So many things to be thankful for....

So many things to be thankful for, where do I start??
Ok I have to admit, the first thing I was thankful for this past week was that Tyler finally decided it was more work than it was worth to grow out his hair, so he cut it today. Yeah, I can see his bright green eyes again! :)

We had such a great Thanksgiving week. It felt like all we did was eat all week long. Brent's family was here for the first part of the week and the cousins had lots of fun playing. Tyler and Sydney even spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa Adams house (which used to be where we lived) so that was really fun for them to go back there. We then enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner with them on Wednesday night. We were all there except Uncle Dave and Aunt Heidi, we missed them.

The next day (on Thanksgiving) we had a very quiet and fun Thanksgiving dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Duncan. It was just our little family and my parents, it felt very strange but we loved being spoiled!! We had lots of yummy food and then we went to the movie, Bolt. The kids had fun but they definitely missed their cousins on the Duncan side.

I always feel so blessed to have such amazing family and friends who fill my life with so much joy!

Now the party is over for now and my Christmas crap (as my father and Brent would call it) is all over the house waiting patiently for me to get a spurt of energy. Until that spurt of energy comes and the hustle and bustle begins, I will try and remember all the ways we have been so richly blessed!! (Way too many to list) I am always grateful that another year has come and gone and I still got away with only making the rolls! I know one day this will end and every year I think to myself, "I am going to have to make this big meal for my whole family one day," but until then I will enjoy my mother's amazing cooking! Thanks mom for always making it so special, even if it was just for us!!

**Quick side note to myself....I realized as I was running a longer run today, maybe it wasn't such a good idea to have Thanksgiving dinner 3 days in a row or maybe I should have skipped the pie at least one of those days! :)

Pictures soon to come!:)

Twilight Madness

Ok, so the other night we ( about 20 moms) went to the "big" premier of Twilight and all I can say is we had so much fun!! It is amazing how staying up until three in the morning with a bunch of girls, drinking diet coke, eating way too much candy and popcorn and watching Edward made me feel so young again!

Of course until the next day and then I realized that I was not so young and could not bounce right back like in the good old days, and those 3 hours of sleep didn't really cut it, but it was so worth the party!!

I stole these pictures off one of the other girls blogs, hope they don't care!!

Thanks Destiny for getting the tickets, we need to do this more often. :)

Another belated post!

I know Halloween has come and gone and once again I am posting a very belated post but I couldn't miss writing about all the fun adventures Halloween brought.

We enjoyed the annual Duncan Pumpkin Carving Party, going to Young Family Farms with friends, going from Pumpkin Patch to Pumpkin patch with the kids school classes, the good old ward trunk or treat and we are still feeling completely sick from major candy overload!!



Tyler's school teacher did a pretty cool paint job don't you think?

Princess Tinkerbell, her personality fit this costume.




Mckay was spiderman at the first few parties then decided to take on the Joker as batman!! It's a good thing we have these in the dress ups!


We also celebrated Brent's birthday! We usually just celebrate by going trick or treating but this year we had a few friends over to help celebrate. I won't mention how old he is getting but it makes my ripe age of 32 sound young!:) Happy Birthday Brent, thank goodness you were born!! You are an amazing father and a very patient husband!!!:) We love you!!

Soooooo close......

Can you see the despair in those little boys faces. They played their very best!!!!
Tyler receiving his 2nd place pin and I am sure the whole time he was thinking this should've been a 1st place pin. Good learning experiences!
This little team should be so proud! Their ranking at the first of the season was last place and they played so hard all season that they ended up making it into the championship game. We really thought this was going to be a huge blowout for the other team, which was undefeated, but not so. These boys never gave up. It ended in a tie game so they played another five minutes and still a tie. Finally, it went down to a sudden death shoot out. Five kids from each team took their best shots and we finally lost. Look how dark it was. It was the longest most intense game!  I guess someone has to always loose, too bad it was us!  So sad.:)

A few of my favorite fall things....

