Service with a Smile

Today was the fifth day of a new tradition for us (meaning, we're trying it this year and then we'll see if it becomes a tradition). For FHE on Monday night, we each made our own jar with 24 personalized service ideas inside of it. Each day, starting December 1st, we pull out one of the ideas out of our jar and do that act of service. So far, it has been lots of fun for us. The first day...Ashley made Bethany's bed, Bethany cleaned the closet mirrors in the master bathroom, I invited Ashley out of Quiet Time to play her favorite game with me, and Jared opened the door for someone at work. Ashley's favorite has been helping Dad with the dishes and organizing the bookshelf. Bethany organized the front of the fridge and loved leaving a nice note under someone's pillow. I'm hoping it gets us all in the spirit of giving more than getting during this Christmas season...and so far it is working!

Happy Thanksgiving!

For Thanksgiving we went to Germantown, Wisconsin! We had a blast! Katie taught us how to perfectly brine a turkey, and boy was it delicious! We had a nice Thanksgiving day including football for the boys in the backyard and a Thanksgiving craft for the girls inside.

Other kids' toys are always so fun! Bethany loved this blow dryer in Eliza's beauty salon set.

We also had fun decorating Thanksgiving cookies. Ok, a note about Bethany. Somehow she got into Mommy's lipstick and used it to color her eyebrows instead. And this wasn't any lipstick...this was the Infallible Never Fail lipstick...you know, the kind that stays on for 24 hours. Although...I noticed that Bethany's stayed on for a lot longer, even after many sessions of scrubbing. ;)

Isn't that just the cutest little 2-year old Thanksgiving feast plate?

We had placecards and gumdrop turkeys by each plate. And even the kids got to use the crystal and fine china. Wow!

On Friday we ventured out to the Milwaukee Natural History Museum. It was amazing! We stayed the entire day and only visited one of the many floors. The girls and I loved the butterfly garden. Not only were the butterflies BEAUTIFUL, but it was fun to have them land on you as you walk around.

Abby wore her flower shirt on purpose, in hopes of attracting butterflies. Looks like it worked!

More fun at the museum!

On Saturday we took a drive to Lake Michigan. It was a bit chilly...and I voted against returning to do the Polar Bear Dip on New Year's day. But, it was amazing to see the lake.

Daniel took us on a tour of the Kohl's Corporate Office. Wow! Pretty cool stuff! It was amazing to see how different it was from the WM home office. Ha!

Katie shared in her family tradition of breaking out the Christmas puzzle after Thanksgiving. It became quite addictive and we found ourselves having to pry people (adults) away from the table so we wouldn't stay up all night trying to finish it.

What a great trip...thanks Daniel and Katie!!

After being on vacation for almost a month, then being blessed with pregnancy, I am now functioning enough to post something again. It's been a loooooooong time, so there's no way of really catching up. But, here's my attempt at a few pictures from each of the past three months.

This was the view from our condo in Florida. Those two weeks on the beach were a true vacation for me. It was so nice to be with family (immediate and extended) and it was nice to stay an extra week just for some personal R&R. (July - August)

While we were in Florida Christy organized our family outing to the portrait studio. That was fun, and we all left with a bunch of great family pictures. Other highlights of Florida included: family games, girls fashion show (compliments of Aunt Linda), dinner at Norwoods, celebrating Grandma and Grandpa's wedding anniversary, attending the Orlando temple, cousins dance party, running/walking on the beach every morning at sunrise, doing the 10-mile bike ride with Aunt Linda, swimming at the pool, building sand castles, boogie boarding, cousins tie-dye night, Kevin's magic show, and as Ashley would say, "Wading in the waves." It was AWESOME!

After Florida, we met up with the Stewarts in Utah...but my camera was full...and I'm still waiting for pics from others...but it was a great trip! We enjoyed a play at Sundance, cousins camp, a tour of Temple Square, attending the SLC temple, riding horses, and playing family games.
Also while in Utah, Jared and I joined my family for the Provo River Half Marathon. It was an absolutely beautiful run, and we all felt like winners at the end (Sorry, no pics of that either!)

Back at home, the girls enjoy some reading time on our bed. (August)
Jared did a fun activity with the girls on one of their Daddy-Daughter nights -- shaving cream in the bathtub. The girls got on their swimsuits and Jared provided the shaving cream and food coloring. Fun times! (August)
Ashley LOVES to go outside in the rain. She'll take her umbrella and go out and dance, or sit on a chair and just watch the rain. It is really so cute to watch. This time she was just twirling and singing. (September)

One morning a few weeks ago, I got the girls dressed and then Ashley said, "Mom, look! We're the American flag!" It was cute!
The latest craze around here...reading lights! The girls have had so much fun with the reading lights they got from (my) Mom and Dad. Ashley LOVES being able to stay up even later reading books. Bethany usually lasts a good 45 minutes, too.

