Our Fabulous Thanksgiving

I've had a crazy week, so I'm just now getting a chance to post about our awesome Thanksgiving trip to Arizona. We visited my sister Julianne, her husband Paul & their three adorable kids. We had a blast together all week - we even had to extend our vacation a day because we didn't want to go home. Here are some of the highlights:
Driving passed Hoover Dam:

Visiting Scottsdale, Arizona:

Whoa Brooklynn!! (this was hilarious!!)

More of Scottsdale, Arizona: (Paul & Julianne said that Stephenie Meyer was from here but I never saw her. Bummer.)


Phoenix Zoo: The kids loved brushing the goats, milking the fake cow (water really came out!), & the monkeys (you walk right by the little monkeys & there's no glass)





Thanksgiving dinner: We didn't burn anything! Everything turned out super yummy - even Paul & Brad's ham that they cooked beneath the ground in their homemade pit!! That's one bonus to having gravel / dirt in your backyard - you just dig it up whenever you want!

Seeing New Moon & doing day after Thanksgiving shopping with Julianne: I learned something new about myself - I not only have restaurant menu ordering anxiety, but I also have Black Friday anxiety! I thought I was going to pass out at Kohl's after impulse buying! Sorry I'm such a nerd Julianne!

Picking pecans, oranges & grapefruit: This was so fun, & they are yummier oranges & grapefruit than in the store!

The electric parade:


The Mesa, Arizona Temple: Because we stayed one extra day we got to see the temple with Christmas lights. It was so beautiful.

These trees look like the Tree of Life, huh! Paul called them "The forbidden fruit" because he's always tempted to pick the oranges on the temple grounds.


My new favorite picture of Julianne & Paxton:

I've got to add a photo I took of Ashlie while on the trip, because all of these photos hide her face because of the baby backpack. She's cute enough to put on the blog I think! :)

This is how Paige managed to fall asleep on the long drive home:

We had such a fun trip. Thanks Paul & Julianne!

Our Low Key Halloween

Well, I think this picture proves it - my body is tired & I need more sleep. Brad and I desperately needed that extra hour of sleep this morning to recoup from having sick kids the last couple of weeks. Yeah, I opened up my (yes, embarrassingly messy) appliance cupboard and found my electric mixer with the beater still attached - and full of chocolate devils food cake. I made "spider cookies" for a Halloween dinner I put together for Brad and the girls Thursday. At least I found it after only 4 days...

I'm so glad that I had done some fun things with the girls before Halloween came, because yesterday didn't quite turn out how I would have liked. Megan seemed fine all day, and then wouldn't eat dinner before going out trick-or-treating. Brad took her to 3 houses and she asked him to bring her home. Not only was I sad for Megan, but Paige was crying like crazy because she didn't want to go without her sister. This is a look at Megan's Halloween bucket. Yes, there are 5 candies, but that's because 2 out of the 3 houses gave her 2. Lucky for her we didn't get a single trick-or-treater and we had bought some candy just in case we did.
Brad and I took turns taking Paige to houses. Without fail she said "trick-or-treat" while the door was still shut at every house, and then when they'd open the door she was completely mute. Here's a happy Paige chowin' down!
Here are some photos of our little family party Thursday night: The basement was off limits until it was time for the party
Then there was someone waiting for them!
I was worried that maybe she'd scare Paige, but Paige went right up to her and pinched her nose.
Our menu was "Boney brew" (apple juice with a frozen hand), "Snakes" (red, orange and green snake shaped breadsticks), "Worm stew" (homemade chicken noodle soup), and "Spider cookies"
The kids played pin the eyes on the monsters, and I had some touch and feel stuff where they had to touch creepy feeling stuff without looking. Paige was not going to let me blindfold her, so we had them feel under a blanket. I had "skin", "a heart", "eyeballs", "crushed bones", "vampire teeth", "maggots", "a dead hand", etc. It was fun.
Hope you all had a great Halloween! My family all had to miss out on Ethan's baby blessing today because of sick kids. It's hard to miss out on special family days. We love you Ethan and are so glad you're here!

October 21st update

I just finished Gerald Lund's new book "The Undaunted" last night. I'm so sad it's over - I loved the book - all 800 pages. Yes, I've been reading it for half of Ashlie's life now. :) The funnest thing about the book is that there are Deckers' mentioned all throughout it, which are from my grandma John's family line. I found a website that has great photos of the significant places on the trail that are mentioned in the book. It is www.thefurtrapper.com. Click on "Bluff Utah" on the left hand side (you have to scroll down a while). The pictures really bring all of those places to life after reading the book. There are so many amazing stories of Heavenly Father's hand helping to assist them on the trail. The pioneers were so amazing and Heavenly Father truly does watch out for us all. I'm so glad I finally know this story!
These are a couple pictures from the website: (Hole in the Rock)and San Juan Hill Road (the animals were so exhausted by this point that one of the horses died as soon as it made it to the top of this hill)

This past month I got to see my sister Julianne again & her baby Paxton for the first time. This is a photo of Paxton and Ashlie side by side after we picked them up from the airport.

