Thanksgiving in Texas with surpirse(s)

Thanksgiving was absolutely wonderful! Tyler, Addie and I drove down to Dallas, Texas to surprise my family. Most all of my brothers and sisters where going to be there so Tyler and I decided to leave right after his morning class on Tuesday morning, drive the 10 hour trip, and surprise my family. Needless to say it was a great surprise...actually surprise(s). YES the word is finally out in the fam.....IM PREGNANT! So all of you who kept it a hush for so long...Good job! I can finally blog in ease about being pregnant. Anyway, this was a very enjoyable trip for us and we loved getting to see my family. We enjoyed going to the movies, shopping, eating (of course) and just hanging out!

Addie did very well during the 10 hour drive. Daddy would

make her laugh while he was driving!

So in my family Wednesday night is the big night for all of us

to gather around in the kitchen and help prep the food

for the Thanksgiving dinner. This is one of the most cherished times

and memories we have together. This is my Dad, Ally, and I peeling

apples for apple pie.

My niece McKenna peeling potatoes

My nephew Brayden dicing potatoes

Tyler working on the Apple pie filling

Grandpa and my niece Ally making the dough for the crust.

My dad is the pie man in our house.

Helpin' Grandpa roll out the pie dough.

Gotta have a Turkey bowl on Thanksgiving morning!

Huddle time.

Ty running for the touchdown.

Addie loved being outside where is wasn't bitter cold! We

had fabulous weather there.

So i have to preface these next couple of pictures...

My Dad has been in the food business most of his life

growing up in his mom's pie shop, owning restaurants, catering etc.

So on such occasions as Thanksgiving the food should not only

taste delicious but look delicious! I guess you could say we make

a big deal about how the food is presented and served. Thats

just the way it is in my fam and i love it!
Here are the before and after pics of the turkey.

Before

After

And last but not least the whole Thanksgiving dinner.

sorry if i've bored you with the food pictures.

Ty also got to participate in ordaining my nephew to a decon.

From L to R: Tyler, brother Marty, Brother Troy, Brayden, Grandpa McFadden,

Grandpa Davis and my brother Jeremy.

My sister Marie with some of our nieces: Ally, Emilee, and Alise.

My niece and nephew, Brayden and Emilee, are about 2 weeks apart

and both turned 12 this November. Tyler and I were able to join them

in the Dallas temple Friday morning to do baptisms. What an awesome opportunity this was

especially for me. I loved being there with them. They are growing up too fast.

My brother Jeremy with his little boy, Travis.

Addie with her cousin Brayden. She couldn't get enough of Brayden

these two were best pals the whole time!

I have such a love for my family. My brothers and sisters are spread thin across the states so we don't get to see them very often. Being able to spend Thanksgiving with them was the best!

A quick trip to Salt Lake City, Utah

Addie with her Great Grandma Cook. Grandma Cook had

been looking forward to seeing Addie weeks before we came.

Doesn't she look great for being 93!

Addie and I flew out to Salt Lake City the week before Thanksgiving

where we were originally going to the celine dion concert, however

that got cancled so Ty's sisters still came up to Salt Lake and

we enjoyed eating at Cheesecake Factory, watching a play at the

Desert Stars theater in Murry and doing some shopping at the
Park City Tanger Outlets! We flew out a couple days earlier

than when the girls would come up so that we had time to see other

family members. Addie absolutely loved the airplane rides. And she

did great!

Her love for airplanes just got stronger! Not only did

she get to see a lot of airplanes, but she got to ride on one!!

Eating at Cheesecake Factory we had:

Michelle, Kenzi and Amy on one side of the table and...

MinDee, Mom Hansen, and myself

on the other side and....

Addie and the head of the booth! She had a great time at

the resturant once the dessert finally came out! And this was

only the beginning. Just picture all that coolwhip smeared

all over the table in front of her. I would have got a picture

but i was busy cleaning myself off as Addie thought it was funny to

slap her hands down in the coolwhip causing it to splatter everywhere

and because i was sitting next to her i got the bulk of it!

We had a great time seeing Ty's family and enjoying the events of

the weekend with them.

If Dads workin', Addies workin'!

The minute Tyler pulls out any tools Addie

is right by his side helping him or working on

her own project beside him...using his tools!

This particular night Addie found a project of her

own to work on as Dad finished installing a

slider tray in his study desk. I think Santa

should bring some tools for Addie this Christmas!

This is the current face i'm getting when i say,"smile Addie!"

Addie decided to take on the "vent" project.
This included sticking dads screw driver in the vent
a couple times and discovering that the vent could come off.

