Ariana's new bob

I'm always trying to figure out what to do with Ari's little mullet. :)  Her hair on top just will not grow!  So after a while the hair in back and on the sides just gets a little out of control.  Yesterday I decided it was due for a trim, so I cut off an inch or two and tried to layer it a bit to make it look okay.  It actually turned out pretty cute!  I like it when it's straighter, though, like it was for church today.  As much as I love her curls, when they're super curly she looks a little bit like a little clown!  (I know, that's bad of me to say...)  Still, anything's better than a mullet, especially on my baby girl!

(She wore this cute dress today, and it's only size 12 months!  It was actually from last year, but of course it was way too big then.)  

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year we have so much to be grateful for - FAMILY, good health, a stable job, wonderful friends and neighbors, the gospel in our lives...  We're so blessed, and I love when Thanksgiving comes around and helps me to pause and think on all of the things I have to be grateful for.  We've had several talks with Bryan and Matthew about gratitude and giving thanks, and I'm grateful for the teaching moments I have with them that end up teaching me so much.  I love, too, that Thanksgiving precedes the Christmas season. Reflecting on the things we have sure helps to put things into perspective.  Hopefully I'll be able to maintain an "attitude of gratitude" throughout these coming weeks.

Our Thanksgiving day was really nice - low key and relaxing with yummy food and family.  We ended up having Javi and Annalece and Jose, and then Grandma Willes, Heather, Jake and Cami.  (The rest of David's family was in Colorado with the Smiths, Bree was with Cassity, and Nathan did a special dinner with Allison and his sisters-in-law.)   The dinner was amazing!  Besides bringing darling table decorations, Annalece brought some new foods we'd never had before, like candied yams that were to die for, cranberry salsa, and a pumpkin cheesecake (my favorite part).  And then we had our old Misiego/Toone favorites - green bean casserole, jello, rolls, turkey potatoes, and stuffing.  Grandma Willes also brought three different pies, so we had a ton to eat!  It was wonderful, even being squished in our tiny kitchen/dining area.  One of these years we'll have a real dining room to enjoy. :)

After dinner we visited, skyped with Mom and Dad, played games, and planned for Black Friday.  (I'm going out just to go out, but I'm not going to be intense about it like I've been in years past...)  Here are pictures I took throughout the day.  What I forgot to mention above, you'll see below. :)  Happy Thanksgiving!

A few pics

Matthew and Ariana are so tight these days - our little partners in crime!  Most of the time it's a good thing, except for when Matt's bugging Ari just to bug her, or teaching her naughty tricks...  This afternoon they were just making lots of noise!  I can handle noise, especially when they're having so much fun. :)

Here's Ari at lunch today...  She was quite the mess and waited patiently for me to wash her hands while I snapped a few pics.  In the last picture she's saying "oh no!" with her cute "o" face. :)

While I had the camera out, Matt wanted to show off his fancy dance moves and somersaulting skills...

And here are the boys bundled up for the first really cold day of the season!  It got down to 20 degrees, and it's not even December yet!  The boys weren't too excited to put on so many layers, but I'm sure they were grateful once they stepped outside.  They'd better get used to it with so many months of winter still ahead!

Little Miss Chatty

Ariana's turning into quite the little chatterbox!  At 19 months she's copying us a lot now and enjoys trying out new words.  I think she likes seeing our reaction to things most of all.  Some of her new words and phrases:
- "silly"
- "money"
- "snack"
- "you're welcome"
- "so pretty"
- "Jesus"
- "bubbles"
- "toot" (followed by giggling - thanks to her brothers)
- counting to 5, and sometimes 10 (with help)

Her favorite thing to talk about, though, are family members!  It's like a game.  She starts naming as many people as she can - people in our immediate family as well as relatives.  She even says Sara with a good Spanish accent ("Sah-da"). :)  It's so cute and she's so pleased with herself when she remembers someone new.

