Well, after MUCH consideration, I have decided to go PRIVATE! My blog is personal. It's my diary. I love to share it with friends and family, but I have decided to go private to block out perverts and stalkers. I want to do it quickly too. So....if you'd like access to view it, please feel free to leave your email address so I can add you. Or you can email me at smksb@msn.com. If you don't you won't be able to view my blog. :)
~M

Family Pictures

On Saturday my friend Mindy took our family pictures at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. They turned out exactly how I hoped they would. She did a great job! Here's just a few of my favorites. Enjoy!

Our tradition...

Every year we have a tradition of heading down to Thanksgiving Pointe for the festival of lights. It's great! You just drive through this big park that's fully decorated in the warmth of your own car. Here's our little munchkins as they anxiously awaited... I LOVE Scott! He is truly wonderful. ! ♥

Once we got there we let the girls get out of their prisons, I mean car seats. Santa happened to be walking around and greeting the cars. I caught a picture of the girls' excitement right at the perfect time!

Then we drove through the display. SO pretty!

After that we parked and went to the plaza there. The girls enjoyed seeing the real-life reindeer.

They are such beautiful animals!

We walked around and enjoyed the Christmas music and smell of pine trees.

And enjoyed the pretty shops, too!

Then we hit the ice-cream parlor for our favorite.....a banana split! That thing is HUGE and oh-so-delicious. It's 4 big scoops of ice cream, a whole banana, caramel sauce, hot fudge and hot marshmallow cream, slivered almonds, whip cream and 4 cherries. HEAVEN! The best part? It will only set you back $5.25! Great deal.

Yummy deliciousness...

I absolutely LOVE the old-school ice-cream parlor. It's adorable!

The girls loved hearing the carolers.

And we appreciated the fire pits to keep us warm. It was quite chilly!

I love this tradition and hope we always do it.

Family Fun...

Dad, Mom, Sarah and Nana came to visit us for Thanksgiving. Sweet! We always have a blast when they are in town. Here's just a few of the highlights...
Sarah in town means a lot of things, but probably the biggest (no pun intended) is that we see a lot of this guy...her fiance, Kyle. These two are total goofballs and I love them!
Here's Dad reading up on his new binoculars Scott gave him. I love my Dad!!!

Have I mentioned that I adore my Nana?! She's simply adorable and one of my best friends.

Sarah is SUCH a great Aunt and always takes time to play with her nieces. They LOVE her!

Mom, Sarah and I went to the movies one night and saw New Moon. As always, we had a blast!

The day after Thanksgiving we embarked on one of the most precious days of my life. This day will remain near the top of my list forever. First we started out going to Kneaders for breakfast where we laughed more than we ate. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I couldn't LOVE these ladies more! It was a beautiful day! The only thing missing was Lisa. :(

After breakfast we headed to, well, .......SHOP FOR A WEDDING DRESS FOR MY BABY SISTER!!!! AHHHHHH!!!! It was an emotional experience. A beautiful one! Sarah moved me to tears many times. I felt so honored to be a part of this experience. This ISN'T her dress. I'm keeping that one a secret, but you get the idea. Needless-to-say, she is going to make a GORGEOUS bride!!!

That night we all went to dinner, minus Sarah and Kyle who were at a concert, at Madeline's Steak house. It was AMAZING! It really was the perfect end to a perfect day. The food was amazing and the company was even better. :)

Here's my sweet little Nana with her HUGE dinner. She got steak and all-you-can-eat crab legs. I thought I was going to die laughing seeing the look on her face when they put all her food in front of her. She's SOOOOOOO cute!!!!

The night before they all left I had a birthday dinner for Sarah who was turning 19 the next day. (sniff sniff) Danny, Megan and Axton literally just arrived home from Vegas and came over for the festivities. We always love seeing them! Here's the buddies. As if Axton couldn't get any cuter, he walks now! It was adorable. It totally threw the girls off seeing him in motion. They thought, at first glance, it was Corey walking around. I wish!!!

Here's the birthday girl! I can't believe my little tiny dancer is all grown up. Where has the time gone? She's a beautiful girl. Inside and out. I am SO proud of the woman she is becoming. Mom made her the most delicious chocolate cake that unfortunately collapsed after frosting. We're not sure why, but it was amazing anyways!

Then we topped off the night by doing a blind-folded taste test challenge with the guys. We gave them some absolutely disgusting items and almost peed our pants laughing. They were such awesome sports! Always willing to rise to the occasion. :)

This picture says it all. Poor Danny! He got revenge on me by licking the entire right side of my face with what was in his mouth. LOL

We LOVE them all and already look forward to having them come back!

The Nutcracker

Every year Suzie and I have a tradition of going to Ballet West's production of The Nutcracker. I'm really not sure WHY we do it. We really don't like it, technically. We spend most of the time trying not to laugh. It's just not our thing. We have so much fun anyways. I love this girl and I love our weird traditions, including this one!!! ♥

Dear Santa,

I found this in Kaleigh's backpack today. I love that girl and I love how much she loves her guinea pig, Lloyd. It melts me. I am pretty sure he is the most loved and spoiled guinea pig in the world. We all adore him!

It was 7 months ago today that we lost Mike. I am amazed at how the 10th of each month feels like a sock in the stomach. A flood of emotions. No matter how hard I try, I can't escape the feelings. I can't help but re-live the emotions of that night. I miss my brother SO much! I miss his phone calls. I miss seeing him. I miss his letters. I miss everything about him. Even the bad! I have learned that this hole in my heart will never heal. It is something that people just can't feel and understand until they have experienced it also. Mike was a REALLY good brother to me. We had a open and great relationship. I miss that terribly. :(

Thanksgiving 2009

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. This year was EXTRA special because Dad, Mom, Nana and Sarah came to visit us! I appreciate that they do. I know it's hard with their health, but they do it anyways. The day started off great with the girls getting some early Christmas presents from Grandpa and Grandma. (we are going to Cali for Xmas and don't have room to take these back) Here's Sarah, her fiance, Kyle, Mom and Dad. LOVE them!!! Me and my DARLING Grandma who I ADOOOOOOOORE!!!

Peyton got a vanity table from them. Perfect!!!

She was in heaven!!!

Kaleigh and Shayla got a Barbie dream house. Also perfect!!!

They were in heaven and played for hours. Thanks Sarah and Kyle for helping assemble it while we cooked away.

Peyton loves Nana. She was getting very tired, so.....

she did what any smart baby would do. She headed into the comforting arms of her loving Grandma! And, of coarse, Mom had her asleep within 2 minutes. She loves Grandma!

Then she woke up and headed into Grandpa's arms to play. She loves him too!

And then it was dinner time! Everything was so delicious. We stuffed ourselves and laughed and talked all night long. We probably did about 15 toasts, too. LOL. Scott and I felt very grateful to be surrounded by loving family.

Shayla had dibs on the turkey leg. She loved it! (it looks sick in this pic)

Kaleigh had dibs on the other. She ate every last bite.

Funny story: see that dark spot on my shirt? That day Nana and I were setting the table and I was taking the wine glasses out of the china cabinet. I turned to look at her and I ended up hitting the glass on the lip of the cabinet and it shattered everywhere. Glass went flying everywhere. Including my cleavage! It cut the hell out of my boobs. LOL! So that dark spot? Yah, it's Neosporin. :)

We had a great evening filled with gratitude, good food, loved ones and laughter. It was perfect! Nan got a little tipsy from all the Martinelli's and layed on Mom's lap to be rocked asleep. They were both laughing so hard. It was adorable!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving too. Love you all!!!!