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We went down to Las Vegas for Thanksgiving. It was a lot of fun and nice to get out of the snow!

We went black friday shopping and got some stuff for brooklyn and some clothes for me. I desperately needed them!

we also bought a bedding set and a camera! yay :)

Nursery

Brooklyn went to nursery yesterday!! No, she isn't 18 months yet but she is a super hyper crazy girl who wants to run run run and I am sick of playing musical chairs and chasing her all throughout church so we got permission to let her in nursery so we didn't end up going home after sacrament meeting.
Brooklyn can't hold still for 2 seconds. she can't sit still when she eats, or drinks out of a sippy. she has to be walking around or moving in some sort of form. Getting through sacrament meeting is still hard and i'm just ready to leave by the end of it.
I look around at all of the other kids and they all sit calm and quietly and color or read books and brooklyn is jumping up and down and talking to everyone and climbing up and down on everything and its so embarassing. it makes me feel like i'm a bad mom cuz i can't control my own kid. i dont know why she is so hyper but when ever she is around lots of people she gets so excited and jsut runs and screams and its exhausting.
Our relief society president told me that brooklyn can stay in nursery and i wanted to cry and tell her thankyou. she has no idea how much i appreciate it. Our ward is awesome and they know brooklyn is a good girl. she just needs space to run around and play with toys.- thats all she wants to do.
So we opened the door to nursery and she just walks in and starts playing with the toys. she is very independent and could care less if we were there.. as long as she has someone to play with and feed her she doesn't care who it is.
I went and checked on her a couple times and she was doing so good! no crying, no beating up other kids. just playing and talking to everyone. When we went and picked her up she was sitting at the table eating a snack. she said thank you and said bye to everyone in there.
She is all grown up and is so cute. I love nursery. its the best thing ever! it was so nice to be able to sit and actually listen to a lesson- its been about a year since i've been able to do that.
So brooklyn is happy in nursery and ammon and i are happy to have a short break and to be able to pay attention in church.
I love nursery. So thank you everyone who has that calling in their ward- it means alot to us parents :)

Salsa

Alot of People have been asking me for this recipe! I"ve made it a few times when I've had people come over and its been a huge hit! My sister actually got the recipe at Lakeridge Junior High when she was in 7th grade foods class haha. we make it quite often when ever we have alot of people come over. Its amazing and SOO easy to make!

Ingredients:

1 can black beans (rinsed)
1 can white beans (rinsed)
1 can sweet corn (drained)
3-4 medium tomatoes
1 large onion
1 bunch of cilantro
BIG squirt of Italian dressing
salt and pepper

just dump everything in a bowl and thats its. super easy. super amazing. super healthy. let me know if you like it!

Halloween

I'm not huge into halloween. Its never been a favorite holiday.. but I do enjoy it. We went up to Orem for the weekend. We left Thursday and skipped classes on friday to go spend more time with our family.

Thursday night we went to the nightmare express in Lindon. It was free and it was AWESOME! i was So impressed! if its still light outside it is kid friendly and then once its dark it gets haunted.. we arrived when it was light outside but by the time it was our turn it was dark so it was haunted. Brooklyn wasn't scared at all. She just kept saying hi to everything that wasdressed up scary. My sister Amy was more scared than her haha

Friday we went trick or treating at my dads work. It was nice to just walk around inside and gets lots of candy. Brookyln caught on really quick that she needed to take some of their candy and put it in her bucket. she woudln't let ANYONE touch it or the candy. It was hilarious.

That night we went to my families ward halloween party. They had alot of games for kids and a haunted bus. Brooykln was OBSESSED with the bus. She would stay in there forever and just say hi and stare at everyone in masks. she would scream when we woul pull her out.

That night we also went to Nightmare on 13th. Last year we went to a haunted houses in vegas and it was terrible so i really wanted to take ammon to a good one this year. It was SO Fun and SO GOOD! it took almost an hour to get through the whole thing. we got free fast pases for buying online so we didn't wait at all! it was great

Sat we went to the pumpkin patch in orem and then trick or treating a little around the block and then to my grandmas for chile, timales, and lots more food. It was so fun to see family!

family night and smoothie

I'm combining two posts into one. First, Monday night we went down to st geoge to staheli family farm. If you havn't been you should go! It's so fun! Monday night is family night so its only 5 bucks a person. You do a corn maze, a pumpkin patch, they a petting zoo, they do horse rides, and they have tons of fun activities for kids. Everything is made out of stuff on the farm. They have a playground, a trampoline, this fun water thing to play in, these swing things that are pretty cool, and a bunch more. They have someone singing songs so the kids can dance and they have really yummy food and snacks you can buy. It was a really fun much needed family night. Brooklyn loved the corn maze because we just let her run and we followed her. She loved seeing all the animals and just playing with tons of kids. I'm so glad we went! so if you havn't gone then you should check it out! they also do a haunted corn maze on the weekends i believe. Its pretty cheap!

Second, I have started trying to eat healthier and exercising alot more. I want to lose 10 pounds before my family goes on the cruise. I started making a spinich smoothie and eat it before or after i get home from the gym. it sounds nasty but its AMAZING! trust me! now i hate spinich. with a passion. its disgusting to me. But a few months ago we were in vegas and ammon's brother and his wife made a spinich smoothie and i was surprised at how good it tasted. So i looked up more recipes that would be easier and I found one that tastes EXACTLy like a strawberry banana smoothie. You can't taste the spinich AT ALL! So if you trying to be healthier or are just looking for a spinich recipe try this one! all you need is spinich, a banana, straberrries, and juice of your choice and a blender.

Put a big handful of spinich in the blender

add a whole banana, a bunch of strawberries (i use about 7 frozen strawberries)

and a little bit of juice. I usually use apple but you can do whatever

and thats it! blend until its smooth and taste it! its amazing. you can always add more strawberries or banana if you want

its delicoius! and it tastes so good after a good workout!!!!

sign language

I never thought I would teach my kids sign language but when Brooklyn started babbling I wanted her to communicate a little more so I wanted her to learn how to say please and more at least so. I would do the signs and she would just look at me and then one day she caught on so quick. She knows please, more, baby, all done, milk, and thank you. I absolutely love that she can communicate to me. I was trying to get video of her doing it and having her do everything else she knows but for some reason whenever she sees a camera she gets shy and just wants to grab it.. So here is a little video of her doing some sign language :)

she also folds her arms, knows where her hair, eyes, nose, and mouth is. can say hi, bye, mom, dada, yucky, poopy, hot, yum, dog, ball, nigh nigh, thank you and she can count to three.. she says un, two, WEEE!! haha its so cute. she knows some more but i can't remember all of them.. I know i have already said that she can do this but its mosty so i remember how old she was and stuff lol. i love this girl. isn't she beautiful.?

decisions decisions.. i need help

My whole family is going on a cruise in December and I can't wait! But of course, I have no clothes or anything that fits or is cute! I'm debating on these swimsuits..Please tell me which one you like more.. I just can't decide?