Ellen!

It just so happened that the day after I got to go to Disneyland, my good friend Tina came in town and invited me to go to Ellen with her. She's a HUGE Ellen fan, and although I have not ever really gotten into Ellen, it's a fun show to go to and I mostly care about going and being with my friends. Well, that all changed today because Ellen gave us all a free ticket to come back and be in the audience for her "12 days of Christmas giveaway".  Now I'm a HUGE Ellen fan. We were FREAKING out we were so excited. She gives away literally thousands of dollars worth of prizes and I can't wait to find out what we win. 

Before we headed out we went to lunch at the fabulous "CoCo's" restaurant. Basically Denny's with a different name but it was good and we had fun chatting for a little bit before heading down to Burbank for the show.

And I'm the idiot who didn't realize I had my number turned around backward. Duh! 

Brittney tried to help me feel less stupid by wearing her sunglasses upside down, but she still looks pretty darn beautiful so it didn't work so well. 

We aren't allowed to take any pictures in the show, but I took a quick pick of the form we filled out for the 12 days of Giveaways ticket. I'm SO excited!

After the filming, they put up pictures of the audience. We found a couple with us in them. 

Tina got the most screen time because she was at the aisle. She also got picked to do a game. I swear that girl is like a magnet for that kind of stuff. She always gets chosen.

 Group shot before we headed out. On the way home, I dropped Tina off at the airport and then took the two Brittany's home. Then I headed to church for our ward Trunk or Treat. It was outside and dark so once again I got hardly any pictures, but it was a fabulous night. Yummy food, awesome costumes, a movie for the kids and of course, trunk or treating. What a day! I seriously am feeling pretty spoiled right about now.

Disneyland

My poor sweet friend Becky got married on her birthday. Not the smartest idea she's ever had, but oh well. She has a great hubby so she's stuck with it. Lol. Things being as they are, it makes it hard to go out and celebrate her bday when it's also her Anniversary. She's been wanting to do a Disney day for years and this year it finally all worked out! She can get 5 people plus herself in free with her passes, plus another friend had a pass so we had a good group of 7 people. It was so much fun. Our friend Cherie came and she is a Disney pro. She had us running the park but we literally got on SO many rides and ate some super yummy food. I just LOVE Disney and am so grateful for friends who take me because it is so incredibly expensive these days. They just keep raising the prices and it's killing me. 

I took a lot of pictures!

Don't let this picture fool you, I got smacked in the face with a wave of water. UGH!

Halloween is the best time to go on the "Haunted Mansion". I love the "Nightmare before Christmas" theme everywhere.

Becky loves her hair dresser Jen so much, that she invited her to come along too. It was fun to make a new friend.

We got to do a fun hoe down dance with "Farley". It was pretty hilarious!

The pumpkin carvings were AMAZING!!!

And here's the artist.

We got photo bombed by Donald Duck. How fun is that!

All of us in front of the Castle!

We rode the "single rider" line to go on "Racers" in California Adventure. We got on WAY faster, but it meant we didn't get to sit together. But Cherie and her daughter Jessicah (who just got back from her mission to Costa Rica) made it on the same car together. They made plans to make an "ugly" face for the photo but Cherie was having so much fun it didn't work out exactly as planned. Haha…

Tower of Terror is one of my MOST favorite rides, but as you can see, the front row liked it, and the back row not as much! Becky being the least biggest fan of all. She pretty much hates it, but still went on it with us anyway. She's a trooper!

The park closed at 8 and we had ridden rides through dinner to maximize our time, so we ate at a yummy Mexican place in Downtown Disney and then headed home. Such a fun day with good friends. Thanks for the memories. 

Awards day

Two of my kiddos got honored at the monthly assembly. Ashlyn for excelling in all subject areas and Brandon for testing out of Speech Therapy. Yahoo. Love awards ceremonies and I'm grateful for the many people who work hard to help them learn and succeed. 

Afterward me and Carter went to lunch with my cute friend Lindsey so I could catch up on her trip to Sweden and Denmark. Carter got to pal around with us so we hit the park and went on a little walk after lunch to try and keep him happy.

