November 2017

November was a busy but fun month! Between family pictures and an awesome vacation this is probably the longest post on my blog to date. (And I'm sure there are errors as I haven't proofread it yet but I'll get to it later...maybe:)

Olivia wanted to make the same craft we did in Ashton's class. She loved blowing the ink to make the branches.

November 1, 2017

Kaleb decided to pain his tree.

I was stopped at a stoplight and heard a thud on the side of my car. I looked in my side mirror and there was a bird on the ground. Just my luck that a bird would run into my car when I'm not even moving.

November 2, 2017

One of my tenants that lives right by the office is a really good cook and brought over these empanadas. Yum!

November 2, 2017

I love when the leaves change colors. Fall is definitely my favorite season.

November 3, 2017

Kaleb made a couple of pen's at school and later made more of them to give to people.

November 3, 2017

After 5 boys my friend was finally having her first GIRL so we had a baby shower for her. I was in charge of food and we had Cafe Rio salads with all the fixings and peanut butter and pumpkin cookies for dessert. Matt helped me make all the food and I couldn't have done it without his help. I should have taken a picture once all the food was on the table but I was too busy running around. It was yummy and we had a great turnout.

November 4, 2017

Sunday evening as we were driving home I stopped at the park to take a picture of a really cool tree (random I know) and Olivia and Ashton joined me while Matt thought we were crazy and went home. We played at the park for a minute and then walked home, barefoot for Olivia since her shoes were in the car. I just think it's awesome that in November, at night, it was warm enough to be outside without jackets or shoes. :)

November 5, 2017

Matt and the boys have quite the Lego collection. And yes, I include Matt because there are Lego's from when he was younger and he's part of the problem. Thankfully Ashton doesn't really request Lego's anymore but he'll play with old sets a Kaleb likes the more expensive expert sets so we don't accumulate as many these days. That's all changed now that Olivia loves to play with Lego's and they have so many cute princess sets now.

November 6, 2017

As a family we had been saving all of our change for our upcoming trip and the day before we left we took it to the bank. We were all surprised that there was almost $150 in the container.

November 7, 2017

Disneyworld / Caribbean Cruise

November 8-19, 2017

We had booked a cruise in the spring to go to the Caribbean from Miami. Not only were my parents, sister and one of my brother's with his wife and son coming but Matt's parents and one of his brother's and wife and 4 kids came also. In total there were 18 of us. Cruises are the best way to travel with large groups hands down. You can eat when you want, do what you want but you're still all together.

We decided since we were going to go all the way to Florida we would stop and see the new Avatar Land in Disneyworld. Also, it was much cheaper to fly into Orlando than Miami so it worked out better anyways.

This was the first experience for the kids flying on a redeye and needless to say we didn't get much sleep. We didn't leave until almost 11pm and arrived in Florida at 5:00am their time so it only left 4 hours to sleep at the most anyways. Olivia did sleep most of the time but the boys didn't sleep much at all and I think I slept for maybe an hour combined.

She had just put gum in her mouth for take off.

November 8, 2017

Matt's family flew into Miami and spent time there while we were in Orlando. My parents used points to fly in the night before and didn't arrive until midnight. The plan was they would pick us up at the airport around 6 after we grabbed something to eat and grabbed our luggage so they had a little more time to sleep. If only it actually happened that way. :)

My parents arrived at the rental house just before 1am and the code on the lockbox on the house wasn't working. My dad called the emergency line and the person was convinced my dad just wasn't doing it right. My dad told them he tried it over and over again and it wasn't the right code. To make matter's worse my parents didn't have cell service right at the house, they had to drive a couple streets over so they had to keep driving back and forth to make calls and try to get in. They finally send someone to open it and sure enough it doesn't work. This time the employee calls the supervisor on the phone and tells him it's not correct. They finally get the correct code to get the key and by now it's 2am. The employee opens the door and you have to go in and disable the alarm system. Well, if the one code that was given wasn't correct what are the odds the code for the alarm is probably wrong too. The employee puts in the code and it was incorrect so now the alarm is blaring through the house probably waking up the neighbors and my parents are just thankful they aren't the ones who set it off because they charge you $300 if you set it off and the police come. The employee is now ticked, probably as much as my parents at this point and he calls the office again to let them know it was the wrong code.
To sum up a long story the police came, thankfully there was an employee there to let them know my parents weren't breaking and my parents didn't get to bed until just after 3:30am. Then, our flight came in early and we didn't realize there weren't any food places open at that hour so we had nothing to do to kill some time. We also had no idea of the fiasco that had just happened at the house so we called them at 5am to pick us up.

