Read This: Bossypants by Tina Fey
Eat This: Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever (seriously, I can’t stop making them!)
Make This: Service Advent Calendar
Wear This: Santa Tee from Target
Watch This: Angels We Have Heard on High
Read This: Bossypants by Tina Fey
Eat This: Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever (seriously, I can’t stop making them!)
Make This: Service Advent Calendar
Wear This: Santa Tee from Target
Watch This: Angels We Have Heard on High
When I watched this video, I couldn’t help but to think of the many people in the world who have lost their way and turned away from the Savior. Sadly, I have seen so many close friends in the last year lose their faith and drift far from peace and happiness, far from God. And honestly, I would be lying if I told you I haven’t had my own minor faith crisis in the last year when I’ve seen so many struggle. I’ve really had to figure out what I believe. Examine where I stand. Hold on to the basics to get me through the doubts. And what I’ve come to realize is that it all comes down to Christ. My Savior, my Redeemer. I have a testimony in Him. I feel it in my heart, no matter what my mind might be saying. No matter what the world might be saying. He lives and was born so we can be born again. After that, it all falls into place.
So to you, to you who is struggling. To you who just doesn’t know anymore. To you who is lost in this dark world, hold on to this:
“He understands you. He heals us. He can bridge the lonely gap between God and man and bring us home if we let him. If we love him. If we follow him. That’s why we celebrate. That’s why we sing. And that’s why he was born.”
Just open your heart. Let him in.
It’s been one year since our magical trip to Disneyland. TJ and I were watching this a couple days ago and he said, “I’m so jealous of myself one year ago!” Me too, TJ. Me too!
As usual, around a holiday I always like to think of what I was doing in years past.
2014 • We were at Disneyland! Seriously one of the best times of my life!
2013 • Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade with my sister and her family
2012 • Thanksgiving dinner with T.J.’s dad’s side of the family. Eva is such a cutie pie!
2011 • Thanksgiving dinner with T.J.’s aunt and family. I was about to have Eva and was huge so this is the only photo I am going to share.
2010 • Our first Thanksgiving as a married couple! We went down to Enterprise, Utah, and had Thanksgiving with T.J.’s mom’s side of the family. It was the first time I went into the wild to find a Christmas tree. Can you believe there have been seven grandbabies born since this photo? Such young newlyweds!
Every Thanksgiving I also think about the little girl I used to mentor back in Provo, Savannah. She wasn’t in my life very long but she taught me so many lessons on service and Thanksgiving.
Old Gentleman Gray on Thanksgiving Day from Christopher Swainhart on Vimeo.
Growing up, every single Thanksgiving, my mom would read this poem to us with those old felt pictures. They did it again a couple years ago and put it on video… I just love it and the message is pretty good! Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Eat This: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Streusel Cake
Make This: Fringe Christmas Trees
Read This: The Simplicity That is in Christ
Watch This: How Crazed Every Mom Gets When Preparing for Company
Listen to This: Mistletoe by JB
Finn turned two months a week ago. Somehow, it’s simultaneously felt like the fastest, yet longest two months ever. I think that’s because he’s growing like crazy mixed with me not getting any sleep.
Yeah… sleep. Oh, how I miss the days where I had one child and got to sleep through the night. When will happen again? I feel like it will never happen. I’m going to be a grumpy zombie for the rest. of. my. life. I’m seriously counting down to four months when I’m determined to sleep train Finn. Until then, I’m sorry if I’m a grouch to you, late when we make plans, or scare you with my dark eye circles. No sleep has shaken up my world.
Nursing is still going great. I hated nursing Eva, and I gave up around two months. So, I figured this time around would be the same but Finn just seems to latch better and I’m more motivated this time. I finally gave him a bottle this month a couple of times. He’s not always into it, but if he’s desperate, he will go for it.
Finn can roll over from his belly to his back, coos tons when he’s awake, is starting to be aware of his surroundings so he wants to move around and not just lay against my chest all day anymore, smiles constantly, and we think has chuckled once or twice… well, he makes some sort of noise when he’s really happy and it sounds like a giggle. It’s adorable.
We all give him kisses nonstop and whenever I’m out, I just want to hold him up to everyone and be like, “Look at this baby, do you see how cute this baby is?!” He’s a cutie alright, and pretty good one overall!
What the heck? It’s almost the end of November and I’ve barely blogged at all! I feel like I’m constantly playing catchup on here now that Finn has joined our family. Life is busy, folks. And I don’t even know what we’re busy doing, but I do know I wish we had like six more hours each day (preferably after the kids are asleep) to get things done. But there’s not, and I’m sure I’ll start to juggle things better as the months go by. But for now, this is the best I can do.
