Leaves, Turkeys and Being Thankful

Josh grew a moustache for a school fundraiser, here it is the infamous moustache. Lilli and Daddy sporting milk moustaches. Josh had the moustache for a month, can't say that I was in the least bit thankful for it. I hate facial hair, but let him do it for a good purpose...never again!

We made a countdown to Thanksgiving and put a feather on for each day. Everyday each of us wrote something that we were thankful for. It was really fun to see what the girls were thankful for. 

Every year we get to rake a ton of leaves, I actually like raking leaves...the girls love it.  We throw them in the pile of leaves and watch them dissapear, and then put all of the leaves on a tarp and they get to ride on the leaves to the back yard where we dump the leaves in the forest behind our house! I love working out in the yard and watching the girls have so much fun in the outdoors. These are some of my favorite times!!

"Can we pleeeeease color with markers"

This is what happens when I let them use markers and leave the room for a couple minutes.  Lilli had put on pink lipstick and black on her eyes. Izzy decided to go for the gothic look.  I had to smile and take a picture, what cuties:)  Let's just say that the markers were put away for a looooong time!

Trip to Utah

The girls love dogs, so  Grandma and Grandpa's dog Lucky was never in lack of attention. The girls even insisted that we share breakfast with him.

Grandma and Grandpa made a yummy pancake breakfast in their sheep camp one morning. The girls absolutely loved it, it was a lot of fun! Thanks for the fun time and wonderful memories!

Grandpa and Grandma had a pumpkin patch and the cousins got to pick to their hearts content. Lilli and Izzy love, love being with their cousins. It is my favorite thing to watch them playing and having so much fun with their cousins. Lilli tells me weekly that she wishes we lived closer to her cousins, "not to drive there, I want to walk there..."

Izzy and Bridger were good at overseeing the picking:) Lilli found the perfect pumpkin, just my size as she would say.

Happy Halloween

Lilli and Izzy went trick or treating with their friends Kenny and Talen. They had such a fun time! Last year Lilli was tired after 5 houses, but this year I could hardly keep up with her. She wanted to run to and from every house. Izzy liked to take her time, but she kept going the whole time. 

Making gingerbread haunted houses for playgroup. Rachel Carlson in the ward made a whoppin 25 all from scratch. Yes she's amazing!

This year Lilli wanted to create her own design for her pumpkin. So she drew it on a piece of paper and then I transferred it to the pumpkin. It's a "Halloween Puppy."

Izzy wanted a scary face for her pumpkin, so this is what her and Daddy came up with!

We dressed up in the "Aladdin" theme. Lilli of course was the princess Jasmine and Izzy was Rajah the tiger, Josh dressed up as Jafar and I was Aladdin. We won best overall costume at our ward Halloween party!

Reflections of Christ

Yesterday in Institute we watched a very touching slideshow called Reflections of Christ.  Mark is the photographer and wanted to take pictures of real people reflecting Christ's life.  the music they put to it added so much and I was very touched, what a perfect thing start the Christmas season, yes I know we haven't even had Thanksgiving yet, but Christmas is my favorite time of year! I love the feeling that is ever more present in the world, of giving and kindness. I would call it Christ-like, and wish it would stay ever so prevalent as it is at Christmas time. Anyways I loved it. I am so grateful for the people that use their talents to help us visualize Christ's life. This is actually a traveling exhibit and is now at the Washington D.C temple! Check it out at 

reflectionsofchrist.com, and then click on Blog. Hope you enjoy!!:)

Pocahontas or John Smith?

