3 months until Nursery

3 months until nursery sounds so far away! I've never had to entertain a 15 month old at church, because Stori went into Nursery at this age. Our ward only had one other kid so they asked if Stori could go in. I guess I took for granted how nice that was.
This little Sylvie munchkin is such a busy girl during the last 2 hours of church. Last week Dan was stuck in the clerks office, so I had to take Syvlie to YW with me. all the girls loved having her climb on their laps, but it was a little distracting! ;) luckily dan came and got her after about 15 minutes.

She's a talkative little human and says about 5-7 words, and mimics certain phrases. Her favorites phrases right now are "whatsthat?" and "itsgoood" It's kind of like she speaks in hashtags.
She also knows her animal sounds; cow, doggy, kitty, ducky, tiger, bird, and dinosaur.
New word week--- she said "swings" when we were at the park playing yesterday, and then said it again when I wanted her to showoff for her daddy.

She loves being a little walker now and LOVES playing with big sis. They chase each other, dance together, have dress-up parties, push each other in strollers, and occasionally fight over the Rapunzel dress-up doll or holding mom's hand.

She acts like she is just starving for my attention. Dan took Stori on a date to Macy's (ya, she picked a grocery store) and the sescond Stori walked in, she threw her cup of cheerios and dove into my lap, holding on for dear life. Stori came and gave me a hug and Sylvie waited until she left to ease up her grip. I've got to admit---it is nice to be the favorite! ;)

She finally decided to get some teeth. She has upper and lower centrals, and 2 molars in the back---one on top, and one on bottom--both on the left side. What an odd little duck.

She is genuinely a very happy child. She fake laughs when she isn't doing a real laugh---and I enjoy both. I don't enjoy the 2 times a day when she flings herself to the ground in a tantrum however. I usually walk away and return only when she (1) realizes that she is embarrassing herself, and (2) realizes that I am her favorite person in the world and she can't stand to have me out of sight for one more second. So it works out for both of us in the end.

Still taking 2 naps, and sleeping about 11 hrs at night. Except last week, when I suspect those molars where coming through. She would wake up around one, need a good cuddle, and then go back down.

And I'm just gonna pull the slacker mom card for these photos… All the pictures I have of her lately are blurry, and her hair isn't fixed in any of them. 

At least she has a good personality.   :)

she could do this alllll day

Pretend showers 2x's a day.  One can never be too careful about pretend hygiene.

Daniel Tiger teaches them how to do this I'm sure

finding treasures in the toy box while impersonating a homeless girl. 

I wonder if she could feel her legs the rest of the day after this?

Dressing up with big sister. Always. This particular look is called, "princess ariel of Frozen." Stori's words, not mine.

This girl.
She's a tender, funny, freaking cute, ridiculously loved little munchkin. Stori is her #1 fan and tells me that when she grows up she wants to have a baby just like Sylvie. :)
We sure love her. (But would't it be nice if she were in Nursery ha)

LSM: visitors and such

Didn't quite realize how long it had been since I posted, until I got a friendly text from my mom. I had to shamefully admit that I had been pre-occupied with Gilmore Girls, and had neglected this here blog. So while baby rad 2 naps, I will hurry and post this so that I will be able to watch more Gilmore Girls tonight after the kids are asleep and dan is back at the law school…. :)

I actually DID write a blog last week, but forgot to publish it I guess… so this is from last week.

making the most of the last of the warm fall days.

"Hey mom, you wanna take a picture of me with these cute little duckies?" Yes I do Stori!

I really, sorta, kinda, definitely love that guy! 

on our Sunday walk. Pointing to Provo!

dan made it to the BYU law instagram page. neat-o

officially checked Bean Museum off our list: which surprisingly had zero beans.

all the kids thought this was the best part of the museum.

we tried for a family photo there. key word:tried

Dan met up with us after the Bean Museum for some Cafe Rio with the Peterson's 

and got home and took a family selfie

Stori LOVED having cousins come play overnight!

 But Sylvie was simply disgusted with them. ;) She threw up all night while they were here! ha

finally made our Olaf craft

This girl ditched crawling altogether around her 14 month mark. (yikes, now she's 15 months… I really need to blog more)

I would say November has been our month of visitors: Allreds, Foresters, Petersons (tracen and melissa), Ty and Jen, Ty and Jen again, and cute niece Emmy. Stori was pretty much obsessed with her. Emmy entertained her the whole time she was here and Stori was very sad as she drove away. 

We love having visitors! I would say that this is one of the greatest things about going to Law School in Provo. It is such a fun place and close to so many family and friends. 

So if you need a place to shop, tour, explore, or even just drive through, I HIGHLY suggest you make that destination Provo! And make sure to come play with us.

It's still relatively warmish (45* not bad for end of Novemer), and now the Mountains have beautiful white snow since we got our first snow last week. It melted the next day, but the girls loved it! 

And I loved the snow too because that meant SDR got in the Christmas mood and did this:

We put up the tree for FHE while we all watched A Christmas Carol, ate popcorn, made our Santa list, and enjoyed our room being lit by our 5 yr old Christmas tree….

