So grateful...

I love this Holiday. Thanksgiving is such a beautiful time, and there is truly so much to be thankful for. And while I have thought and talked about all that I am truly in gratitude of this season with my family, there is one thing I would like to express here, now. I often am able to express on this blog how much I love my dear children, and how thankful for them I am. To be their mother, to learn and grow in this life with them, it's truly something to count my blessings for. I don't, however, often express how truly lucky I am to have such a kind, endearing, funny, loving husband and father to my children.

I think that the world is a place where people walk around today calling everyone their best friend. I don't know if the term has any real meaning anymore. Mere aquaintances bestow each other with hugs and kisses upon only a second or third meeting. Everyone is telling everyone they love them. Don't get me wrong, I think that it's important to love your neighbors, and I love sharing hugs and kisses too. But as a result of the careless passing of truly endearing sentiments, I believe that when you tell somebody you love them today, it isn't much heard. But I just want to say, I love you Caleb, you are my best friend. I can not imagine going through this life without you as my best friend. I am, indeed, grateful for you and your love.

First Dance Recital and a Birthday!

This last week was a crazy one, albeit a REALLY FUN one. Adelynn had her very first dance recital at the festival of trees. She was so excited, because Santa was there to watch her. The anticipation for this has been building for weeks, and she has worked really hard to perfect her dance. I really am so proud of her, because she practiced and practiced, and it all paid off. When the little kids were paraded out onto the stage, all of them started looking around for their parents, and waving. The place was packed, and Adi couldn't see us, so I waved and waved, but she just timidly stared around at all the strange faces. Then the music started, and she immediately knew what to do and began dancing. Then a few steps into it she saw me and waved. My heart nearly exploded with pride at that moment! Then she quickly got back into her steps. She was so good, and the most important thing is that she was proud of herself, and it was a positive experience for her. After her first dance I went back to check on her, and she was just as giddy as a little pony! She immediately wanted to know if Santa saw her, and I told her he did. Then she wanted to know if he clapped for her, and I said "oh yes! He is so proud of you! You were such a beautiful little dancer!" She told me "I know, I am a beautiful dancer!" Then I gave her some kisses and went back out to watch the next dance. She performed wonderfully again. It was a crazy night, so many people, but it was so fun. After her dances she got to go see Santa, and that was the highlight of the whole night. She asked for Unicorns for Christmas. It was a festive night with all the trees and lights, and she looked beautiful, and danced great! Oh, I just love that little girl. Here are some pics from that night. (I don't have pics of her dancing, but I do have video. I just can't get it to load, so for any family that wants to see it, let us know and I'll get you a disc.)

Getting ready for the big night.

Lookin' so cute!

In the warm-up room between dances. So happy!

Here she is telling Santa exactly what she would like. And don't you just love this picture? It's my fave. They are both so intent and serious. This is business people! :)

He was so sweet with her and made her feel very special. What a perfect Santa!

We got home and the excitement had not worn off. We continued to dance...

And dance!

So after the recital we had a day break, and then the big 3rd birthday! It was such a great day. I stayed up Thursday night decorating the house and making her cake so that everything would be ready for Friday. I got the idea for this cake from my sister in law, and it's perfect. But, I was up till 1:00 in the morning with this cake, because I was not doing very good on my fondant. I could just not get the right consistency! Oh well. It turned out well enough for her to be thrilled, and completely appreciate it, and if that's what we got, well then it was worth it! We decided just to spend the day together with our own little family. It was nice and cozy this way. Just some quality time together. But during the morning she kept asking for her cousin Nadia, so we called them and they met up with us to get some Pizza for lunch and play at Adi's favortie place, Game World. She calls it her ticket store because she loves to collect those tickets and get prizes. All in all it was a great day. We all spent some nice time together, and she got to do whatever she wanted for a day, plus she got a princess cake and some tickets, and presents! Woohoo! Here is the cake.

She LOVED it!

Thanks momma!

I'm just glad it made her happy. (and glad it's done!)

Shooting some balls at the "ticket store". She's actually a good shot!

