The Ranch

Last Saturday, I finally got out to the ranch with Jason and the kids! Before I had Ashlyn, we spent most of our Saturdays out there. With a baby, I have to schedule around nap time and load up a million things just to spend a few hours at the ranch. It has been a while since I have been out there!

I forgot have how much I love to ride! It took a little bit to get used to it again and I'm not as aggressive on my quad as I used to be, but it was so much fun!

Me

I can't believe how much better Austin is! He seems so grown up on his motorcycle!

Austin catching some air

Lauren

I always love watching Jason ride! He is so happy when he rides and he seems like such a big kid! It is so fun for him to have his buddies out there to "play" with.

Jason Jason and Matt
Margaret, Matt, Jason, Ashlyn, Aaron

Black Friday

For the last several years, the day after Thanksgiving, I have gone out to do the crazy Black Friday shopping with my mom and my sister and usually my aunts and sometimes my grandma. We get up at some crazy odd hour when it is still dark and cold, and wait outside for some store to open. The deals are great, the lines are long, the stores are crowded and traffic is terrible, but I look forward to it all year!


This year was different. I slept in. BUT, I still went out at 10am. The lines were long, the stores were crowded, traffic was terrible and the deals were still great, but it didn't quite feel like Christmas shopping. SO.... I bought lots of things for me! :-)

Jen, Me, and my Aunt Michelle

I did get some of my Christmas shopping done and I still had a good time! Next year, I'm going to the midnight sales at the outlets!

Thanksgiving

I know this post is a little over due. I can't believe the week has gone by so quickly!

This year, for Thanksgiving, we went to Danale's house. Here are a few pictures from the day...

Danale, Stephen and Jason

Colton, Tara and Ashlyn

Mindy and Sam

We are so excited for Sam and Mindy who just got engaged!!! We love Mindy and have always hoped they would get married! We are so excited to have her as part of our family!Danale and Tara

After we left Danale's, we went to visit Jason's dad. I know I say it all the time, but we just love our families. It is always so much fun to spend time with them all. It is about a three hour drive for us to visit and is usually crazy getting there, but it is always worth it.

Family Pictures

When Janelle was here last week, she took our family pictures. She is an amazing photographer!!! I love the fall colors! I need some help picking the best one. What do you think?

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4.I love all the pictures she took of the kids! I think they turned out so cute!

Pick a favorite Jessica picture!

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I think I am going to need a vote on Ashlyn's pictures too. She was just so cute!

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She took a few of Jason and I, but we were laughing so hard that we look pretty bad in them! It was funny though! Here is the one that I like the best, but I am glowing white! Janelle, can I give myself a suntan with photoshop????

Okay, last picture I swear, but I think it is kind of cute. I was trying to get Ashlyn to stay where she was and Janelle took a few pictures.
Thank you Janelle for being so patient and for sharing your amazing talent with us!!! Love you!

Happy Birthday Billy!

We went out to dinner for Billy's birthday on Wednesday and then went back to his house to give him a few presents.

Billy and his cute wife Jen opening a game from Janelle

My family has all kinds of traditions, and the silver bag with the teal polk-a-dots is one of them. It's called "The Present Bag". It started years ago. It was some one's birthday and I think it was my mom who forgot to wrap her present. She found this gift bag that someone had received a gift in and decided to reuse it.

Now, for each of our birthdays, we don't wrap each others gifts. The unwrapped gifts sit out of sight, waiting to be paraded in (usually by a very excited child) in The Present Bag. It is a fun tradition. The kids love to be the one to bring in the present and there isn't any clean up!

After Billy opened his presents, we played a game called Things. Our family is pretty funny, so we had a good time. It was just the adults and we laughed pretty hard! I love my family!

Happy Birthday Billy! I love you!

Family Night

Last week, my little sister Janelle was in town with her family! It was so fun to have her here! It gets totally crazy when all the cousins are in the same place at once, but they love it so much!

I took a few pictures of Janelle leading family night. She told the story of Nephi and his brothers going back to get the plates while the kids acted it out. It was pretty cute! Tyler knew the story so well that he was always one step ahead of Janelle! Peter joined in the fun at one point. We love Peter! He is just so much fun! We are so glad Janelle married him! He has the best personality!

These aren't the best pictures, but it is a moment I want to remember. I loved having our families together and I love Janelle and the example she is to me.
Tyler was sitting on the floor and Ashlyn decided he would make a great chair, so she just backed herself in! Kids are so cute!

Twilight

I'm sure any fan of the Twilight books have seen the movie by now. So, what did you think?

