Christmas 2015

 We had a holly jolly Christmas.  I LOVE Christmas time.  I love being with family, the games, visits, music, the decorations, gifts, laughter, and taking time to stop and think about the biggest blessing of all- The Savior and his precious birth.  I'm so thankful for him.  Truly, I would be lost and a very unhappy person without him.  Here's our cute little porch.  Through the holidays I loved driving up at night and seeing this.  It made me want to waltz up to the house humming a Christmas carol.  Haha!

 Winter really is so beautiful. Especially when you are near mountains or forests.  The pink glow from the sunset lit up our mountains like this regularly and I had to get a picture.  Mountains are so majestic.  Being in them makes me feel closer to Heavenly Father.  I have always loved living by mountains.

 So this November I was put in charge of the war church's Christmas party.  Boy.  It was A LOT of work.  It took hours of planning, gathering materials and decorations and hours more of setting it up, taking it down, making the program, etc.  BUT.  That said.  I was just SO amazed at how it ALL CAME TOGETHER.  The Lord really is so merciful :)  He knew I would never be able to pull everything together in that little of time, so where I had forgotten things or didn't have enough help, he would find it for me.  People came to me with the things I needed and were so generous with their time and talents.  I love our ward.  We have some real sweethearts and hard workers who love to serve others.  Because of them, our neighborhood is closer and we feel like we can count on each other.  I love love love that.  Living in Utah County hasn't been my favorite for a few reasons, but it has also been so great for reasons like this.
 Can you see those snowmen on the back wall?  Well as the families came in, we had all these snowman pieces that the kids could pick and put together a family snowman and then put it up as their decoration.  I think it turned out so cute and it kept the kids busy.
 Almost all the decorations were either donated or borrowed.  People are so great.  We have what's called a commodity share and people just bring stuff they aren't using or don't need anymore and anyone can take it.  I brought a bunch of clothes and low and behold I found a HUGE box of old Christmas decorations!!  I was so excited.  The theme was an old fashioned classic Christmas, so it worked perfectly.  So thankful :)  I really didn't need to buy much for the party either.  The main thing I did buy was paper.  We made sooo many paper buntings to put around the cultural hall.  Also, to add some extra pop to the tables, I put a piece of Christmas scrapbooking paper under each plate sort of as a placemat.  It turned out really cute.  The program was way fun, too.  We had a couple guys from the ward come up and sing and play guitars.  They were so good!  One sounds like John Denver, the other like James Taylor.  Our friends sang and played ukuleles and another friend sang a solo.  Then of course, Santa came and took the food the kids brought for the homeless shelter and thanked them for giving to others in need.

Phoenix did not know what to think of Santa. He literally stared at him like this the entire time he was on his lap.  It was hilarious.

Josh was SUCH a champ that day!  He took care of the kids while we set up and they were NOT an easy bunch. Haha.  After endless wagon rides, games of chase, poopy diapers, etc.  He was TOAST.  Haha bless his heart.

 Over the break, we took Phoenix up to Vivian park to see the train and river.  Oh it is his FAVORITE PLACE!!!  We actually drove up there a couple days ago and there was LITERALLY 5 feet of snow.  We couldn't even get out to see the river!  He was SO mad.  Big crocodile tears the whole way home!  I thought we'd at least be able to stand on the bridge by the river, but they hadn't plowed anywhere.  Bad mommy planning.  Anyway, he insisted on bringing his little plastic fishing pole and "fishing" with daddy.  It was ADORABLE.

 We had a couple of pretty good blizzards this winter.  This one was my personal favorite. WHITE OUT!  Hope the cats are in! Dude where's my car?!  I am so grateful for this snow!  Even though I am REALLY looking forward to spring, I am so thankful we will have water this spring and summer.  We really need this snow.



This year it was our (as in Josh and I) turn to put on our family Christmas party!  We chose, okay, I chose a Disney theme and it was really cute.  I made personal mouse ears for everyone as their party favor.  They chose a character and I made their ears to go along with it.  Here's what everyone was.  Mom- Peter Pan
Dad- Cogsworth
Shan- Kora (Tron)
Josh- Archimedes (The owl from Sword and the Stone)
Em- Mulan
Tyler- Doug (Up)
James- Mickey Mouse
Phoenix- Coda (Brother Bear)
Jenn- Belle
Mike- Hades. Hahahaha
We had chicken marsala, homemade french bread, and salad.  Then for dessert, we had pineapple dole whip and "the gray stuff" from Beauty & the Beast.  It was yum!  We listened to classic Disney music while eating and had some Disneyland trivia.  After dinner it was game time!! My favorite!  We played some Disney Scene It and then did our traditional candy bar game and gift exchange.  It was also fun to see Phoenix open his presents.  He didn't get much because we got him a trampoline for Christmas, but aren't setting it up until it warms up some more!!  I am SOOO excited for him!  I remember when we got our first trampoline and it was probably the best thing our parents ever put in the backyard for us.  Haha.

