Christmas Fun

This year for Christmas was sooo much fun. It's alot more fun now that Elysa actually knows what's going on and figured out that there were toys underneath all that wrapping. Where to start.. Wednesday night we had a Christmas party at Grama D's house and Everyone opened their presents from Grama and Grampa D. Sisa got a cute little Leap Frog puppie named Violet that sings to her. You can also get online and put your name in the songs and upload them to the little puppy. Sooo cute. Sis loves it and so do we cause each night when she goes to bed we lay her down with Violet and press the sleepy time paw and it play sleep music for her. Me and Dev were SOOOO excited for our gift.. we got the NEW Super Mario Bros for the Wii. ( Grama D know's us all to well hehe).

Christmas Eve we always have a family Christmas party at Grandma Bonnies. Santa came and Sis was excited until she went to sit on his lap.. She DOES not like Santa. Lately she has been scared of everything.. whether it's a bug on a page ( she HATES bugs) or hats ( she doesn't like hats on people either). It's so funny how she just somehow thinks these things are scary. I'm sure she'll grow out of it.

That night, Christmas Eve, we slept over at Grama D's house so we could stay up all night playing Super Mario Bros with Britton haha. We first opened up our pjs, we have made it a new tradition to get new pj's each year for Christmas and open them Christmas Eve. I found Devin some sweet soccer ones, I was sad they didn't have my size :(, and we found Sis some cute "Pongebob" pjs. She LOVES Spongebob! I happened to find me some comfy Spongebob pjs too, altho I was disappointed when I put them on because they were to small, apparently they were Childrens Larges, good thing they were out of mediums cause that's what I was going to get. So i'm planning on making the pants shorts when it gets warmer cause they are major floods, at least the top fits.
That morning Sisa woke up with the biggest smile on her face. So I went to show her all the presents under the tree and when she saw them she got her big ol' cheese grin on, stops by the tree, and says "HI!". Not sure why but it was darn cute. She had a hoot opening all the presents. We enjoyed watching altho it took her 1/2 and hour to open each present cause she was sooo dainty about it, she had to hand us each little paper piece she tore off so we could throw it away, we didn't mind tho cause it was so darn cute. She got tons of fun gifts, a little turtle with cut out shapes in it's back so she could learn to put each shape piece in there ( she likes to put objects together), a little broom ( she loves to help mommy sweep so we got her her own broom), some clothes which are ALWAYS needed. From Gamma and Gigi she got a cute little hersize kitchen, a little kid ipod ( which she loves to have hanging from her neck while she dances to the music) a little kid iphone which makes picture sounds so she likes to go up to everyone and say "cheese", some bath tub toys from her uncle Matty.. oh boy the list goes on and on.. she got spoiled lets just say that.

Christmas day we always go to Nanny's house for brunch and gift exchange. Sis got a cute little pull behind pink puppy and some cute clothes. She got a cute little UNC cheer outfit from her cousin in North Carolina.

Boy Christmas sure was exhausting this year. It came way to fast, I wasn't even ready, but it was alot of fun once it got here. Children really make holidays that much better. I can't wait until next year when she figures out Christmas means gifts, not only for her but for others too. Another thing we want to try and do is in December have her go through her toy box and pick toys she would like to give to Sub for Santa, or some Charity. We took a box to Sub for Santa this year.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Thanksgiving Fun!

This year for Thanksgiving we went to my grandma and grandpa McGowans. This is the first time we spent Thanksgiving with them and it was definitely a thanksgiving to remember. We started the week out by first picking my dad up from the Airport. He came for Boise and stayed with us from Saturday until Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving when we left to AZ. It was so fun getting to spend time with my dad. This was the first time EVER that he has been to see us in Logan so it was way nice.

Wednesday me, my dad, Devin, Elysa, Matt, and his girlfriend Becky headed to Salome, Arizona. A teeny tiny little town about 12 hours away from Logan in the middle of nowhere. It was so much fun tho! The car ride was a little rough but we split it up by going to Primm, Nevada the first day and staying at a hotel then driving the 5 1/2 hours to Salome. I was so proud of my little girl, I was worried she wouldn't handle it but when she wasn't sleeping she was so happy. She would just talk to everyone and she LOVED watching her movies, my parents bought us some portable DVD players for an early christmas present and boy did they save us! Salome was so nice.. 75 degree weather! Can't complain.