And then that night was Valley Views annual "Freaky Fright night Festival". It's always stressful keeping track of 4 kids outside in the evening where there isn't a TON of light, so this was the only picture I got. Haha…One of Leah before we even left for the festival. But it was a good turn out this year and the kids had a blast. They even braved the "super scary" (actually it was pretty scary for elementary school kids) haunted hall. 

Since we've been back

My silly little boy. We get him a new bed and he still chooses to sleep on the floor in his room. So strange. Luckily, he doesn't do this every night and has since been sleeping more in his bed. It just took him a while to adjust to it I guess. It's sure fun to have two big boys in two big boy beds! Life is moving fast.

Me and Carter have been enjoying our Wednesday mornings at the library storytime program. They do 30 minutes of cute songs and book readings and then set out tons of toys and activities for the kids to play with for another 15-20 minutes. It's really improved since the days when I use to take the other kids. Then each week before we leave Carter likes to check out books at the cool self check out kiosk. I sometimes think he picks so many, just to be able to hear the "beep" when a book has been checked out. 

Thursday morning was another preschool field trip. And while I thoroughly enjoy going and being with him, it makes me sad to know that I have to miss out on being in Brandon and Leah's classroom since Thursdays are my mornings that I go to the Elementary school. But this is a pretty big field trip so I couldn't miss it. PLUS, it was a nice cool Fall day and it made being there quite enjoyable. 

Carter's class. Super cute 3 year olds.

Playing in the "jail".

Climbing the pumpkin.

My cute little pumpkin. Goodness, he melts my heart! It's impossible to not smile around him. He's just such a happy sweet boy.

Thursday night came and I got hit bad with STREP! I knew it right away when I woke up in the middle of the night with my throat on FIRE. I was convinced that I could do some home remedies to cure it. But after drinking some pretty nasty drinks all day and dousing in oils, my throat was hurting so bad that I literally couldn't even tip my neck back enough to gargle or drink anything else. So after a miserable nights sleep where I had to sit up and brace myself every time I needed to swallow, I high tailed it to the Doctor's first thing Saturday morning. Got some antibiotics and went back to bed for literally the rest of the day. By mid evening, my medicine had kicked in enough to squeak out some words and by mid day on Sunday, I was up and making dinner and picking up the house. I gotta say….I know antibiotics shouldn't be overused, but when ya need 'em, ya need 'em and they felt like a pure miracle that day.

And yes, I know this is a terrible picture. I don't usually take pictures of myself when I'm not feeling well, but Paul texted me to ask how I was feeling on Friday, and this summed it up pretty darn well so I sent it to him! Like garbage was my answer!

But let's move on to a happier note. By Monday I was back up and running and feeling pretty darn good. So I went shopping. Our dryer has been totally on the fritz lately. Taking two to three cycles to dry one simple load. Both machines are quite old (at least 10-12 years) and not worth trying to fix, so it was time to shop for some news ones. I figure the washer is on it's last days too, so might as well start fresh with a new set. 

So I headed over to Lowe's and picked out these beauties. The dryer is on back order, so they won't be delivered for a couple of weeks, but I think they're worth waiting for. I'm quite excited for them to arrive! Laundry might even be fun….well….for a little while anyway.

On Monday night we went to see "Meet the Mormon's" for Family night. The kids were so excited. Well, the girls anyway. It wasn't very enthralling for the boys, but they were good sports and behaved pretty nicely. Just got a little antsy toward the end. Leah thought it was the coolest thing ever that they had made a movie about Mormon's and was literally bursting with excitement. I really do love her zest for life. The movie was really great and I was so happy we got to see it while it was still in the theaters. I was afraid I was gonna miss it when I got sick. The stories of the families they chose were really endearing and quite inspiring. To see the faith and love they had for the church and the gospel was really cool and I particularly liked the story of the "missionary mom". It's so neat to see how much the gospel can change peoples lives when they are willing to let the Lord in their life. I pretty much cried through her whole story.