Reese's early birthday party!

I love this picture!
It was like she knew they were for her!
The boys getting their dance on!

We had Reese's birthday party early this so Todd's family who usually aren't around could participate and party with us. It was a lot of fun! She totally just devoured her cupcake! She had a blast and it was good to have some fun time with the family! Lots of yummy food and plenty of Just Dance 3! :)

Lily Dances

This is Lily's Ballet dance, she is the one on the end, closest to the camera!

Cuties

I pulled this toy out for Reese today, and Lily wanted a part of it too! It was pretty cute!
I finally got a cute picture of Reese close up! If you look close, you can see her tooth! I just love her bright eyes!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Lily loved Santa, Reese on the other hand, wasn't very fond of him...
Lily was helping put up Christmas Decorations on Friday
I ran a 5k with some friends, it was great! It felt great!
Trevor with the Turkey! Yes, that 40 lb turkey took 12 hours to cook... but it was delicious!
The fam with our Christmas Tree that we put up on Sunday! Lily was an awesome helper!

Lily Dances

Time Out for Women

So yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity to attend Time Out For Women in St. George with some awesome friends and sister-in-law. Some of the speakers included Hilary Weeks, Brad Wilcox, Wendy Ulrich and Emily Freeman. It was so refreshing and wonderful to just sit and partake of the spirit without any distractions!

I got a lot of insights throughout the day, but one that really had some power on me, was something that Hilary Weeks said. She talked about eating lunch with her nine-year-old daughter and listening to a silly story that she was telling her and watching mac and cheese dribble out of her mouth. As she was spending that time with her daughter, something hit her. She is going to have eternity knowing her children as adults, this is the only time she will ever have knowing her children, as children. I had never really thought about that before. It had a profound effect on me. I have spent my life saying, oh when these kids grow up it will be better... or I can't wait until they are old enough to take care of themselves... and so on and so forth. At that moment, it was just like... stop wishing your life away! It was time to really enjoy these days and appreciate my kids for the stages they are in. I hope that I can stop complaining and more enjoying what I have and appreciate the silliness, messes, and the fact that I can just hold my girls to make it better!

Halloween

Ready to go trick-or-treating! (if you can't tell, Reese is a parrot eating a cracker)
Lily with her pumpkin
The traditional pumpkin...
Todd with his "death star"
Lily as tinkerbell!

We had a fun halloween this year! We went to a kid party, trunk-or-treat and other festivities. By the time halloween came, I think we were ready to be done with the costumes but it was still fun. Lily had a good time going in the neighborhood with a couple friends. Reese didn't really care what was going on. We got rid of a lot of candy, which made me VERY happy! hehe. Last week we carved pumpkins so that helped get us in the mood.

Getting in the Game!

So a few weeks ago, a friend of mine in my ward started a challenge called the Game on Diet. She sent me the rules, and I was in. I have been working out regularly for the past few months but haven't had much results because it was only half-hearted. I decided it was time to kick my butt in gear and get where I wanted to be in life. So this past week was our first week, and I started working out every morning at 6AM. I have been feeling so good! I am doing things that I never really thought I could do. I was so negative during my workouts and my results showed it. So my new goal for the week was to be more positive during a workout, and when I thought I can't do that, I would replace it with, yes I can, and I will! I accomplished SO much this week and it gets me so excited! I am so tired of sitting on the back burner and just watching life fly by! I am now full of energy and feel SO great! I officially lost 6 lbs and a half an inch on my thighs and a half on my stomach this last week! That is like biggest loser status! Todd has been so supportive and such a wonderful husband! This morning, I did my workout at home (Thank you jillian!) and Lily was doing it with me. It was nice until I started doing floor work and she jumped on top of me... no biggie.. hehe.
I have always heard of people talking about how one day a switch just flipped in their mind and it was all good, and I always thought, yeah right... it will never switch for me. But honestly, it truly did! I am competing against 10 other women on the other team and I REALLY want to win! I think I'm on the right track if you ask me!

The Pumpkin Patch

The Family... Reese was super happy about it.. hehe
I told Lily to smile and this is the face I got...
Todd with the girls! Reese apparently wanted to get down, and I'm pretty sure Lily didn't want to take a picture...
The Pumpkin Patch
Christie and the girls waiting to go on our hayride.

There is a pumpkin patch in Paragonah, (just 15 min away) that is so much fun! We went last year just a few days before Halloween and almost all the pumpkins were gone or destroyed, and we were the only people there. So this year we decided to make it a family night and go earlier in the month. There were quite a lot of people there and it was much more fun. The girls loved the hayride and picking out the pumpkins. We had a lot of fun! Plus it was cheaper than buying them at a store, plus we got the whole experience too.

The Little Mermaid!

It was cold and rainy, so we decided to get a slushie... well, Lily enjoyed it!
They had to stop the show a couple of times because it started to rain too hard, and this is what the audience looked like... luckily it cleared up just enough to finish the show, so we didn't have an angry 3 year old on our hands...
Mommy and Lily before the show... she refused to look at the camera and smile!
Before the show... WE'RE SO EXCITED!
I love this picture... LOL

Last night we took Lily to go see The Little Mermaid for her birthday. She was SO excited and as soon as it started she was riveted. It was an awesome show and so fun! They flooded the stage and used a lot of water throughout the show. It was so much fun! We got very close to getting rained out but luckily the weather finished up. They also announced last night that next year they are doing Aladdin! TOTALLY GOING! And Hairspray! I told Todd he knows what I want for my birthday next year now.. hehe I'm so glad we took Lily because she was in heaven!

They Get So Big!

