New Christmas Tree

I met an amazing lady in my ward about two years ago who taught me so much!  She is extremely talented in decorating and all things artsy {she did weddings and parties in Las Vegas for years} - but she most especially taught me about listening to the spirit and serving with your whole heart and giving it your all. {She would have given me the clothes off her back if I'd asked}.  She served on the Relief Society Night Meeting committee while I was the R.S. 2nd counselor, so we had lots of night meetings to plan together.

Well she eneded up moving from our ward and gifted me with so many beautiful things that I will always treasure!  One was a new Christmas tree - pre-lit and probably never used.  We love it!

Dave and the girls put it up the Sunday after Thanksgiving and it is a perfect fit for our family room.

Clapping that it works! Yay!

Awesome imitation moment - I had just checked Brooklyn's bum to see if she'd had an accident (all mothers of young "potty training" age children will understand) - so then Kennedy checked too :) ha ha!  Love her face! 

 Kennedy HAS to climb on everything these days - you can't have chairs pulled out at the table or this step stool out without her definitely on them.

We had a lot of fun putting on the ornaments too - a few days later when we had more time:

Yes - Kennedy is naked ;)  She was suffering from diaper rash, so we let her run free and air out.

Kind of fun to pull this ornament out this year - I bought it for Dave our first year of marriage I believe, and now the tractor it was inspired by is in our Garage :)

We've had a blast each day with the ornaments and lights on the tree (especially since Dave didn't have to put the lights on and they have a magic button both girls can push). It's awesome!

Thanksgiving Highlights

This year I didn't do a very good job of taking pictures - but here are our highlights from our Thanksgiving Dinner with the Phillips Family:

 

iPad anyone? ;)

Delicious Turkey by Grammie!

Turkey shaped Relish Tray by Kenzy and one of her assistants Abbie.

Kennedy digging in.

Some of the family {at this point Brooklyn had asked for a nap, shocking I know! So she wasn't eating yet}.

We had a great dinner!  We also scored this year because we got to have two Thanksgiving Dinners! Both sides of the family are all together on the same year, so we make the best of it and have an early Dinner and a later Dinner.  Thanks to all the hands that prepared such yummy food!  We were so thankful to be with family!

{Now I wish I'd pulled my camera out for the Ridges side - whoops}.

P.S. Happy Birthday to me!

My Birthday fell on the day before Thanksgiving this year.  I asked Dave to take the day off work so I could go bake with my Mom and sisters for Thanksgiving.  My poor sister Aspen had pneumonia - ick! But she did make an appearance and it was a fun way to spend the day. My Dad took this pic and captioned it with "Happy 27th Emily. Good to see you in your uniform. Bake on! :-) " So very true!
I was spoiled all weekend long with cake and ice cream, dinner(s), presents and then a breakfast date with Dave {don't ask him about Johanna's Kitchen though - not really his style ;) }

Thanks to all those that helped me feel special!

John Deere

Dave's Great Grandpa bought this John Deere tractor brand new after the war (sometime in the 1940's) and it's been in the family ever since.  His Grandpa had it running up through the last decade and Dave is hopeful to have it running again soon.

Dave had some great helpers as he hooked back up the trailer to park the tractor in our garage this past weekend. (First we had to re-locate our two other trailers to make room).

Welcome to St. George (where usually it's sunny, not rainy).

A HUGE thanks to Dave's Dad for letting Dave borrow his truck and to my brother for letting Dave borrow his trailer.  We couldn't have done it without their equipment :)

I'm not even sure how many people will care about the unloading, or find it as amusing as I did.  Let's just say - the line up shows how many techniques were used (one 4Wheeler on front with a winch at one point, one 4Wheeler behind in the road that was used to tow it off the trailer with a tow strap and one lucky driver {DAVE} who hoped the brakes on the tractor still worked. And a hi-lift jack was used at one point - it brought back lots of memories for me and lots of gratitude for Dave's level headed engineering mind).

Along with most of the other 4Wheeler positions, I also had the fun job of towing it into the garage with the 4Wheeler and did some awesome maneuvering as the 4Wheeler tires started spinning losing traction.  Then as we got almost into the garage and used less and less slack in the tow rope, I did a few wheelies - it made me smile :) {Dave later admitted he thinks the tractor was still in gear, making our towing MUCH more difficult that necessary - ha ha!}

4th Generation - I made him pose :)

 

There was no making the girls pose - Brooklyn was first up at the wheel when she woke up from her nap that afternoon.

Next was our Kennedy Baby - she loved it too!

The girls and Dave are beyond excited to have it at our house! This will be one fun restoration job for us all. {With Dave doing the work of course - wink, wink}

They Keep Life Interesting

 Brooklyn the Ballerina

Kennedy the Climber

Halloween Celebrations

The  Monday before Halloween we carved pumpkins with the girls for Family Home Evening. We met Dave after work at the store where the girls picked out their own pumpkins (okay well Dave picked them all out - but there was lots of excitement none-the-less!)

 We had spaghetti for dinner, which is why Kennedy is a mess!

Brooklyn didn't really seem to mind the guts...

Kennedy thought they were to eat - ick!  (Reminder, she had just eaten spaghetti, hence the red face).

Like last year, Dave did the vast majority of carving - he definitely has the most ambition with pumpkin carving in the family.

After bath time (which was much needed!):

 

 

Brooklyn with her "B" Pumpkin.

Kennedy with her traditional Jack O'Lantern.

After the girls went to bed, I carved mine with as much creativity and knife wielding ability that I possessed.

It wasn't much ;)

{I have a feeling my girls will surpass me with carving abilities by the age of 10}

Dave then whipped out his brilliant idea with a print out from the computer.

The Iron Man Logo - it was really cool!

The day of Halloween the girls were kind of fighting a cold (we think Kennedy had croup the week before and Brooklyn was acting off with cold symptoms). Dave was actually really sick with a cold and home from work that day - a bummer for him.  I went ahead and took the girls to the library story time in the morning.  They got to dress up, do a costume parade and get some candy which was fun.

Our cowgirls!

At the costume parade at the library.

When we got home, they put on their Halloween outfits from Grammie - but they really didn't want their picture taken - story of my life.  They took some much needed naps (love afternoon naps).

And last but not least, we finally made it out the door trick or treating.  I took a ridiculous amount of time since I am Chatty Kathy and had no one to push me along. {Since my trusty side kick was home sick}. Brooklyn probably ate a piece of candy at each house, then grabbed a handful for her bag and pretty much loved the whole night.  Kennedy was looking a bit green at the end (I did let her eat candy that night and I'm thinking it may have been a little too much).  We were about the only kids in the neighborhood so we visited for a bit at each house and scored big time - we have a great neighborhood and had a great Halloween!

Garage Girls

Hard at work putting together a shelf :) 

Another year older, and wiser too!

Happy Birthday to Dave!

We opened presents first thing that morning.

Later that night Brooklyn helped put the candles in his cupcakes.

Kennedy loved our dinner (homemade tortillas, Vegan Spanish Rice (with Brown Rice), homemade refried beans and misc. toppings - it was a hit!)  then licking the frosting off the beaters :)

Dave and Brooklyn pose, she did a good job allocating the candles to each cupcake ;)

Blowing out the candles with some help:

Kennedy from a distance! (She's not safe around flames).

Hope you had a great day Dave!