'Tis the Season to be Jolly!

And I AM!!!
But when I think of jolly, it includes round & happy and unfortunately both apply after the way I have been binging on all the delicious holiday treats, but I've been enjoying myself while doing it, and there's always the new year right?!! :)

Anyways before I go off to celebrate with the fam, I wanted to post a few of the fun times we have been having this holiday season.


This was Brylie's first year going with the boys to cut down the Christmas tree, I think she froze her tooshie off and made Shawn carry her through the snow most of the time but thought she was pretty cool to go with the big boys, and continues to say "mom I got to go, cause I'm big, but Lauryn's too little. "

They did come home with a beauty though! Much bigger than usual and we did not have near enough ornaments to fill it, but Lauryn had a great time playing in the few we did have.




Brylie preformed her Suzy Snowflake dance at the Christmas Festival, and in my opinion was the cutest little snowflake up there! I thought she would be much to shy to preform on stage, but she seems to love it and is so excited when she tells me, "Mom, they clapped for me!"


This is Brylie with her cousin Summer who is only 7 months older and they are the best of friends!

What is a Christmas party without Princess's!! Here they are with Cinderella.

Bry & Summer found their favorite tree and of course it is pink!


Because I am a holiday fanatic as well, we tried to fit in as many Christmas movies as possible, and saw a lot of Barbie singing Christmas carols.

The girls are at such a fun age, and get almost as excited about Christmas as I do. Lauryn walks around the house saying "HO, HO, HO, & Fa, la, la, la, la" while Brylie reminds her not to pout or she will be on the naughty list with Swiper. We of course have been trying to teach Brylie that Christmas is more than just Santa, but she continues to tell me, "Mom, Christmas is when Santa Clause brings us presents, but....Jesus gets to blow out all of the candles!" (I hope she's getting it. :) All in all, we have had a wonderful holiday, and it's a little bitter sweet that Christmas eve is already here. I'm sad to see it come to an end, but cannot wait to see the girls faces on Christmas morning!

Merry Christmas to all...And to all a good night! :)

What am I missing???

So Saturday night was date night. No not a typical thing, but we had two movie tickets which had to be used before the end of the year and also had to take advantage of my wonderful generous sister before she left for the holidays. ;) thanks Lis.

Anyways I somewhat tricked Shawn into taking me to New Moon, because although ALL of my friends went without me, I still had not seen it, and had to see Jacob for myself. :)

So I get that it would be a hard story to make, but every one who loved the books, seemed to love the movies. So I have to ask what am I missing? I truly LOVED the books but I can't help but laugh at the corniness of the movies. I mean running through fields of flowers.....
Don't get me wrong I have always had a soft spot for Jacob, and immensely enjoyed looking at him without a shirt for two hours, but other than that found the movie kind of long and silly. I will say it was much better than the first one... I just wondered if people were seeing something I didn't or maybe I just need to get back in touch with my love for the twilight's. :) It has been a while since I read the books.

The threat that worked.

I was thrilled to say goodbye to the "terrible two's" only to find out we were entering the stage of the "terrifying threes." Brylie is a really good girl, 90% of the time, but she has a mind of her own and is always trying to prove a point. Lately it has been a fit just to show she is not going to budge if it's not her idea. Naturally, as any good mother would do, when these fits occur I resort to threats...

The first being Jesus. "Brylie, please be nice to your sister. It makes Jesus really sad when we're not nice, we need to make him happy."
Sadly this one had little effect, really didn't seem to phase her much at all. I mean she doesn't usually like making people sad but at the same time it wasn't going to be enough to change her mind at that moment.

So next I tried Santa. "Brylie, it is not okay to act like that; Santa Clause does not bring toys to naughty little girls, you need to be nice if you want any toys for Christmas. Do you want Daddy to call Santa and tell him how your acting??"
This threat worked slightly better, she thought it over seriously and behaved for at least a few hours before stating "That's okay mom, I already have toys, I not need Santa to bring me anymore."

Ahhhhh....What's a mother to do??

The one and only threat I have found that worked for my Brylie, was one she created for herself. She saw the commercial for Princess & The Frog weeks ago, and decided along with her cousin Summer that they were going to go see it as soon as it came out. Brylie has been talking about it ever since and tells everyone we run into. I'm going to see Princess and The Frog . I of course immediately jumped on this opportunity to try to create far less battles in our home. And....ta da...it worked!!!!

Brylie: "I'm not getting dressed!"
Me: "So you don't want to see Princess & the Frog?
Instantly dressed! :)
Can I mention how easy today has been. My sister must have mentioned that today was the opening day ... Brylie woke up, got dressed, ate breakfast, cleaned up her toys, and put herself back down for a nap.
Thank you Princess & The Frog, my only major dilemma is...what will I use now that she has seen the movie???

ANYHOW, ENJOY BRY. YOU EARNED IT!! :)



Lauryn thought it was really neat to sit in her own big kid chair for about...10 minutes after that we spent the rest of the movie chasing her. (I think next time we'll leave her at home with daddy.)

New York, New York

So I realize it is now mid December and I have yet to catch up for October/November, but before I do that. I had to update on our latest adventure to New York City.

PRE-WARNING: Great trip...LOOONG Blog!!

Luckily my family does a few fun things, and lets us tag along. This time it happened to be my brother-in-law's dental convention. (who knew dentistry could be so much fun.) I actually don't know how much of the convention he made it to but all that really mattered is that he had an extra hotel room and was kind enough to extend an invitation to his favorite sister-in-law. :) (ok maybe it's Shawn he likes, but we'll take what we can get.) Anyhow thanks to his hotel room, my dad's frequent flyer miles, and my mom's wonderful grandma/babysitting skills we were able to have a an awesome, kid free week in Manhattan.

