Thanksgiving break= LOTS OF DADDY TIME!!!

One of the many things I love about Jared is that he is a teacher!! I love that he gets such long breaks and that he is off the whole summer... and still gets paid! It works perfect for us b/c we LOVE spending time together. We got a lot done around the house this week. Jared put together a swingset for the girls (and my preschool), put up shelves in our garage, and organized the pantry. He is pretty much the bomb. I cleaned out our junk drawer and organized my jewelry box and the hall closet, along with the normal day to day chores. We spent one night in Houston visiting some of our best friends from BYU, got ready for Thanksgiving, put up our tree, and are now sad that the break is almost over. :( Jared wishes he could be a professional snuggler. If he could get paid for it, he'd snuggle me all day! I wonder if our mushy gushiness will ever go away... I hope not!

Doesn't the star go on last??? Whoops!

Cheeseball

Check out my new Miley Cyrus shirt from Walmart, lol. This was as far as we could go on our tree Thanksgiving night b/c we realized we no longer had our lights. Disregard the fact that Kailee is almost naked. She was ready for her bath.The finished product!

Our city had a lighting ceremony! There were a ton of people there. We listened to a choir sing christmas carols, did some singing ourselves, joined in the countdown, and cheered on the Christmas season!

Sisters!

So cute!

Daddy's 3 favorite girls!!

They even had a carousel!! If only it was free :( It was fun listening to Kailee yell at Daddy and Allie "I love you Daddy, Merry Christmas, ho ho ho!" She was super excited!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Our hearts are full of thanks today. We have so much to be grateful for.
Jesus Christ, our Savior, who has given us hope.
Each other: the kisses, the hugs, the snuggles, the infinite bliss.
Our adorable and everlastlingly precious daughters, who bring us so much joy and happiness, along with countless smiles and giggles.
Our families.
Our neighbors.
Jared's job.
Our beautiful new home that suits us so well.
A free country (for now... let's hope it stays this way).
The turkey that Jared carved so meticulously.
The mashed potatoes, my favorite, that really hit the spot.
The homemade gravy that I actually made to perfection.
The sweet potato souffle that made Jared's day.
The green bean casserole that looked so tantalizing in its bowl.
The buttery rolls.
The savory stuffing.
And last but not least, the coconut pie, which to my utter surprise made everyone sigh! (Jared's Mom's recipe... was a tad runny, but our tastebuds never knew it. It was a grand slam.) Accompanied by Borden's Chocolate milk.
Let's just say it was a delicious, delightful, & delovely Thanksgiving day!

A few of our friend's kids started throwing up last night, so they were unable to join us for our Thanksgiving festivities. :( Though it was quite a small Thanksgiving gathering with just ourselves, it was still so wonderful to sit down and have a good meal with our little family. We went around the table a few times and told what we were grateful for. Kailee was grateful for pineapple juice (funny b/c she's never had it, lol), purple necklaces (she doesn't own one), marshmallows (as they are sitting in front of her on the sweet potato souffle), & her preschool friends. She was very sincere too. :) Maybe next year Mommy, Daddy, & Allie will be near the top of her list, lol.

We put up our Christmas tree, but realized we don't have any lights. We must've thrown them away or lost them?? So, maybe tomorrow we'll decorate it. Wish us luck trying to teach Allie not to touch or pull on the Christmas tree!

May we be thankful everyday! May we remember the true meaning of Christmas! Hurray! "It's the most wonderful time of the year!"

I made a tutu!!

I'm so excited! It's a candy cane tutu!! It looks adorable on both my girls! Cost: $4.50 Time: 1 hour (is probably quicker 2nd time around since I know what I'm doing now)

Materials: 4 yds. tulle (I used 2 yds. red, 2 yds. white)

3/16" or 1/2" elastic

Measure child's waist and subtract an inch, cut elastic that length. Overlap ends 3/4" and sew together on sewing machine or by hand using a zig zag stitch.

