Birthdays, Holidays, Weddings, and Crafts

Holy Moly there's a lot I have to post about. Instead of going into great detail about everything and making this real borng, Im just gonna post lots of pictures. Because pictures say a thousand words right?! ok cool!! we'll start from October and then move on.

October
CONNOR'S BIRTHDAY

 

   

He got the cool duck shirt that he wanted!

Connor had a great 25th Birthday!! We spent his birthday playing games with some friends and ate some yummy food.  Then we celebrated it again with our siblings at Karissa and Toby's where Zeke helped Connor blow out the candles. 

 HALLOWEEN:
Every Halloween Karissa and Toby throw a Pumpkin Party!!! The party usually includes, eating lots of yummy pumpkin food, and then a game that involves pumpkins and theennn the party ends by carving a pumpkin!!!

 

 

This year the game Toby made was pumpkin shuffle board!

Connor's awesome Mario pumpkin!

Zeke's favorite Holiday is Halloween. You've never seen a kid so happy

This year for Halloween I ended up working until 8pm so we didn't do anything too exciting.  Connor came to work with me and since we knew it was going to be dead, he stayed and played games with me all night in between the few haircuts I had to do. 

November

THANKSGIVING:

This year we spent Thanksgiving at the Willises.  This meant I got to be with this goofy lady for a few days!

The cute couple!!! It was fun to spend some time with them and get to know Karoline a little better before she joined the fam!

Connor was in charge of the place tags and he went allll out.  I was sad I didn't get a picture of all of them.  But each person had a thanksgiving type picture drawn into their name. He's pretty talented huh?

Since we were all together, we took some family pictures!!

This is my other family, they're pretty awesome huh?

YUMMMMY food and GREAT company!!!

CHRISTMAS!!!

Christmas at the Limbs!!!!! Oh man, I LOVE being with my family!! It just makes me so happy!! While we were there we went bowling, played gym games, decorated Christmas cookies, played lots of games, and had an unforgettable Christmas Eve and Christmas!!

 During the gym games this year, Jess and Trent brought a couple of big jump ropes, and we all brushed up on our jump roping skills.  MAN! My siblings ROOOCK at jump rope. Especially the girls.  Me, on the other hand, I could run in and out, and jump like everyone else, but I never was able to conquer the double dutch! That's when TWO big ropes are swinging opposite and you have to run in and jump with both!! I couldn't ever accomplish the entering part of that one.

After jump rope, we played some volleyball with a really big ball.  My momma was being as awesome as ever, diving for the ball and then ended up hurting her wrist.  We think she hit the ball as the same time it hit the wall and it hit back at her.  It allowed us the opportunity to help her make the big Christmas eve dinner and learn some of her skills.  

 

Kendra and Tyleen were in charge of decorating the table for the fancy Christmas Eve dinner.  They made each plate look like a snowman and hung balloons from the ceiling to look like it was snowing :) 

Every year this picture is redone. Sometimes the people change, but the posing are pretty much the same. 

Our awesome mom made us these cool aprons and gave us a cool cook book!!! She's the BEST

AND my dad MADE these SUPER cool salt and pepper shakers!

Karissa was in charge of the big Christmas Eve game and she did SUCH a good job!!!! We would compete for a present we knew, or a mystery present! It was TONS of fun!!

Toby was so proud of himself for betting Connor in a sporty competetion

But, Devin ended up beating them both! 

INTENSE musical chairs!

The mystery gift I ended up getting was two framed pictures drawn by Zeke and Porter!!! TOTALLY AWESOME!

CHRISTMAS MORNING!:

I got more spoiled then I ever have in my ENTIRE life this year!! I couldn't believe it! Every gift I opened I almost fainted with excitement!

Believe it or not, in this picture Tyleen is the one that got the Cricut. I was just SO happy for her! 

THEN I GOT ONE!!!! 

I should have taken more cool pictures of Connor during Christmas.  He got spoiled too!! Here's one of him and his awesome new back pack! Something I was excited about giving him was a scooter!! yes, I am in fact talking about those little razor kick scooters.  On Sunday afternoons when it isn't freeezing outside, we have had many occasions when we wanted to go on a scooter ride! Welllll, NOW WE CAN!!!!!

I also got a REALLY nice sewing machine from my parents!! Can you believe how spoiled I am!!?!?!? Gosh I can't wait to make a million things with my two awesome crafty toys!!!

