We're headin' out!

We leave this afternoon at 5:30 headed for Utah to spend Thanksgiving with Mason's family. Yay!! Here are some reasons I'm excited for this Thanksgiving weekend:

• I'm so excited to see those mountains. They are just so beautiful.
• Food, food, FOOD!! The Lefler's cook some of the best meals I've ever had in my life. This Thanksgiving there are going to be like 5 families getting together all having their specialities! Yum, YUM, FAT!
• Cousins. Older cousins means entertainment for Boonie - YAY FOR MOM!
• Coats and snuggling - there is a snow shower expected on Friday!!
• Boone gets spoiled by Nana and Poppa. Who doesn't love their child being spoiled.

What I'm not looking forward to:

• The 1 1/2 hour (I know it's not that long) plane ride with a squirmy 1 year old who doesn't like to be contained.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! I hope it's a great one!!!

Darci's 1 Year Old Birthday

I stole this post from Stacey. She said it so well and had the pictures already up. Thank you Stacey:

On Saturday, Darci got to celebrate her birthday all over again! Kyle's family came over pizza and a party.

Darci enjoyed opening more presents. She's getting better... by Christmas she'll have it down! And thank you, everyone, for the gifts!

After presents, Grandma took Boone and Darci for a ride!

Cousins at the park. Guess which one loves the slide?

Grandma Leybas and Darci!

Our little family. Could have been a good picture, Kyle...

Aunt Allison and Darci!

After the park we headed back in for cupcakes and ice cream. Here is Darci playing with fire. Boone is jealous.

Two cupcakes in four days? It's a good week.

Boone let us know when it was time to go. Happy birthday again, Miss Darci!

The Cut!

We did it. We finally cut Boone's hair. After much deliberation and contemplation we decided that the occasional rats nest that developed on the back of his head, the bouncing golden curls, and the strings in his eyes were just too much.

People kept telling me not to cut his hair because once you cut off the baby curls they never grow back. And I am SO in love with those curls. I cried. A lot. I also saved some of the curls for his baby book.

Here is Samson before he lost his 'cuteness' strength:

Yes Mason and I braved it, and I think we did a pretty good job!!

During:

I didn't take any right after and I wish I would have. We did it two weeks ago (and I took these pictures today) and it has already gotten a bit longer. When we first cut it we both decided that his cuteness factor had gone down...

But it's already starting to curl again and I couldn't be happier about that! Mason has curly hair, so we are hoping Boonie gets lucky (and I think he will)! So no worries, he's cute again. :)

Now he REALLY looks like a little boy. The only thing baby about him are his two bottom teeth. Once those other teeth grow in he won't look like a baby at all anymore. :( Do I dare mention that there are two new teeth poking through that I just discovered this morning??

*sigh*

My 10 Year High School Reunion

*Just so you know... we are not really moving to Iowa. I was totally joking.*

Saturday night was my ten year high school reunion at Eva's in Casa Grande. It's so funny how nervous and worked up people get over their ten year reunion. I know people who were doing diets and having major makeovers the night before the event. Some people didn't end up going because they were too worried about it. I kept my sanity by not REALLY thinking about it until the drive over. And then as I was having a heart attack and wanting to back out, I just kept telling myself, "Everyone else is feeling the same way."

And I was right.

We all ended up having SUCH a good time. All the same old clicks remained, but everyone was nice to each other! We had some good laughs at good memories. I feel like I have changed so much since high school so I was excited to go and be myself, whereas in high school I had no idea who I was (but who really does) and was so consumed in comparing myself to others that I was WAY to high strung. So Friday night, I talked to my old friends and felt ten pounds of expectations and not feeling good enough fall off my shoulders that that poor little 18 year old girl felt ten years ago!

I'm so glad I went. I only wish I could have had this much fun with everyone back then! But I guess that's what growing up is all about, right?!

My best friends Lindsey Peecook (Sasser) and Tanya Miller (Gardner):

Here we are back on our graduation day:

Jennifer Goettsch (Reinhart), Jaclyn Sarnowski, Katherine Kramer (Bloome) - The four of us (minus Jill Dugan) were the BEST of friends in 5th and 6th grade. We did EVERYTHING together!! We call ourselves the Ironwood Crew.

Some old Blue Notes (our show choir group): Tanya, Jennifer Ellis, Nicole Cramp (Kent)

Mason was the photographer. What a good hubby.

Amber Kennedy, Lindsey, Josh Taylor, Tanya, me, Chesney Silgouro

And we danced!! Some of us were laughing at ourselves for being the mommy group out there on the dance floor! It had been WAY too long!!

Here is Lindsey doing the running man. This picture was too good to leave out!

What a great night!!

We're moving to...

IOWA!!

Because and only because if you look closely at this map you will see that Mason City and Allison, IA are neighboring cities (only 50 miles apart!!).... so clearly this is where we belong.

I guess it was meant to be. That's how I spend my Monday night. Finding out useful information as such.

Football Season is over (well atleast middle school)!

Mason had his last game last Thursday. I was planning on going but we ended up missing it. So I missed out on the chance of getting good photos. This was from a game a couple of weeks previous.

Another successful season!!

Boonie Land

It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL this morning!! We woke up to a chilly 59 degrees. Boonie just loves being outside so I put on his jacket for the first time and out we went! I love this little ham.

We just planted our winter grass a week ago and they have barely started popping out. Boonie is just in 7th heaven running all over the place. He's discovered a whole new world he never knew existed off the porch!!

This picture just cracks me up:

Mason calls it 'Boonie Land.' Boonie Land is officially open for business.

Welcome Fall. I sure do love you.

Pumpkins

We ended up just having a relaxing Halloween night. We went trick or treating at a couple of neighbor's houses and then went and visited my Grandma. I felt like we had a great Halloween this year with all the fun things we got to do!

Here are our pumpkins. Mason's, Boone's, and mine:

Happy Halloween!