A lot of the time she still babbles and just plays with sounds.  She likes the "o" sound and really emphasizes it with a little circle mouth in words like "bowl."  She keeps her mouth in the "o" position long enough to make us laugh, and then she does it over and over.  And she likes to hold silly phone conversations whenever she gets a hold of a phone, beginning with "hello" and ending with "bye" and a whole lot of babbling in between.  I just love hearing her tiny, sweet little voice, no matter what she's saying.  And I can't wait to hear what she's going to say next!

Kindergarten love

Today Bryan came home and told me that his friend, who's lately been beating up on him quite a bit, told him on the bus that she loves him!  It was the cutest thing to watch him talk about it, because he turned all sheepish and embarrassed. :)  He's not sure how he feels about her (not that a kindergartener should have "feelings" one way or another) and said he's not sure he'll "text" her when he's a teenager.  Surprised, I said, "What do you know about 'texting'?"  He said, "Well, Javi does it!"  I'm just glad he won't have a phone of his own for several more years...  The good thing is that, he'd been thinking his friend hated him because she teased him so much, and now he knows that's not the case.  He may not mind her teasing so much anymore, now that he knows the reason behind it. :)

"So funny"

That's Ariana's new phrase these days.  Every time she or one of her brothers does something silly or trips or something she says with a little laugh, "So funny!"  And she's becoming quite the little daredevil!  Her favorite spot is on top of tables or standing holding onto the back of one of our kitchen chairs - scary, I know!  She's also figured out how to move things like chairs or stools to get things that are out of reach.  I'm afraid we're going to have our hands full with her in these coming months!  Here are some pictures from this morning...  With that smile, it's hard to stay frustrated with her for long!

Simple Pleasures

I think I'm done doing the "daily ten" thing for a while.  I want more flexibility with what I write and when. :)  I'll still often write about the simple things that happen, but I'll call it by a different name.  Today things kept happening and I'd think, "Mmmm, what a simple pleasure."  So here they are, in no particular order...

- Eating P.F. Chang's lettuce wraps with a friend.
- Seeing Ariana's mischievous smile as she does something she probably shouldn't.
- Finding the cutest dress for Ari and getting it on a great sale.  (I'm done buying baby clothes for a while!!)
- This, which I also got on a great sale, and feeling so incredibly warm around the house for a change.
- Pumpkin apple streusel muffins.
- Listening to Christmas music for the first time this season!
- Watching the kids dance around to Christmas music and seeing Ari try out her breakdancing moves. :)
- My citrus spice candle.  Mmmm.
- Finally having my itouch back!  (It's been lost for a month, but Matt found it, and then Bryan remembered the passcode to get into it after I tried unsuccessfully for a couple days to remember!  He's got one crazy memory.)
- Tacos for dinner, the way my mom makes them.
- Reading The Boxcar Children and hearing Bryan say, "Don't stop!" at the end of a chapter.
- Smelling Matty's wet, freshly-shampooed hair while he was saying his bedtime prayer.
- The Ghiradelli's hot chocolate I'm about to make myself...

A quiet Sunday afternoon

This has been one of those Sundays where I was more than happy to just throw on some sweats and cozy up with my kids in our lazy boy.  Poor Matt threw up a couple times and had to leave church just after taking the Sacrament.  He ended up with a fever which went away after some ibuprofen, but he's been pretty laid back most of the day.  I cuddled with him to help comfort him, of course, but also to try and stay warm!  Everyone else in the family seems to be doing fine with the now winter-like weather, but even with layers of fleece and blankets, my hands and nose were icy cold this afternoon.  I'm not sure what's wrong with me...  (Taking after my dad with our bad circulation, perhaps??)  Anyway, it was so nice to just sit and relax together, with Ariana climbing on and off the chair and all over me and Bryan bouncing around on the other couch, never one to slow down much.  We read from the Friend and watched a slide show on the TV of our family pictures from the last few years and listened to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  It's one of our favorite Sunday things to do lately. :)  The kids love trying to pick out which baby picture is theirs.

