At One Year

Sydney

14 lbs. 13.5 oz. (below 0%)

26.5 inches (below 0%)

Jenna

16 lbs. (below 3%)

27.5 inches (10%)

 Bryn

16 lbs. 3 oz. (below 5%)

28 inches (25 %)

Kitty with Shoes

Jenna came to me as proud as she could be.

She had put Bryn's shoes on Bryn's new kitty.

She's such a clever girl!

And (most of the time) she loves her baby sister.

Whipped Cream!

The girls asked me to make some pudding tonight after dinner.  I had some extra cream in the fridge, so I whipped some up to put on top of the pudding.

Bryn got a bowl of whipped cream all for herself.

And she loved every bit of it.  She screamed when I finally took it away.

Every shot I tried to get of all 3 girls were like this.

Sydney wither her mouth open, taking a bite.

Bryn moving.

Jenna hiding partway behind the high chair.

Doesn't she look grown up?

Jenna finally calmed down from jumping, hiding, and bouncing Bryn's chair for long enough for me to snap this.

Las Vegas

I had a tax nerd conference at the beginning of the week. So, 18 hours after we returned from Idaho, we were off to Nevada.

Instead of snapping a million pictures of me and the 800+ other tax preparers what sat in a huge ballroom for 16 hours over 2 days (thank goodness my father-in-law was there with me!), I thought I'd share what my girls were up to.  Thank goodness for Daddy and Grandma to take care of them while I "worked".

Bryn exploring Aunt Tiffany's house on our way to Vegas.

(I should note that she knows how to climb up stairs & got all the way up there on her own.)

Pool time! 

Watching TV while Grandpa rests.

Santa!

Early birthday party for Bryn.

And she loved the cake!

Thanksgiving 2012

Several months ago, I made plans to have Thanksgiving with 2 of my sister in Idaho.  Unfortunately, my need to plan ahead made Randy miss Thanksgiving with his family who where all together in NM.

Each of us sisters pitched in on the meals & our Thanksgiving meal was amazing!  So, so yummy!

I had wanted to take our girls to see the campus of BYU-I, but Friday ended up being super windy & we didn't want to walk around in it.  We will just have to do it another time we are up there.  Josh did drive through our old condo complex to show Cedric & Kelsey where we had lived.  I was so tempted to peek through Sydney's old bedroom window, since the blinds were open...but I didn't.

Despite Randy's dislike of cold, windy Rexburg, the weather was actually pretty nice on all the other days & we had a wonderful time.

Sydney, Keri, Randy, Kelsey, Cedric, Dixie

We learned & played a new game, Tripoly.  Lots of fun!

Josh, Dixie, Randy, Keri, Cedric, Kelsey

We adults escaped the house on Black Friday--not to shop, but to play laser tag.

By our 4th game, we had it down & spanked the group of guys who we played against.  We almost felt sorry for them.

Lander, Sydney, Jenna

Sydney and Jenna had a great time with Jake, Lander & Tristan.  Jake even babysat everyone while the adults were off playing for a bit & did a great job!!

Jenna was recovering from strep throat & didn't always feel well and Bryn was teething, so the nights & nap time were hard for her.

Lander, Sydney, Jenna

We love the J family & love to visit them!!  Super Bowl Sunday, Dixie??

Twenty Bucks

I went to Wal-Mart today. When I parked and was getting kids out of the car, I was approached by a man holding a broken key.  He explained to me that his key had broken in his ignition and he needed to have $30 to have a new key made & be able to get back to work.  He said he was short $8.  I normally do not carry cash on me, but today was his lucky day.  He said he had change for a $20, so he pulled some wads of money out of his pocked and "counted" them.  After handing me $11, he walked away.  I watched him for a few seconds, wondering if he had been telling me the truth.  (Ummm...he had both halves of his key & it would have taken a lot of force to twist & break his key like it was...So why wasn't part of his key still in the ignition??)  I uncrumpled the money & counted it, only to realize that he only gave me $7 or 8, at best.   As soon as I had counted it and realized I very likely had been fooled, I was approached by another man.  This man had fresh, homemade tamales for sale.  I didn't have the $12 he wanted for them, but he looked at the money I had been counting.  I told him I only had $7 or 8 and he happily handed over the tamales, eager for an exchange.

