Em's Dance performance

We went to the Festival of Trees last Friday for Emily's dance performance. She sang "Let it Snow" and "That night in the stable". She had a solo part. We practiced the solo over and over again. She was excited to perform! The song started with another little girl singing, Em watched her and when it was her turn she missed her part! She just sat there, when she realized she had missed her part she got nervous. Luckily her teacher stepped on stage, had them rewind the tape, start all over and help her get started on her part. I was so nervous for her! But, she didn't seem flustered at all and sang her part perfectly! Mom was 10 times more nervous than she was! Crazy how you can get so worried for your kids! I didn't care what anyone else thought, I just wanted her to be happy with how it went. And she was, she had a lot of fun!

They had a ton of gingerbread houses displayed, I really liked this one.

This one was huge, it even had lighted windows! When I make my gingerbread house every year it probably takes two hours to do. Imagine who much time this took!

Em singing "Let it Snow!" She is so tall compared to the other girls in her class!

Her teacher helping her to get started on her solo.

That night "Granny", (Mike's mom) had the yearly Grandkid Christmas party. Emily looks forward to it all year. She loves making crafts, drinking the hot chocolate, watching movies and especially having fun with her favorite cousin Ashley. Thanks Kay, for doing this every year. Brett can't wait until next year when mom and dad will let him sleep over!

Christmas Trees

This year we got TWO Christmas trees! When Mike and I got married I insisted we did the multicolored blinking lights on the tree. That was how it always was for me growing up. Mike really wanted all red lights, like his parents had. He let me have it my way, and that is how the tree has looked every year. This year we got a small tree for the basement. Mike had a lot of fun making it a red tree. I don't know if it is more for his families tradition or that it is a UTE tree. It smells so good! The second you come downstairs you can smell it. We had so much fun picking out our trees in the warm weather on Saturday. I put on the lights and then the kids had a blast decorating it. Savannah just kept looking at it and saying, "ree" for pretty. I am looking forward to evenings sitting next to the tree and enjoying some Christmas music, something both Mike and I grew up doing. Enjoy the Christmas songs, they are some of our favorites!

I am thankful for.......

I am thankful for so many things, too many things to list in fact. But, I do want to say I am thankful for the everyday moments. Being a mom can sometimes be crazy, but it is filled with small little moments that make everyday wonderful. I am so thankful to be a mother. I love being Emily, Brett and Savannah's mom. Here is one of those moments. I was making roll dough for scones and ran downstairs to get more flour when I came up and saw this. Brett sharing dough with Savannah. Aren't they sweet? I am so blessed!

Birthday Surprise!

Grand America! View from our balcony of the courtyard!

My roses and presents. Mike gave me some much needed new scrubs, Harry Potter books on CD, and a red bronze frog named "Romeo". I was especially excited about the last gift because it is something that Mike and I have loved looking at when in Vegas. It was from an art gallery called "Galleria Di Sorrento" sent from Caesar's Palace! He remembered how much I loved them, and I loved how thoughtful he was.
My Birthday cake ~ it was soooooo delicious!Chocolate covered strawberries!!! I thought is was so cute how they looked like they had little tuxedos on! You can see the frog he gave me in the upper left hand corner.

Our breakfast! French toast with caramel sauce and a breakfast croissant. It was so fun to have room service!

Mike surprised me for my 30th Birthday, and surprise he did! I had no idea what he had up his sleeve, just that my mom was watching the kids last Friday night until Saturday afternoon (thanks mom!). When we drove up to the Grand America I was shocked! It was so beautiful and elegant! The valet parked our car and then we went up to our room on the 22nd floor. It was the executive king suite and it was gorgeous! When I walked in the first thing I saw was a beautiful bouquet of roses, just past the roses was the yummy chocolate cake! Yes, I told Mike I would go off my chocolate fast just for this weekend. Then, on the bed were rose petals in a heart shape. I was so taken away and completely surprised. That night we enjoyed a wonderful dinner and had room service bring breakfast up in the morning! Then we headed down to the spa for one more surprise, a massage! It was so wonderful and just what I needed. I turn 30 on the 30th of this month and I loved having an early surprise! He definitely did such a spectacular job spoiling me, I love him so much and am so grateful for such a wonderful weekend! Thank you Mike, you really did put a lot of planning and thought into this, and the best part of the weekend was being able to spend time with you. Love you!

I am such an idiot!

So, first of all, my computer crashed a week ago! So I haven't been able to keep up on everything that has been going on! Thanks to my AMAZING brother in law Scott, he was able to restore the computer. He put in tons of time to help me out. Thank you so much Scott! So, I am looking at blogs, and somehow, don't ask my how, I deleted my friends and family list! I am so sick about it! I don't know any of your links, please leave me a post, or e-mail me your site to jodyluv@q.com. I will re-add your info to my list! Thank you!

Wheeler Farm

Have you been to Wheeler Farm lately? I haven't been there since I was really little! We went to have professional pictures done (these obviously are not the professional pics) last Saturday and chose this as the site. It was such a cool place! There were chickens, geese, baby piglets, horses and more! The kids had such a fun time as you can see! And a bonus is that it is free! We did pay a couple of bucks for the pony ride though. Keep this fun place in mind for next year after the snow melts!

Happy Halloween!!!