean up a big dinner when someone is willing to do it for you?!...if you pay them of course.  But I probably would have spent the same amount or more on getting all the food for dinner anyway.  This way, it isn't any stress or dishes on me!

Christmas Stuff

The girls in the Christmas dresses.

We were able to visit Granny & Grandpa up on Odgen the Tuesday before Christmas!  They are doing well. 

 Christmas Eve was spent snuggling and watching family favorite movies like "Home Alone" and "Home Alone 2."

For Christmas Eve dinner we spent it with our friends, the Alba's, for a traditional Alba Dinner.  And when we came home the girls got to open their PJ present. Then it was off to bed so the elves could get to work.

Dani's Frozen Party

Dani turns 3 on Friday!!! I can't believe how Big my baby is!  Since her birthday is so close to Christmas, and it landed on a Friday, and lots of our friends were heading out of town right after school got out that day...We decided to have a little party for Dani the Saturday before.  We had 8 little girls at our house....3 of which were mine.  So it was a more manageable number of little girls. But we sure had fun!  It was only an hour, but in that hour we colored some pictures, made snowmen out of marshmallows, played pin the nose on Olaf, opened presents, ate cup cakes and played freeze dance until mom's came.  Our little princess was in heaven!  She was so excited for her first real party with her friends! Happy 3rd Birthday to our Dani!

Thanksgiving in Omaha

We were only home for a few days, but we managed to cram in a lot.  We had Thanksgiving dinner with the Rosenthal side. The kids got to go to the zoo.  We decorated Nana's Christmas tree. Ben, Dad, Ryan and Brooktynn all went to a UNO basketball game. I taught a Hoop clinic for OPS. The Perez cousins came over with Great Grandpa Z.  And we got in some black Friday shopping as well....and we may have even got in some Thursday shopping too!!  But I got some great deals!  We went to our family favorite restaurant, Three Happiness. And we all went to the Mormon Trail Center to see the Gingerbread House Display. And to top it off the kids played every second they could with their cousins.  It was perfect!  We have a lot to be Thankful for! 

SOLD

At the beginning of November Ben and I talked about selling this car.  I love this car, but the miles were getting up there, and I knew we probably needed to sell her.  Plus her plates expired at the end of the month.  As the month went on, and we didn't list her, I was just going to decide to just keep her until we killed her.  If we weren't going to sell her then, there was no point in paying to re-register her then sell her. And I was ok with keeping her. 

Then, a few days before we left for Thanksgiving a guy on our neighborhood Facebook page asked if anyone was in the market to sell their Honda Pilot.  He was looking to buy a used one for a good deal.  Not thinking anything about it, I told him I had one he could look at.  He came that night to look and test drive her, that was a Saturday.  And by Monday, she was sold.  I left my running stickers on her.  I couldn't take them off.  It was too painful. She was a good car.  She will be missed!

November randomes

 So the first part of November was so nice!!!  We were at the park in 68 degree weather!  Amazing!  Those are our sweet little neighbor girls!  We love that we have such good friends living next door.

 The girls also took a cooking class, where they learned how to make pies! It was better it came from someone besides me.

 I did a few Native presentations this month as well. Dani got a little excited when she found my crown.  She told me it was Boo-tee-ful.

And then, after the warm, the cold hit, and we were stuck in the freezing for a few hours during the BYU football games.  It didn't stop us from going, it did however, stop us from staying the whole game!

1 year anniversary

It has been exactly 1 year since I was called in as Primary President.  And I love it!  I love the kids, and I love these ladies.  I can't do it with out them.  This picture was taken at our yearly Stake training!  Next year is going to be even better!

School & Halloween

This year we had a Black Cat, a mermaid, and Anna from Frozen!  Halloween is always exhausting, which is why I was so glad it landed on a Friday this year.  We had the school parade and parties in the morning.  Ben had a work party after school, and then dinner and trick or treating with friends for the rest of the night!  And the next day, we all slept in.

Couples Halloween Party

Every year one of our friends throws a couples Halloween party.  And for the most part, the couples have coordinating costumes.  This year we waited until the last minute to figure out what we were going to go as, but when we did, it was epic!  We went with stick figures!  I got white duct tape for the stick part, but also found battery operated lights to attached to us to make us glow.  Now, it may not look cool now, but walking around in the dark, we look pretty awesome!  And at this party, a bunch of us ladies did a flash mob dance to Thriller.  We did it under black lights. A few people tried to catch it on video, but it was a little to dark to catch us...however, I was seen perfectly.  It was a funny watching this lit up stick person dancing to Thriller.  And to top off our awesome and creative costumes, we won Best Costumes Over-All!!! Go us!!!

Carving Pumpkins

The girls painted and we carved. A fun night was had by all!

Fall Break 2014

 For fall break this year we decided to head out east to NC to one of our favorite spots!....The Lucky Leaf!  I mean, really...the view doesn't get much better than that!

 

 But this time we headed out with our good friends and neighbors the Forbes! We had so much fun with them.  And we got to show them all the cool things to do on Topsail, we ate at Max's Pizza, ate Ice cream at Kilwins, and toured a battleship, had a bon fire, and chilled on the beach for hours!

 When our week of beach relaxing was done, we headed over to Charlotte to see our family. The first night we got into  Charlotte, we headed over to Kilwins and had ice cream.  And right next to the ice cream place was Claire's.  And I got the idea to get Charley's ear's pierced.  She totally went a long with it, and was so brave.  She didn't even cry.  You could tell she was scared, but was really brave.

We also got to meet our new little niece, Andie Emily!!!  We were able to be there on the Sunday she was getting blessed in Church.