Winter Formal

A few days after we got back from Thanksgiving break I got home and found rose petals and candy leading to my bedroom...

Then I found this...

Ty's school has a winter formal dance and since Ty knows how much I LOVE dances, he wanted to officially "ask" me to the dance. We had such a blast! It had been way too long since I'd had a full out dance party and everyone danced! We had a huge group from our ward out there on the dance floor and it was hilarious to see everyone go wild! Most people were dancing with their alcohol in hand (not the people from our ward) and that was also very humorous to watch.

The school had free babysitting and it was a much needed night out!

Thanksgiving Break

Thanksgiving break was so awesome this year!! I feel like we are just barely recovering from the trip because all we did was play, play, play! It was so great and we felt especially grateful to be with family when we live so far away.

Our plane ride on the way out, I was seriously so excited and giddy to be going back to Utah! It felt like Christmas morning! Saylor did so good on the plane again and it definitely helped having Ty there this time!

Right after Ty's mom and sister Autumn picked us up from the airport we went straight to Chick-fil-A to meet up with Ty's sister Shoni, her kids and Ty's dad.

It was so cute to see Saylor remember all of her cousins names and to see how excited she was to see them and play with them again.

Getting reacquainted with her cousin Jess...

That afternoon we got to go play at a gymnastic place down in Provo. We did flips, obstacle courses, jumped on the tramps and just ran around and had fun. Say especially loved a chance to not be restrained and be able to run free and jump on all the mats and in the pit. We liked it so much we actually went again later in the week when my family was in town. We were also so lucky to catch Matt and Sarah before they headed up to Boise for Thanksgiving. It was so much fun to see them, we miss our best friends!

Saylor getting to know her new cousin Dean...

She warmed up to him pretty quickly!

Right after that we headed to Brick Oven (my absolute favorite place to eat ever) to meet up with more of Ty's family. So many of Ty's aunts, uncles and cousins came to hang out with us, we really felt so loved.

Life doesn't really get much better for Saylor...hanging out with her cousins, getting a balloon and eating a giant sucker from Brick Oven!

Pretty much every day after that was just as busy- Eating out, playing games, shopping, seeing movies and spending every second with family. I wasn't as good at taking pictures the rest of the trip but here are some other random ones of the week...

Eating delicious french toast at Magleby's Fresh with my family

Shopping at the mall...it's so overwhelming to go from no shopping in Kirksville to SO much in Utah! This is sadly one of the only pics I got of my fam but Say loved being with them too! They are all so cute with her.

Saylor, Jess and Mori couldn't get enough of running around the house chasing each other and screaming as loud as they could. So many times I would just sit and watch them play together and love each other and be amazed at the bond Saylor has with her cousins even though we live so far away from them. I got teary-eyed watching them on several occasions because I could see that Say loves them SO much.

It was a little tricky trying to split the time between our families but it all worked out. Ty's fam was great and had their Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday so we could do it with my family the next day. This was the first time Ty's family has been all together for over two years. Ty's brother Tallon and his girlfriend Shelby could only come for about 24 hours because they both play college basketball in Wyoming but we made the very most of those 24 hours! We met them for another trip to the gymnastic place, came home and all made Thanksgiving dinner together, ate, played minute to win it (which was awesome!), stayed up late playing Settlers, then the next morning got up and made gingerbread houses together. Shelby was so much fun and we totally LOVE her!

Shoni and Autumn getting ready to stack their cups for minute to win it...

Stacking...

Shelby and Stig...

Me and Ty playing, "Don't Blow the Joker"

Shelby got it on her first try!

Me and Ty are very experienced gingerbread house makers and definitely had the most awesome house with camels, a black sheep and a Christmas tree in the front yard!

The girls all doing the dishes together

Friday after Thanksgiving I got up and got some amazing deals. We left for Wyoming to go watch Tallon and his girlfriend play basketball and got to stop in Park City on the way! I also got some awesome deals there. We had a great weekend in Wyoming and then we came home and helped Ty's parents move. Such a crazy, whirlwind week we had and we LOVED it all! Me and Saylor are leaving to go back in 9 days...

November Update

It's finals week which equals me seeing Ty NEVER! It has seriously been the longest week of my life and it is only Wednesday! (And I'm not even the one who has to study) To help pass the time all the wives have been planning fun things to do together. We've had craft night, game night, I've learned to make artisan bread and last night some of us got together and made this cake! I think it turned out so cute!

We were so lucky to have such a beautiful, warm fall but it has finally gotten cold. One good thing about cold weather is hot chocolate! We had to teach Reed and Erica how to eat grasshoppers with their hot cocoa. Reed got so excited that he spilled it all over his shirt.

Lots of studying for Ty means lots of crafting for me! Here are some of my latest crafts...

A menu board for my kitchen counter

Cute, little wooden calendar blocks that I mod podged

November's sign--Give Thanks!

I tried to imitate the spooky blocks we made for craft night last month and made Thanksgiving gobble blocks!

I made this magnet board to put in my kitchen next to my family rules

This was our first time trying out fondant...

This one was cute too but I think our skills are improving!

And what's a post without lots of cute pictures of my favorite little girl in the world?

One night she decided she wanted ALL those bows in her hair

Love that cheesy grin!

Saylor is such a shoe girl. She loves trying on both mine and Ty's shoes...it was pretty hilarious to watch her try to walk around in those things

Making sugar cookies

Saylor loves to help

Rockin' out to the music on my ipod

We have so much to be thankful for...we have awesome friends out here in Missouri, the cutest little girl ever, and amazing friends and family back home that we get to see in 3 days!!! We seriously can't wait!

Happy Halloween!

Saylor and I got back to Kirksville just in time to celebrate Halloween with Ty. My good friend Tiff and I decided to plan a Halloween party and it turned out to be so much fun! We had 50 people at our house for the party and we ate soup, salad, bread sticks, homemade root beer, carmel apples and tons of other yummy treats!

George, Tiff and Jed

When Jed walked in Saylor just started saying, "No, no, no, no!"

The kids waiting in line for the pinata

Saylor wasn't very into hitting the pinata, she just wanted the candy

This is a really horrible picture but I had to document our awesome eating donuts off a string competition! Each couple had one donut and had to eat it together with their hands behind their back...it was pretty hilarious to watch!

The kids doing the cake walk...they mostly had fun jamming out to the Halloween music!

George, Saylor and Jack getting into mischief, I love the expression on George's face!

The next morning I took Saylor to the SAA trunk or treat. This is her with her cute friends Brynlee and Landon.

Saylor was LOVING that candy!

Trying to share her sucker with George

Kyle and Saylor

The celebrating continued at our ward party that night.

If you can't tell...Ty was goofy, Saylor was Minnie Mouse and I was Daisy from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (Saylor's most favorite show ever)

Say made such a cute little Minnie!

Another cake walk and the kids just wanted to dance!

Brynlee and Saylor

We had such a great Halloween! Saylor ate WAY too much candy but that's what Halloween is all about, right?

After the party we came home and watched Hocus Pocus

Say giving her Mommy kisses