love good deals, love holiday cards :)

I don't often post about online deals and such, but this time I decided it was well worth it.

I really love Shutterfly.com. I've printed a few books through their site before and they've all turned out to be fabulous. I did books one year for Jed's parents and my parents for Christmas, and they all loved them. You can even print a book from you blog there. It's a super easy site to use too. They've got some seriously cute Christmas cards right now and they're doing an awesome promotion right now to get cards printed for free-woot!

Check out their cards here: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards

Don't you love them? I sure do. SO if you're wanting to get some of these for the holidays, do what I did. Click this link http://blog.shutterfly.com/5358/holiday2010-blog-submission-form/. If you're a blogger, you're in. I'm all about


I think that now that so much is done online, there are very few opportunities to get anything exciting in the mail :) I LOVE this time of year because I love seeing festive holiday cards in my mailbox. Makes me happy.
 
Happy Holidays Friends!

Kind of boring, but hey we've been bored

So I've decided that November is the longest month ever. That may have something to do with the fact that Jed works 12-18 hour days during this time between his "normal" job and then Plutonium stuff, mostly putting up Christmas lights. Addie and I have had some looong days at home together and been kind of bored, you know since it's been freezing outside and all. Thankfully we have family close by we've been able to visit and we've had a couple of play dates to keep us (well ME) sane. Other than that, things have been pretty low-key around here.

Cousin Tristan was over the other day and I was in the middle of baking for a boutique and asked Addie to give him a bite of his lunch so I could take cupcakes out of the oven really quick. Next thing I know, she had taken the task of feeding Tristan upon herself and proceeded to do it all by herself. It was very cute and she did a good job! Yay for practicing to be a big sister/big mommy-helper!

 

 I was told my last post didn't include pictures of food. Is this possible? It would seem there's a first for everything. Although, technically I mentioned my salted caramel hot chocolate. Ha.

I don't have Thanksgiving pictures yet, because I left my camera at my mom's house. (and you all know what my "Thanksgiving pictures" mean. Yeah, not me and my family being all cute. It's pies people. Don't act surprised.)

 So this is all the Turkey I have to show. I made these little oreo turkeys and thought they were pretty cute. I should mention this Thanksgiving season that I'm thankful my blackberry has a good camera....since I use it all. the. time.  :)

Playing with princesses/changing all of their outfits frequently

 I sent this picture to Ashley, because she can't handle that Addie allows the princesses to "share" dresses with each other. I agree, there's something not right about it. Gotta entertain her somehow though, right?

PS- Cinderella is bigger boned and you can't velcro Aurora and Snow White's dresses shut on her.

Okay, I am aware none of this is that interesting. Jed was able to play with me and Addie for most of the day on Saturday and it was so nice to have him back home. We went to lunch then had our Smith and Edwards snow boot buying adventure. That place was NUTS. Makes for a fun time with daddy though.

Sunday morning we put up our Christmas Tree and decorations.

Look what daddy found.....

 While getting the Christmas Decor out, Jed came across his light saber. She LOVES it. Totally plays with it and acts like Luke Skywalker, you know if Luke wore cutesy Christmas jammies.

 Addie has her own little pink tree for her room. I plugged it in downstairs and she put all of Jed's Star Wars ornaments on it then set the light saber next to it and said. "See? Yoda is holding it!"

We followed Christmas decorating with a nice little tea party with Dopey. He got the Snow White plate, so appropriate. Daddy's plate is the yellow one, but he was making dinner so had to be fashionably late.

I love that Addie is starting to pretend more and more and has such a fun imagination.

So, other than that- I'm just getting bigger and the baby boy is kicking me more. Maybe it's from all the food I've been forcing him to share space with lol. 

The Addie-Mommy-Grammy date

Last weekend my mom and I took Addie to see Disney on Ice. I'm not sure which one of the three of us was more excited about it! Addie didn't really know what it even was, but she was excited to go. My mom and I just couldn't wait to watch her watch the show :)

 Started by taking the Frontrunner down to Salt Lake. Addie LOVES riding the train.

 Happy to be there together :) bad lighting sorry

 SO excited for the show to start!

 Awe....it's Ariel and Prince Eric dancing.....she's so funny

Then Ursula came....

She wasn't quite sure about that part ;)

Grammy took her out to get her an Ariel that she'd seen and then she decided she was done.

Meh, there were only like 10 minutes left and we beat the leaving crowds.

As you can see, she was SO happy about her "tiny Ariel" that should couldn't even open her eyes from smiling so big. She carried her down the street like a baby, it was so cute. She loves spending time with her Grammy Rees! Perhaps because she gets spoiled?

