thanksgiving

thanksgiving day
dinner at 1:00 at my parents house.
all the extended family...aunts, cousins, grandma and grandpa.
traditional menu of:
grandmas stuffing YUM!
mom's cranberry salad.
mom's awesome yams-the family goes nuts.
carsons loaded potatoes.
nicki's homemade rolls.
ham-yes our family loves ham.

lots of little indians running around.
relaxing.
nibbling on the famous yum yum's
(rocky road like bars chocolate, peanuts and marshmallows)
eating until you can't eat anymore.

thankful for all the little things
we take for granted everyday.

HalloWeen

We celebrated all weekend. Carson couldn't get enough of
my 9th grade Cheerleading uniform. Really, I about died
that he squeezed into the thing. It didn't zip but
still!

First was a Halloween Party at our house with my
family. We had yummy soups and caramel apples.

The kids went trick or treating around the house.
Between Grandma, Great Grandma and Aunt Eyvonne
they got very spoiled to say the least.



On Halloween we went up to Carson's parents in Alpine.
We had another party and then went trick or treating with
the kids and cousins Zoe and Jonah.

Noah was a mad man running from house to house. We
could barley keep up with him. Now we have to deal
with them wanting candy for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

fabulous fall

I {heart} Fall.
cool crisp air.

fall wreaths. i seem to buy a new one every year.

fall decorating. yummy soups. everything pumpkin.





this year skeletons. the boys LOVE anything extremely scary.
saturday carson took the boys over to walgreen's and came
home with this creepy skeleton wrapped in spider webs.

Sundays...Who Knew?

we got released from nursery-yesterday was the
first time the boys have been since.

mind you noah's been with us pretty much
the entire length of his nursery days. and wait
so has madden.

the boys stayed in nursery-the whole time.
turned around everytime the door opened during
sunday school and relief society expecting to
see a crying child. nope. not once.

carson and i couldn't remember the last time
we both sat together and enjoyed sunday school.
years we are talking.

relief society even better. the bishops wife
who is amazing gave an incredible lesson on service.
wow-i needed it. no wonder the boys stayed put
because i really felt that i needed it so much.

now if i can just keep that spirit and feelings
and carry them throughout and look for service
opportunities with my service goggles. i was
so uplifted.

what a great way to start the week.

WeeK in PicTurEs

I dusted off the old camera and have been snapping a few pictures this week. I don't have Photoshop on my laptop and that is bugging me I can't touch up my pictures but oh well.


no, this is not our new baby girl :) this is noah's first girl cousin...Maeva Kleinmann. he just loved her and was so interested in her. he loved to look at her fingers and toes. one day noah...but not for now.


noah getting down on the guitar to the beetles rock band.



riding the scooter around the cul-de-sac.

this is the first year we attempted flowers. i am happy to say they did awesome! they are zinnias and they thrive without water. it was def. the highlight of the yard this year.


my boys.

adorable back side.

Pre-School & Blessings

Today is a GREAT day.
Noah's first day of pre-school. I just can't believe he is already old enough to go. He was excited-until he realized that I had to leave. I left the school with him crying in his teachers arms. But at 3 1/2 I just have to let him. It hasn't helped that we've been in nursery the entire time with him either.

Anyway, I didn't get a call after I left-that was a relief. Went and picked him up two hours later with a smile on his face and him telling me about the puzzles he did and the carrot he fed to the bunny.

Now, ask me how it goes Thursday. I'm prepared he will not want to go again. So I'll let you know. I have to say it was quite a treat running to Rod Works and Tai Pan with only one crazy child instead of two.

No this was not the blessings I am talking about. Here's that story:

About two weeks ago we ran into a "problem" with Clinton City about our house that we rent out. We have the main house and then an apartment in the basement. To make a long story short they were telling us we couldn't rent out our basement even though it had been built that way and rented out for the last 30 years.

It was going to be a HUGE problem for us. I have been literally sick for the last two weeks about the situation. Thank heavens for prayers and miracles.

