Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Eclipse!!!!!!!!!!

Only 7 more months! I will be counting down the days!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pumpkin Patch

Halloween Overview

Cute little Cowboys!

1st place prise for Best Costume

Yes, I did make Mike dress up as a bumble bee. What a trooper!

Matt, Jen, Jonah and Caleb

Buzz and Woody

Adorable little Caleb

CrAzY! cRaZy! CrAzY! Life has been nothing but CRAZY!!! I'm finally taking the time to sit down and post! I know we're only a few days away from Thanksgiving, but I felt it was important that I post some adorable pictures of my little Brayden from Halloween.

Because of all the "buzz" around Toy Story 3 coming out, we thought it would be great if Brayden dressed up as Woody. Let me tell you...he mad the cutest Woody out there! He even won Best Costume at his school's pumpkin festival. He was so excited! His trophy, which is a skeleton holding candy, is still on his nightstand.

Halloween this year started out with attending our ward's pumpkin festival. Seeing how Mike is our ward's new young men's president, he was in charge of creating the haunted house. I was bummed that I wasn't able to go through it. I was running the photo booth and wasn't able to step away long enough to go through it. I heard many wonderful things about it. The young men did a great job with keeping it spooky, just enough to keep children from crying!

Our next big event was Brayden's school's pumpkin festival. I'm an active participant in PTA and have offered to run the festival the last couple of years. Let me tell you - it's quite a task. And if any of you know me, you know that I am the biggest procrastinator. I think that sometimes I work better under stress. My husband loves me in SPITE of this quality!!! He was a trooper and helped me out with whatever I needed him for. My sister was my other saving grace. She helped me set up and decorate. She even stayed throughout the entire festival to serve food and help out in the kitchen. At the end of the night, we were all exhausted and grateful for it to be over.

Halloween night was fun for us also. We had been in Monterey for the weekend, but made it up in time to go trick or treating with little Jaxson. Brayden and Jaxson made the cutest cowboys ever. Halloween was great, but I'm grateful it's over!!!

SCANS!!!!!!!!

My scans are tomorrow and I'm feeling a bit nervous. But, to make it all better, we are going to spend a couple days in Monterey and in Petaluma. I can't wait to see my favorite oncologist and all of my favorite nurses! So.....S.F., here I come. I kicking cancer's a** and takin' names!!!!!!!

2nd Annual Pumpkin Carving Contest

We have now made it a tradition to have a pumpkin carving contest with my family. The rules are as follows:

1. NO, and I mean NO, tracing of stencils or copying of any kind.

2. Only allotted an hour and a half.

3. Pumpkin must be gutted and cleaned before arrival.

4. Creativity is a must!

A hillbilly and a vampire!

Brayden and Grandma Donna carving pumpkins. This is the first time in my G-Ma's life that she has ever carved a pumpkin herself!

Mike was automatically disqualified for the following reasons: 1. He used a stencil! 2. He went way over our time that was given. (Should have started earlier, Babe!!!)

The final pumpkins - 1. Meagan - Mike Wazowski 2. Jen - Skull 3. Brittney - Shish-ka"boo" 4. mom and Dad - Mr. Spider 5. G-Ma and G-Pa - Classic pumpkin 5. Peter - Basketball 6. Uncle Matt and Auntie Jen's "Winker", which was carved in under 10 minutes!!!

Judging of the pumpkins

My handsome boy with adorable Kenna

And the winner is...Meagan Johnson and Mike Wazowski!!!

Jaxson and Jonah

Our Judge for the night

Mike's cool Mummy pumpkin and my parent's Mr. Spider pumpkin

Cute little Jonah!

What a fun night we all had! Can't wait to do it again next year!!!

My Little "Edward"

Last week we drove up into the gorgeous mountains and went to Apple Hill. I had my camera with me, like always, and decided to take some fun pictures of my handsome, little man. Because of my obsession with Twilight, my first thoughts went to.....EDWARD (of course)! So I set him up in the tree (like Edward is in the movie Twilight) and started snapping away. He definitely is going to crush some girls hearts when he gets older! He is and always will be my little "Monkey Man"!!!

Yeah Daddy!!!!!!!!

Our wonderful husband and daddy received a new calling a couple of weeks ago and we couldn't be anymore proud. Mike was called to be the Young Men's President of our ward. We know he's going to be a fantastic leader and a great friend to all of those young men.

As a mother of a young, impressionable 6 year old, I couldn't be more stoked! I can't wait for Brayden to be around all of these boys who are working towards getting their Eagle Scout, receiving their Duty to God award and most importantly, preparing to serve a mission. I think it's just what we need for not only ourselves, but for our little boy who is an only child.

Yeah Daddy!!!!! We know you'll be fantastic! You always are!

Love,

Brayden and Mommy

(P.S. - I had to put up all of the silly pictures. You know they're my favorite!)

Valley of the Temples

Here we are at the Valley of the Temples. It is a Buddhist temple on the North Shore of Oahu and is one of our favorite places to visit on the island. It is very peaceful and serene and has the most gorgeous views of the mountains. It is always a fantastic place to see.

Brayden ringing the bell.

"Shaka"

Buddha

Brayden felt the need to look extremely close to Koi fish in the pond and fell in head-first by doing so. Even his poor, little camera got soaked. As you can tell, he wasn't very happy.

The "Autograph" Tree

Still not happy because he's still wet!

Turtle Bay

On the north shore of Oahu, there is a beach called Turtle Bay. On this beach are about 10 large turtles that live in the shallow waters. Last year when we were there, the turtles were on the beach sunbathing and we weren't allowed to touch them. When we arrived at the bay this year, all of the turtles were in the water and we were allowed in with them. Brayden was so excited to get in with them that he got in with all of his clothes on. Luckily, they dried quickly afterwards. Brayden was totally enamored by all of the turtles and that he was actually allowed to touch their shells. We all had an amazing experience with these magnificent creatures.

Dole Plantation

One of our favorite things to do on Oahu is visiting Dole Plantation. They have the largest maze in the world shaped like a pineapple. Last year we didn't finish the maze due to children and heat exhaustion, but this year we were able to do it. Mike was determined to finish. We got through the maze in 1 hour and 1 minute. The record is 7 minutes - crazy, huh?!?! I'm glad that we did it because it made my adorable hubby very happy.

Brayden's favorite part of our visit to Dole was the Pineapple Express. We hopped on the train and toured the plantation to see how the pineapples were planted and harvested. Here are some pictures from our fun, little day -

YEA!!! We finished!

Mike and Brayden planning out route through the maze.

Which way to go?

I loved seeing all the different fruit planted throughout the plantation.

Beautiful Oahu.