Sorry about that last post...I hit a wrong key obviously and it erased everything that I had written, and then the girls were needing my immediate attention, so here it is:) We went to our 22 week appointment with the whole family. We had told the girls we were going to see the baby in my tummy and find out what it is. Isabella started saying that we were going to have a Pocahontas baby and Lilli said we were going to have a John Smith baby. I had been thinking it was a boy, so in the waiting room I was kind of nervous. Well they called us into the ultra sound room and there we got to see the miracle of life, one of my most favorite things. Lilli loved it and kept saying "This is so cool!!" and kissing my hand:):) Isabella wasn't too much into it but when Josh would point out a foot or hand she paid attention. We told the ultra sound lady what the girls had been saying all week and she then continued to say..."Well it definitely is a John Smith baby!"  I started tearing up, it was kind of like WOW! We are very excited this is just going to be a whole new ball game. I have 3 sisters and 1 brother who is 10 years younger than I am, so I remember dressing him up and doing his hair:) I am sure I will be fine, just keep them covered right:)We went and celebrated at Chipotle and Bruesters!!! Anyways we are very excited about our little "John Smith!"

IT'S A...

 

Mommy, Mommy Quite Contrary...

Mommy, Mommy, Quite Contrary How Does Your Garden Grow?

With Lilli, Izzy And Baby #3 All In A Row!! 

This is how Lilli told family we were expecting! I had my first check up at 3 months (in September) and we weren't going to tell the kids, but I had an ultra sound and I was just to excited to not tell Lilli. We had been mentioning the baby here and there in our prayers for awhile but Lilli never believed us, but then when I went to the doctor she said "..so the doctor really said you were pregant?"  I showed her the pictures and first asked her what she thought it was, her guess was a lion:) I asked Izzy also and her guess was a car. Pretty good for first timers:) So I asked Lilli to keep it a secret and she did really well for about 3 weeks and then when we were at the park with some friends she all of the sudden burst out..."Mommy's Pregnant!!" Everyone's mouths dropped including mine. I probably could have waited a little longer, but I wanted Lilli to do the telling and she did it all on her own time schedule, which is just fine with me.

Lilli's 4th Birthday

Lilli wanted to have a Fancy Nancy Birthday Party. It is a series of books that remind me so much of Lilli. We have checked them out at the Library a few times and Lilli thinks they are great! It's about a little girl who loves to be fancy, but her family is just so plain, so she gives them some lessons and then they go out to eat all fancied up. Well that is exactly what we did for her birthday! She invited her "fancy friend" Sammy. They had a blast getting all fancied up and then actually going out all dressed up, that was a treat! Yes we Mom and Dad got fancied up for the occasion.
Wow look at that concentration, very serious action going on here.
At the restaurant Lilli let the waitress know it was a Fancy Nancy party, so the she was awesome and really played it up with the girls. Their faces were priceless!! She had a fun time and even got a couple Fancy Nancy books of her own.
Daddy how handsome you are:):)
Happy Birthday Lilli, we sure love you and are amazed at how big you have gotten. You are such a great big sister and always so happy and energetic!! Thank you for your smiles and laughter they bring so much joy into our family! We love you sooo much!!

Puerto Vallarta

This last July my parents took us all to Mexico to stay at one of their time shares! It was absolutely wonderful!! It was beautiful and very relaxing!! A BIG Thank you to Mom and Dad for making this wonderful trip happen and for all of the wonderful memories!
I know it has been way to long since I posted, but I am going to do a little update.  Josh and I took a wonderful trip to Mexico with my family...kidless!! It was our first time leaving the kids for a week, but they did just fine. We had an absolute blast with my family! We rode the dune buggies. As you can see every inch of us was covered with wet, wet mud! We went up in the mountains and jumped in some waterfalls and of course Josh had to hit every mud puddle he saw, some were even warm, yuck!! One of the warm puddles we both were gagging and dousing ourselves with our water bottles. But so much fun none the less. 
We also went snorkeling, so much fun! We went on a 12 person boat with surviver man. He took us hiking in the jungle, with bare feet up to some beautiful waterfalls. He also took us to some private beaches, broke some coconuts open for us and took us to some awesome spots to snorkel. 

All in all it was a wonderful trip! We had tons of fun, and also built relationships. It was really neat to get the whole family together like that, because it probably won't happen for awhile. What a wonderful blessing!!!

Cake and Ice cream!!

We had a few friends over for cake and ice cream to celebrate Izzy's birthday. Her friend Talen gave her a doll with accessories, her favorite accessory was the blow dryer. Such the little fashionista:)

Izzy blowing out the candles, she blew all two candles out all by herself!

