DISNEYLAND 2011

Disneyland is my favorite place on the planet. People think I'm joking when I say I could live their & be completely happy, but I'm not! I could!! One of these days I'll be rich enough that I'll be able to stay in Sleeping Beauty's castle for a week! Hey - a girl can dream right?! In fact, I tell Erik all the time that if I ever get to the point to do a Make a Wish event - I want to be Belle for a day. How awesome would that be?! There would be nothing cooler than watching little girls faces as they see Belle walk up first hand!

Anyway, enough of my crazy ramblings. We were lucky enough to go to Disneyland again in December. It's turned into a little tradition to go with our friends the Paez's from Vegas. This year the Linford's came, too! We left early on Wednesday morning the 1st, checked in & went straight over to Disneyland. No messing around for us!!

It was nice this year. Since our girls are older now - we didn't spend all of our time looking for characters. We even did rides we've never done before! Such as, the Storybook ride with miniature models of characters homes. That was a fun one to us! Slow paced, but crazy how they build those. Mr. Toad's home is in the collage below.

Day 3 - Friday - was the day the Paez's were able to meet us. Thanks to them we had quite the memorable experience most people don't have. Wendy, the mom, is obsessed with Mary Poppins. She has passed that love down to her daughter Jenny & now her 2 girls Lorelie & Payton. So much so that they had dresses to look just like Mary. They are bigger Disney fanatics than us, by far! And every time they go they look for Mary & take pictures with her. This time they made a book for Mary with all the pictures that was way cute! They knew when she would come out & we waited for her to come out. When She & Bert appeared they were floored to see two little girls dressed just like Mary. Then, Wendy presented her with the book & she started to tear up.

She was so touched that she took us on a little journey. She took us to meet a few princesses - cutting us to the front of the lines every time. In fact, there was a 60 min. wait to meet Rapunzel & she took us in the back way of the cottage & got us right in. It was crazy!! She had to leave for awhile & we were on our way with a plan to meet her again later. From their everywhere we went characters knew who those little girls were. Apparently, Mary had talked about them backstage to everyone. Mary said that she sees girls dressed up all the time, but never like her. These little girls made her day!

Mary does a show in front of the castle where they sing "Supercalafragalisteexpeallidocious" (something like that) & she told us where to go & pulled the girls into the show. Jay got to participate & was quite the ham. What amazed me was the time they spent with us. Especially just the walking around & talking with the girls. I love the photo on the bottom left of her & Jay talking & the one on the right with Lorelie in the air & everyone skipping. It was just too fun!!

Besides this - the Paez's are always a joy to be with! They are so good to our girls & our girls just adore all of them! We miss the a ton!

Unfortunately, this could be our last time for awhile. Since I went back to work I had to quit my Disney job. Therefore, no more free tickets every 6 months. SAD, SAD, DAY!! Because of this I took a million pictures of little details. I love, love, love the Haunted Mansion ride! Especially during Christmas time when it's The Nightmare Before Christmas. If I could, I would decorate like that ride. I would kill to have that carriage in my yard! (Minus the pumpkins.)

THANKSGIVING 2010

We headed up to my Mom's for Thanksgiving this year & had fun as always. It was a fun weekend spent with family. My Mom cooked up a little boutique with some other ladies in her community & got Allison & I involved as well. The first day we spent part of the time dressing up poor little Eli. Apparently, his mom has no aversion to dressing him up like a girl. She said it was to test that her headbands fit babies the way she hoped. Hmmm....

The day we planned to go home we woke up to 7" of snow! It was crazy!! The girls thought it was the best thing ever. It held us up a little from leaving since the roads weren't plowed. After a couple of hours Erik figured it was worth the risk of trying to make it down. All we had to do was make it down to the main freeway & he was sure we'd be fine. It worked just like he said.

We like to drive through Vegas & plan it that were their at either lunch or dinner time. This time it was lunch & we were able to stop at our favorite place - Fausto's. It's like Filiberto's - only good! Things aren't overly greasy & very tasty. The perfect end to our trip.

