Published!

I have been following a blog called "Money Saving Mom" for a while. She is pretty inspiring. One of the things she's done is put 100% down on a house. Crazy! She also has a series called "We Paid Cash" where readers can write in and tell their own stories. I did this and they published it yesterday! I'm pretty excited and the comments from complete strangers have been so nice! Check it out here!

Turkey Days & Holly Days

I survived hosting my first Thanksgiving with only a few minor burns on my arms from getting the turkey in and out of the oven. I have to say, I am pretty impressed with myself! The turkey was delish thanks to a Reynolds Oven Bag. Just put the turkey in the bag into the oven and it cooks in half the time and is super moist and makes for an easy cleanup. My mom came Wednesday night to help me get stuffing reading, but I did the rolls, pumpkin pie dessert, and mashed potatoes. My brother and his wife brought some yummy sides and of course I didn't get pictures of any of it. Oh well. There were many games played (5 crowns, Hoopla, SkipBo) and just enjoying being together.

I did all of my Black Friday shopping online and at first thought I didn't really find anything, but then seeing all my shipping confirmations emailed to me, I must've done all right because there is a lot coming to our house! Our town does a fun kick-off to the holiday season every year called "Holly Days" There's a craft fair, ice sculpting contest, face painting, magicians, free concessions, free christmas movie matinees at the theater, free ice skating and all sorts of other stuff. We didn't take Brooke last year because she was still so little, but this year we braved the cold for a few activites. We met up with Blake's sis and her kids just in time for the pony rides. Ellie was so great to ride with Brooke.We stood in line forever to ride the camels, and just as we got to the front of the line Brooke reached her breaking point. It was over an hour past nap time and it was cold. Brooke started crying and couldn't be calmed down so we left without getting a ride. But we did get to sit on one before the meltdown, which I think for Brooke was just as good as going for a ride.Saturday we went up on the mountain to get our Christmas tree. This is a fun tradition that I hope to continue for years and years.And to our suprise we got an earlier than expected Christmas gift. Our couch we ordered came! It was supposed to take 3-4 weeks to be delivered but here it is just a week and a half later! We love it and it's definitely much better than laying on the floor to watch movies. I've also been waiting for this before I hung anything on the walls, so now I can start decorating our downstairs.

23 and counting

It is crazy to think that in a month I will have a two year old. Seriously, where did the time go? It is fun to see Brooke become her own little person. I feel like she's grown up so much just in the past month or so. She's so smart and is saying and doing new things daily.

*If Brooke has a runny nose and I don't have a tissue on hand, I just use her shirt (gross, I know). So when I was sniffly Brooke came up to me held out the corner of her shirt to me and said "nose?" Like, "here mom, you can use my shirt"

*She loves to help. She can take her plate over to the garbage, scrape it, and then I lift her up to put it in the sink.

*She is obsessed with books. She constantly has to be holding one and requests one to sleep with each night. Even though the lights are off, I can hear her in her crib turning pages and reading to herself.

*Loves kitties. We have a kitty who has adopted us. We don't let it in the house, but that doesn't stop Brooke and the cat from "meowing" to each other, or stop Brooke from trying to share her food with it through the sliding glass doors.

*Prays often. We say at least 3 prayers during dinner at Brooke's request. While we pray, Brooke is over in her chair saying her own jibberish prayer. Then if she wants to say it all by herself she'll put her finger on her nose (you know, like when you hold your finger up to your lips to signal, be quiet. Brooke hasn't quite gotten it, so it's a finger on her nose) and goes "shhhhhh" Then she'll fold her arms and say her own prayer, the only thing we can make out is 'A-Men!"

*is so cute to say "thank you" when you give her something. She even says thank you to the boys passing the sacrament when it comes to us.

But all this is not to say that Brooke doesn't have her sassy side too. The terrible two's are alive and well at our house!

What Grows Up...

Must come down...

And this isn't even the tip of the iceberg

Insert Title Here

This is a very random post and I have no idea what to call it, so....

If you see Blake's hair looking extra stylish here's why:
Blake did his own shopping this past week. He usually uses Pert Plus for its convient 2 in 1 option, but I had to laugh when he picked out (unbeknownst to him) the "Thick n Full for extra volume".

