Thanksgiving

We had a blast this year! We were down in good old Beaver again with most all of Russ' fam. The grandkids are almost all grown up and married now so the sleeping arrangements are getting interesting. We decided to bit the bullet and not get a hotel room which meant staying in one large room with 7 other family members the first night. There were four beds and the play pen. We just figure that it's times like these that we will remember the most whether it's Tay refusing to sleep in the play pen or Eric yelling at Dustin in his sleep! I was going to take a picture but of course forgot.

On Thanksgiving we went up with the immediate fam to cut Christmas trees. This was the first time I had gone because I am kind of picky about the kind of tree I get and like the freedom of shopping around back home. Even without getting a tree I was so thrilled to go this year, especially with the baby. It's a really good thing my in-laws love their big, BIG trucks otherwise we would have been stuck in the middle of an iced over pond or stream. I have never been on a ride like that! Tay loved it as she bounced around in her car seat yelling bounce, bounce, bounce! It was beautiful up the mountain and we have tons and TONS of pics. I have not had time to unload my camera yet so these are a few from gpa Randy.

After tree cutting it was back to the house for the food! As always Grandma Lee put on a fabulous spread (even if someone did forget to bring the extra yams! Oops!) The rest of the trip was spent catching up with the family. Russ has the best extended family and I truly feel like they are my own. It's so strange for me to see the younger kids, that I met 10 years ago, who are now so grown up!

I love spending time with Russ' family because it always reminds me of how people should act in this world. There isn't anything they wouldn't do for anyone and I love to be on the receiving end and I hope that I keep their kindness with me all the time!

This makes me HaPpY!

She really is the happiest kid I've ever seen! I had to crop this pic to make it appropriate for the blog. This is bath time last night. As I was getting her pj's and running the bath she escaped. I found her jumping as hard and as high as she could, naked, on the couch. I laughed so hard! Then when I went to take a picture she just stood there for me, I think she was happy to show off! Ahhh...the little things in life!

Go UTES!

Last Saturday our neighbor friend hooked us up with some tickets to the U of U football game. We love the U and used to go to all the games, but now that we are out of school it's a little different. As we walked into the stadium I told Russ that I think we just forgot how much we loved to be at the games because if we remembered we would never miss one!

We got to take Tay with us and they even let me sneak her chicken nuggets in! People are so accommodating when you have a baby! We were each bundled in about 10 layers just to make sure we didn't freeze, we even took Tay's snow pants just in case! Luckily, the sun came out in the second half and we were toasty warm the whole time. Unfortunately, when I went to take our first picture on the camera we realized the battery was dead. Thankfully my phone has a decent camera on it and we got a few shots.

Tay loved all the action. The first half she just sat with Russ and watched everything going on around us. By the time we left she was shouting, Go! Go! Go! with the crowd and doing the 3rd Down Jump, I think that was her favorite part of the whole day. We had such a great time! Thanks Coach for the tickets!

Stress and Gratitude

These two words seem to go together all to well this time of year. So, in an effort to beat the stress and focus more on gratitude I thought I would start here. There are so many wonderful things to be thankful for I don't what to list first. The things on my mind today are:

♥ Russ. To me just his name says it all. Everyday I watch with such a full heart as he takes care of our little family and loves on Tay. He is the most adorable dad I have ever seen.

♥ Tay. Oh, my gosh! This kid has stolen my heart and wrapped herself around it. My life would be so empty without her. I can't live without her smile, he giggle or her yelling at the dogs. Everything she does is amazing and I love watching her grow, even if it is WAY, WAY to fast!

♥ Our home. Yes, this is just a house as some would say, but it is my house, my home. I would live here forever and be 100% happy. This house is us, we built it, our lives happen here and I don't care to ever leave it.

♥ New things. I have usually not been a big fan of change but in the last couple of weeks I have changed my mind. If it were not for change I would not be where I am today and have the friends that I do now. I love where we are in life, I find myself thinking if life gets anymore perfect I might explode.

