Christmas in November?

This year the unthinkable happened. We decorated the Christmas tree BEFORE Thanksgiving. I think it was 11/22 to be exact. I know, I know! But it really was fun and a relief to have done. I have too many ornaments to put up all at once, so we pick a color theme each year. This year we decided on blue and silver.



I wish I had taken more pictures. The girls were so cute putting all the ornaments on the tree. Of course they would put them ALL in one spot or one branch and Richard and I spread them around afterwards :)

Fall leaves

We have 2 walnut trees in our front yard and they know how to shed leaves! Richard took a lot of fun pictures last month of the girls playing in said leaves.


Don't believe the innocent look. These were taken right after Bryndi dumped a bunch of leaves on Bella's head!

Run for your life!

Bryndi's hair is getting long!

The girls each took a week of being sick after Thanksgiving. Bryndi never takes naps anymore, so I had to grab this photo of the poor child curled up for a nap one afternoon.

Bella's first shiner. She fell off the bunkbed at her cousin's house :(

Thanksgiving

Well, I brought my camera to Thanksgiving dinner at my parents house, but of course I was so busy passing food around and eating, that the camera didn't come out until after we finished the meal :( Richard took this panorama of the spread of tables in my parents house. This seated 50 people including the 2 kid tables that you can't see in the picture!

Either my sister Kelly and I both ate way too much or we're both due to have babies on February 9th!

Cake bites, pizza, and a new job!

Richard made a few batches of cake bites for various events lately. Basically, you bake a cake, then put it in the mixer with the frosting, beat together, roll into little balls, then dip them in melted chocolate. Yep, it's true. Here is Bella enjoying the batter :)



The other day for lunch the girls and I decided to make homemade pizza. We made a wheat crust, homemade sauce, and for toppings, olives, mushrooms, ham, tomatoes, green peppers, and artichoke hearts. Mmmm.


New Job!

I had a picture here to post of Richard in his new suit, but he didn't like the picture and made me take it off ;). He has worked for his present company as a software engineer for Credit Unions for 10 years. Well the company decided to lay off their perfectly good employees and replace them with entry-level people in India who don't know what they are doing. Doesn't make sense to me! Anyway Richard applied for a job at a company who runs software for forensics investigations. They have clients in police and government agencies, etc worldwide. They started up and are headquartered here in Lindon. And he got the job!! We are really excited and he will start in 2 weeks!

Halloween!

We carved pumpkins a few days before Halloween. Bella helped dad and Bryndi helped me. Bryndi drew her design out on paper before we carved. She said it HAD to have triangle eyes.

Trick-or-treating at Richard's work. Bella the unicorn and Bryndi the butterfly.

Scary faces!
We went to a Halloween party at our friend Brooke (Wonder Woman)'s house. I'm Cleopatra in the middle and Mindy Madsen is the White Witch. They throw the best parties!

The girls and I. (Richard didn't dress up, so he didn't get a picture.)

Bella found this ginormous teddy bear and carried it around with her everywhere.

Weber State, Weber State, Great, Great, Great!

My brother Gavin and his fiancee Mandy invited Bryndi to come to the Jr. Cheer clinic at Weber State last month. (This picture was taken in Florida where they won the National Cheerleading Championship!) Bryndi learned the cheers really well. The dance, not so much, but it was still super cute to watch her try.

This is a picture of them playing Duck, duck, goose at the end of the clinic.


My niece Holly had the Wildcat mascot in her duck, duck, goose group. When we went to the football game that Saturday, Bella LOVED this mascot! She kept yelling, "Mommy!! I see a LION!" He was nice enough to shake her hand a couple of times and she thought she was in heaven.

The girls performed during half time at the football game on the 23rd, unfortunately it was raining and COLD that day! Bryndi was not impressed with the weather as you can see from her face in this last picture. But she did her cheers really well and the wildcats won the game!

Go to bed

Last Saturday night I wasn't feeling well, so I was laying down in bed. Richard had just put Bryndi to bed and then left to go run an errand. Bryndi got up and came to me to tell me that she wanted to sleep on the recliner in the living room. No. Go to bed. BUT I want to sleep on the chair! The whining escalated and no matter what I said to change the subject, bribe her, joke about where different animals sleep and explain that girls sleep on beds not chairs she would not budge. Finally I asked her what her part for the primary program was. "There is safety in following the prophet" she proudly exclaimed. That's right I told her. Does the prophet say we should listen to our moms and our dads? "Yes" she smiled and ran and got in her bed. Not another peep. Heavenly. Just heavenly.

Dance Class--Lion King

I'm telling you, this fairy tale dance class just gets cuter. I missed taking pictures of Tinkerbell and Beauty and the Beast, but the Lion King day was so fun!