Oh, Mexico...

We look forward to our vacation to Mexico every year. We haven't had the opportunity to go in a while so we were especially excited this year. It was also Scout's first time at the beach! For this trip we bought our first tent and a cargo carrier for the roof of our van. The drive down went... well (it's not a family vacation until someone pukes, right?). As soon as we arrived, Rufus met a new friend, Audrey, and they were inseparable! Good thing we camped near them or I don't think we would've seen him the entire time. As usual, we were beach bums for the four days we were there. Rufus, Albert and friends went to an estuary where they caught a blue crab and a bunch of little pink crabs. We also had fun building a sand castle, which I didn't get a picture of fast enough! Scout did not like the texture of the sand. Needless to say she played on a towel while on the beach; but she did manage to eat her first handful of sand, YUCK! We also unexpectedly met up with our friends the Winter's while we were there! Good times! After we had all the mangos, potato tacos, and burritos we could eat it was time to go... but we know we have many more memories to make the next time.

Our Family 2010

We spent this Thanksgiving with the Knudsen Family. Steve & Amiee were able to come and visit for a couple days so we took the opportunity to have a family picture taken while they were here.

Rufus (3-years-old) & Scout (6-months-old)

Time-Out for Sisters

Each year all of the Knudsen sisters (and sister-in-laws) get together for a Girls Weekend. We all wanted to go to Time-Out for Women since it came to Phoenix this year, but the price tag was a little steep. So we had our own Tim-Out for Sisters! We ate, shopped, and crafted! What more could a woman want? Oh... yeah, there was chocolate too!

Our Thanksgiving Wreaths (just clip on what you're thankful for!)

Pomp and Circumstance

YEAH!!! He finally made it! Really... he finished his MBA 6 months ago, but it didn't seem like is was over until he walked across that stage. His brother, Andrew, also graduated with his BA the same day. So it was a big family affair!!! Congrats boys!

Halloween Pumpkins

This year was a fun Halloween! Rufus really got into the spirit of it all and even had a preference of what he wanted to be. I tried to talk up being a pirate, or a knight, or a ghost... but all he wanted to be was a pumpkin. Which really worked out perfect because I already had a hand-me-down pumpkin costume for Scout. So, I made a trip to JoAnn's Fabrics, bought a yard of orange fleece, some ribbon, and felt and VOILA! A PUMPKIN! Halloween night we walked to our ward building where they were having a Trunk-or-Treat. Most of the cars had spooky decorations and they had blocked off a section of the parking lot with bails of hay and a movie projector for the kids to watch Michael Jackson's "Thriller". There was even hot chocolate, homemade root beer, popcorn balls, and hotdogs! Needless to say, we had a blast!

Grandma's Halloween Party

A few weeks before Halloween, Grandma Knudsen had a Halloween party at her house for all the grandkids. Truthfully, I thought it was going to be lame (sorry Mom...), but it was so much fun! The kids dug in Grandma's dress-up box to make their costumes, Aunt Dawn, Chelsi, and I painted faces, and kids walked down the run way for a costume fashion show!

Rufus didn't really want to dress-up, but after he saw all the other kids getting into it he decided to join in and be a cowboy like his favorite cousin Wyatt. Then Aunt Jenn had made cookies for the kids to decorate with frosting and candy. In the meantime, Uncle Jeff, Aunt Trisha, Michael (Jeff's old mission companion), Uncle Andrew, and a few others decorated the bedroom doors in preparation for the trick-or-treaters.

After the the cookies we decorated and eaten, Grandma gave each child their own bag and the kids took turns trick-or-treating to each of the bedroom doors. I think the adult had just as much fun scaring the kids as the kids did trick-or-treating!

NASCAR

Rufus loves anything to do with cars. In fact our neighbor across the street, Paul (who's an electrician by trade), built Rufus a miniature electric car that is powered by a car battery. Anyway, while we were grabbing a bite to eat one afternoon we saw a Dale Jr.'s trailer drive by and I couldn't resist the photo opportunity. We scarfed the rest of our lunch, made a dash for the car, and chased it down in a Safeway parking lot. Rufus was so excited he could hardly stand still for the picture. Oh... and come to find out Dale Jr. is Paul's favorite driver.