 Christmas afternoons usually include us playing with our new toys, eating yummy food, and being lazy.  This is what happened that night. We all gathered around with our ipads and exchanged our favorite apps. hahah this picture cracks me up. 

January
MORGAN AND KAROLINE"S WEDDING

From our hotel windows it over looked a big field full of snow.  Connor decided he had better make it obvious to all what the theme of the weekend was so he went and stomped out Morgan and Karoline's initials in the snow for all to see! 

I got the opportunity to do Karoline's hair for her big day!!

The newest Mr. and Mrs. Willis!!

It was a really fun weekend celebrating Morgan and Karoline's wedding.  After the reception, we kept the tradition where, after you say goodbye to the newly weds and get the reception all cleaned up, then you spend the rest of the night relaxing in the hot tub with the fam.  I just love weddings, they're so much fun! And I'm so happy to get another awesome sister in law! Congratulations Morgan and Karoline!

MORE CRAFTS:

I made another table runner!!! This is actually the same table runner, but it's reversable!!!! Pretty cool huh? It's a good fall and halloween one!!! WAY fun to make and I felt pretty accomplished because I figured out the quilting all on my own!!! 

Well folks, thats all I have for ya.  I told you there'd be LOTS of pictures!!! Hopefully I'm better and keeping you updated this time!! 

MORE BIRTHDAYS!

Happy Birthday to ME!!!! 

My family got together and threw me a birthday brunch!! They made a bunch of Swedish Pancakes, bacon, hash browns, and eggs.  It was SOO tasty!  

Then we played some shuffle board!

Then we had a cake that Karissa and Kendra made me!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PORTERMAN

We had a lot of fun outside playing baseball all together.  Little Zekers is a good little baseball player!

A couple of action pictures! 

I like the picture where zeke was covering Porters mouth to keep him from blowing out the candles. 

Can't believe Porter is THREE!! Happy Birthday Porterman!

Family Reunion

This summer our family all got away and went camping together.  I can't tell you how excited I was for this! We went back to the same place that we went to every year over fourth of July as a kid.  Trent and Jess had gotten there a few days before us and had to leave just the day after we got there.  Then Devin and Cortney and their cute family came just a day after us! The week was filled with lots of playing at the lake, relaxing, playing games, eating yummy food, and laughing a lot.

One of the days after we all got back from the lake and got all showered up, we decided to go on a bike ride.  Devin, Tyleen, Connor and me took off down to the lake. When we got there the view was soooo beautiful we had to turn around and run back to camp to grab our cameras!!! It was too beautiful to pass up!

I'm always excited for occasions where we get to use our tent!!!

The red head cousins are just too cute.

Zeke LOVED playing at the Lake. But he loves fishing with Popi even more! He skipped the lake day to go and catch some fish!

Zeke and Porter were pretty cute getting pulled in the tube behind the jet skis

At the beginning of the week, Zeke needed someone to catch him.  By the end, he was doing cannon balls ALL THE TIME!

It was a much needed break and a WONDERFUL week! I hope we make camping together a tradition we do EVERY year!!! 

Bad luck for a Lucky Girl

I've always felt like a pretty lucky girl.  I feel like good things happen for me.  I don't know if that sounds bad or spoiled or whatever, but I just feel that way!! If something horrible happens, I figure it out and probably something cool comes from it.  For example, last summer Connor's summer sales job wasn't as ideal as we had hoped. BUT we got to go to Washington DC, and Virginia beach!! Both are super cool places! Soooo,  to have such an unlucky thing happen to us was very out of the ordinary.

Alright I tell you this story hoping that if you speak to us about it, you don't tell us advice of what we SHOULD have done or anything to make us feel stupid.  We have learned our lesson. OOOO boy, we have indeed.  Alright well here it goes.

Well you've probably noticed the awesome beast of a car that Connor and I have been driving around since we've been married.  This car has lots of character indeed and has become part of our little family.  But, it is time we searched for a newer, more reliable car.  I mean, don't get me wrong.  We still love it and all, and I mean, who wouldn't love a car that you could actually get locked INSIDE?!?! Yes, you heard me correctly. Our car will occasionally lock you inside.  But enough about that.  I'm thinking about focusing an entire post about our car because we have grown to love it in all of its weirdness.  But anyway, moving on....

