Happy 90th Birthday, Grandpa!

I love this picture of him... having Christ in the picture with him describes him well!

On December 2nd my Grandpa Black turned 90 years old!! What a sweet and cute old man he is! I have some really fun memories of him and have looked up to him and his example for so many years. It was so fun to be able to celebrate his big day! There was an open house for him on December 4th, and it was great to see all people who came to show their love.

Thanksgiving in St. George!

We got to go to St. George for Thanksgiving this year, and what a fun time we had! It was still cold there, but nothing like what home was, so we were happy to be warmer. We left on Tuesday and just played and got ready for the big thankful day! Thanksgiving dinner was super YUM (thanks Mom and Jo for the yummy-ness!) and after dinner we went to see "Tangled". What a cute movie. Could be one of my fav's from Disney for a while now too.




Then onto Black Friday! This is always a highlight for all of us!! Jared, Beck and I went to the Walmart midnight sale. WHAT A JOKE!!! St. George is not the place to shop BF for sure. Lots of people (and I know what a lot of people are, but this was bad!). Then we were going to go to Target, but after seeing Walmart, we were done for the night (LAME, right?!). But we were up early and out the door and were still successful.

Later Friday night, we went to the St. George Temple for a little devotional type thing and lighting of their lights. That was really fun to be there for that.

Then on Saturday night we went to Tuachan to see their lights, go on a little train ride, see Santa, and a live Nativity. HIGHLIGHT of my Christmas so far (And yes, it's only the 2nd of December, but it will be a hard one to beat!). What a fun time... Zack and Talon loved the lights, seeing Santa, and the train the best! What a great way to get into the Christmas holiday spirit!!





THANKS FAM FOR EVERYTHING... I LOVE YOU ALL!

Halloween and a 3rd eye surgery!

I love Halloween! Every year we have my family over for a Halloween party, and every year it seems to get more and more fun for me! And it was super great that all the fam from St. George was able to make it too!!!
We had such a good time taking Zack and Talon trick or treating too. It was raining the whole time, but the boys had a blast. I am bummed we didn't get any pics of trick or treating, but with the rain and cold, we did what we could. Oh, and Josh dressed in all black with a scary mask and scared people at our door... hahaha! FUNNY!!


Jared didn't want to dress up this year (BOO!)

Also while my fam was here, I felt like my eye was looking a little funny, so I went into the dr. to have him check it out, and sure enough... I was told I was going back into surgery because the retina detached AGAIN! So the following week (Nov. 5th) I went in. This time around, I was in surgery longer and I woke up feeling pretty out of it. It's been pretty sore and red (as usual), but we're hoping this is the last of the detaching! For sure there will be at least one more surgery (possibly more), but those are the 'positive' kind (if that makes sense!). So let's all cross our "eyes" for me this time!!

Birthday, 2nd eye surgery, & Florida!

So I am finally in my late twenties! ;) I turned 28 on the 7th and had a great day! I went shopping and to lunch with my sisters-in-law and then Jared, Zack and I went out to dinner and ice cream for dinner. YUM!
The next day I went in for my second eye surgery. My retina was detached after 3 weeks, so 4 weeks from the first surgery I went back in. This time around it wasn't as bad, but still not fun. There were even a couple of nurses that remembered me (SAD!). Either way, with this surgery, the dr. took the gas bubble out of my eye and put in a silicone oil... which means that the Florida trip was back on!
SO Saturday we left for Florida!! Woohoo!!

The plane ride wasn't too bad for me thanks to Jared for helping with Zack so much. I was obviously super tired from surgery and was able to sleep part of the way. Zack loved the airport/airplane, so that was a fun start to our trip. Sunday we just hung out at the house and had a casual day (much needed!).
On Monday we headed to Epcot. This was totally different than I imagined, but was pretty fun too. So many cool things to see and eat there!

Tuesday we went to the Magic Kingdom! Obvious favorite here. It was so much like Disneyland that it felt like we kind of knew where to go, so that was nice. But the best part of this day for me was when we got to go the "Not so scary Halloween Party" that night. We all got to trick or treat around the park, we danced with Woody, Jessie, and Bullseye, we walked onto ANY ride we wanted, and we got to see a fun villian parade. This was one of the highlights of the trip for me!




Wednesday we took a break and went to the beach. Say no more, I'm happy as can be! I loved watching Zack in the sand. He was in heaven!!

Thursday we went to Animal Kingdom. Again, not what I had imagined it would be, but still a lot of fun for the kids. Ooh, and we went to Chevy's for dinner without the kids that night... YUMMM!!


Friday we went to Hollywood Studios. I personally am still a bigger fan of Universal Studios, but this was a great Disney version. It was fun to see some shows and have a slower day.

Saturday we went back to the beach because everyone had so much fun. It was a great way to end the trip... most of us coming back with sunburns! :)

CRAZY September 2010

Well, September was not my favorite month this year :)
My mom decided a little while ago to try and sell her house and move to St. George (A long time dream of hers!). Well good news for her, she sold it and moved on the 11th! I'm so happy for her, but man I miss her!!

Also, I had been having some random things going on with my eyes for a few weeks so I went in for a check up. The doctor I went to did the exam and told me that my retina was detached in my left eye and sent me to a specialist for surgery! Wow... so I went to the specialist who actually said that both my left AND right eye had detached retina's and I would need surgery on both eyes. So on the 10th of September I went in for surgery. I must say, I didn't like it!!

My right eye was pretty minor, only needing some laser repair. So that eye was good to go after a day or so. My left eye not so much. They went in and made my eye look like "hamburger" (That's what the dr. actually said! Haha, right?!). Not too pretty... swollen, red (not pink) and blurry. They put a buckle around the eye, and also put a gas bubble in the eye to help hold the retina in place. Good news for that is that it will go away in about a month or so and I'll start to see again. Bad news is no flying (or really any traveling) while that's still there. Oh wait, our trip to Florida is on Oct. 9th! Doesn't look too good for me :)
Whoosh! Onto something fun!! My sister, Amber won tickets to the Brad Paisley concert and took me along. This ended up being one of my favorite concerts too! We had FANTASTIC seats! 2nd row, center stage... no complaints! We had an unfortunate drunk guy bug us for awhile, but once he was gone, the concert only got better and better! Thanks sis!

AUGUST FUN

Where are the days going?! August FLEW by this year for me. It started with a lot of fun when my nephew turned one year old!! YAY! He had a great birthday party too. They rented a huge blowup movie screen and had an outside movie night. Lots of fun there!



Then on the 12th my mom had her birthday. She turned 29 yet again, but man she looks good for her age, right?! Needless to say, she's not big on birthday's, so we kept it pretty low key for her sake!


On the 19th Bitty Sue turned 19! What a fun time that was too. My mom and I were able to sneak away for a weekend and visit the girls down south (we missed Ams though). As per Becky's request, we spent her birthday in Vegas. Man, that was a lot of fun to just go around and shop and not have to worry about having the stroller with us :)




Then on the 23rd, we took Zack out for a little family night to the Bee's game. He LOVED watching baseball... in fact, ever since that game, his favorite song is "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and gladly will sing it at the top of his lungs in the middle of ANY store! Good times there...

Zack showing us his teeth.. and being a little creepy!