Here's (from left to right) my grams, gramps, dad, becky, matt, me, sisa, devin

This was Sisa's first real Thanksgiving and she loved it. She wanted the WHOLE turkey leg not just her little slices. She loves mashed potatoes too! While we were eating she started getting so tired and literally almost face planted ASLEEP in her potatoes. She went to bed nice and easy. What a silly little nut.The next day we went to a "little" town called Quartsite. I say "little" because even tho it was just a small mass of desert apparently around the same time each year thousands and I mean thousands of people in campers come and stay for the winter. They pitch up sales tents and swap and sell their trades. It was crazy. I have never seen so many campers in one place and it was only the start of it all. One strip had literally over 50 little campers with stores set up. There were about 5 out of the probably 30 ,at 50 trailers long ,rows filled up. It was way fun getting fun little things people made. These 2 photos ( top and bottom) were infront of a little store. I thought the ppl were real at first so we just had to get a photo with them.

We also went golfing in Salome. I haven't ever golfed before and I did....... so so.. haha. I did good sometimes and others I did HORRIBLE. I was glad it was Becky's first time too so I wasn't alone cause my dad, matt, and Devin were awesome! I lost alot of balls in the water! It was weird playing in the desert tho.. there wasn't much grass and you were hitting it off of hard sand alot. So it was interesting. But I loved all the palm trees!

Sisa was all smiles in the car! I was so happy!
I have decided I am a horrible gambler. I put 2 dollars in and won 2 cents and just got discouraged and bored way to easy. I wanted to either win big or just not play, haha. Devin won 30 bucks tho so it wasn't too bad.

Devin LOVES Chip Foose and he wanted to win this car SOOOO bad. It was a sexy car tho haha. Chip is amazing.
We stayed in the Golden Gate Hotel. It was really nice. It was on the old Vegas strip. They put this awesome dome thing over the top and played videos on it. Elysa couldn't believe all the flashing lights. She was just in awe! Devin really liked the hotel because it had an oldtime mobster classy feel. I have to admit it was really nice and classy, plus it was only $30 a night!

Overall besides the exhausting drive the little roadtrip and getting to see Vegas and family was way fun! We've decided to try and go on a fun roadtrip every year, just maybe not so long!

Happy Halloween

It's been awhile since I have posted... I know.. I have been feeling under the weather lately.. My husband had swine flu a couple weeks ago and had a fever of 103 for 3 days.. it was horrible! I'm not sure what i have but I've had it for about 2 weeks now on top of all the loads of work that just got piled ontop of me I have just been swamped! But at least business is good so I can't complain to much.

Halloween was way fun this year. Devin dressed up as Mario, we had the hardest time ever finding him overalls we searched everywhere and the only place we could find some was at Cal Ranch for $30 bucks.. eesh, anyways, I was Princess Daisy, from Mario for those of you who didn't know, and Elysa was the little thieving monkey from Mario Sunshine haha.. she played her part well..

We took Elysa to the mall for Trick-or-Treating.. she was so excited to get so much candy and was in awe by all the people in costumes. As soon as someone would give her a sucker she would take it and go "oooooooooooo" then want us to open it for her.. she would say "tnk oo" ( Thank you) but it was always after we would have moved past the person giving the candy haha.. at least she knows to say Thank you.
This blue wig was part of Devin's moms costume, she was a blue m&m. Devin just had to try it on.
Here are our lovely carved pumkins.. Tigger is Cammies, the oogly googly guy is Tanners, Devin's is the one throwing up, Brittons is the cyclopes and mine is a.... mean face? I really didn't know what to do this time haha.

Halloween was way fun and we wore Sisa out but i'm so glad her first real Trick-or-Treating experience was fun.

Sisa in a basket

I was getting some work done while Elysa and Begal were playing. After noticing it was a little quiet I heard some rustling in the kitchen. Then I heard Elsysa struggling, so I head to the kitchen and what did I find?.... A sisa in a basket.She has an obsession lately with being in or under stuff. She loves boxes!

