Thanksgiving With My Family

This was a wonderful Thanksgiving because my side of the

family was all together!  My brother, Bret and his family came from Texas!

 Bret, me, Cody, Mom, Dad, Brittany, and Dustin

 The Knowles Family

 The Bret Christensen Family

(Bret, Caleen, Markelle, Chase, Aiden, and Ember)

 Cody, Kali, and Ally with mom and dad

 The Heal Family

(Jared, Brittany, Brock, Logan, Dallin, and Boston)

 

Mom and her baby :) (Dustin)

 We always eat our Thanksgiving dinner at the Provo Marriott.

It's delicious!!

 I got to sit by Boston :)  A messy job!

After dinner we went to the Muppett Movie.  I have heard a lot of people liking this movie

but we didn't really enjoy it!

Afte the movie we went to mom and dad's and played games and ate some more!

Santa

I really don't know how many more years I'm going to be able

to get away with these pictures!

We went and visited Santa down at the

Shops at the Riverwoods.  He was our favorite last year.

We did it for FHE tonight and wanted to beat the rush - that's why we did it so early.

After we saw Santa, we went to Aunt Sandy's for hot chocolate because

she lives down there.  It was so fun!

See how our family has changed since this blog started...

2007

2008

2010

Breaking Dawn!

Brittany and went to our annual "Twilight" movie premiere with all 

of our wonderful friends.  This year we invited Maddie and Talbie to come along.

Maddie is like me - sees the movies when they come out but can take them or leave them.

Talbie on the other hand - is a DIE HARD!

(see how she can't stop grinning!)

 I do owe a lot to Stephanie Meyers because if it wasn't for her, Talbie never would have developed this incredible love for reading that she has.

We all met and ate at Brick Oven on the way up to the theater

 The movie was...entertaining.  It had a few good parts but I

don't think any Oscar nominations are in their future!

...but it was an awesome girl's night!

(Brittany, me, Maddie, Talbie, Michelle, Angela)

The Perfect Stocking Stuffer

Bronson is a little entrepreneur and has been making these

pick necklaces for a few months now. 

 See Here

He sells these at Best in Music in Orem

(the one by Sonic)

With his first batch he earned a significant store credit that he's applying

towards guitar lessons.  He will do the same thing with the money he

earns from selling these necklaces.

Let us know if you see them there when you're shopping :)

11/11/11

21 years ago today - I went on the best (and last) blind date!

It was 21 years ago today that Dave and I had our first date.

We were set up by Matt Heaps (my brother's friend and Dave's brother-in-law's brother :)

Dave had been home from his mission for only 2 weeks.

I had been waiting for a missionary who had come home, but I knew the minute

he got home that we weren't meant to be.

So, I decided that I would start the process to go on a mission.

I met with my Bishop to get the paperwork started, met Dave,

and was married 4 months later.

The best decision I ever made was to marry Dave!

He has blessed my life in more ways than I can count.

Happy (first date) Anniversary!

I love you :)

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my dad's birthday!

My dad is the best dad in the world.  He has done so much for me and

my family.  Words can't express what he means to me.

We celebrated last night.  Brittany and I wanted to treat him and my mom

by taking them out to dinner...

...but of course he ended up paying for us all!

(No wonder he dreads it when we invite him to dinner :)

 Emmie gave grandpa some "money medals." 

 My girls

 Poor Bronson

 Maddie loves to be in everyone's pictures.  

(Brock, Dallin, and Maddie)

Look at Dallin's awesome haircut.  He came down to Aveda

and had it cut by Maddie today!

 My kids with Grandpa

 The Heal family with grandpa.  Logan (in the front with grandpa)

also got his haircut today by Maddie.

 Boston enjoying his spaghetti

 Getting the cake ready with grandma

 Blowing out the candles and making his wish.

I think his wish was that we wouldn't sing to him - but it didn't come true!

Emmie's Costume

Emmie always wants to be something "cowgirl" related for Halloween. 

This year she was dying to be "Jessie" from Toy Story.

The costumes you buy at the store are so expensive (if you want a cute one from the Disney store)

or pretty lame if you get the cheap Walmart version.

We came up with this little number for $0

She already had the pants, shirt, and boots

I had the cow fabric

We found some yellow fabric in my stash

...along with some red trim

The red hat was Maddie's when she was in the 3rd grade from an old dance recital.

The white tassels are left over from one of Talbie's school play costumes

The yellow arm bands are made with plastic cups with fabric glued to them.

And we had the red yarn for the braid :)

Another costume DONE!

 

Pumpkins

We carved our home-grown pumpkins tonight and had lots of fun!

 Emmie refuses to smile!

 My cute family!

13 Years...

This handsome guy is 13 today!

This is his school picture this year.

He hates this picture but I kinda like it ;)

 Bronson is growing up to be such a wonderful boy!  I'm so proud of him.

One of my favorite sights is seeing him go places with his dad.  

I tried to get a picture of them before they left for the Priesthood Session

this last weekend but they were being too goofy!

 Bronson made us these delicious cinnamon rolls on Sunday morning

before Conference that he'd made at school.  They were yummy!

We love you Bronson!

Harvest

We've had fun picking our fruits and veggies this year.  

We've put my mom's old dehydrator to good use from the hundreds of apples

we got off our tree this year.

 Our pumpkin patch did AWESOME this year!

 Pumpkins make a front porch look so good in the fall :)