Thanksgiving 2011

My mom, dad, and brother came up for Thanksgiving. Casey's back was hurting her so she wasn't able to come. We sure did miss her. But she was able to go with Grandma to Sue's Thanksgiving dinner.
We had the boys and they loved playing with Derek and my dad. Justin found a new BFF with Derek. He loved him and followed him everywhere he went.
I had to work at 6:30 that morning and got off at 12:30 and rushed home to get the turkey in the oven. I had never cooked a turkey with stuffing before so it took some time and a few phone calls to my mom, but I finally got it in the oven and cooking. The family showed up around 2:30 and we just hung out, talked and the boys played games. Mom and I got some of the food ready, but the turkey was supposed to be done around 7:00. Well I checked it at 7 and it was not at all done. To make a long story short, finally around 8:00 we just cut off some of the top meat that was finished and the turkey was officially done around 10:00 pm!! What we figured was some of it was still frozen. But I bought it Monday so it would have 4 days to defrost and it was still frozen. I was so mad and frustrated, but my mom told me it happens to everyone. I just can't believe it takes that long to defrost. But we had a great Thanksgiving and the food was really good. It's just crazy how much time goes into it and it took us like 20 minutes to eat.
Next year, we are going to someone else's!!!! :)
On Friday we went shopping! We went to Wal-Mart where dad got him a couple of tv's, mom bought the boys some video games for Christmas, and Jerry and I just bought some odds and ends. We went to Kohl's next. Big mistake! I think we were in line for 2 hours. Not worth it for the crap we got, but we did it anyways. Then we went and ate at Applebee's. After that, all of us but dad went to see Breaking Dawn. Mom and I loved it, but the boys were pretty much miserable through it! HAHA!
On Saturday, Mom and I did some more shopping while dad went to Cabela's. Jerry, Derek and the boys stayed home and played video games. Then the family went home. They took Lexy with them because Jerry and I are going to Chicago on Thursday to see a Bear's game. I was so sad to see her leave and miss her so much, but it's only for like 9 days, but it is 9 days too long.


The boys playing games. I don't even know who won. I was just grateful I didn't have play. I am not a big fan of board games especially Monopoly.

The got Jerry to play some Yahtzee!

Mom peeling potatoes

My festive decorations!

What the guys did best during Thanksgiving. And sweet, sweet Lexy wishing one of them would throw her rat!

Halloween 2011

We didn't do too much on Halloween. The boys were with their mom this year, but she brought them by for trick-or-treating. They and one little girl were the only trick-or-treaters we had. I was surprised because we live in townhomes where there are a lot of families with kids. But there was a trunk-or-treat at the church so I think that's where they all were.
One night we took the boys to Thanksgiving Point's 'Insanity Point' Halloween thing. It was pretty expensive, $60.00 for all of us to go and it was SO lame. Jerry and I were very disappointed especially for how much it was. But the boys had fun so I guess that's what counts. We just thought it would be a lot more fun for the attractions they advertised. However, we did find out while we were there that the scary things opened at 8:00 pm and we went around 5:30. We didn't want to wait that long plus Jerry was freezing as you can see by what he is wearing. But we did do all of the little haunted attractions and went in the corn maze.
On the 29th I had a Halloween party. It was so much fun. My family and Audra drove up for it. Also Jerry's friends, Manny, Jenna, Mike and London came. Our friends, Alli and Gunner who we met on the cruise also came. We played several games and ate a ton of snacks. But since I was hosting I didnt get one picture. I think my mom did so I'll have to get her camera from her and download them.

At Insanity Point

The boys in their costumes
Dallas was a ninja (i think), Justin was a zombie, and Skyler was an evil gnome

Honeymoon

 After the wedding we went to Las Vegas and stayed at the JW Marriott for a couple of days! It was so much fun and we had a great time, but we couldn't stay very long because I had to start my new job the following Wednesday. It was fine because we had already booked our real honeymoon back in April, but we decided to wait because we saved a $1,000 by going in September instead of in June. We left on September 4th for our 7 day Mexican Riviera Cruise. We drove down on the 3rd and stayed overnight at my parents and dropped Lexy off. Then we headed down to California early the next morning to board the ship. It was a long drive, but we had a good time. Our cruise went to Puerta Vallarta and 2 days in Cabo San Lucas. We were supposed to spend one of those days in Mazatlan, but the cruise line sent us a letter infroming us we would be spending 2 days in Cabo insterad because it was too dangerous in Mazatlan for tourists.

On our way to California we stopped at a little diner in the middle of nowhere.

Gads I love him!

