Family Pictures

My goal is to get our family pictures taken each year.  It's not something that David or I like to be a part of because we both don't enjoy pictures, but it's really important to me.  I grew up without a family picture and there is no way to recreate it because my brother has passed away.  I'm not even positive that there is a family picture with all 6 kids.  I want my girls to always have a recent picture with all members of their family just in case.  That sounds horrible, but it is extremely important to me because I know how delicate life can be.  We had gone camping at a campground up Logan canyon and picked it by chance.  It ended up being our new favorite campground.  We explored and found some gorgeous spots that we loved.  My friend Megan went as a leader to girls camp at the same campground and pointed out that it would be a beautiful spot for pictures.  I had to agree.  We decided we wanted our friend Ali (Clearly Seen Photography) to take our pictures and split the "travel fee".  Ali has taken pictures of our family and girls many times and the girls respond well to her and she does a great job.  The day we scheduled was SO rainy.  Not only that, but I had to leave work early with a migraine.  I took some meds and a nap and woke up with just a headache which was so lucky.  We got the girls ready and rushed up.  It was raining on our way up and then it stopped as we got to the campsite.  We were really lucky!  Although all the girls had crazy frizzy hair about 10 minutes in, we got some good pictures.  (I brought lotion to try to keep some of the frizzies at bay, but gave up eventually) Thanks Ali for capturing my family!

Christmas Tree and Tiny

My plan was to set our Christmas decorations up on Thanksgiving.  Because of the girls feeling terrible we waited until Saturday to do it.  The girls were still pretty sick and to be honest we probably should have had them on the couch resting, but where's the fun in that? I love that we have passed on the tradition of getting a new ornament every year to our kids.  I'm glad David and I still buy one for ourselves too.  This year we all got one from our trip to Yellowstone.  Because we are in a much smaller place, we used a puny tree that we had purchased a while back.  It was just big enough to fit the girls ornaments on it. 

 My girls always have the energy to be silly!

 Part of Davids gift to me was the Elf on the Shelf book.  I have wanted it for a few years because I delight in my girls getting excited about things.  He knew this would probably be the last year that both girls would fall for it so he gave it to me early.  The girls decided to name him Tiny.

Below is a place Tiny moved to....

which upon further examination we realized had a poorly placed red Christmas light

Tiny has made his way around the house and the girls think it's so funny to see where he is next.

Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving with my side of the family the Sunday before Thanksgiving.  David and I decided that after our move to Logan we would no longer leave our house on the holidays.  We both grew up staying home and having other family members come to our house and that's what we really want for our own kids.  The move has pushed us to make that a reality because we don't want to put our kids in the car for 2 hours every holiday.  We'd rather relax at home and enjoy our time together.  Here are a few pictures from my families party...

 My family brought the things to make a Turkey snack.  You use fruit loops and cheerios in a rubber glove and then add a beak and eyes.  The kids all had fun with it.

 We celebrated with Davids side of the family on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.  We gave them the entire month of November, but the only day that worked for Curtis and Jason was on Thanksgiving.  Dale and Connie just did two dinners.  It worked out well since Jeff was going to be gone on Thanksgiving due to a trip to California so he was able to be included too.  We also would have had to miss the family dinner due to illness if we were combined with Jason because we are very against getting our sick kids near other sick kids.  Shelby had a cold that turned into a sinus infection and double ear infection.  She was pretty good most of the day, but at dinner just wanted to lay with me.  The dinner was good and I'm glad it worked out to where we could participate even if it was a different day.  

On Thanksgiving we celebrated at home.  The girls wore the outfits that Shelby made at school.  We didn't cook a turkey dinner because we already had two within a week.  Shelby was miserable and kept us all up all night with her cough.  Kadence was fine all day minus a minor sniffle and then all of a sudden she got a fever of 103.2.  My girls don't really get fevers and when they do, they don't get a fever above 101.  David and I were pretty freaked out, but we couldn't find a dr in all of Cache Valley that was open on the holiday.  We could get her fever down in the 102's so we just kept up on the meds and brought her in to the dr the next day.  Sure enough, she had pneumonia again.  

 My girls loved watching the Lady Gaga Thanksgiving special on TV and you would have never been able to guess they were sick!  They were up dancing and so excited to see her.  (Although they got pretty tuckered out after about 10 minutes of dancing)

It wasn't the ideal Thanksgiving, but it was still a good one.  We have many more things to be grateful for than we do to complain about that is for sure.  We are blessed.  I love my girls and they are so amazing even when they are sick.  We are truly blessed to be their parents!