I have to admit I got especially sentimental today, looking at all my babies.  My kids are growing so fast!  Ari's officially in nursery now and loving it, so I feel like I'm getting past that baby stage that I love so much.  I guess you could say I'm getting baby hungry, especially with all the 30-something new babies surrounding me in our ward.   David's not quite there yet, though.  :)  Thankfully Ariana's still small enough that she tricks me into thinking she's still my baby.  I'm grateful she's not as big as the boys were at her age!  Speaking of which, I think she finally hit 20lbs this week!  She's still only got two teeth on the bottom, though, and barely four on the top!  Silly little thing.

David's downstairs right now making dinner and it's smelling so good!  Garlic rice with his Mom's breaded chicken.  Yumm.  There's something so sexy about a man in the kitchen. :)  Especially when he's making real food!  Hopefully Matty's okay to eat and his sickness passes quickly.  We were planning on having David's family over for dessert and games, but that won't be happening now.  It's probably for the best.  We'll just keep enjoying our own little family time together on this quiet, lazy Sunday - something everyone needs every now and then.

Here's a picture of Bryan doing the dishes all by himself!  (David took it with his phone so it's not the best quality...)  David told him he needs to do the dishes at least once a week.  He didn't load the dishwasher quite the way I would have, but I'm proud of him for doing it nonetheless. :)

Daily Ten

- Ariana cuddled in bed with us after she woke up, allowing me to rest a little bit longer before getting up.  These early daylight-savings mornings have been rough!
- I got a lot of cleaning done this morning.
- Matthew snuck into the pantry and found the chocolate chips, but at least he was nice enough to share with Ariana...
- Bryan and Matthew played cars together in their room, which is something they hardly ever do these days.  With all the cars we have, I'm always happy when they actually play with them!
- Bryan's "girlfriend" ran into him during P.E. and gave him a little fat lip, but Bryan was tough and only cried "a little bit."  Now he just looks a little funny.
- Bryan's current favorite thing is his little notebook (his "journal) that he draws in.  He draws everything from weapons to aliens to superheroes.  I love it!
- We started reading The Boxcar Children - one of my childhood favorites!  I was so glad that Bryan got into it.  I'm already looking forward to reading it again tomorrow!
- Bryan's good friend came over to play and Matt was a good enough sport to allow them to play "run-away-from-Matt" - their favorite thing to do.  Poor Matt puts up with a lot as the younger brother, but he holds his own pretty well.
- Ariana's begun nodding her head "yes" - a great change from shaking her head "no!"
- David came home from work today all inspired about things he'd like to do with his career in the coming years.  It's a little different from what we'd originally had in mind, but it seems good for him.  I'm realizing more and more that I just need to be flexible when it comes to my life plans...  Thankfully everything so far has turned out better than I'd ever planned, so I'm sure that things will all work out for the best. :)

Daily Ten

This seemed like the longest day ever!  Daylight savings has thrown me for a loop.

- I had time to shower before David left for work.
- I cleaned my bathroom, including the tub, which is huge for me.  (I hate scrubbing tubs!)
- Ari did so many things to make me laugh.  One thing she does now is raise her hand and say "Me!" when we ask if anyone wants to do something.  Like, "Who wants to eat breakfast?" "Me!!"  It even worked for bedtime tonight!  "Who wants to go to bed?"  "Me!!"
- It was cold and gray outside, so I didn't feel bad staying home most of the day.
- I volunteered in Bryan's classroom and had fun watching him in action with his friends at school.
- I played Candyland with Matt twice and he beat me both times!  And he only cheated a little bit. :)
- We met David at the BYU Museum of Art for an early FHE activity.  We'd hoped to see the Carl Bloch exhibit but discovered it doesn't start until the end of this week.  It was still fun to see the other things there.
- We ate dinner at Gurus, our favorite low-key restaurant these days.
- We made cookies from the cookie dough I bought for a school fundraiser and they were so surprisingly good!  For some reason I don't feel so bad eating them when I haven't made them myself...
- I've loved seeing how bright the leaves are lately!  They were so gorgeous around BYU, especially in the rain.  I love fall, even with the sudden chilly weather.

