Black Friday

Thanksgiving night alli and I got our toejam and earl on. Worlds oldest video game, but such an oldie but goodie. 

On Friday morning I let the girls join us in the day-after-thanksgiving-pie-for-breakfast tradition. Addie chose turkey cake and killed it. 

Lex and Chris did some shopping, and then alli and I were gonna head out when they got back, but then Alli said she didn't really care to go and that I could go alone, so I did! Wonderful! I didn't get home till almost 5, it was a nice afternoon'o'shopping. 

At 5, alli, Addie, Frankie, and I headed over to Christmas on the Square. Matt stayed home to do homework and since Laney's been so congested he kept her too. The girls checked out the model trains while I waited in line. Little pink hats peeking over the train table. 

We rode on the "hayride," tractor pulled by a wagon. Supah fun and supah cold!

While we rode, alli waited in the horse carriage line. 5th Christmas on the Square and the first one that we actually rode in the horse pulled carriages! Yay for alli!

Of course, Frankie had to go potty right before our turn, so instead of the cute little carriages, we got the big wagon, but it was still pulled by beautiful Clydesdales, so whateva. 

After our two rides we grabbed some pretzels and French fries (dinner of champions) and headed to the tree lighting. 

It was about 30 degrees by that point and I couldn't feel my feet, so after the tree finally lit, (took 3 tries) we headed home. Christmas on the square is one if my fav events, I love our small town. It was probably the busiest years we've been there too. 

After story time laney has been climbing into bed with Addie and saying "I sleep!" and squeezing her little eyes closed. She usually only lasts about 10 minutes, so I just let her. Here they are "sleeping."

And then she headed downstairs with a shell necklace on her head saying "I pretty!"

T'was a delightful Black Friday. 

Cute buns

I'm a sucker for cute diapers. I still remember when they had cute pink and blue diapers for babies, oh how I loved them!

So when I saw these cute Santa diapers at target I made them mine. 

It's the little things sometimes. 

Like cute little almost 2 year old bums that won't hold still for pictures. 

Happy thanksgiving!

Alli came to visit us! I picked her up Tuesday night and we had a fun Wednesday making pies and hanging out. I had found this cool turkey cake and I thought alli would be just crazy enough to help me make it. 

It turned out so cute! And surprisingly like the one in the paper. I have to say, it was mostly on account of alli. The first bunch of caramels I rolled out were very difficult, but when alli shaped them into a ball first, super easy. 

We made a ham, mashed potatos, pink fluff, creamed corn, broccoli cheese, green bean casserole, cheese cake, chocolate chip pie, and a caramel turtle pie, and took them over to the McCombs at 2. We aimed for a 2:00 dinner, with a more realistic 3:00 goal and we sat down right at 3. Despite our best efforts, we still have a ton of food leftover!

Our ward has 4 missionaries now! And we got to have thanksgiving with all of them. So fun!

My animal lovers love all animals. That makes sense, right? They loved chasing around Stevie the turtle. 

It's after dinner now, and the big kids are downstairs watching the grinch while the adults and littles (who are too scared to watch the grinch), are watching the nutcracker. Pies are next!

Happy thanksgiving!

Oh boy!

We've got another driver up in here! And he passed his first time, I'm so proud. 

I won't mention that we went there yesterday at 4:10 and they wouldn't let him test because they stop testing at 4:15... yes, we will just let that part go. Mostly because I forgot my purse and didn't have my drivers license so it didn't matter anyway (who forgets their purse?!) Otherwise they would have heard quite an earful from me. 

I took several cute mva pics and also some of his first drive home, but d-money learned how to delete pictures. Again. She loves my phone, so I don't know how this is gonna work, but I do know that she can't be deleting pics. That's not the way we roll. 

And now we're a 4 driver family!

Tootsie twinkle toes

That's d-mama's elf name. Pretty rad, huh?

Matt's name is happy sparkle pants and mine is happy sprinkle pants. match made in heaven? Yes!

Alexis and Addie are both sweetie sugar socks. Chris is bubbles sugarplum. And Frankie is sugarplum mcjingles. 

We talked about our names on our ride home from church, so then we had to go through all our family's and friends names, just to be thorough. It's almost Christmas time!

The weekend

Saturday was our RS Super Saturday. It was a lot of work but it turned out really nicely. I made Amanda's butternut squash soup (yum!) and had asked Matt to load it into the car. He also helped me peel and make everything and it was so nice to have someone to lean on. He gets the good husband award lately. Anywho, I started driving and heard glass clunking around, and I didn't see the crockpot, so I got out to look in the trunk and this is what I saw. Boys are so fun!

