Christmas 2014

Christmas has come and gone and we have a lot to be thankful for. I was in charge of the committee for our wards Christmas party this year. It was a TON of work and I was exhausted by the end of the evening. My parents came up and helped watch the girls all day so that I could decorate the church! Grandparents of the year! We tried to create a few new holiday traditions this year. We went to a lights display outdoors and pretended like it was the Polar Express. We loaded the girls in their pajamas and gave them hot chocolate. Dave even found a train whistle to blow before we left. Avery screamed the whole time and Addison didn't like her hot hot chocolate:) Good times! There is a giant tree at an outdoor mall that was lite. We went and walked around it and got hot chocolate afterwards. We gave the girls pretty fur coats this year that neither of them loved, but they were so cute! We went to playgroup and preschool Christmas parties. A lot of cookie decorating and a lot of cute gift giving. This year we made wreaths out of clementines to hand out to our friends.  I love that the girls are getting old enough to enjoy the holidays more. Dave had to go into work Christmas Eve at 3pm so Santa came to our house a day early. Addison helped me make cinnamon rolls and did a great job cracking the eggs. The girls enjoyed tearing through gifts and making a mess of wrapping paper and toys. Addison was shy coming around the corner and seeing everything out. Avery wasn't really into tearing her wrapping paper so I ended up opening most of her gifts. Santa brought a grocery store set up for both of the girls to enjoy. Addison loves the food set that came with it that you can cut up with a wooden knife. Avery got a cute doll cradle and a doll diaper bag that she carries around like a purse. Avery is always cleaning the the floor with whatever she can find. Santa brought her a broom and dust pan. She LOVES it! It cracks me up watching her toddle around with it behind her. She's going to be a great helper! Grandma Michael sent Avery a music toy with little people that she likes to sit on and lean her head back. It is so weird, but she keeps doing it! Addison's dreams came true Christmas morning. The world of Frozen over took out living room. She got a beautiful Elsa and Anna dress up. Complete with a tiara, shoes and pretty gloves. She has changed in and out of them probably 10 times a day.Addison loves to read and got a princess reader set that reads the stories aloud to her. Now while I'm in the shower she sits on my bed and goes through all of them. Grandma Michael sent her a Frozen pop up tent and tunnel. The girls giggled and chased each other in it all morning. The movie Sleeping Beauty make its way to our house as well. Dave was a good boy this year and a range finder made its way under the tree. Dave surprised me with a fitbit and a clarsonic. We enjoyed playing with everything together until Dave had to leave. Once we cleaned up I started making a Christmas Eve dinner to take up to the base to eat with Dave. We kept it simple since I had to load everything up. We tried to read Christ's birth story and talk about the reason for the season. Avery was all over the place and Addison was cranky. We put on the Joy to the World dvd that the church puts out. We almost got through all of it and I think that the girls got something from it. We've tried really hard to talk to them about baby Jesus and why we celebrate this holiday season. I have new goals for next year, but we are slowly starting our own family traditions. I felt kind of sorry for myself bringing the girls back alone and putting them to bed. Christmas morning felt weird since we had already celebrated. The girls and I got ready for the day and played with toys until Dave got home. We scooted down to my parents just in time for Christmas crepes and some cousin gifts. Addison painted special Christmas pictures for everyone. I feel very blessed to be able to see my family at this time of the year. We enjoyed a quiet Christmas day and evening with my family. Merry Christmas 2014!!