Brooke has been really into dress up lately. She picked this outfit herself:
Brooke emptied out the toy bin and put her blankie inside and pushed it around the house. Brooke also loves "pretties". She is constantly wanting to get inside my jewelry box and put necklaces on. I have a feeling Santa will be bringing her some of her own jewlry for Christmas.
When she got tired of pushing her stuff around, she decided it would be fun to put the toy bin on her head. At least it's see-through!
We got up super early on Sunday ,thanks to daylight savings time, and were able to take some cute pictures before church. And for those of you who are extra astute, yes we're at my in laws house. Blake was hunting over the weekend so we went to church with them.


Here we are looking for "ducks" which were really the peacocks. After church, Brooke was so excited that the neighbors dog came over to visit.

And to make this post even more random, I have to share some funny things that have happened with some of my students lately.

1) I was playing a word game where each student had some letter tiles and they had to find words from just the tiles on their desk. One student raised his hand said, "I found 'hag'. Is that a word? I said yes it was and then another student said, "Isn't that when a girl is on her period?" and another student goes, "No! That's the rag!" OH MY GOSH! I was dying! First of all, what kind of boys would say that without dying of humuliation?! And he said it like it was no big deal. He either doesn't fully understand what he's talking about, or has lots of sisters. All of the other boys in my class were like "dude! Shut up!" I quickly moved them onto another subject.

2) I am losing my voice. By the end of the school day my voice is pretty nonexistent. One of my students comes up to me, plain as day and says "Mrs. M. your voice sucks." You gotta love their brutal honesty.

Mission Accomplished

We are definitely starting to feel a little more settled in our new house. After sorting, organizing, and taking lots of loads to DI (why do we always have so much stuff?!) We've at least managed to contain our mess to the basement bedroom which is going to serve as our office. The next item on our agenda is to 1) hit the black friday sales to hopefully find a deal on a sectional for our basement and 2) relax enough to actually enjoy ourselves! I've tried to take some pictures of the house so you can get an idea of what it looked like before and after, but I realized I'm not a very good photographer...especially of houses. Oh well. You'll just have to come visit us so you can see it in person :)
Before, the walls were this aqua blue/green and the carpet was that 80's gold. Blake made our bed and it used to be more than a foot taller than it is now. I made him chop the legs off so it was at normal height. The door to our bathroom is to the right of the window.

I tried to do a 360 view of Brooke's room. I love that her room is big enough for her to play in.

You can't really tell from the picture, but in the before living room pic the walls were this green color. And again with the yucky carpet.

We did the least amount of work in the kitchen (well, aside from redoing the floors). We only changed the handles on the cupboards. You can see how they were white and brass before. We switched them for brushed nickle and it makes a huge difference. I love my pantry. It has such deep shelves and those drawers so things don't get lost when you put them in the back.

Outside is Blake's birthday gift: a shiny new grill.

Probably the biggest change is the basement. As you can see, it used to have blue carpet and yellow walls. It was hideous. New carpet and paint have totally transformed it. It's long and narrrow so it makes it easy to separate into two seperate spaces. One side for the TV and one side for Brooke's play area.

We have two additional bedrooms (one is empty and one is a wreck), a laundry room and 2 and 1/2 bathrooms but who hasn't seen one of those? We love vistors, so make plans to come see us soon!

Little Miss Busy B.

Halloween was a big hit this year. Brooke loved dressing up in her costume and her bumble bee outfit was perfect for her: she really is a busy bee!

These are some of her halloween crafts Brooke has made. The cup is a candy corn snack made from pudding.We live in the perfect neighborhood for trick or treating and our neighbors warned us when we moved in that we get hit hard. The weather was perfect and Blake took Brooke out for her first time trick or treating. At first she I don't think she knew what was going on, but after a few houses Brooke got the hang of it.

On Friday night we went to the pumpkin festival. If you've ever been to to pumpkin walk in Logan it's just like it. This is the only picture I took. Blake and Brooke hanging out by the big bonfire.

On Thursday night Brooke had a little halloween party for her daycare she goes to. All the kids sang some halloween songs for the parents. Brooke didn't do much, she was just happy to be on stage and of course I was estactic that she even stayed up there without me!