Thankfully we hadn't planned to go into the parks on this day because we all needed some sleep. We dropped off everyone at the house and then my dad and sister-in-law and I went to Walmart to get food and other supplies for the house and then we went home and crashed.

After getting some sleep the big boys and kids enjoyed the pool for awhile.

November 9, 2017

We drove over to Disney Springs to walk around and also checked out the discount Disney outlet stores they have in town.

The next morning we went to the Animal Kingdom park. We were 30 minutes early to the park but the line for the Avatar rides (there are 2 of them) were so long. We didn't want to wait but an employee kept saying the line was only about an hour for the most popular one Flight of Passage so we made our way to the end of the line. The line moved pretty quick for the first half hour until the park officially opened and fast passes started and then it slowed down.

November 10, 2018

They did a good job with the colors inside and making it look like everything was neon and glowing.

This was in the room right before going in. You stood on a number and they "scanned" you to match you with your banshee that you would be riding.

We waited for about 90 minutes to get on the ride and it was pretty cool. The animation was amazing. Olivia had to wear her tall sandals to get on the ride and in the end she didn't like it. She was scared to be sitting on her own machine where you sit like you're on a motorcycle and it moves around. 

Next we went to the Lion King show which is always a favorite.

While we were eating lunch Christian and Olivia loved running around and chasing each other.

The safari was awesome as it always is. The park felt really crowded compared to other times we've been here especially being a slow time of year. Thankfully we had fast passes for this because the line was 90-120 minutes all day.

I love how many of the animals are able to freely roam around. This giraffe was right next to the road eating.

There are 3 lions in this picture.

The Dinosaur ride is similar to and always reminds me of Indiana Jone's in Disneyland.

We wanted to go on the other ride in Pandora that was a boat ride but the wait was 2-3 hours all day long. So we decided we would do it towards the end of the night. We were in line about 2 hours before the park closed and the line moved so slow. The fast pass system in Disneyworld was horrible. They give out too many and they hold the regular line as long as there are fast pass people in line. At Disneyland they switch off and send some from each line back and forth so with a fast pass you might wait 5 or so minutes but it's still minimal but you're feeding people from both lines. We would sit in one place for 20 minutes without moving and it was ridiculously slow.

We were extremely disappointed in the ride. It was really short and after waiting in long so long we wish we hadn't of even wasted our time. You expect something like Pirates of the Caribbean and it was not even a quarter of that in length. We originally thought we would hurry and get in line for it once more before the park closed knowing as long as we were in line we would get on but after going on it there was no way we wanted to wait to go on it again.

Earlier in the day we were in line for Everest and it broke down so Matt and I took our kids to ride it before the park closed. I had Olivia in regular tennis shoes because she's tall enough and she was measured earlier and hit the mark with no problems. Well, I'm not sure if she was tired or not standing as straight as she was earlier but she didn't hit the mark to ride. So after some frustration because the guy wouldn't measure her again after I talked to her and told her to stand tall and stretch out her neck I changed her shoes to her sandals. I came back to measure her and the guy measured her and then asked if I changed her shoes. I told him yes and he said she has to pass in her original shoes she was in. Olivia was almost crying at this point because she really wanted to go on it and the park was closing in a couple minutes so I switched her back to her tennis shoes to try again. Matt and the boys were waiting in the line for us wondering what was going to during all of this. Thankfully she made sure to stand tall and touch her head to the marker and he let us through just in time before the park closed.

Here's Kaleb's picture.

And the rest of us. It's a fun roller coaster but I always feel sick after riding it so I was glad it was the last thing we did.

At Disneyland the park opens 30 minutes before opening time but it's just to get in the gate area. After being 30 minutes early to Animal Kingdom and realizing people were riding rides and that they must have started even earlier we made sure to get to Magic Kingdom 45 minutes early.

By the time we were in the park after shuttling to get there we were able to get on rides. We started with Big Thunder Mountain and went 2 times in a row since there wasn't a line. I hate that as I get older I get more motion sick. This ride usually never bothers me but after the 2nd time I wasn't feeling good at all.

November 11, 2018

Cute pirate Olivia.

I loved seeing the Jungle Cruise transformed for Christmas.

By noon we had gone on almost every ride which was nice because then we felt like we could have a more relaxing rest of the day. Especially since our fast pass for Snow White Mine Train weren't until 10:50pm so we had a long day to get through. We took our time eating a late lunch and relaxing in the air conditioning before venturing out to ride more rides.