Life with two kids is still great (overall). We’ve had some bumps with Eva, but are trying some new discipline techniques (such as a listening chart, which has been great) and that’s helped us through. And Finn seems to be a little colicky each night… which sometimes makes me think I NEVER want to have another baby ever, EVER again, but then he’ll fall asleep and be so sweet and cuddly in my arms, so I think I’ll want a hundred more babies. Motherhood is truly an emotional roller-coaster, changing minute to minute!
Let’s see, what else has been going on? This month has been kind of quiet compared to October’s Halloween Festivities. So, we have filled our days with play dates, library trips, Grandma visits, baking, crafts (Eva has been making little bead candy cane ornaments), and Christmas shopping. Eva really likes the play area at the Provo Town Center mall (which is kind of far, but worth the drive for a fun and free activity) so we’ve gone there a couple of times too. We’re just racking our heads for fun activities inside now that the weather has been cold (and sometimes snowy!). Have any ideas?
We are heading to Arizona this week to visit my brother and his wife, along with my parents who are flying in. I can’t wait for our little getaway, we need a little something to break up the mundane life right now.
Well, that’s all for now… here are some instagrams from this month!
We took some family photos over the weekend and I told Eva she could take photos in her princess dress if she wore what I wanted her to wear first. She posed like this by herself… so adorable and passionate! Haha!
Whenever it’s snowing, Eva puts on some snow clothes crazy fast (why can’t she put on her clothes that fast everyday?) and then plays on the balcony! This was on the first snow of the season and her excitement was so precious, I nearly cried. Something so simple like a little bit of snow was just magical to her.
Here’s Mr. Finn yawning the cutest, biggest yawn.
On Tuesdays at the Megaplex, all movies are $5 and popcorn is $1. So, we took the kids to see a matinee of Peanuts. It was really simple but very cute. I don’t know if the kids liked it as much as we did, but just going to the movie theater is exciting as kid so everyone enjoyed it.
We bought a Christmas tree (thank you, Big Lots, for a tremendous deal!) and set it up last week. We aren’t decorating it until after Thanksgiving, but I have already loved sitting and watching it each night. I’m so excited for this Christmas season!
I finally put up some pictures in our bedroom! I also set up a little Christmas tree next to our bed. Our room finally has a little charm.
On the actual day of Halloween, Eva woke up early and instead of being upset about it (as usual), Eva and I went and got some delicious Halloween donuts because we weren’t going to eat enough sugar over Halloween weekend! Ha! But really, it was so nice to start of Halloween listening to Halloween music in the car and spending some one on one time with that donut loving little girl.
We all got ready and then headed over to Cornbelly’s because we hadn’t used our bounce back tickets yet. It was crowded but the weather was amazing and we still got to do some of the activities there.
We quickly got ready for trick or treating when we got home and first went around our neighborhood. We ran into some friends and Eva got to T-or-T with them!
The fun continued over at TJ’s parents house where we took the cousins around to a couple more houses. They were so hyper, running house to house and just so excited. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was hilarious and really cute.
And above is sweet Finn in his skeleton sleeper. We had a great weekend (and month celebrating), but Sunday night, I couldn’t help but put all of the Halloween decorations away. It was fun I’m ready to move on to Thanksgiving and Christmas!
We had quite the Halloween weekend, actually… Halloween Week.
On Monday, we invited a handful of families over from our neighborhood to carve/paint pumpkins. I think six families came, so it was quite a packed house but so fun to finally get to know some neighbors.
On the Wednesday before Halloween, I took Eva to the Outlets which are like two minutes away for a magic show and trick or treating. The magic show was really entertaining for the kids (kind of dumb, if you ask me, but Eva got a big kick out of it). The trick or treating was a total bust. They ran out of candy in like five minutes. We went home with three or four pieces (and a new cardigan from Banana). Eva didn’t mind too much though, she still had fun looking at everyone’s costumes.
Friday, after I dropped Eva off at school, Finn and I had lunch at TJ’s office and got to see his team all dressed up. We thought they were going to win the contest for the best group costume, but there was another team who were people on a roller coaster and that was pretty awesome. But TJ did win the pumpkin carving contest. He carved a pumpkin of their CEO!
Afterwards, TJ and I went to Eva’s school to see their costume parade and sing-in.
Once school was over, TJ went back to work and Eva and I went over to my father-in-law’s office for another Halloween party. It was three huge floors decked out in amazing decorations and filled with tons of treats! There was even a bouncy house, people making balloon animals, and a cotton candy station. Eva was in heaven!