31 years...

On December 1rst, my parents celebrated their 31st wedding anniversary. I cannot imagine being married for 31 years!! Being a married adult with children, I now realize how hard it is to maintain a healthy marriage. Between kids, work, activities, friends and finding time for yourself, sometimes it is difficult to remember to nuture the relationship you have with your husband. With 1 out every 2 marriages ending in divorce, I am PROUD to say that my Mom and Dad are still happily married. My parents have shown my sisters and I that through good times and bad, sickness and health, to love and cherish your spouse. I feel very blessed to have them both in my life. I love the example they set for me, my sisters and their grandchildren! I love you Mom and Dad!! Happy Anniversary!!!

My Baby is 4 years old...

Yesterday was our Maya's birthday!! She turned 4 years old and I can barely believe it. Time moves so fast. I know it sounds cliche to say, it feels "like just yesterday she was born" but its TRUE! I cannot believe my sweet baby is 4 years old. I love her so much. Here are some of my favorite things about Maya:

-She is the SWEETEST child you will ever meet.

-She loves her family so very much.

-She is very patient.

-She is kind.

-She loves to snuggle with me.

-She tells me "Your my best Mommy".

-She loves to sing and dance.

-She tells us she loves us all the time.

-She is a GENIUS! She is seriously the smartest child I have ever met!!

Whenever I think about Maya I smile. She loves life. She is a happy child. She completes our family. Maya has brought such joy to my life. As many of you know, Kelsey was an extremely colicky baby. Kelsey was born a fighter and has not waivered. Since Kelsey was my first child, I naturally assumed all babies cried all the time and every toddler through multiple fits a day. To my surprise and delight, Maya hardly ever cried as a baby and we are sailing through toddler hood with no tantrums!!

We had a little party for Maya's birthday and it was a lot of fun! Crazy and loud but fun. My parents came up from St. George to celebrate with us. They bought her a digital camera for her birthday! She has not stopped taking pictures!!! Thanks Mom and Dad for coming up and the great gift!!

WE LOVE YOU MAYA!! Happy Birthday Baby!

Traditions...

On Thanksgiving morning Kels asked me, "Mom are you going to wake up tomorrow and make a BIG breakfast and then we put up our Christmas tree?"

I said, "Yes Kels how did you know that?"

Kels said, "Because we do that everytime the day after Thanksgiving! Thats our tradition!!"

I was shocked that Kels knew what a tradition was and that she has been alive long enough to remember an established tradition!! Its true that every Friday after Thanksgiving we put up our Christmas decorations. Typically, I make a huge breakfast, because that is just what you need after gorging yourself all day on Thanksgiving, and then we proceed to spend the entire rest of the day putting up Christmas decorations. This year, my friend and I went Black Friday shopping at Walmart at 4am. By the time I got home I felt like I had been through war!! It was BRUTAL! The crowds, the shoving, the lines....yikes not fun. I got home a little before 7 am and crawled back into bed. My little ladies were awake mere moments later, chirping about breakfast and christmas trees. Just as I was about to explain to them how overwhelmingly exhausted I was from fighting over $5 Barbies, I remembered how excited Kels was about our tradition. I asked the girls to clean up their rooms which gave me about 30 minutes to take a quick nap. Then I made a huge breakfast and we spent all day putting up Christmas decorations....like we always do.

A few days later we took the girls to see the lights on Temple Square. It was very cold, but luckily my boyscout husband made sure we were all dressed appropriately. We had a great time and who knows, maybe we will add that to the tradition!!

The Man who plays with dough...

This is no ordinary piece of pie my friends.

This is the best Banana Creme pie I have EVER tasted.

This pie was made by my multi-talented husband.

YES I am serious!

My husband is an extraordinary baker!! Each year for Thanksgiving he is responsible for the pies and this year was no exception. Thanksgiving was at his sister Becky's house this year and I was quite sad because that meant no leftover turkey for our family. So we decided to have a "Friends Feast" on Saturday night and make all of our Thanksgiving favorites to share with some our favorite couples!!! The feast was loads of fun and we ended the night with 4 AMAZING pies...one of which was this banana creme. Sadly the banana creme pie was gone almost immediately...but I am pretty sure I will be requesting it for years to come!

Halloween...

This year the girls were both witches for Halloween! Kelsey was a "Cute Witch" and Maya was the White Witch from the Disney Movie Chronicles of Narnia. I have never seen this movie, but I am pretty sure that witch did not have a tiarra on!! Maya insisted on wearing a "crown", she said witches were beautiful and crowns make them more beautiful. Kelsey wanted to be a glamorous cute witch-where do these kids come up with these ideas?? They both looked great and had a lot of fun trick or treating. We also had Adam's brothers and sisters, as well as all the nieces and nephews, come over for chilli and breadsticks on Halloween! Good times all around!!

Maya's First Haircut...

Maya just had her first haircut...ok....so her hair actually got cut last month. BUT as you know I have been S-L-A-C-K-I-N-G in the blog deptartment so I am just posting the haircut pics now. I was more nervous about this haircut than Maya was!! When I cut Kelsey's hair for the first time, her curls never returned. So with every snip of the scissors I was sure that Maya's curls would be gone forever. However, to my surprise and elation, her curls returned as soon as she got out of the tub the next morning!!! My longtime friend and hairdresser Christina cut Maya's hair and she did a fabulous job, as usual!!! Thanks Chris for taking our "baby" and transforming her into a "big girl"!!

My favs are all together...

Oh how I heart this baby. This is my angelic niece Jadyn and I am just as obsessed with her as I am with my 2 girls. She is perfection!! She and my sister Rae flew to UT last weekend for a wedding. I L-O-V-E when my family is all together; it happens so rarely. Being together is one of the things I love most in this world. We had a great time at the wedding, and of course the rest of the time together was spent shopping, eating, and laughing!!! Jadyn has grown so much since the last time I saw her!! She is the most darling child and has the most incredible smile!!!!!!! We love you Rae and Jadyn! Come back and visit SOON!