Daddy Steven Thanksgiving 2011

I love my best friend Megan Retzko.... Her family lives in Farmington New Mexico so she was there for Thanksgiving. My Daddy Steven is burried right outside of Farmington and I havent seen his Grave since i was 8....

Megan went out of her way to go take a rose to my daddy on Thanksgiving and take pictures.... That is the best thing that happend all day.

[and yes, i had a WONDERFUL day]

Daddy Steven's headstone Thanksgiving 2011

I'm thankful for true friends... friends that will go OUT of their way on a family day for me.

I love you Megan Retzko. You are such a great friend!

THANKSgiving.

Thanksgiving has come again... and this last year seems like its gone by so fast! I'm so thankful for so many things...

Im so thankful for wonderful in-laws... seriously i couldnt have picked a better family to marry into.... I'm proud to be a Van Komen.

I'm so thankful for this man. My step-dad Vaughn... who has been a father to me, Mandi and Nate since i can remember.

I'm thankful for my daddy steven. without him i wouldn't be here. and i cant wait to meet him one day. and of course my Reynolds side of the family :)

Im thankful for my best friend and husband Nick, he does so much for our little family. He is such a good guy. i love him and i am thankful for the fact we share the same interests... HOCKEY! :)

I'm thankful for my Mother.... i could not have asked for a better mom. She's there to talk to when im having a down day. When i got hurt she was so tough on me to stay positive and that she knew i could recover so she pushed me... i have to thank her for the positive attitude i have today. Seriously.... best mom ever.

I'm so thankful for such great friends [and family] haha im thankful we get to go on trips with each other and im thankful for the friendship that we have.

I'm thankful for my cute puppy. when im going to bed, Chewy is always cuddled up right next to me. He's such a great friend to Alexei and im so glad we got him a couple years ago!

I'm thankful that i have the opportunity to be a mother. It is seriously the best feeling in the world and im grateful i get to experience it!

Last but not least im thankful for my forever family.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Noah Daubney

About a month ago our friend Chris Choi found out his little 15 month nephew Noah has a rare form of Brain Cancer. He had a surgery to remove a tumor and cancer in his brain but there is still a sign of cancer in his spinal fluid. Noah will be starting chemotherapy treatments. About a week ago Noah and his mom flew to St. Judes hospital in Nashville. Today Noah's family had a fund raiser to raise money to help pay for medical bills.

La Choi's held a spaghetti lunch for $5 a plate to help raise money. They had a raffle and also face painting. Noah is so loved. there were so many people there.

They had a live singer and she wrote a song for sweet Noah. When she started to sing it i couldnt help but choke up. i cant remember all of the Lyrics but the part that sticks out in my mind had something to do with that he was so young and didnt quite understand why he had to go through all that pain. i feel so bad. Noah has no idea why HE has to go through this pain... and there is no way to take the pain away. Poor little boy. I could not imagine my little Alexei having brain cancer.

As most of you know, Nick has had a hard time finding a job so we were quite low on funds... but to us spending $10 for lunch and a few dollars on raffle tickets & face painting was something that we needed to do. I have never met this little boy and yet i care so much about how he's doing.

Anyway: here are some pictures from today!

Cute little Noah.

Our group that went to support Noah. Cyle my Nephew also showed up after this picture!

cute lex and Nick eating spaghetti!

Choi's face painting

My face paint

Kohyn's face paint

Alexei's face paint

Braxton and Alexei waiting for the Raffle to start.

I cant help but be so thankful for having such a healthy family. Something like this really makes you realize how great your life really is. Sometimes life seems so hard, but its nothing compared to what little Noah has to go through.

I love you little Noah and keep fighting!

Ladies Craft Night!

Tonight i hosted "Ladies Craft Night" for the first time... and i think it turned out great! everyone had such a great time! First we started off with some home made mac and cheese made by my sweet husband! it was delish. everyone made such yummy dishes. especially my Sister in Law Aloha! She made the BEST cream cheese desert... i wish i got a picture of it! after we ate we started crafting! We made 3 different crafts. A wood snow man, a Thanksgiving and Christmas wood decoration and Advent calendars! They all turned out so cute!

My cute Sister in Law, Aloha.

Emily with her cute crafts!

Madison and Malisa loved making the Advent Calendars! it was a good idea to have a craft that those two could do so that they could participate!

The cute Advent Calendars!

The Snowmen

Christmas blocks.

Thanksgiving on the other side of the blocks!