On one hand, I think I had probably been taken advantage of.  Who knows.  On the other hand, I'm glad I was able to help someone whose family member had obviously gone to a lot of work in order to make & sell something for a few bucks.  We will definitely enjoy the tamales, but I think I will continue to wonder about that mangled key I saw.  Either way, I entered Wal-Mart already down 20 bucks.

Did you know?

I have the best mom in the world?  She's coming to visit AND she's going to help me wash my windows!!!

Bryn's Tuesday morning mess

Bryn is getting into everything now. Drawers, cupboards, trash cans, anything she can reach or figure out to open...

Sydney on crazy hair day with backwards pigtails

Sydney got rave reviews from her teachers at parent teacher conference.  It makes me feel good, because she had gotten off to a bit of a rough start.

My massive project--if I can just figure one last guy out...

I'm finally this close to being finished with a family history gift that I've been working on for about 2 1/2 years.  Yes, really.  Oh, and I'm thinking the giant 3-ring binder I bought for it isn't going to be big enough.  Randy calls me a tree killer.

I have lost 11.5 pounds since August.  I wasn't going to say anything since no one has really noticed, but I'm darn proud of myself.  Only 31.5 pounds to go!!

I got a part-time job.  I kinda' stumbled upon it, but it's a great fit for me.  I will be a customer support agent for a tax software company.  I can work at home & I will answer emails (so loud kids in the background won't matter!).  I am still doing taxes on my own, too, so I will be busy, Busy, BUSY during tax season.

Jenna's in a real fit-throwing stage.  She can be sweet as pie when she wants, but otherwise, watch out!

Bryn with her first-ever pigtail.  

Unfortunately, she stayed home from church with a sick dad & no one got to see it until now.

My garden officially froze last night.  My tomatoes, peppers & cantaloupe were the last things left.  Actually, my strawberries are still producing, though.

We are expanding our alarm company into several other states (Kentucky and Arizona as of now).  Randy stays busy with all of that & his MBA classes.  I can't wait until he's done with school next June!

Picture Dump

 Jenna has been attending ABC Storytime at our local library.

They always make something, and several times they have made masks.

Oooh, scary!

Jenna enjoys putting Bryn in things.  This time, Bryn is amused, but not always.

Bryn must be tired...

...and her poor mama is snapping pictures instead of picking her up!

Sydney played soccer during the month of September.

Her favorite part was the treats afterward.  This will probably be her last year playing.

Snot + dirt = one cute face

Bryn was my helper as I harvested potatoes.

Jenna wanted to scare her cousin, Tristan, so she colored her face.  I happily let her keep her face like this all day long.

Jenna's face did clean up pretty well by the next day for her cousin, Tyler's, baptism.  Unfortunately, Randy had class that morning & couldn't be there with us.

Jenna lost a toenail in an unfortunate accident in the mall bathroom.  The poor child was traumatized that night, but her toe has been mostly pain free ever since.

This is where I spend too much of my time.

I swear I'm constantly cleaning it up, but everything keeps finding it's way back.  I'm determined to eliminate the big 2-3 inch pile of family history papers sometime soon, though.

And often enough, this cute face joins me while I work.

My newest experiment

I'm trying my hand selling some of the goodies that I love to make.  I guess I'm always looking for a good reason to bake!

http://simplyhome-baked.blogspot.com/

I need your feedback!

So, I've been thinking I want to try my hand at offering home-baked goods this holiday season.  My initial thoughts are to offer:

• Cinnamon rolls w/ cream cheese frosting
• White dinner rolls
• Whole-wheat dinner rolls
• Peanut butter chip/Milk chocolate chip cookies
• Banana bread

I've also thought of doing:

• Mint cream brownies
• Marshmallow peppermint brownies
• Berry freezer jam (to go along with the dinner rolls)

What do you think?  I have the poll above so you can be anonymous, but if you'd like to give me feedback, I'd love it!  Would you buy any of it?  What would be your top picks?  Any other suggestions?  Let me hear it!

Just a little personality

I sure love these girls bunches!

Everyone eats cereal off the floor

I needed to get some work done this past week.  Sydney was at school, Jenna was at preschool, and of course, that would mean that Bryn would NOT be napping.  So, I fed her some dry cereal to occupy her, knowing that it would be spilled. And it was.  But oh, how it kept her busy.  She ate every last piece of it!