Ashley's Dance Recital

A few weeks ago Ashley had her first dance recital. She was so excited! She started taking dance in September and had the recital a couple weeks ago. She loves to dance and is already asking when her next class is!

Doesn't she look adorable in her leotard and tutu?!
This is her twirling before the performance started.
Ashley's friend, Cambree, was in her dance class, too!

Ashley always looked forward to seeing her!

Some of our other good friends, the Turpins, came to watch her dance

and little Boyce loved watching the dancers and dancing to the music himself!

She looked so cute and we had lots of fun watching her dance!

This video isn't very good, but you can see one of Ashley's

dances. She's the one on the left and Cambree's on the right.

The Picture of the Day

Tag Time

I love tags! At least it's giving me something to do while I sit here at work today! So thanks Ange! So here's how it goes:

1. Post the rules on your blog
2. Answer the six "8" items
3. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving them a comment

8 Favorite TV Shows:
1. LOST
2. The Office
3. Arrested Development
4. The Biggest Loser
5. So You Think You Can Dance
6. American Idol
7. 30 Rock
8. The Bachelor


8 Things I did yesterday
1. I went into the office.
2. I completed 3 health plans!
3. I went to Albertsons to pick up medicene for my sick family.
4. I cleaned the dishes and started laundry.
5. I took a 15 minutes nap!!
6. I went to the gym - power pump kicked my butt!
7. I went to Albertsons again because I forgot to get milk the last time (this happens more than it should)
8. I watched the Biggest Loser with Matt.

8 Things I'm Looking Forward to:
1. I'm already getting in the mood for Christmas! Christmas decorations, shopping and candy-making are already on my mind!
2. Thanksgiving! Being with family and eating good food.
3. I can't wait for the day I get to start working from home!
4. I'm excited to get Ashley and maybe Gracie into gymnastics.
5. The day Ashley starts preschool will be huge!
6. Owning a house!
7. Every night I look forward to falling alseep.
8. Someday getting a puppy.


8 Favorite Restaurants
1. PF Changs
2. The Butterfly
3. Olive Garden
4. Rumbi Island Grill
5. Wingers
6. Subway (hurray for healthy fast food options!)
7. Cafe Rio
8. Bajio Grill


8 Things on my Wish List
1. To be working from home right now!
2. To have 400 clients handed to me (at work).
3. To have Ashley and Gracie grow up being healthy, happy, and spiritually-minded in a growingly corrupt world.
4. Immediate alternative energy options to be available.
5. To someday buy a car with cash.
6. To buy my first home within the next year.
7. To go on a shopping spree!
8. To get more education.

8 People I Tag
1. Sarah Turpin
2. Heidi Polatis
3. Marianne Firth
4. Ashley Hanni
5. Mary McKee
6. Cherilyn Oliver
7. Melissa Gardner
8. Heather Dunlavy

Happy Halloween!

We had a great Halloween! Ashley dressed as a witch and Gracie was a bat. Matt whittled a Harry Potter-esqu wand out of a branch he found. Impressive! She used it to change us all to snakes.

Gracie wasn't sure what a bat did, so I taught her to pretend to fly.

We spent most of the night in my parent's neighborhood, and they LOVED getting candy!

We hope you all had a very Spooky Halloween, also!

Birthday Party

Thursday was Gracie' 2nd birthday. It was a crazy day! But it ended well because we had a little Halloween-themed birthday party for her that night. We had a lot of kids come over in their costumes and played some little games and ate cake!

This is Mark, Sarah and Boyce Turpin. Boyce was a lion.

This is Nicole, Ashlyn, and Afton Callahan "carving"pumpins. Ashlyn was Batgirl and Afton was Thomas the Train.
Lindsay and Erika were trying to help Ashley and Cambree design their pumpkins, too.

Here are some of the boys that made it to the party -

Brandon with Gage Thornton, Austin and Matt.

Here is my dad and my cousin, the fairy princess, Rachelle. Here is Lindsay, my aunt Marcie, and my Mom.And this is my friend, Tawnya with her son, the fireman, Griffin. Ashley and Cambree eating cookies.We had an unfortuneate mishap with the cake. It was actually cupcakes in the shape of a ghost, but it got dropped, so it didn't quite look like that when it got home :( But it still tasted delicious!

Thanks to everyone who came! We had a lot of fun and Gracie was definitely spoiled when it came to presents!

This is the birthday girl herself - all decked out in her bat costume.

Gracie has been such a blessing in my life! She's incredibly sweet and funny. Listening to her sing along with Jason Mraz, Ben Folds, and Death Cab for Cutie is awesome! There's nothing that makes her happier than singing! She has just learned how to say "I love you," which is music to my ears! She's obedient and loving. And she makes my life better everyday! I LOVE YOU, GRACIE!

Cookies and Carvings

Every Halloween my family has a pumpkin carving contest. This year Lindsay, Brandon and Erika couldn't make it. We missed them though! This is a pictures of Andrea working on her masterpiece -- which turned out to be Sarah Palin!
This sad little pumpkin is Austin's "finished" project. He didn't quite scoop out all the insides or anything, but it still looked alright!

This is my finished pumpkin. I didn't get a completed picture of Matt's pumpkin alone just because it took him so long!And this is my brother, Matt's, completed pumpkin. It's simple but looks really cool lit up!

Here's how cool some of our pumpkin looked - Austin's, Andrea's, Matt E.'s and mine.

And this is the only picture of got of mine and Matt's pumpkins. Matt worked hard on his and it looks awesome!

The next day my sweet Mom invited me and the girls over to make and decorate Halloween sugar cookies! It was their first time, and they were really excited!

Ashley was very good at it because it's exactly like stamping - which she loves to do with me!


And here is our finished product! It was so much fun! The girls REALLY wanted to eat them!