Although it feels like winter lately, I am still hanging onto Fall. Some of the great things about fall:

1. Fall football!! I love watching football games. I am sure this is probably because I grew up watching them. I have so many great memories of going to football games. I remember going to all of the high school games with friends and thinking we would die if we ever missed one. I remember going with friends to BYU games and laughing at all the crazy fans. Then, after Brent and I were married we lived for Friday nights to come so we could go and watch my brothers play high school football. Those were all such great memories. This fall it has been even more fun watching Tyler play football. He has really loved playing and is becoming quite the good little football player. I know, I am is mother!!

A couple of weeks ago, Grandpa Adams took us to a BYU game and we had lots of fun. So of course I have to give a shout out for BYU. My brother and I claim we are the favorites because we are the only 2 out of 6 of my siblings that graduated from BYU and followed in mom and dad's footsteps. I am sure my other siblings might say something different! Whatever the reason I just have to say, Go Cougs!! Enough about football.






2. Another one of my favorite things about fall is walking into my parents home every October conference weekend and seeing my mom make yummy grape juice from the grapes in her backyard. So this year Sydney and I decided to join in and we had lots of fun. It is easier than it looks and I was encourage to think that maybe I could actually do this on my own one day.

3. I also love taking walks in the canyon when the leaves are changing. So last week, after conference, we took our kids up Hobble Creek canyon and they rode their backs down the trail. It was so beautiful!! Forgot the camera, bummer.

4. Last, I always love to listen to general conference, it seems to help me remember what's really important in life. I loved President Monson's talk entitled Finding Joy in the Journey. It really hit home and once again reminded me of the importance of being a mother, which some days, I tend to often forget!! I always feel re-dedicated and it leaves me with great hope to be a better mom and enjoy these little moments.

**The only thing I really don't love about fall is that means winter is coming. I could really live without winter but I will somehow try to find joy in that journey as well!!

Two blog worthy events

First big event! Last week my baby turned 3!! I know he is not such a baby anymore but he still seems that way to me. Can I tell you how much I love 3 year old birthdays? There are no expectations, no asking for huge presents, no planning gigantic birthday parties, just the simple little things. He loved every little toy we got him. His favorite presents were from Tyler and Sydney. They each gave him something of theirs. Tyler gave him his Flash wristband and McKay has been wearing it ever since! I think that was his favorite thing! Sydney wrapped up one of her old dolls, I am not sure he really loved that but it was sure thoughtful of Syd. We had cake and ice cream at the Jones home and celebrated McKay and Brooke's (cousin) birthdays together! I really am still in denial that he is already 3, but he is such a sweetheart, he is kind of the center of attention around here. He keeps us laughing a lot. He tells it like it is and sometimes that might not be such a good thing. For instance, he was playing at the neighbors house the other day and this is how the conversation went: they were talking about dads for some reason?

Neighbors mom: "Mckay, where is your dad or what is he doing, is he at work?" Something to that effect.
Mckay's response: "He is at home right now farting."

My neighbor didn't quite know what to say to that response, she thought maybe she misunderstood him, so she asked again and she said it sounded pretty straight forward. What a character, I am not quite sure where that came from but that's our little birthday boy!! We couldn't imagine life without this little guy. He keeps us on our toes and gives us comic relief daily.

Onto our next big event--We finally see grass growing in our yard! As many of you know, we have been putting our yard in and it seems like it has taken an eternity! Yes, we have learned lots, mostly in patience, forgiveness and humility! Yes, Brent did an amazing job, considering he really had no idea what he was doing in the beginning!! Yes, it has turned out beautiful! Yes, we have saved lots of money, but spent a lot as well! And Yes, we are still married! No, we will never do this again!! I repeat myself, hopefully we will never do this again!! Thanks to the family for all their hard work. I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel!
Here are some pictures for pure entertainment. I will say, I think the guys had fun driving the bobcat, backhoe, etc. and acting like they knew what ther were doing but I don't think anyone enjoyed digging trenches and shoveling what seemed like a million wheelbarrows of dirt.:) I am so thrilled this project is coming to an end, at least until spring right?!? There is always another project to be done!