After we left, we grabbed some quick dinner at the Gateway and then a Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate from Starbucks (YUM). At that point, Addie was so tired and cold that she made me carry her back to the Trax station.

I forgot how heavy 32lbs feels when you carry that 32lbs 2 blocks.....on top of your baby bump.

We had a very fun girls night out! Thanks for playing with us, Mom!

some updates

The past few weeks have been pretty chill (sans Halloween). Addie and I both got colds and stayed in quite a bit. Mine decided to last for 2 weeks and counting. I'm hoping someday I'll stop coughing. Anyway, here's a recap of what we've all been doing.

Jed: Oh, what no pictures? That's because he's been very busy with work and the poor guy hasn't had much time for fun. Of course since last week was beautiful, he was stuck working in his office all day. He has the week off from work this week so he's putting up Christmas lights on houses for Plutonium. Yes, in this rain and freezing temperatures today. Tomorrow's looking sunny....I hope so! So proud of all he's doing and how hard he works for us.

Baby Boy: We had a doctor appointment last week and he's looking good and healthy and right on track. It's crazy to think that I'm now halfway there! Just over 20 weeks now. He's about 3/4 of a pound and moving around more and more...which I LOVE. He moves the most when I lay down on my back. Halloween night, when I got into bed he started going crazy....I think that even he was on a sugar high!

Me: Well, I've been getting my sewing on. If you know me well, you read that last sentence and said what the what?! I've really never sewed anything, unless you count the star shaped pillow from 8th grade. It started out with making some fabric flower bows for Addie to match skirts that Whit made her. I then decided to make some headbands and put some flowers I'd made on them for me and my sister in law. I think they turned out pretty cute. Go me.

Then! If you're not totally impressed with headbands, I decided that I was going to make Addie's bedding for her new room. (I SWEAR it wasn't some crazed pregnancy hormone that made me temporarily insane)

I'd never ever ever attempt a project like this on my own, but Dawn my mother in law happens to be an amazing seamstress and offered to help me :) I'm loving how it's turned out so far! I found some super fun fabrics that just screamed Addie to me. I did ALL the sewing on the front of the quilt and now the front is all done- yay!!

Here's a closer up picture that shows the fabrics a little better

don't look too close, I'm sure there are flaws :)

Now we're doing all the hand stitching on the quilt, which will probably take awhile. If you've never done this before, here's what's going to happen. See ever line and square on this baby? Well we're stitching around each of them by hand....yes, it's a process. Thanks SO much Dawn for your help!

I've also been cooking and baking...which isn't that new. I really have started enjoying cooking more and more, rather than only baking. I didn't allow myself to bake last week due to the amount of candy in the house....but I caved Saturday night and made cookies ;)

A couple weekends ago, I channeled my inner Alton Brown and attempted a cheese souffle.

 

I thought it looked kind of pretty....and it was delicious! Oh I also made apple cider donut holes that night. I didn't take a picture, they weren't that pretty and they were only okay. I wanted them to be better than they were. Jed's wassail was off the hook though, so that's good. 

 

Oh and of course, I've been entertaining this funny little girl too.

 

Addison: This girl keeps us on our toes and definitely keeps us laughing! She's been going back and forth for awhile on naps and last week I decided that it wasn't worth them anymore because it's too hard to get her to bed at night when she has them....well, now if I leave the house past 2pm this happens....

I didn't take into consideration the daylight savings issue when I made this decision. So now we may be napping again, because ummm 5:45am is EARLY. That makes the day very long to keep her happy AND awake till 7:30-8pm. Today she fell asleep in the car while my mom and I were shopping and even stayed asleep when I took her inside in the cart for a half hour. Go figure right?

Never a dull moment with her. She has genes from both Jed and I for memorizing songs and movie lines and I came across this sweet scene the other day and asked what she was doing. She'd gathered my comforter, laid her baby on it and covered her up. Naturally I assumed she was putting her baby doll to sleep....um, nope. Her response?

"I'm doing what Luke Skywalker does to Vader" she then proceeds to act as if she's removing a helmet from the baby doll and tells the baby "I don't want to leave you....come with me"

Yep, my sweet little girl is reinacting Darth Vader's death scene from Star Wars.

Seriously??? I told Jed I'd assumed he skips stuff like death and what not. Nope- he doesn't!

She isn't all Star Wars though....still very much into princesses and Hairspray. She quotes and sings from shows on a daily basis. She's started to do different dances of Hairspray even. When she watches it she tries to do the coreography. It's hilarious when she does Seaweed's dance. I'm still trying to get a good recording of it.

