Halloween

So I am a year behind on this blog and have no way to get to the photos from the last year or so..So I will start new and fresh. Everything we own is practically in storage and we are living with Nathan's Dad so here is some Halloween pictures. We had fun Trick or Treating and I of course had fun making my kids costumes. This year I let them decide what ever they wanted and we still did it theme style. Tangled to be exact. Elise our beautiful Rapunzel and Brycen our daring Flynn Rider and last but not least our little green chamelion Pascal. Kayla loved being a lizard and fell in love with any lizard this summer while we lived in Hawaii for a month. Elise loved being the pretty princess. Brycen was just glad to get some candy and like his cool costume. I loved Kayla and how excited she was to get a treat and how she would say trick or treat.  Can't believe how fast they are growing up! Anyway enjoy the photos!

 

Thanksgiving 2010

 We got to enjoy Thanksgiving with the Miller side of the family.  We all got together at Dad's house and had a wonderful dinner with tons of good fun and lots of fun just being together.  Here a few photos I got. 

Kayla with the traditional olives on the fingers

Young Womens in Excellence

 The front table with purses all the value colors!

Okay so I am FINALLY going to blog my little heart out and get caught up on this thing like I really want to.  Sorry if there are a million new posts I just gotta get it done.

Before we left for Hawaii in November we had our wards Young Women's in Excellence.  I spent hours planning and putting this together so I wanted to put in on here so I have it down for if I ever have to do it again or if anyone needs an idea.

 The theme that evening was the "Purse"suit of Excellence and our "Purse"onal Progress.  I spoke and the girls all sang, 'As Sisters in Zion', they also got to tell us about one of their Personal Progress values that they worked on through out the year. They all did such a great job and put forth some great effort.  I loved seeing their hard work.  Our fantastic Young Women's president Angie got to give out some ribbons for values that have been completed trying to get the girls wanting to work even harder.  All in all it was a great night. 

For my talk I want to highlight some of what I said for memories sake.  I brought my purse and talked to the girls how having a purse to me a their age seemed silly and for older ladies but then I soon realized how important a purse can be and how valuable it can be by filling it up with the right things.  I all to often let me purse get filled with receipts and wrappers and garbage and it makes it harder for me to find the things I need.  So I talked about keeping our purses filled with the knowledge and good things we get from our personal progress.  I had a reminder for every value in my purse.  For faith I had a white tissue that shows purity and cleanliness and how I want to be that way so that I can return to heaven to live with our Heavenly Father and loved ones that have already gone on before us. How an old white tissue in a purse reminds me of my sweet Grandma Carlene and how much I miss her and rejoice in the fact of knowing I can see her again if I am pure and clean like the white tissue.  For Divine Nature I think of my blue chap stick and how I am a Woman divinely created from our Heavenly Father divine purposes.  How I can be a mother and a wife and how I want to do so righteously.  For Individual Worth I have my Red compact mirror that I can look in and see my reflection and know that I have worth and that my Heavenly Father loves me.  For Knowledge I have a small green notebook that helps me remember things of importance and inspiration that I am given from Heavenly Father.  For Choice and Accountability I have my orange credit card that helps me remember that just like the purchases I make I am accountable for them just like I am accountable for each and everyone of my actions.  For Good Works I had my yellow hand sanitizer that helps me to remember to use my hands for Good Works like Heavenly Father would want me to.  For Integrity I had a pack of purple gum to remember to have integrity with all that I say and 'chews' to do.  For Virtue I have my Temple Recommend with the golden design on it to remember to be a Virtuous Daughter of God.  I made the girls a gold fabric temple recommend holder for when they go do baptisms for the dead.  Each girl received a paper purse with all the same items in it for them to have as a keepsake. It was a great night and so appreciated the help of the whole Young Women's presidency and how great it all went.

Cupcake refreshments

The refreshment table with cupcakes and purse shaped rice crispy treats

 I will have to take a picture of all of the items and the purse handouts.  I feel like I didn't get the best pictures of this night which makes me sad.  I don't even have one of all our cute young woman and their projects.

Hawaii in November

Well its quite obvious that blogging wasn't on my New Years resolution list, or maybe it was and I am already SLACKING!  None the less I have a million photos to start putting on here.  So I will just start with where I left off.  After Halloween we got to spend a magical week in Hawaii.  It was truly our first vacation to Hawaii I know are all thinking no way you were there in February and your are all right but this was the first time we have ever been there that Nathan didn't have to work and it was MARVELOUS! I want to go back right now just thinking of it.  We had been saying for the last 7 months prior to October that if we knew Nathan made it through the layoffs from work we would go on a vacation so we did.  We were able to trade one of our Marriott weeks and head to Ko' Olina on Oahu.  It was heaven.  Here are some of the photos.  We snorkeled and ate lots of shave ice.  It was a dream, but what else can it be in Hawaii.

 We went to Turtle Bay and Hanauma Bay.  The first day at Turtle Bay I got to see my first turtle snorkeling.  I was not wanting to go out because it had been over cast and all and I knew were were close to heading back to the condo so I figured it was now or never.  So I went out and was out in the water about waist deep and figured I might as well get the worst of it over and get wet so I wasn't cold any more so I went in up to my neck then stood up put my mask on and laid down to see what I could see and sure enough right in front of me watching me was a big old sea turtle I couldn't believe it.  It was so neat I wish I would of had the camera but it had just barely broke that afternoon.  Anyway I was so worried I was to close cause it was super close so I tried backing away and couldn't so I just sat there a moment and watched him that hopped up in a panic and started yelling to Nathan I just saw a turtle.  No one was there on the beach so I wasn't to worried about being embarrassed, but I was pretty excited.  It was on my check list of things I wanted to see. I felt complete. I have snorkeled quite a few times so I was excited to see my first turtle, next time I hope to not be so surprised, I think it was just that I went down and there he was just staring at me.  Elise and Nathan also saw an eel.  I will pass on that one though Elise thought was a snake.  Ahh! 

These pictures were all at a place called the Valley of the Temples.  Nathan and I had decided since were were going back to Oahu we wanted to try some new places that we hadn't been to and this was one of them we enjoyed seeing and visiting this Japanese Temple and learning about it, it was built with out the use of a single nail and had a huge Buddha statue inside.  It was a beautiful place to visit, Kayla loved feeding all the little doves. 

On the way back to the condo we decided to go on this nice little hike to see a lighthouse.  Well it was a beautiful hike but we were so not prepared we didn't have any water with us at all.  Not to mention Nathan and I aren't in that great of shape, but none the less we enjoyed the beautiful views, Brycen and Elise were troopers, Kayla scream and cried most the way but we did it.  The weather was clear so we could even see Maui from the top. It was so worth it, but next time I will have water and not just Dum-Dum suckers.

At Ko 'Olina Kayla in her swimsuit and the beautiful landscaping

Eating as much Shave Ice as we could

We had such a great time and can't wait to go again.