Christmas 2013

I really enjoyed Christmas this year as did the rest of my little family. We carried on the tradition of a advent calender. I made this one last year and inside each envelope is a scripture about Christ and telling of his birth.

This year we also put up a Christmas tree in the girls bedroom, saying they loved it is an understatement. It was one of the main highlights of Christmas for them, they're going to be devastated when I take it down next week.

I had our tree up the day before Thanksgiving but it took me forever to finally decorate it. I decided to make a popcorn and cranberry garland for the tree and I loved it.

We had some colder weather every once and awhile so the girls could occasionally wear some of their winter gear. I love this hat of Savannah's, I wish I had one.

The girls brought home some awesome holiday crafts this year too. Savannah made this adorable card one day. When she realized one of the eyes was missing she said it was a Pirate Santa.

This ornament Olivia made was by far my favorite! I mean come on its hilarious and totally fantastic!

At church the Sunday before Christmas the primary put of a nativity during sharing time and Savannah's class were the angles, she just thought it was great.

Christmas Eve was such a great day! Jacob ended up having it off and we spent the day relaxing and baking, and just spending time together. Abby had so tummy time.

The girls and I made sugar cookies for Santa like we do every year.

Jacob got Abby down for a nap and followed her example by taking one himself.

I made homemade marshmallows using this recipe and I was really happy with how they turned out. We were suppose to put them in our homemade hot chocolate that I made which did not turn out the way I expected.

That night before the girls went to bed Jacob read the girls The Night Before Christmas which is something we do every Christmas as well. Jacob's dad would read this to his kids on Christmas Eve as well.

The girls were beyond thrilled and excited when they woke up Christmas morning and they loved all their gifts. Savannah is sporting her new shirt, skirt, fairy wings,and guns she got for Christmas.

The big present the girls got this year was a Barbie house from my parents, they've been playing with it everyday since they got it which is awesome.

Later that afternoon we had some good friends of ours come over for Christmas dinner where we ate tons of food. I actually ate all day long from all the snacks we had laying around like artichoke dip, cheese and crackers and these amazing little smokies, and muddy buddies to the amazing dinner I made. Yes I'm bragging about the dinner I made. This year we had turkey, rolls, mashed potatoes, corn, brussels sprouts, stuffing, this jello salad, Jacob's killer beans, and this amazing cranberry orange relish from Trader Joes. For dessert we had rolo cookies, the sugar cookies we had made earlier, and homemade apple pie. I know tons of food people and it was all amazing! By the end of the night I was exhausted from all the baking and all the fun we'd had. It ended up being a great Christmas spent with some of my most favorite people.

It's Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Christmas

I love this time of year! I feel like since the girls are in school we've been a bit too busy to do all the fun Christmas things I'd like but we still find time for some of them. Abby has been keeping us busy and wearing herself out too since she started rolling over about a month ago. She's almost mastered rolling back onto her back from her stomach too. Its crazy that she's already 4 1/2 months, time is going by way too fast.  Back to Christmas fun though, A good friend of ours went with me and the girls to see the annual gingerbread house display they have in Prescott. It was so fun and the girls had a blast, after looking at everything we then got to decorate gingerbread cookies. Now I'm actually not a fan of gingerbread but these were AMAZING!!! The girls had so much fun decorating and about halfway into it Santa came. The look on Savannah's face was priceless, her jaw literally dropped and she was speechless. When she could finally talk again it was almost in a whisper and she informed me that Santa was there and she really wanted to talk to him.

Abby was fantastic and slept pretty much the whole time. I was smart and brought the stroller so I could just put her car seat in it and push her and Olivia around.

A few days later we woke up to this beautiful sight, this is my kind of snow people. It was just enough to make the view from the front of our house look beautiful and by the afternoon it had all pretty much melted. I loved it, the girls were of course a bit disappointed that it hadn't snowed a bit more.

Thanksgiving 2013

We once again headed down to Jacob's brothers for Thanksgiving this year.It was so fun as always! What can be better then great food, great company, and beautiful weather.

I love that these guys all get along and have so much fun together. I think that's been one of my favorite things about living here, That we and the girls have been able to get to know my brother in law and his family better. They're 5 kids are adorable and so much fun and my brother in law and his wife are fantastic. Spending time with them has and is a blast, it was a great way to celebrate Thanksgiving.

Zoo Fun

The zoo here in Prescott had an amazing deal going on one weekend. They had dollar admission days so we of course took advantage and took the girls. It ended up being so much fun! This zoo is so small but lots of fun. The girls loved looking around and seeing everything they could. We actually got really lucky and most of the animals were out and moving around. A fun thing about this zoo is that the animals are front and center so you can see all of them.

They have a petting zoo and kids area too.

The highlight was when we ran into our good friends and the kids got to watch the bears feeding time. It really was pretty cool.

Overall it was a great time and we were all glad we go out and have some fun.