Happy Halloween! This year we had a Snow Kingdom Fairy Princess (I think I got that right) and a bumblebee. Jared took the girls trick-or-treating at work on Friday and then we all went to the ward trunk-or-treat on Saturday. The girls had a blast! (October)

We've been trying to spend more time outside before it turns too cold. After raking up the leaves one night, there was a HUGE pile for the girls to play in, so they had fun enjoying autumn. (Don't worry, Mom...we checked for Copperhead snakes first.) (October)
The morning we left for North Carolina. It was the longest trip we've taken in the van, and it was nice to take advantage of many of its perks...like, I never knew there was an outlet in the backseat - you don't even need an adapter. I also very much enjoyed the heated seats. Ahh.

Here are Mom and Dad at their booth at the Craft Fair. Lookin' Good! (October)
I took this picture of the girls at the library...both reading Fancy Nancy. (October)
Jared has really gone the extra mile to help out while I've been out of action. One of the favorite activities as of late is sleigh rides on the blanket around the house. Hooray!
Inspired by Amanda, I thought I'd do a better job of taking pictures during the pregnancy. Here's the half-way picture (also the first day I did my hair and make-up on the same day in about ten weeks.) I can tell I'm feeling better, little by little, and Jared and I are both so excited to welcome a new little one to the family. Next week we'll find out the baby's gender. Any guesses?

It's time to go CAMPING!

The last weekend of June, we had a great weekend camping at Lake Fort Smith, just an hour south of here. We went with our good friends, the Robinsons, and we all had a great time. With their cute 2-year old girl, Eva, and our two girls, it was a weekend full of fun. We enjoyed a hike to a (dried up) waterfall, paddle boats out on the lake, smores (with Reese's instead of chocolate...YUM!), dutch oven and tin foil meals, an early morning campground run, and lots of fun with the girls. Here are some pics...Initiating our first tent!

Ashley did a great job hiking the entire hike on her own. She also provided walking sticks for the others and sang songs about hiking as we went. It was so hot, we let the girls hike in their bathing suits. I decided to do the same...JUST KIDDING!
Bethany enjoys a nap under the trees after our hike.

The hand-washing station was a popular spot for the little girls during our stay.
Bethany's hands stayed oh-so-clean. :)

Here are the three little girls playing all together in the tent.

Ashley had a great time being a little mom to the two younger girls.
Ahh, the perks of being the oldest child. We had such a fun time doing the paddle boat together out on the lake. There were little seats on the back where the girls could sit while we did all the paddling. Poor Ashley suffered from sunscreen-in-the-right-eye syndrome, but aside from that we had smiles all around.

Bethany had fun in the sand while waiting for the dutch oven breakfast to finish cooking. YUM! Thanks to Rachel, we had tasty meals and snacks the entire trip. And if you haven't tried smores with a Reese's cup instead of plain chocolate, you are really missing out!

June Highlights...

It's hard to top a peacock, but this latest addition has come close. We saw this furry animal run across the yard, and I asked the girls what they thought it was. Bethany replied, "It's a baby bear!" Well, not quite...but I had to look it up myself to double check. It's a groundhog. Ashley named him(?) Marvin. We have yet to figure out the gender, but Mom almost has us all convinced that it could be pregnant or keeping its babies in the burrow it has under the shed. We haven't had the heart to trap it yet, but Jared claims plans are in the works. Until then, we love seeing him every morning and throughout the day as he runs around the yard, munches, plays by the bunnies, and takes naps on the cinderblocks.

We spent lots of time out in the yard preparing our garden area. The most time consuming part (so far) was digging up all the Bermuda grass. Here's what Jared looked like after we were caught out there in a thunderstorm (and worked through it since this was our big chance to be productive...the girls were at a friend's house). The next step is pouring a concrete footing and then building the cinderblock beds and garden wall. I have a vision in mind...it just takes time...

Another temple trip...this time in one (looooooooooong) day.

Jared and I both celebrated our birthdays in June. Woo-hoo!
Also in June, Jared ran in his first 5K! He finished with a time of 28:29...which was fitting since it was the week Jared made the transition from 28 to 29 years of age.