Christmas was amazing this year.. thanks to 3 beautiful little girls! It was very different having kids but it was so fun watching them experience things they never had before. 

Here are some Christmas pictures of the girls in their christmas dresses. 

My new niece- Hannah was blessed the weekend before Christmas. She is very cute and the girls like spending time with cousins.

 Christmas Eve at Papa's house. By far my favorite christmas tradition. We get together and go caroling to a few families around town. I LOVE my family so much and cant even imagine the day that we wont do this anymore. Hopefully it will never come.  After Caroling we come back to Papa's house, eat, visit, and open our present from Papa.

 Christmas Eve at my mom's house. They got new pajamas, we waited for Santa to come and then hid in the dining room- (Anavy was looking under the door to get a look) Then they opened all of their gifts and went to bed.

Christmas Day at Smith's house. 

New years Eve, we went to the Jewkes family Christmas party. It was fun to see everyone. On New Years Day, we went to the Smith annual soup night and then on our way back from Orem, We stopped to see the lights at Temple Square. It was pretty cold so we didn't stay long but the girls were excited to see the temple  and the lights.

I had off and on feeling of guilt this christmas season. I have always known that there are people who literally have nothing and Christmas is nothing but an ordinary day. I have really been made aware of this more since being in the Young Women program at church. Our townhouse complex is about 7 years old but other than that, nothing has been built on our ward boundries for 50+ years. Our ward boundaries runs in a 10 block strip and the end of it is really rough neighborhoods.  Some of my YW have very very little. Some come from rough homes and unloving families. It really makes me sad. My 3 girls were spoiled rotten this Christmas by so many people. It made me feel a bit guilty that we are so fortunate and blessed because people a couple of streets over are struggling to have Christmas Dinner. It is important to remember this at Christmas time and do what we can to help out :) I tried my best to do that. 

I hope all of you had a great Christmas Holiday. 

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Teachers & Bus Drivers :)

I was up super late last night because I am a procrastinator and I waited till the last second to make gifts for Anavy & Khloe's teachers and bus drivers. Brett thinks I always go way overboard with these things but they turned out super cute. For the teachers I made cookies in a jar.

You put all these ingredients in a Mason jar: 
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup -leveled
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup cooking oats
3/4 cup m&ms
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 – 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Then all the teachers have to do is add:
1 slightly beaten egg
1/2 cup butter (melted slightly in the microwave)
1 teaspoon vanilla

And you end up with yummy oatmeal cookies.

For the bus drivers I put hot chocolate mix, chocolate chips and marshmellos in a smaller jar.

I really am so so so grateful to all of their teachers for all they do. My girls are doing so well and a lot of it is thanks to them. And of course the bus drivers get them to school safely.


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update with pictures!

Savannah has decided that her bed is not for sleeping- it is for just laying there jabbering, crying, pounding on it, jumping on it.... pretty much anything but sleeping. It is an out of the blue habit she has formed and it is exhausting.  The last 4 nights it has taken her an average of 2 1/2 hours to fall asleep.  At night she cries mostly and at nap time, she talks. The frustrating part of it all is that she is so exhausted. I would just take away her daytime naps but she is so tired and sometimes even asks to go 'night night'. But once she gets there, she wont sleep. I am not sure what to do. Any suggestions??


Anyway- Here is my life lately via Instagram (a picture app on my iphone)

  Anavy is doing amazing in school and we are so so proud of her. This is her progress i writing her name.

 Their new favorite thing to do is Skype. They talk to their Nana a few times a week and sometimes with Macy.

 I am working on learning to french braid... I'm getting better.

We turned Savanna's crib into a big girl bed because she was waking us up at night to go to the bathroom. By  the way she hasn't had a accident day or night for 3 weeks. 

We bought new stockings to hang above our fireplace- we have never had a fireplace before. 

All 3 girls had surgery to put tubes in their ears. They had ear drums full of nasty fluid that made it so they couldnt hear very well. Now that they are all cleared out Anavy and Khloe pronunciate words a lot better and are improving faster.  

 We bought a new Christmas Tree and put it up together.

 Signing Time is their favorite time of day. They soak it in so fast and are always signing around the house.

 Thanksgiving holiday was fun- Black Friday was crazy but playing volleyball with the whole family is one of my favorite things to do.

 And then there are the pictures that need no explaination... My girls are happy, funny, loving and messy. Period.

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28.

Brett is 28 today!!! We are slowly growing into old people and it is weird to think of howfast time is going. He has his 10 year reunion this summer... and mine is the summer after. Wow.

Brett is an amazing husband and is such a wonderful father to these girls. They are so lucky and they love him so much. Its fun to watch him as a dad and them playing together makes my heart melt.

Happy Birthday sweetie. I love you more and more every year so dont worry about getting old. :)


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Grateful

 I have had a great week and I have definetly been able to count my many blessings. I have so much gratitude for the things that I have. I am definetly blessed with an amazing husband, three beautiful kids that light up my life and make me so happy, my husbands job, our home, and the list goes on and on.

A friend of mine had this quote on her blog and it is so appropriate.

He is a wise man who does not grieve
for the things which he has not,
but rejoices for that which he has.
Epictetus

 We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family. Whats not to love about this holiday- I especially love shopping on Black Friday. This is how this crazy tradition goes in my family.... All of my aunts and cousins sit down at a very large table and we all come up with our individual lists of what we need from what store.  Then we decide who is going to what store. This year since Walmart has their specials starting at 10- most of us went there first except the few that went to wait in lines in the freezing cold. We then divided into sections of the store. This year I was in the DVD department and I will say this- i will never do the dvd section again. I got hit, scratched on my face, my glasses got knocked off, I got pushed into a shelf. It was madness. I was out to get everyone's dvd's and I came away with less than half of what I was supposed to get. Oh well. Everyone else got what we needed elsewhere in the store and we all met up and got in line and divided up who's stuff was who's. After Walmart, we divided and went to other stores that were opening at 12, 4, &5. I went from Walmart to Best Buy then to Target. I got almost everything I wanted- thanks to my family who divides and conquers on black Friday.

My family is amazing and I am so grateful for them!

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How beautiful are they???

 Wow. They are just the most gorgeous girls ever.

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Rrrgggg!

Cars are the worst!! I am so frustrated by Brett's car. Granted, it was given o us for free but we put 1200 dollars into it in January and now, again it is needing another 1000. It's just not worth it at this point so we are going to park it to gather dust in our garage.
It isn't like we can not survive without two cars. Brett only goes to work in that car so I will have to drive him and pick him up but other than that, he doesn't go anywhere else without me. The crappy thing is it cost us over a hundred dollars to find out that it's broken. Bummer. But it lasted us a good two years or so.

Lion & Tigers & Bears- OH MY!!

 Halloween was a lot of fun. We had a trunk or treat at our church on Saturday and Khloe & Anavy had school parties on Monday. Then we went to Brett's work for a really fun party and trick or treating. Then we drove to Orem to go trick or treating some more with the girls' Nana (my mom)

They had a lot of fun and didnt want to stop but it was getting cold and so we spent some time with Brett's parents. They had a long day and fell asleep instantly when we got int he car to go home.

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