A few months ago, when I was reading Twilight, Jason would sit next to me on the couch each night with his laptop and work or shop while I read. He listened to me laugh out loud and was patient when I "needed" to finish just a few more pages before we went to bed, and he indulged me when I wanted to read to him a funny or mushy part. So, I'm sure he assumed I would drag him along to the midnight showing. I'm not sure if he was relieved or disappointed when we realized we would be in Disneyland and there were already plans for a girls trip to see the movie the next day.

I think because I loved the books so much, I liked the movie, but I didn't love it. I think my memories from the book carried me through the movie. I tried to think about what Jason would have thought if he saw it without having read the book. I think he would have missed out on so much! I don't think the characters were developed well enough and it sort of felt like they were on a limited budget or maybe it was some one's first movie. I didn't love the guy who played Edward either. There was one scene as he is walking into the school, that I thought he was hot, but it fizzled for me after that.

I enjoyed the physical tension between Bella and Edward in the books! It was fun! I didn't really feel it in the movie.

What did you think?

Disneyland

A few years ago, we decided to go to Disneyland the week before Thanksgiving. Research showed it was the least crowded time of the year. We had such a good time we decided to try to make it a tradition. We didn't go last year, so we were really excited to go this year.

After using the RV for the last four weeks in a row, we got a little smarter and the trip down to LA went much more smoothly. Here are a few pictures...

Jessica enjoying the top bed all to herself

Lauren sound asleep

Austin playing football on the Xbox

Ashlyn happy in her car seat

My hunky hubby driving

Me trying to study

Okay, so the pictures are from the first part of the trip. About half way there, Ashlyn was done with her car seat and let everyone know about it! I tried to give her snacks, play on the back bed, watch a movie, and read her stories, but all she really wanted to do was walk around. I finally pulled the cushions off the table and lined the hallway so she couldn't get hurt! She was so happy just walking back and forth!

I was so glad when we finally got there and the "how much longer"s finally came to an end! Thank you Rachel for getting us this amazing time share for such a great price!!!!

It had two bedrooms and two bathrooms. This was the first night we had a good nights sleep while on vacation for along time! It was so nice! The rest of my family, stayed in a three bedroom just upstairs.

The next morning, we all piled into the RV to drive over to Disneyland. Peter and Nathan Ehat, and my dad, Bill

Jason and Ashlyn waiting for the tram Tara, Ashlyn, Jason, Jessica, Lauren and Austin

Lauren and Maddie on the Rockets

Austin and Jessica

Tara and Maddie on the Teacups

Grandma and Grandpa Huntington

Jason and Ashlyn

Austin and Jessica

Ashlyn and Jason

We really had a great time! Lauren (She's 6) loved going on all of the "big" rides! She was fearless! She came out of Space Mountain grinning ear to ear! "That was awesome! That was the best ride ever!" She wanted to go on everything that anyone went on. We headed over to the Indiana Jones ride and she said she wanted to come too. It was closed the last time we were there and I couldn't really remember it. I knew it wasn't faster than any anything else she had been on, so I agreed. She sat between me and Jason. I couldn't help but laugh when she let out her first scream! She grabbed my arm and buried her head. I forgot about all the scary props! Snakes, spiders on the walls, skeletons... I felt terrible! Jessica was sitting right in front of us with a few of the other cousins. They both got off of the ride very upset. Lauren was crying and Jessica crossed her arms and stopped her foot saying, "Mom! That was stupidest ride in the whole world! Why would they let kids on it that are this big?! Duh! Don't they know it would scare us? I can't believe it!" I should have been more understanding, but it was such a great example of their different personalities that I pulled out the video camera to record it. They are both so funny!

Austin on the other hand, is my cautious one. He really didn't want to go on any of the roller coasters. When I asked him about it, he said that he didn't like anything that he couldn't control the speed and that he didn't know where he was going. I have always loved roller coasters so it was hard for me to not push him. I didn't want him to miss out. I had to remind myself that not everyone thinks the same things are fun and it is definitely not fun to be scared. I almost had him convinced to go on Thunder Mountain Rail Road even after Peter didn't realize he was standing there and reminded Jason that is was the only roller coaster that had derailed!

He could see most of it and watched it a few times. I went on it with my hands in the air the whole time to show him how much fun it was. He finally agreed and out of nowhere there was a HUGE line! We hadn't had any lines all day! We basically walked on to most rides. I few had a five minute wait. We decided to come back later, but never made it. Maybe next time!

Jason, Austin and Tara