Bryt: Day 286 December 11

Today was our ward Christmas Party and it was pretty fun. They had set up a whole corner of the gym as a kid's corner and the young women took care of the kids the whole time and did crafts and fed them and everything! Every time I would look over to check on Morgan I saw one of the young women cleaning up some sort of spill and it was nice to know I didn't have to worry about it :) It was a great time and I am so thankful for the Holidays and the chance they give us to get out and be merry and bright!

Bryt: Day 285 December 10

This is my favorite part about us moving here. Morgan loves seeing her cousin, Celeste, and being able to go to the park or over to their house all the time. It is so great to see these two together, and to know that they could end up having the sort of close knit relationship I had with some of my cousins. Some of my best childhood memories come from holidays and summers with them, and I am so glad Morgan is getting to experience that with someone her age too.

Bryt: Day 284 December 9th

I always thought Arizona sunsets were top notch, but the view out our front door ain't half bad either.

Bryt: Day 283 December 8th

He really, REALLY, loves to swing. And I really, REALLY, love his double-chinned smile :)

Bryt: Day 282 December 7th

And now we are off to go buy child safety locks for the dangerous cupboards.

Bryt: Day 281 December 6th

It doesn't get much cuter than that, people.

Bryt: Day 280 December 5th

Ian is absolutely determined to open up that end table. Why? Because that gold ribbon you can see poking out of it is actually a belt tied around his sister's waist who is currently inside of there pouting. I gotta say, I am not really minding this transition into "go hide and pout" mode instead of "scream and kick on the floor when I don't get my way" mode :)

Bryt: Day 279 December 4th

We have had to set up a super cool banana chair/rubbermaid tote barricade around our Christmas tree because this little guy cannot leave the ornaments alone. And since the ornaments are just plastic, I don't have the heart to take them away when he is playing with them. BUT man, then I have ornaments all over the house and decorating your tree really is fun, once. Not really so much 15 times a day.

Bryt: Day 278 December 3rd

Uncle Sam raked all the leaves in the backyard today and was kind enough to leave a giant pile for Morgan to play in. She had so much fun! I even jumped in it with her once...I can understand why kids love it (minus the leaves down the pants of course)!

Bryt: Day 277 December 2

HO HO HO! Morgan has been wanting to play Santa pretty much any chance she gets! She makes me pretend to be asleep on the couch while she sneaks in and leaves me all sorts of presents (usually her stuffed animals or pieces of our nativity) Then she takes off the hat and rushes in pretending to be one of us parents saying "Sweetie! Sweetie! Santa came last night!" Then, we switch and I am the one doing the ol' Ho Ho Ho.  The best part is one time I thought it would be funny to test to see if she was actually asleep while I was Santa by tickling her feet. She didn't even flinch. Me, on the other hand, when I am playing the "Sweetie" my feet get tickled about a million times because I can't help but giggle. What? It tickles!

Bryt: Day 276 December 1

Ro, I got a spiky hair picture to match Connor's :)

Bryt: Day 275 Tuesday, November 30

Doesn't Howie just look thrilled to have Ian using him to stand up on?

Bryt: Day 274 Monday November 29

We bundled up nice and warm to go see the temple lights. Sometimes it is so hard to keep the focus of Christmas on Christ, but I really love that there are fun things like this to do that allow us to enjoy modern traditions like the lights but also focus on the things that are so important too. 

Bryt: Day 273 Sunday November 28

Just setting up the tree :)

Bryt: Day 272 Saturday, November 27

I love the whole process of going out and chopping down your own Christmas tree. It is so fun to drive up to the mountains and then search around for just the right one. We always joke around because it seems like we pretty much ALWAYS find the perfect tree at the very beginning, and then we look around for another half hour and always end up coming back to the very first one we liked!

Bryt: Day 271, Friday November 26

It was SO very much fun to have Rocha in town to come do my black friday shopping with me! I usually go alone (which is still fun) but I had WAY more fun with Rochelle. That's how it usually goes :) We swung by Denny's after we hit up Walmart and caught up, and it was just so good to hang out with her for a couple hours without the hubbs or the kids and just be kids ourselves again. Thanks for always being my bestest friend Ro!

Bryt: Day 270 Thursday November 25

It is hard to see it, but Ian decided he wanted to have Thanksgiving Dinner too, and he just grew a tooth overnight :) 

Bryt: Day 269 Wednesday, November 23rd

JD's family is a pie family. They LOVE pies. They love pies so much that they usually have "Pie Night" the night before Thanksgiving so they can just eat pie, because they make about a bajillion of them. This Thanksgiving we only ended up with 1 pumpkin, 2 jack o lantern (they swear they are different than a normal pumpkin pie), 1 apple, 1 mince meat (which sounds disgusting but tastes delicious), 1 pecan, 1 banana cream, and a razzleberry pie. Yeah, only that many :)

Bryt: Day 268 Tuesday, November 23

For a couple of days it was looking like we were going to be moving, AGAIN, and I had found the perfect place for us. It was the perfect price, size, and distance from Costco for JD for work. They even allowed dogs with a fully refundable deposit. BUT, it was only medium sized dogs. Sometimes Howie curls up in a tiny little ball to sleep like this, and we were hoping he would look small enough in the picture to convince a landlord he was just medium sized until we had to sign a lease :) Everything ended up working out alright though, and we will still be hanging with the inlaws for a few more months. Which, I gotta say, is kind of a relief.

Bryt: Day 267 Monday November 22

First of all, I knew I was behind, but when I realized I haven't posted since BEFORE THANKSGIVING...wowsa. I am a la-hooo-sa-her :)

Anyhow, this is Morgan at a Christmas festival we went to. Yep. Before Thanksgiving. She was so excited to get that balloon animal, the lady said it was a stegasaurus and while the lady was making it Morgan kept giving her details like, "It has bony plates on it's back!" The poor lady popped 2 balloons before finally making a stegasaurus that fit Morgan's expectations!