Happy 4 year anniversary

I love anniversaries. It's a day where you can reflect back on the 1st of something. In this case it was a day I could remember marrying the one I love. I love realizing how perfect we are for eachother and how much we love one another. On September 30 Devin and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary.. We didn't do much because we weren't feeling so great but we wanted to make it fun. We went to Hastings and bought Devin's favorite movie:

(Devin really wants this movie to be a favorite of sisa's.) After we got sisa down to bed we popped some popcorn, put on the movie, and snuggled. It was a nice night and I really enjoyed just laying down and watching a movie with Devin. We really don't get to do that together as much and it reminded me of when we were first married.. we always snuggled and watched movies.

Devin.. I love you so much thanks for all of our memories together, I look forward to eternity with you :) mwaaa

Weekend Getaway

My parents got a camper and wanted to try it out the last weekend of September. Checking the weather report it looked like it was going to be the last warm weekend and we decided to take advantage of it. It sure was a nice getaway. Elysa enjoyed the campfire and eating roasted marshmellows. Me and Devin bought our fishing licenses since camp was right next to a small river. Usually I have luck in fishing but I realized I am just more of a big river fisher. I lost both my lures in the near.. near.. nearby bushes. It was sadening. We decided to hike around instead. Devin took Begal up a steep slope that over looked the camp, it was so cute because when Devin started heading down Begal started booking it down the trail then would put on the brakes and just slide the rest of the way as the leaves blew past him and his little ears would just fly! It was so cute!

This is a picture of me and Devin after we hiked above camp.

Here's a beautiful picture of above camp. Fall is so gorgeous. I love it!

This was sisa infront of the campfire. She loves her little chair.

We went on a fun little walk on a trail the next day. It was really nice and so pretty. The leaves, as you can tell, have just started turning. Everything was so pretty. Bagel did so good, he kept with us the whole way and really enjoyed the long walk.Here's sisa with her grandpa. She sure know's how to put on her cute.

This is Bagel after the LONG walk. He was tuckered out.

Devin had to carry him near the end he was so tired.

I thought this was the cutest picture of sisa running through the leaves. I found a cute poem that I thought fit the scene.

It was so fun to enjoy the last warm weekend. I just love being in the mountains away from our daily lives and it really makes you notice how beautiful all of our Father In Heavens creations are and I love enjoying it!

A cute perspective on rain

Elysa loves to clap.. especially when tons of people are clapping.

This morning Elysa woke up wanting to come in our room with us so we brought her in. The first thing Elysa likes to do is look out the window at the "woof woof ". This morning she looked out the window, stared, then looked at us all big eyed, then she started clapping. Both me and Devin looked at each other.... then it clicked.. she thought the rain was people clapping. I have to admit that's a cute perspective on rain.

Our new addition to the family

This is Bagel..

We have been looking, for fun, for a little while for a smaller dog. Elysa loves dogs and we also wanted to have a pup that we could take everywhere with us.. poor Sabaaka is just to big, even for our van! He is about 200 lbs now ! When I'd first got him they said he'd be maybe 100 lbs tops.. that was 5 years ago.. crazy that he's 5 now. Anyways we researched alot on different small breeds of dogs we like such as: Yorkie, Carkie, Irish Terrier, Fox Terrier. Then we found beagles. We started reading up on them and found that it was the perfect breed for us. We hunt and they are good hunters, they are really good with kids, they are friendly, travel well, and aren't to big but they aren't to small either. We decided down the road we'd just have to get one then we saw this little guy and he was in Logan and we just fell in love with him and decided... why not now? Elysa loves playing with little dogs and he would make the perfect family dog.

First night we took him home Elysa couldn't stop smiling at him and she kept folding her arms and patting them, that means "loves" in her little sign language. It was so darn cute. She kept chasing him around the house and tried giving him hugs but as soon as she'd get her face close to his, his little tongue would attack her face.

We went out and got him a little crate and all the necessities, we've decided to have him mostly inside. Last night I was quite surprised, the last time I had a little puppy he yelped all night long and needed all the lights on, this little guy slept peacefully all night long and didn't mind only having a night light by his bed. Today he road around with Devin at work and then went to the park with me and Elysa.. busy day so far for a little guy.