Do you see the little green fuzz, yup that's grass!!


Happy Fall to all!

Another summer comes to an end!!

I know we are in the middle of September but I think I am in denial that our care free summer days are completely over!! We had such a fun summer and one day I might sit down and actually blog about it, but it probably won't happen!! So I thought I would at least post some pictures of my kids on their first day of school, I am always behind!!

Tyler started third grade and was very excited to get a guy teacher who he heard was very cool, we will see.

I could barely get Tyler to hold still for one picture, therefore here is the one and only picture!

Sydney finally started Kindergarten and could hardly stand waiting the extra week after Tyler's schoool started. She loves it and goes with lots of kids in the neighborhood. We live really close to the school so the kids walk to and from school.






McKay thinks he is in school as well because a few moms in the neighborhood take turns once a week taking the kids and doing activities etc. with them. It is good for him to be with little kids his age instead of living in a grown-up kid world of Hannah Montana/Super Mario Smash Brothers or whatever it is called. He thinks he is way older than he really is.:) For heaven sakes he is barely old enough to be potty trained, Yes we conquered it. He is officially potty trained! No kids in diapers, wow!


Now that summer is over I am sure there will be something else that I will use for an excuse when it comes to lack of blogging!

The 4th of July

The 4th of July has always been one of my favorite holidays if not my very favorite!! I love getting up early and going to the balloons (although this year we didn't quite make it, stayed up too late the night before doing fireworks), watching the parade, having BBQ's, swimming, doing fireworks. I love it all!! We had lots of fun this year! We were able to spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa Adams and just relax! Hope you all enjoyed the 4th!!


This face is so McKay.



Dad and Ty at the parade.

Sydney posing, what she does best.


Honestly Tyler, so gross!! Other favorite Uncle Mark.

2 Uncles at the same place, I guess we were at the cool place for fireworks.

Annual 4th of July family photo. :)

SPARKLERS!

At Grandpa and Grandma's.

The good old parade.

Summer Fun!!

Becca and Sydney lived in their swim suits.

  Jacob and McKay have a love/hate relationship.

Uncle Brady is the favorite.

McKay chilling with the girls.

A little too much fun at the lake.

Grandpa D. was always out in the lake with the kids.:)

Where does the time go??? Well a re-cap of the month of June. It seems like we were practically gone the entire month. We started with the kids swimming lessons. We are very happy to say, that with lots of tears and much drama, Sydney officially has conquered her fear of putting her head under the water. Actually by the end she was jumping off the diving board. This is HUGE if you know Sydney! :) My boys love the water so this was quite the event that I wasn't used to.

Next we had the Duncan Reunion. We had lots of fun boating and playing with cousins down south. My sis, Jen, and I also ran a 10K in the summer games and we had fun cheering for Todd and Brady when they did their triathalon. Watching it made me really want to do a triathalon, can someone please teach me how to swim, that part looks really tough!! I feel so lucky to have such great extended family who we really love to be with and have so much fun together! We missed two of my brothers and their families, we love you Paul and Clint and fams!!

June came to an end with a surprise. I ended up running the Wasatch Back Relay, something I have always wanted to do and probably never would have, but my neighbor knocked on my door at 10:30 the night before and said someone had dropped out last minute on their team and they needed someone to run. I am not sure what possessed me to say yes but I did and we had so much fun, I really want to do it again next year. I have lived in Utah all my life and I have never seen so much beauty. The scenery was amazing!! I was so sad I didn't have my camera.
As soon as I get some pics of this race, I will post them. I am sure I looked wasted in most of them seeing as I think I got a couple of hours of sleep over the 2 days.

Needless to say we are having a fun-filled summer and I can't believe it is already half over. I am not going to think about it yet and just enjoy the rest of our playing days.