December Fun

During the month of December we had a lot of fun with our friends, celebrating the Holidays!! One Saturday we decided to take a trip to the Bass Pro Shop where they were having all kinds of fun Christmas activities for the kids. Little did we know that after an hour long drive, the activities consisted of decorating broken sugar cookies, and having to stand in line for 3 hours to take a picture with Santa:( So we decorated the cookies, took our own pictures around the Holiday decorations and on some ATV's, toured around the rest of the store (it was pretty cool) and then headed out for dinner! Once we got passed all of the disappointments, it turned out to be a pretty fun day:)

"Bedtime Stories"

Olivia had a wonderful music teacher at school this year (mom you would love her) and she put together an amazing Christmas performance. They sang songs, told stories and all of the kids had an opportunity to play instruments too! Olivia also had a fun Christmas play in her class that we were able to attend along with her Christmas party!!

Jed turned 30!!!!

On December 15, 2009, my amazing husband turned 30!!!! He didn't want me to make a big deal about it so we just had a quiet night at our house with his favorite dinner and cake and some presents. Plus, he and my dad and brothers had already had a big celebration with a boys weekend in Park City, along with the BYU game in September (my brother was also celebrating his 30th birthday)!! I did come home late one night from mutual though, only to find him watching all of his high school basketball, football, and rodeo videos (aren't they supposed to have their mid-life crisis at 40? He still has a few years:)

New Moon

Some friends and I took advantage of a Friday night off from our families and went to dinner (yes, Chuy's again) and then went to see "New Moon," to help celebrate Monique and Kristina's birthdays in November. It was so much fun and I must say that I may be a Jacob fan now:)

Halloween

We had such a fun Halloween in 2009!! We couldn't believe that we had to actually wear t-shirts instead of snow clothes though and we had a really fun filled day with our friends!! We started out by going to our favorite restaurant, Chuy's, then on to the Ward trunk-or-treat and then ended the evening with more trick-or-treating on base (courtesy of the Biorns:)
Olivia was Cinderella at school and then she wanted to be a scary witch with a green face for trick-or-treating. Lexi was an adorable ladybug (thanks Mimi for the costume)!! I know I'm biased - but really - could she get any cuter? (if you were wondering - I was an angel) We have such incredible friends here that make being away from family a little more bearable!
The only bad thing about Halloween? Waking up the next day to 15 bug bites all over Olivia's legs - gotta love the bugs in Texas!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO US?!?!

Is it okay to wish ourselves a Happy Anniversary? Well I'm doing it anyway, even if it's not. Anniversaries never get remembered (at least by other people) unless you remind them. Although I do have some wonderful family members that did remember - but I'm not going to name any names, because I don't want to make the ones that forgot feel bad! hahahah:) (It's okay I don't remember anniversaries either)

Anyway, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to my wonderful husband. It has been 8 unforgettable years and we both wish that we looked like we did 8 years ago! It was very low key - but I did make Jed all of his favorite meals yesterday, including a strawberry mud pie last night - yummy!!!! I LOVE YOU MORE TODAY THAN THE DAY I MARRIED YOU!

P.S. Our Anniversary was September 29th

Olivia our Jack-o-Lantern

Just in time for Halloween!! Actually it happened about a month ago, but mom has gotten lazy on her posts. Anyway, Olivia finally lost one of her top teeth and she was so excited. Jed keeps on telling her that she should definitely be a jack-o-lantern for Halloween this year - she's not so sure:)

Lexi turns 1!!!

Lexi turned 1 year old on August 31, 2009. Wow how time flies! It feels like it was just yesterday that we were bringing her home from the hospital. She has grown up so quickly. It took her a while to crawl, but it seems like since then she has taken off! She even took her first steps last week (while Jed was on his hunting/boys weekend trip in Utah)!! But that's alright because we were at our friends house when she did it and so at least a couple of my girlfriends were there to get excited with me:)

One of her favorite things to eat is oatmeal and so instead of a cake we made her some oatmeal cookies (hers didn't have any chocolate chips in them) and she absolutely devoured them! I've never seen her so excited - I guess sugar will do that to a 1 year old:) Since then she is discovering that she loves all kinds of table food - squash, zucchini, broccoli, whole wheat pasta, any kind of fruit, and definitely anything that's sweet! We are so grateful to have Alexis as part of our family - she was truly a much needed and appreciated addition:)

I have a 1st Grader!!!

