Happy Thanksgiving, 2010!

Thursday, November 25th--We celebrated Thanksgiving at our house this year. Much of Nate's family came over and we all seemed to have a great time. We had a great spread of food, Black Friday ads and some great time visiting.

Rock the Walk Awards & Recognition Night

Wednesday, November 10th--Tonight was an AWESOME night! We attended the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes Awards & Recognition Night. We had some great food and the awards portion was pretty great. I was hoping our team would win something.....we won 3! Our first award was for making it to the "Gold Level" in fundraising--we made $3,511.55. We were only 1 level away from the top honor of "Platinum Level" (next year!). The next award was the "Hit the Ground Running" trophy. This trophy was for making the most money out of all the new teams that registered this year. So awesome and so unexpected! And our last trophy was 2nd place for team t-shirt design. I had hoped on this one because so much of the JDRF staff commented on our shirts. There were two individual awards for myself and next years team co-captain, Mackenzie, for getting donations in the $500-$999 range. We received certificates for that. At the end, the JDRF staff showed us a video of moments captured during the actual walk. We could not believe how many times they had video taped members of our team! It was so awesome!

I am so proud of our team--I will say it over and over again. What an amazing experience this has been! I could not be more happy---other than if we could have made more money....but there is always next year! And the theme next year is "Safari to Cure Diabetes". Sounds like we could have some real fun with that theme!

Great job, again, Team A1C/DC! I couldn't have done it without all your help and support!

Welcome to the Family Baby Cora!

Monday, November 8th--Nate's brother, Dustin, and his wife, Crystal, welcomed baby #2 this morning. Cora Lynn Armstrong was born around 11:30 am and weighed almost 8 pounds (sorry, I can't remember specifics!). According to mom, her delivery was not too bad--especially with an epiderral in place! Cora is not only welcomed by her parents but her big sister, Danika, who will celebrate her 2nd birthday on the 13th. In my opinion, Cora, resembles her dad quite a bit. I called her Dustins little mini-me! Dustin and Crystal like to torture us all by waiting to find out the sex of the baby when the baby is born. There were plenty of guesses and most of them seemed to be a girl. We went to visit mom, dad and baby at the U of U Hospital. We took Elise but left Brady at my sisters house--he's on the tail-end of a cold. Elise loved holding baby Cora. Oh, how I wish we could give her a little sister or brother! Maybe someday.....I'm not giving up hope yet.

This makes 11 grandchildren for Nate's parents. At 10 we were even, 5 boys, 5 girls. Now the girls rock! Welcome to this crazy Armstrong family, Cora!

Elise's Talent Show

Friday, November 5th--Elise attends a girls church group twice a month called Achievement Days. The girls range in age from 8-11. They planned their annual talent show and dinner--this is Elise's first. Every girl was asked to pick a talent and Elise chose to hula-hoop. She did such an awesome job! She did a little routine to a song called "Spinnin' Around"--it's from a Disney CD. She was pretty amazing. I couldn't help but get teary-eyed. She does some pretty awesome "tricks" with her hula-hoop. Ever since she got it for her birthday a few years back she has practiced and figured everything out on her own. I've never been able to get the hang of hula-hooping so it just goes to show how amazing natural talent is. Great job Elise! We're so proud of you!

Happy Halloween!

Saturday, October 30th--With October 31st falling on Sunday, we're so happy our community does Halloween on Saturday instead. The night before, we sent Elise and Brady to my sisters house for an over-nighter. They had a great time! She took them to the zoo on Saturday where they could trick or treat and see all the animals. Nate and I enjoyed some alone time. We went to lunch and then did some unintentional Christmas shopping--loved it! We got to my sisters house, packed the kids up and brought my niece, Samantha, along as well. She wanted to trick or treat in our neighborhood, plus show off her fancy new costume.

Our drive home was rainy. I kept praying we wouldn't have to deal with rain for trick or treating but we did get some. Luckily the downpour ended shortly before it all began--phew! Nate took the kids out while I stayed back to pass out candy. They stayed out for about an hour and got plenty of candy. We had our stock of big candy bars ready to go---well, the first few didn't get them because I was still getting them out but we also had a bowl of little candy. I bought the same amount we had last year, thinking it would be more than enough. Well.....it was too much! We had almost half of our candy left! I think people stayed inside this year due to the weather. Bummer! Growing up in Washington, we had plenty of rainy Halloween's and it didn't bother us a bit--we just brought umbrellas. Oh well, at least candy lasts a long time!

At the end of the night, Samantha and I realized we hadn't eaten dinner and we were hungry! So we ventured out to Iceberg to get some fattening food and a shake. Mmmmmmm! It was a great night, even with the not-so-great weather!

Class Halloween Parties!

Friday, October 29th--I dropped the morning carpool kids off and then headed to the school gym for the costume parade. Luckily I got there early enough to get the seat I wanted and my friend, Kathy was already there saving seats--bonus! We waited for a while but had fun visiting. I love the costume parades! I remember them as a kid, myself.

I pulled double duty today by volunteering to help out in both Brady and Elise's class Halloween parties. I didn't mind a bit. I've always enjoyed the class holiday parties. Luckily, Elise's party was first and ended shortly before Bradys began. Next year, I won't be so lucky. With Brady being in school full time, their class parties will start and end at the same time so I'll have to alternate, I suppose.

Elise's class was CHAOTIC! The kids were quite hyper! We decided to do 5 stations--a few games, crafts and decorating a sugar cookie. The kids really seemed to have lots of fun. As the class party was ending I noticed Mrs. Spencer and Mrs. Mair was having a hard time calming the kids down. I left to head to Brady's class so I'm not sure that quite happened. Sorry!

Brady's class was much more tame. We planned 4 stations--2 games and 2 crafts. For both classes I have a Halloween Bingo game called "GHOST" I made when Elise was in her 1st year of preschool. It's held up well and is used every year, whether it's by me or someone else borrows it. Who would of thought it would last so long!? When we were done with stations the kids got a donut and apple juice--I'm sure the highlight! Luckily there was plenty for the moms too!

Later in the evening, we had an adult Halloween party with neighbor friends. It was a blast! Great food, great company, the funniest game ever (Things) and so much more! What a fabulous end to such a great day, crazy busy but so much fun!