there's no place like home

This weekend my sweet husband drove us all the way down to San Diego for my Uncle Mike's wedding! We decided to break up the trip by staying in Vegas overnight, for both our children's sanity as well as our own! Cole and Ali were such troopers the whole trip, it was so nice to have them entertain each other! We decided to priceline a hotel and see what we could get...and we ended up getting a great deal on Planet Hollywood. When we arrived there we were upgraded to an even larger suite. This ended up happening on the way home too, due to both the kindness of the staff and Justin's connection to a hostess via his brother Jeff (So in a round about way, thanks for the upgrade Jeff!). This was so exciting to us because we always hear about people being upgraded and it NEVER happens to us!

Here is Cole taking care of Ali for us!

Looking at these pictures I am sure you can guess what Cole's favorite part of the room was!

Cole LOVES bubbles and never get's to take a bubble bath since we only have a shower.

This bathroom was huge!

This was the seating area...

and this was Cole ordering room service (haha)

and this was our view!

This is Ali and Justin glued to the screen watching Jeff's game at Central. We got there just in time to catch the whole game! Jeff is pretty amazing...so we were all excited to watch him play!


Ali slept so peacefully right where we layed her...

and then there was Cole...can you find where he finally fell asleep? Don't worry, we made sure he had an air supply!


I have to admit their moments together make me smile...

How cute are they?


And now for the wedding...

Mike and Claire
That scruffy groomsman is my brother David...or should I say Brother Brigham?

It was a beautiful ceremony...with a few comical moments...like when Cole darted out to chase a seagull right when the bridesmaids were heading out. Gotta love a 2 year old at the beach!

It was so good to see my uncle so happy. Welcome to the family Claire, we are so happy to have you!

All in all it was a great trip and we were sorry to head back to Utah. It was so fun to be with family. Justin was such a sport to drive all that way for me. There really is no place like home.

justin get's his craft on

Our ward had a Thanksgiving activity last night that was so fun! It started with a turkey dinner and ended with a contest. So the challenge was to take the pumpkin and make it look like a turkey, using only the materials in your bowl. Now, if you know Justin at all, you know that he has a huge competitive streak...imagine that. So, when he heard the word contest, it was game on! Who knew he could be so crafty! This is all Justin, I can't take any credit. After a little stress over the super glue not being so super, and the fact that other tables had some better materials, Justin turned out this beauty! The BEST part by far is that he got creative and used left over TURKEY for the wings. I was cracking up the whole time. Seeing my huge football player get his "craft on" as he put it was so entertaining! He was so proud of his creation and he even won an award...he won MOST DEFORMED. He was a bit put off by this label considering his masterpiece of a pumpkin, but he soon got over it when he saw that there were prizes involved. We had a really fun time, as I always do with Justin...he makes me laugh so hard. So now we can add crafting to his list of talents, it takes a real man to make glittery pom poms manly.

girl talk

Ali has found her voice! This past week Ali has started talking up a storm! She is so fun to listen to. She will jibber jabber to anyone who will listen! I love hearing more of her little personality come out. Justin has decided by her love of gab that she must be my daughter. I love every second of this adorable little lady! (Excuse the mess on my floor...Cole was making his mark while I was filming.)

busted

Apparently he has been watching me put formula in bags for the diaper bag. Look at that face!

The King

Elvis and his 50's gal!

Elvis loved the ladies! And that fact made this the perfect costume for Cole! He loves a pretty girl! (Just ask his long distance lady Lucy!) At the zoo he tried to ditch us to follow any pretty gal that walked by (especially the ones dressed as cat's meee-ow!).

Boo at the Zoo

We decided to put our Zoo memberships to good use and show off Becca's costume handiwork at Boo at the Zoo. It was CRAZY how many people were there, but we managed to have a really good time together! Cole loved the Zoo, and the candy was a definite bonus!

How cute are they?

Cole was obsessed with this HUGE dog. It took us forever to convince him to go to the next stop!

Check out that rhinestone guitar! Justin was so crafty!

The boys sat on this hay for a photo opp, but the best pics were of the residue from the hay...check out his toosh as he walks away!

And this is how Ali spent the day. She was out cold for the whole crazy adventure.

A Boo-rific Playgroup!

Playgroup was so much fun! Here are a few pics of Cole with his pal Cooper (Bam Bam), and Ali with her BFF Macy!

2-4-6-8 who do we appriciate?

As if Becca was not amazing enough already, she has become quite the Halloween costume seamstress! If you remember her handiwork on the football costume two years ago, then you already know she is talented. But...I believe she has outdone herself this year! She made Ali's skirt and Cole's jumpsuit...after just making an outline for a pattern she went home and whipped this out and it fit like a glove! My only contribution was the poodle, and Justin's claim to fame...the rhinestone guitar on the cape. Becca, you are simply AMAZING! Thanks for all your hard work!

Preschool Politics

With all the anticipation of today's events, there has been a ton of talk on TV morning shows about the election. I did not know how closely Cole was following the election however, until yesterday afternoon when Cole turned to me between bites of his sandwich and said "Barack Obama?" I asked him to repeat what he said and he said "Barack Obama" again and started cracking up. All day whenever there was a dull moment he repeated "Barack Obama" and laughed uncontrollably. Apparently he found this presidential candidate to be quite hilarious. When we called Justin at work to let him in on the joke, Justin asked Cole who he was voting for and he said McCain. Who knew he was so informed?

Special Delivery!

Look Closely...apparently he wanted to mail himself. Yet another example of his obsession with mail these days!

Taste the Rainbow

Cole has been saying some of the most random things lately, so I thought I would document them for the grandparents sake! The first has to do with this picture. Cole loves that skittles commercial where every time the guy touches anything it turns to skittles. So he apparently remembered the catch phrase to the commercial and when I let him eat some M&M's for dessert today he said "Cole taste the rainbow!"...wrong candy, hilarious statement. Then when I went to take this picture Cole said "One, Two, Three...I gotta pee". He said it with the funniest face. Another random thing he has said lately is repeated every time I give him something or sometimes he just randomly walks up to me and says "I'm a lucky guy". I have no clue where he got that from but it's pretty darn cute.

"It's UTAH!"

The other day I heard Cole ripping some paper in the corner. I walked over to make sure that it was nothing important and he handed me this piece of paper he had torn and said "Mama, it's Utah!" Then he handed me the piece that he had torn off and said "This is Michigan!" and I have to admit it totally looked like that part of Michigan that resembles a hand. I love this kid!

"Are You lookin' at Me?"