Happy Thanksgiving!

This is our fourth Thanksgiving being here and away from our family. I can't believe how quickly time goes. We had our Thanksgiving dinner here at our apartment together. Bryan is quite the chef when it comes to cooking his famous Turkey. I thought I might die from holding in my laughter while watching him baby that thing. I seriously think he took it out and basted it at least 10 times. But sure enough it did turn out super moist and awesome like always. After dinner we went and played a little golf together. Then we came home, popped a little popcorn, and watched Space Chimps with the kids. It turned out to be a really fun day. I love Thanksgiving for the opportunity it gives me to focus on everything I have to be Thankful for. Here is a small list of a few blessings I've had on my mind.
-I feel so blessed to have such wonderful parents. I can't imagine them parenting any better than the way they did. I had a great childhood because of them. They are a never ending example to me.
-The Gospel. I am so grateful to belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. I am grateful for the knowledge that it gives me that we have a Savior who loves us and died for us. The opportunity it gave me to enter the temple to be sealed for time and all eternity to my family. And for a prophet here on the earth to guide us.
-My family. I don't think I ever realized how much a heart could love someone until I had kids. I am so grateful for my 3 little sweethearts and a wonderful husband.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Bryan cooked this mini turkey and set it in front of Ellie just to be funny. She was ready to dig in!

Cole lost his first tooth!

Cole lost his first tooth a couple of weeks ago and was so excited. It came out the same day as his best friends that lives downstairs so they thought that was pretty neat. It was kind of an emotional moment for me! Just realizing that my little boy is growing up and isn't going to be little forever. I just want to push the pause button on life sometimes and enjoy this phase a little longer. Where my boys still love to give me hugs and snuggle. And wake up in the morning and hear Cole say, "Did you have a good sleep and good dreams Mom?" And then hug my leg. Or Carsons "I wuv you mom" in his gruff little way. It's just a blink away before they'll be a teenagers and probably be telling me to get out of their room and stop bothering them! So sad! But there are those days (all to often) when Cole and Carson are fighting so bad that I'm going NUTS! So I guess the point of it all is just to realize that each season of life has it's own set of challenges. So I better just enjoy the one I'm in. Both the Hugs AND the fighting.

2 weeks later... Tooth #2 came out! That tooth fairy is keeping busy.

Ellie is getting so big!

I can't believe how fast time is going! Ellie is already 8 months. She is getting all around the house with her own little unique version of crawling. She says "dada", and I can't leave the room without her starting to cry and say "MOM" over and over. She still isn't sleeping through the night. I get up with her on average 4 times still. I am at wits end on what to do! It's so hard to let her "cry it out" when we are living in a small apartment because then the whole house is up! Not to mention worrying about it keeping up the neighbors. And ok, I admit it, I am a softie. It breaks my heart to hear her cry. All I can say is it's a good thing she is such a cutie to make up for my lack of sleep! So if I seem a little crazy,dazed or downright grouchy sometimes...please blow it off as lack of sleep! Hopefully soon I'll be back to my old self sometime soon!

Family night

Cole and Carson wanted to play Yahtzee for Family night. They LOVE to play this together. I think half of the fun is shaking the dice in the cup. They get really into it and shake and shake and shake...get the picture? It is so cute to watch how serious they get on trying for the perfect roll of the dice. Nothing like those Monday night board games!

Beach Bonfire

We went to a bonfire down at the beach over the weekend and had so much fun. The boys roasted marshmellows and played in the sand and watched the airplanes taking off. (We were at Manhattan beach which is right by LAX). As much as I love a good campfire up in the mountains, I have to say a fire at the beach takes the cake. All the fun without the worry of bats, bears, mountain lions ect. Okay, I know I'm exaggerating. But I did like the idea of being able to see all around and know nothing was lurking in the forest around me. We had a great time.

Here is a few snapshots of Ellie to keep the Grandmas happy!

Happy Halloween!

Cole and Carson decided that they wanted to dress up as mummies this year. Ellie was a little ladybug. We went trick or treating with a group of our friends from our building. The houses here go all out with the decorations, it is AMAZING. I've never seen anything like it. We had so much fun going from house to house just to see what cool thing the next one would have! (The skeleton in the picture above was walking around in the yard. It was as tall as the first peak on the roof of the house!) The weather was perfect outside, which is so nice considering the memories I have of freezing in the snow in Utah on halloween!