Halloween

This year for Halloween our girls were going to be Batman and Robin....right up until I went to order their costumes that is.  Then they randomly changed their minds.  I was a little sad because they would have been a great duo, but I'd rather my kids be what they want.  I mean it is the ONLY day in the entire year that you get to be whatever you want, right?  Shelby really wanted to be a witch.  I showed her a bunch of different witch costumes and she didn't want a new one, she wanted to use the one her sister had the year before.  Ummm, ok?  I mean I was excited to save the money but it was so strange she wanted to reuse a costume when she could pick any one she wanted.  

 Grandpa Joy gave her a spider broach to wear and she loved it!

 We added frog earrings to the mix and she couldn't be more excited.

 Kadence wanted to be a cowgirl.  She has recently been obsessed with cowboys and cowgirls.  I figured that was a pretty simple costume and she loved wearing it.  She wasn't loving taking pictures and I'm glad I got one without her giving me a nasty face, but I couldn't get more than one of her by herself.

 Grandpa also gave Kadence a pink bolo tie that you can see below.

The girls had a fun time in their school parades and I even managed to arrange going into work late so I could see Kadence.  Unfortunately I couldn't see Shelby because she had hers in the middle of the day. They both enjoyed our classic pizza dinner followed by a trunk-or-treat at our church.  We have gone to the same trunk-or-treat with all of Davids family for the past 6 years so it was weird doing it on our own, but it was still fun.  We left the trunk-or-treat to go around to houses.  I just don't think that there is anything better than going door to door with a pillowcase, ringing the doorbell and yelling "Trick-or-Treat!".  

Cornucopias/Thankful Book

Shelby really really wanted to make a cornucopia this year.  I decided we could make a little craft and the girls really enjoyed it.

 A few days after the cornucopias, we decided to do our thankful book.  Every year we add pages to our thankful book for Thanksgiving.  It has been fun to look back to when Kadence was thankful for panties and Shelby was thankful for her bottle.  

 For some reason, Shelby hasn't been smiling well for pictures but she really is happy in this picture.  

We're hoping to keep adding pages of our thankful book even when we have grand kids because it really is a fun little way to remember how blessed we are and it's fun to see everyone change over the years. 

Funny and Cute Randoms

Shelby makes the cutest notes CONSTANTLY! 

 

 

 

The other night when Kadence was in the ER and completely out of it, she told David "Mom is the best mom in the whole world."  She then asked him to remind her to tell me if she forgot.  (I was at the vending machine with Shelby)

 

 

 

 



Kadence and Shelby are so cute when someone isn't feeling good.  They get whoever it is a stuffed animal, draw them a picture, give them hugs, etc.  It's so sweet!



The other night we were talking about the fact that we can get a "feeling" and that comes from God.  We talked about how I got the "feeling" something was wrong with Kadence and we found out she wouldn't have been alive if I waited any longer.  We always talk about that so I figured to add something that included Shelby.  I told her that I had the choice to have her the way I did or the other way and I got the "feeling" to have her the same way I did Kadence.  I explained that if I didn't, she wouldn't be here either.  (My uterus was overstretched and would have ruptured if I labored at all)  The second it came out of my mouth I immediately regretted it!  Shelby immediately said, "What other way?"  We then had the pleasure of explaining vaginal deliveries.  It's been super easy thus far because we can say honestly that the dr just cut them out of my tummy and stapled me back together.  Shelbys face was priceless!  Kadence just nodded and said, "OK."  Then Shelby just kept saying vagina.....seriously it was all about vaginas.  She hates the idea of a baby coming out of there.  It was so hard not to just laugh at everything they said and every face they pulled.  I was dying!  They were being so funny I decided to record them for a second.  This was about 10 minutes into the conversation....


 

 

 

Shelby now reads like her big sister!  Sorry the video is sideways...

 



Hanukkah

Each year we celebrate one day of Hanukkah.  Well Hanukkah seemed to have snuck up on us this year and we realized that today was the only day we would have time to actually celebrate without being rushed by school or work. So while Shelbys reflection entry dried between phases, we prepared for Hanukkah. Before we started Shelby drew a picture... 

 At sun down we lit the menorah.  This time we let the girls help!

Then it was time for dreidel!  We didn't have any chocolate coins on hand so we just used real money.  At the end, we split the money between the girls.

 David won the family game

 Shelby won the round between her and Kadence.

 David made his delicious latkes and this year BOTH girls ate them and said they liked them!

 Then it was time for a Hanukkah present.

 

Shelby had to show her new furby all her ornaments on the Christmas tree which made me giggle.  Then when I looked at the picture I realized there is a birthday present under the tree.  So this picture is from a Hanukkah celebration with a mix of Christmas and birthday. 

 

I seriously have the best girls ever, nothing keeps them down.  If you didn't know they were sick and got very little sleep the night before you would never know.  They are just happy happy girls!  I love them so much and today they told me that they are going to do one day of Hanukkah with their kids which made me so happy.