Once there was a snowman

Last Sunday, Meg and I built a snowman. She had been talking about it for weeks and waiting for the snow to come. When it finally did she ran around the house saying, "Santa's coming, santa's coming." Then she ran into her room and put on her "christmas dress". It is so much more exciting this year because she is so excited about everything. She walks around the house singing christmas carols. The latest is, "Frosty the snowman, was a charlie in the soul." It's cute to hear what she thinks she hears.

Here is the before pictures. Half the fun was getting Meg all bundled up. She is very into matching her clothes and the colors in her clothes. This was a difficult thing for her. She said she was wearing a lot of crazy colors.

Here is the finished product. Meg wasn't a ton of help. She loved to put in the face and hat. Everyday it melted a little more. She was so sad to see it go, but the song "Once there was a snowman" made it a little more enjoyable.

This was the after party. Meg had her first ever cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows. Yum!

Busy week!

This last week was soo busy. I haven't had that busy of a week in a long time. I have always loved Thanksgiving because you get to see family. I feel like that is the best part of Thanksgiving. It is a time to think about your blessings and we were blessed enough to spend Thanksgiving with our number one blessing, our family.

Last Saturday, my parents flew in for Charisse's wedding. We went to her endowment session on Saturday night. Here is a picture with Charisse, Kory and their nieces and nephews. If you will notice Adin is screaming. He was NOT a happy kid. I can honestly say that he has never cried like that before. He was hungry, tired, and cold. He was screaming his lungs out. He wanted no part of picture taking. We joked with Charisse and Kory about how soon they were planning to have kids. Thankfully, shortly after this picture Grandpa came to the rescue. He snuggled Adin up and he fell asleep in his arms about 2 minutes later. Adin hasn't fallen asleep while being held for months now.
This is a picture from their luncheon after Adin was a little more rested. He was still really ornery. Brian was busy with the video camera and Adin would not let me sit and eat.

The next day was Thanksgiving in Tooele. We had a lot of fun. We really treasure the Thanksgivings in Tooele. We might not be living here next year so we really tried to cherish the time this year. Here is Adin thoroughly enjoying Thanksgiving. It makes sense because he looooves to eat.

Here is a picture of everyone eating. Yummy as usual.

Here is a picture of three of the girls. You could tell they were all girls. Meg was pretty sassy. Not a single one of them wanted to have their picture taken and they were letting us know. It just ended up being funny. We have since reviewed this picture with her and discussed the sassy face.

The next day my mom and I hit some ater Thanksgiving day sales. That was fun and we left with some great deaks and stories to tell. I don't know what there is about shopping on that day. There is such an excitement in the air. I love it. Then it was on to Thanksgiving in Tremonton. This is another one of those treasured events. Here are our host and hostess being interrupted by Adin.

Brian and Michelle are so good with Meg. She just loves them.

Here is Adin walking the catwalk on Andy and Natalie's brand new tiled floor. My dad helped them tile it on Monday. It looked so nice. They just had to grout.

After Thanksgiving at Andy and Natalie's we drove up to American Falls, Idaho. It was about a two hour drive from Tremonton. This is a picture of the bouquet toss. Sarah caught it. We will hope that this means that she will be getting married in about 2 years. She has a missionary that we all love. In the background is the wedding cake, which I spent Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday working on. Charisse had fresh flowers for it which turned out beautiful. I love fresh flowers on cakes.

The bride and groom at the reception. Charisse was such a pretty bride. Here dress was amazing (made by my mom) and she picked stargazer lilies as her flower. It all just came together beautifully.

Here is my mom and dad with our kids. I miss them already. Last time they left it took about 2 weeks to get over the homesick feeling, then I start coping better.

On Saturday we went up to watch the BYU game at Brian's parents' house. It was a lot of fun. That was a really exciting game. We were all on an emotional roller coaster. On our way home we picked up our Christmas tree for the year. It is a perfect tree. We are sooo excited at our house for Christmas.

I can't believe he's one

Yesterday was Adin's 1st birthday. It was sooo much fun. I have more fun on my kid's birthdays than they do. I love watching how excited they are for new things. I love shopping for new things. I love decorating and making them a cake. It is all so fun. HOWEVER, overall this birthday was sad and sentimental for me. I can't believe he is one. I feel like it has flown by way too fast. I have felt really sentimental thinking about what it was like before we knew our little Adin and how much happiness he has brought to our family this past year. He is such a sweet boy. He is always giving me hugs. He cruises around the house destroying everything in his path. Brian calls him the master of disaster. While he has the sweetest disposition,he has a little bite to him too. He definately doesn't let Meg walk all over him. He looks out for himself. He knows that if Meg takes his toy he just has to squawk a little to tell me what she did and I will make her give it back. He is just so cute and brings me and Brian so much joy. We love to watch him and at least once a day one of us will say to the other how cute we think he is. We love to see him explore and discover new things. He is soooo peticular about how he plays with his toys. Everything has to be put in its precise spot and then shifted till it is perfect. A little perfectionism showing through already. Meg was never that way. We just love him so much and look forward to watching him this next year and treasuring every moment because they fly by.

On to pictures.

Family pictures with the birthday boy. One was my idea and one was Brian's. Can you guess which is which.

Adin got a ball popper. He loves it. At first, as you can see, he was a little overwhelmed, but he quickly got very into it.

Meg thought it was her job to show Adin how to work all of his toys. Nice excuse. Overall she was pretty good about the birthday. She really liked to decorate the house and help me make the cake. She was really into the preparations. It's a good thing that Adin is still a pretty good sharer or else the present situation would have been disaster. Next year may be scary.

Adin really likes to drag things behind them. This toy was no exception.

This was the grand finale present. This was the main present that Brian and I got for Adin. He loves to bounce one this. His feet don't quite reach yet so Brian and I have to do it for him. He can shake it around pretty good though. Overall all of his presents went over better than planned. He was just excited and overwhelmed. I haven't ever seen him that excited. He just walked around looking at everything. You could tell his mind was working so fast trying to figure out what to play with first. He just kept playing with one toy for a few seconds and then going to another and back again. It was pretty cute.

Meg and I made his cake for him. She pretty much just licked the beaters and tried to snitch the whole time. That is pretty normal though.

Thanks to Sarah, we pretty much have a play by play of him eating his cake. He really didn't disappoint. I didn't think he would. He is a food freak. He didn't know it was food at first so he just played in it. As soon as I took a little frosting and put it in his mouth, he was all over it (literally).