We had a lot of ladies come out and most finished all their crafts. We did a small service craft, ate lots of yummy soup, (I know, because I tried each and every one of them) learned to make johnna's delicious rolls, and learned all about herbal remedies and living off the land from Mackenzie. She has been in our ward for a month and has now moved on. She and her husband, their 4 children (and one on the way) travel around in an rv for his job, and they live off the land along the way. What a life!

I made 8 holiday trivets (thank you, Sarah!) and this cute vintage bracelet. 
After SS I hit target for some major, super fun couponing. It's been too long, old friend, much too long. Gotta try to make time for a little couponing each week. 

Matt said he again gained a greater appreciation for me and my job at home. A lot of days it really is a choice between being mad and trying to keep everything clean, or having a messy house and peace. Some days I can balance both, but it's not easy. And Matt had a tough time. Greater appreciation for each other is a good thing!

Alexis and Chris went to see hunger games again Saturday night, and they got home super late. We have been counseled to wait up for our children, but then Matt says his parents just had him come wake them up when he got home. So now I do a combo of both, but mostly I wait up, which is no fun. Especially when you are tired and achy, which I was Saturday night. Ahh, the joy. 

Church was wonderful. And cold. We had a high of 32 plus 20 mph wind chill. Yuck. we came home and watched a movie, visited with home teachers, Chris went home teaching, and then we headed to McCombs. 

Our Frankie is not an eater. She's slow, she doesn't love food, she would just much rather drink juice all day. Grace was very sweet with her, she wrote "Frankie frog ray" on a napkin for her to use as a bib and sat with her while she finished her plate. Grace is welcome to come eat with Frankie any day!

Matt and I have been going on nightly runs, except on Sunday when we go for a walk. We decided to bundle laney and take her with us last night, but it didn't go well. 

We put her in a snowsuit (adorbs!), coat, hat, and three blankets. 

She was completly stuffed in her little stroller seat. 

She started making noise, then she'd pull out a hand. By that point it was, like 28 degrees out, so then we'd stop and cover her all back up. Then repeat. We ended up cutting our walk way short and she won't be invited again any time soon. (; we have really enjoyed spending that time together (almost) every night. Also, running is a good stress reliever for some of life's not-so-fun moments. T'was a good weekend. 

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday

Creative title, huh?

Wednesday was Lexi's first day back at school. She said being gone made her realize who her 'true friends' were because so many of them asked when she was coming back. Oh to have such true friends. 

After school came with a familiar "can so and so come over?" On this day it was Ryan and ami because they have several classes together. And they actually did all sit at the island and do home work for well over an hour. 

Lexi was so excited to see the little girls that she willingly went out to Addie's bus stop - only the second time ever doing that willingly, so that was nice. 

I love this picture because Lexi and Ryan were chatting it up (and laughing) with Addie and Frankie and then there's a smiley little d in the background. My little crew. (:

 Wednesday night was bath night. Love the kids, but bath nights lately are a pretty big ordeal. A certain 5 year old gets loose bowels (tmi) when she's in water, so that has caused some issues lately, plus d likes to get out pretty quickly, plus splashing and rowdiness and teasing. 

At least we think they're cute. One of Heavenly Fathers greatest gifts to us (I think) is that every parent see's their children as the cutest. How could we deal with loose bowels if we didn't?

Matt worked the late shift all week and even got a few overtime hours to boot. Fun, fun! 

Thursday is preschool day and since daddy was working late, he was able to stay home with lanes while I dropped off Frankie with Alecia (who then took f and c over to Christina's). Love this big girl. 

They learned all about safety and took a field trip to the firehouse in lusby. 

Addie still talks about when Christina took their preschool group to the firehouse, so Frankie was super excited. 

Preschool is so fun and Frankie is loving learning lately. 

While they were there the fire department got a call so they got to see them load up and leave. I love how Frankie is clinging to Joni's leg! She hates loud noises just like mama. 

Lunch time with some cute kids. 

Thursday was also daisy scouts and Addie was delighted to learn that their meeting was at the yellow door art studio in l-town. Sistah was in heaven. While she was there I went for a nice run downtown leonardtown. I love running in new places, our neighborhood gets so boring. 

Thursday night also brought with it the premiere of hunger games, yay! I didn't organize anything big this year, I just didnt have my act together. I didn't even buy our tickets till Wednesday, so instead of the nice 8 showing we watched last time, we got the 11:40 showing. Horrible pic of me, but it's the only one we took all night. The movie was fabulous and we can't sit till next year! And then I decided when the final one comes out in 2 years I want to go see them all at the theater. I'll eat all the popcorn my little heart desires, it'll be so fun!

