Thanksgiving Baby Girl

We don't get a lot of new babies in our family, so it's pretty exciting when we do. This is little Alysa Dawn Durrant (I hope I spelled it right), she belongs to my brother, DeWayne, and his wife, Denise. She was born while we were in Mexico, on November 17. Thanksgiving was the first time we were able to see her. She is so sweet, I had a hard time puting her down. Her big Sister Makaila is equally as sweet, and we all just adore her, but I didn't manage to get a picture of her this time.

Mexico

I had been looking forward to our trip to Mexico for soo long and poof, its over just like that. We stayed in a resort called the Mayan Palace between Cancun and Playa Del Carmen, it was beautiful. We had a two bedroom suite with full kitchen and a mini pool on the balcony. Our friends, Jon and Renee Harvey went with us. The weather was great when we got there, but by Saturday afternoon, it headed South or North, wherever the nice weather goes when it leaves Cancun. Sunday we went to Xel-Ha for snorkeling and then to the Mayan ruins at Tulum, it was still 80 degrees, but cloudy. They were amazing. Monday we were supposed to dive in Cancun, but because of the high winds, the ports were closed and we were forced to find our way into Cancun for shopping. Tuesday, again the ports were closed, but we were given the option to dive in a cinote, which is a sink hole. We took them up on the offer and 2 minutes into the ride there, the dive master had me in tears. The dive was a cavern dive, which is basically into these underground tunnels and caves. I was terrified, and almost bagged out. It was great, after all. There were fossils of shells, sponges, etc. and Stactites and Stalagmites, all underwater, kind of like Minetonka cave, under water. It ended up being a good experience for me because I had to step out of my comfort zone. Wednesday we went to Chichenitza, which was even more amazing than Tulum. Thursday we did our Ocean dives, finally the sun came out. We dove a ship wreck at 85 feet, where we saw, besides tons of fish, a large school of Eagle Rays. Our second dive was a 60 foot reef dive. We saw sting rays, a sea turtle, a nurse shark, which I got to touch, and many, many other things. IT was awesome. We did two shallower dives in the afternoon with Jon and Renee. So, even though the weather wasn't great, we got to do everything we wanted, except go to Cozumel, and did some things we hadn't planned, and had a great time. It was so hard to come home.

Piano Recital

Gage and Gracie had a holiday piano recital last Saturday. Gage has only been taking lessons since September and he did a great job. He played Old MacDonald. Gracie played Jolly Old St. Nicolas and O Christmas Tree. They were both so nervous, and I totally know their fear. When I was young and taking piano, our piano teacher would make us play for the relief society sisters on Sunday. One time I kept messing up so bad, that I finally just ran and sat with my mom, sobbing. She didn't let me out, though (my teacher), I had to play it again the next week. But, atleast she didn't slap my fingers with a yard stick like she did when my Aunts were taking lessons.

Happy 7th Birthday, Gage

I am a little slow getting this on. Gage turned 7 on November 6. We had his party a couple of days early due to scheduling conflicts on Mom's part (Steve said don't even think about getting his nomination for "Mother of the Year". We have a tradition that I take each of my kids to SLC for a day for their birthday. Gage and I went on Friday and saw the new Madagascar movie and he got to spend his birthday money at Toys R Us.

Halloween

As I watched the leaves start to blow yesterday afternoon, I thought to myself, "the weather girl was wrong, and just like every other year, it's going to turn cold tonight". But . . . It held out and was great. We headed over to the church for games and a chili cook off and then had the much anticipated "trunk or treat". Steve and I fight for the trunk position every year that he's home. I won this year and got to sit in the car and hand out candy and see all of the cute costumes. Trunk of treat sometimes gets a bad rap because it's not the traditional door-to-door. For me, the door-to-door is okay, but my kids had their buckets over flowing in a matter of minutes, what could be better than that. We (when I say we, I really mean I) decided that instead of buying new costumes, as we usually do, that the kids had to either pick out a costume that we already had, or build one with stuff they could find around the house. I had to talk Gracie into the Dorothy costume. She happened to have the perfect dress that I think she's only worn a couple of times. I agreed to temporarily die her hair, and that won her over. The die didn't come out as dark, but she loved it. Gage didn't want to be the dragon, but I bought the costume a couple of years ago, on clearance, and talked him into it because it wouldn't fit by next year. The twins couldn't decide between the iron man costumes they got for their birthday or the cowboys, but since they got to wear guns, the cowboys won again. So I guess if you really think about it, the kids were what they were because I am a good negotiator (LOL). Also, I won the decorated trunk contest, mainly for my "blinkie" lights. I didn't know they were judging the trunks, but you all know how I like to decorate, and I wanted to see if I could get the strobe light to work in my car. I really wanted to bring the fog machine, but the little converter we have doesn't have enough volts. Maybe a generator next year??? Happy Halloween.