Halloween Happenings & Thanksgiving Fun

Wow... I REALLY need to get better at blogging! Sorry this is SO late!

We had a really fun Halloween this year. We didn't travel anywhere (which is a first) so we got to take it all in and Maddox really enjoyed it this year! He was a pirate (again). At the beginning of October he began asking me if he could dress up in his pirate costume from last year. He LOVED it. Just as a back up, we got him Buzz and Woody jammies that could easily double up as back up costumes, just in case he changed his mind!

We went to our friend Sam's 1st birthday party. He had a bounce house. Maddox was in it the entire time!

Maddox painted a pumpkin that was "just his size".

Here is our little pirate for trunk-or-treat

Here are my boys...

My nerdy hunk of a husband!

Mommy and Maddox

Carving the pumpkin!

Pirate! Arrgg!

So, for Thanksgiving we went to Las Vegas to see all of Tommy's family and extended family. It was so much fun, as it always is! I am bummed I didn't take more pictures! It was so fun to see everyone. We got there on Tuesday night and spent the night with my roommate from college and it was awesome to catch up with her! Then as family arrived we moved to Tommy's aunts house and settled in. Turkey day was a lot of fun! There was LOTS of food. Maddox played basketball outside almost all day! And after we were all stuffed we went and saw Tangled which was really cute. Then, we started planning our black Friday outing. Little did I know there was a baby shower planned for me. I guess it was supposed to be a surprise but they had to tell me so that I would show up instead of being out shopping! The shower was beautiful and it was great to have all the girls together. We have such a wonderful family and I am grateful for all they do! After the shower, I got some light shopping done and then was beat!! The long days started catching up with me! Saturday we went over to a certain little pawn shop.. Some of you may be familiar with "Pawn Stars". It was fun to go and walk around the shop and see it all... and those were the only pictures I took the whole time!

Danny, Pops, and Tommy

Tommy, Maddox, and I

So anyway, there are our last two months. It has been so fun to watch Maddox learn about all these holidays and see how excited he gets about them. I am happy to announce that we won't be going anywhere anytime soon! I am home bound and I am perfectly ok with that! We are excited for the next six weeks. I can't wait for all the baking and wrapping and all the other Christmas things. I can't believe Christmas is so soon... After Christmas, its baby time! Thats right, I am 34.5 weeks pregnant.. I can't believe how quickly it has come upon us but it is time to get ready for this little one to arrive! Hopefully I will be better about updating on our Christmas activities!! Until later.... Merry Christmas!

Cowboy

 We went to a rodeo a few weeks ago. Tommy would tell you that it is THE BEST RODEO EVER. Which, it probably was... Maddox had mixed emotions about it....

 He started out a little bored...

 Then he got REALLY bored...

 Then he was excited to see all the big strong guys out there!

And then Grandpa got him a cowboy hat and he was the happiest little boy you ever did see.

(He was never really bored. In fact, he couldn't sit still.. I just thought the pictures were funny and had to come up with subtitles for them.)

We had a GREAT time with great people.

And Maddox really loves his cowboy hat... like REALLY loves it!

The End

Disneyland 2010 Edition

So, we wanted to take Maddox to do something special before the baby was born.... and well, before I get too big to enjoy anything! So, we were going to be in San Diego anyway so we decided to head on up and go spend the day at Disneyland and California Adventure! We had a LONG, GREAT day!!! Maddox was so excited to meet all these wonderful characters he sees on TV. It was so cute. It made me realize how grown up he is. Riding all the rides and wasn't scared of one of them! I guess I will just let the pictures show you how much fun we had!

Here is the group waiting for our tram. Maddox LOVES wearing his mickey mouse ears (even if they were on backwards like, the whole day)

 

 ALL day long Maddox was so excited to go to Mickey's house. This is Maddox in Pluto's bed. I guess he is pretending to chew on a shoe :)

 Maddox rode a big kid rollercoaster!

 Maddox and Stacey on the Dumbo ride!

 BUZZ LIGHTYEAR!!! Maddox was SO excited. Here he is showing Buzz a few moves.

 Maddox was so happy he didn't know what to do with himself!

 Probably the best thing that could have ever happened. Maddox "met" Lightning McQueen and Mater. Oh my gosh. He didn't know what to do with himself. Unfortunately there was a line for photos so he didn't get to stay and get more acquainted with them but, he was in shock and it was soooo cute!

He also saw Woody and Jesse, Mickey and Minnie... it was just a blast and he loved it!

Twenty Five

...... That is the number of weeks I have been pregnant. That's right, we are having a baby girl in January! We couldn't be more excited about it! Maddox always talks about his "baby sister" but I don't think he quite understands what is really going on. I watch him with our friends babies and I know he will be such a great big brother!
This pregnancy has been 100% different than it was with Maddox. When I was pregnant with Maddox I could hardly tell. I was a little sick at the beginning but it wasn't too bad. This time around I was sick for about the first 4 months. I have aches and pains like I have never felt before! And, I had no idea I could be so tired ALL. OF. THE. TIME. It is ridiculous! But, I wouldn't trade it for the world. We are so excited to meet this little girl!

The Phantom of the Opera

 For my birthday Tommy surprised me with tickets to go see The Phantom of the Opera in Las Vegas!!!!!!!! It was totally unexpected and something I had wanted to do for a very long time! Thanks to Tommy's mother, I was able to get a nice outfit for the show (since it was totally unexpected I hadn't packed anything nice). I can't even tell you how excited I was! It was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.!!!!!

