Back to the Grind!

    This week was back to the norm and it was pretty nice.  I found myself grateful for all the little things each day!

    Sunday evening we had dinner at Sandy's house with the whole fam.  It was fun but I was pretty jet-lagged and out of it from my trip.  We left pretty early so I could hit the sack!

    Monday was my first day back to work.  I was at Dr. Sands office.  It was so nice having a chair, a light and an ultrasonic.  The day was a breeze.  We are SOOO lucky here in America!  I went to the gym after work.  I missed working out the week before sooo bad and it felt good to be back in my routine.  We went to dinner at Sandy's again and I worked on finishing my previous blog and scrapbook for the trip!

    Tuesday I worked at Dr. Dastrup's and then went to the gym.  Blake and I went to Costco when I got home and exchanged my new camera.  I liked it but hated the touch screen, so we got a new one and I'm seriously obsessed with it, the pics it takes are to die for!!!  We had dinner at Sandy's and then went to my parents house.  They were watching Boston and Easton so we stayed and played a while.  Little Easton is in love with Blake and it is so stinkin cute!

    Wednesday I worked at Dr. Johansen's and then went to the gym.  I messed around with my new camera that night to figure out how everything worked.  We grabbed some rio for dinner and then went to Pres and Sandy's to watch the X Factor.

    Thursday morning I worked at Dr. Dastrup's and then went to the gym.  I went home and picked up Blake and we met my mom for dinner at Little America for my fav split pea soup......mmmm it had been a while since I last had it and it totally hit the spot!  Way later that evening I met up with some cute girls from my neighborhood.  We all went to IHop and then to see Breaking Dawn (the new Twilight movie).  I LOVED it!  Thankfully I sat by Julie who shared an equal appreciation and so we were twitter-patted together the entire movie hoping it would never end haha!  We didn't get home until 3 but what a fun group of ladies, it was a great night!

   Friday morning I was lucky because all the other ladies had kiddos waiting for them at home, who would be waking up in a few short hours.  I got to sleep in and have a lazy day!  Once I finally woke up I went running outside.  I bundled up big time and had a lot of fun!  I met Whit, Kesh and the kids for lunch at Rubios.  Whit and I ran to Costco and then I took Sadie for a few hours while she went to a Dr. appt.  I ran a ton of errands and Sadie was a sweetheart for me!  She was out cold before we got back to my house.  After Whit picked her up, Blake and I headed off to meet up with Lisa and Logan.  I miss seeing Lisa everyday soooo bad, so I really really look forward to our date nights.  The minute we get together it's like nothing has changed and we're still the crazy college girls going a million MPH!  We had dinner at Cafe Rio and even more importantly some great chats.  After dinner we headed off to Doug's Shoot 'N' Sports to shoot guns.

Charlie's Angels

He's a real good shooter

Helping me

Almost as good....

It was sooo loud but we had a great time.  We had some target contests and Lisa and I were for sure the best.........if we're talking about trying to not hit the target haha!  We went to Starbucks after for steamers and cider.  Snow started really coming down so Lisa and Logan hit the road a bit early to try and get home before it got too bad.  It was such a great night and I'm sooo grateful for my best friend!

    Yesterday morning I went to the gym early and then got all ready for family pictures later that day.  I went to Dr. Sands office because every Thanksgiving he buys a bunch of turkeys and his staff delivers them to patients.  What a fun tradition!  The patients were so surprised and excited!  He even gave each of us a turkey for helping out.  How I got so lucky to have such wonderful bosses I will never know!  I dropped my turkey off at my parents and went to pick up Pres.  We met Preston and Blake for lunch at The Original Pancake House.  They had gone duck hunting at 5 am and were just getting back.  Our food was delicious!  Blake and I took a power nap when we got home and then headed off to take family pictures.  We took them at one of Pop's friend's houses.  The weather was perfect and the snow looked gorgeous for the pics.  I didn't get any of the big family pictures on my camera but as soon as I get some I will post them.  I did get these little family shots though.....

The Laitinens

 The Highams

 Nana and Pop with the grandkids

 Pres and Sandy aka Nana and Pop

 More of the Laitinens

 Preston and Jamyn

 Me and the Hubband

 More of the Highams

 The Ladies

 Scott and Lindz

The boys

The love each other so much haha

We went back to Pres and Sandy's after so Blake could watch the U game.  We were tending Nicole and Mikko's kids that night.

 Izzy loves purses

 Parker is gettting so big and can hold his bottle all by himself!

After the game we took them all ice skating.  

Merdi was soooo excited.  Little Mikko plays hockey and so he is a great skater and can go all by himself.  Blake attempted taking both girls at once, but quickly learned that was a bad idea.

 Little Mikko came to the rescue until Blake could get one of the girls off the ice

 Safe at last

We took turns taking Merdi on one loop and then Izzy while the other one stood out holding Parker.

 Izzy was pretty good at walking on her skates....until we got on the ice haha

It was exhausting, but the kids were having sooo much fun and so were we!  Little Mikko walked around with Merdi and helped her, he is the best big brother!

By the end Merdi could go all by herself!  They were sad to leave and made us promise to bring them back again soon!

We went to the food court at Fashion Place Mall so everyone could eat what they wanted.  We left Izzy's binkey in the car and she was devastated haha!  Everyone kept staring at us and our huge Mormon family haha it was awesome!  We went home after and changed into jammies.  Poor Parker finally got his dinner.  As you can see he is a pretty tough baby and hardly ever smiles........

 We love our nieces and nephews so much, we are the luckiest!