Festivities

We've been doing lots of fun things around here getting into the Christmas spirit.  Especially wearing festive shirts!

 I think this picture is hilarious because I asked Bridgette to put her arm around Penny, but we got a little too much love.

 The best shot I could get of them together. 

 

Penelope discovered how fun it is to rip wrapping paper and it has been a battle to keep presents intact.

 One day I got Bridgette up from "naptime" and she told me she had decorated for Christmas. 

 Our ward party was last Saturday and Bridgette was very serious about meeting Santa.  She told him she wanted a scooter, so we'll see if he comes through.  (The mismatched Crocs are a fashion choice, not we couldn't find a match)

 

Penny was not having any of Santa though!

 Our whole family.

 We drove out to Riverside that night to the Festival of Lights at the Mission Hotel.  It was beautiful and fun to see all the decorations.  It got too late for both girls though and they were cranky!  I asked Bridgette what her favorite lights were and she told me "Nothing."

This crazy girl just gets cuter!

1/2 Marathon

I ran a half marathon on December 6th.  I was excited to be able to train for a big race because Tyler has been around on Saturday mornings again, and I'm finally not pregnant or have a needy baby.  It's been over 2 years since my last race.  I wasn't sure what to expect but my goal was under 2 hours.  I rocked it and surprised myself by finishing the race at 1:54:35 at a 8:44 min/mi pace.  I finished 34/157 women and in my age group 8/28. It was a great course, mostly along bike paths in Irvine and it was perfect weather.  I had forgotten how much I love the race atmosphere and I'm already wanting to do another one soon.

This is with my friend and training buddy, Stephanie.  This is about mile 2 or 3.

 Crossing the finish line.

 

We're all done and already had sore legs!

Tyler brought the girls to cheer for me at the finish line.  I had visions of a cute picture of my cheerleaders, but neither girl wanted to cooperate.  Ahh, kids...

I'm glad Tyler was willing to watch the kids for me on Saturdays so I could do all my long runs and I loved having a good friend to train with!  Sadly my knee has been feeling weird since the race, so I haven't even been able to run since.  Hopefully it heals up soon!

Thanksgiving Weekend

The Moore's came to us this year for Thanksgiving.  It had been a while since I've hosted Thanksgiving and made the turkey, so it was fun to plan everything.  I had one good helper who helped with the pies (Bridgette) and one naughty helper (Penny) who destroyed the kitchen while we cooked:

Grandma brought tons of crafts to make with Bridgette.  She loved it!

Our best picture attempt with cranky Bridgette and mad Penelope.  All of the food turned out delicious, including our first time brining the turkey.

And then Tyler clogged the sink with carrot and potato peels.  We couldn't do any dishes and they took apart all the pipes to try to fix it.  After over an hour, Tyler finally got it unclogged!  It was pretty funny.  I was just happy our disaster was with the sink, not any of the food.

Grandma and Grandpa brought Bridgette her own Christmas tree to have in her room.  They decorated it and she loves looking at it, playing with ornaments and having her very own.

We tried to go see Christmas lights at a cool house but it took way longer than we thought it would.  This was our attempt at a family picture for Thanksgiving.  Haha!

Friday Tyler's co-resident, Nick, got married at the swanky country club here, Pelican Hill.  We were excited to dress up and attend all the festivities without kids.  The girls did great at home with Grandpa and Grandma!  Whew!!

The wedding was long and boring but the reception afterwards was lots of fun.  We got to be a part of the Barrat, where the groom's guests have a long dance party down to the Bride's side, while Nick rode on a "unicorn".  It was pretty wild and a fun Indian tradition.

 

Tyler with his co-residents.  It is fun to hangout with them outside of work!

Tyler's parents left on Saturday morning and we headed to get the Christmas tree.  Bridgette loved decorating this year and the tree has been a favorite toy of both girls ever since!

Putting the star on top.

The finished product.

Penny 10 months

This girl is now 10 months and a big stinker!!  Now that she's more mobile, she is getting into everything.  After loading pictures for this post, I realized all the pictures of her this month are getting into things!

She can pull herself up to stand now.

She discovered the toilet paper.  Ahh....

The pots and pans.

One of her favorite activities is emptying all the shoes out of the bucket onto the floor.

She also loves pulling out the clothes out of the laundry basket.  Thanks for helping me fold, Penny!

She finally cut her 2 top teeth, and she's been much happier lately (thank goodness!!).  She is eating more solids, still not sleeping through the night but is such a cuddly sweetheart.

Girls Trip

I took the girls to visit my family in Utah just for fun.  And we did have tons of fun!! Most of our days were spent playing with Bronco, downstairs with all the toys and playing with tons of cousins.
Penny even loved Bronco and crawled right up to examine him.  I caught this funny picture mid-slurp!

The toy Bronco was almost as fun as the real one!

 We played at the park with Brady and Tanner.  We even went for a mini hike to the stream to throw rocks in the water.

There were tons of autumn leaves to play in.  Popcan must have raked that pile over 100 times for all the kids to play in.

 Eli and Bridgette.

 Silly Penny and her happy tongue-out-smile.

 

Lots of time was spent in this tepee downstairs filled with giant stuffed animals and snuggly things.

 We had a pizza picnic at Layton Park and Grandma Melville (Nana) came to play.  We got to play with all the cousins and feed the ducks.

 Bridgette read piles of books with both Grammy and Popcan.  She loves all the new books at their house.  Cute cousins with Popcan.

I'm so glad we went!  It was low-key and great to play with cousins and grandparents without the crazy holiday stuff.

3 year old pictures

 I just got back these adorable pictures of Bridgette.  What a cute 3 year old!!

 

Halloween Time

We had a fun Halloween this year and I feel like it lasted a whole week!  We started off with our ward Trunk or Treat on the Saturday before Halloween. Tyler brought home cast lining to wrap up in as a mummy, I was a black cat, Bridgette was a pink horse and Penelope was a cheetah.

 We ate lots of pizza and fruit and then went around trick or treating at all the cars.

Penny loved playing with pumpkins!

We carved Bridgette's giant pumpkin on Sunday.  She didn't want to participate at all for the carving (see face in picture, haha!)

 But loved it after it was done and frequently talked about how it changed into a "Jack-o-latern".

 While we were all busy with carving and cleaning up, this crazy girl opened her puffs and stuffed her face!

 That night we had ghost cookie for dessert.  (Sisters- you should try a giant sugar cookie instead of a cake next year!)

 Bridgette dressed up for dance class on Tuesday.  We didn't think she'd be able to move well in the horse costume, so she was a butterfly instead.  The wings lasted only 5 minutes until they were off!

 For music makers on Thursday, the girls wore costumes again.  We had about 25 kids there and it was a fun, mad-house party!
Friday Bridgette was so excited to go trick-or-treating.  We had pumpkin shaped pizza with Daddy(yay for easy rotations!) and then off to the neighborhood for candy. 
Our cute horse.  Not the most practical for walking around in, but she loved it and pet/nuzzled it all the time.  She wouldn't let go of the "handles" and so had a hard time carrying her bucket, picking out candy and doing stairs by herself.

 All ready to go!

 She was very brave about saying trick or treat loudly and sometimes remembered to say thank you on her own. 

 We went for about 2 hours.  It was perfect!

 We couldn't stop laughing at Penny who got so excited with all the noisy candy wrappers.  She just kept grabbing handfuls and stuffing them in her face!  This is my favorite picture from Halloween!

Happy Halloween!  It definitely makes it more fun to have kids who are excited for holidays!