I can't leave a post without one cute pic of little Emi! She loved the party too! She was really sweet to sister, and although there was some screaming, it was minimal:)

Blowing out the candles. (she wished for unicorns!)

Opening presents. She has been really wanting these "sparkly shoes". And was so excited to open them! (I love the cake on her face!)

Some pink lego's...awesome!

Grandma was sweet to get Emi a dress and shoes too. It was kind of nice that she had something so she wasn't stealing from Adi! She does look so pretty!

Adi really loves her dress and shoes. They are so pretty too!

We just love you little Adelynn.

You really light up our lives. Happy Birthday.

(and thanks again everyone for your gifts and cards and money and thoughfulness in coming to watch Adi dance, we do appreciate your support, and love you all!)

Dear Adelynn,

(For my own journaling purposes)Happy Birthday! I can not believe you are already 3 years old! What a big girl you are. It seems not long ago that you were in my belly and growing. I loved feeling you kick and move, and shy away when I tickled your back, and I remember fondly every morning when you would get those little hiccups and Daddy and I would giggle to feel those little jolts in my belly. Funny that you still shy away when I tickle your back! I also remember clearly the day I went in to deliver you. I was so nervous and so excited, and I didn't know what to expect, but I was overjoyed when I had a perfect delivery, and rather enjoyed it actually! I cried such joyous tears when I held you for the first time. What a wonderful moment to see our family begin to grow with you my sweet Adi! And who knew that I would give birth to the most beautiful baby?! And now you have blossomed into a beautiful little girl. You have such a delightful personality. You are so helpful, and thoughtful to everyone, especially to Mom and Dad and sister. You make us all laugh. Sometimes I wonder where that little firecracker sense of humor and attitude came from! but, we are so glad you have it, it is who you are, and we love you for it. I love how every morning you crawl into bed and cuddle with me and then nicely remind me that you would like breakfast. I love the way you tell me you love me. I love how you quote movies and say "ha ha, that's so funny", and then laugh at yourself because you think that YOU are so funny. I love that you can talk and talk and talk non-stop and never run out of anything to say. I love it when I lay on your lap and you sweetly run your fingers through my hair and play with it. I love that you still call me momma. I love it when you make me dance for you and then clap for me when I am done and tell me I am beautiful. I love everything about you Adi. You are very smart, and so talented too. I was so proud to watch you dance your little heart away for Santa this week. You are a very beautiful ballerina. How ever did I get so lucky to have a daughter as kind and funny and sweet as you? We all had a wonderful time sharing your birthday with you this Friday. I hope you enjoyed it too. I love you so much, and consider myself the luckiest Mother in the World to have the challenge, privelage, and blessings of being able to raise you. Happy Birthday Dear Adelynn.

Love,

Momma

What a Turkey!

At preschool today Adelynn learned the letter "G" as in GOBBLE. So cute. Check out the little Turkey's they made...

AWWW! I love my little turkey!

Crafting

Last night me and my sister-in-laws and my mother-in-law got together to craft. We made watchbands and hairbows. I tried them on the girls and couldn't resist a few pics. I tried warmifying a couple and doing some touchups on a few, but I'm not quite good at that stuff yet, but still...aren't my girls the cutest ever? (yes...I'm biased, but still!)

Seriously long day

Is it really only monday? Today I had extra kids, and it wrapped up to be quite the day. I won't go into too much detail, but let's just say it was LONG! ...ok, here is a little detail. It started out quite well. One of the little boys I was watching was being quite sweet and melancholy, and I was rather enjoying him. But when I put the little ones down for nap, he woke up and said "Ashley, me's puked." I went downstairs to see the damage, and sure enough, power explosions all over my brand new bed set. I stripped him, and stripped the bed, and shook off all the chunks. While I was starting a load of wash, I went upstairs to help in the bathtub to find him trying to go potty on the toilet! Good boy, but with diarreah...it was everywhere. I got him cleaned up and the bathroom cleaned up, and put him in the tub. I've done 5 loads of wash trying to clean all of the pillows, shams, towels, bath rug, comforter, clothes, rags, etc. After all of this was said and done, another little boy told me I looked like I was going to have another baby. :) That always helps your day! Then I was trying to do a little prep for dinner and was making some cornbread and ruined the whole batch by adding a 1/3 cup oil instead of MILK! AGH! Am I already this scatterbrained and it's only monday?! Wish me luck for the upcoming week, I will need it.