Both hard at work

Laboring to get the vent off

Making a discovering! New things to explore!

This is intense concentration go on here!

Putting the vent back into its spot.

Shes got some serious concentrating tounge action...

wonder where she gets that from?....Tyler....

Having fun with Daddy

We had just finished dinner so i ran upstairs to do

a couple things while Tyler could keep his eye on Addie

and I could enjoy a short lived moment of time to myself.

This is what I found when i finally came back downstairs!

Tyler had made himself the human rug jungle gym

Daddy is so fun to play with! This little girl
just loves being with her Daddy
(and for my family.....
doesnt Addie look like McKay in this pic?? Ha ha ha!)

And Addie was having a blast!

She would yell,"Giddy up Zebra!"

For those who don't know, Addie associates

anything horse like to a zebra...ya normally

its the other way around!

These two have so much fun together! Im so glad

Tyler takes the time to play and be with Addie.

A bit of Randomness

Here goes a little bit of randomness.

Addie enjoying her basket of bouncy balls

Ok everyone back home eat your heart out!
Our gas prices here in Des Moines are awesome!
And since this picture, which was only a week ago,
its gone down another .10 cents!


Cherish the love. We don't get a lot of times like this any
more where its just the two of us!

And this is what Addie looks like at the end of the day
when mom wakes up sick and Dads at school all day.

Enjoying our spring-like days we've been having! The past
week and this week so far we have had the most amazing
warm weather. We are soaking up the outside playing time
as much as we can. Unfortunately it will come to an end by this weekend.:(

Lady bugs....they are everywhere. And they
are not your typical red and black, innocent,
peaceful little creatures...these orange and black lady bugs will
bite and they hang out all over in our window sills
inside our house and out!


Getting a good look at her prey before she strikes.
(notice the tissue in hand)

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Here in Iowa they celebrate it the night

before and thats when all the kids

go trick-or-treating a.k.a "beggers night."

We couldn't have asked for better weather it turned

out to be a beautiful sunny 68 degree day

and didn't cool off too much at night. So it was very

enjoyable and the kids didn't get cold!

These pictures didn't exactly line up

how i wanted them too, but oh well.

Heres how our Halloween night went....

This picture belongs down below with the

pictures of his pumpkin, anyway, this

is Ty hard at work carving his 2 inch thick

cool WHITE pumpkin.

All the goodies from the night! I'd say she did pretty well.

She actually caught on real quick and started from

the get go grabbing hand fulls out of the candy bowls

and stuffing them into her pumpkin.

Had to get a shot of the back side to show

off the cute little behind of our Tigeresssss!!!


First candy of the night...How exciting!
So i told her as i was putting her down for
her nap that she would be able to go trick or treating
when she woke up. She got to excited and never
took her nap. She did pretty well though into the
night. All the sugar helped keep her awake!


Addie our little Tigeress!
All ready to go trick-or-treating.

So here is the finished product. Addies pumpkin still
awaits to be carved as she crashed early for bed.

So unique isn't it! Ty's got such school spirit! Ha Ha!

I thought the white pumpkin turned out

really cool. This is the pumpkin i picked out for Ty at the

pumpkin patch we went to with Aunt Amy.

Spooky mode!

This is what i was doing while Tyler carved his pumpkin. Addie crashed early

so it actually turned out to be a really fun "date night" in the

kitchen. I made our sugar cookies, while he carved. It was

really enjoyable to just talk and have some time to ourselves

for a little date in the kitchen!

Thickest i've seen yet! Good thing it was Ty's, because

he has the muscles to handle this this beast!

Hope you all had a great Halloween. Addie actually

gets one more shot at trick-or-treating at the

trunk-or-treat tonight at our Ward party!!

Too Cute to Pass up: Future Doctor

This is what i came home to the other night

after Enrichment. Tyler apparently decided he would

try to study his very in depth Anatomy book while

Addie played with her toys. Addie had a different

plan... As i walked through the door Tyler said,

"just try and take this book away from her."

So i tried and wasn't too successful.

She was so focused on this book. She turned

each individual page and studied each page.

I don't know why she was so fascinated with this anatomy book, but she was. It kept her occupied for about 20 min if not longer. Like she literally sat there with this huge book on her lap for 20 + min totally in her own little world. Tyler finally went upstairs to study without it.

I don't even know what this is on this page but occasionally as she was flipping through the pages we'd hear an excited,"ooooh," and she'd point to something on the page.

Oh this girl just keeps our life entertaining. What would we do without her!