"It was the Best of Times...": 2011

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Family Tree

We made this for Ann for Christmas this year, I love how it turned out!

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Brynne has been so excited to go see santa! After Taylor got off work yesterday we headed to R.C. Willey, It was so much fun! Santa didn't have a line, we could take our own pictures, and they took pictures and gave us free copies, a much better deal than the mall! The store had hired carolers to sing around the store, it was a great Christmas atmosphere and Brynne could hardly contain her excitement, when santa ask her what she wanted she yelled "BIKE" She has been practicing. She didnt want to get off santa's lap, and then after it was time to go we had to walk by a couple of times to wave. Dane was a little shy at first and wouldn't make eye contact, but there was no screaming like I had planned for. He was pretty happy with his candy cane! Welcome Christmas season!

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

We are grateful!!

We had SUCH a great Thanksgiving!

Taylor's famous pumpkin cinnamon rolls that he makes once a year, they were awesome!

Purple girls!

Suzanne making some perfect gravy.

Grandma McAffee and George.

The McAffee's

Kenny and Andreas best friends came from Arizona, thanks Buckmasters for making it more of a party..as you can see :)

Dad hit Dane in the head with a Frisbee on accident...but he doesn't look very sorry to me!

We went swimming at the indoor pool, the kids LOVED it so much we also went the next day. Brynne was being really brave and jumping off the diving board over and over. She was walking up the steps to the board and slipped and somehow did a flip and landed on her head. It is quite the bump and scape, she is fine unless she looks in the mirror :)

Temple square lights

We are so grateful for all our family we got to see and the fun that we had!
Highlights of Thanksgiving
- We got to babysit my newest cousin Cruz
- We got to see the Jensen side of the family
- We played volleyball
- Went shopping
- Watched Jane Eyre
- Went swimming twice
- Went out to dinner at Macaroni Grill
- Grandma McAffee and George came from AZ
- Suzanne and Troy came from Rexburg
- Roy and Elliot came from AZ
- Mom and Dad came from CA
- Kenny and Andrea came from Orem
- Went to temple square
- BYU Basketball game
- The Creameries Almond coconut ice cream and Graham Canyon ice cream
- Dehydrated way to many onions
- Went to the Springville Art Museum
- Played games and card
- Cracker wars with the Jensens
- Ate way to much food
- Taylor and I ran a 5k
- Slept in

I am Grateful for so many things this year, I'm feeling very blessed today!!

Monday, November 7, 2011

WAHOO!!

I don't know where Brynne found this binky...but thank you to whoever left it at our house. A very needed nap on the kitchen rug!!

Friday, November 4, 2011

Halloween and Halloween Half

Brynne had SO much fun this year! But who wouldnt have fun in her costume!

Taylor and Dane have authentic German costumes that Taylor got when he was on his mission...I guess he was pretty confident he would have a son someday!

The first house!!

The pumpkin patch in Springville, we got our pumpkins on Halloween, it was a gorgeous 65 degree day!

This is the forced "say your sorry and give your brother a hug" hug.

(Hopefully this doesn't sound like I'm bragging, I'm just excited i'm done!) On Saturday I ran my first half marathon! It was such an anticipated day for me! I first decided to run a half marathon with my roommates in college but I chickened out about a month before the race, and have always regretted that decision! Then I was going to run one with my aunt in Chicago after Taylor and I got married, but I got pregnant.

In May my friend told me she was going to run one so I decided I would do it right this time! When I first started jogging in May I could barely run one mile! In July I started training on a schedule where I would run 4 days a week. Usually a 2 mile, and two 3 mile days, and then a long run that was 6-9 miles. It was hard, but Taylor was great at watching the kids, and that was a great incentive to go :)

I had the thought more that once where I felt like this experience related to the atonement. I had had several opportunities to run a half marathon before that I didn't take, it would have been a lot easier because I was in shape in college, had not had 2 children and everything that comes with that, and had all my time to myself. But I eventually took the chance to get it done, even though it was MUCH harder. But I am so grateful for the opportunity to really push myself and accomplish a long time goal!

It was a Halloween marathon so everyone wore costumes, it was a really fun atmosphere! It was from about 4 miles above Sundance down to the riverwoods in Provo along the Provo River. It was mostly downhill. I finished about 1/2 hour faster that I had thought I could, I am so thrilled to be done!

Thanks Taylor, Brynne, Dane, Kenny, and Andrea for coming to watch and the cool signs!

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Loving Fall!

We have had a few gorgeous sunny fall days this week, I love this weather, it is perfect!!

These two are starting to have so much fun together!

We had a huge storm a couple weeks ago, luckily it warmed back up, dont think I'm quite ready for trying to find gloves and jackets and socks and boots before we can leave the house.

....Dane was almost ready to go play in the snow, but the problem is he's not a fan of clothes, but he likes his new boots apparently.

Last weekend we went to one of my old roomate Amber's wedding in Rexburg. It was a fun weekend! We walked around campus with the kids in a stroller and I felt so old! Also BYUI has changed soo much that I hardly knew how to get around. What a nice school, with so many good memories!

Amber was gorgeous and so happy!! It was so fun to be with these girls again, we had so much fun!

Zoe, Summer, Carrie, and I

Summer just got engaged to Karl in New Zealand! They get married next month, I'm so happy for them!

We got to spend time with the Williams, and it is always great to stay with them!

Sarah and Vinny, he is such a cutie pie!

We had a little halloween get together and I'm pretty proud of these cupcakes :)

Preview of Brynnes costume...I thought she would be deflated by the end of the night, but all of her balloons were intact. She even trip and fell, and she just kinda bounced right up, I should have my kids wear balloons all the time!

Balloon pinata...Mom this is sadly the only picture I got of the back of Dane, so this is a teaser until Halloween :)

Friday, September 9, 2011

Starts with a "T" and ends with a "E" We've got TROUBLE!

One of my friends just blogged about her rough day dealing with motherhood and messes, well I have been frustrated with my little trouble makers latley too so I thought I would take pictures of everything they get into because I know the day will soon come that I will miss these little one's, and I just want to remember them as funny, not me pulling my hair out :)

TROUBLE

"Helping" with the dishes :)

Heres one way to get rid of all my zucchini!

Mr. I'll climb anything with no fear, but I wont know how to get down so I'll fall or scream until you come get me, and by the way can we go up and down the stairs for a hour straight please?

Ya, just eating 2 pounds of cheese, no big deal.

One whole pot of waterproof eyeliner. Half way through the clean up process. Doesnt come off with soap and water, had to coat her in baby oil and Vaseline, let her soak and then scrub for a hour, then clean up the oil. The tub is still suffering. 2 hour clean up project.