Carson and I had attended the temple just a few days before we found all of this out. During the session I felt the presence of my great grandpa (who's house it was originally and then we bought from.) I know many times we can sense those beyond the veil, but I thought it was interesting to have it be him. I wasn't particularly close to him and it's been about 4 years since he had passed.

After we found out about the situation, I knelt for a very long, outpouring of prayer. Within seconds I again felt an overwhelming feeling of peace and my great grandpas presence and his words "We will take care of it." It was a very spiritual experience and one I will not forget.

Well after two weeks of waiting the city finally called me this morning telling me that the city is allowing us to rent both the main house and the apartment.

Miracles-
blessings...
I am so so grateful for the gospel.

Mondays.....

Don't love them lately.
Make me stressed and crazy.
Emails, Phone calls, snail mail...
nothing good from them lately on Mondays.

Jon & Kate Plus 8. Okay my guilty pleasure.
I know I shouldn't but I do.
I love it and Carson doesn't get it.
I mean it's pure entertainment.
8 kids, attitude, hair,
it's something that makes me feel better
and makes me see that my life is very blessed.
Amazing Husband and two wild and crazy, boys that
I love to pieces!

{LiFe} the last 90 days

Time flies as I've said before. Heres a quick run down of the happenings at our house in the last 90 days:

Turned 30.
Lots of visits to the park.
Playdates with Shauni-YEAH! Love her.
Designed two scrapbook paper lines in less than two weeks...STRESS and more STRESS!
Roy Aquatic Center.
POTTY TRAINING ...well sort of?! (#1 covered, #2 not even close)
Went to Orlando the end of July for a week. Disneyworld. CHA. Humidity. Rain. YUCK!
Traditional Draayer Family Swim Party.
Rhiannons Baby Shower.
Celebrated 8th Wedding Anniversary.
Family pictures photographed by Steph Bruce-Read. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE THEM! (see below)
Promise to be blogging more often :)

MaRch & ApRiL-Pic HeAvY

Sorry I have been so bad about the blog these days. Photoshop is no longer working on my laptop, but I've decided I'll just have to post my raw photos with no adjustments. Maybe one day I will be a good enough photographer I won't need to use it much.

When your child is being too quiet it usually means they are doing something they probably shouldn't be. Madden obviously has been paying close attention to my make up routine and found him with mascara all over his eye. Good thing he didn't poke it out while in the process.


We have a nest on top of the wreath on our front door. It's kind of hard to see but there are two eggs in it and since there are now four. We'll see if they hatch and if that's the case we're going to have a big problem with baby birds! Kind of fun though. Noah likes to check on them everyday.



We took the boys to the Dinosaur Park in Ogden. We should have known if Noah was scared of Chuck E Cheese, he would be scared of Dinosaurs. We went inside the museum first and checked out the moving dinosaurs-NOT a good idea. Noah was screaming and covering his face with his blanket. He kept saying he wanted to go home. Anyway it was sad but Carson and I couldn't help but laugh. Once we got outside he calmed down. At least Madden enjoyed it.





On Easter we went to my parent's ward. It is always fun going back the ward I grew up in. It's changed a lot but it's always nice to see those familiar faces. My parents also put together an egg hunt for the boys which they loved. Thanks Grandpa & Grandma for spoiling the boys!

Of course I couldn't get a decent picture of the two of them together. Noah's crying about something and Madden just can't hold still for that long. Anyway, here are a few fun ones of them and we also got one of all the boys.






Noah's 3rd Birthday. We had a fun party with both my family and Carson's. We had a pinata which now that the boys now what they are doing, got a bit dangerous at times. We ate and had cake. He had to have the same Elmo cake that Madden had. Great I got at least two cakes out of the pan.

What's Up with Lily BEE?

I am soooo sooo excited! My two lines have been picked up by 2 Peas in a Bucket! For those of you not familiar with the scrapbooking world-2 Peas is basically THE HOTTEsT place on the web. Plus, our products are listed under their HOT PRODUCtS page for shopping. It's so amazing to see it over there on their site.

Besides selling my products they have featured the Die-Cut Frames on their blog. You can check it out HERE