Thanksgiving

I was so happy with how much the girls' school celebrated Thanksgiving.  I think it's fantastic for them to learn about the history of the holiday.  Audrey's class made Wampanoag head dresses and purses and pilgrim bonnets.  She liked the Wampanoag get up the best.  She really loved the purse.

 Julia was more than happy to wear the pilgrim bonnet.  I thought they looked so cute.  We were asked to go to the nursing home and do Family Home Evening.  The girls prepared and colored a fun lesson and wore their Thanksgiving costumes.  When we arrived at the nursing home, however, they must have cancelled because no one  was there.  I think the girls were kind of disappointed after all their preparation.

 So we went to the ice cream shop instead.  I think that relieved most of the pain.  This ice cream shop down the road is so cute.  They had it all decorated for Christmas.

 The inside is old fashioned and quaint.  We love going there.

 For Thanksgiving we drove to Salem to spend the holiday with Bryan's family.  They brought all kinds of games to play in the gym after we were done eating.

 Lily loves her Grandma.

 And her daddy.

 Julia put three heaping slices of pie on her plate and I think she ate 1/8 of what she put on her plate.  Sometimes our eyes are bigger than our stomachs.

 We went to Amanda's house afterwords and let the kids play.  The weather was really nice which was an added bonus.

 The sunset was beautiful as well.

 The day after Thanksgiving my parents and sister came over and we had soup and pie.  We then went to see the lights down town but had the dates mixed up.  So we headed over to a little arcade they have downtown.  I don't think the girls were too disappointed as Nana and Papa bought them many tokens and let them waste those tokens on many games.

 We walked around and snapped  picture in front of the temple.  I have really noticed how much I love living closer to family around the holidays.  It's been so fun to spend more time with all of them rather than living so far away and having to miss all of these moments.

November

While Bryan was on call I got tickets to take the girls to Disney on Ice with my parents and their cousins.  It got a little crazy getting tickets as we had some late add on's so it turned out that Lily and I sat by ourselves.  This meant I only got pictures of Lily and myself.  Everyone really enjoyed the show though and it was a great way to spend the day.  Lily was so excited about the whole thing and seeing Ariel dance with Prince Eric was an out of body experience.

 This was her face when it was starting.  She was very very excited about the whole thing.

 Here I am at about 25 weeks pregnant.  That belly just keeps on growing.

 I am the new Activity Days leader in my ward which means I plan a couple of activities twice a month for the girls 8-12 years old.  I have actually really enjoyed it.  Having Julia in Activity Days makes it even more fun because she gets to be involved in everything.  We have been working on these sock snowmen as a service project for Christmas time.  I saw an example on pinterest and was really nervous they wouldn't turn out.  I was just so happy that they did turn out!  I think the girls really loved making them.  I let them make one to take home and then we made another one to take to some of the residents at the nursing home.  It was a really fun project.

 We got some snow in November and had to build a snowman with the wet snow.  The girls did this 100% on their own.  I was so impressed!

 Lily had taken a nap so I had her stay inside.  She wasn't too thrilled about that.  We did enjoy watching the girls from inside the warm house though.  I love our backyard and all the windows I have to look in the backyard.

Lily is THREE!

This sweet Lily turned three years old in November.  I remember when Bryan gave her a baby blessing and said that she would be a peacemaker in our home.  At the time I remember thinking that could not be possible with her being the third girl in a drama filled household but it couldn't be more true.  This Lily has such a sweet tender heart and is always trying to make all of us happy.  She wants so badly to do what is right.  She gets so upset if Bryan and I are mad and does all she can to make us happy.  Just this morning Bryan was getting on the girls case about cleaning their rooms and was giving a particular lecture to our oldest when Lily runs up to him, holds his hand and says, "Daddy I'll go and make my bed all by myself.  Will that make you happy?"  It is hard to not be happy when this little girl is around.  She says such funny things all day long and I feel so blessed that she is mine.  She was so excited to turn three and to be a big girl.  I don't know why they need to grow up so fast!

 I got her a new dress to celebrate the day.  She looked so cute.  We went and visited daddy at work so he could see how cute she is.  Whenever she wears a dress her daddy is her prince and has to kiss her hand.

 She also got a new jacket.

 I had a couple of her friends over for the big day.  I don't know if I have ever seen her so happy or have ever had little girls that were so easy to please.  All it took were balloons and they were set.  It was adorable.

 They also got little sticker books to color and decorate.  I'm so glad Lily has some little friends to play with here.

 Cutest girls.

 The next day Nana came up and took Lily to Build a Bear for her birthday present.

 She picked out an "Anna" bear.  It was so funny because my mom kept asking her if she wanted clothes or accessories and Lily kept saying, "It's OK.  I don't".  I felt like I had to keep reminding her that it was her birthday and it was ok for her to pick out some outfits.  It was funny.  It's like she didn't know what to do with all the attention.  I suppose that's the life of a third child.

 Papa and Carli and James came up in the evening to watch her open presents and have pizza.

 She got all the little princesses and was in heaven.

 So were her sisters.

 Poor Jimmer had to get a picture wearing the Ariel birthday crown much to his dad's chagrin.

 Oh I love this Lily so so much.  Happy birthday sweet girl!

