Big Update...Oct

I know it has been a long time....I would make excuses that I have been so busy, but, really, they are just excuses! :) This is a quick update! Some highlights from Oct. I was going to include Nov, but this has already taken me 1/2 an hour, so it's just Oct. Hopefully you will get Nov before Dec is over! Haha!

So, at the beginning of Oct, Oct 7th, to be exact, the kids woke up freezing....they came out of their rooms like this:

I couldn't stop laughing because this was the temp outside....

yes, that says 64'....yes, 64'. SO COOOOOOLLLLDDD!! Haha! Definitely Arizona babies! Notice how that is at 6:45 in the am. It still got up to 90' that day, and within 2 days we were back in the upper 90's and 100's.

My Mom invited me and my kids on a last minute UT trip during Fall break, so we jumped in the car and headed to UT!!

We made it!!!

We started in Ogden, to visit my brother, Nate, and his adorable wife, Abby. We only stayed one night at their place, then we headed down to Salt Lake City and spend the day there! We went on a tour of the conference center, then took the kids to the Temple grounds. BEAUTIFUL!!

I'm so glad they got to touch the temple!!

We also went to the visitors center and saw the Christus

We also went on top of the Church office building, to the Beehive House and the Tabernacle. I'm so glad they got to experience all of that!!

Before leaving SLC, we decided to go find Hatch Family Chocolates. It is a Chocolate show on TLC about little people who do AMAZING creations out of chocolate. Yeah, we found it....

Yeah, I got pics with the owners, Katie and Steve...

And, we bought chocolates. They were pretty good! My kids loved the chocolate covered gummy worms! haha!!

After the chocolates, we went to the SLC Cemetery. If you have never been there, GO!! It was amazing! They have a little map of many different people buried there, including President Hinckley

Pres. McKay, Woodruff, etc. Also, Orwin Porter Rockwell, other members of the quorum of the 12, and important women and men in the church! We spent 1 hour there, but I would have loved to spend 2 more hours! They also have a special memorial for people who have miscarried, or had a pre-term baby who died.

It is pretty touching.

After SLC we went down to Provo to visit my friend, Heidi and her family. We had LOTS of fun! We went to the dead animal museum

It's on the BYU campus. Bean museum?? It was really fun!

Then we went up the Sundance Canyon and hiked in to Stewart Falls.

Can we say BEAUTIFUL!!!!

It was great weather (still chilly) but the kids stripped down to their swimsuits and didn't really play in the water, but played on the hill by the water. It was CHILLY!!

Isn't it gorgeous!

Thanks, Heidi for letting us stay at your house, and entertaining us for the day!

After Provo, we headed down to Price to visit my sister, Katie. She had 2 volleyball games, so we were cheering her on! We stayed with cousins, and the kids had a great time! The weather was beautiful so we stayed outside most of the time and enjoyed playing outside!

Unfortunately, I only got a few pictures at the volleyball game.!

Here is the fan club...see the painted faces?? That was Allison's idea! Love it!

Go CEU!!

Unfortunately, this is as much playing as Katie did!

Oh well, we still love Katie!! Woohoo!!

On the way home, we went by the dinosaur tracks on the Reservation. Who knows if they are real, but the kids thought they were cool!

While we were gone, our Guinea pig, Cinnamon, had a baby. Yes, this is the baby at 3 days old!! They have their eyes open, they run, and they eat real food within a day! It's like giving birth to a toddler! Unfortunately, 2 died at birth, but this little guy, Little Bear, survived! The kids LOVE him!

Then came Halloween!! We carved pumpkins....

I had to adorable candy corn witches and a scary ghost with chains. Payton really wanted to be something with blood and guts and scary, but we compromised with this. He thought it was great. Do you love Lexi's trick-or-treat bucket?? I made it!

We had a GREAT Oct and I hope the kids loved the memories we made.

We had an amazing Nov...and that is to come.....sometime!

Nutcracker!!

So, Maddie is in the Nutcracker again this year! She is sooooo excited because she is a Gingerette (she gets to come out of a BIG skirt in the 2nd half).

If you would like to come, here is the flyer and information!! Maddie only performs in the following shows:

 Fri. Nov 26 7pm

Sat. Nov 27 7pm

Sat Dec 4 2pm

Sun Dec 5 3pm

Fri Dec 10 7pm

Sat Dec 11 7pm

This is a GREAT production, and the same one I was in when I was young! Most of the dancers are under 18, and they do an amazing job!!

Bring your daughters and girlfriends! We have made this a tradition since Maddie was 3. She would dress up in her Christmas dress and we would go to the Nutcracker! So fun!

This was last year when she was a doll! So cute!

E-mail me if you have any questions! edennison78@yahoo.com
or you can visit http://www.balletetudes.net/BE/Ballet_Etudes_Main.html for details and ordering tickets!

Thanks!

(by the way...I will get around to making a real post...sometime! :))

Congrats, Nicole!!

My favorite nurse in the whole world is named Nicole. She was one of Jakes nurse's in the Heart Unit and we became really close friends. She is now one of my closest friends. I can call her for ANYTHING and she is always willing to listen and help!

