Let The Countdown Begin!

Here are just a few of the fun things we have been up to lately!

The girls' favorite thing to do right now is to grab a book and sit by the tree and read! No book in this pic, but they wanted to show off the shirts I made for them. I love how excited they get about the small things. It makes my life so much fun!

One of the things we missed while living in Iowa was going to see the lights at Temple Square, and taking a carriage ride around downtown Salt Lake. It had rained/hailed all day so we were pretty worried that it was going to be a bust, but...the skies cleared up just in time and the weather was pretty gorgeous! We didn't freeze to death and it was such an amazing night!
Thanks Grandpa and Grandpa T. for letting us have this experience!

They also took us to a Voice Mail concert, which was a first for our fam. The girls LOVE their music and being at their concert made me a huge fan as well! They are so entertaining and it was fun to be able to go back up to Logan again. We'll take any excuse to get up there. We {heart} that city!
I didn't get any pic of the concert, but this is one of the girls waiting (not so) patiently for Running Man to get off of work so we could leave!

Another HUGE blessing of living in Utah is being able to go to the Norton Christmas Party. It has been a tradition since before I was born, and is a wonderful highlight of Christmas's past and present! Em had told us several times that there was no way she would sit on Santa's lap so we didn't push it. And what did she do when it was her turn? Run and give him a HUGE hug and climbed right up on his lap. My dad got the good pics (which I am waiting for), because I was in too much shock to snap any. :)
We were also very grateful that they both asked Santa for the things they have been talking about all season. Phew!

The girls also go to take part in the Nativity for the first time. Banana was thrilled to be Mary, and Em was even more thrilled to be the Donkey! It was such a great night and we are so grateful for Grandma Norton for keeping the tradition alive and for the love she has for all of us!

Now...I need to stop distracting myself and get back to my to-do list that I was supposed to finish two weeks ago!!

For Your Listening Pleasure!

She was supposed to be sleeping... :)

It's Holiday Time!

This time of year always seems to rush by. I have a whole list of things I want/need to get done and time just gets away from me. I don't have the brain power to write out this post, so pictures it is!

My little turkeys and the turkeys they made. Sometimes I wish I could walk around all day making that face.

Em has decided that flying is her favorite thing to do! I worried about her breaking her face...(but still had to snap a bunch of pictures)!

Banana and the pilgrim hats she made for school. She did 99% of the work and was oh so proud of herself!

Banana is still obsessed with Sandra Lee (from Food Network), and begged to do a "Tablescape" for Thanksgiving this year. Grandma Teary (as Em calls her) was gracious enough to let her help! She wanted a pilgrim/indian theme and thought up these cute little place cards!
We were the Indians and Grandma, Grandpa and Kenna were the pilgrims. (I forgot to get a pic of the pilgrims...don't tell Banana).

We went Christmas tree hunting! It was cold, snowy and took FOREVER to find the perfect tree! Luckily the girls loved playing in the snow, Cherry Dog didn't harass them too much, and Grandpa brought his chain saw!

Banana and Kenna breaking the wishbone. Banana had two wishes...1. To Fly (wish I could make that happen) 2. To live in a neighborhood (working on making that happen).

Grandma W. took all of her daughters/daughters-in-law, granddaughters (and Brax) to see the Radio City Rockettes! AH-MAZING! I always dreamed of being a Rockette while I was growing up, but being barely 5'3 put a halt to that dream. :( There's hope for Banana though because I'm pretty sure she's going to be 6 feet tall. It was beautiful, inspiring and pretty stinkin' incredible to watch them. We were able to meet a few of the dancers and have a mini kickline lesson from them a few weeks ago, so Banana was excited to see her teachers on the stage!

Thanks Grandma!

The End :)

Life

We are in the middle of making some pretty big changes at our house. And with these big changes comes A LOT of stress. Lucky for me, the more I stress the more my creative bug peeks its little head out. My sewing machine is currently taking a much needed rest. :)

First on my list was this desk that my parents gave to me..I don't have a room to craft in, so our kitchen table has been the designated spot for all of my projects. It has been a PAIN to clean up every time we eat a meal, or have company over. My mom came to the rescue and gave me this beauty..which I then turned into
This!

I now have a spot for my sewing machine, a place for all of my fabric, ribbon, thread, etc. I am so excited, and it adds a much needed brightness to my bedroom!Next on my list was this cute little dress I found at Wally World. It's a womens small dress which I have zero hope of ever fitting into, so I decided to turn it into...

These cute little things for my girls!
The kiddos are sleeping now so I don't have any cute models to put them on!
I also made this pillowcase dress for Banana with all of the extra fabric from her bedroom.
It's pink, pink, pink! (Which means Banana is happy, happy, happy)! Here is the only pic I got of Em modeling her new skirt. That girl does NOT like to cooperate when I want to take a million pics. ;) I am working on a pillowcase dress for Em right now, and starting on our Christmas stockings this week! I am hoping the constant stress that is our lives goes away soon. Really soon. But I might as well make the most of a hard situation!