So Connor and I were on the hunt this summer for a new car.  We had saved up enough that we could pay for one in full and not even have to take out a loan for it!  (We weren't looking for some really nice car or anything, just something a little more reliable).  Well anyway, one day Connor found the PERFECT car for us.  It was everything we wanted. A 2000 Honda Civic, good millage, reasonable price, and looked pretty good.  I had to stay at work, but he decides to go check it out.  (In this area if you see something on ksl you have to jump on it RIGHT AWAY or it will be gone!) So, Connor drives up there, checks out the car, takes it for a test drive and decides it seems pretty good.  But didn't know enough about cars to make the judgement on his own.  Oh let me back up.  The guy that was selling the car told him that it had a rebuilt title.  But, he said it wasn't because it was in a wreck, but because it had been stolen and when the cops found it, they had to put it under a rebuilt title because of that.  So anyway, had a rebuilt title.  So THEN Connor tells the guy he wants a mechanic to look at it.  The guy tells Connor of a place just around the corner he could go to.  They take it there, and Connor wanted to make sure, that it was in fact, stolen and not in a wreck, and that if we got it, it would pass safety and emissions.  The mechanic checks it out and tells him that it was lookin good and would pass easy.  There were still some other things Connor wasn't so sure about so he calls a close mechanic friend to ask him about a few things and our friend tells him that it sounds like a good deal.  Soooooo, the people that knew cars said it was good, so he went for it.

We bought the car and decided we'd bring it to our mechanic friend and see if there is any little things we should fix up on it and just get a good check on it.  This is where all the bad luck reveals itself.  Wellllll, turns out the car was in fact, IN A WRECK! It had been rear ended really bad and rebuilt.  Also, a lot of other things that I won't bore you with.  But because it was in a wreck, right away we had over paid by like 1800 dollars.  But, our friend said it seemed like a good car still and should still pass emissions.  So, we put the title in our name and paid the taxes on it (NOT CHEAP BY THE WAY!) and then a couple days later got it over to get the emissions testing done.  Welllllll, ready for some more bad news?!! It didn't pass. Turns out there is a bunch of little things that would need to be fixed and the biggest problem is that the check engine light isn't working. Whether the guy went in and disconnected it or the bulb is out, we don't know. But this horribly evil guy who sold us the car, lied A LOT and knew what he was doing to con us.  So as of right now we just put A LOT A LOT A LOT of our money into a car that we can't even drive in Utah!!! Let me just tell you, I cried a whole lot.  I bet you're confused why the first mechanic said it looked good.  Well, our guess is that they were in on the deal.  STUPID dishonest people, I wish I could kick em in the throat.

Another bit of information, is that our other car's stickers expired at the end of August. Can I just say I am soooo tired of worrying about cars?!?!  But, I have to tell you the good news about this.  So at work I have a request client that I've had for a while now.  Well, one of the really frustrating days, I had told him the story about the car we just bought.  He felt so bad that he said that if we ever look for another car, to PLEASE let him know.  That he will go and look at the car with us, or if he can't, he would send someone else that also knows cars to look at it.  Hahaha such a nice guy.  Well, he gets nicer.  Ready for this?  He then heard that the car that I have been driving won't be able to pass emissions and the stickers expired at the end of August.  So what does he do?! He runs home and gets his machine that hooks up to the car and tells you all the codes of whats wrong with it.  Then he wrote em all down and said he would look for some parts for me.  Well, later that day he called the store to tell me he found the part and that he'd come and replace it for me tomorrow.  So he did. THEEENNN he tells me to tell him as soon as our check engine light comes back on if it does.  Well, it does.  So what does he do then?! HE BUYS ANOTHER PART AND REPLACES IT!!!! Now let me remind you that we didn't know each other at all until I started doing his hair! He's just THAT Nice of a guy! He is doing all this hard work and not even letting us pay for these parts. You see!? Lucky things happen to me! Even in all this car drama.  Well, in case you were wondering, it currently is still not ready to get emissions testing done...but we're getting closer!!!!

This weekend however, well later today in fact, we are driving to Pocatello to see if we can sell the new car.  Me, in Kendra's car (as much as we love our car, its not really reliable remember?!) and Connor in the new one.  We figure since Eastern Idaho doesn't have the safety and emissions testing, we can sell it for a little more than we could here.  We're still going to be losing over 1000 dollars but lets hope we can get SOME of the money back!!! Oh, and if you read this today....pray that the car will get there without any problems!! We don't know what we would do if it didn't make it! ITS JUST GOTTA!!!! Well wish us luck!!! After we get rid of this car, we will NEVER, EVER think of this horrible car again.  Who knew that lessons had to be so stinkin expensive?! Well, we learned ours and am trying to earn that money back now.