Daily Ten

I need to get better about this!  So many little memorable things slip by without me writing about them...  Here's for today and yesterday.

- David took the boys with him to work Saturday morning and they "helped" him around the office for a couple hours.  Ari and I had some good girly time cleaning the house while they were gone.
- I prepared a lesson for Relief Society today.  It was on the recent Ensign on temples, and I really enjoyed preparing it.  I was very nervous about actually teaching today, but thankfully it all went well, and now I can relax for a couple months! :)
- David and Jose played catch with the boys outside in the gorgeous fall weather.  It was close to 70!  Gotta love warm November afternoons.
- Bryan and Matthew played and played outside with their neighbor friends.  I couldn't get them to come in the house for anything!
- We had yummy Thai food for dinner from a restaurant we discovered near our house a couple weeks ago.  We're kind of addicted to it now - we actually had it Friday night, too!  Mmmmm... garlic chicken on spinach leaves.  Yum!
- I finally ordered the kids some jackets for winter.  I was extremely indecisive and it took me forever to decide on the best option, so I was relieved to finally get it taken care of.  Hope they arrive soon since I think it's supposed to start snowing tomorrow!
- David spent some good quality time with the kids this morning before church.  They played games and watched slideshows of our family pictures on the TV, and of course there were a few wrestling matches.  The kids loved it.
- The boys and I read from the "Friend" after church.
- I cuddled with Matt on the couch and relaxed while Ari and David took their afternoon naps.  I love the random conversations I have with Matt during our down time.
- Sara and Ben and their girls came over for games and cookies this evening.  It's so great to have them so close and be able to see them so often!  I realized it's probably one of the only times Ariana's actually around other girls, so it's good for her. :)  But all the kids get along really well and always have so much fun when we get together.  It was a fun night!

Javi and Annalece's wedding!

Javi and Annalece got married on October 16, and it was such a fun day!  Everything was wonderful.  The wedding weekend actually started the night before, on Friday, when all the family and close friends got together for a dinner.  Both families sang - even David - and we got to watch their proposal video and a slideshow of the two of them.  It was such a sweet, emotional night.  David had really mixed feelings about "losing" his brother to Annalece, but at least they live close and I'm sure Javi will still spend plenty of time with his brothers.  No more sleeping on our couch, though, and waking up with Bryan and Matt!

Saturday was a gorgeous fall day, and they got married at the Provo temple.  The sealing was really special, and the weather was perfect for pictures afterward.  Of course, we took a ton of pictures ourselves. It's not everyday we're all together and dressed up!

After the sealing we went to the luncheon which was held at La Jolla Groves in the Riverwoods in Provo.  It was beautiful and so yummy!  I love these pictures of Ari's cheesy smile and Bryan looking so grown up. :)  

The reception was that night at the Sleepy Ridge Golf Course.  I was a bridesmaid and David was a groomsman, so we got to dress super fancy, which I loved.  Annalece had also gotten clothes for the boys and Ariana so everyone would coordinate and everything came together so well!  The kids looked darling.  

The reception itself was really nice, and there were so many people!  The best part was the dancing at the end.  Javi and Annalece surprised everyone with a choreographed wedding dance, and then everyone took to the floor.  Bryan was a little dancing maniac!  People even made a circle for him at one point. :)  Matthew didn't stop, either.  The two of them danced the night away!  

Needless to say, we were all pretty exhausted by the end of the night, but it was so worth it - the perfect wedding weekend.  We're so happy to have Annalece in the family, and we couldn't be happier for the happy couple!