Thanksgiving!

We spent Thanksgiving with the Thomas family and this year we were able to eat at Matt and Kas's house.  They deep fried a turkey and it was delicious!  We spent the night before and had cousin-fest with all the cousin's!  The kids loved every second of it.  We are so blessed and I love spending a day remembering that!

Family Pictures!

Our annual family pictures!

City Council

I'm not sure why... but I decided to run for city council.  I was really nervous about doing it but decided that I needed to try because I felt like our part of the city had no representation.  It was fun learning about how to campaign, doing meet the candidate's night, talking and getting to know people and especially pushing myself to do something that was hard and uncomfortable.  I was very happy to find out I won and start serving my 4 year term in January.

Halloween!

For Halloween we decided to dress up as the gang from Monsters Inc. I made the costume that Ruby wore it took me awhile but she looked so stinkin cute it was totally worth it!!!  James was Sulley, I was Roz, Dorothy and Violet were monsters, Preston was Mike and Ruby was Boo!

Pumpkin Carving!

I love carving pumpkins and some years we try and coordinate our costumes and pumpkins for fun, but this year we did all Frozen pumpkins!!!  Ruby fell asleep after a huge meltdown before I could get a picture!

Fall Festivities!

I love Fall and the beautiful season it is.  We enjoyed a drive up Loafer canyon and took some pictures in the leaves!  We then came home and I put my little kids in Halloween jammies!!!

Med Sea Cruise!

The Mickelsen family took an amazing vacation to the Mediterranean.  We arrived in Rome and then cruised for 9 days.  We stopped in Italy, Greece and Turkey.  It was an amazing adventure that none of us wanted to end!!!

Idina Menzel!

James bought tickets to Idina Menzel for Dorothy, Violet and I as a surprise!  He gave us the tickets and took us out to dinner!  The concert was phenomenal she was better in person than on CD!  She was so personable and I loved every second of it!  She sang for 2 1/2 hours and at the end of course sang "Let it go"!  She had all the little girls come up and sing with her the second time!  Violet was able to go up and was about 4 people away from her!  It was a wonderful night!

Minions!!!

For school the kids had to dress up like minions.  Ruby decided that she wanted to involved so I whipped up another outfit for her!

Blood moon!

We had the most amazing moon it was a blood moon because of the eclipse.  The kids thought it was so amazing.  It's sad because the pictures do not do it justice!

Women's broadcast!

I love how the church changed the age for the girls to 8 because Dorothy and I get to watch this amazing broadcast together!!!  It was so good and President Uchdorf's talk really resonated with me!  After the meeting we had to hit up Sip'N for a treat!

Real housewives of Elk Ridge!

The bunco group I have been apart of for 4 years constantly jokes about how we should be on a reality show...  we are pretty sure people would die of boardum watching us carpool kids, help at school and church and cook and clean.  I guess that's why we think it's so funny!  It was my turn to host bunco so I decided to get tee shirts made for the real housewives!!  We laughed and played bunco all night!

Tea Party!

We had a tea party at grandma's house!  The little girls dressed up as Elsa and Anna and Dorothy and I just dressed up a bit!  We ate fancy food and talked about our great grandmothers.  I love this family tradition because it helps the kids learn more about their ancestors!

Hiking the Y!

For Labor day we decided to celebrate with a hike to the top of the Y!  It is a grueling hike for those who have never done it!  Preston pretty much ran to the top and James and I kept stopping to "enjoy" the view!  It's hard for Utes to hike the Y so we had to do our families pose up top!!!  For dinner we had a BBQ at grandma's house where Dorothy made me a Doc McStuffins cake!!!  Ruby planned my cake and Dorothy willingly made it!

 

There is my fancy cake!

38th Birthday fun!

For my birthday this year I had a party where we went to dinner at of course Chick-Fil-A and then off to laser tag!  I love playing this game with all my friends and their kids!  It was so much fun and the kids keep asking when we are going again!

Ruby's off to dance!