I LOVE Reese's smile in this picture!
The other day, I put Reese in jeans and she looked so big! So I tried to take a few pictures of the girls, and it's SO hard to get a picture where they are both smiling, but this was the best I could do. Lily was trying to be silly, which she always is so that's fine. I just love her! Reese gets so smiling and giggles all the time. I love it!

Book Wreath!

So this was my super Saturday project for our relief society this past weekend. It's super easy and super cute, hence super saturday. The only thing is it takes a little time, a lot of hot glue and possibly some blisters... All you do, is go to DI and buy a 50 cent paperback book. Paint the edge of the book whatever color you want to use to match your decor. I picked brown. Buy a Styrofoam wreath at any craft store. Tear out all the pages of the book, (I know it's almost painful to do so) then just roll up the pages and start on the back and start hot gluing. This only cost $5! I did get a blister because I was too busy visiting rather than focusing on not burning my fingers, but that's fine. It was worth it! I love it! Thank you Lisa for introducing the project, because I am so happy with it!

Trying to be healthy

Guacamole and Swiss Turkey Burger! Has chopped green peppers, S&P, Swiss Cheese, Tomatoes, Spinach and Guacamole on this burger... DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!
Todd even liked it!
Chicken and Greek Salad!
Spinach, tomatoes, cucumber, feta cheese, original Greek dressing and Chicken. I threw some carrots on there too... seriously! DELICIOUS!

I have been trying to cook more healthy options for us lately, and honestly... it's been so delicious. I hate eating out because I can just feel the grease come in, but these are so yummy and filling!

Our Awesome Girls!

Labor Day Super Weekend!

Lily and Robbie enjoying the parade
Daddy and Reese waiting for the next float
Lily in the parade... she had that waving thing down!
Lily riding the train
Lily cuddling with Daddy, the leg up on Todd cracks me up!
Family picture on top of the conference center
Lily and Daddy playing in the hotel room
Reese planking! (If you don't know what planking is, go look it up on youtube)

This past Wednesday afternoon, we left for Ogden for a couple of days to go visit some friends up there. We got there later that night so we just went straight to the hotel and called it good for the night. But not before Todd and Lily could have a pillow fight... hehe. Then the next morning we got up and went to see our friends. As a group we went and had lunch in downtown Ogden and then headed to Boondocks in Kaysville. It was so fun! There was hardly anyone there on a Thursday afternoon so no waiting in lines, just non-stop fun. That night we went to a little Greek restaurant named Andys that had DELICIOUS Greek food. I had never really had Greek food before, but this stuff was awesome!
The next morning we got ready to go and made our way south. First we stopped by temple square and toured the conference center with Lily. It was kind of fun to see it through her eyes for a little bit. Then we headed to the visitor centers and had Lily touch the temple. By then it was almost 1 so we met up with our friends again and went to another delicious restaurant named Settebello. If you are ever in SLC I STRONGLY suggest you hit this place up. It is basically just authentic Italian pizzas and there is a gellato place right next to it, can't get much better than that!
Next we got to visit some friends of our who recently had a baby in American Fork. He was adorable and it was so fun to just sit and visit for a little bit admiring how much they had grown. They are heading out to Penn State at the end of the month, and we will definitely miss them! Have fun Jimmy and Mikensi!
Finally it was around 4 and the Friday of Labor Day weekend in Utah County... it was time to get moving! Once we made it through the traffic we decided to hit up the Santiquin Barn. We got a few cookies some original soda and we were on our way again. All in all it took us about 9 hours to get home from Ogden on Friday but it was nice to not be in a rush.
Saturday we added 8 more trees to our landscaping. We're so excited to see something other than weeds in our yard. Monday was Labor Day and our County Fair Parade. Since Lily is in a dance troop now she was in the parade. It was so fun to see her in the back of the truck waving, and I have to say, I felt a little strange because she was so grown up. It was kind of a gut check that she is no longer a baby. They even put lipstick on her, and I about broke down and cried right there... but luckily I kept it together! The rest of the day was getting back into routine of cleaning and grocery shopping. It was fun to have such a long weekend and see so many good friends and family. We especially loved having Daddy home and being able to spend some time with him!

Lily dance class

So we decided to put Lily in dance classes this year. I was pretty excited because she LOVES to dance and listen to music so I thought it would be perfect. We just got back from her first class and it was so fun! She was adorable and it was way cute to watch all these 3 year olds try to hop
and slide and do somersaults.. too much fun!

They just make me smile

This was Lily roasting a marshmallow... she didn't like the heat... lol


Lily isn't a huge fan of water splashing on her face, so she doesn't really like the slip and slide... a few weeks ago we were at my parent's house and they broke out the slip and slide, well this is how she went... towards the end she would just fall down at the end of the slip and slide... too funny!




Reese is such a sweetie and so smiley!

I just finished reading this book today. It was pretty interesting. I got sucked into it and read the second half in about a day. The strength of the characters were awesome to me. I loved learning about the southern way of life and really getting into the feelings of these women. There is some definite language, but it was set in the south... so really what else do you expect? The movie is coming out this week, and I'm debating on whether I want to see it or not, because if it taints the book, I'm not sure I want to go. But I think that the character Minny is amazing! Incredibly strong

Camping

Lily hanging up-side-down... thanks to Grandma!
Todd, Lily, Reese, and our nephew
Me playing horseshoes

Since people apparently are reading my blog, I guess I'll post... :) This past weekend we went camping with my brother and some of his in-laws. It was a lot of fun! We played a lot of horseshoes, painted rocks, roasted hot dogs and marshmallows, celebrated my birthday, and even went hiking in a cave. It was a much needed camping adventure! The girls were filthy when we got home, which means they had a blast! It was great going with some family and laughing and just relaxing around the campfire. We hope to go camping a few more times before the summer ends!