Are you Blue or are you Red?...

..Todd is "blue" and I'm "crimson red" and I'm not talking about the personality test. I'm talking about the age old rivalry between BYU and Utah Utes (p.s...go Utes!). As always, my family AGAIN got together, this time at my brother's house, to watch the rivalry game held in Provo. And poor Todd, he's the lone BYU fan among us "Utes." But he's a trouper and will stand by his team through thick and thin and that's how the game seemed to be. Well in the end (sadly), BYU won with a last minute (literally speaking) touchdown. But that's o.k., at least I didn't have to go home with a crabby husband....Regardless, next year's game is in Salt Lake and the Utes better win!

So tell me, are you Blue or are you Red?

I am glad for many things....

...anyone know that Primary song? Just learned it last Sunday. Well Thanksgiving was just great! Todd was wonderful to make breakfast for all of us, with a little help from Ashlyn.

And then we packed up the green bean casserole and cranberry-pear chutney and headed off to my parents for a wonderful and very bountiful Thanksgiving dinner. My favorite part is always the bonding we do as a family after such a big meal. The kiddies play, the guys have a hayday with the Wii and XBox 360..we even got the kiddies to play some bowliing on the wii. My cousin Devan would say "Here comes Devan" every time he would throw the bowling bowl down the stretch - too cute!!



The kiddies also had a great time playing "Ring Around The Rosies" with "Uncle Todd" and then hammered on the piano singing Christmas Songs or whatever came into their little minds.




All in all, Thanksgiving was great and I truly am glad for many, many things. We have been given so much and we hope that we as a family will remember all the tender mercies the Lord has shown us.

Shannon Hatch's Bridal Shower

Well a couple of weeks ago, I had quite a surprise when a very dear friend of mine emailed me that I had not heard from in awhile. I got to know Shannon when I was RS Pres in the student ward she was a part of. It was so great to go to her shower and see other "35th Warders" and to remember all the crazy stuff we did. That was an amazing ward and we had such a great group of friends. We could have talked all night about all of the things we did together. Well, congrats Shannon and can't wait to go to your reception!!

(L to R) Robyn (Hostess), Haas with her 2 kids (Lucy, Jade), Rui, Shannon (bride to be), Sherlyn, Myself with my 2 kids.

Such a busy weekend, it was...

Ashlyn and her friend McKenna cooking

I'm so tired. It was a pretty busy weekend...which is pretty abnormal in the Todd and Hyo household. We like our weekends to be low key where we just hang out and take it easy. It all started last Friday. We had our friend's daughter, McKenna, over for a playdate while her mom manned a booth at the Christmas Gift Show held at the Southtowne expo. Ashlyn had so much fun with her. It was great! Later that afternoon, I packed the kids up and headed to the Gift show to meet up with her mom, Marcella, and to just walk around and see what was there. I really thought that I could handle a 6 month old in a bjorn and keep up with 2 girls. Right...McKenna had all the energy in the world and would be running ahead of me while my daughter (who refused to take a nap that day) was DRAGGING her feet 10 feet behind me and all the while she would say "I'm not tired." Oh dear. Well, we finally made it home from the show just in time to get dinner ready.

When Todd came home, I told him that I wanted to go back to the show with my SILs (Sister-in-Laws) the following morning since Marcella would be able to get us all in for free (gotta love that!..thanks Marcella). To my surprise Todd actually wanted to come along (I was planning on taking the kiddies with me so that I can give him some R&R). So off we all went Saturday morning to the Expo center to meet up with Alice, her son Devin and my other SIL Stephanie. It was fun and tiring at the same time. THEN, the DirectTV guy came that afternoon and he didn't leave until 7-ish so Todd stayed home with him while I again packed the kiddies up and headed off to my mom's for a family dinner. Todd later told me what a horrible experience it was to get DirectTV installed downstairs...poor honey...oh, and all the while, we had Melanie (my SIL on Todd's side of the fam) and the kids come for the weekend from WY.

Then on Sunday, we had the Primary Program (I'm the 2nd Counselor). That's always a little stressful but the children were amazing and I was very proud that my daughter of 2 years knew all of the songs to the program - way to go Ashlyn!!..oh..and did I mention that my kids are sick too, especially Ethan-poor dude, he's so miserable. So that's my story. As I'm writing all this, I'm wondering if I'm just being a whimp but really, the weekend was crazy. It was just nonstop. Todd did give me a break Sunday after dinner so that I could take a little nap - thanks honeybuns (hee, hee!!). So that's my story. I'm sure you all probably had a great weekend full of...funn-ness?!?! I guess at the end of the day, it's nice to know that moms are needed everywhere and that our job covers just about every aspect of our kiddies/family's life. I must agree with my SIL Melanie when she says that Heavenly Father has a great appreciation for Mothers. I really needed to hear that.

Pics of Ashlyn and Kyle (sorry Elise and Dallin that I didn't get you in the pics)

Trick or Treat!!

Well this year, we invited my brothers and their fam to go trick or treating with us and the other kiddies in our playgroup. It was fun!! I got Ethan a little something to wear but it got too cold too fast and so he just ended up being bundled up. Ashlyn had a great time going up and knocking on the door with her cousin Devan (dressed as a pirate). But there were a few times when the decorations were all to real and Ashlyn would NOT go anywhere near the door, let alone the house. Thank goodness for a dad that was willing to carry her to the door so that he can have some candy - thanks honey! Afterwards, we went to grandpa and Myrna's home to showoff the costume and to trick or treat :) THEN went to my parents to trick or treat and have pizza. The whole thing was fun but so exhausting. I was totally feeing it today..actually, all of us were feeling it today. Now onto Thanksgiving and Christmas...

The costume is actually a 4T..so she gets to wear it for a couple more years!

Dad carrying Ashlyn because she's scared


Ethan with Aunt Steph