Mom

There has never been a time that I needed my mom where I wasn't able to go visit. I've always had the chance to drive to her home and use the quietness or borrow her ear to complain. Now, because my step-dad has a great job opportunity, they're moving to West Virginia. It's actually a blessing for them since David has been struggling to open his own business in provo and hasn't been succesfull.

It's a tiny town called Lewisburg. My mom has always loved the "small town" kind of life so its pretty perfect. It hasn't really hit me til recently. Now she's leaving tomorrow and i'm going to have to get on a plane if I want to see my mom. I'm really going to miss her here, but at least she'll have fun with the little stores like this!

Happy moving mom! I not-so-secretly hope you guys hate Lewisburg and move back soon!Although I do hope everything goes great for you guys there, love you!

Santa!! I know him!!

On Saturday we went to the mall and got to give Santa our wish list. Santa asked Kenley "Waht do you want for christmas, little girl?" With which she replied by grabbing his beard.

I was thoroughly prepared to see my baby scream once in Santa's lap. Santa, with his long beard and bright red clothing, can be pretty scary looking.

But she actually took one look at him, smiling at her, and giggled!

It was so precious!!

And she really enjoyed the rest of the day we spent christmas shopping at the mall.

Yup, she's my daughter!

Look what I can do!

Kenley gets bigger and smarter every day! She's so beautiful and I can't believe I got so lucky to get to raise such a fun, sweet little girl. Each time she learns a new "trick" she does it non-stop for 2 days and giggles when you watch her.

A few of her favorite new things are:

Waving

Giving High fives

Clapping

Crawling

Pulling herself into standing

Feeding herself cheerios

Scratching/hitting things to make noise

Getting chased

Running her hands across the bars of her crib

Singing

Talking

Squealing

She just recently learned how to climb the stairs and will bee-line for them any chance she gets.

If you're not looking at her and she wants your attention (or singing to her, or have a beard), she will cock her head to one side and gently touch your face.


I can't wait til she starts talking and I can learn what those faces she gives me mean! It has got to be some funny stuff!!

My Thankfuls

This Thanksgiving I have so much to be thankful for. Heres a quick list of some of my favorite blessings:

-My family
-Heating (especially the heated seats in my car)
-A Dishwasher (now that I finally have one to use I don't know how I ever went without one)
-Diapers
-Netflix
-Hot showers
-Kenley sleeping 12 hours at night
-Mineral Makeup
-My cell phone
-Cheerios
-Diet pepsi
-The end of football season!

And a very happy thanksgiving to Carrie Driggers!! Soon to be Carrie Smithson this coming May!!

Blog satisfaction

I cant seem to fall in love with anything i've done to our blog. Please bear with me as I try once again to create something that I will be satisfied with for a while.

Money-Bags and Gold-Diggers

I am hopelessly addicted to TV and love to have it on to keep me occupied or just as background noise. I cant stand to have a quiet house, if its not the TV I have my ipod playing while I flit about the house cleaning and doing homework.

I feel better about using my ipod since a lot of the time I'm listening to audio books. (thats better right? gotta keep these things balanced!) But my TV addiction has exposed me to the trashy-dirty-self indulgent shows I cant turn away from.

(I even gave Dr. Phil and the Trya show a chance, but even this addict cant stand those big mouth, self-righteous hot air balloons. Who gave them a microphone in the first place???)

But one show I started watching and now I can't seem to tear my eyes away from the carnage- The millionaire matchmaker. Which I lovingly refer to as "Money-bags amd Gold-diggers".

I really don't understand how this crude, intrusive, surly woman is so successful. Especially since I haven't seen an episode yet where the matched-up couple actually sticks.

But STILL, i'm amazed at the amount of men and women that line up and stand through her abusive scrutiny!

I guess I shouldn't be surprised what people with no self-respect are willing to do for money.

I joke with BJ that my next marriage will be for money, or maybe I should just have a rich baby-daddy.

But really, anyone that snags themselves a millionaire will earn every penny-Ms. Patti has proven that to me!

On a crafty note

Look what I made!!

It was our wards relief society craft exchange yesterday and I learned how to do so many fun things!

Just a few of the crafts:

Little girl purse/baby doll carrier

Christmas sweaters

Beaded watch bands

Ruffle-y t-shirts

Hair bows

and these head bands...

We also had a "tasting table" so we could taste the recipe before taking a copy and trying it at home. I have so many talented women in my new ward. I'm looking forward to learning from them.

(not the greatest quality picture but I thought her face was priceless!)
Do you ever have those "blah" days? Where nothing is really bad or wrong but you're still in a funk? Well I have the cure for your "blah"s! Go bowling with fun people like Morgan, Phil and Maddie! And hopefully you will, like us, have a sweet little bowler neighbor girl who just wants to hold your babies hand, and Maddie will bust out her awesome break dancing moves.