Bats, and Pumpkins, and Spookables...Oh My!

We had a super rainy, really cold, REALLY great Halloween! The girls were able to go door to door trick or treating for the first time this year and they LOVE it! Em had been practicing for days what she needed to do in order to get her candy, and she had it down! As soon as she would ring the doorbell she was screaming "TRICK OR TREAT" as loud as she could. I'm sure you could hear her through the closed door. :) It was gorgeous sunny day...until it was time to go trick-or-treating. The sky opened up and it rained...and rained...and rained. I didn't know it could rain like that in Utah! We went to Grandma and Grandpa Terry's trunk or treat and did a sprint around the circle of cars to collect our candy. After that we headed back to their house to dry off/warm up with some yummy clam chowder and scones. One of my favorite fall time treats! The Great Pumpkin must have heard our pleas because as soon as it was time for us to go door to door the rain stopped. Yeah! So, we are stocked up on candy for the next two years and enjoying our treats!
Two of the three Musketeers!

Ready for battle!

This is an end of night pic...They were soaked, tired and had discarded costumes along the way. But they were the cutest Three Musketeers I've ever seen. :)
Banana also had a Halloween parade at school, and we got to make some super cute goodies to take along! They were both Banana's idea and she helped paint the faces and decorate the mummies!

Grandpa and Grandma Woodward hooked up one of their trailers, loaded it with hay and took us on a fun hay ride!

I got to end the night cuddling with this cutie!
This is my niece Bentley and I am in love!

Pumpkin Guts

There are going to be a lot of pictures. Consider yourself warned. :)

(Love the smiles)!

I love fall. L.O.V.E. it! Our weekends have been jam packed with tons of fun stuff, and it's been great weather on top of that!

We made monster brownies. Cute and Yummy!
Went to Wheeler Farms where we dared to go through the spookable filled maze.
Good thing we had these tough chickies to protect us!
Played a little bit of Follow the Leader. Well mostly Banana led and we followed...

Picked out our pumpkins. Apparently the pumpkin was winning this battle.
Painted said pumpkins.
(Those are ALMOST finished Halloween Costumes in the background. So close)!


And here's the part where Running Man thought it'd be great to terrify Miss Em with pumpkin guts. I'm pretty sure the following was her thought process through the whole thing...
Hmm...what is that? Very interesting.
Oh wait. Maybe not. Don't come any closer dad. I mean it.
Maybe if I hide he'll leave me alone. Maybe.
Ok, maybe not. Maybe if I cry he'll see that I don't like it.
Well, crying has never really worked out in my favor. I think I'm going to be sick. Maybe puking will get him to back off. And maybe Mom will put down the camera and give a girl break.
Well, that didn't work either. I think I'll just resort to screaming my head off.
And success.
We're great parents, huh?!
To make up for it we went for a drive through American Fork Canyon.
It was GORGEOUS. So many pretty colors and there was the perfect fall crispness in the air. Heaven.Banana's biggest dream is to fly. Not like be a pilot fly. Really fly. Running Man tried to bring a little of her dream to life. They loved it.

The perfect end to a nearly perfect day.

Finally Fall!

I'm sitting here listening to the rain and wind outside, and it feels like HOME. One of our favorite things about living in Iowa was the amazing rain/thunderstorms. It is one of the top 5 things I miss about living there. Another things I miss about living there is this awesome girl.
And...she came to visit yesterday! I only got to spend a few hours with her but we didn't waste a second! I haven't done much, well anything, socially since we moved out here so it was SO nice to get out and spend time with someone who knows me inside and out.
I am LUCKY to have her as one of my best friends.
My girls take after me (and I after my mom) and fully embrace the start of the Holiday season! We love all things Halloween/Fall/Christmas at our house and I really believe it is my favorite time of year!
The first craft of the season were these Frankensteins. Super easy, super fun and kept them entertained for a good half an hour. Awesome!
(Em won't stop making this face in EVERY picture I ever take. And Banana looks slightly crazy in this pic...)

Running Man's parents and li'l sis came into town for Conference and I'm so mad I didn't get one single picture. But we did go to Gardner Village with everyone and had a blast finding all of the witches and eating some yummy candy from the candy store. I could have spent hours and hours in all of the shops, but there were 10,000 ppl there and the girls got grumpy. So...my bank account is safe for now. :)
The biggest thing to happen this week...Banana chopped her hair off! I kinda sorta didn't tell her I was going to cut that much off...Lucky for me she LOVES it. I couldn't get the smile off of her face, or get her to stop checking herself out in every mirror we passed. It makes her look so grown up!
(Yes, yes I know how dusty my shelves are. I did clean them promptly after seeing this picture on my camera)!
Here's to Happy Fall Festivities!