We decided to switch dance studio's this year and it has been such a wonderful choice for our family!  Dorothy is not quite as over scheduled, but she still dances 6 hours a week.  She also started taking gymnastics this year!  Violet is taking dance and cheer.  Ruby wanted to start dance sooooo bad but got really nervous as soon as she got there!  Here is a picture of her on her first day!

Raspberry Picking!

We had our annual raspberry picking trip!  This year we made 8 batches of jam and froze 6 bags of raspberries!  The kids eat more than they pick but that's why they love it so much! 

Back to school night!

James and I were able to attend the annual back to school night for our kids.  You got to each class and meet the teachers and then listen to what they have planned for the year!  It's about 30 minutes each class and during Preston's class I was looking at the drawing above his desk with the weirdest looking kid I have ever seen!  Sure enough when it was over I looked at the name on the back and it was Preston's!!!  He is so funny!  I LOVE the teeth!

Raingutter Regatta!

Instead of the Pinewood Derby our ward had a raingutter regatta.  The kids came, made a boat and raced.  Preston thought it was so much fun!!!  He had really enjoyed being in scouts and has made some really great friends there!

Off to School!!!

The kids are back to school this week!  I have mixed emotions but 96% of them are pure joy!!!  They love school and I love having a routine again!!!  I miss spending more time with them but really not that much!!!

 

All ready for school!!!

 

 All ready to go!!!

Lagoon!!

Thomas Orthodontics took us all to Lagoon for the day!  We were able to ride all the 'scary' rides and I even talked Kim into riding Wicked!  I'm pretty sure she still has not forgiven me!  It was so great having so many friends there who would take the littlies while we went on other rides!  The kids ended the night by playing games and winning prizes!  $50 later they all had a toy in hand and we were on our way out!

 

Ruby was fearless she loved every ride they let her on!

Beautiful sunset!

The sunset's this year have been beautiful!!!  One night we went out on our deck to watch the beautiful sunset when Dorothy did the scorpion on the deck and told me to take a picture!  She's such a little ham!

Salem days!!!

We decided to participate in Salem days this year.  We had our float and had a booth where we passed out free popcorn.  The kids loved coming and seeing Mommy at the booth and riding the bull!  They each had a chance to ride the bull and were begging to do it again!

Off to the Lake!

We rented wave runners and headed to the lake for the day!  We had so much fun with the kids racing up and down the lake!  Each kid (including Ruby) had the chance to drive the wave runners!  It was a good last hurrah for Summer!!!

Elk Ridge City Council!

Not sure what I am thinking....  maybe I don't have enough going on?!?!?!  Really I just want to help in my community and help where I can!  I believe there is a lot of good in the world and am glad that I can be apart of doing some!  I made it past the first round and the second is in November.  If I don't get voted in it will be disappointing but I know there are other areas I can still serve in my community!

 

Beautiful World!

After running an awful 5 miles one night I was driving home and saw how beautiful the world is!  I started thinking about all of my blessings instead of what I could not do!  Sometimes I forget how much I actually have and how blessed I am!

 

Look at that stunning moon!!!

24th of July!

We ran the 10K as a family this year!  Allison, Preston and I trained together and ran it together!  It was so much fun!  After the run we watched the parade, then ate at taco time and headed home to shower and get ready for Evan's birthday party!  We had a birthday bash for Evan that night and had so much fun!

 

Cute little Sam ran the 10K in under an HOUR!!!

NWP Ragnar!

We flew to Seattle to run the Northwest Passage Ragnar.  It was my favorite Ragnar so far!  The scenery was stunning and running at sea level.... EASY!!!!!  It was so easy to breath!!!  We had so much fun playing in Seattle for 2 days before the race and then running all over Whidby island.  Our team was so much fun and the memories we made are priceless!  I want to run this Ragnar again...  Maybe in a few years since next year we are running in Hawaii!!!!

 

In Seattle!!!

 

The starting line was in a park that is half Canada and Half USA!

 

This was the scenery...  UNBELIEVABLE!!!!

 

Our van!

 

Right before our last run!!!

 

So many good times and amazing friendships!!!

 

I made it to the Ragnar front page with this picture!!!

 

 

Dinner after the race with our team!!!

 

On the ferry to go home!  It was beautiful and amazing!!!!