It's beginning to look a lot like...

This is Neil and the kids heading out to play in the snow, when everyone was banned to their houses due to the Blizzard! It was pretty windy and the roads were bad, but we got more snow last night, then on the official blizzard day. It was a fun night to hang out though!


We were all prepared with flashlights a warm dinner just waiting for the power to go out! (Since the previous Sunday it was out) Thankfully, we didn't have to use the flashlights.


Neil and I on Thanksgiving. We went to Neil's parents' house this year, and it was delicious!

EmmaLee with her Aunt Erica.

We can't get Carter to smile or pose for the camera. We have to basically hold him down and make him laugh before he'll let us take a picture. Silly boy! But a cute one! This is him on Thanksgiving.

EmmaLee went to such a fun birthday party and she got her face painted! She really is growing up. One year ago, she would have never let anyone paint her face, but this time she waited in line very patiently with all of the kids and let the lady paint her face with no problem.

This is today at our Condo after the all day and night snow storm! Snow any one? We have plenty to share. We had to run some errands and my car is not the best in the snow. This morning taking EmmaLee to school was really scary! My wheels were moving, but not my car and I was sliding everywhere. But we made it safe thankfully! And I have to say, I'm just thankful to have a working car.

More pictures of the snow.

Getting Closer...

It's getting so close to Christmas time, so we had our family pictures taken. Thanks to our amazing sister-in-law, Jill! She was gracious enough to brave our family and take our pictures! Carter didn't love it, but we at least got a few that he smiled in. Thanks so much Jill!

We also are getting closer to our car getting fixed.

As of today, it's been in the shop three times, since November 2nd, when it first broke down. All I have to say is, it's giving us a hard time! However, I have to say thank you to all of you who have seriously helped us out! It's hard to ask for help and rides, but I appreciate everyone who has been so helpful.

Since Thanksgiving time is coming around, I have contemplated all of the things I am grateful for, and my car is one of them. It may be an old car, and nothing special to look at but I have taken it for granted. I also have realized that I have the best friends and family in the world, who have been so kind to help me out! Thank you, thank you!

Neil is also getting a lot closer to graduating! You're probably all sick of me talking about it, but that's the reality of our life right now, and I can't think of anything more I am more excited about right now. He had to quit his full time job three years ago to complete this program, and that was a very hard thing to do. Looking back on the past three years, I don't know how we've been able to make it. We for sure have been looked out for.

Last Saturday, Neil presented his Research with his partner Dave. They have put in countless hours and lots and lots of time away from home and their families to complete this huge project.

They researched Veterans who served in Afghanistan or Iraq, who are now enrolled in college, to test their vision relating to blast waves they've encountered. (That's in laman terms, of course but you get the drift!)

Anyway, they were the first in their class to present and did an amazing job. They are further presenting their study to the VA hospital in Utah and other places. Great job guys!

Neil and I, after his presentation.

Neil's mom. She was so sweet and came with me. She has raised a great son! And I will love her forever because of it!

Boo!

I have to say, Neil is the pumpkin carver in our family! He loves it, and does an amazing job! I however, don't love carving pumpkins (I know! It's weird, I just don't enjoy it so much). So, Neil bought a pumpkin the day before Halloween, and had a ton of fun with the kids!


The night of Halloween, EmmaLee picked out a Halloween Mac and Cheese. Which I was happy with because it was easy to make and the kids ate all of their dinner. Also, I think it was only like $0.62! I knew they were going to eat a lot of candy, so I figured as long as they had something else in their belly, they'd be good. I just remember when I was growing up, I was so excited to go trick-or-treating, I didn't want to eat because I just wanted to leave. So, maybe we'll make this a tradition, who knows?

Carter was enjoying his meal! They seriously, between the two of them, ate the whole box!

EmmaLee as Cinderella. She kept wanting me to take a ton of pictures in all different poses!

The night before Halloween, Neil and I went to an amazing Halloween Movie that some of our friends put on and he won this sweet "This is it" Michael Jackson shirt. (The movie was awesome by the way!) So he of course tried to dress up as MJ. What do you think? I happen to love the white socks with black pants!

I didn't dress up too much, Neil just gave me some stitches on the forehead. Good enough, I guess.

The pumpkin! We didn't have a candle, so Neil stuck a small flashlight in there. It luckily stayed lit all night.

Here are our friends Joel and Kenzie the cat!

Here they are, off in the RAIN!! It rained the whole time they were out. But loved every minute.

The load of candy!

Wow!

Oh, where was I? At home in the warmth, passing out candy of course!

This was actually taken on October 31st, Halloween day. Since we live in Utah, we celebrated Halloween on a Saturday. What handsome boys!

Every Sunday EmmaLee gets out the play dough after church, while Carter is napping. She is getting very creative. I still don't 100% trust Carter with play dough, since we have carpet under our table. I'm such a mean mom!

As you can see, EmmaLee and Carter are playing in their car seats. Car seats in the house, you might ask? Yes, our white car broke down. We were on our way to the store when our car just went out. Luckily our neighbor's Joel and Kellan were home to come and pick us up and tow our car. Thank goodness! However, the bad news is, we still don't have a working car and have to check to see the price on fixing it. I'm worried since we just spent a ton of money in May on fixing the same car. It's so frustrating!! But I guess we'll figure something out. It's never fun, but it always seems to work out in some way or another.