Sara and her posse

Sara has really bonded with her stuffed animals and dolls. She has at least one of them with her at all times. But most of the time it is all three. They even have to pray during family prayer at night. Puppy does a little whiny prayer. Bunny's is all done in boings, and Belle's is done is a whisper. She is a princess after all. Sara's imagination is very impressive to me. I love hearing what she comes up with. She really is a joy in my life.
This is what I came down to the other day. Everyone patiently waiting for breakfast. I was told that puppy was tired, so he was still in bed.

Setting Up Christmas

We actually got the first snowfall of the season today. It wasn't much, but it was still fun to wake up to the white stuff. I woke up pretty early and headed out with my friend, Nathalie, to brave the crowds of Black Friday. It really wasn't a bad experience. In fact, I will probably do it again. But I was pretty much useless the rest of the day. Rob and the girls set up the tree.Puppy had to help as well.



Taking a break to snuggle dad.
Putting on the ornaments.
We only broke one glass bulb...Not too bad!
The stockings were hung by the fireplace with care. I love that we have a fireplace!
The finished tree. Love it!

That night we met some of our friends at the church to play volleyball. Well, I went up to block a serve and jammed my middle finger. My first sports injury ever. Wow...Did it hurt. Rob even heard it pop. It is pretty swollen and purple, but I'm sure it will be normal soon!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was pretty difficult this year. It was hard to be away from our family, but we did make the best of it. For the first time I fixed a full Thanksgiving dinner. It turned out quite well, and even made dressing from scratch. We had our friends from church come and it was nice to not spend it alone. I think next year we will possibly head back to Utah to celebrate instead.
Anna made this turkey hat in preschool. It ended up as the centerpiece at the kids table.

I didn't take any pictures of dinner. The girls did a craft that evening, but ended up eating most of the dried beans. It was quite the interesting day.

We concluded the day by having the Elders stop by and give us a message on being grateful. I am very grateful for many things this. I'm thankful that Rob has a job. I'm thankful for the wonderful ward and friends that we have here in Kentucky. I am so lucky to have found wonderful, supportive friends here, so far away from home. I'm thankful for Rob. For my beautiful, eternal family which includes five wonderful children. I'm thankful that I was raised properly by wonderful parents. I am grateful for all of my blessings.

Daddy's Helper

When we moved into our house we discovered that it did not have a disposal. Rob also works with disposal units for his job, so we had to install one to test. Sara had to be right with Rob, helping him out. She loves being Daddy's helper!

Library Time

I took Sara to story time where they made their own turkeys. I love that Sara's looks like a Picasso version!

Art

Look at what my husband can do. Isn't he awesome?!

Happy Birthday My Angels!

Seven years ago today I was able to feel the indescribable joy of becoming a mother for the first time. Unfortunately, I was able to feel the deepest sorrow of loss shortly after. Oh, how I miss my sweet angels. I still remember them daily. I love that Anna and Sara know who they are. The other day Anna came home from school with a house that had her family members in it. I was so touched when she pulled out three babies; Jason, Ellie and Grace. This morning she ran into my room and said, "It' Jason, Ellie and Grace's birthday today. Let's celebrate!". So, we did. First thing we did was go and buy some balloons. I let Anna chose the colors and she chose Cougar Blue for Jason, pink for Ellie and purple for Grace. We wrote some notes on them and decided to send them to heaven.It was a really windy day. The girls had a death grip on the balloons.
And there they go. It was so windy that we estimated that they probably made it to Ohio within a couple of hours.
The girls wanted to watch for a little bit, so daddy pulled out the binoculars. And yes, it is the middle of November and my girls are standing barefoot outside. Loving the weather!
Sara had them upside down and probably didn't see anything, but she likes to feel big.
We also got cupcakes and sang Happy Birthday. Everyone got to blow out a candle for them. Sara didn't want to wait until the end of the song to blow hers out.
I guess that they were good!
Did I mention that we gave them these cupcakes right before bedtime. They were pretty wired!

Happy Birthday my sweet angels. I can't believe it has been seven years. I ache to hold you in my arms, but cannot wait for the day where we can be together again. I love you!