My kids love Space Mountain!

We all get too competitive when it comes to Buzz Lightyear. We all know which targets get the most points and are always trying to beat each other.

We ran into the same problem with fast passes at this park too. The employee would never stop the fast pass line and so the Little Mermaid, that is a ride that's constantly feeding people so it moves quickly, would barely move and then you'd sit in the same spot forever. It said the wait was 30 minutes and we waited over 50 minutes.

I do love the Autopia at Disneyworld much better than Disneyland because they have so much more space that the course is longer and you go farther around the park. 

The people mover is always fun and never has a line.

They had 2 different nighttime shows at the castle so my parents got us a spot early because one of them was new.

It's always amazing to me how clear the pictures are on such an uneven surface.

They had the castle all lit up for the holidays.

After over 16 hours in the park we were all tired. Olivia fell asleep leaving the park. I kind of hate how you have to battle the crowds to leave Magic Kingdom and take the ferry or the monorail to get into and out of the park. We had a ton of fun even with only 2 days in the park but it definitely gave us our fill of Disneyworld for awhile.

The next morning we left the rental house and drove to the Miami to get on the boat. It was a 4 hour drive so we left early in the morning. Side note: We had to call the rental house company to see what the code was to the lock box to put the key back since we weren't the ones who opened it and were never told it. So I called their office and it was the same guy who answered in the middle of the night for my parents fiasco and he knew exactly which house we were talking about and acted really annoyed because he had e-mailed it to my parents but we weren't aware. It definitely wasn't the best customer service experience this time but we have used them many times over the last 15 years and never had a problem before.

This was our 2nd time cruising with Norwegian (our Alaska Cruise was through them) and this time they had e-mailed an upgrade option about about 2 months before where you could essentially put in a "bid" of what you'd be willing to pay to upgrade to get an ocean view or balcony room. An ocean view room was essentially the same size as what we had (the cheapest interior room) just with a window so that wasn't worth paying extra for but a balcony room was almost twice the size with your own balcony. We bid $200 (min. was $100) for our room which on their scale they had it was at the bottom of 'very weak' and we figured if we got it great, if not no big deal.

About a week before we left I got an email saying we were upgraded. I was excited because the rooms only hold 4 so we usually add Kaleb to my parents room but he still sleeps in our room so with 5 people a bigger room would be a huge help. My parents and brother were also upgraded to a balcony room. My parents were 2 rooms down from us but my brother was on a whole different level than us.

We had to return the rental car at the airport which was only a couple of miles away from the cruise terminal but there was traffic. So after dropping everyone off at the boat my dad and I went to return the car. We were going to get an Uber but the rental car agency had a free bus shuttle to the cruise terminal so that was nice.

We found everyone by the pool and food area and then made our way to our room.

November 12, 2017

Kaleb had the bunk bed that pulled out above the couch and then the couch pulled out from the wall to make a bed and we laid the back cushion down to make it even wider. That's where Olivia and Ashton slept.

This was shortly after pulling away from the dock.

After dinner the kids decided to swim and they also went to the kids area to checked in for the week.

The first full day on the boat (Monday) was a sea day. We had fun exploring the ship and eating what felt like non stop!

Olivia loved this slide and went down it for hours. I don't know how she had the energy to keep running up the stairs. The other slides you had to be taller to use. There were 5 total slides and 2 of them you stood and the floor gave way beneath you and you dropped onto the slide.

November 13, 2017

The splash pad area was popular with the little kids. My nephew Christian spent hours almost all day here playing, he loved it.

Endless ice cream and swimming with cousin's!

They had a rope's course on the top of the ship that was pretty awesome. They have a system of tracks so once you're harnessed in you're free to go all around however you want. There is even a plank walk-out that goes over the side of the boat so you're over the ocean at the tallest part of the ship. I did it but it took me awhile to walk out on it because I was going so slow!

Down below they had a small course for younger kids to do and Olivia had fun trying it out.

At the end there was a zip line section to get back to the beginning. I don't have any pictures of Kaleb because he was at the club for teenagers doing his own thing but he did do it a different day. And of course no pictures of me because you couldn't have anything on you when you were doing it.

She wore grandpa's hat while he did the rope's course.

She thought this was the perfect hop scotch course. :)

Ashton and his cousin Sawyer were the only one's to try out the rock wall.

He made it all the way to the top to ring the bell. We were on a different level of the ship so we could see the top of the climbing wall.