Can I just tell you how much I love this guy?!?! He knows just how to put a smile on my face and he is the BEST father! He takes care of us like its no ones business... He keeps life fun thats for sure! Thank you Tommy for the best birthday and for all that you do!!!! I LOVE YOU!!

I took a picture of this picture we have up in our house. This is us on like our 3rd date... He took me to Las Vegas and that night I knew he was something special. Who knew then what we would have now? :)

Vacay

I am SOOO behind on my blogging. Today I am taking the day to get all caught up on my blogging. You see, it all started about a month ago when we went on vacation to Island Park, ID... A week away in paradise you could say. I'm sure I explain every year that Tommy's family has a few cabins up in Island Park and Tommy has been visiting like every year of his whole entire life... Thats about 30 years mind you (forgive my still making fun of how old young he is!) Anyhoo.. This was a big year! EVERYONE was going to be there.. Well, just about everyone. There were a few people we sorely missed. But, we had a jam packed week ahead of us and it was going to be nothing but fun, fishing, and relaxing! We went to the play mill twice and saw Beauty and the Beast and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.  We spent time with wonderful family eating lots of wonderful food. Tommy enjoyed fishing every second he could. There were some big ones this year too.. A 20-incher I believe... and I heard it tasted delicious! Maddox also really enjoyed catching his "nemos". I am so lame for not getting pictures of all the fishing... I was too busy relaxing!
One day we went into Yellowstone to have a picnic and we were also able to attend sacrament meeting.. In the park, surrounded by beauty. The picnic was so much fun and Maddox couldn't sit long enough to eat.. He had way to many friends to play with! His "cabin friends" couldn't get enough of him either!

Just a few of the cousins he made friends with this trip!

Such a little cheeser

BFFs

This was Maddox's chance to get back at his daddy!

Family (minus pops)

Another fun thing we did was have a mini-"survivor" game. The Richards did an amazing job of putting together all the relays and races. This game included (but was not limited too) canoeing the river, swatting the dads, floating a creek, going under and over, drinking tadpoles,  jumping from a rope swing, and much much more! At the end we were all winners and everyone had a BLAST!

We had one family evening where we played a game. I can't remember the name but two people put on their own life jackets that are attached by huge rubber bands and either person had to try to make it to a corner to get an apple (no hands) and make it back to the bowl. There were some great match ups and it was so fun to watch. 

This was Tommy vs Mickey

Stacey vs Julie

Thats right, Debbie vs Cathy!

Obviously everyone had a great time. Nothing beats family time!

Oh here are a few extra pictures of the Mad Man...

Maddox just chillaxin'

Here he is showing us his "cool trick".

Maddox and Stacey

Cake!

We love making the treck up to Idaho every year... It is soo worth it to spend time with everyone and be surrounded by all that beauty. Oh, and I forgot to mention all the MOOSE we saw this year! They were everywhere and Tommy and Danny had a few close run in's with them! Again, lame me for not having pictures of the moose! But, that was our vacation!

STRIKE!

One day Tommy left the TV on ESPN or something and Maddox saw a bowling tournament and was HOOKED. He has a little play bowling set but it just isn't the same! So, anyway, now Maddox always asks to go bowling. We found a bowling alley that does 99 cent bowling from 9-11am so guess what we have been doing a lot of lately? We just go and hang out and Maddox is the only one that bowls. It is soo funny to watch him. Last time we went he bowled 3 games all by himself. His second game he bowled like a 76 (just with bumpers, no ramp thing).  Anyway, he loves it and we love to watch him! Other people at the bowling alley get a kick out of the 2 year old bowler... We have such a character on our hands!

To Infinity, and BEYOND!!

Texas= 4th of July, Baby Blessings, and FUN!!

We were so blessed with the opportunity to visit Texas for a few special occasions! We had a lot of fun and we were glad to escape the AZ heat!
The MAIN reason we went to visit was for baby blessings. My little sister, Casey and her husband Jose welcomed their little girl, Sophie, in May. My cousin Bobby, and his wife, Helena, welcomed their little boy, Jefferson, in April. It was soo fun to be surrounded by these cute little babies! It was soo special to have all of our families here for their blessings. I can't believe I didn't get pictures of them in their blessing outfits. Sorry!

We also enjoyed celebrating the 4th. Of course, we celebrated on the 3rd with a pool party, BBQ, and of course.. FIREWORKS!!!! I didn't get any pictures of the boys lighting their fireworks.. probably because I was to busy being paranoid that Tommy was going to blow his hands off or something... Lets just say, I was glad when the night was over and there were no trips to the hospital!

Tommy and the rest of the family left after the 4th but Maddox and I were able to stay another week. It did  A LOT of raining that week.... which I won't complain about because I love the Texas thunderstorms and we don't get much of any kind of storm where we are at so I soaked it all in! We spent a lot of time hanging out with my sister and cousins, swimming (when it wasn't raining), and spending some much needed time with my mom!

As always, we were sad to come home but its nice to get back into the swing of things. Maddox has been on detox since we have been home... Gotta get him off of the week long sugar high that he has been on thanks to GAGA CANDY!!

Maddox and Daddy swimming!!

Four Generations!

Woah! How did you get up there Maddox!?

Maddox and Daddy scouting out there fishing spot for the next morning. Maddox caught the biggest fish! (I will try to get that video on here sometime!)

Maddox and Daddy on our walk. I think Maddox fell asleep about 12 seconds after I took this picture!

Maddox LOVED holding his new cousin!

... and snuggling her!

Maddox helping grandpa build the new bunk beds!

Maddox showing me how big he is by climbing all the way up the bunk bed ladder.