lights at Temple Square

This last Saturday, we went to Temple Square (and City Creek) with my family to see the Christmas lights. The weather was great, and the company was even better! The pics...

As you can see, Maelie slept through much of the outing. Hannah liked the lights, but she LOVED the water features at City Creek. When the little water show started, she excitedly yelled "Water! Water!" to the lady standing next to us. Silly girl. :)

Thanksgiving and 5 months

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with both of our families. And today was also Maelie's 5-month mark. What a big girl!


This morning we watched the Thanksgiving Day Parade while we cooked at home. Hannah loved it! Then we went to my Grandma's house at noon to have Thanksgiving dinner/lunch with my whole family...

Maelie with Aunt Lissa.

Silly Maelie's 1st Thanksgiving!

Hannah loved sitting at the"kid table:"

 And the older kids were super cute and funny.

And here are the aduls.

After we all ate, Melissa recorded us while we each shared a good memory of Braydon. There were a few tears shed.

We shared some good sister/mom time.

Some of the boys made a huge leaf pile.

Hannah with her great-grandma Meservy.

Later in the afternoon, we headed over the the Carters' house for a 2nd delicious dinner, pies, and some games.

And now some cute pic of my cutie little 5-month-old...

 Maelie loves to suck on her toes whenever she gets the chance. :)

 Adorable sisters!

 Awwwwwwwwwwwwww!

 Smiley baby!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

One year older..

...but not much wiser. Yup, I had a birthday a week-and-a-half ago. It was on a Saturday, so I got some nice me-time getting my hair cut and clothes shopping while Scott watched the girlies. Then I spent the evening eating, singing, and laughing with good friends and family. It was a fabulous birthday...

What better way to celebrate my birthday than to dress my baby up as a Cubs fan (times 4)?! I have a very similar pic of Hannah somewhere.

Doesn't Maelie look excited (or terrified) to wear a Cubs t-shirt over her Cubs onesie? Super cute!

Gotta love the action shot of me blowing out the candles on the delicious cake Carla made for me. 37 really isn't so bad so far.

After a delicious Thai food dinner and a rousing round of my favorite game (Hummmble), the gang got in some good quality karaoke time. Hannah made sure to make herself the center of attention. :)

In other noteworthy news, Maelie rolled over from her stomach to her back two-and-a-half weeks ago. I'm pretty sure Hannah got her own post about her first rollover the very day that it happened. I hope my second-born will forgive me someday. Maelie is super close to rolling from her back to her stomach now. She rolls to her side often and has even started sleeping on her side. She just can't yet get over her arm to her tummy. I can't get over how strong and active she is.

 

What an adorable little snuggle bug!

Bonus pic of Hannah...

"Mom, take a picture of me! I being silly!"

One more bonus pic of my girlies...

This pic is oozing with hilarious adorableness.

I'm totally the most blessed 37-year-old on the planet. :)

Bittersweet Baptism

Last weekend, we were able to drive down to St. George to attend my 8-year-old nephew's baptism. It was wonderful to be there to support Rylan and to witness his special baptism. However, it was sad to not have his daddy there (in person) for his big day. I wonder how long such bittersweet feelings will be a part of our family's special occasions.


Anyway, I only took a few pics of the quick but fun weekend...

Cute, happy Rylan was so excited about his Disney cake that he picked out! :)

Our whole family was there (minus 2 brothers-in-law), and so we took the opportunity to celebrate my dad's birthday (which was the day before the baptism)...

...and to celebrate Jason's 11th birthday (which was the same day as the baptism).

 The Clayson and Nielsen families after Rylan's baptism. There were also many friends and ward members present to support Rylan.

Silly Rylan asked his cousin Joseph to baptize him, and he asked his Primary teacher to confirm him, So sweet!

We sure are proud of Rylan! We love him so much!!!

Halloween fun

We had a fun time celebrating Halloween this year, especially because Hannah was so into it.


Hannah enjoyed the pumpkin patch with her cousins...

Hannah picked out a tiny pumpkin for Maelie.

We went to John and Megan's fun annual Halloween party...

 Hannah picked out this Ariel costume at CostCo a couple of months ago. What a pretty princess!

 And Maelie was an adorable ladybug!

 It cracks me up that at 4 months old Maelie fit into the same costume that Hannah wore at 10 months old. :)

We carved pumpkins and roasted pumpkin seeds...

Hannah did a good job of digging out the pumpkin guts. In every pic I took while she was standing, she is looking out of the corner of her eyes at herself in the mirror. :)

Hannah told us what shape she wanted for each facial feature. She also said she wanted one tooth which she immediately pulled off.

On Halloween we visited Daddy/Snape at work...

Don't ask me how the ladies at Scott's work got him to wear his Snape costume to go with their office decorations for the duration of the time it took their office to be judged for the contest!

Then we went to Cole and Clay's costume parade at their school, and Hannah and Maelie were mesmerized by all the costumes. And later we had dinner at my parents' house and went trick or treating around their neighborhood.

Maelie went trick or treating with this cute bunch for awhile.

But a super-tired, napless Hannah insisted on sticking it out to the end with her cousins. (She was quite groggy by the time we made it over to visit her Carter grandparents and her great-grandma Meservy.)

Our amazing pumpkins. :)  (We didn't carve Maelie's pumpkin, and Scott didn't want his own.)

We hope you all had a Happy Halloween!