Happy Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year we were lucky to have out of state relatives join us in our celebration. My cousins from Colorado came and my Grandparents, along with my immediate family. We also had an early Thanksgiving on Sunday with Russ's family. We had a wonderful time eating good food, playing games and talking. I love it when we have a large group of family together for the holidays. Alyssa is a social butterfly and anytime we are getting ready for something or people come over she gets so excited. She gladly ran to the door anytime the doorbell rang. We also made turkeys out of candy for each person. During the preparation she was going a little crazy trying to be too involved. Once she sat at her place she couldn't help her self and started tearing it apart. During the prayer I peaked at her and she was folding her arms but with on of her hands was poking the frosting and licking it. 

The day after Thanksgiving we did a little shopping (not much but got some good deals) and we went and saw the Rockettes. It was a fun Christmas event. Alyssa loved the dancing, music and lights but DID NOT like Santa and would start screaming Bye Bye anytime he came on stage. Silly girl.

This is Alyssa eating her candy turkey before her meal.

Snow, Snow, Snow

Alyssa was really excited on Sunday morning to see the snow on the ground. I bundled her up and we headed outside to play in it. Last year she was too little to really play in the snow so I was excited to show it to her. We have a perfect little hill in our yard. I put her on the sled and pushed her down. She was so excited. She jumped up and said more and started walking up the hill again. She enjoyed eating the snow, helping me build a snow man and jumping on the tramp with the snow on it.

The snowsuit is from last year. It still fits(the joys of having a tiny girl!)

Throwing snow on to the sled. We need to find waterproof gloves, do they make those
in tiny sizes? The cotton ones get snow stuck to them and obvious water can leak through.

Ready to sled, a small but perfect hill for Alyssa

Noelle and I took Alyssa to Kangaroo Zoo. It is a place that has blow up toys. At first Alyssa was scared. But once we went with her and showed her that it wasn't scary, she took off and loved it. This first picture is the tallest slide there. It is really steep and fast. When we got up to the top she went down with no fear. It was so steep that it gave me and Noelle butterflies. Alyssa of course asked for more.  We played for 2 hrs. It was exhausting but so much fun.

Alyssa made friends with some girl.

Help Russ!

Russ is helping a new catering company in Utah County.  He is conducting Market Research and he is looking for people to take a short survey.  If you could take the survey that would be great.  Here is the link:

http://qtrial.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_5no2gDwJ3JBp5as

Happy Halloween

At gardeners village.

We had a little melt down before tricker treating so this is the best picture we got. Once we left they were very happy and excited! Luckily it stopped raining right before we left.

Cute Witch at Witches night out.

Dancing after one piece of candy

Awful picture but I had to post the only picture we had. I don't have a bruise it is a shadow.

She loves riding ponies! This was at witches night out at gardners village. Yes Russ came along to be with the witches =)

Halloween was a lot of fun. At first I debated if Alyssa was old enough to go trick or treating. After we went I can't beileve I considered not taking her. She loves it. We went with her friend Emma. After the first house they got the hang of it. They would knock and then say treat treat. It was so cute. We went very slowly but went for about 1hr and 1/2. Her whole bucket was full! Obviously she isn't eating the most of it and the rest of us are. She is asking for a treat almost all day long though. 

Noelle and I ran the Halloween Half Marathon. This started at Aspen Grove and ended at Riverwoods. The first 5 miles were very steep down hill. That first 5 miles we were cruising at an 8 min/mile pace. (very fast for me). By mile 7 I was dying. The combination of the steep downhill and the fast pace I was so tired. I told Noelle to go ahead of me. She finished at 1:44:23 and I finished at 1:56:52. I beat my last time by 3 minutes. So I am happy with that. Originally my goal was 1:50 but I had to slow down because my legs were dying. Today we are sore everywhere. Most people were dressed up. Our outfits were obvious creative. Hippie and a Fijian girl. (we had to run 13.1 miles so it had to be comfortable!)

Alyssa tries to ride anything like a horse. She will walk up to the cat and say Ney and try to sit on it. Today Noelle let her ride the dog. The dog did not like it but Alyssa sure did!

This is Alyssa throwing a fit. She is yelling No to Noelle.

Still not to happy

Okay she is happy now. Oh the mood swings of a 1 year old.

This is Russ at this Dex conference at the Marriott

Things have been pretty busy around here (for Russ at least). Alyssa and I are just enjoying our days. Playing outside as much as possible, running, playing with blocks and crayons, working.  But poor Russ is overloaded. He has a tendency to never say No. He accepts so many tasks. He is studying hard core for the GMAT which he is taking next Wed. He is really thinking he will retake it in Dec to improve his score and chances of getting in.  He is working on application essays. School full time.Working part time as the Director of Marketing of the Entrepreneur institute at UVU. Dex(student marketing organization) Utah State President. Father, husband, etc. He has no spare time and we don't get to see him as much as we would like. Hopefully it will all be worth it (goal getting in to MBA school).   Anyway MBA school is consuming out lives right now. I can't wait for the day he gets accepted and we can breath for a minute (that is until he starts MBA school fingers crossed).

Hee Haw Farms

Saturday my mom and I took Alyssa to Hee Haw farms.  It is a cute family owned farm that they open up for halloween time. They have a corn maze, pony rides, a little tractor train, animals and more fun activities. We were rushed for time so we are going to go back. But Alyssa had so much fun. She was so brave. She walked right up to the goats and sheep and tried to feed them straw. No fear. We also went on a big slide ( that even made my stomach drop) and she wanted more more more.

A goat eating straw from Alyssa.

The sheep were hiding their heads in the corner but Alyssa loved them!

Its hard to see us but this slide went fast, we had to sit on burlap sacks. Alyssa would grab a sack and start walking up the hill asking for more. Brave girl!

Pony ride