Remembering

One of the hardest things about today is that I am in Kentucky and the grave is in Utah. This is the first year that I have not been able to go to their grave and do something for them. Thank goodness my mom was able to take care of it for me and I love her for it! Thanks mom, for taking the time out of your busy day to make sure my babies were remembered.
I had her pick out three balloon bouquets, one for each of them. Here is what she came up with. For Jason, Bob the Builder.
For Grace, a heart.For Ellie, butterflies. Anna would approve!
It appears that their grave is being taken care of. Thank you!
I also want to thank all of my wonderful friends and family for their sweet words. My wonderful SIL took time away from her own son's birthday party to call and let me know she was thinking of me. It meant so much to me. I received a text message from my VT, letting me know that she was thinking of me. When I texted her back to say thanks for remember this day she had no idea what I was talking about. She didn't know that it was "d-day". She just was thinking of me and wanted to let me know. How wonderful that she is so in tune with the Spirit. I had several messages on Facebook. It really was a special day of remembering.

Her Father's Daughter

Anna found a walnut with a hardened husk that had broken into four parts today. For some reason, seeing as she is her father's daughter, she decided to make necklaces out of them. Rob decided to help her so he found some curling ribbon and helped her braid it using the drill. I think she was a little skeptical at first.
Making sure that it didn't unbraid when they let go.
Anna's finished product. She was so proud of these necklaces that she made us all one. We all wore them to lunch.
I think Rob loved the fact that they were pink and purple. That's what happens when you live with a bunch of girls!
Sara showing off hers. Speaking of Sara, she made it through the night with no problem and didn't ask for it tonight. Hopefully she is just surprising us and really is okay with the whole not getting a binky thing.

Bye Bye Binky!

I decided that it was time for Sara to give up the binky. My original plan was to get rid of it on her third birthday, but I realized that we would just be getting back from Utah. I didn't want to take away her binky when we are going to be adjusting back to a time change. So the decision was made to take it away today. We gathered up all of her binkies and put them in a zip lock bag. We then headed off to the Disney store where she was able to pick something out. She chose a Belle doll that cost exactly four binkies. So after Sara paid with the binkies we gave the clerk the real money and asked for the binkies back so we could dispose of them. He laughed and said, "I'll dispose of them for you. Have a good night mom and dad!". So whether we are ready or not we had to stick to it. The rest of the night we were trying to brain wash her by saying that binkies are yucky. By the end of the night it had stuck. She went to bed with no problem and fell promptly asleep. I'm actually pretty worried because it was too easy. Hopefully the rest of the nights will go this smoothly.
Anna also got to buy something at the Disney store with her birthday money. She chose this princess box that has a bunch of jewelry and fake makeup. She is pretty excited about it.
Showing off their new stuff. What cute girls!!

New jammies

The girls were in dire need of warm pajamas. Of course they chose princess. I was so glad that Sara's had a tutu. She has insisted on wearing a princess dress or some sort of dress to bed every night. I didn't realize she had become such a princess.

Anna looks so big to me in this picture. Crazy how fast she is growing up.
Some days they are each others best friend. Other days, not so much. I think that right after I snapped this picture they started hitting each other. Aah. Sisterly love!

Achievement Day Girls

One of my new callings in this ward (notice I said one...I have two) is assistant achievement day leader. There are only four girls in our group, but they are pretty great. This last activity the girls wanted to make something. So our fearless leader came up with the cute idea of edible topiary. She had a great vision...The girls just didn't see it the same way. But it was a lot of fun. I can't wait to get to know these cute girls even better.

As I got Sara ready for church today I couldn't believe how big she looked. She's not my baby anymore!I absolutely love this picture. I told her to say "I love mommy!" and this is what I got. Love that kid!

Done!

I finally finished a sewing project from start to finish and it only took a week! My friend found this cute November countdown at Pottery Barn but it was $60. We made it for under $5. The material was cheap, but I think it was the labor that cost so much. But I think it turned out pretty cute and the majority of it is sewn. Mom, aren't you so proud!

Ballet Class

It was parent's day at Anna's ballet class. It was a lot of fun to go and see how much she is learning. Here they are doing their hello toes, goodbye toes (flexing their toes).
Her cute little class.
She's doing really well. Here she is on releve'
Sara really wanted in on the action. She was copying everything that the bigger girls were doing. Here she is pretending to be the ballerina in the jewelry box.
My camera died right after I snapped this picture, so I wasn't able to get a better one. But here she is with her class and her teacher.