Girls Night Out

The night before we left for home, my sisters planned a girls night out.  {Most} of them are Twilight crazies and were dying to see the new movie.   I myself  could take it or leave it.  I read the first book, saw the first movie, and started the second book.  While I was never bit by the Twilight bug, I am all about spending time with my sissies:}  We had dinner and then watched Breaking Dawn Part 2.  I decided that since Bay is now 13, I would invite her to join us.  I must admit it was pretty good and while I will probably not read the other 3 books, I would like to watch the other movies to see what we missed.  I see a Twilight date night with Bay in the near future:}

***This picture is pretty awful.  Partly because it was taken with my phone, and partly because the nice young man that took it for us was in a rush to get back to his post:}

It was such a fun night!!  Makes me really miss having these girls to hang out with, 

but also makes me appreciate it more when I get to:}

Animal Parade

There wasn't a whole lot of time spent shopping on Black Friday.. ..I try to avoid crowds:}  There was a great deal of time spent doing this....

.. .. .. lining up all of Grampa & Gramma's stuffed animals.  She was feeling so much better and having the time of her life with these little guys.

{Much to be thankful for}

We just returned from our Thanksgiving weekend.  It started out rough, but ended up being pretty wonderful.  As soon as we arrived in Utah Wednesday evening, Emm was not feeling well.  She ended up spending the entire night in bed and puking...poor little thing:[

She was miserable and didn't want me to leave her side.  While we isolated ourselves in the basement, Mark played The Inventors with Bailee and Karsyn.

 

By morning, Emmrey wasn't 100%, but she was feeling better.  We headed to Park City to spend Thanksgiving with my family.  The condos are not huge, and our family has grown, so it didn't leave a lot of wiggle room.  That's okay with me...makes it nice and cozy just like it should be.  Beautiful sight isn't it??

 To go along with all the people, there was lots of yummy food.  Mmmm..nothing like a plate full of Thanksgiving comfort food {especially when you aren't cooking it all yourself;}

The last time it worked out that we were with my side of the family, when my parents had the condo for Thanksgiving, was when we told them we were expecting Karsyn, so this was a real treat.  

 As kids we spent many Thanksgiving breaks in Park City, so it is a bit like going "home" for all of us.

  I wish we could do this every year...

Mom, Dad and {almost}all their girls... Jami was checking on kids.  Both my brothers didn't make it this year.

The kids played some games .... Grandma & Grandpa had them do a game where they wrote down something they didn't think most of us would know about them and we had to guess.  Bailee's was that "she is scared of throw-up", Karsy wrote "she loves sports", and Emmrey said that "she was left at pre-school once".  I picked out 2 of my 3 girls.  You can imagine my horror when Emmrey's was revealed, although the incident quickly came back to me. Truth be told, it was Mark that forgot her:{ Emm was the winner for "fooling" the most people.  It was so fun, and I learned all sorts of little facts about my nieces and nephews.

 

 They swam~and swam~and swam~just like we did as kids:}

 

 Bailee was so good with the little ones.  She is at the age where she really enjoys taking care of them:}

 It was an idyllic day and I found myself filled with nostalgia and wishing it would last longer.

Happy Turkey Day!!!

Trustworthy and Responsible

Last week both Karsyn and Emmrey received awards at the first trimester celebration at Sunset.  Our elementary uses the Six Pillars of Character model and each trimester a student from each class who exhibits this trait is selected. 

 Karsyn received the award for Trustworthiness.....

And Emmrey was chosen for Responsibility .....

What made it even more special is that I ended up subbing for Emm's teacher that day so I got to give her the award on stage....not too many kids get to experience that;} I was sooo proud of my girlies:}

You win some .. ..you lose some

Tuesday was Election Day.. ... ..hope everyone had a chance to VOTE:}  I had to work that day, so I went after school.  Bailee and Emmrey had other activities so I just had Karsyn.  It was so neat to get to take her along and show her how it all works.  They have all been to the polls before, but they were little tikes and probably don't remember.  We have been having lots of discussions about voting and the candidates and I have been impressed with Kars and how much she has learned about the process.  I have also been impressed with our girls ability to weed out some of the nonsense they hear around them. 

 

There was also an important local election going on at Sunset.  Karsyn was elected as a Student Council Representative again this year.  After her term as Treasurer last year, she decided to run for Secretary.  Once again, she took it on without any reservations.  She went to town on her poster:} And she wrote her speech entirely by herself .. ..  today they gave the speeches in front of the school.  She did such a good job but when the votes were counted, she lost by a small margin:{   I was so proud of her for not being afraid to try and for having the courage to get up in front of the school and give a speech.  

Our little candidate....{sorry for the out of focus pic.}

{Karsyn's handwritten speech.  LOVE that she included jokes in it again this year...so like her}

The girls and I made a night of it and ate dinner in front of the TV {Mark was in Utah}.  There was a sense of excitement as we watched the results start coming in.  I let them stay up late, but they finally crashed before President Obama was declared the winner.  Unlike so many, this news does not make me feel sick or like the world is coming to an end.  I choose to look ahead with hope and a positive attitude:}  What I don't look forward to is all the NEGATIVITY that will be sprinkled in daily conversations and plastered on bumper stickers.  I have never seen anything like it.....pretty terrible if you ask me.

CMS Swim 2012

It's official....the Cody Middle School Cougars have kicked off their swim season.  We had our first meet last weekend here in Cody.  Bailee swam well and took 8th in the 50 Free.  There are not as many swimmers on our team this year as there have been in years past, which is good because it makes it less chaotic.  Speaking of chaotic....this is during warm ups.  All 5 teams in the pool at once.  Quite a sight!!

 

Go Cougs!!