We did miniature golf for a little bit but then it started raining so we left to get ready for dinner.

The whole group had dinner that night together in one of the dining rooms and then we had tickets to see Burn the Floor which was a dance show. They did a really good job and I was really impressed with how talented they were.

The is after they come in and set up your beds for you at night. Like I mentioned we would pull out the bed even more and turn the other cushion flat to make it a bigger area for the Ashton and Olivia to sleep on but you get the idea of how it was set up. It really was nice having a larger room without bunk beds above our bed. Not worth paying thousands more for but it was definitely worth the $200 extra.

Roatan, Honduras

Our first stop was Roatan. They're known for their snorkeling and so we decided to go zip lining with Matt's family in the morning and then go snorkel at the beach. This was the only day we had bad weather with light rain most of the day which was a bummer but we still had fun.

We had a blast doing the zip line course. There were about 12 or so runs total.

November 14, 2017

Olivia was really nervous at first and because she was so young she had to go with an instructor.

Kaleb and Ashton loved it and weren't scared at all.

Since Ashton was under 10 at the time he had to go with an instructor too but he still had a blast. He would lean back and go upside down sometimes.

This was before the longest run you do.

Olivia wouldn't stand up or smile because she had been standing by a bunch of ants and they had bit her feet (along with my feet) and so she was crying still. It did hurt so I don't blame her.

These were pictures they took on one of the runs. There was another lady that was nervous so she went with the instructor too so the 3 of them always went down together.

Here's Ashton and his cousin Brea.

Olivia and Kaleb wanted to hold the monkey.

After zip lining we were taken to West Bay Beach which is where my family was going to meet up with us. We went to the far end where the snorkeling was supposed to be the best and set up our stuff. It would still sprinkle off and on and the waves were really rough. All of the locals said it wasn't a good day to snorkel because it was too dangerous. I wasn't sure what my parents would end up doing and I didn't know where else on the island to go so we just stayed put and played at the beach for a couple hours.

The resort we were in front of I think felt bad for us and set up an umbrella for us to use for free and even brought us towels. I made sure to tip them because I definitely appreciated it. 

After a couple hours we got a ride back into town where they had a couple of shops and we ran into the rest of the group. They were all shopping and my family had gone to a different, calmer beach to snorkel because their driver said the same thing that the water was too rough where we were.

It was fun to have time just the 5 of us on the beach and Kaleb and Matt did snorkel a little and saw fish right by the shore.

That night it was survivor night at the kids club. My kids are never in the same age groups and this time Kaleb was in the teen group that comes and goes as they want when we were on the boat other than dinner we usually never saw him. He was usually with his 2 older cousins hanging out with the rest of the kids his age.

Olivia loved being in the kids club but Ashton by the end preferred to go with his cousin his age swimming instead. I think they thought they were too "cool" for it.

Olivia gave dad a lion "kiss". While they were in the kids club we went to a comedy show that was funny. The entertainment on this cruise was definitely the best of any cruise we've been on.

Harvest Caye, Belize

The next stop was Harvest Caye which is Norwegian's own island that you dock at. We took our time getting off the boat this morning and so it was around 11 when we got to the beach. Matt's brother and parents were just leaving to go back to the boat for lunch so we went to the other end of the beach where my family was set up.

November 15, 2017

They had fun playing in the sand.

Olivia enjoyed finding seashells that were all over.

We snorkeled a little bit and found a starfish. We thought for sure it was dead because it was rock hard, even the underside. My mom was going to show the kids on the beach and the lifeguard may have told us to go put it back where it was and that it was alive. Oops. So we didn't touch it again. There were quite a few fish around the rocks but the water wasn't very clear.

Ashton kept finding sand crabs to play with.

There weren't near as many people at the far end of the beach, I'm sure because the didn't want to walk but it was worth the seclusion. Matt's parents came down for awhile to hang out with us.

The other thing I liked about this stop was that because there wasn't really anything touristy to do you were forced to just relax and have a beach day. We usually try to cram in all we can knowing it's probably the only time we'll have the chance to see some of these things on trips but this day was all about relaxing.

We didn't want to leave. We were some of the last people on the island to get back on the boat.

Ashton loves to photobomb us. :)

And Kaleb still hates when I try to take his picture so he tries to be weird or run away. Hopefully this stage doesn't go on forever!

There was a long walk on this boardwalk to get back to the boat and Ashton was swinging his lanyard with his key card on it around. All of a sudden I hear him say "uh-oh" and his card had fallen off and dropped right between the slats below him into the ocean. They have your picture so it wasn't a problem getting back on the boat we just had to go and get it replaced at customer service.

