Ben and Alyssa: 2011

12.14.2011

Long time No See...and a little Thanksgiving feast

I had the opportunity a few weeks ago to meet up with an old friend of mine.

We were the best of friends growing up and in 7th grade she and her family moved far away.

It seriously was the most tragic time of my life

( I still remember being so scared to enter Junior High without her).

We have been able to keep in touch over the years, and a few weeks ago was another amazing short, but very sweet visit!

Briana is such a doll, the nicest, sweetest, most thoughtful person you will ever meet,

the salt of the earth kinda girl :)

It was soo awesome to see her and her adorable, sweet little baby bump!

Thanks so much for coming to visit Bri and Aubrey (her older sister), it was truly a JOY to see you guys!!

So fun to catch up on old times and to see your beautiful faces :)

Loves always!!

Thanksgiving was another great visit with the Hessings :)

We got all together over at Ben's uncle and aunts house for a grand, incredibly filling feast!

Love my little handsome devil!!

Cheer!! to another happy, safe, yummy Thanksgiving!

12.03.2011

Thanksgiving crafts and a nap with my sweet boy...

A few weeks ago my mom sent our family a box full of
fun treats,
yummy snacks,
and some crafty thanksgiving projects to do with Bry.

So feeling in the holiday spirit, with the snow falling and Christmas movies all over the TV
I decided to get cracking on our crafts.

Bry had so much fun pulling the stickers off the pages, putting them on his shirt, the table, my shirt, etc and drawing beautiful swirls around all the pumpkin shaped paper.

I enjoyed watching him draw, laugh and helped a little with writing things we were thankful for.

We also put together a family tree (since we are both so thankful for them).

It was so fun watching Bry enjoy coloring.
As he has gotten older he has really gained a greater desire to be artsy and any artistic ability Bryson has is completely from his Dad :)

After drawing our little hearts out, we cuddled up on the couch with lots of blankies and watched Bedtime Stories. And it must have been a good one, because when Ben got home from class he found us like this.

I love taking naps with my little bud, he's such a good little cuddler :)

11.29.2011

Laundry days are better with Bryson (11/21)

This weekend was full of relaxing, lots of movie watching, eating ice cream, yummy popcorn & the creamiest hot coco, spending time with good friends, lots of college football upsets (good for BSU ;) and LOTS of laundry doing (getting ready for our Thanksgiving adventure to Boise)!

Ben was folding laundry ( I was off at the testing center taking a test) on our bed when he heard a funny noise in the laundry room.

He went in to make sure everything was okay and this is what he found!

Bryson never ceases to amaze me.

He pulled the laundry basket over to the opened dryer door and climbed right in!

He is so funny, I can't wait to show him these when he's older, maybe I'll wait until the day comes when he complains about helping me with the laundry, and I'll whip this picture right out and proceed with

"well look how motivated, passionate and helpful you were when u were one. You were so excited about doing laundry, you climbed into the dryer!"

Not sure it will work (help motivate him)

but it sure will put a smile on my face and a sweet flutter in my heart :)

I love you Bry guy and I will cherish every moment with you!!! especially the ones of you wanting to help me with chores :) HA

11.15.2011

Our visit with Kersie!!

One of my very dearest friends came to visit a few weekends ago.

She just returned from her LDS mission in New York City!!

She was a fabulous sister missionary!

It was soooo wonderful to see her again AND for her to meet Bry-guy for the first time ;)
They bonded and I LOVED it!!

First stop...checked out the remodeled campus-

sooo different from when we were freshman,

soo good, but kinda sad too!

Freshens sure was refreshing :)

Then we headed to our old freshman dorms (where we met).

Good 'ole Lamprecht Hall

Her old dorm #414

and mine #417...

(The girls inside were kind of looking at us weird so we knocked on the door to tell them we were just walking down memory lane, not trying to be creepers) HA!

Then we headed off to Sammy's for some

scrumptious burgers,

crispy onions rings, fries and

aMazingly good pie shakes!

Glow-in-the-dark mini golf FHE came next.

....and Kersie's brother was able to join!

Then we headed to indulge in some yummy frozen yogurt...

mmmmmm :)

(Bry was getting a little sleepy, but Kers looks Beautiful!!)

Our frozen treats certainly satisfied our sweet tooth!

I loved catching up and reminiscing about all the craZy fun times we had as roomies!

I love you Kers and can NOT wait to visit with you again soon!!

Thanks sooo much for visiting!! ♥

HaLlowEen cElebRatiOn!!

This year we had our annual Halloween party with friends and family!

We had a blast cooking/baking up a storm, decorating like crazzzzy and enjoying good company :)

My brother Chris and his wife Laiz came up with their two beautiful kids- Jacob and Bella and my younger sister Mary tagged along!

It was so wonderful to see them all and we sure had a pArTy!

We carved pumpkins and had yummy pizza the first night!

(Mary's pumpkin, Ben's pumpkin and Chris's family portrait pumpkin ;)

And then began the decorating...

It looked wayyy better in person-

it was hard for me to get a good shot with all the glow-in-the dark stuff

and festive Halloween lights.

LOTS and LOTs of spider webbing around the walls and ceiling-

vEry SpOoky!!

Streamers, glowing lanterns, a happy Halloween sign,

glow-in-the dark spider webs and creepy crawling spiders

Such a sweet little butterfly with her daddy!

Our scaryyy lion!

We were the lion, the witch, the scare crow and the tin women :)

The three little cousins, so sweet ;)

Our little, little giraffe last year....

and our not-so-little-anymore lion!

Hunter and Kana...love their customs!!

A bunch of our friends at the party!

The whole gang!

Not looking..but still so precious!

I just love seeing Bryson interact with his sweet cousins!

After our Halloween at home, we headed to the Hessings for another weekend of Halloween fun! We went truck-or-treating, carved pumpkins with the whole gang, made delicous homemade potato donuts and watched scary movies- it was a blast!