Thanksgiving and Stuff

We had Thanksgiving at Tania's on the 28th. We got there at 12pm. and ate soon after. It was early so Shaun could go to work at 2pm. It was a sunny day and a bit cool outside. The kids played football and Tyrell shot his bow for a bit. The food was good. I watched football. We left after the Dallas Cowboy game around 5pm I think. They beat the Raiders. Mina went to stay with Maddie for a few days. She came back Sunday. Jaxon stayed at Julia's for a night. He went to the movies with them, Frozen I think.

Not a whole lot of other stuff this month. Tyrell has a girlfriend named Brenna. He says she is his friend but no. I've told him to not have girlfriends so he can date different girls but he doesn't listen. They go on dates and stuff with Tyrell's other friends. He takes the car. We give him times he is supposed to be home and stuff and he pushes his limits all the time. I've told him about losing his privileges if rules aren't followed. He tries to follow them because I follow through with dealing out the consequences. She gave him a treasure chest full of gold chocolates one time with a note asking him to a dance.

On the 11th I had Veterans Day off. We saw Thor 2 for F.H.E. I worked most of that weekend doing server encryption. Had a lot of troubles with it so it took longer than it was supposed and even didn't finish before Tuesday 12th. I'll be getting a big over-time check which is a good thing about it.

We got Leila a new bike for her birthday. She hasn't learned to ride one yet. The first bike we got her was still too big and heavy so we returned it and got one just right. On Saturday the 9th we went out in front to teach her. It took a bit of time and patience with her. She would always get wobbly and lose balance. Candi and I both took turns trying. Leila was sad and about to give up at one point. We went to the office building parking lot next door for more space and she started getting it down after about 5 minutes. Then she got it good and loved it. I told her to not give up and that most of the good things in life take a lot of effort but are worth it.

Leila's Baptism

Saturday, November 2nd at 1:30pm was Leila's baptism. Candi gave the Baptism talk and Mina did the Holy Ghost talk. Tyrell did the interlude music while we dressed. They all did a good job. Leila's foot almost came up when I put her under but it was good. The service was short and nice. The families came over to eat after at our home.

Leila's 8th Birthday

Leila's birthday activities started friday, October 25th. We took her to the Witch Breakfast show at Gardner Village again. We picked her up from school early and surprised her. It started at 10:30am. It was just Leila, Erana, Candi, Mum and I. We ate a lot of eggs and bacon and pancakes. Leila went up on stage a couple times when they had kid volunteers. She even did the cup song with one of the witches at our table. We walked around the village after and she got a new tybeanie boo.

In the afternoon we went to the zoo. The kids had a good time. The weather was nice and not too cool. There was a new part of the zoo we hadn't seen before, the seal and polar bear section. It was nice. Erana loves to see the animal and was very excited.

On Tuesday the 29th we went to McDonalds for her birthday and Dray and Kage came. After she opened presents and had Ninja turtle cup cakes.

Thursday was Halloween. She had another birthday cheese cake. We went over to Jody and Monica's at 5:30pm. We ate clam chowder, boil up, and other yummy stuff. We went trick or treating around the newer neighborhood down the hill. Mina went with Malia and Malia's friend but said they didn't get enough lollies because those 2 were talking too much and walking slow. Mina was a tad bit upset about that. Mina was dressed as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. Jaxon was Slenderman from a scary game they play on the pc. Other kids knew who he was and liked his costume. Leila was also a Ninja turtle and Erana was a little skeleton.

October Stuff

Thursday October 24th Jaxon graduated from Webelos and got his Arrow of Light award. Candi went to it. She said Jaxon looked a little hori in his shorts and scout top.

Back on the 7th we went to the annual Halloween party at the Ashworth's home. Erana got her face painted. Kids had a good time.

On the 6th we took some family photos in our backyard. They are for our Christmas cards. We kept delaying it and so the good weather will be going away soon so we were desperate. So the backyard it is, spinarit. We also did some inside. Some turned out ok.

On Tuesday the 1st we had our FHE. We went to Gardner Village and did the Witch Hunt. We got a paper with all the location clues and we went off and found them and marked it off. When it was complete we could use the papers for a cookie coupon.