Halloween 2015

 Happy Halloween like almost 5 months ago!  Woo!  We had a good one!  We had a party at our house and invited some friends.  I made homemade breadsticks, soup, and cupcakes and then our friends brought pots of soups they had made.  The Lovell's (Karrigan's parents…Karrigan is Phoenix's second best frenemy.  Kaylie being the first.. We were over at Kaylie's a couple nights ago for games and I think the only time they weren't fighting was when they were secretly putting random things in the fish tank together.) brought homemade root beer and it was first rate!  It was so fun watching the kids trick-or-treat.  They are old enough now to get it and they did their own knocking, talking, and RUNNING to the next house.  Hooligans.  It was awesome.
 So, can you guess what Phoenix was?  Nice guess, but he was Ralphie from the Christmas Story!  Hahaha!  I almost went and bought some ovaltine for him to carry around, but that stuff is expensive!  So most people thought he was a nerd.. Which is cool.  Haha

This.  Ommmggg.  This has got to be one of my favorite pictures of Robyn EVER.  I posted it to instagram and my comment was "James E Faust baby".  Hahaha!  Does she not look like him?!  PRECIOUS HILARIOUSNESS!  She had herself a good little time as our cute lil punkin, as you will see below ;)


Now.  Guess who I was.  YES.  Yes you're right.  "This hea's Dahla!  She's muy niece!!"  Easiest costume to put together and people went Bonkers about it on social media.  Hahaha I had fun with it, except having that aluminum foil by my teeth all night made me have seriously sensitive teeth!! I couldn't even eat my cupcake!

 Ahh two of my darlings.  Haha.  He is one hot fly fisherman.  I thought the sunscreen nose really pulled it all together haha!  And little punkin' Byn!  And also, look at that little boy sneaking candy from the trick-or-treat bowl!  Caught you, Mister!

 Our table.  And Mac the truck from Cars.  Let it be known Mac has been Phoenix's FAVORITE toy since he turned 2.  I have had to tape, glue, clean, and fix that truck more times then I can care to count.  Now poor Mac will barely click his trailer on because it is broken from hooking and unhooking the trailer 10 million times.

 Here's the gang!  Oh man.  What a fun time.  We had a few couple more families come, but they came later and missed the picture.

 The trick-or-treaters meeting the goddess Athena.  Haha

This is the BEST.  I love these boys!!  Look at Phoenix's head.  Waiting for the candy to drop in the bag!  He's so CUTE!!!

Summer in the Suburbs

 You know how in the scriptures things aren't always chronological?  Same with this blog.  (Also, I should probably have looked at the pictures I posted in my first summer post, because I would have seen that I had two of the same pictures planned for this blog as were in that one.  But you know.  It's cool.  Whatever.  Haha)  This post is mostly just to add some cute pictures from the summer ;)  We had a good one!  People used to always say "UGH don't be huge and pregnant in the dead of summer because it is the worst!" Well.. fellow pregnant ladies, I beg to differ!  When I was huge and pregnant in the dead of WINTER I felt like a large elephant in a little dark cage all winter because I couldn't get out and do anything!  This time around, I was up and at 'em till the day I delivered.  I LOVED IT!  I had a better recovery from the pregnancy and felt better physically, mentally, emotionally, etc.  during the pregnancy.  I would much rather be sick and barfing my brains out in the dead of winter when there isn't much to do outside anyway.  Haha.  So!  To the pictures.

Mom came out to visit a couple weeks after Robyn was born.  It was wonderful, as usual :)  She is such a fun person all around- fun grandma, fun mom, fun friend.  Phoenix adores her and I'm sure Robyn will as well.  Here they are having a swim at her hotel while she was visiting.
I don't remember who sent this gem to me, someone flipping awesome.  I actually am currently NOT reading a Harry Potter book!!  If you know me well, you now know how crazy life really must be.  Haha! Nerd Alert!


These two! Man.  Looking at this picture makes me happy/sad.  I feel like Robyn's babyhood just slid through my fingers like water.  I had it and it was gone!  She's 7 months now and I just can't believe it.  Where oh WHERE does the time go?!  She's so dang cute and sweet.  Gosh.  Phoenix is the spice in my life and Bynnie is the sugar.  They go hand in hand and make each other better ;)  The Lord knew I needed a little bit more calm, content baby this time around.. I only have so much hair to pull out before it stops growing back.



Here's that cute boy digging in our neighbors sandbox.  They are so sweet.  They work during the day and told me that he can come play anytime in their backyard :)  He actually saw this picture while I was writing this post earlier and went nuts!  "MOM!  Mom sandbox!  Can we go now?!" I wish buddy.  I wish.  Winter is less and less exciting for me as I get older.  I mean, when you don't have a ski pass, snow shoes or time to do those things in the first place… Why do I choose to live in a place with such a cold snowy winter?!  The temperate climates are looking nicer each day.  Haha  I used to tell Josh that I adored the winter.  And I did.  And it is beautiful.  And I love the four seasons of Utah.  But I love winter until about January 1st.  Then.  Not after that.  Those late April snow storms make me want to blow chunks all over the 10 day forecast.






This was 2 days before Robyn was born!  Our last bike ride/walk as a family of 3.  It was such a fun sweet night.  Poor Phoenix had no idea what was about to happen.  He was the happiest with all the attention from Mommy and Daddy.  It was funny, because he really didn't care one bit about my growing belly.  He would almost never talk about it on his own.  One afternoon, Robyn kicked his head when he was laying on my tummy and Phoenix lost his marbles.  Something was in there.  It wasn't just mommy having a huge donut problem.  There was a growing baby girl in mommy's tummy.  After that he referred to the bump as baby.  He loves her soooo much now.  But boy was it rough those first few months.  The transition was full of tears from everyone, tantrums, sleepless nights, etc.  But was also full of answered prayers and an added measure of the spirit to get through the hard days.

Phoenix and his friend Kaylie.  We were talking about cows and mooing at them and they could. not. handle. it.

The last of the cinnamon sunflowers before the fall fell.