Getting on the ship

We went on a snorkel cruise in Cabo and on the way to the snorkel sight, we went and saw Los Arcos and Lover's Beach

On the cruise we met two friends, Alli and Gunner. We sat with them at dinner and they actually ended up being from American Fork. Anyways, we went with them to Lover's Beach for the day!

The water at Lover's Beach was really rough to swim in because of all the tourists boats. However, this picture is taken on the other side of the beach, the Pacific Ocean side. There were warning signs all over warning people not to swim because of the roughness of the water and the undertow

 Here is Jerry finding us a way through the rocks onto our own private beach.

Here I am coming up through the rocks. It was quite the treck to get to this beach and now I knew why we were the only ones there!

 Here we are on our beach. You can see Alli and part of Gunner

 Me with the sweetest lion cub!

 On our way to dinner

 Our artistic shot....and this was Jerry's idea...shocking I know. He also pointed out that I ruined the shot with my fingers. See how you can't see his but you can see all of mine. I am just not as artsy as him! :) He is such a sweetie poo.

Here is my sweetie poo looking all elegant in his bathrobe. You can also see part of our room. We had a window and I loved it! On my other cruises I have been on I have been in an interior room, but we upgraded to a window room and it was well worth it!

 Here we are in Puerta Vallarta. It was beautiful there and we both wished we could have spent 2 days there instead of in Cabo

 Jerry was so sick this day. But he was a good sport and tried to enjoy himself. We took a van tour of Puerta Vallarta.

 Here we visited a teguila factory. They gave out free shots of tequila and we were the only ones not drinking it. I think everyone thought we were crazy. Our tour guide kept asking "Are you sure you don't want any?"

On our tour we stopped at a restaurant that was up in the jungle and trees. It was beautiful. They also did Zip Line tours there. We were actually going to do that instead of this tour, but I am glad we didn't because of Jerry being sick.

 We ate at the restaurant and it was expensive and the food was not good at all. We were very disappointed, but we got lemonades and I thought they were delicious! However, when we got home from the cruise I was very sick with a stomache flu and I think it may have been from this meal. Good times!

This picture does not do justice to how green and jungle like it was in Puerta Vallarta. It was amazing there!

And finally....The Reception!

I may be biased but I think we had the best reception I have ever been to. My Mom and Dad put in so much time, work, and money into making the yard look amazing and to give me the best wedding/reception ever. I love them so much and everything was perfect. I have always wanted to have my reception in my parents backyard and so that is why we had such a long engagement. We had to wait for June when all the flowers are blooming and the yard looks amazing! And it was totally worth it! We had so much fun and so many people came to help out and support us. Thank you to all of my family for all they did to help out. Casey ran the 'Sweet Shoppe.' Sue and Kim helped to keep the cupcakes filled. I know Derek and Audra were running around making sure things were going smoothly. And I am sure there are others I missed but seriously, everything was perfect and its all thanks to everyone who helped out. Thank you to all who made this the most amazing day ever!

I will try to add more reception pictures later, but seriously my patience is at an end with waiting for them to download.

He thinks he is so funny!

The best sister and Nana!

The best parents EVER!

Sexy sexy!!

Me and Aud! I don't know what I would have done without her! She is the best and helped me so much with everything!

My dear sweet brother carrying out the cake! Don't worry Derek, nobody noticed the flower you broke off!! :)

Lexy is super excited to have a new daddy!!

 My mom did all of the table decorations and designed everything. I just kindof gave her an idea of what I wanted and she put it all together. Here are the tables and centerpieces

Here we had the big table in the backyard and put our engagement and other pictures of Jerry and I

My mom made these cute signs to point to where all of the things were

We had cupcakes and cookies for the treats. I had my friend Shawna's neice, Tierrah make the cupcakes. They were wonderful! Me and my mom made the cookies and we along with Grandma, Sue and Audra decorated them.

I was going to add more wedding day and reception pictures, but it was taking FOREVER to download them!

Wedding Day!

It all took place on a beautiful day in June, June 25th to be exact. We got married in the St George temple that morning. We had so many friends and family come! It was amazing to have so much support. People traveled from all over...Jerry's family came down from Idaho, The Miyadi's came from California, Desi Quayle came from Tennessee, Tammi and Steve came from Iowa, and many came from up North. After the ceremony we went and had our luncheon at the Pasta Factory.

Us with Jerry's family-His mom, brother, and nephews

Me and the comps!

Besties forever!!

The whole gang!

The Best Family Ever!Little Heartbreakers!

Boys, Boys, Boys

The boys patiently waiting for us

Coming out of the temple