We introduced him to Saabaka, he is the size of Saabaka's foot! But Saabaka couldn't stop wagging his tail and kept sniffing Bagel out. It was way too cute.

We love this little guy and are excited for him to be with our family and we can't wait for him to go everywhere with us. This weekend he'll experience camping!

Elysa Birthday, Celebrate America show, Real Salt Lake soccer game

So as you can tell from the title alot has happened that I am SO far behind on . Here are the pictures I promised from Elysa's birthday:

This little rider toy she got was the best thing ever. It also turns into a walker and she became a pro walker from walking around with it. Altho now she is FAST and we have to actually run after her now when she gets away haha.
Our spray painted yellow hat for the "Man in the yellow hat" haha.

My monkey cakes I creatively made. It was actually really fun and i'm sorta glad all the cake decorators in logan are lame.

The beginning of September is the Celebrate America Show. My mom is the marketing manager for it so we get invited to go ever year. You get delicious food and a great show for $50 a person BUT since my mom is incharge we usually get to go for free :). This year I put together the Celebrate America Show's website so we got to go for free for doing that. If you wanna check it out go to www.celebrateamericashow.com

After the show they always have a dance for couples.. there are some amazing dancers out there and it has inspired me and Devin to try and take some couples dance classes this winter since the soccer arena is gone.. maybe it's a good thing because it will give us a chance to try new things this winter.. altho I'm still going to miss indoor.

Last Saturday, September 12, we got tickets to the Real soccer game. We haven't been once this year so we were really wanting to go. We invited Devin's bro and mom to come with since they love soccer as much as we do haha.. nice to have soccer buddies..

It was a way fun game to watch. It was very intense to the end the score was 1-1. This was Elysa's first Real SLC game and she LOVED it.. whenever anyone clapped and cheered she'd clap and cheer.. if they booed she'd start booing.. it was so cute to watch her.. she was so good the whole time too.

What a fun way to end the summer. I am just sad summer is gone, I love the warmth. But I am way excited for building snowmans with Elysa and sleding.

My little girl is growing up way to fast!

So apparently I keep leaving my camera in my husbands car and I haven't uploaded birthday pictures yet so I'll post them later.

Elysa Officially turned 1 August 18! We had a fun birthday party for her. We went to Willow Park, because she loves monkeys so much, with the whole family. After we went through the zoo we went and had Elysa's Curious George monkey party. We had banana splits and I made 2 monkey cakes... yeah you'll have to see them I surprised myself .. I had gone everywhere and all the bakers in town must have been in either a bad mood or at a cake cooking convention cause they were either really rude ( one just walked right past me and disappeared when I said "excuse me" ) and the others were just missing in action and no one knew where they were sooooo I had to resort to making my own cakes.

After cake and banana splits we knocked down the pinata.. we spray painted a sombrero yellow so that it would be a yellow hat for "the man in the yellow hat" haha.. it turned out cute.

Then we opened presents. Elysa got a little tykes laptop ( cause she always wants mommy's) some cute curious george books, clothes, a toy box ( which I painted myself ) and a little walk and roll bike/stroller. She has been using the walker side and after the first day she is now officially a walker! She walks everywhere now and can carry things around and walk at the same time too. Of course at times when she just can't get there fast enough she'll use her "monkey crawl" but for the most part it is all walking now.. what a big girl!

It was a fun day that brought a tear to my eye.... my little girl is growing up way to fast!

My Birthday already?

I've heard that as you get older you forget about your birthday more. I didn't think that could be possible but.. I totally forgot my birthday.. I'm guessing it's because I was so consumed in planning Elysa's birthday party that I totally forgot mine. Devin surprised me tho with a spongebob cake that I have always wanted. It was so cute and so sweet.

My whole family took me out to Olive Garden. It was so fun to be with everyone. Overall.. it was a fantastic birthday!

Alturas Lake, Fishing, and Challis.... I miss it already

Every summer my dad's side of the family goes to Alturas lake for a camping trip. When I was younger we used to stay a week but now that everyones got busy schedules we stay for about 4 days which now is PLENTY of time especially with a baby that gets homesick.

