J + J: Highlights

Here are some recent highlights:

Penelope is now smiling!!

Boy is she good at it. She smiles very frequently and is the cutest.

Thanksgiving!

Holidays have changed since lots of my family has moved. I wasn't sure what Thanksgiving would look like this year. In all honesty, part of me was dreading it. I did not want to host. My cousin Sara mentioned having Thanksgiving together and I jumped at the chance. My uncle Doug and aunt Sheri hosted in their beautiful home in Highland. It was magnificent. My kids were spoiled and loved. Izzy wept when we left. My kids got to hot tub! Sheri even had a Thanksgiving craft for them to do. She also had candy turkeys for everyone and advent calendars for the kids. She made hosting look like a piece of cake. I made the rolls and the 7 layer dip. I could hardly walk I ate so much. We stayed for hours. I am so grateful. Jessica, Chris, and George last minute decided to drive to Utah and they joined too. Joel was also there. Grandma was delighted to have so many great-grandkids in attendance and insisted on getting a picture.

Grateful

Grannie came into town!!

We made the most of our time together. We played games for hours. She made us her famous Chicago dogs from her mission. Grannie met Penelope. She accompanied me to a relief society activity and made a beautiful and festive centerpiece. We even watched the Great British Baking Show championship together. Grannie babysat one morning while Andrew and I snuck away to do sealings. We also went to the Orem Temple House, a live nativity, and had lots of BYU Dittos over for Sunday dinner/games. What a lovely weekend. Izzy sobbed the day after Grannie left. We all miss her! We're looking forward to seeing her and dozens of Dittos at Christmas.

Playing Rook-O-Lee. We also played "Just One" and "Idiot." Everyone stayed 4 hrs. It was delightful. We missed Dallin/Alysee and Tyler/Hailee who were out of town.

We saw Santa...

Izzy told Santa she wants a pickaxe. hahaha. What!? After asking her to explain further, she said she wants a pickaxe so we can finish removing the stubborn tree stump Andrew has spent hours trying to take out. How thoughtful and helpful of her. After talking to her more, we learned Isabelle actually wants princess Legos.

Low quality pic, but I couldn't skip the story

Isabelle had a dance recital...

Izzy is at a new studio this fall and wow, it is intense. She had a mandatory dress rehearsal the evening before the recital. Bless Andrew for taking her and dealing with a snowstorm all while I was quite ill with mastitis. The recital was at a high school in Saratoga Springs. On Saturday, many dancers had to perform in both recitals. Each recital is 2 hours long. Fortunately Isabelle only had to perform in 1 recital because she is in one of the youngest classes. Most dancers are supposed to arrive an hour prior to the recital. Thankfully, Izzy's class only had to be there 30 minutes early. Many families plan to be at the recital all day. What an event. In fact, many chaperones are needed to help and several sign up just to have early access to buy recital tickets. One of the chaperones happened to be my old young women's leader. What a blast from the past to see Lori again! Buying the recital tickets was quite an ordeal. It took over an hour to just get to the purchase page. Big shoutout to Joel for coming. Grandma wasn't feeling well.

Isabelle is a confident and good dancer. She knows the moves and was graceful. I was surprised when I saw her after the recital. She couldn't hold back her tears any longer. Her costume was hurting/rubbing up against her neck. Poor girl. We gave her flowers which mattered a lot to her. We'll see if I can keep up with all of these dance moms. (They helped me fix Izzy's hair, so her hairpiece was more visible-- of course after I already took the pics.) I don't know what I'm doing and read through the 6 page recital information thoroughly. Talking to these other dance moms each week is something I look forward to. They are the nicest ladies.