Princess Party

All the princesses. We were able to round up a bunch of dresses, and Grandma Dona is wearing a very fashionable graduation gown, um Prada of course :)
Queen Grandma and the puppet king.

The wonderful magician and my little princess. His show was a hit. Especially when he vanished and came back in a dragon costume and chased the girls around.

Working on the crowns

Ensley's masterpiece

The table setting

"Princess Sammies" (strawberries and cream cheese)

We had a lot of fun twirling and whirling in our dresses, and just thinking about how much we love being women, and daughters of God. If you are wondering what the occasion was, there wasn't one. We just got all fancied up and hung out for no particular reason. It was a little awkward when random people kept dropping by the house when we were all dressed in prom dresses :) Oh well.

Temple Square

My sister and her family were able to visit for a week in December from Georgia. It was so much fun to have them around. Sisters aren't meant to be that far away. I was able to go to a production of The Christmas Carol at Hale Center Theater with my friend Rachel, and my sister and her hubbie. To know the stories behind the actors made it so special to me. The man that plays Kratchet (sp?) has been playing that role for several years. His family used to be in the play with him. A few years ago they were traveling home after the last production of the year. They were in a car accident and most of his family passed away. They asked him if he wanted to continue being in the play, and he said that he couldn't stop now, because that is something that his family loved to do together. There is a scene in the play when he is crying about Tiny Tim, and that emotion seems so true, because he can relate to the loss of family. It was fun to be able to hang out with Rachel as well. After the play we met up with my mom, other sister, and the kiddos up at temple square. We took a horse drawn carriage around, and it is now going to be something we do every year. I had no idea it would be that fun. I am not sure if it is just slowing the pace down, or the family, but it was wonderful. We joked before we got there about having the driver take us through a drive thru for dinner. I asked him, and he said of course, as long as we sang some Christmas Carols. He didn't say that we had to sing them well, but we gave it our best shot. We had already eaten, so we tried to get some hot cocoa at Carl's Jr, but they don't sell it. We still got a kick out of trying it. The temple was beautiful as always, and the week went by way too fast. I miss my sister :( I have been terrible about blogging, so I did two posts today. If you missed the first one be sure to check it out. Hopefully I will catch you all up with more pictures from the last few months later this week. Love ya!

Cabin Trips

Addie and I were able to go to lunch with my grandma for her birthday. She turned 80 this year. When I was little she would invite me to go to Arctic Circle with her and my grandpa for my birthday. So, this year we took her. It was fun to carry on that tradition with Addie, and spend some time with my grammy. She has a cabin up in Kamas that we were able to spend some time at this winter. We loved snowmobiling, sledding, and even trying to get the cars out of the snow. The wildlife is so amazing up there. One breakfast we were able to see a beautiful red fox out front. Addie only made it a few laps around on the sled behind a snowmobile before she fell asleep. That girl loved being outside and playing with her cousins.

Daddies

Kyle's dad had a birthday at the beginning of the month. Addisen and I were in STG and were able to help him celebrate. Addisen loves playing with the barrel of monkeys with Grandpa so I thought she would have fun helping me make a monkey cake for him. Ha ha, I didn't notice how funny Addie's face looks in the picture with the cake. It looks like she may have had too much frosting :) I have enjoyed being able to work for Kyle's dad, and spend time with him when we are down for work.

I am so grateful for my dad. For an early Christmas my parents got us a shed. We had worked on it little by little for the last couple of months, making almost indistinguishable progress. My dad came down early one morning, and worked on it all day until it was done. It is wonderful to have it finished before it snowed. I really appreciate all that he does for our family. Anytime we have any little project he is always more than willing to help. It is so nice to have a shed to put all our crap in. We are still in the process of sorting through all of the stuff that has been in our storage room. I am so thrilled to have more space in our house! Addisen had a blast helping grandpa with his tools. She is such a grandpa's girl. She loves both of them so much! I had worked on getting her to say "mommy" for her first word, but the grandpas snaked it from me. Her first word was "grandpa." I am feeling blessed to have two of the best dads that I know. This Thanksgiving thing must be getting to me :) lol, I forgot what I was meaning to post about. We just had some family pics taken a few weeks ago, so I wanted to post a few. I will post the Christmas themed ones after Thanksgiving. Hope everyone has a great holiday!

Halloween pics

Kyle's work has a Halloween party every year at the Energy Solutions Arena.

Addie was a big fan of playing on the basketball court, and making fun little masks with the other kids.

She was nervous about the Jazz bear, but he kind of freaks me out too.

Halloween weekend Kyle's grandparents came to STG. So we headed down there to see them.

Addisen loved trunk-or treating. She ate way too much candy for such a little person. But, at least we got her to floss :)

STG

The STG Marathon took me FOREVER, but it was so much fun! It turns out that 26.2 miles is pretty far :) I loved the views, and it was great to be able to look at the amazing beauty without worrying about driving off the side of the road. The motivational posters that people put up were so fun to read, and some even brought me to tears. My sweet husband got me this great stand for my medal. It might be hard to read, but it says "We are proud of you- Addie and Dad". I had some huge blisters, and one of my toenails fell off, eeeew. I know, TMI. Addisen was so funny. I could hardly walk for a few days after, and she would mock me by walking funny and laughing. So to sum it up, it was fun except for the 26 miles part.

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