Shawn & I thought since we were in NYC on Thanksgiving, we had to at least attempt the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade. It was complete chaos and more people than I could ever image, but totally worth the experience at least once.

These balloons were enormous and had about 40 people underneath directing them. I of course had to get a picture of Dora to send to Brylie at grandma's house. Now she says "Mom, you should have taken me there with you." Next time Brylie.

This is where Shawn and I stood amongst the thousands of people. I had to sit on the subway rail because...well I'm short. But I did have a much better view even though my bottom was completely numb & I nearly fell to my death about 5x from people pushing me. Thankfully we both survived and met some very nice people from South Carolina.

My niece Jaycie & I in Central Park

TIME SQUARE...Shawn is in awe, quite the site for us small town folk. :)



Christmas Spectacular @ Radio City Music Hall.
The Rockettes were pretty amazing and I think Shawn was quite impressed with their leg extenstion.

BROOKLYN BRIDGE

My nephew Landon's favorite attraction on the trip was the Charmin building. He could not believe it was a whole building designated to toilets! It was pretty amazing, they had people outside dressed as toilets, singing about enjoying the go, then you went up the escalator to your own private bathroom with an ipod, and the nicest toilet paper ever! Then a giant pit filled with toilet paper to jump in, and as you left they would take your picture on a giant toilet. Quite the place! Said to be the best seats on Broadway, and I don't know if I could argue.



"City sidewalks, busy sidewalks, dressed in holiday style..."

ok so as corny as I may seem, and regardless of Shawn's numerous rolled eyes, I seriously sang this song the entire week as we walked the streets because that's exactly what it reminded me of. Every window had the neatest Christmas displays and all of the buildings were lit up. I LOVED IT!!!

The above window theme was "Couples that were meant to be..." (Cleopatra & Marc Anthony, Salt & Pepper, Michelle & Barack Obama-Peter did not appreciate that one, but I had to get a picture of Mr. & Mrs. Clause.)

Ice Skating in CENTRAL PARK....

Actually Jess & I sat this one out. I know kind of a party pooper but my last experience in Boston was not the best, and I thought my body would be safer on solid, dry ground.


I had a great time, watching the kids try it for their first time. Talk about good sports...they sure don't give up! :)

It was usually Jaycie helping Landon up, I don't think he lasted on his feet more the 2 minutes at a time but it didn't stop him from trying and I just happened to catch Landon as the hero. What a sweet brother!

And what could be better after a workout of ice skating or watching people ice skate, then a hot dog from a vendor. I think Landon ate 3, which could not top Peter's 6. (I don't think he slept very well that night, glad I wasn't rooming with him. :)

Between all of the fun we thought it might be a good idea to include a little education on our trip, so we headed to the Museum of Natural History. (aka: where Night at the Museum was filmed.)
Jaycie of course wanted to stay the night to see if the exhibits really came alive.

The dinosaur exhibit was awesome. As you can tell by the expression on Peter and Shawn's face, they are completely enthralled.

This is me on the moon...

this is how much I weigh on the moon.

Shawn of course thought we had to make it to at least one sporting event while in the city, and I opted for the one in doors. So on Saturday night we headed to Madison Square Garden and were lucky enough to scalp some tickets for 20 bucks a piece. I felt a little dirty while doing it, but I love a good bargain!


Turns out they were playing the Orlando Magic, so I was even able to see Jamie's Duke boy toy J.J Reddick make it off the bench to score two points. (He is quite the cutie Jame. )

After the game we headed over to the Empire State Building, to check out the view.

It was pretty windy that high up, we were worried Jaycie might blow away.

STATUE of LIBERTY

that is one LARGE foot!

The United Nations, where a lot of important things happen.





ROCKEFELLER CENTER

unfortunately we didn't get to see the tree lit up because they were doing it the night we flew home. This is just a small portion of our trip, but I have already gone on much to long, needless to say it was an amazing trip and thanks so much to Jess & Pete for taking us along.

Not too soon...but trying to catch up!

Apparently we are trying to experience life as the Amish do, and have spent the last two months without cable or internet. It has been rough at times but I've found I am more productive without my usual excuses to be lazy so September and October have been jam packed with our many projects and outings. I'm stealing the internet from my mom's house so don't have time to update on all of those outings but will begin with September. So here you have it, what we've been up to. September at a glance....or more like a long stare. :) Sorry about that.

Lauryn turned 1 on September 5th and decided to get attitude!
She is still our sweetie and I am loving this age!

Brylie began her dance class, and in my opinion is the cutest little ballerina.

Shawn turned 27 on the 10th and I know you may have a hard time seeing him. :)

We were so excited to spend time outdoors, and had to make up for a summer of apartment living. The weather was perfect for this and we had a great time enjoying all of our outdoor activities.

Here we are roasting marshmellows with the cousins.



There were many road trips to visit grandparents and cousins, but Brylie thought they were a breeze compared to her journey from California and decided to kick her feet up with a slurpee and head phones. What could be finer! :)

Reunions and Canoeing at Zion's Park






Fishing and Potty Training at Duck Creek

And yes Brylie is caught with her pants down, but there is no time out for potty trainin.


And finally hunting antelope in Wyoming.

It was actually my kind of hunt, we sat in a heated truck while we drove around and Shawn picked out which one he thought looked the best out of about 10-20 we saw along the drive. It was a good time, but I am yet to talk myself into actually eating the meat. Maybe I'll work my way up to it. September was a good month and hopefully I can update on October before the end of the year. :)