Blessings

Grandpa Steve bought a new (used) toy...an RV.  It's great & the timing was perfect for Thanksgiving.  We had The Brown, Johnson, & Bagwell families come into town.  We also had Katie, Bridget, & Ella come.  (It was really exciting to see Ella for the first time since her mission.)  It was a packed house.  We lucked out to have the Bagwells stay with us.  We loved it!  Millie & Nora played dress up every morning and night.  Everyone liked have Baby Loulis (Louis) to hold and squeeze...especially Aaron.  It was a busy week, like usual when family is in town.

 

 

Louis is fun to hold, pet, & poke.

 

 

 

On Wednesday, we had a special party.  I didn't get any pictures of it, but Baby Louis was blessed.  It was sweet.  Then, to add to the special day, we had Millie's 3rd birthday party.  It was a tea party & everyone enjoyed it.

 

 cupcakes for party favors

 

 

After the baby blessing, everyone was invited to get dolled up & ready for the tea party.  There were hats, necklaces, gloves, & mustaches.



 

 

 

 

Eventually it was time to wake up the birthday girl.  (Millie managed to sleep all through the blessing!) She was ready with some fun mustaches.

Nora loved all the snacks & 'tea'.  (She drank lemonade & lots of it!)  We had all kinds of luncheon foods like veggies & dip, pinwheels, etc.  Then, we had desserts from cookies to truffles. 

 

tea with Ruby

and lots of tea with Daddy

 



After tea, we played a couple of games like draw-a-teapot-on-a-plate-on-your-head (boy did those turn out interesting!) and learning the song "I'm a Little Teapot".  Then, it was presents time.  Millie sure made out with the presents!  Nora hated she didn't have to share.

 

 Our last big hurrah was Thanksgiving.  We had some delicious food...including multiple fried turkeys.  Aaron (with help from the other men) built my mom a new table.  Just in time for Thanksgiving dinner.

 

 

 

And since he's such a good son-in-law he also helped (with Xan & the boys) recover her chairs to go with the table.  Dinner was ready for the table but had to be put on hold while the chairs got finished.  It's never a dull moment when all of us are together!  

 

 

We did a little shopping on Friday & some crafting.  (Perfect!)  Then, Saturday morning family started leaving.  It was great having them all around for a few days.  We're so glad they came. 

 

I am surprised & sad that I did not get any pictures of Millie & Nora playing.  They were always together & Nora loved every minute of it!  Now we can't wait for the summer!

Millie Time

To celebrate my {big} birthday this year, Nora & I got to fly to NYC.  We stayed a little over a week with my sister and her family.  We had a blast.  I wish they lived a little closer because it's so easy and Nora loves being with Millie.  If you haven't noticed, we've been traveling a lot lately.  Actually, a lot may be an understatement.  This trip was so nice because we got away with a carry on for all of our stuff.  There is nothing like traveling to your sister's!  (I take that back, traveling to your aunt's or your parents' house is quite similar.)  Pretty much anything we needed she already had!

Ready for take off!  Our last trip with Nora as a lap child!

Luckily, Niki has been having a little less morning sickness so we were busy-busy!  We enjoyed tots storytime at her library.  They may have not been quiet or good direction followers, but neither were any of the other kids!  We also ventured to my first truly two story Target.  I didn't get any pictures in it though.  Perhaps that's because we were preoccupied with some crazy girls.  One crazy girl even dropped eggs all over the floor there.  Whew, it's never dull.

We took a trip to the Bronx and completed what had to be at least a 5K...the Bronx Zoo.  There were all kinds of animals.  We saw lots of lemurs and other creatures from Madagascar.  We some some sad looking giraffes and rambunctious rhinos that, oddly enough, lived inside buildings.  The girls loved seeing the animals except the monkeys weren't open and there wasn't a single elephant!  We were pretty disappointed and now need to go to the Riverbanks Zoo.  

The next day we made it to the beach, played at a park, & left the girls with Buck for some Cheesecake Factory & shopping.  

Sharing treats & timing each other for potty time!

We made it to another park, a great children's museum, and Aaron made it into NYC.

Aaron hadn't ever been to NYC so we got to leave Nora in the hands of Niki & Buck for a quick trip.  We rode the train into the city to start.  We made it to Grand Central Station, Rockefeller (a must, thanks to 30 Rock!), Times Square (no naked cowboy), walked through Central Park, took a subway to the Manhattan LDS Temple (and visited the stake center above it), ate some old food from a cart, ate Sbarro (ha!), and even watched a bride arrive at her wedding.  Whew!  It was a lot of walking but we enjoyed the sights and the simplicity of life with just the two of us!  It was great!

The girls got together in their new dresses from Lala!  This was the first day that got chilly.  We had some great weather...thankgoodness!

I cannot tell you how much fun these two have together!  Millie shared all of her stuff (and Nora shared her few things as well).  They enjoyed splashing in the tub together several times.  These girls are so similar & love lots of the same things like PBS shows, shoes, & snacks!