I am so grateful to have such wonderful ladies in my family. It was nice to get away and chat with just the girls! We will have another one in January! i guess i better start planning ;)

Boy, was it a hassle to get all this stuff planned, cut all the wood, stain the wood, cut vinyl, and shop for all the stuff. But in the end it was totally worth it...

I love the fact that families are forever because that truly is all that matters :)

Family Pictures.

We got our family pictures taken yesterday for our christmas cards! They turned out so cute! my favorite one is my blog header but this one is good too :)

It was mega freezing outside so we just snapped a few and left! so lucky we got some good ones!

[check out Alexei and Nicks smile..... exactly the same :)]

i am thankful for my little family.

Ladies Craft Night Crafts!

This Saturday all the Ladies on my side of the family are gettin together to do these projects that I came up with off of the one and only Pinterest! :)

one side

the other side.

I'm super excited! there's also a darling advent calendar that my little sisters will be making :)

More pics after the get together!

The Calls and Beaver Hockey

Last friday [11/11/11] was the first Beaver Hockey game of the season! The boys played the Jays [the team Nick won the championship with last season] so they're a pretty dang good team! It was a super good game. All of the boys were rusty and we lost 2-4. The beavers only have a few of the same players as last season and i think we will have a much better season this time around!

Let me just say that my Husband is an amazing goalie.... :) i'm proud to be his wife.

The Call's came down from Boise for Sami & Amber's birthday! My uncle Ben and aunt Glinda's family are some of my favorite people to be around. We always have such a good time together. Saturday night we had a birthday party for them! everyone brought pizza and i made some cupcakes for them!

These sprinkles are soo good. They're from Holland and they're so yummy!

We had such a great time with the Call's and I hope Nick and i can head up there and hang out soon! Alexei needs to meet her Grandma and Grandpa Call!

Nick started his new job today! and he LOVES IT! he had so many good things to say about it today! for example... a business iPhone in December, $7 cases of bottled mountain dew [or any pepsi product] and $.50 per mile he drives :)

He is loving it! tomorrow he has to be to work at 5 a.m. and he gets to be home by 2 to hang out with Alexei and I.....

I love him. He's the best husband in the world. He works so hard so Alexei and i can play together all day. I'm sooo happy he's finally found a job that he loves and is excited for everyday.

I'm so blessed.

Disney on ice

Thursday November 10th Nick and I took Alexei to Disney on ice! it was such a fun night. Mandi and Aaron also took Steven. We thought the kids would get pretty distracted and not really care for it, but they loved it. Alexei squeeled during the whole thing and she loved all of the lights!

Before we went there we went to California pizza kitchen!

[i guess Nick didnt get the memo to smile :)]

Alexei loves to sit in a high chair now! she likes to practice picking things up off of the table! she's getting so big!

After dinner we headed across the street to the Energy Solutions Arena for the show! This was one of the best Disney on ice shows ive been to! they started with Alice in wonderland and then Peter pan, Aladin, Lion King, Tangled, and princess and the frog.... of course im sure im forgetting one! and my favorite was at the end all of the princesses came out with their princes and danced to someday my prince will come!

Nick picked up these cool masks at the show! we also have a pumba one :)

I have lots to blog about still... 1st beaver hockey game, and the Call's coming into town!

i hope everyone had as great of a weekend as we did!

[Nick starts his new job tomorrow! Yay!]

Halloween!

We had such a fun halloween! i love this time of year.

Alexei had such a fun 1st Halloween!

On Halloween our little family went to Paces for 50 cent corn dogs, $1.00 hamburgers and $1.00 rainbow floats. This is little Lex trying a piece of fry. :)

Nick took Alexei trick or treating around the block. She loved it.

This was what Alexei wore Halloween day:) such a little cutie!

On sunday we had a family dinner at my moms house. Nick made Ti curry and there were a few other soups there that were GREAT. we carved pumpkins...Nick had the bright idea to do an upside down jack o lantern..... pretty creative right? haha

Saturday night we went to the trunk or treat with my parents ward. Alexei loved it and there were so many people commenting on how cute she was!

She was pretty worn out after the trunk or treat.

Mike and Lauren Clemmer had a fun Halloween party! we loved it! sadly i only got this picture but they had lots of fun games planned!

Alexei and I at the party.

Nick and I got to go to Tuccanos friday before the party! i had a free dinner to use up so we managed to get there ;)

This little tail gets me everytime. shes such a cute baby.

Alexei loves little tastes of chocolate and she even chewed through a snickers wrapper and got it opened.... we noticed when she looked up with Chocolate all over her face. too cute

Happy November everyone!