HUMA GRO CONF 2010

We had a big conference at my work in November. It was a lot of work & a little stress, but a lot of fun!! Have I mentioned I LOVE my job? Well, I do!! I love who I work with & what I do. It's been the perfect situation for me to have to go back to work to. It's been great for my family. I feel blessed. I love that I get the opportunity to work with people from around the world. Not a whole lot from my position, but some. Anyone who knows me knows how much I want to travel & am obsessed with people from other countries. I love learning about all the different cultures in the world - so fascinating.

Anyway, at my work they hold a huge conference every 2 years where they invite clients from around the globe to come visit. I was lucky enough to start just in time to be involved with this one. I think I counted 9 different countries that were able to come: Korea, Taiwan, China, Turkey, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Mexico, Peru & the US. There were so many moving parts to make this all work & I think it all worked out great. Everyone involved worked hard & it made for a fun week's worth of events.

One of the days everyone came to our office for a tour. Erik came to take a group photo...

He also took some snap shots of everyone walking around. The girls came with him since they had a half day & got to hang out at my desk for awhile. At one point our dealer from Peru, Sal, came to meet them & he walked up to give Kylie a kiss on her cheek. She backed away a little nervously & he explained that in Latin America that's how they say hello. Then, she was ok with it. It was hilarious & he was a good sport & laughed about it!

Erik snapped a picture of me talking with my new favorite people (on the bottom left). L to R is: Duygu, Umut & Haluk from Turkey. Duygu (pictured with me on the bottom) is my new BFF. ;) I loved the Turk's - can't really say why - I just did. They were so nice to me & always made sure to find me to say hi. Duygu was the only one that spoke english so she was busy translating for them half the time.

A lot of the visitors didn't speak english. We hired 3 different translators. It was a little crazy. Everyday was jam-packed with classes, food & anything else we could fit in.

One of the highlights was having the chance to go to a Suns game in a suite. Erik was in heaven!! He got a hot dog & found a chair & pretty much stayed put the whole time to watch the game from a great seat! It was awesome!

A silly story - while riding the escalator up to our suite I noticed a nice motorcycle. I went to go take a picture of it for Erik (who is obsessed with motorcycles & dying to have one) & opened the glass door to look at it when I hear a lady yell, "Hey lady! You can't go in their!" I said, "Sorry - I was just trying to look at the bike." As I turn around to tell her that I see multiple security guards running towards me. WHOOPS!! Guess you're not allowed to go in their. ;) I was able to walk away without getting thrown into Suns jail - thank goodness! I then settled with taking a picture of a bike in the club area near our suite. It was a fun night & a great way to end the week long festivities.

VT CONF

In November we had a visiting teaching conference brunch. It went quite well I think. Thanks to my amazing presidency! I really can't take ANY credit for this one. We had a theme of "What Kind of Shoe are You?" These were our little programs:

We had a little shoe fashion show where one of the ladies in the ward narrated for us. She came fully dressed and prepared for fun - which we knew she would! We had a pair of gals dressed to model shoes for each category as she spoke about that particular type of shoe. I really want to remember how this went & of course lost my sheet on it already, so I'll paraphrase each one briefly:

{SLIPPERS} They slip in & out each month.

{FLIP FLOPS} They flip flop around each month & you never know if they're going to come or not.

{RUNNING SHOES} They run in and out each month as quickly as possible.

{BOOTS} They're the ones that come in each month to talk & talk & talk until you want to boot them out the door!

{HIGH HEELS} These are the stellar visiting teaching. They always reach your needs & go above the call of duty.

This is a really bad explanation, but you get the idea. Anyway, it was a lot of fun & a darling idea! Wish I could take some of the credit for this because it was so cute, but I can't!

KYLIE SofM

Kylie was chosen for the October Student of the Month in her class. The value for that month was perseverance. Here's what her teacher had to say about her:

"I feel this student deserves The Student of the Month Award" because she is a 'ray of sunshine' each day. She tries hard in all subjects, and regularly attends math tutoring to become a better math student. She understands first hand the meaning of perseverance. Her math grade has risen by pushing on despite difficulty. Her smile and positive attitude is uplifting to those around her."

We are so proud of our Kylie!!

HALLOWEEN 2010

Halloween was a lot of fun this year at our house! I even took the time to make something for Kylie's class party.....

Not to mention make this banner that I had brewin' in my head.....

