Ok, like I said before I love the preparing for the holidays-- I get this from my Great Grandma Hazel and my mother!!! I adore wrapping presents and I get a little nuts. It is like therapy. This year, I tried to keep is really simple with a green, white and red wrapping the
me. I got these great little 0rnaments I attached to several gift and I also got this felt garland that I used for ribbon.
This year was the 2nd year I hosted a Holiday Trunk Show in my home for my beaded serving pieces. This year despite the blizzard like conditions it was still a good turn out! Thanks to everyone who came despite the terrible conditions!!
I absolutely love this time of year. The holiday cheer, the Christmas music on all the radio stations, and yes even the snow!! I love it all! In fact, i truly enjoy getting ready for Christmas with all the decorating, baking, present wrapping in preparing for many celebrations with family and friends!! We cut down our Christmas tree 
again this year and get everything set up the weekend after thanksgiving. This year I decided that I wanted to add a little decorating to our dinning room chandelier. Seriously, who would have thought this little chandelier would have taken 4 boxes of bulbs and 18 ft of garland!!!!! It was a fun project never the less.
Dad turned 60 on Thanksgiving! So we decided to celebrate the day after. We had a fabulous dinner at The Capital Grill and we couldn't get over how perfect 
the waiter poured 4 equal glasses of wine!!!! Now that was impressive!!
We love our pumpkin carving! Mike goes all out. This year Mike didn't even want to put his master piece outside in fear that it would somehow get smashed so we keep it warm inside!
I can't believe I am 30........ I still feel like I am 18! I had wonderful birthday celebrations. I got this gorgeous necklace from my parents. I also told my mom I wanted her to make me a hat. So what does she do but learns how to make a hat in a day...... AMAZING!
Cayman was also very proud of the gift he bought me to help stuck up all that hair of his!!! The DYSON is great and I don't think I will never get another type of vacuum again. The DYSON rocks!!!!
Michelle and I both turned 30 in October so Mike & Dan throw a small little surprise 30th birthday for us with our family and high school friends at Stella's in Minneapolis.
We try to go visit my little brother Bryce once a year. He lives in hot, sunny AZ. He just built another home last year and this was the first time Mike and I got to see it. He new home is beautiful and his new salt water pool was so refreshing to swim in!!
The trip was tons of fun. We did a little golfing, kayaking, swimming in BJ's pool, and just enjoying spending time together. It was in the 90's and it was HOT! After 18 holes of golf I was tired! We did have a little adventure during the kayaking though and I truly thought I was not going to live through the experience!!! So we booked our kayaking trip through Desert Voyagers - they are this great travel adventure outfit. ... check them out if you are in the area they were great guides... www.desertvoyagers.com
So we
met up with our guides and we were on our way. As were drove to the river we were explained all the safety procedure and told a little bit about the area. When we got to the river we jumped in our Kayaks and off we went. This was the first time my parents were kayaking and they did great!! As we were paddling down the river it was beautiful and so peaceful. We saw a bald eagle perched in a tree by the waters edge. It really is something to be paddling down the river. Well our peaceful experience soon came to the end. As we were paddling we heard some guns shots. Being that I really know nothing about guns I was like "what the heck was that?" Our guide explained that it was probably a gun shot but the hunters are not allowed to hunt in the state park and it was probably fired far away on the private land. I was satisfied with his answer but still thought it was werid we could hear gun shots. We continued paddling down the river and again we heard additional gun shoots. Now these sounded pretty close to me but I didn't think I was an expert on the topic so again questioned our guide. He again explained that I shouldn't worry because firearms are not allowed in the state park. Again I preceded to paddle down the river. As we rounded a bend, we saw several ducks in the water. I thought this was really odd and then I noticed a man ducking down by the waters edge about 20 feet away from us in total camouflage with a riffle in hand! My heart stopped... I was like " wh
at the heck is this guy doing?" If you don't know me you don't know this but I HATE guns and to being this close to a "live" one was not for me. I totally started to panic. I seriously debated if I should jump out of the kayak or not!!!! Needless to say, this "hunter" also surprised our guide and made him a little nervous as well. All I was thinking was this guy is going to shoot us and I can just see the new headlines.... "Kayakers killed, mistaken as ducks" . Needless to say we did survive but as soon as we got out of the water and were on our way home our guide call the police to talk about the hunter !! Besides that little adventure the trip was fun.
Little Jackson Jay Hadden was born October 5th!! He was simply adorable. Such an amazing gift from God.
In September we also hosted my dear friend Gretchen a baby shower. We developed the theme around her nursery colors. It was a beautiful day to celebrate the soon to be arrival of the Hadden's first baby!
September was another month filled with fun. My grandpa turned 80 and we threw him a terrific party in my parents home.
Mom turned 55 this year and we throw her a surprise birthday party at my parents home. Mom always has put others first and we wanted to do something really special for her this year. She was totally surprised and didn't suspect a thing!!! Bryce even flew in from AZ to make the surprise complete! We hired Mr. Mystery Productions who provided several terrific actors, who performed an interactive mystery play during dinner. They came in costume, mingled with the guests before mom arrived. This great cast later lead our friends and family into an odyssey of mystery, intrigue, comedy, and fun! I still don't know how they made Walt's $100 bill come out of a lemon? Check out the video to see some of the party...
WOW has the summer just zipped by. I didn't realize all that we did until I started downloading summer photos(I know I am a bit behind on that). We had a fabulous summer.