Well, one of my friends suggested we nominate her for the March of Dimes Nurse of the Year. I thought it was a GREAT idea, so we did! Out of over 400++ entries, Nicole was a FINALIST!! She was SO nice to invite me to be one of her guests for the Dinner. It was a black tie affair and REALLY nice.

 It was SO fun to go and be there to support her. She unfortunately didn't win (even though I think she should have), most of the other nominees had been nominated by supervisors or other colleagues. I think she was one of the only ones to be nominated by a patient!!  It was fun hanging out with Tara and Tim!! :)

This is my sister, Katie's dress. We all call it the Cha Cha dress. It was really fun to wear. Thanks, Katie, for letting me wear it! And, thanks for the adorable red shoes! They are SO FUN too!! Thanks, Shelley, for the adorable purse! It went with my outfit perfectly!

Anyways, I had a GREAT time. Congrats, Nicole. I think you are AMAZING!! I'm so glad we are such great friends. I'm glad Jake brought us together.

Happy Anniversary

So, 12 years ago I married the man of my dreams!!

Yes, we were young, carefree, and in love

(and yes, my dress was fluffy and huge...I loved it then, and I still love it!) 

This is my mom's mom and dad. I fondly called them Muttie and Grampy. Grampy married and sealed Tyler and me. That means Tyler and I are married for time and ETERNITY....we are together FOREVER!!  I was soooo honored and blessed to have my grandparents there. I was the last person he sealed. He passed away 5 months later. What a huge blessing and honor it was to have him seal me to my amazing man!

I know I was young and in love and "blinded by love" but I am still absolutely head over heels in love with my man. He loves me and my family and I know he would do anything for me....he does! We aren't quite so blinded, but I am still head over heels in love with him.

Happy anniversary, babe. I love you!!

Happy birthday to YOU!!

My kiddos are all turning one year older this week!! I can't believe it! Last year I had separate birthday parties for each kid. It was lots of fun, but LOTS of work, so this year I decided to throw one BIG party. The kids could invite whoever and however many they wanted! It ended up being REALLY fun! Luckily, we planned a water party at our greenbelt with

Slip-n-slides

and a water slide bouncer!

By the way, we hit a heat record....110' YES 110' was how hot it was during the day. Good thing it was ALL about the water! We had cupcakes

and popsicles

 and Cotton Candy! 

YUMMY!!

Thank you to all of the friends and cousins that came,

Happy birthday, kiddos!! I love you!!

Colorado

So, Nate and Abby got married in July in AZ, but had an open house in Colorado in Aug. A few of us couples decided to make a "no kids" trip out of it! We had SO much fun! Ok, so be prepared for LOTS of photos!

It began on Saturday at the open house. Abby looked beautiful, of course, and her parents house was amazing. It was in their backyard (you can do that in Aug in CO. Not in AZ, though. It was GREAT weather and BEAUTIFUL!!)

Here are the newlyweds getting a bite to eat before the big party!

Rachelle made the cake topper for Abby's Cake! Great job!

Here are all the girls. This is one of the views from Abby's back yard!

Me and my man!

Nate and Abby were nice to each other at the "cake eating" in AZ....CO, they had FUN!

Here is all of my family that were able to go to CO!! (I didn't take this photo.)

My favorite part of the reception was the end when they had HUGE sparklers for everyone and the bride and groom got to run through them! This is SO cool! Us Arizonan's don't get sparklers...yet! :)

My Bro, Todd, found these basketball uniforms and tried them on...they are Abby's younger sisters!! Haha!! Show those muscles, Todd!!

After the reception, we headed up to Fairplay to stay at Abby's parent's cabin. It was late, about 2:30am, when we got there, but someone else was already at the cabin (without us knowing it!!!!) Here we are, waiting for them to leave. It was really funny, and even funnier at 3am, when you are slap happy and sleep deprived! Haha!

The next day we went up to Brighton Ski resort. It was BEAUTIFUL!!

Here we are on main street

This is us on Mt. Baldy. You can see the ski resort behind us.

This is at the Continental Divide. I guess it is where the water either runs toward the atlantic ocean or the pacific ocean. Notice that we are 11,539 feet elevation!! We were HIGH!! 

Monday we went white water rafting. I don't have any pics of that, because I didn't want my camera ruined, but My sis-in-law, Rachelle has some. Check out her blog for MORE pics! haha!

After White Water Rafting we went to some natural hot springs...again, no pics here, but Rachelle has some!

On the way to dinner that night we saw this....

This deer was just chillin in some guys front yard. He was even talking at his front door! there were lots of them in this neighborhood!

Here are us girls on a big tree. haha!

Group photo of us all kissing. Hey...no kids! :)

The last day we went back to Brighton and up to the ski resort. It was AWSOME!!! WE went down these alpine slides...SO FUN!!

My phone took a vacation as well. The night we got up to the cabin I dropped it in the toilet...don't ask...so my bro, Aaron, said to put it in a bag of rice. So, this is what my phone looked like the whole time:

But, by the morning we were supposed to leave, here it is!! It works!!

Thanks for the tip, Aaron!!! Rice really works!!!

We barely made our flight out, but we made it home! :)

Thanks for the GREAT trip, everyone! We had a blast!