Costa Maya, Mexico

I obviously wasn't good about taking pictures other than at certain places because I tried not to be tied to my camera all the time and just enjoy the trip. So on the boat I usually didn't have my camera with me but just know we had lots of yummy food and had lots of fun hanging out with our families.

The next day we went to Costa Maya and the thing we wanted to do here was to see Mayan Ruins. My parents have done quite a few cruises in the Caribbean and in their experience you can usually get a better deal by getting off the boat and booking things when you get there. The locals want your business and will usually give you a better deal. Matt's parents and brothers already had their tour booked to go to the ruins.

After getting off the boat we went and talked to the company they were using and it ended up saving us a lot of money because they didn't charge for Olivia and gave us a cheaper price. My dad showed up as we were waiting for our van to take us and they ended up using the same company but came a little after us. He was waiting for my brother to get ready but in the end the ended up not coming it was just my parents. It's too bad because if they had known they weren't coming my parents could have just come at the same time we went instead of waiting for a later tour.

We ended up going to Chacchoben to see the ruins there as it was the closest location. The other ruins were a 2 hour drive one way or even farther to go to Tulum. It was an hour drive inland to get the the ruins and it was when we got there. No more ocean breezes here!

November 16, 2017

You have to go with a guide through the area and our guide was really good at explaining everything and what everything meant.

Usually Olivia would wander off to explore during some of the longer explanations. I don't think she cared for all the history and talking but she loved exploring.

4 cousins taking a selfie. :)

We were one of the first groups to get there which was nice. There were large groups behind us but for the most part we stayed at the head of the pack.

I have to sneak in pictures where I can when Kaleb's not looking.

Olivia loved being with her cousin's from Colorado that we don't get to see as often as we wish we could.

It was amazing to see the ruins and to know how old they are.

We saw my parents at the end of the tour when we were all waiting to drive back and the plan was just to go to the main beach. The problem with that was we didn't realize how long the beach was and so we tried looking for my parents but never did meet up with them. We just found a spot to play in the water and after an hour or so we went back to the ship. After we realized my parents weren't that far away from us but for some reason we couldn't find each other.

This was Olivia after pirate night that evening. She never wanted to leave when we'd pick her up at 10:00 at night.

Cozumel, Mexico

The next day was in Cozumel but I had found a really cool cave tour that Matt and I really wanted to do. It wasn't on the island of Cozumel so you had to take a water taxi over to Playa Del Carmen and it was a 20-30 minute drive to the caves. You can only book this place through your cruise line so that's what we did. My sister would have had a hard time navigating through the cave so just my parents came, Matt's parents and Matt's brother's family.

They wouldn't let us all go in the same group which I was bummed about and since all the other excursions we had done were with Matt's family we went with my parents and then his brother and parents were in another group.

The cave is called Rio Secreto and it's a National Geographic top 10 place to go. They don't allow you to take any camera's of any kind inside which was a bummer but they do take pictures you can buy at the end. I know it's to make more money but at least I was aware ahead of time how much I was going to have to pay to get them and it was worth it to me to have them.

November 17, 2017

They give you a wet suit, life jacket, water socks, helmet and offer you a walking stick which all the reviewers said to take and we were off. First they had an ancient ritual they performed before you could enter the cave.

You have to walk in a single line since you're going through tight areas so Olivia was usually behind me and sometimes in front of me.

It was amazing inside. Most of the time you're in water but usually you can touch. There are a few times where you're swimming but not very often.

Where Olivia couldn't touch but I could I was usually pulling her along.

I loved all of the rock formations that were everywhere and you go about 2/3 of a mile through the cave. The water was also really blue and pretty clear.

Olivia didn't like swimming on her own in the deep parts so she would hold onto Matt and at the end our guide who was amazing let Olivia ride on her back.

In one of the cave areas they had you float in a circle and then we all turned off our lights. It was pitch dark and you couldn't see anything. This wasn't Olivia's favorite part, floating in water in a dark cave wasn't her idea of fun. She did like the cave though, just not in the dark.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who stops in that area of Mexico. It was by far my favorite excursion. After we changed they had lunch for us and we were able to see our pictures. They tried to charge us twice as much for the pictures to get all of them saying since we were one big group and we were getting all of the pictures instead of smaller groups it would cost more. Thankfully Matt's parents had already paid for their pictures and they didn't charge them more so we told them they had 1 more person than us and they only charged them the base price so they let us have them for what they were supposed to be. They were probably just used to getting 2 or 3 times that much for pictures for each group because it's usually just a couple people per party.

