Of Songs, Guitars & Pumpkins!

It's been a fun week at our house and the weekends not done yet!

We've been doing lots of work around the house, going through boxes, throwing things out, taking things to put into storage (and bringing back Halloween decorations from storage!) and I'm happy to say that we finally have our living room back! For awhile there we couldn't find it! 

On Thursday this week Alishea & I competed in a singing contest called Star Search at a local country bar. It's hosted by KX96 which is a major country station in Toronto. There's 8 weeks where they pick a winner and then the finally week all the winners compete in the finals. Alishea has done the contest before but I never have and I've always wanted to. This year I finally got the guts to do it with her thanks to all my karaoke practice this year. This week there were 8 of us competing. Alishea did fanominal! One of the best performances I've heard her give. Loved it! There were so many talented singers and a lot of them played guitar. I felt very out of my league. But I got up there and did my songs and even remembered all the lyrics which I was worried about! I'm used I having the words right in front of me all the time. In the end the girl who won was exactly who I'd have picked. She was amazing! And in second place....me!!! I was totally shocked. With so many great performers I didn't think I was anywhere near that good but I feel very honoured! It's much better than I anticipated I'd do. I may do it again this week. It's fun and great practice. Since I came in second I'm actually in a draw to be a wildcard for the finals so hey, you never know! Mostly I'm just thrilled to have finally had the guts to give this contest a try!

After seeing so many great performers playing guitar I got the big again that I want to play too. I pulled out my guitar last night and played around with chords and songs for several hours. I'm no good at all but I can muddle through songs with easy chords. I got online and started looking into lessons and this morning Phil and I had our first lesson with a teacher who lives nearby. I'm sooo excited about this! Phil and I have both said we want to learn guitar but we've just never taken the plunge for lessons. I'm excited we'll be doing this together and helping each other learn and practice along the way. I'm also excited because I want to write my own songs and this is definitely a step towards that. 

Today we took the girls to the local farm to pick pumpkins. Always so much fun! 

Monday is Thanksgiving here in Canada 

(still so odd for a girl from the states!) and we're having our big turkey dinner here that evening! So excited! I love Thanksgiving! I love it so much we'll probably celebrate US Thanksgiving too just so we can have it twice and because it doesn't feel like the start of Christmas season to me without it! 

Happy Fall Everyone! And to all our Canadian family & friends, Happy Thanksgiving!!! 

If I had a million dollars....I would buy you a horse!

This weekend we had the girls again and we kept busy busy! Abrianna's friend Kylea spent the night Friday and Saturday we had a lot to do! 

We started off with cleaning the church. Our families job was to wash the windows and set up chairs. It was nice for the girls to get the chance to do some service and help with the cleaning. Chloe even got to share the experience in primary yesterday and drew a picture of herself cleaning the windows :) cute stuff! 

After cleaning, we headed to the dollar store for Halloween costumes for the girls. Our Halloween party is coming up in a few weeks! I love Halloween and can't wait to get the house all decked out for the occasion! Phil and I went nuts grabbing even more decorations (because we don't have nearly enough already! Haha) and the girls got their costumes picked out. 

We grabbed some subs for lunch and then headed off to Phil's friends horse farm! We got to help groom one of the ponies and the girls had a blast playing with the new kittens and their many dogs. Me...I've decided we need a horse! Haha I've always wanted a horse....maybe someday we'll have one. For now, Phil's friends wife might me giving me a few riding lessons. I'm very excited for that! 

After the farm we did some work on our yard at home and finally got all our weeds pulled! They went crazy while we were in BC this Summer! Yard looks so much better now! 

Saturday night I went with my friend Melissa to karaoke and Alishea and a few of her friends joined us. So much fun! I love singing and going to karaoke has really helped me further that talent. Alishea did amazing too! She's such a great singer and has so much confidence while performing! 

Sunday we had testimony meeting at church and it was a much needed spiritual boost for me. I hated missing church the last few weeks. Being there really helps me get through each week. I have so much gratitude in my heart for Heavenly Father and His love and help especially with my eye issue last week. It's healed up much quicker than we thought and I'm so grateful there won't be any lasting damage. We are very blessed! I spent the afternoon listening to the General RS meeting and felt more spiritual strength from it. I love the gospel! 

To top off our weekend we had a family movie night and watched The Great & Powerful Oz. Cute movie! It was a really nice family weekend! 

Happy Anniversary!!!

Can't believe it's been 3 years! Time is flying for sure! I'm so very grateful Phil and I found each other! I love him more and more every day and feel so blessed to be his wife! 

Love you Phil! You are my everything! 

Xoxoxoxoxoxox

New App, New Blogging Attempt!

Now that the Blogger App has become much more user friendly I am going to once again resolve to make an effort to keep this blog up to date....of course it's been almost a year since my last update so no promises! Haha But really, the new app on my phone will make updates very easy so I don't have any good excuses now! 

Rather than review the whole last year, we'll just say its been busy and awesome and then get right to the present! 

This weekend we had our lovely girls with us. Friday night we had family movie night and watched Over the Hedge. Totally love that movie! 

That evening I started coming down with a not so fun head cold which I'm still trying to kick. But did my best to not let it stand in the way of fun! 

On Saturday we went apple picking at Watson farm. It was a lot of fun and the weather was perfect for it! 

After that Abrianna had a birthday sleepover to attend and Phil was called into work so Chloe and I went out with our friends Melissa & Mia for dinner and some karaoke singing! The girls did a great job! 

Sunday the cold got the better of me and I spent most of it in bed, but after dinner we played a round of SkipBo which Phil won. Other than the cold it was a very nice weekend!