Halloween Extravaganza!

Wow, Halloween has really turned into a 3-4 day event with parades, parties, trunk-or-treats, and pumpkin carving festivities! We had a blast this Halloween and enjoyed every minute of it. Here are some pictures to remember all the fun!

First we enjoyed pumpkin carving at Nalani and Jed's house with the family.

This is Bronson right before his preschool Halloween party

This is Hailey at the annual Foothill Halloween parade:

This is all the kids ready to go for our ward's trunk or treat.

Little Cash is his cute chicken costume with Bronson's pirate sword.

Maddy and Bronson having a hard time deciding which one!

Grandma and kids enjoying the trunk or treat...we love our Grandma Oram!

This is Maddy's Halloween costume as of late...pajamas, her snow hat, and her Dora backpack. She would wear this all day if I let her!

These are our pumpkins all lit up for Halloween night!

Date Night with My Best Friend

Usually dating ends when you get married, but not for me. My sweet husband always does his best to keep our dating life going even when life is crazy. I guess it helps that we have one night a week and every other weekend to keep it up!

Tonight was such a great night. I love that Cody and I can go out in a big group and have a blast as well as that we can go out just the two of us and enjoy it just the same or even more. We have so much fun together...we laugh, we smile, we let the cares of the world go just for a few hours, and we genuinely enjoy spending our time together. I told him the other day he is my lobster, to which he didn't know if that was a criticism or compliment. I told him that lobsters are one of the few animals that when they find a mate, they stay with that mate for life. Don't be alarmed people....I didn't find this fact from being interested in the mating of animals, but I learned this on an episode of 'Friends'. Anyways, we had a great night out together and I am ever thankful for such a wonderful husband.

First we stopped at the hospital to meet our new nephew. (See previous post).

Next we strolled the mall window shopping (well Cody did, I bought myself a new pair of cute boots!)

Then we decided to be adventurous and try the new Italian restaurant near University Mall call Terre Mia. Man was our taste buds in for a treat tonight! We seriously loved this place. We started with grilled breadsticks toasted with olive oil, oregano, and garlic. So yum! I chose a fresh Caprese sald which hit the spot very well and was absolutely divine. Cody chose a creamy mushroom sauce over penne with chicken. He thought it was almost as good as mine. ;) haha. No, he really loved it.




Then we cleansed our palates with their amazing display of gelato. I think we tried every flavor before we decided. What could end a meal and a great date better than a bowl full of gelato? So, all in all we absolutely loved Terre Mia and recommend it to anyone and it really has great prices as well. Not too bad for Orem!

P.S. I'm really not auditioning to be a food critic, I just was in the mood to blog and I thought the pictures were fun to look at!

P.S.S. Thanks to my sweet husband for making me feel so loved and adored after all these years. ;)

Introducing Baby Boy Thompson...

Colin and Emily welcomed a beautiful baby boy Wednesday morning weighing in at 6.9 oz and a full 19 inches long. He is beautiful! He has brown hair and he is absolutely the cutest baby ever. (I am so not biased). Cody and I stopped by the hospital later that night to meet him. He looks just like his brother Blake in my opinion. I forgot how tiny they are...Maddy is almost three years old and so it seems like it has been forever since I have seen one that small! They still have not chosen a name for him but we were throwing around a couple of great ones at the hospital to help them decide:

Cletus (Cody's vote)

Teancum (Colin's vote)

Jacob or Jake (My vote)

We'll see what they come up with...Congrats, we are so happy he is here!

P.S. Cody is such a great uncle. Here is a picture I stole off Mom Oram's blog of Cody holding his nephew Cash. Cash doesn't do this with anyone else but Cody. Even if he is grumpy and not feeling well he always goes right to Uncle Cody and will stay there and just let Cody hold him for a very long time. Cody is going to make a great Daddy one day!

FHE...making caramel apples!

We had the Knights over for family home evening Monday night and boy did we have fun...and boy did we make a mess! The kids had a blast decorating and sugaring up their caramel apples. Heather and I really got into and made our own gourmet apples. Our caramel apple pie apple was to DIE for and I must say better than the ones they make at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory...yummy!

My crazy bunch...

We had such a great weekend. Today when I got up from being awake all night with my sick little Hailey I was feeling groggy, frumpy, out-of-touch, and EXHAUSTED! You Mom's all know what I am talking about. Maybe it is because I was so sleep deprived, or maybe it was the weather...but either way I was feeling down. As I struggled to get myself motivated to attack the monster in our house (also known as laundry), I opened my computer up to check email, etc. Then I looked at our family pictures and zeroed in on this picture of my three kids. I started to cry at first, and then suddenly found myself smiling, which then turned into a big belly laugh. How could I feel so down when I have these three sweet smiling faces to wake up to everyday! (that should be a question mark at the end of that sentence, but unfortunately my question mark button has become extinct). I look at their happy, joyful, loving faces and feel nothing but love and gratitude. I have so much because of them, and I am so blessed. They are such beautiful spirits that keep me busy, tired, crazy,but most of all they keep me grounded. They remind me everyday of what is really most important. They teach me what love is and how wonderful life is. I am so grateful to these three, and couldn't be more blessed in life to be their mother!

Family Photos 2009

This weekend we had our family pictures taken at Vivian Park up Provo Canyon. I love how they turned out! Each of our kids have their own unique personality and it definitely shows in these pictures of them. I definitely have one hottie of a husband as well!!

SLIP 'N SLIDE....

Last week we had an end of Summer Slip 'n Slide party with the Knights. What a blast!!! The kids (especially Maddy) had soooo much fun. We had everyone taking turns to slide down and in between everyone Maddy would run up and say "my turn!" and slide right down. That girl is seriously hilarious. She is so in her own little world and not afraid at all to get what she wants. I hope she keeps that up when she's older! We had a fun Summer but it went by way too fast. We are looking forward to all the fun FALL activities and having our first Christmas in our first HOME together!