Christmas Sunday

Here is my beautiful family on the Sunday before Christmas. We got the girls new Christmas dresses and had them all wrapped up for them to open that morning.

Lilli loves her dress and wants to wear it everyday. Izzy and Lilli looked so beautiful!

Knee Surgery

Josh had knee surgery the day after his last class for the semester. He hurt his knee playing basketball and tore his ACL. The doctor told him that some people never get it fixed but that if he wanted to be active he probably should get it fixed.  So here are the battle wounds. Just before surgery he was asking a ton of questions right up to the time they put the mask on. They had to tell him to just breath, a polite way to say shut up so we can do your surgery. When the nurse came to get me to go see Josh in recovery she said, "He sure talks ALOT doesn't he. He was on some pretty strong drugs for the first week, so he said a lot of funny loopy things. The girls were such good helpers! It was a little hard for the first week as Josh didn't get out of bed.  I am so thankful to some good friends from the ward who brought in dinner for 5 days. It's amazing how much relief a simple dinner brought, it was so nice not to have to worry about dinner at the end of the day! We had one scary incidence when Josh got up out of bed, he hadn't been up out of bed for awhile and he got up to fast. All of the sudden I hear him calling for me. He said he was going to pass out. He was able to lean against the wall with his crutches but he started shaking and his eyes were going all weird. I called to Lilli and told her to go across the street to get our neighbors for help. She was the hero for the day. She ran over as quick as she could and even looked both ways before she crossed the street. Meanwhile Josh started to shake and breath really irregularly, while I am pleading him not to pass out. There was no way that I could catch him. Thank goodness for the wall and his crutches he stayed upright. Our neighbors arrived and there was one on each side and I picked up his leg as he was still out of it and was putting pressure on it. Anyways we got him to the bed no harm done. That was pretty scary for me but after that little episode he has done better everyday. He has had such a good attitude the whole time and never complained. He is doing physical therapy now and has made huge strides. I am really proud of him and thankful for this experience. Serving Josh really brought us closer together and helped me be less selfish. 

Happy Birthday Josh

Josh turned 31, WOW! I wanted to make him a special dinner but all he felt like was eggs. So we ended up having pumpkin pancakes and eggs. I turned out to be a delicious dinner. He had a scrumptious ice cream cake especially from Ben and Jerry's.

We got Josh a "Get Strong, Get Ripped Quick" machine. You just mount it in a doorway and you can do pull ups. Or use it on the ground for push ups, sit ups, etc. Here the girls are showing their muscles off. Every time Josh uses it the girls have to have a turn. Lilli really enjoys is, one time after using it she said to me, "I wish it was called Get strong, Get ripped SLOW. She would love to do it for a LONG time each time.

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!