Ava

Why yes....yes I do know I'm cute!

This is the closest I got to getting her to hold still so I could take her picture, and this is only because Chloe yoinked her peanut butter sandwich when she tripped, and she was upset!

Who me???

So cute!

Jocelyn

Jocelyn is now 4 1/2, she is growing up so fast! Miranda had spent a few hours doing her hair, and it looked so cute that we had to take a picture. Jocelyn is so pretty!

Here is the hair from the back...
...and here is the hair upside down!

Happy Anniversary Babe!

It's already been a year?? Time goes by so fast! My sweet husband decided to take me to my favorite restaurant for dinner for our anniversary. Fortunately for us, that restaurant is not local, so we jumped on an airplane and headed for Long Beach California.

Taco Surf....here we come!

Here I am, snuggled up next to the tiki, waiting for my dinner to arrive at Taco Surf.

Here's my sweet hubby at Taco Surf, patiently waiting with his cheesy grin, for his dinner to show up.
Taco Surf has the greatest interior design!
But it doesn't even compare to the chips and salsa.....AMAZING!!
This is where we decided we want to live. Anyone have a few million bucks they want to give us? These houses are on PCH, and I have always loved them. It doesn't hurt to dream, right?
The day after our anniversary, was Ricks birthday. I wanted to get him some really great seafood while we were on our vacation, so Kevin and Derrick recommended this place to us. Maximum occupancy was 44 people, and we had to wait for about 45 minutes to get a seat. From what I hear, that's not a bad wait time, as Kevin and Derrick waited for 3 hours....Suckers!! :)
You get seated at your table, they strap on your bib, and then it's time to order. The bib was pretty classy, but we had to leave it behind. You'll see why in a second.
Another restaurant where the decor is exquisit.
When your food is delivered to your table, it's brought out in a metal bucket, and they pull a plastic bag out of the bucket, with your food in it. You roll down the corners of the bag, and dig in. Here is Ricks dinner, the cajun crayfish. He also got some crab, and I have never seen him so happy. Food was amazing, and highly recommended.
Making a mess, and enjoying every bite!
Mmmmm...crab!!!

...and the aftermath. Once you are done, they pull up all 4 corners of the butcher paper, and throw everything away.
The night before we left, we went to Sunset Beach before dinner. It was so beautiful!

The beach really lived up to it's name...it was a beautiful sunset.
My sweet husband watching the waves.
This house is for lease, you can be next door to Taco Surf, and be able to see the beach. It's a win/win situation!! Happy Anniversary Honey, it's been the best year of my life. Here's to many more!!

Viva Las Vegas, Baby!!!

If you start to laugh when I say this, just leave me a message on this post so I know who to slap. I went to Vegas and did a 5K.

Ok, so I only walked it, but I did it, nonetheless. We had such a fun time! A bunch of us girls decided to make it a girls weekend, and go down and have some fun...and fun we had! Below you will see the numbers I wore for the race. I figured that if they found a lifeless body lying somewhere along the route, they could take a DNA swab of my sweat off of the back side and identify my body. BUT, I lived to see the end of the race, and it was so fun to be a part of. We can't wait for next year, and by then I hope to be able to run it. We'll see how that goes. It took us 1:14:44 to walk it, so that time should be pretty easy to beat.

We stayed at the Luxor while we were there, and it was pretty nice! It was big enough to be it's own zip code, and really neat looking inside.

Our team name was "Ya-Ya's Racing for the Ta-Ta's".

Here is a bunch of us at the race, wearing our Fruit Shirts.

SAVE THE FRUITS!!!

Notice how they are strategically placed....heeheehee!!

Angela, Yolanda and Julia got a beautiful pink sash for being in the top 100 for the fundraisers. Our team raised a total of $3694.99 for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. And we're off....

At the end of our trip, collecting our luggage, and wishing we could have one more day. Left to right we are Nancy (my best and cutest friend), Shauna (another best and cutest friend), Andrea (best and cutest friend, and long lost sister), Andrea's sister Corrie (new best and cutest friend), Jacy (my new best and cutest knocked up friend and younger twin sister separated at birth), and yours truely. My other new best and cutest friend Stef is taking the picture. Love you all!!

Someone in our group was too retarded to get their suitcase in all the way. Who does that???Thanks for a fun time girls!!!

Who's been sleeping in MY bed??

The girls decided they wanted to watch a movie in my room. I'm not sure how much "watching" they did. But they did learn how high you can jump, when on a king size bed! I believe Ali was the winner in that competition.

Ali, Jocelyn, and Ava

Three of my most favorite people!

Sadie's Spring Concert

I got to go to Sadies Spring Concert, and they were so good! I'm sure it's because Sadie was there leading the way, but that is not confirmed. She even got to play in a quartet, and they sounded amazing. Good job Sadie!!!!

The girls and gymnastics...

I went and watched the girls do their gymnastics yesterday morning, and it was sooo cute! I got some videos of them, but for some reason this blog will NOT post them. Oh well, can't say that Auntie Julie didn't try!!

This bus has had all of the seats taken out of it, and there is padding on the floor and walls, and this is where they have their lessons.

Here's the girls warming up. You can see Ava working hard at it. She was having so much fun being like the "big" girls. Ali getting a little help with her flip. I think it kind of scared her, but she was liking it more at the end of class. Ava was not interested in doing the flip, but hanging on the bar was pretty fun, and Jocelyn was there to supervise.

Introducing......

Here is the newest addition to the Merrell Clan...

Gabriel Glenn Born Feb 5th, 2011

Is he cute or what?

Our first little Benson Family Christmas

On Christmas Eve, we had dinner at my mother in laws house, with Ricks whole family. We had such a good time. Everyone brought a little something, and we ate until we could hardly move. Here is my sweet hubby cutting his delicious meatloaf into slices.

Ah, the kids table. Now that I am 40, I've graduated into the adult section of the room for holiday meals. It's kind of refreshing!
More of the kids table, and for some reason my flash was on strike. This is a rowdy bunch of kids, and we wouldn't trade them for the world!My sister in law Margo, and my mother in law Blondie don't believe in not making every occasion a beautiful one, so here is the adult table. Yes they actually let me sit at it. Truly a year of miracles! Christmas Morning...Can we open the presents now...PLEASE?!?

Sadie grinning at the camera, while Cassie decorates her with a gold ribbon.

Cassie's main present was wrapped by her father. Because she is a BYU fan, it naturally had to be wrapped in UofU paper. She noticed this right off, and made her feelings known.

She then realized she was wearing a BYU sweatshirt, and Christmas was, once again...a success.

Oh please...could it be.....?? An Ipad????

Cassie and Sadie both spent Christmas night with us. We really expected them to wake us up early in the morning, but by 8:45 not a creature was stirring. That clearly meant that they needed to have a wiener dog dropped into the middle of their bed to wake them up. It worked. We opened presents, and I cooked breakfast for everyone, and we had a wonderful First Christmas together. What more can a girl ask for?