Violin Recital

Ella had her 2nd violin recital and she was amazing!  It is so fun to see her learn and grow as a musician.  She first asked Santa for a violin two years ago and wouldn't put it down.  Then she begged us to take lessons.  So a year ago we gave in and now she is a real violinist!  The girl can definitely do anything she puts her mind to.

Thank you Aunt Annie for being her accompanist!

All the other violin/viola students.  Ella is the youngest. :-)

Ella and her teacher

Thanksgiving Feast

 So I made my 7th (I think, or it may be the 6th) Thanksgiving dinner this year, and I am pretty proud of the turnout.  I made everything from scratch: crescent rolls, sweet potato casserole (AMAZING recipe from my friend Linnlee), stuffing, turkey, green beans, dutchess potatoes (fun spin on mashed potatoes), cranberry sauce, raspberry jello, and homemade blueberry pies (melt in your mouth!).  I always love having my parents come and spend Thanksgiving with us.

Our Thanksgiving day: My dad and Tyler went to the Phoenix car show with the kids while my mom and I cooked and watched the Macy's parade.  We ate around 1 p.m., relaxed and let all the yummy food digest thru our tummies.  Then around 5 p.m. I started scanning the Black Friday ads and making my shopping list.  6 p.m. - Toys R Us online, 8 p.m. - Walmart, 9 p.m. - Target, 4 a.m. - Shopping Mall (Macy's, Gap, etc.)  I actually was pretty much done with Christmas gifts, but I like to stock up on "birthday party" presents for my kid's friends.  It is also our time to stock up on work clothes for Tyler since he wears dress clothes every day.  And this year I was really ambitious and also found all the kids 2013 birthday gifts. :-)  Great feeling to be done shopping for the year!

Cooper refused to smile, but at least he would be in the picture still.

Now this little girl is always willing to smile for the camera.

Another anti-camera child

Cheers!

My mom is so beautiful!

Family Pictures Time

So I'm sure that everyone shares the same excitement as our family does when it's time to start thinking about family pictures.  And I'm also sure that your kids are always perfect and ready to smile for the camera whenever they are asked, right? :-)  Oh wait, who are we talking about here?  Just know that if you are ever trying to "keep up with the Jones'" (I hear that expression all the time because of our last name...haha) that it won't be hard when it comes to family pictures. :-)  I always start by telling the kids about a month in advance that we're taking family pictures so they can start preparing themselves mentally that if they don't smile then "mean mom" might come out for a visit. I stopped trying bribes years ago because they never ended up working but just cost more money. :-)  I also have to accept the face that the kids will probably never wear the cute clothes I buy them for our pictures because they already like picking out their own clothes and if Mom picks them out then they must not be cool.  But I also stopped caring about having the "perfect" picture.  I actually love it when someone's not smiling or if they're acting a little grumpy.  It makes the picture look real, and it creates fun memories. :-)

But without further adieu...here are our family pictures taken by the AMAZING Amy Fraughton. She is the reason they turned out at all!  You can check out her website here:
http://www.amyfraughtonphotography.com

Some of you might be wondering what the heck we are riding in?  Haha  We are the proud owndes of a CT110 Honda motorcycle with a sidecar.  It is the funnest thing we've ever bought on Craigslist! :-)  Tyler had been looking at old trail bikes for awhile thanks to his Uncle Joe that has one, but when he found this one with a sidecar I was the one that was hooked!  The kids love it and ask us to take them everywhere in it!  So we thought it would be fun to incorporate it into our family pictures this year. :-)

We are back!!! All thanks to my cousin's wife Taryn!

My cousins came into town for Thanksgiving and were nice enough to spend an evening with us.  While we were catching up it came up about how bad I've been about blogging this past year, and I admitted that I tried to add some pictures about a month ago but they had changed so many settings with the program that I couldn't figure out to do it!  (Yes, pretty sad for someone my age...that shows you how fast technology changes)  So my cousin's wife Taryn was nice enough to show me the ropes and teach me how to post a picture and make it BIG like I had admired on so many of my friend's and family's blogs.  So here you have it.  Some fun, NEW, and BIG pictures... (I will be posting more VERY SOON!  I promise!)