Photo Dump

My phone has almost 1000 photos and I need to get them on here! The girls are growing like weeds. I put away and pull out new clothes for Avery it seems like every month. Addison is into getting herself dressed in the morning before coming out. She likes to lay out her outfits complete with underwear and a bow before going to bed...I wonder where she got that habit from:) Both girls love to be right under my feet and on my back as I'm doing my makeup. More often than not someone ends up with something on their face. It drives me nuts, but I love it at the same time. Avery still loves her bottle and screaming EHHH every 5 seconds. I'm trying to teach her new words, but she's pretty satisfied with EHHH for everything. Addison uses about 2 feet of toilet paper and clogs the toilet pretty much daily. Avery likes to splash in the toilet water in every public bathroom we have to go in. Addison loves to turn on the Christmas tree is very good at reminding Avery not to touch the ornaments. Avery loves to ride the little tiger scooter around the kitchen. She legs barley touch the ground and it's so cute! Christmas is just around the corner and I haven't even blogged about Thanksgiving. We were able to go up to Michigan to stay with my Aunt Tania and Uncle Jim this year. I haven't been up there in over 10 years so it was nice to go. Addison loved seeing the horses and was able to ride Greta. Dave and I even got on her! Dave took Addison to put pennies on the train tracks which she loved. We ended the trip with going to the hands on museum. We got to celebrate Grammie's birthday at our house this year! It was so much fun planning and then having her close by to celebrate with. Addison is quite the party planner it turns out. She had picked several games that she had us play. From a balloon race to doing jumping jacks we all had a lot of fun. I made yummy sweet and sour chicken with a fluffy cherry cake to top it off. Grammie got to open fun gifts from the girls and all the siblings mailed gifts to our house. We love you Grammie and Happy Birthday!!

Happy Endings

November was a blur this year. It was a great month and an extremely challenging one at the same time. Dave being gone for an extended period of time brings its own set of challenges. On top of that it seemed like everything that could of gone wrong did. Our sump pump went out and our basement was on the verge of flooding for almost 2 days. It took our management company way to long to send someone! It was my turn to teach preschool so I had extra little girls running around. Our friends the Rubalcava's saved the day and Drew came over and helped clean out the pump and fix what he could on it. Someone scratched the side of the van when I was in grabbing a pizza and it made me cry. It's silly, but I don't know why people are careless. My neighbor was in a pinch and needed her boys picked up from school that afternoon. I had also signed up to bring a family dinner in my neighborhood who had just had a baby. I truly thought my head was going to explode. I ran the dinner over to my friend and it was missing like half the sides and I gave them a half used thing of cool whip to go with the dessert. I had planned on giving them a Book of Mormon with my testimony in it. Satan works hard to stop me from fulling promptings and feelings that I get. Literally I had the longest day and all was going wrong. I handed my friend the book and told her briefly what it was about. I told her that the meal that I gave them wasn't a good representation of who I was, but that this book was. In that moment I forgot everything that had happened and I felt the love of the Holy Ghost and my Savior. It felt very natural to give her the book and I was really proud of myself. I don't share the gospel often or really interact with people that need it. It was an experience that I wanted to write for my posterity and for my children to remember. No matter what the world throws at you or how hard you think things are there is always a higher light. I came home that evening and cried in my pillow hard, like wailing hard. I've felt so overwhelmed since moving here and I can't seem to shake it. I taught Relief Society that Sunday and I was an emotional wreck. It was on missionary work which is what initially prompted me giving away a book of mormon. I had prepared a nice lesson and half way through I stopped looking at my notes and just bore my testimony of my experience of sharing the gospel. At the end I challenged everyone this holiday season to give away a book or mormon or invite a friend to our RS activity or the ward party. This past Sunday was fast and testimony meeting and two ladies got up and shared their experiences of giving away a book of mormon from my challenge. It made me smile and feel good about my efforts. I actually ended up getting released from teaching right after I gave that lesson. It made me feel weird that I only had the calling for a few months, but with the RS activities every other month it was a lot. Dave's schedule has been busy and it seems like he is gone a lot lately. I haven't been able to handle the girls with him gone as well as I would like. I find myself really emotionally tired by dinner time almost every day. I miss my friends from Buffalo. Its a broken record, but I do. My mom has filled a huge gap from not having a close friend here. I miss trading babysitting with Kait and Juana and actually enjoying having their kids around. Dave and I have been talking about our future family plans and the thought of adding anything to my life seems impossible. With the start of a new year I need to prioritize what's important and decide what needs to go. I know that my family needs to be my first priority and that spending time with the girls should make me happy. My schedule since breaking my foot has been totally up in the air. I blame a lot on my foot and I need to stop! I'm hoping for a fresh start with January and a positive boost in my attitude!