Thanksgiving 2008

We went to Safford for Thanksgiving this year because my sister in law who lives there couldn't travel because she's gonna have a baby any day now. We all met at Jake's uncle's house where there was about 50 people. His parents drove down from Las Vegas and his oldest sister drove from Dallas Texas. For the past 8 years or so we have spent Thanksgiving with Jake's family and then Christmas with my family. It works out very well. We eat our Thanksgiving meal usually about noon and then visit, eat more, visit and eat even more for the rest of the day. Then the next day we have our Christmas gift exchange and play games. I already talked about what game we play in my last post where I didn't know the name of it but now I do its called Christmas Basket. We played it a little different this time because one, we had a lot more people and two we didn't just yell out names we yelled out things like, anyone who has a red shirt on switch seats. I thought it was a lot more fun that way!

Some of Jake's family from left to right: Jake's dad Paul, uncle Clay, sister Shera, brother Austin, sis n law Mary, Jake, Jake's mom Joyce, sister Jesa, and sister Tara.

This is Kayla and her cousin Erin, these two are about a year and a half apart but they best of friends! They played the whole time we were there, whether it was getting dirty or playing with dolls. Seeing them like this makes me kinda wish we lived in Safford again.

Samantha getting a makeover! Jake's aunt Shelly's sister who came for Thanksgiving had a bunch of left over Mary Kay makeup where she showed some of the girls how to properly apply on makeup. This is Samantha's before picture.

Samantha applying eyeshadow. She also put on blush, eyeliner, mascara and lipstick! Of course mommy had to help her, she's not that good yet!

Samantha's after picture, doesn't she look gorgeous!

Jake was playing with different settings on our camera. I thought this one was kinda cool. Its just pics before we started playing our Christmas Basket game.

Samantha looking so pretty in front of the Christmas tree!

Thanksgiving 2007

I was looking at some pictures from last year and came across these. We are all at Shera's house(Jake's oldest sister) for Thanksgiving in Mesa. She doesn't live there anymore because she got married and moved far away to Texas. :( Anyways, we had a fun time! Lots of good food cuz we have some of the best cooks in our family! Ok so I'm a little bias! Then the day after we exchanged Christmas presents to the family we've been assigned to because we all can't be together for Christmas Day. But before the wrapping paper flys off the presents we played a game. I don't know the exact name of the game so I'll call it the "Switch a Roo" game. It started a couple of years ago with Jake's mother. I don't know where she came up with this game but I'm glad she did because we all have such a fun time playing it. We all sit in a circle(on chairs) and one person stands in the middle and yells out two names. Then those two people try as fast as they can to switch seats along with the person in the middle which leaves someone in the middle again. And it keeps going until you want to stop. Its a good game for everyone, Samantha was 3 at the time and she loved playing it. So if your looking for a fun game to play with your family, you should give this one a try.

All the cousins anxiously waiting to open presents.

Uncle Matt throwing down candy to the kids. I think we didn't have a pinata so this is what we came up with. Whatever the reason was, the kids had a blast!


Then later that night we went to look at the Temple Christmas lights. For some reason Samantha wasn't happy.

I'm looking forward to doing it all again this year!

Halloween Night

Some cute pictures I took of the girls Halloween night before they went trick or treating. I reminded the girls to say Thank You to every house. And Samantha made sure of that! She would say Thank You really loud, more than once if they didn't hear her. It was so funny!

Our Pumpkin

On Tuesday we carved our pumpkin. At first Samantha didn't want to touch the guts but as you can see she decided to give it a try. We had a lot of fun!

Here's the pumpkin all finished with lots of sharp teeth!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Halloween Party

Jake took the girls to our ward's Halloween Party last Saturday, I couldn't go because I had to work. But they had so much fun dancing, playing games like the limbo and trunk 'r' treating. As you can see Kayla was a witch and Samantha was a cheerleader. They both picked out what they wanted to be which is a kinda a funny story to me. At first Samantha wanted to be a fairy but when she saw this cheerleader costume she said, "mommy I want to be that!" I said, "are you sure?" And she said "yes!" I thought she was going to change her mind after I bought it, but she never did. Maybe she wants to be a cheerleader when she grows up. haha Kayla for the past 4 years has always been something girly like a princess or fairy. She surprised me and said, " I want to be a skelton or a witch." She decided a witch, maybe cuz she likes the dress. But she doesn't want to be a ugly witch so I guess its still kind of a girly costume. Oh well, we'll work on getting her to wear a scarey face next year.

The girls gettin' their groove on!

The New Kids On The Block concert

On October 13th I went to the New Kids On The Block concert. It was so much fun! I sat in the 10th row which was a great view of the stage! I screamed like I was 14 again! The guys sounded really good, everyone was on key. There were lots of lights, videos on the big screen, fireworks and smoke, they went all out for this tour. They sang a mix of their old songs and their new ones. About the middle of the concert they appeared on this round rotating stage in the back. They did that so the fans in the back could get a good view of them. After they sang 3 songs, they ran off the stage down the aisle right next to me! Even though they had body guards with them, girls were grabbing at them like wild animals! Even one girl jumped on top of Joey(guy above in pink shirt)! I guess it doesn't matter how old their fans are, they still act crazy!

Here's a video I took of "If You Go Away", sorry about the bad quality and my screaming. But it at least gives you an idea of how close I was.

Samantha's 4th Birthday

On Oct. 12 which is Samantha's birthday, we had a small party for her. It was us and my stepfather Jerry(her grandpa). My mom couldn't come because she wasn't feeling good. We ate pizza and cake and opened presents. Samantha had fun and she got some good gifts.

The new Dolphin Webkinz she got from mommy and daddy.

She got the Sleeping Beauty movie from grandma and grandpa.

Relaxing after opening presents.

This is us singing Happy Birthday. Samantha blows out her candles and Kayla helps.