Courtney's Birthday November 24, 2010

After opening gifts, we headed out for breakfast at IHOP... enjoying her chocolate milk! After breakfast, we headed to the Sanctuary Day Spa... McKenna and Courtney got pedicures and manicures...and Dan and I got a couples massage! Thanks for having a birthday Courtney!

They brought her a piece of "birthday cheesecake"... she felt like a real princess...

She LOVED getting a manicure! (McKenna took all of these photos...)

They were too cute! My beautiful girls...

Look at those cute toes...

Afterwards we headed over to the Roadhouse for lunch...Courtney's request!

Me and my girl!

And this is why Courtney wanted to go there so bad... well, this and the ROLLS!

She got to sit on the saddle while we all sang Happy Birthday!

Courtney's Friend Party

On the morning of Courtney's friend party (a few days before her actual birthday...) We gave her one gift from us... a new outfit to wear to her party! Here she is...all ready for her "movie star" party...

The "red carpet"... and Hollywood walk of fame...

down the stairs to the party...

Here is the table...

and the "celebrity gift bags"...

And their "back stage" passes...

She LOVED it!!!!

Here is the gorgeous cake we had made by the talented Sara Grant... we "bought" it at the YM/YW fundraiser this summer... she did and incredible job! It was almost to beautiful to eat... Almost!

What a beautiful girl! She is so much fun!

When the girls arrived they recieved their feather boa and movie star sunglasses... McKenna and her bff Mallory decided to come to the party too.

In the theater for a "private backstage premier screening"... they watched Toy Story 3.

Enjoying their cake and ice cream...

A cute group shot during the gift opening...

What a great party! Being 10 is going to be fabulous!

Courtney's Family Birthday Gifts 2010

Courtney's birthday morning... she wanted to open her gifts before we left for a day of fun! Our little princess is 10!!! Or like she likes to remind me... "double digits!" Courtney was so excited about her gifts... Kenna went in on the American Girl "cooking table" with us... and she got a long-awaited DS...and a couple of games...

Happy Birthday Court!

Halloween Party 2010

We had some neighbors and family over for halloween. It was raining so we didn't know if we would even go trick or treating... Here are a few of our guests... Taylor Davis is the "old man" and Gavin Schmalz is the "Scottish Man"...
Here are some of the kids playing a game that I did for Courtney's class party. It was still raining and we were trying to pass some time!

Here are all the kids as they headed out! They look so cute! We mom's were brave enough to "trick or treat" at Kristin Perry's house...we just had to have one of her homemade caramel apples! Totally worth getting rained on!

It just happend to be my mom's birthday...so we got a cake and sang happy birthday to her!

Halloween Pumpkins 2010

I have decided to get caught up on all the blog postings from the last two months...things get busy and something has to get put aside until later...

This is my pumpkin...nice and easy. Super cute...and I didn't even have to get my hands dirty!
Courtney's pumpkin... it is a small "pumpkin spider" caught in a bigger "pumpkin web". Cute and very creative!

This was Kenna's... it looked really cool when it was lit up! I don't know why I don't have a picture of Dan's...

The family getting the pumpkins carved... and the house is ready for the family/friend Halloween party that night!

Two of my favorite people in the whole world!

WE BELEIVE...

I can finally share the incredible experience that McKenna had this summer with Jenny Phillips!!! McKenna didn't want me to blog or talk about it until we knew for sure that she would be included in the C.D....and here it is! Each year Jenny Phillips is commisioned by the Church to write a C.D. based on the new Young Men and Young Women theme. In June of this year, Jenny Phillips came to our stake to do a fireside for our youth prior to leaving on our TREK. That evening she met McKenna and asked us if she could be a part of the photo shoot that she would be doing for the upcoming C.D. for 2011. Of course we were thrilled to have McKenna be a part of this wonderful opportunity! In August we took her to Bountiful to meet Jenny and the other girls that had been asked to be a part of this photo shoot. I finally saw the cover of the C.D. today and it is amazing! McKenna is one of the girls featured on the front...she is right in the middle. The C.D. comes out on November 1st!!!! Here are a sampling of some of my favorite shots...

Here are McKenna and two of the girls walking in a field...this is the same backdrop that the picture that was chosen for the front cover was taken in as well. It was really beautiful!

She felt weird when this one was being taken...but it is gorgeous!

These were the final shots take that day of her in front of the pillars at the Bountiful temple. She looks so beautiful!!!!

We aren't sure if any of these pictures (or others) are inside the C.D. but we are so exicted that she is on the front cover!! What an amazing experience!!! We love you McKenna!!!!!

******also, check out http://jennyphillips.com to see clips from the dvd that will also be coming out on November 1st. McKenna is on the picture...and she is in the video for "Happily Ever After"!!

Hanging out with Dan and Jenny Phillips...

I will post more later on about how we met Jenny Phillips and the incredible experience that McKenna was able to have...but on Saturday we were able to go hang out with her family. They wanted to get to know us better...and us them... and Courtney and her daughter Kate had become friends and wanted to play! So we brought the toppings...they provided the ice cream...and while the girls played, we had some great conversation and gained an even greater respect for their family and what she does. Here are the kids going crazy with the toppings...

Courtney's finished product... yummy! It was an amazing day and we can't wait to have them over to our house!

Fall leaves...October 2010

On Friday the 15th, we decided to head up the canyon and look at Fall leaves... gorgeous! What incredible views! We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful place!

It was the perfect day to go look at the leaves... it won't be long before the snow arrives!

We stopped at Cascade Springs to have some fun... there weren't as many big fish as we remember seeing before, but it was still fun! McKenna, Courtney, and Camilla... she is Courtney's BFF and a part of the "fam"...

Beautiful waterfalls...

We all LOVE Fall!

No trip up the canyon and over to Midway and Heber would be complete without a trip to the "Train" for lunch!