After they took us to town to shop for about 30 minutes before we took the long ferry back to Cozumel where we did a little more shopping before getting on the boat. They sure charge a lot for things now in Mexico. Usually you could get souvenirs for cheap but they must see tourists coming and know they can charge more. You would have to negotiate everything and some places wouldn't negotiate at all. It was good though, it meant we didn't spend very much since I could get things cheaper at home if I really wanted it.

This was the view from our balcony that night evening before dinner.

As I mentioned before I tried not to be so worried about pictures of everything so I don't have any pictures from our last sea day (Saturday). We had fun swimming, eating, going to various activities on the boat and that night we watched their other popular show the Million Dollar Quartet which was a broadway musical about Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley and others. The singers they had were really talented.
Kaleb had fun at the last night with all the teen's group. They had a special dinner together for them, they got to take a behind the scene's tour of the boat and played a fun scavenger hunt on the boat. We ran into them a couple times running around the boat trying to find certain things and they had to take a picture with the item or person they were looking for.

The kids had a blast the whole cruise and so did we. It was fun having both of our families there and having a week without cell service is also an added bonus!

After getting off the boat we took the shuttle to the airport to pick up our rental van to drive back to Orlando since that's where our flight was departing from. That was a headache as the company we were with (Avis) had their computers crash and there was a huge line. The guy told me to go in a different line that was shorter but it never moved. Eventually my dad asked someone about it and the guy denied ever telling me to go in that line. I think it was a special line for certain people or something because he kept denying to his supervisor he told me to go there. Thankfully the lady working the desk by that line knew I had been waiting there almost 30 minutes and said she would help me next. I'm not sure if the employee managing the line didn't want to get in trouble or what but the whole situation was weird. We were just happy to get the van and get on our way.

We flew out at 7pm that night and arrived in Salt Lake at 9:45pm Sunday night. This picture was over Orlando area.

November 19, 2017

Just last Sunday (7/1/18) at church they were doing a family spotlight and Ashton said his favorite family vacation was the Alaska Cruise we took. Olivia said her favorite was our Caribbean Cruise but that's probably because it's the one she remembers the most and was our most recent trip. :)

Traveling and making memories is something that's really important to me and has always been in my family growing up. I think just getting outside of the normal day-to-day life and doing something different is what helps you remember vacations. I don't remember much about things from my childhood from day-to-day but I have so many memories of all of the vacations we went on and all the things we did together.


Coming back the week of Thanksgiving meant holiday's were in full swing. Olivia wanted to make more turkey hats like she had made in preschool so she made a couple more.

November 21, 2017

We had family pictures taken at Camera Shy again but this time we drove to the Lehi location so that we would have different backdrops. Funny story (well, it wasn't funny at the time) but I'm pretty sure I forgot to rinse out the conditioner from my hair in the shower. I curled my hair for pictures like I usually do with the same wand I use for Olivia's hair and even clipped it up to make sure it held really well. I then moved onto Olivia's hair and made sure everyone was ready. Last thing I did was take my hair out of the clips holding it up into curls which I usually don't do because it curls easy and my hair was pretty much flat. As I ran my hands through it it felt heavy and different and that's all I can figure is that I didn't rinse out the conditioner. So I had no time we were running out the door so I just had to not worry about it.

They still turned out well minus my hair that's straight on one side and has a slight curl on other. :)

November 25, 2017

We had plenty of time and so the kids were messing around and taking silly pictures with some of the props.

I love looking back at family pictures and am so glad we have them taken each year. It's crazy how quickly kids change and grow up!

Olivia was watching her brother take down the flag after church.

November 26, 2017

Olivia loves to cook and help in the kitchen. This frozen already made dinner is one of her favorite things to each so she helped cook it for us for dinner.

November 29, 2017

My cousin's wedding was the end of the month and she asked if I could make her a naked cake. I hadn't made a wedding cake in a long time but I was happy it wasn't fondant since that takes a little more work.  I made it the night before and then left work a little early to get it set up in time for the wedding. They flowers there to add to the cake and I found the wood slice at Michael's to put it on. I actually didn't have any of it but everyone said it was really good. They wanted a white cake with a chocolate mousse filling.

November 30, 2017

They had sparkler's to hold as they left the reception.

Phew, that was a long post. Congrats if you made it this far even if you just scrolled through the pictures! :)