Cut a big piece of tulle 20 inches wide(should be doubled over) by whatever the length of the tulle is. The side that is not 20 in. long you fold an inch or two over and keep folding it over. Then cut every 3 inches. This will make several 3 in. X 20 in. strips. I put elastic over my leg. You take 2 strips at a time, fold in half put fold under the elastic and pull ends through the loop, pull tight and tie a double knot. If this is confusing, google it. I read some online and watched a youtube video. Good luck! When put on, my tutu is perfect. If you don't want it very puffy, cut 3" strips. If you want it very poofy, cut 4" strips. :)

Hmmmmmmm, hi, and bye!

I apologize about my loud, over-exaggerated laugh. The girls like it!

Happy Birthday Honey!

Jared turned 28 on October 12th. I know. This post is a little late, but here nonetheless! I got Jared & I tickets to go see the Broadway show "Mary Poppins." It was sooooooo good. Jared said it was his favorite present I've ever gotten him. Yay! A success! He bought the CD afterwards and we both have been singing about how "Practically Perfect" we are, lol. Kailee loves to sing "A Spoonful of Sugar" with us too. If you haven't seen Mary Poppins, you totally should. It was soooooo good on stage!

I made Jared dinner (candied chicken) and a carrot cake. Both recipes come from his mother :) Thanks Terrie for sharing the family recipes! The card has Kailee's hand prints, foot prints, and bum print. After the hands and feet, Kailee said "Mommy, I want to do a bum bum print too." At first I said no, but she was very insistent and I thought heck, why not. You can only do this when they're young, right!

Happy Birthday to the best guy in the world! We love you honey. Thanks for being such a wonderful husband and father! We adore you and look forward to seeing you everyday! We hope to celebrate a hundred more birthdays with you!

The next weekend, we went to visit family. We went to Jared's sisters house for the baby blessing of their 3rd girl! Jared's Mom was there too, so it was double the fun! The girls are struttin the new tutu's Granny got them.

The new cousin: Haven! Isn't she a doll.
We tried out Jamie's bike trailer. Pretty cool.

Jared and the girls.

Trick or Treat!

The week before Halloween, we went to a super fun Halloween party at the Foust's home. We won best costume. This is our prize. We are an elderly couple. Jared looks like a grumpy old man.
I got our clothes from the goodwill. I kept laughing all night at Jared's pants. He looks more nerdy than old, lol. I had about 15 bean bags in my shirt sagging down if ya can't tell. Those babies were hard work carrying around, lol.

She's getting better about looking at the camera when smiling.

She is a "bootiful pincess fairy!" Her granny gave this to her like a year ago and it still fits! Thanks Granny!

Me and the girls! I am a Mom who loves her princesses more than they'll ever know! I guess I wear my costume everyday!

The fam

Allie is such a cutie pie. I love that she can wear bows!

Thanks Nana for the costume! This was also a gift a year ago. My Mom sent Kailee and Allie these cute princess dresses and I had never opened the small one. It fit Allie perfectly!

Superstar!

Daddy and the girls! We went to a trunk or treat at the stake center.

Granny got the girls these super cute tutus and Kailee wears hers all the time.

Don't ya love the bow!! $2 at trades day!

As I went upstairs to get Allie (Kailee was still asleep), I see Kailee's princess chair at the top of the stairs. I could only conclude that she got out of bed and tried to climb over the gate to come downstairs. Then I go upstairs to see where she ended up crashing...

There is her on the dora couch. She changed out of her pj's, took her diaper off, and put a t-shirt and skirt on. Notice all the toys. Who knows how long she was playing before she fell asleep. She also peed ALL over the Dora couch. Yuck. She is potty trained during the day, but wears diapers at nights, for good reason. She rarely has a dry diaper. I tried putting her in panties at night for 3 nights in a row, but she wet the bed every night, so I will try again maybe in a few months or longer.