Lily at three:
Loves to eat macaroni and cheese, quesadillas, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and crackers.
Loves to steal sips of soda pop.  She loves the stuff little stinker.
Loves to dance and sing.  She is particularly good at somersaults at the moment.
Adores her sisters and wants them to play with her constantly.  She is particularly attached to Julia.  If she gets hurt or is sad she will often request Julia over me or Bryan.
Is often pretending to be a kitty.
Plays so well by herself.  She has an excellent imagination.
Is very independent.  She insists on putting her own shoes on, putting on her pajamas and making her own bed.  I have to try really hard to just let her, even when it means being a minute or two later than I wanted.
Loves Sofia the First and Jake and the Neverland Pirates.
Loves her "tickle blanket" and it is the first things she needs when she is feeling sad.
Can gripe with the best of them when she's chapped about something but she snaps out of it pretty quick.
HATES it when I get mad at her.  She is very quick to say sorry and worries when I don't say, "It's OK Lily."
Feels like it is often her responsibility to make sure her sisters are keeping in line and doing what they should.
Is getting really good at drawing faces and coloring.
LOVES dresses and wears them every day.  I am getting too tired to fight it too much.  So she is almost always in a dress.
Resists naps with all her might.  I have never had a child resist them with so much determination.  She's pretty easy over all though so it doesn't bother me too much unless she is a beast in the evening.
Gets scared easily.  She is scared of rides, heights, swings and the dark.  She often worries there's a monster or ghost in her room.  She's my biggest worrier.
Is incredibly verbal and says some of the funniest things.  We laugh at things she says constantly.  I can't believe how much she picks up from our conversations.  She listens and is very quick.
Has eyes that smile when she smiles.  I love that so much.

Oh Lily you make our life more full.  Happy birthday sweetheart.

November

Lately the girls love making me breakfast.  If they don't have school then they have an extra lazy and tired pregnant momma who likes to try and sleep in.  The girls love going downstairs and making a menu and having me pick what I want.  Julia's favorite thing to make is scrambled eggs.  It's awfully sweet of them and this day they even threw in a banana.  I just wish they were as good at cleaning up their mess as they are at making me a delicious breakfast.

We had some beautiful weather in November and tried to take advantage of the nice days.  We went on a walk where the fallen leaves were so pretty.

If dad is with us I can 100% guarantee there will be tree climbing involved.

He had to prove to the girls he could go that high.  I just kept begging him to not get hurt.  He has to make money these days!

Poor Lily caught the stomach flu and was down for a full week.  It was miserable all around.  She would be so tired and would just sleep all day.  Poor little thing.  She watched lots of television and lived with her blanket.  It was her first stomach flu experience and I think that's always the worst one.

Audrey lost another tooth.  She was so excited.  I just don't know how these kids grow up so fast.

We took a trip on another nice day up to the ski resort and played at the playground and hiked around.  It was absolutely beautiful.

They had some patches of man made snow that the girls went crazy over.

Lily was getting cold at this point but the views from here couldn't be beat.

Bryan had to carry Lily because my pregnant back isn't able to carry her for a long time.  Trouble is, she only wants me to carry her.  It was a pleasant hike up the hill and a less pleasant hike down the hill.  Isn't that always the way that kids work?

Audrey thought this was a real moose for sure at first.  Nope.  Just a statue.

Halloween 2014

We had such a great Halloween this year.  It was filled with lots of fun events and the girls just get so excited about everything.  It helped that they looked so dang cute too!

 The Young Women of our ward threw a Halloween carnival that was so much fun.  They had all kinds of games and stations for the girls to play.  There weren't a ton of kids there either so they were able to do all the things they wanted.

 I think cookie decorating was a definite highlight.

 We also carved pumpkins one night.  We gave the girls free reign with the design and just helped with the carving.

 Audrey had to give hers a kiss she loved it so much!

 We just gave little Lily some markers and let her go to town.  She really got into it.  Her pumpkin was covered in designs.

 The girls school had a Halloween parade and so we went to go and see them and their classmates in their cute costumes.  They had such a great time with the parade and with the class parties.

 Julia has some moves while she walks in the parade.

 The official night came and the weather was incredible!  We hardly even needed jackets.  It made for such a pleasant evening.  Julia wanted to be a pirate this year.  We found a costume she loved at Costco but it was too small for her.  We hunted at several stores before we found this one.  I thought it turned out so cute and I loved the hot pink color.  She had a fake sword that we bought and was a big disgruntled when I told her she couldn't take it to school.  Lucky for her those rules didn't apply for Halloween night.

 Lily picked her costume out early on and never regretted her choice.  She had fairy wings to go with the costume but they drove her crazy.  We tried pinning them down, tightening the strings, everything but she decided she would rather not wear them.  She made a beautiful fairy either way.

 Audrey was all about the witch.  A very talented face painter made the spider and web at school and we were lucky it matched her costume perfectly!  I added some warts and extra spiders.  She looked so cute.

 All three girls together.  I love Halloween so much.

 This picture of the girls outside playing in the yard before we went trick or treating makes me so happy.  They spend so much time outside here.  I love it.

 We headed to the ward trunk or treat first and it was such a great night.  I loved sitting and seeing all the cute costumes and talking with friends.  The girls loved having friends to go trick or treating with and so many people were so generous giving full cans of soda pop and full sized candy bars!

 Audrey was thrilled to spend the evening with her bestie.

 So many members of our ward dressed up and I just had to take a picture of Frankenstein and the bride of Frankenstein.  So much fun.

After the trunk or treat we still aren't super familiar with the area so we did trick or treating on our street, which is a super quiet street so we were the only trick or treaters.  We then took the girls to McDonalds for some dinner.  I think they were a little bummed we didn't do more trick or treating but to be honest we had a perfect night.  They got tons of candy at the trunk or treat and we didn't need more and finished the night playing on the play place at McDonalds.  I love this holiday and am so thankful we had such a great one in our new home.