My grandparents, on my biological dad's side, live in Challis Idaho and we decided to take our own little trip and went the Preston Idaho way to Alturas rather than the Tremonton way. It was a really nice drive and I enjoyed it alot better.. more check points along the way instead of a bland 175 mile drive to Twin Falls. When we got to Challis we decided to stay the night with my grandparents since my dad was up visiting. It was so nice to see them since it had been.. oh... 3-4 years since we saw them last.. We stayed up all night talking about the days when we kids were younger. They just fell in love with Elysa, who couldn't tho, it sure eased the nervousness about seeing them again, I need to get better at the whole writing/visiting thing.. I just hate when life gets so overwhelmed that it just passes you by and you don't even realize how much you missed out on especially when it's to late.

Anywho.. the next day my dad took us to the Challis hot springs.. MAN I love that hot springs. It's a giant pool that has soft river rocks at the bottom, it's perfect temperature like a giant bath tub. They empty the water out everynight so its fresh and clean.. man it's nice :) Here's some pics:

My dad, me, dev & Elysa

Devin, Elysa, my Grams, dad, gramps

After visiting we headed to Alturas. We heard there was a storm rolling in and along the way to Alturas there were a few showers here and there so we figured that it wouldn't be to bad. As soon as we got to the Alturas turnoff it just started pouring rain which turned into large marble sized hail.. it scared me so bad because it really sounded like and felt like it was going to break right through the windshield. When we got to the campsite it finally cleared up so we set up our tent and and hurried and huddled around fire and for the next 2 days hot chocolate was my best friend :).

The next day we started our big horse shoe tournament. This is the part of the trip everyone looks forward too.. it has gotten so big that we even have a trophie now called "The Buck Cup" and whichever team wins gets their names printed on a plaque that ends up on the trophie.. mines on there and so is Devins :).

This year I was partnered with a new guy, a friend of the fam. named Joel.. we did really good.. we won one game lost the 2nd.. but we lost the 2nd match by inches! The game ends when someone reaches 15.. we were both at 14-14 and Nicole, who was tossing against me, as you can see from the pic below, got a ringer and a leaner which is almost impossible to get beat..

her shoes are the red ones.. mine is that one that by INCHES missed wrapping the pole. If that shoe would have wrapped I would have canceled all 5 of her points and we could have had a shot at winning.. dang it all huh but we all were amazed how good of shoes we threw that match. Devin's team made it all the way to semi-finals and ended up losing so we had a lot of fun despite how incredible cold it was. We ended up bring the fire over by the pits so we could warm our hands after every time we threw.

This little guy crawled into the food tent.. he brought a ton of friends later and we lost all our hamburger buns.
Elysa with "Gee Gee", that's how she says grandpa. He now has her doing "cheese grin" and "scrunch face" on command.

All bundled up.. it was cold!

Go freakin figure.. the day we had to leave was the most beautiful day there.. it got up to 80 while the last 2 days we were there the highest was 60.. but still beautiful.. this is a picture of the beautiful meadow on the other side of our camp.

The whole fam.

On the way home me and devin decided to take a little fishing road trip. We saw Deadmans Hole on the way to Alturas and remembered that that was where my grandpa used to go fishing when he was younger so we just had to fish there.
Devin was so mad that I caught a fish because he and my grams were talking about how I always seem to catch all the fish and I said I do not.. but.. I guess I do. The night we got to Alturas we had a day left of fishing and we were a little frustrated from not catching anything earlier plus it was freazing so we just put some bait on our hooks and cast out into the lake and just left them knowing we wouldn't catch a thing and lo' and behold the next morning we reel in and guess who has a fish on the end of their line.. yep me haha.. so when I caught this 2nd fish Devin said he was done fishing lol, not really I know he would never give it up ;).

This fish we figured out was a small mouthed bass, it weighed .5lbs and was 13 inches long.. so a pretty good sized fish.

Elysa wanted to fish so bad so we put her stroller on the sand bank, she loves the water too, and gave her the pole she freaked out with excitement.. it was funny too cause when we reeled the line in and just let her hold the pole she knew that it wasn't cast out and she would start fussing until we cast it out again.

Playing in the water.

This was such a fun trip and I look forward to it every year. Plus, thanks Dev for the great idea of a road trip for the 3 of us.. we had so much fun and vowed to make it a tradition every year!