Funny Things Kids Say

• Erana was watching tv in the reading nook. I (Candi) went to check on her and I see her all happy and smiling and she says to me "fly's my friend". I say "Huh?" Then I see this fly sitting on her leg & flying around her legs. I say, "Ewww that's yuck, I'm gonna kill that fly."  Then her face went all sad and she yells out "NO!" Another day I was in the kitchen swatting flys with the fly swatter, and she hears me and runs to me and says "No Mama, fly's my friend". Another morning I killed a fly in my room, and Erana saw me do it, she burst into tears and wouldn't stop crying until I gave her a lollie.
• I fried up some onions for dinner and it was making everyone's eyes water. Well the next night I fried up some more onions and Leila says "Why did Jesus make onions hurt your eyes?"
• There was a crab on t.v. or something and Erana says, "I like crabs, they are so awesome!" Lol.
• Erana says out of the blue one time, "Jaxon is jealous Mummy." Not sure she knows what that means.
• Erana has a lot of little purses and boxes that she fills up with all sorts of random things like rocks, toys, flashlights, and anything that appeals to her. She's like Jaxon with her little rats nests. She sat on me (Jason) with one of her boxes while I was doing this and said, "Let's play puppet ninjas." She opened her box and gave me a plastic toy knight and she pulled out a little plastic toy ninja man for her. She's so cute.

Cynthia Healey's Visit

August 27th to September 25th 

Cynthia came at the end of August and stayed with us for a whole month.  At the airport, we were caught of guard when the flight was an hour late, so when she finally came out of the gates, Jaxon, Leila, Erana & I weren't paying attention and didn't notice her at all. When I did she had already seen me.  Darn it, we wanted to surprise her.  Leila thought Cynthia was a chinese girl, seeing that she looks asian & the people that were coming out of the gate were mostly asian.

Cynthia stayed in the basement.  While she was here she did a lot of shopping in her first week, & then slowed it down for the rest of her stay.  She also went golfing a lot too, she met new friends while golfing there were firemen & Bryant who ended up being more than a friend by the time she left.  Even though Cynthia was not our child & she is 27yrs old we did worry a lot about her when she went out at night with friends she had just met that day.

She went to the movies, a Halloween scare house, Utes game (I haven't even been to a college game yet), Silver lake and to a country nightclub.

Cynthia tried different things while she was here like, yogurt land (my first time too), In & out burgers, pumpkin pie, lobster bisque, smores with giant marshmallows, nachos, jalapeno bagels etc...

We had family prayer, scripture reading, family home evening & went to church with her.  She liked to hang with Mina and do things with her.  They had a girls night where they put beauty masks on their face & did their nails.  Mina ended up spilling her aqua colored nail polish all over her carpet in her bedroom.
We dyed Cynthia's hair at least 3 times while she was here. Christine did it the first time, turned out too light, so Cynthia & I did it again twice.  Now she has beautiful brown hair!

Cynthia put false eyelashes on me just before Jason & I went on our two night anniversary get away.

It was sad to see Cynthia go, but she said she was going to be back next year.  She went to Reno, & I skyped with her she was bored & didn't like it very much, she wanted to come back but couldn't. We then skyped with her while she was in San Francisco for the whole day & night. Then finally skyped again at the airport before her journey back home to New Zealand.

Our 19th Anniversary!

September 17th to 19th

On Tuesday the 17th of September, Jason took me out to the 'Cheesecake Factory' for our 19th wedding anniversary.  We had a very yummy appetizer 'fried zucchini, avocados & portabello mushrooms'. Then Jay got a 'caramel macadamia' cheesecake & I got the 'mango keylime' cheesecake. I like mine better it was tropical & had coconut in it too.

On Wednesday we drove to Wendover and stayed the night at Montego hotel for free. We ate at the buffet first, buy-one-get-one-free. Their choices were ok, meats were a bit over cooked for my tastes. Our room was big & nice, except no hot tub, but that's ok, we had an enjoyable night together.

Thursday we slept in, and then checked out & drove to downtown Salt Lake. We went & ate at Tucano's for lunch and stuffed ourselves so much we could barely move. So we went for a walk around and I got me some white skinny jeans from Old Navy & Jay got him a top.  Got sucked into buying some cookies, which we probably didn't need.

Then we headed to our hotel which was the 'Anniversary Inn' on South Temple.  I surprised Jason with the 'jungle Safari' room, which was a hoot, we had a wild time!

Time has gone by sooo fast we can't believe it has been 19 years together. I have lived here longer now than I did growing up in New Zealand. And I couldn't imagine spending it with no else but my Jaybean! xxx

Written 10/9/13