Updates

My last blog was back in september, yikes! I have a few updates so heres a quick rundown of our recent activities.

For Halloween: We helped my dad and step mom move into their new house, which is great because its one-level living so my dad (with all his back and weakness problems) doesn't have to use stairs! Which have been getting more and more treacherous for him.

Kenley had a hard time finding a quiet place to nap all day, so the hour+ long drive home was full of baby screams. When we got home she passed out in her crib for the night just after 6, poor baby :(

This was the first year BJ and I didn't dress up and go somewhere Halloween-y, and I love celebrating it but was just too pooped to do much else but stay in and watch something spooky.

Grandma made Kenley a flower costume which stayed on just long enough to take pictures.

Also- My baby crawled for the first time today!! She only made it about a foot but she's getting there! That shouldn't be exciting to me, I keep telling her to stay a tiny baby but she's getting so big. I'm tempted to tie her little legs to make her stay imobile, my sweet girl is growing up too fast!

I unpacked the last box!! There may be a few framed pictures still in it but i'm counting it! I hate moving and i'm glad we're done for a little while.

I've been trying to get through this semester. I really like my torts class but I dread public speaking. I leave almost every time with a headache. Can I just say I will never work as a public speaker? I don't know exactly why i'm such a wreck delivering speeches, singing or playing music I can do, but put note cards in my hand and every single insecurity I have in me comes blaring to life.

Lately, I've had the urge to be crafty. I made halloween blocks, necklaces, little onzies with ties on them for the brand new little boys in my life and matching burp cloths.

(Sweet baby Riley modeling)

I also tried my hand at some Bakerella Cake pops, which you can find here. But mine turned out to be chocolatey lumps of sadness. Along with a missing green thumb, I did not inherit the "Good Cook" gene... sigh.....

WANTED

Husband for Football Season

Duties include:Attending family functions, Not flaking on date-nights, the occasional best-friends'-kids'-first birthday party, Saying "uh-huh" when you've actually heard what i've said, Wearing something other than the "lucky team hat" which is dirty and stinks, Never yelling at the TV or using the phrase "right in the kisser".

Qualifications: Must either hate or have a strong sense of boredom when watching anything football. ie: pre-game show, "the big game" (which, i guess, they all are) , half-time show, post-game highlights/discussion.
Must love to: hike, swim, bowl, spend time with good friends, have all-around fun.

Compensation: A strong feeling of fulfilment and well being, the chance to play with some fun people!

If you have any inquiries or interests in this exciting job opportunity, come on over! I will be the one wearing this--

Holy raspberries Batman we're in a jam!!

Kenley did the funniest thing today and made us cry with laughter!

Babies are gross

They put everything in thier mouths

They spew rivers of spit-up

And when they're done doing this ^ they don't smell like roses.

But they still manage to be adorable in the process, so its ok :)

Girls Trip!

We had an impromptu girls trip to visit family in washington. It was so much fun!
On one day we went to dash point beach and it was such a beautiful day I couldn't help but take a bunch of shots.

Got to see my favorite Lindsey again!

Cousin Danelle loves the water

Sister Kari is so photogenic don't you think?

Kenley loved watching everyone at the beach but didn't like the water or the sand, but i'm holding out hope she will when she's older!

She loves her auntie Lindsey

This is a painting my cousin Danelle did for her last year at girls camp. She is so talented!

On another day we went to the fair

Kari found her favorite flowers, daisies!

The food at the fair is super-sized. Thats no donut, thats an onion ring

Kenley loved when we shared our mountain sized shaved ice

Cutest thing ever, Kenley was giggling and trying to grab the alpacas

We got to meet up at the park with family I haven't seen in years and I finally got to meet my new cousin Daphne, isn't she beautiful? I also finally met my 2 new aunts Amanda and Rachel, my uncles did good with these two!

Grandma oblivious to Kenley tearing up the table cloth :)

We spent a ton of time on the road and my sister was saying some pretty hilarious things, here are a few of my favorite:

The tanker truck advertising coffee and Kari Saying "is that truck carrying coffee?"
"Have you ever seen your reflection in a window or mirror and thought 'hey that person looks a lot like me!'?"

"You know which place I mean, the place where the dead people live?"

I'm glad we were able to go and spend some time together before everyone moves on; Kari and I going to school and my mom moving to west virginia.

Such a fun trip with some of my favorite girls!

Seriously

How adorable is this little girl?!

She snorts when she laughs really hard and cries

She wakes up with a big goofy grin

She'll stick her tongue back out at you

She's fascinated by her toes

She sucks on all four fingers because one thumb is just not enough

She blabs on and on in her baby talk raspy voice

She always makes her eyebrows jump before a smile

She hates her car seat but loves watching things pass by the window

She gets bigger and chunkier by the day

And she was well worth the wait