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....

A happy happy birthday, well birthday week

First off- I want to say thanks so much for all the congratulations on our upcoming baby boy. We're so excited to have a little brother for Addie and it means the world to us to have love and support from our friends and family. It was a fun way to start of the birthday celebrating! Although you don't see an actual "birthday cake" you'll see that I got plenty of birthday treats...and food....and I only took pictures of half of it. I'd blame pregnancy, but we all know this isn't abnormal. Celebrating=Food :) Funny, because I've really been unable to eat very much at once or I get sick. Don't worry, I just force fed myself anyway.

The same day we found out our baby is a boy, Ashley came into town for some playing. 

Addie got some good Aunt Ashy time in and then we ditched her with her daddy ;)

Whit, Ash and I went up to Park City last Friday night until Saturday afternoon for some food, shopping, and girl-getaway time.

Loved it. Love my sisters! 

Sunday we went to sweet baby Emmett's blessing.

 I know. You want to squeeze him huh??

Monday was Columbus day...which um means nothing really, except that it's a bank holiday-score!!

Jed had the day off to play with me and Addie and celebrate my birthday with my dad and brothers.

 We went to lunch at Faustina and had yummy food (which we ate before I took a picture)

 and this delicious dessert! YUM. Vanilla chiffon roulade cake with vanilla mouse.

Topped with Strawberries.

Tuesday, my actual birthday,

My mom treated me to some of my favorite food for lunch at Temari.

Then she even got me a birthday cupcake :)

 Boston Cream Pie cupcake.

Jed took me to dinner that night....well more like appetizers and dessert.

I really can't eat much at once, it's kind of sad. I still made myself sick, but it was so good.

 Hummus platter from Roosters

 Asparagus & Prosciutto pizza....we split it in half...then I only could eat half.

Had to save a little room for dessert.

Caramel Bread Pudding from Union Grill

Yes, this means I'm high maintenance enough to get dinner and dessert from two different restaurants.

Do you like how I have no pictures of me and Jed together on my birthday, or with Addie, but somehow there are 6 photos of food in this post? I kept on celebrating the whole week through with shopping with my mom and dinner with the in-laws. Thanks everyone who celebrated with me and wished my a happy birthday!

As far as my pregnancy goes, I'm almost 19 weeks along and feeling, well pregnant. I've been a little more sick this time, but things are going well and our baby is growing and healthy so that's all we can ask for! I'm starting to feel him moving around in there more and I love that. I'm grateful that so far we're both healthy and doing well. Can't believe we're nearly halfway there!

Happy Birthday, Friend!

Dear blogging world, 

       Today is Jenny's birthday.  Generally this would mean me and Jen out at a restaurant consuming our weight in calories.  But since that's not happening today, I am making caramel apples in Jenny's honor.  She'll probably never allow her husband to tell me their password again so I better make sure I get this out:  Jenny is an amazing friend and I'm very grateful for her.  She helped lift me during some pretty horrid times, and gave me very specific guidance which I know couldn't have come from any other source.  Glad our husbands decided to be best friends in high school and randomly had a college class together to 'rekindle' their broship, kinda worked to our advantage.  From our beginnings embracing our "Friends" addiction to it's full extent with couples TV night, living in 5 different cities combined, SLC trips, to enjoying having kids a few months apart, and LOTS of calories....it's been a fun 9 years my friend!  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!! You're the best!

Much love from all the freakin way across the country,

Lori

Babies, Blessings, and Birthdays

This post is way overdue....this all took place weeks ago, but I've been a slacker. Cute baby Nixon got blessed a couple of Sundays ago. Addie loved playing with all her cousins and I sure love all my chubby baby nephews! We also celebrated Tristan's first birthday last weekend. First birthdays are so fun and he was adorable. We actually had a lot of birthdays that week in our family. Jed's brother Dustin's and we also celebrated Deacon's and Melissa's as well (didn't bring my camera though, lame). So here are a bunch of pictures of all these events, in somewhat particular order.

 Grandma and Grandpa Rees with Evan and Trace

 Addie loves giving all the babies loves

 Nixon, Evan, and Trace

 What cute nephews we have!

 Oh and amidst all of this, I had a surprise visit from my cute friend Lori!

Amanda came over for a play date/caramel apple making day and told me she'd given a homeless person a ride. I was like, "um...okaaay" then she said, "Yah, and they're with me" and out came Lori!

I was speechless. You all know how RARE that is ;)

 Tristan's Birthday Party

Me getting cuddles from Addie, Emmett and Tristan.

I sure love my little girl and all my cute nephews!!

If you didn't think we had enough little boys running around.....

We're adding one more to the bunch!

That's right! Addie is going to have a baby brother arriving the end of March!!



Okay, now summer can be over :)

All summer long we've talked about taking Addie camping up to Anderson Cove. We went last year the day before Labor Day weekend and she LOVED it. Well summer came and went, as did Labor Day....so we decided last week we'd better hurry up and get our campin' on!! It was a PERFECT weekend for it. Gorgeous weather, empty beaches and my two favorite people.

We went up Thursday night and set up the tent and stuff. Then we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows, in true camping fashion. Addie slept good and comfy and warm all night....Jed and I however FROZE.

Our happy camper having some breakfast

Someone, meaning me, forgot matches and salt and pepper. Luckily we found a lighter and also some hairspray in my car :) and some nice old people hooked me up with salt and pepper. Whew, tragedy averted. Hey, I DID bring freshly made blueberry muffins and stocked the cooler nicely. I even had our condiments well organized....does that count?

 Pineview is GORGEOUS in the mornings. Perfectly still water.

We decided to take a little hike and take in the beauty of fall beginning in the mountains

My poor child inherited my grace and coordination. You should have seen her poor legs afterwards from taking so many little trips and bumps along the way.

We went back to the campsite and packed up some lunch and headed to the beach for a picnic

 Ahh....it was heavenly

 Thank you dollar bin at Target....my kid could play for an entire week straight with a shovel and pail. She spent two hours straight in her own little world. She'd take a shovel full of sand, dump it into the water, then take a shovel full of water and dump it on the sand. Very Zen I'm sure.

 Daddy jumped in and showed her that we can actually swim in the lake.

 She was hilarious. Totally in her own world, singing songs and acting out things from shows and stories. Everything from being Alpha Pig from Super Why to this

 That's her being Ariel....and yes she was singing "aaah aaah aaaah" :)

Later, Jed even got an amazing ski run in. The water was glass and the lake was pretty empty.

Perfection.

Too bad Addie totally crashed in my arms on the boat and missed seeing daddy ski.

She loves watching him ski and will say "Daddy is amazing!!"



We're ready to fully embrace fall now! We ended the weekend with a swim at grandma and grandpa Rees's house and then went up to the Weller's and made s'mores. Great way to end the summer!