♥ Bows, tutus, Friday nights at home with junk food, a movie, Russ and Tay. Books, music, love, friends, shopping, food, talking too much, laughing non-stop, and the list goes on.

I'm sure I will think of more tomorrow so check back.

Happy 30th Russ!

Russ turned 30 on Sunday! It's crazy, when did we get this old! It's hard to imagine I have known him for almost 11 years!We had a fancy little get together for him at our house. Everyone was in black and/or white and all dressed up! Because Russ was the birthday boy he got to wear a bright red tie just to make sure he would stand out! We had so much delicious food and I have to give a big thanks to Shere for all of her help! She brought great food and also helped me put everything together when she got here. It was so fun to have all our friends around to celebrate Russ' birthday and it will be a night that we will always remember.

His actual birthday was not quite as great as the night before. We were sitting in the living room hanging out when Tay came up and spit out half of a pill to me. It had a blue coating and was the same shape as Aleve but there was no way to know for sure. We also didn't know if she had bitten the pill in half and swallowed it or if she only found the one half. Russ and I don't use Aleve so we called Poison Control who then directed us to the emergency room.

Since we could not positively ID the pill, and we did not know how much she had really ingested, we got to spend 4 hours in the ER. Yes, 4 hours with a never sit still toddler. It was not the worst experience of our life but not really the most fun either! Everyone was 98% sure that she was not in any danger but we were not going to take the 2% risk.

We did make it home with a healthy happy lil girl and still managed to have some family over for a birthday dinner. We won't complain too much because now we just get to have another big family party next weekend! My family loves to celebrate birthdays and won't let Russ go without one!

Pretty butterfly!

Halloween is so fun with a child! The costumes are so cute, and so practical, these days! Taylor and Syd were matching butterflies this year. I love how everything just works our perfectly and we got our costumes the day before Grandma Baird's party for super cheap!



Grandma's party was fun, she had the table set with take home Halloween cups for all the kids. The babies didn't stay for games, but I was so happy that we could at least make it for pictures this year. Tay was really sick last year and throwing up. :(

We were planning to go and take tons of pictures at the pumpkin patch before Halloween but then it snowed. Luckily, it warmed up enough for us to go get pictures and pumpkins just before the trick-or-treaters started. Tay was not a fan of pictures but we managed to get one or two, good thing she just always looks cute!

It was so fun watching her cling to the wheel-barrel as Russ wheeled her around looking for the perfect pumpkins.

It was even more fun watching her walk beside him, helping him steer.

Oh, then it got even better when she stood behind him to help him left it.


We decided to just camp out on the porch and see everyone as the came around for candy. With Tay still being too young to understand we just had a blast on the porch chasing her around, again trying for a good picture!

While Russ was trying to carve pumpkins Tay looked over to him and said, "pa-keen". I can't believe she is picking up now! She says so many words, my favorite right now is "I got you", she says it while she is growling at Russ. It's the best!

Memories...

Yes, I have been there and this pic doesn't even do it justice. I started feeling a bit nostalgic tonight when a picture on the sidebar of my Facebook caught my eye. It was a picture of Jost Van Dyke in the Virgin Islands. I have never see a more beautiful place or had such a memorable day in my life. Pure pleasure.

We took a boat out all day guided by two locals, we were so lucky! Check out http://www.lionindasun.com/ We went to the Baths, anchored the boat and had to swim to shore. We army crawled through the sand in our swim suits, climbed all over the rocks, and jumped off a very large one to swim back to the boat.

After that we cruised to the Soggy Dollar Bar on Jost Van Dyke. You have to again anchor the boat, jump off holding your belongings overhead, and walk to shore. There we ate great food, relaxed in the hammocks for every, and played the ring game. What is the ring game? Well, easy enough, there is a hook screwed into a tree and you stand back with a rope and a ring, and try to get the ring on the hook. We played for ever!

I have been itching to go back for a couple of months now and I think it's time. I would move there if I could!