We managed to fit in two trips to Stew Leonard's (a fancy grocery store).  We all enjoyed the ice cream & bagels.  Nora enjoyed the 'shows'...Millie, not so much.

On the way to the airport for us to leave the girls crashed.  They had an action packed week for sure!  We loved it & can't wait to see where The Bagwells move next!  Thanks for having us!

Thankful For {An Always} Busy Weekend

Thanksgiving weekend is always a busy weekend for us.  This year did not disappoint!  We had lot of festivities planned and family in town.

My only Thanksgiving decorations...glittered letters.

The first event was $1 Night at Carmella's Pizza.  To celebrate The Browns and The Bagwells getting here we went to only the fanciest of restaurants.  Nora took some pictures of her cousins at dinner.

Elle

Emma

Wednesday was Millie's 2nd birthday party day! The Johnsons made it into town before that party.  Millie's actual birthday is November 24th but we all know that there were TOO many big events on that day!  The birthday party theme was 'Sweet As Pie'.  It went along with the  abundance of pie at Thanksgiving.  I didn't take many pictures of the decorations or during the party, but here's a few:

Pies, pies, & more pies.  A whole table of pies.

Tissue paper pom poms above the pie table

Fabric pennants as decoration inside & out

The birthday girl in her pie dress!

The girls enjoying one of the kids tables with  a matching tablecloth for the party.

My Dad & Vivian came for the party.  They came a little early to spend some time with the girls before all the craziness.  It was nice because we were all busy putting the last minute things together for the party.  I think Nora really enjoyed the trip to McDonald's with them too!

Nora & Grandpa 

Nora & Vivian

Nora really like Millie's bow on her present.

With Grandpa & her colorful hair

Next thing we knew it was party time!  First up was 'Pie in the Face'.

The girls watching the pie throwing...well sort of.

Elle geting Xan with a pie

Ruby getting Elle with a pie

Riley helped Nora 'clean up' by playing in the water.  She loved it.

After the game, we all came in to eat soup, salad, & of course pie.  Millie had a candle in a slice of choice of pie.  Nora enjoyed her pie and a few other peoples.  Eventually a pie eating contest was won and presents were opened. 

Millie's baby doll stroller was a hit

This thanksgiving was hosted by my Mom & Steve.  The kids had a great time exploring the area.  We refer to it as the Ponderosa.  I didn't know the stuff they found was even back there!  Nora LOVES having famiy in town.  Especially all the cousins.

Elle & Beau

Beau? & Emma

Elle & Riley

Nora joining the big kids

She loves Uncle Xan!  She even woke him up extra early every morning!

Thanksgiving started off right.  Let me first say, I have some fabulous aunts.  One of them is having a baby in January so we decided to have a little family shower.  This is her 4th kid and 3rd boy so we wanted something small but cute.  A new trend is to have a 'sprinkling' instead of a 'shower' for moms that have already had a baby...so that's just what we did.  A Sprinkled With Love sprinkling.  It was breakfast at our house at 8:30 Thanksgiving morning.  It was a surprise shower for the whole family.  We had a pancake bar that you could 'sprinkle' your toppings on and lots of sprinkled doughnuts.  We played a couple of games and sprinkled them with gifts.

Brown girls enjoying the food

A hungry Beau

 We played smell-the-melted-candy-bar-in-the-diapers.

Aaron doing all but tasting it!

Riley & Elle wouldn't be smiling if it was real!

Thanks to the Browns for this DARLING outfit!

We played who-can-drink-the-bottle-first.  It wasn't as easy as it sounds.

Drink, drink, drink Riley, Elle, & Emma!

Go Lily, Beau, & Ruby!

Then, Thanksgiving had to move on.  We enjoyed a full meal complete with 2 fried turkeys.

Lily & the Men

Everyone cracked open their crackers and put on their party hats!

We even had a toy to keep us entertained while we each told what we were thankful for  & waited our turn to get food.

That evening it was on to other events.  Lily's baptism!  She waited for us to all be together and was baptized at the Hilliard building where her Dad was!  It was a small gathering (of just us 20+) and soo special.  We LOVE Lily!  She is such a sweet, easy girl!

Family

Nora & Lily

Now November 24th is a BUSY holiday in our family.  We were grateful to celebrate with all our family.  We have so much to be thankful for and lucky to have (at least some of it) all in one day:  Food (Thanksgiving), Family (Shower, Millie's Birthday), Heavenly Father & Jesus Christ (Baptism), & Each Other.  Aaron & I celebrated our 5th anniversary on Thanksgiving as well!  I'm so blessed to be married to him.  While we could not possibly fit another celebration in that weekend we did celebrate later.  We had a nice   date of Chick-fil-a and...BREAKING DAWN.  I'm not saying who's choice that was. =) Love him!