Eleven Years

We had fun celebrating our anniversary this year! We started off the celebration a day early by hosting a dinner party and playing "The Newlywed Game" with some of our friends. I decided I didn't really want to cook, so we had lasagna, salald, bread, and for dessert I made mini-brownie trifles. The Larson's amazed us all by only missing 2 out of 16 questions! We shared a lot of laughs and got to know our friends a little better. It was one of our favorite parties we've had.

We celebrated our anniversary the next day with a couple's massage, dinner, and a movie.  Don't we look super-relaxed?!  I'm thankful to share my life with my best friend and am looking forward to many more happy years together.

Girl Crazy

So, I don't know if we need to be scared for the future, because Miles is already kind of into girls.  He tells me from time to time about girls he thinks are really pretty.  Then, a couple weeks ago, it was our turn to have kids club at our house.  Everyone was sitting around the dinner table, and Miles announced that he would point to his girlfriend (keep in mind that he is still one of the youngest in the group, and all of the girls are Darren's age.)  As he waved his hand across the table, it was so funny to see all the girls ducking and groaning, and his finger stopped at Brooke Smith.  She yelled, oh,no! and ducked under the table.  Then Miles got up, walked over to Sammi ,kissed her on the cheek,  and said, "This is what I do to my girlfriend!"  Brooke said, "Oh,no, I'm getting out of here!" and ran upstairs.  Then a little while later, one of the kids suggested playing Tag, and Miles said, "I know, let's play tag and hug!"  I don't know about the other girls, but it is pretty hard resist his cute smile, hugs, and kisses!

Happy Father's Day 2012

We had sort of a non-traditional Father's Day this year - we suprized Jerry with a trip to see his dad for Father's Day, so he wasn't here. We were lucky enough, though, to have my dad and mom in town,  so we really got to spoil Grandpa on his special day. I took the kids to the dollar store, and they each picked out a gift for him. It's always fun to see what they come up with!

Miles' gift was the funniest - he saw a bottle of draino at the store and grabbed it, and said, "Cool!  This is what I want to get him!"  I told him what it is for, and he still wanted it (something you have to know about Miles is that he LOVES to clean bathrooms, especially toilets, lol.  If I give him that for his chore, he'll say, "YES!!!"  Maybe that's why he was so excited about the draino.)

Another funny incident that happened this weekend was that we went to Cabella's on Friday night with my dad.  We told the kids that if they were really good, we would go upstairs to the fudge shop and get a sample.  When we got up there, it was closed, so my dad offered to let them pick out some of the bagged candy.  Since it was 3/$9.99, we picked out three large bags, and a bottle of BBQ sauce for my dad and paid for them when we were ready to leave.  The next day, we took the kids to the Dollar Theater to see "Journey 2:  the Mysterious Island."  On the way home, my dad asked if we wanted to stop at Sam's Club, and I said, "sure," since we don't have our own membership.  He told the kids that they could each pick out one box of treats or snacks, so pretty soon our cart was full of goodies and junk food.  As we stood in line to pay, the people behind us asked if we had been at Cabella's the night before - their son recognized us, because they had also been standing behind us in line at Cabella's.  Random!  We felt the need to explain that we had just been "recreational shopping," as my dad put it, since both times they had seen us only buying treats!!!

We were so happy that Jerry was coming home late Sunday night and will have another celebration with him tonight.  Here is what the kids had to say about him in our annual primary Father's Day card:

My dad's age:  39 (Darren, Claire & Miles)
My dad's favorite food:  pizza (Miles,) biscuits and gravy (Claire,) chicken (Darren)
My dad's job:  my dad never told me (Miles,) designs airplanes (Claire,) engineer (Darren)
My dad is really good at:   basketball (Miles,) fixing stuff (Claire,) work (Darren)
My favorite thing to do with my dad:  go to the swimming pool (Miles,) go places with him (Claire,) draw (Darren.)
If I could give my dad anything, it would be:  a car (Miles,) a new tie and church outfit (Claire,) $1000000000000000000000000000 dollars (Darren.)

We really do have the best dads and grandpas around, and we are so thankful for them!  Happy Father's Day!

Look Who's Three!

We just love our little Sammi-Bear! It's hard to believe she's three already! She got to go on her first visit by herself to Grandma and Grandpa's house right before her birthday, and had a fabulous time!

Some of the things we love about her are:

1. She has her own sense of style - she is constantly changing outfits, and sometimes will put things on as she comes across them throughout the house. Probably her worst fashion mistake was when she put on a pair of Mile's dirty underwear over her shorts!

2. She is always saying the funniest things - like the time she asked my dad, "Where's you brother?" (when we asked her if she meant Grandma, she said yes!)And when she's hungry, she asks for "munch" (lunch), and when she's swimming, she's a "mermanaid".

3.  She is a little momma's girl! 

Getting Ready for Christmas

Totally cracking up at this:

Grateful Kids

For family home evening at the beginning of the month, we set the timer for 10 minutes and went around the room thinking of everything we were thankful for. A couple days later, the kids decided to make their own list, with Darren writing everything down. They came up with over 100 things! So grateful for such sweet kids!

Halloween 2011

We had so much fun trick-or-treating this year with the kids. We had hundreds of tricker-treaters this year - even lots of teenagers dressed up, so it was a fun atmosphere. Darren's friend, Shay, went with us. Sammi was old enough to really get into it and learn the rules. It was kind of funny to hear her calling out to the other kids as she perched on Jerry's shoulder, "Light not on! Light not on!!!" Jerry and I felt a little like the people in Oliver Twist, as we urged our kids on to house after house (well, who am I kidding - they were running anyway!) We ended up with tons of candy, and I'm proud to say that we even have a little bit of it left two weeks later. Here are a couple cute and not so cute pictures . . .

Once again, the dress up box that Santa brought four years ago came through for us and I didn't have to buy any new costumes. Miles was a power ranger, Darren was an ultimate Jedi, Claire was a Cheetah, and Sammi was the Little Mermaid. (She wouldn't smile in the picture because we wouldn't let her have the candy bowl.)

Isn't she so cute? (the one above)

Oh, did I say she was the Little Mermaid? Make that a treat monster with a capital M.
And when I brushed her teeth Halloween night, a dot fell out.