November

Let's just smooth this all together into one giant post. It's been a busy month!

This was me at 16 weeks. Tiny baby growing!

Story time at the library for the little one during dance.

I got to go to Time Out For Women in St George for 3 days with some friends!

 We had a great time and I loved the talented speakers and performers. 

Lance had fun at home with the girls and I missed them tons. 

Tiny gymnasts. Daryn is rocking her preschool class and Reagan is working hard on pre-team.

Play time at the mall with cousins! I love when they all squeezed in one boat.

We took the girls to see the new Peanuts movie and we all loved it. Daryn actually sat through the whole thing! (Her first movie). The big bucket of popcorn helped. 

 We had a yummy dinner at Station Park after. Daryn was obsessed with the lights!

Girls, man. What can you do :).

I helped with this awesome activity for Cub Scouts where the boys made felt monsters for Pack Meeting to donate to Primary Children's Hospital! I got to drop them off, and it was a great experience to talk about with the girls, especially since it was right before Thanksgiving, exactly a year since Daryn's big surgery. Reagan might have cried when she left "her" monster there, but she knew the sick kids needed it.

We sanded/restained our deck over a week. It was exhausting and freezing. The girls liked watching me work in the cold from the warmth of the house. 

 Reagan is getting so good at writing her numbers and letters, and even starting to spell words on her own! (the envelope on the left says: Kelly from Reagan).

We spent some sunny days finishing up the garden and raking all the leaves. 

 Some of us were more helpful than others. 

We took the girls plus Chiara to see Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer at Capitol theater, and Meagan and Grace came too. It was sooo good. Exactly like the movie but even better. 

We celebrated "Halfsies Day" (with a cake of course) when Daryn's half birthday and my 20 week mark fell on the same day. Daryn was ready to dig in after she blew out the candle. 

Can't believe she is halfway to 3. A couple things about her:

Recognizes 2/3 of her letters.

Can count to mid-teens.

Loves to play pretend animals.

Finally wears 2t pretty consistently. 

Favorite things to say are "that's SILLY", usually to me, and "pleeeease" several times when she really, really wants somethings. Also " you're not the boss of me!". Yay. She usually surprises people in public with her full conversations, especially since she is so tiny. 

Loves to jump out from things and yell "surprise!" all the time. A game she learned from her Lubbock cousins over Skype. It changed her life, basically. 

Cut open this beast of a pumpkin to make fresh pumpkin pie (and to get the hull-less seeds- they were delicious and we are definitely growing them every year). It was so. much. work. to cut it up and bake it. It took hours. I'm never doing that again. The pie was good, though. 

We had the best Thanksgiving ever! Just us at home. It was so quiet and un stressful and we just did whatever we wanted and spent time together as a family for 3 days. And lots of eating. It snowed over night and the girls wanted to go out first things after breakfast and play while we cooked. 

Reagan sneaking a bite of something chocolate while we were busy in the kitchen.

So yummy and all ready to go!

 The kids got their own fancy table.

Reagan insisted on taking this picture of us. Super flattering angle from a 4 year old. 

 Just relaxing on the couch after. No rush to clean up!

We went over to Genevieve's to have pie with her family that evening. No pictures of that, but it was delicious.

Daryn stuck to Chiara like glue for some reason, even when she was playing the grown up game with us.

Friday was, of course, Christmas day! Time to get a tree! It was sooo cold

 But the girls tromped happily around in the snow and practiced using Daddy's hatchet until we found the perfect tree.

She's a beauty!

Leftover pie face!

Saturday was spent mostly decorating the tree (it took awhile...)

 The girls got a few decorations to have in their own room!

The finished product. I love our tree so much!

 

After spending most of the day inside, we thought the perfect way to end the weekend would be with a visit to see the lights at Temple Square! It was very cold, but we bundled to the max, and were actually all pretty comfortable!

 The girls stayed warm running around. I love this age of not having to bring a stroller every where. 

Reagan asked who this statue was, and when I told her Joseph Smith, she ran over to give him a big hug!

First thing early this morning, I had my anatomy ultrasound! We were a little nervous, but everything went great and baby looked perfect!! What a relief! We all went and the girls were fascinated to see pictures of the baby.

Afterward, we went straight to the dentist. Reagan bumped her tooth again last week and had a big abscess on her gum. So they pulled it out!

Reagan was really brave but she was a little upset about the whole thing. She is really excited for the tooth fairy to come tonight though! The missing tooth will take some getting used to for all of us. 

And that's it for this month! Only a few hours left! We can't wait for all the fun of December.