3 Months

Well somehow this beautiful girl has turned 3 months old! I find it to be completely crazy to say the least. I also can't seem to get over how in love with her I am, its been interesting for me to see how things are different with Abigail. I for the first time don't mind nursing which is weird to me, Abby nurses and takes a bottle because my milk supply is so low and I'm on medication this time to increase my supply. I find that if I don't nurse I miss it and I miss having that time with her. I'm excited that I finally feel this way because with the other two girls I wasn't the biggest fan of nursing. I also don't seem to mind getting up at night with Abby at all, I actually enjoy the time together with her. Abby is a joy in our home, when she was about a month old I was a little worried because she wanted to be held all the time and would cry if you weren't paying attention to her. This lasted for about a month and a half and I really wondered how I was going to get anything done because I couldn't hold her all the time. Sometimes I'd just have to lay her down and let her cry so I could go to the bathroom, help the girls, or just make dinner. Thankfully when we got back from our trip to Utah she got over the need to be held all the time and has become content laying by herself and looking around. Her big sisters love to entertain her and are usually singing her songs or asking if they can hold her or feed her a bottle. At Abby's 2 month check up she was 11lbs and I couldn't believe it, she's also quite long. She also rolled over for the first time 2 days ago. It took her all day but she managed to finally do it and she was very proud of herself. The whole time she was grunting and almost crying but once she got onto her stomach she was as happy as could be. Rolling over has not become a set skill for her yet but within a month I'm assuming she'll be a pro at it. Abby is a very good combination of Savannah and Olivia, I can tell she'll be a bit more independent and probably stubborn like Savannah but she has a sweetness about her like Olivia. Abby smiles ALL. THE. TIME. I love her smile and she gives it to me willingly. Its amazing to see the love that she already has for all of us and she recognizes us. She adores the girls and loves when they are near her, she also adores Jacob and is happy to sit with him for hours. He is of course taking full advantage whenever he can because snuggling with his girls is one of his favorite things and the older ones don't snuggle with him enough. Even though this is our third baby it still amazes me how much I fall in love with each new addition and how as soon as they're here I can't imagine our lives without them. Abigail is the perfect addition to our family and I'm excited to enjoy each and every moment with her that I can.

Halloween 2013

Halloween was so much fun this year! The girls were beyond excited and had such a blast dressing up. Savannah went as Cinderella, Olivia was Snow White, and Abigail was a pea in a pod. Olivia wore the same costume from last year but I got Savannah and Abigail's costumes at Good Will. I'm pretty sure I'm going to do this every year from now on. Both their costumes cost me about $10 and were in great condition, plus why should I spend a fortune on costumes that they wear for 1 night?! We started the day off by getting the girls dressed up for school, their school asked that the students not wear their Halloween costumes but instead had Odd Outfit Day. Both the girls had so much fun getting their outfits ready and though it was just so silly.

After school we rushed home and changed into their Halloween costumes and headed over to Tim's Toyota Center where a bunch of local vendors were handing out candy. Our good friend came with us to help me with the girls. Afterwards we came home and had dinner before heading over to our church building for their annual Trunk or Treat. In case you don't know what that is, you just go trick or treating in the parking lot and people decorate their trunks and hand out candy. I took the girls around once and then we started handing out candy at our car. The girls loved handing out candy and wishing everyone a Happy Halloween. We also had a fun surprise and Jacob showed up! He left school early so he could be with us and we were all thrilled!

Salt Lake City

We did it, we went on our first real road trip with all three girls this past weekend. Jacob's youngest brother was getting married so we decided to make the trip up to Salt Lake so we could be there.When we left for the wedding it was the most beautiful day and by the time we left the temple it was freezing!!! Olivia's shoes were cutting her feet so she was bare foot and ended up putting her feet inside Jacob's pants pockets. I only had a short sleeved shirt on and was beyond cold.

The next day was lovely and we headed over to a near by park for family pictures. That was quite the undertaking to say the least. There were 16 adults and 20 grandchildren ranging in ages from 16-2 months.

After pictures everyone kind of went their separate ways. Some got on the rode to head back to their homes and we decided to take the girls back to temple square. They were really disappointed they couldn't look around more when we were there for the wedding. Also we didn't want to leave Salt Lake till that night so that the girls would all sleep in the car on the way home. After our fun time at temple square we ended up going to my sister and brother in laws hotel. The boys watched football and babysat the kids while my sister in law and I took Savannah to City Creek, a super nice outdoor shopping center for a girls night.

The girls with their cousin Baylee watching a show.

Here are Abigail and my niece Bree, they're 2 days apart and both are so adorable.

Overall it was a fun 4 day trip, very eventful and tiring but still fun. The entire family hasn't been together since I was pregnant with Olivia I think so it was fun seeing everyone and all being together. Also Jacob's parents are going on another mission so this is the last time we'll all be together  for about the next 2 years as well.

Pumpkin Patch 2013

We had so much fun at the pumpkin patch this year! I really do seem to enjoy holidays more now that I have kids and especially since they're old enough to get really excited about them. We drove down the rode to the same pumpkin patch we went to this year and once again had a great time. The girls loved the wagon ride into the patch and they thoroughly enjoyed all the rides that got to go on. The admission to the patch went up considerably this year which I found to be ridiculous so this may be our last year going there if the prices don't go down next year.

They had a pumpkin catapult contest which the girls had no interest in at all and we quickly gave up trying to watch.

We opted for the hay ride instead which was a huge success. The owner of the farm took us around and then let each child have a turn driving the tractor and also stopped in the patch so we could take pictures. He was so nice and we all loved it.

Next we  had fun on the bounce houses and the girls of course rode the kiddie train. We went threw the easy section of the corn maze and Savannah was our navigator. She did a great job and got us out safe and sound without getting us lost.

We really did have a blast and it was such a fun way to get all set for Halloween the next weekend.