We didn't get home till 3:30. Yuck. L and c skipped seminary. I tried to get them up, but I had overslept a few minutes too and I thought, why fight it. It was a tired day for everyone. 

That morning I dropped my girls off at Sarah's and went to help meka paint her old apartment so she can move out. Then I headed back to Sarah's for a birthday luncheon for Liz. It was a fun morning full of friends. 

That afternoon was a laaaazy one. I hardly know what to do withmyself with no Friday night football! Pretty nice though! also little miss "I potty?" wore some underway! She promptly peed in them, but hey! It's a start.

Addie. Loves. Art. 

Anytime. Anywhere. 

Playing iPad with bubba. Priceless. 

And playing daddy's phone with mama. 

She's a little phone genious. But all that starfall playing is paying off. She pointed out a random w, o, and k on some papers Addie had written. Smart girl also sings her alphabet and counts to 14. Look out, Frankie, little sisters catching up to you!

She's baaaaack

Alexis and izzy - Winter came to Utah!

I picked her up last night almost an hour late. Traffic was crawling, like it took an hour to go 18 miles on I-195. I felt so bad, but she grabbed her luggage and waited for me by arrivals like a big girl. (: we stopped to eat at Fridays and I got to hear all about her trip. 

She had a lot of fun and decided she really liked Idaho. She saw some cute boys, met some fun roommates, met some not-so-fun roommates, sat around with Hannah eating Nutella, took a tour, got a shirt, went shopping, got byu-I shirts for Chris and Ryan, went out to eat, totally lived the college life. I would be so thrilled if Lexi got to experience all those fun things that I missed out on.

Everyone knows one of my favorite things is taking pictures. We took at least 15 pics while we were stopped at various stoplights. And then we'd look at them and laugh and laugh, like tears streaming down faces laughing. This was one I my fav of Lexi's (I had some real doozies too, but this is my blog, so there). She's learning to wink?

We jammed out and she snapchat videoed us singing, but only to Chris. I told her she was probably sending it to everybody and she was like "yeah, me singing with my mom? I don't think so." I guess she has a point. (: can we help it that we sound good? (;?

So glad she's back! And now to continue our whirlwind senior year! (And still remember in May that we liked Idaho!)

180°

delaney got a late nap on sunday so she stayed up and acted cute with matt and i.

matt was singing and she was looking at his so funny.

while eating her cheese.

(blurry pictures are the bane of my existence)

monday was a beautiful day! this weather is so crazy, i swear, 70° one day and 50° the next. i'm not complaining (really, i'm not) because i'm loving the warm days and i realize these could just all be cold days instead of cold/hot, it's just a little odd.

last time ellie was over she left a binky behind, and laney has officially adopted it for her babies.

aaaand herself. although she doesn't even suck on it, she just bites.

on monday morning i dropped the little girls off at alecia's and went to help shelly clean her old house. there were several women there and it was a fun and jolly cleaning party. shelly had donuts so when i left i brought one home for frankie. i thought this was classic, frankie enjoying her donut while i *enjoy* my rice cake. (they're not that bad)

we just couldn't stay inside on such a gorgeous day, so after addie got home (and after naps) we headed up to the park. matt insisted on getting the girls this balance bike that frankie loves. it has no pedals and she does a lot better on it than on her training wheel bike. i guess father knows best. ;)

we had our hoa meeting last night, which i wouldn't have normally gone to since matt had to stay late at work, but i did go to since chris needed to attend a community meeting for his citizenship in the community merit badge. we elected 3 officers for our hoa... should be interesting! and i hope not too pricey!

the girls were super good at the meeting. i had thoroughly lectured and bribed them, so i was glad both of those things worked. never mind that on the way home addie randomly threw delaney's shoe up at us (again).  we're working on impulse control. that's really a lifelong quest though, right?

 

this morning they posted the results for indoor track that i had convinced christian to try out for. he should get to school around 7:45, which came and went, and still i waited. 8:15 came and went, and still i waited. i didn't want to text him for fear it was bad new, but finally i couldn't take it anymore and texted him. he texted back "no." with 5 crying faces. my heart broke. he tried out for middle school basket ball (twice) and didn't make the team, then high school basketball and baseball and didn't make the teams. so to not make indoor track too? devastation! i asked if he wanted me to pick him up and go get some chic-fil-a but then he didn't text again for 20 minutes. when he finally responded, he said, "i'm kidding, i did." !!! immediate change of my sad heart. i am so happy and relieved that he made it. and now we're a track family. :)