Friday, she asked me for an apple, and specified a red apple. I gave it to her and should have seen this one coming....

She took a bite, then fell to the floor and said she was Snow White.

She seriously keeps my laughing all day, which is very good because she can be quite the stinker sometimes. She's a defiant little thing and I'm a little scared for when she's sixteen. She knows what she wants and doesn't take no for an answer very well. I just hope and pray that she applies that in a positive way as she grows up.

She can also be very sweet. She's very aware of those around her and is always concerned if someone is upset or hurt. She's constantly asking if she can kiss owies of mine better and giving me loves when I don't feel well. She'll even be a little mommy to me and say, "Do you not feel very well? I'm so sorry, that's not fun. Maybe you need ____ to make you feel better". She even shares her Yoda bandaids with me.

She's going to be a very good big sister.

That about sums up what's up with our little family. We're all pretty happy and healthy. Despite a few pregnancy discomforts I'm grateful that we've got another little one on the way and for all that we're blessed with. I haven't been doing any "30 days of Thanksgiving" or anything- I'm being a little bit blog lazy, but I am thankful for many, many things every day.

Halloween!

Seems like each year every holiday gets busier. Halloween was no different.There were parties, treats and fun had by all. As you'll see from the amount of photos, our day, well days were busy and fun-filled. First, we had to prepare by acquiring some pumpkins.

 We went to a house near ours that has pumpkins out front.

Now whenever we drive by I hear "that's where we got pumpkins!"

 Me, my pumpkin, and my lil punkin' in my belly at 19 weeks

 She really thought she could pick that up.

Next, was the carving...which I always forget how long/messy it is to do.

Fun though.

( you want her boots don't you?? I know that I do....)

 We're not that advanced. Pumpkins as Addie named them.

"Daddy's work, a scary ghost and a guy!"

(Jed's Plutonium logo, a ghost face and a skull-type face that was on her pail she asked me to do)

Friday, I got Addie dressed up in her Princess Aurora costume

 Which she appropriately posed in for me :)

I took her to Jed's office and she literally filled her trick-or-treat pail to the top!

I figured at that point, "real" trick-or-treating was just a formality. She also got treats from both her Grammies at their offices too.

Jed took Addie to our ward party that night while I stayed home. I've been sick for a week now with a cold and I felt horrible on Friday. I decided to sit out the ward party in hopes that it would help me be more able to party with my princess on Saturday.

Saturday, we had a Halloween party at my mom's house with Addie's cousins.

 Princess Aurora & Snow White

When I put on my dress Addie got SO excited! She immediately said we needed to twirl. When I told her we needed to grab mommy's shoes to go, she said "um you're not mommy, you're Snow White." I love her.

It helped me be happy I didn't sell out and stay home.

 Grammy Rees the butterfly and Addie

 My cute mom, cute daughter and me

This picture was too funny to not post. As soon as I tried to take a picture of Deacon,

Addie ran over and put her arm around him and wanted to pose together....he wasn't a fan.

"Seriously, why is this girl always all over me??"

Ever try taking a picture of 4 toddlers and 3 babies?

 

 I was laughing so hard at the madness....

 Never did get a good one....ah well. They were all cute.

 Monkey Nixon being held by banana Chad. Ha, I found it funny.

My mom hid little pumpkins full of treats outside, much like an Easter egg hunt.

The kids thought that was a lot of fun.

 Then they ran around for awhile, working off a titch of the sugar.

Later that evening, we went up to Grammy Dawn and Papa Steve's house for another party (yep)

and Addie found her nemesis....Ashley Malificent!

 Addie was so excited yet a little scared I think haha.

She assured me at one point "She's still Ashy"

She had been talking about Ashy being Malificent for weeks and demanded they play one of her favorite games..."Precious Princess"

 She's so funny. She frequently will hide her baby dolls under blankets, then pull it off and say

"Well...here's your precious princess!" just like Malificent. It's uncanny really ;)

 Whitney and her cute little monster Tristan. Isn't his costume adorable?

She was a witch, but I think Addie had stolen her hat by this point.

 Baby Emmett the vampire...I want to eat those cheeks.

After trick-or-treating to about 5 houses on the street, Addie was done. Perfect for me.

Then she put on everyone else's costume's  accessories.

 Witch/princess?

Addie Malificent!

She got extremely wired and literally ran circles till 10pm. Hey, that's what Halloween is about right? Hope everyone had a good Halloween!

ps- I'm totally eating her candy right now....