Here's the flower cake I made for her, kind of a funny angle but it turned out pretty cute!  Izzy couldn't wait to dig into the cake!

With fresh peach ice cream, compliments of Ashlee and Christian it was a perfect birthday treat!

Happy Birthday Izzy!

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Izzy turned 2 on July 6th! The girls get to pick what they want for their birthday breakfast, Izzy wanted cereal, so we went to the grocery store together and she picked Trix.  Of course a sugary  cereal:) Izzy acted kinda funny the whole day. When I tried to take this picture at breakfast she wouldn't look up...she was being really stubborn. I think it was all the extra attention!

Here is our beautiful birthday girl! We had her open her presents before we left for church. She was excited about this and had a fun time with her new toys. 

I made her an apron...which she refused to try on, it is so cute too, oh well. She had a fun time with her new cooking toys.

The theme for her birthday was "Flowers" Josh made the beautiful balloon flowers, with help from Martha Stewart! He did an awesome job!

Lilli of course helped Izzy every step of the way with opening presents, that's what older sisters are for right?

Swimming Fun

On the 5th of July we went out to some friends in the ward and had a BBQ, swimming and of course lots of fun!  Megan and Lilli had a blast playing together. Megan is really good with our girls they love her!

Lilli showing off her floating skills!

Pam Aldridge is the ward Primary President and always gets Lilli going!! Here Lilli is playing hide and seek.

Izzy had a fun time playing with the cars and sidewalk chalk. She enjoyed swimming but was a little chilly so she preferred being cuddled in her towel, which I don't mind at all. I love to cuddle so any chance I get I take it:)

4th of July

For the 4th we had breakfast at our good friends the Hansen's. The food was delicious and fun was had by all.  

Wow is it ever hard to get a good picture with 5 kids mostly 2 and under. I have to say we did a pretty good job! Look at all those adorable kiddos! Izzy, Lilli, Carter, Talen and Kenny.  We were going to go to an "Old Fashioned 4th of July" but Izzy was tired and ready for her nap so we all took a nap and later had a BBQ with our neighbours.

We are big fans of fireworks so we went out to Goochland to watch the show with Ashlee and Christain. We had to park at the YMCA and then school buses shuttled us to the park. This was Lilli's first time on a school bus and she was quite amazed that she didn't have to wear a seat belt.  She was so excited!!! She kept saying "Mom this is so neat!" , "Mom this is sooo fun!! over and over again. It definately brought a few smiles to the bus:)

 Izzy was a little nervous at first. She would close her eyes and peek at them, it was pretty cute! But after a little bit she opened her eyes and enjoyed sitting with Daddy, munching on popcorn and watching the fireworks!

Lilli loved the fireworks as you can see by her expression. She has the best expressions!! I love how animated she is! It actually started to rain during the fireworks but that didn't deter us, we just pulled our blanket over our heads and continued enjoying the show. It finished raining by the time the show was over so that was nice! All in all it was a wonderful 4th of July!

Summer +Popscicles= Happy, Happy Girls!

What can you say, a popscicle on a hot summer day... so refreshing and oh so yummy!

And when the popscicle changes the color of your tongue, even "cooler." Lilli and Izzy got a kick out of it and didn't mind sticking their tongues out to show off their cool new trick.

Mommies Making a Difference-Shoe Party

For service play group this month we had a shoe party, and donated shoes to Soles 4 Souls. They distribute shoes to the needy from donations from the community. The kids had a fun time stamping little tags to attach to the shoes, that said "With love from..."

Talen is a pro stamper he must get it from his Mom! Carlie is amazing at stamping, card making and the list goes on:)

We gathered all of the shoes, the kids seemed excited to give a few of their shoes away. Lilli seemed very concerned that some people don't have shoes, so it was neat to see her so happy to give a few pairs of hers away!

For this picture it was really cute they all held their shoes in the air and yelled shoes!!!

Izzy had to have her turn at putting some shoes in the bag, such an independant girl!! Thanks to Carlie and Talen, Rachel Carlson and of course my two cuties!