Today was Olivia's first day in the 1st grade!! I can't believe how old and mature she is getting. It feels like 16 is just around the corner. She even picked out her outfit for today (last week). She has been waiting very patiently to wear this shirt. I think I may have a future fashion diva on my hands - sooooo not like her mother:) Hopefully she'll be much better than me. Again, I think this was much harder on me than on her. It's only been a few hours and I don't know what to do with all of my spare time! (I know this won't last very long - I'm just procrastinating all of the work I really have to get done). Oh, I love being a mom and I love my girls:)

Final Summer Days

Olivia is finally starting to make some really good friends here in Texas (hopefully more once school starts). One of those friends is Robert. He came over the other day for some final summer memories and I had to take some pictures of them. First they were playing hop scotch in Olivia's slippers. Then after lunch they decided they wanted to make some sugar cookies. They wanted to do everything from rolling out the dough to cutting out the shapes. What great helpers they were - aprons, flour and all!!!!

Utah Home Sweet Home?

I hope I don't offend any of my friends in Texas, but I still kind of consider Utah my home. We just got back from a vacation to Utah this past week and it felt really weird coming home to Texas. It's probably because we have only been in Texas for 5 months and we were in Utah for 10 years and a lot of our family lives in Utah, but it was still a little strange.

Anyway, the girls and I had a wonderful time and got to see so many family members and friends. So thank you to all who were so generous in letting us stay and play with you!! We love you so much and of course miss you already:) We started off the week with a family reunion for my mom's family in Salt Lake. We had parties, went swimming, went to the Childrens Museum at the Gateway (Uncle Bryce taught Jace to make paper airplanes, while Val and Olivia played with the magnets) and of course did not get enough sleep at all! I got a priceless picture with Lexi and Grandpa Bear. I just love Lexi's smile with all of her teeth now - we almost have 6. (Thanks Mimi and Papa Romney)!

Then for the second half of the week we went up to Kamas to stay with Jed's parents and we went to his family reunion up in the COLD mountains (it was about 55 degrees - this was the first time I had worn pants or a sweatshirt in months) I had to put Lexi in the Baby Bjorn and then zip her up in a coat with me so she could stay warm - it was so cute!! It was so nice to have some cooler weather, where we could actually enjoy being outdoors - it was so beautiful and green. Thank you Gines family for all of the relaxing fun!

Those of you who know me well, know how much I love to sing and so as part of our trip I had the opportunity to participate in a Jenny Phillips music workshop with my mom, my aunts and my friend Julie and we had a ton of fun - it was really wonderful:) I also got to record a demo in a studio with Tyler Castleton (writes a ton of amazing music) and it was incredible - I loved every minute of it! I also got to meet Hilary Weeks - one of my favorite LDS artists. Altogether, the experience was unforgetable. Music has always been a passion of mine as well as a blessing. I just hope that one day I will have the opportunity to share with others the joy I feel when I sing!! We miss you Utah:)

Yes, she did!

Everyone keeps on asking if Lexi cried when we got her ears pierced and yes, she did! Jed took this picture with his phone right after the piercing. The crying only lasted for a second. We wanted to do it when she was younger, but 11 months was the magic age for Lexi (we pierced Olivia's at 9 months). Now I won't get anymore compliments on my cute "boy"! (Don't worry Lexi - you don't look like a boy - you're too pretty!)

Sleepover with the Young Women

Okay, so some of you may think I'm crazy, but at the end of July we had a sleepover at one of my counselor's homes for all of our young women and it was so much fun! Not a lot of sleep took place, but there was dancing, singing, nail polishing, and who can have a party without food? We indulged with a chocolate fountain and tons of goodies to dip in it! Yummy!!!!

Olivia and Alexis got to come with me for the first couple of hours while Jed was still at work and so Olivia got to have her nails done by Alyssa (one of our Laurels). Olivia was in high heaven and did not want to go home! Can you really blame her?

The youth here in Texas are pretty incredible - especially our young women!