I still have about 7 boxes of ornaments to put on the tree, but I think I will leave them off this year in case Sylvie gets any ideas. So right now I only have "special" ornaments on there: our ornaments from all our vacations, from family, from friends, "first Christmas" ones, and homemade stocking ones. 

Stori's name-writing is starting to look a little more like her name! :)

Dan is really busy with school right now. I keep saying that every week, but now he is preparing for finals. Next week we go to California for Thanksgiving, and then he only has one week until the end of school!  I CANNOT WAIT for Christmas break where I will get to see him more than 2 hours a a day. (and those 2 hours are pretty hectic because it's dinner time, play with kids, put the kids to bed, and then head back to school. Better than no hours I s'pose)

 Last Saturday he took a much needed guys night out to the BYU football game. He said he had a lot of fun but his toes took a few days to stop being tingly. haha

the end.

LSM: little less $ and a lot less time with SDR

Dear hubby & children,

Sorry for:

- only having 4 layers on our 8 layer dip

- for only have one topping on our Hawaiian haystacks

- and for using the last of the milk in that awful random recipe made up of the last of the groceries

The end of the month sure is a doozy on our eating habits.

Thanks for:

- eating those "delicious" meals every day

- making me laugh with the new phrases and tricks

- and for letting me play christmas music while we make dinner

We had our first cold day today and it was splendid! cold days = christmas music

Your welcome for:

- the killer halloween costumes I put together for $11

- testing all the Netflix shows each night to make sure there are some good ones. Yup, there are!

- and for showering most days. 

We have a grand life together and I'm pretty sure we are rocking this law school stuff ;)

Dan seems to be getting busier and busier each week. good news though..only 4 more mondays until the end of his first semester! YAY! and now for pictures.

taken from our living room. It was a perfect day today for Christmas music. 

Sylvie the 14 month old, with the hair of a 3 year old

when there are leaves at the park, we play in the leaves for 2 hours instead of the toys.

snack time at the park

sylvie selfie at the park

captured a falling leaf! :) 

crossing Squaw Peak of our bucket list.

attempted to cross the Bean Museum off our bucket list, but got there just as it was closing. Even though we were there for only 3 minutes, Stori keeps talking about the Hippos and Giraffs there.

spending some quality time with Daddy.

a little post dinner washin'

We may have less time with our favorite boy, and a distant relationship with money at the moment, but it doesn't stop us from having fun. you know the song, "Even though we aint got money, I'm so in love with you honey." I think I like that song.

Our "Boo for you Halloween"

Syvlie did NOT go as Dracula this year despite her best efforts. She fell while walking---ya she started walking, but not great at it obviously. So instead, she went as a wobbly penguin. Mary Poppins sidekick.

Stori picked our costumes for us again this year---she is on a Mary Poppins kick lately, so I went as a 'Mommy Bert,' Dan was 'chimney sweep Bert,' Syvlie was a penguin, and of course, Stori was the star of the show. And all 4 costumes were created for $11. Not bad.We definitely had an extremely Jolly Holiday this year! The only down side… a dreaded 14 page paper that SDR was confined to. Instead of staying home alone on halloween while dan was at the Law School working, the 3 of us girls headed up to Clarkston for the weekend. Best decision ever.
We got there in time to go trick or treating through the grocery store Lee's. You walk around the whole store and they have little booths to trick or treat to. PLUS they had a spook ally that both of my kids loved. It was so much fun. After that we went out to Meg's house while the kids played outside---- 74* on Halloween? I'll take it! After a yummy taco soup, we headed over to the Arnolds to get some more cousins and went trick or treating. Everyone piled in the back of Meg's car and we made our way around the adorable town of Clarkston. Bronwyn and Sam took Stori to each house so i didn't even have to get out! It was just perfect I tell ya!
The next day we attempted to go for a run---don't ask :)
then we started crafting away! Christmas music, family, halloween crafting….another perfect day!
Josh's family drove up Saturday morning, so we had 4 siblings there to party. I didn't even see Stori or Sylvie that whole day. Cousins are. the. best. THE BEST!
When I finished my craft, I loaded up the car and hit the road around 7 so that I could see my cute hubby that night. Plus it was very nice to have the kids sleep in their beds and not have to rush home to go to church in the morning. It was still sad leaving while all the kids just started their Olaf craft. I just love this family of mine. Can't we all just live next to each other?

she was even sitting very proper like Mary Poppins. And how cute is Sam playing with Sylvie :)

loving the car seat---when she's not buckled! :)

the craft! mine is third from the left. Dan said this was his favorite craft I've ever made!

we got back at 9pm but Sylvie wouldn't let her daddy put her to bed. She cuddled with him for almost an hour while he did more homework.

The night before Halloween we decided to celebrate with Daddy. We got a Jack-o-lantern pizza and carved pumpkins while watching The Croods. Stori insists that we do it like this every year. (this is post photo shoot and that explains Stori's worn-off makeup look)

We sure love our 'Boo for you Halloween' (Stori never just says Halloween, she has to say the whole thing).