Halloween Post Overload...warning...this is LONG!

Halloween! Eek! It's my fave. We have had so much fun this month doing festive things, and we are sad to see it go, but the next two months are full of just as much fun. Here is about a bizzilion pictures to re-cap our fun.

Here is Adi posing before church...It has nothing to do with Halloween except it's cute, and it was this month.

Adi loves to rock her kitties like they're her babies. Prince Louis loves her!

Caleb and I got Halloween footie jammies. They have skulls on them, and they are the BEST! If you don't have a pair, you should get one!
Adi got a pair of $.50 skull glasses. They were a hit!
Here is Adi before her dance class on wednesday. They got to wear their costumes and have a party.
Emi got to go and dress up too!
Here is her group. Such cute kids!
After Dance class we went to Boise to spend the rest of the week with family. It was great. Gayle and Charlie and Craig got to come too. We missed Chelsey and Cory and Kristen and Mitchel tho. It was so full of fun and festivities. We went to the pumpkin patch. Here is Jed pretty proud of his pumpkin.

Shana pushing around all the kids and their pumpkins.

Emi and Daddy with the pumpkin they picked.

Me and Emersyn in the hay maze afterwards. Adi was so brave in this. She kept charging off on her own, and we'd have to go search for her. It was fun.

We made sugar cookies and decorated them.

Emi got to help too.

Adi loved this activity, especially the sprinkles and candy part!

Here are her finished cookies...don't you love the bite out of the purple one.
That night we went to a ward trunk or treat with Shana's ward. Caleb and I were a Roman warrior and his Roman Goddess.

Jed was the most adorable little penguin!

Emi and Adi went as BSU cheerleaders that night.

It's so hard to get the 2 of them to look normal at the same time! :)

We straightened my sisters hair because she was a witch for the trunk or treat. AH! Straight hair....it looks so witchy! :) heheeh

On Halloween we got to together and carved and painted our pumpkins. My friend Heidi came too, so Adi got to see her friends Tawny and Greyson.

Reese liked the guts!
Grandma was sweet to help Emersyn feel involved.

We made edible magic wands. Again, the sprinkles were a hit!


Here are the kids with some of their handy work.
We played in the leaves, and Jed wore Reese's jacket, he's so cute!

Raking them up to jump in, the funnest!

That night we had a party for my Dad's birthday. All the men are decked out in their BSU attire because they went to the game that day. Of course we won!

Daddy and Sissy "hee-yawing" before the party.

The birthday boy with 2 of his grandkids and his sister, my Aunt Andy.

Then it was on to Halloween fun. Here is the pretty princess!

And the most adorable Bee ever!

Apparently I am a Halloween nazi, and I made everyone dress up somewhat. Come on people, it's Halloween! Here is the group.

And here are the grandkids. We really missed Mitchel man and his Mom and Dad. They couldn't be there.
While we were trick or treating there is this crazy decked out house by my parents that we went to. SO AMAZING! That's the spirit!

Saying good-bye to my sister I was trying to get caleb to take a pic for us, and if you know my hubby at all, you probably don't have to guess why we look like that, we were laughin so hard at him.
Then we tried to pose again, and this time he was video taping, so we bust out laughing again, and he snaps a picture! ha!

Finally after crying from laughing so hard he takes a pic, and I look ridiculous from laughing so hard. Oh well, great memories.

This is Emi when we got home the next day and I was feeding her lunch. Do you think we wore her out?

It was such a great holiday. I am really blessed to have a beautiful family with a great husband, and not only that, but great Family on both sides. Ok, now bring on the rest of the Holidays! WOOHOO!