And we can't forget our door decoration. We've had this silly skeleton thing for years. We've named him "Bones". This was the first year that Kylie didn't cry when we put him up!!

The funnest part is always the parties! We were in town this year to be invited to the annual Hammond party. We had a lot of fun visiting with friends & eating YUMMY soup. EmmaLee even orders the cutest pumpkin bread bowls. We had Mr. Clean & his maid in attendance. Their entourage included a ninja, Iron Man & the cutest Wonder Woman you've ever seen! Then, we had H.I. McDunnough & Edwina from Raising Arizona. (Quite the show stopper - they were hilarious!) There entourage had a witch, prisoners & the most darling Cindy Lou Who! We also had more prisoners in attendance with Alice in Wonderland & a Vampiress. One of my favorites, though, was EmmaLee's mom & her bumble bee costume she made. It was awesome! After attending their ward Trunk or Treat we came back to homemade donuts & lots of candy trading!

Next, was our ward Trunk or Treat. Which we have never attended. It was fun & Erik even got guy time with Luke. Their picture fully deserved the "BFFL" tag. I felt the need to dress up my costume this time because it was the biggest tent of a costume ever! It may have looked more dumb, but at least I didn't feel like a house. And I just couldn't resist taking a pic of our newest bishopric member dressed as Superman & his princess wife. Too cute! I also love the pic of my girls walking with Juliet. Priceless!

However, my favorites of the night are the following two where it looks like my girls are taking off with peoples kids. Especially Kylie's! This picture makes me laugh every time I see it. Her face is classic & totally looks like she's taking this child!!


Lastly, was the Smith-Hallows gang party. Everyone who didn't show up in costume had to take a pic with the silly noses. I was tired of my silly costume by this time, hence the nose. The Rubbles stole the show at this party! As well as the Flower Child. And yet again, another picture of Erik cuddling with other males. (I can't even tell you how many of these we have. Or pics of him with other wives just to confuse people. That could be a whole other post.) Anyway, Halloween also brings Steele's birthday, so it was a perfect time to celebrate! He received some hair gel & made the best mohawk on Max!

OCTOBER

WOW!! Where has the time gone? Life is flying at such a speedy pace that I just can't keep up. It's all I can do to make sure were at least fully clothed when we leave our house in the morning. With work, my calling, yearbook & our crazy life in general - things are NUTS!!! I'm completely impressed I had an hour to do this today. So, if anyone out there is still checking this - let's start off slow....

I am an anal person. No secret! For my sanity, I must go back to October & work in chronological order. Even though we've had some pretty life changing events occur that deserve immediate attention. In the past I would start posting when I had a bunch cued up to automatically post for a week. Today, however, I have one & only one. At least it's a start & we'll see where we go from here. ;)

I'm starting with October. This was a month full of some craziness. We started a babysitting coop & love it! I took some pictures the first week we had a turn & had to share. (I hope no one is nervous that I posting pictures of their kid. Probably should have asked first. Oh well - sorry! The kids are all so cute. We actually were short one the first time, so there's only two here. Oh & I had to add the picture of Nui because it makes me laugh every time I see it. It's blurry, but how often do you catch a picture of a dog with it's eyes closed? I thought it was funny!

Next, we had a crazy storm with a micro burst in our area. The stake RS Pres called me & asked if everyone in our ward was ok after the storm & I thought that was odd. It was just some rain. Sure it was a lot of rain, but nothing major. I had no idea what had happened 1/4 mile from my home! We went to Target by our house & found light poles down Southern that were completely destroyed! The pictures don't do it justice. It was crazy! One of them is cracked twice. Weird!! Our bishop is still harassing me for meals because he had some branches fall into his pool. Guess I better get on that. I'm a slacker of a Pres!

October was also a miracle month! Little Eli was born to Jack & Alli! What a blessing he is to them & a cutie at that! It's crazy to look at these photos because he already looks nothing like this. He has the best dimples & the cutest grin. They grow so fast!

Now we'll see how long it will be before I can post again. I counted roughly 17 posts to catch up. Halloween will be next. At least my yearbook deadline is only 3 weeks away!! Actually, that's terrible because I have a lot to do! On the other hand, it's wonderful because I'll be done!! Wish me lots of luck!