Then, we got to see my sister Kim's new baby, Ethan. It was so fun to have the three babies here!! Lucky Ashlie has tons of cousins born the same year as her: Zachary, Lily, Olivia, Paxton, and Ethan. I have yet to meet Zachary & Olivia, but we can't wait until the Woodward babies get to see each other for the first time. Here is Kim with Ethan, me with Ashlie, and Julianne with Paxton.

We had a fun Halloween party with the Memmott family this past weekend. Brad was a graduate, I was a witch, Megan was an indian, Paige was a witch, and Ashlie was a zebra. I felt like everyone dressed up super good this year. Here are some photos of the family:

Who pulls this costume off better you think? I think Brad looks so official! You look great in that Davis High cap sweetheart!

I'm adding this at 10:00pm because Megan just lost her 8th tooth an hour ago! I didn't think her tooth was that loose! She and I were walking up the stairs and she said, "Tooth! Tooth!" and we get to the kitchen and she smiles and shows it to Brad and I. Lucky for us the tooth fairy happened to have something lying around! By the way, Ashlie rolled over for the first time yesterday, from her tummy to her back 3 times!

Holy Cow It's Cold!!!

October sure ushered itself in in a very cold way! It was 36 degrees this morning when I took Megan to school. We got snow at our house in Heber yesterday. Here are some pictures from my view at my house. It's so pretty, but SOOOO cold. I have to remind myself that it's a blessing to live somewhere where we experience all of the seasons. I feel bad that my sister Julianne is visiting me from Arizona this week. It'll be a shock to her system!

September 29th, 2009 Update

I spent a lot of time thinking lately about how I could get my kids to help around the house more. After lots of thinking I came up with something that seems to be working. We started it last week and rewarded the kids on Saturday. Week #2 seems to be going great & I'm loving it. I thought I'd share what Brad and I came up with: Both Megan and Paige have a job chart that I hung on the fridge. I created little cards that I put in the pocket sleeves of baseball card protector sheets. Megan's jobs are the top ones, and Paige's are hung down below. I made some fun magnets, and as soon as they complete a job they get to choose a magnet and place it on that square. At the end of the day they get a "white ticket" (a white piece of paper) in their jar if they completed all of their jobs. I also made them each a "good job jar", with cute Way To Go stickers, etc. Every time I catch them doing something good I write what they did on a white slip of paper and place it in their jar. If they fight, or do something not-so-good, they get a red ticket. Red tickets eat white tickets. So, on Saturdays we're counting up their white tickets and for every 20 tickets they get a prize. I went to Dollar Tree and got princess lip gloss & chapstick, bubblicious bubblegum, Tinkerbell paint sets, coloring books, etc. They can also choose little coupons good for a slurpee, an ice cream cone, a donut, a movie rental, their fingernails / toenails painted, make cookies with mom, family game night (Megan's idea), one-on-one story time in the bean bags at the library, etc. So, knowing my sugar lover, Paige, I wasn't surprised when she chose the bubblegum this last week. Megan chose the Tinkerbell paint set (not surprising either). Anyway, long story short, it's been awesome! Megan's been making her own bed before school, and even has dumped all of the garbages (and has insisted on taking the huge black garbage to the road) the last 2 garbage nights - just to earn a "white ticket". I'm loving life!

Their Job Charts - Megan has had fun setting the table for dinner each night, & she does so good! She chooses the dishes, so it's been funny seeing what she chooses for our cups. We've used china, our little tea cups, etc. It's always a surprise! By the way McKenzie - she still remembers that you taught her that the knife hugs the spoon!

Their "Good Job Jars"

Paige thinks it is so funny to balance on one leg while she puts away the silverware. She's done it every time all week long!

She does a really good job, and she's quite proud of herself!


This last weekend we hiked Battlecreek Falls in Pleasant Grove, stumbled across a really neat park, and drove the Alpine Loop starting at Timpanogas, and ending near Heber City. It's a good thing we went since there's supposed to be possibly 20 inches of snow tomorrow night in the mountains. Crazy!


And of course, I have to post some of the latest pictures of my little Ashlie: