Thanksgiving Festivities

(Warning: huge photo dump!)

Thanksgiving weekend was a blast. Michael flew to Mesa on Wednesday morning, so we had almost 5 whole days with family in amazing weather! With both of our families in the same place it can sometimes get tricky coordinating who's staying where and when, but at the end of the day it's such a blessing to see our families so often. On Thanksgiving Day this year we got to hang out with Michael's extended family, which always includes watching football, admiring the electric knife cutting skills and playing ping pong late into the night! Then on Friday we had a second Thanksgiving with my mom's side of the family and then played badminton for way too long in an attempt to burn off the turkey day calories ;). Sidenote: I'm OBSESSED with badminton. And bonus, you barely have to move since those rackets are so long, ha! Michael and I make a pretty good team :). So fun. And surprisingly less dangerous than playing bocci ball a few years ago when Michael broke his finger. 

Then on Saturday we celebrated Michael's mom's birthday!! She is absolutely darling - I totally scored in the in-law department. She is the most loving, crafty and organized person I've ever met. Every closet in her house is perfect! Major goals. Michael definitely inherited his love of holidays from her. She goes all out for every birthday, Valentine's Day, Halloween, etc, and showers her kids and grandkids with gifts and surprise boxes in the mail for all these events. So of course we had to have a fun day for her birthday! Michael and I woke up early Saturday morning to get her donuts and decorate the mantel with a banner and balloons. We ate out at a fun new restaurant, walked around Merry Mainstreet, went bowling with extended family, and had a delicious dinner at Kona Grill! Then we came home and watched her open her presents and she cut into her gorgeous birthday cake. I think it was a success! 

My sweet mom and dad!

We have a new trampoline fan. Homegirl could not get enough! Every time Lydia saw my dad she walked up to him and started saying "out! out!" since she wanted him to take her outside to the tramp.

Grilled turkey! And the proud chef :).

OKAY BABE ALERT! How hot is my sister Olivia? Calling all single hombres - this girl is back on the market!! Her instagram is here so you should def stalk her and then DM her. PS she will kill me if she knows I posted this so play it cool ;).

We stink at kissy faces.

Also this was THE ONLY food pic I remembered to take and it's blurry! Just trust me that we had two awesome thanksgiving meals and days of leftovers.

My darling mother-in-law and Michael's brother Steven!

Worth Takeaway. How cute is this little restaurant?

My rueben was delish and Michael's crispy chicken sandwich was BOMB.

Lydia looks like she's doing one of those hip new dance moves, ha! ^^^ What is this, a whip? A dab? I'm a little out of touch.

Meltdown on Main.

Look how pretty that cake is!

After church we tried to get cute shots of all us girls, buttttt we couldn't even get one. We all just kept laughing! Or talking. Tis the life with all this estrogen in one place ;).

Also THANKS FOR NOTHING to the church lady who told me I must be having a boy since I'm just getting big all over. I get it, I'm huge! ;) 

Outfit #1

Pink sweater: J.Crew (sized up)

Denim: H&M maternity 

Shoes: Nordstrom two years ago

Outfit #2

Striped dress: A Pea in the Pod 

Outfit #3

Grey sweater: Forever21

Maternity leggings: H&M

Flats: J.Crew

Necklace: Anthropologie 

Outfit #4

Velvet dress: A Pea in the Pod

Shoes: Nordstrom two years ago

Kids are Hilarious

How adorable are these kids!? I mean seriously.

I LOVED my short time teaching the 4 and 5 year olds at church every Sunday. Yes, our lessons mainly went like this: 

- talking about the gospel

- play doh

- talking about the gospel

- bathroom break

- attempting to keep everyone from sprinting outside 

- treats

- talking about the gospel

- chasing the kids who ran out into the hall

- game

- talking about the gospel

- bribery 

- movie

- treats

- more coloring 

- try and cram everything we were supposed to talk about into 3 minutes

HAHAHA. I need a nap every Sunday. But as high energy as these guys can be, they really are the sweetest! Their adorable comments and their enthusiasm for answering questions or saying the prayer just make my heart burst. 

I'm so sad to be leaving primary! Michael and I were both teaching 2nd and 3rd hours, and Lydia is 2 months shy of nursery, which means we took turns attempting to teach while having Lydia on our laps. Aka DIFFICULT. So I'm getting a new calling this week, and while it will make our church experience a little more do-able, I'm gonna miss these cuties!

I Got Dressed {Tripod Adventures}

How exactly is one supposed to wield the all-powerful blanket scarf? The legendary magic wand of accessories? The item every website tells me I can just throw on and look put together? 

I clearly have no clue. Ha.

BUT I do have to say, even scarf-tying skills lacking, this one has gotten tons of milage in my closet over the past two years! I always hated the thought of spending more than like $15 on a scarf. Really?? Is it necessary? When will I throw this on? Am I even a scarf-wearing person?

But my mom got me this Madewell one a couple winters back and it is now always in my car November-March. 

Loop it around your neck when your outfit is blah, throw it over your shoulders for a poncho experience, use it as a blanket when suddenly it goes from Happy Sunshine Day to Overcast Freezing Why the Heck Am I Outside Day. So versatile!

Also don't worry, I'm getting my hair done in AZ! (I know you were thinking, "Roots girl, rooooots.")

Speaking of which I have no idea what to do with this hair of mine. I think I've liked the darker blonde with my skin tone, and it is hecka-cheap to maintain compared to trying to zap any ounce of regrowth like when I was bleach blonde. Which, by the way, was terrible. Bleach blonde was horrendous. But I think this dark blonde is starting to feel a little, meh, too! I need a happy medium. I'm not brave enough to go brunette, I don't have a cute enough face to pull that off. But I think a little bit brighter blonde might be fun? 

Idk, deep hair thoughts. Since I know you were extremely curious! ;)

Also, whyyyy must pregnancy effect my tush like so ^^. I swore I was going to be one of those cute all-belly preggers who doesn't gain an ounce anywhere else. But no! Body = different plans. Cheeks, legs, arms - you name it, it's expanding! Super sexy right?! Ah sorry to be such a complainer. I AM SO GRATEFUL! I promise. Babies are miracles. Just also a little bit mourning the loss of the muscles and skinny jeans I worked for.

And ohmygosh I almost forgot - HOORAY for the holidays! Are you going anywhere for Thanksgiving? Any fun traditions we should be adopting? Anyone staying home and just doing a small Thanksgiving?! If so I'm a little jealous - Michael and I keep saying one of these years we are going to have a relaxing break - just us three - but then of course it's hard to say no to families and AZ weather :). Have a nice quick break!

Tee: Target maternity 

Scarf: Madewell, old

Pants: H&M maternity 

Boots: Nordstrom Rack

Lydia's tee: Old Navy 

Lydia's denim: Carters (the only brand long and skinny enough for her legs!)

Lydia's boots: Nordstrom Rack 

Christmas Tree! How Early is Too Early??

This year was probably illegally early ;).

But to my credit I'm in a very Christmas-y mood! We already had a Friendsgiving, so I've mentally checked off the turkey/pumpkin pie/bake fest day. And then I left town Monday for AZ and when I get back it's December! So I had to put the tree up now :). Switching all of my radio stations to Christmas channels was all my own doing though. Oops.

We had such a fun little morning setting this up last week! We woke up to a thin coat of snow (which promptly melted by noon - MY KINDA SNOW), so we cranked up the tunes and got busy pulling out all the decorations! One day it will be fun to have a big beautiful house to decorate, but for now it's actually super nice just having one single box labeled "Christmas" in our basement. It took all of 45 minutes to set up the entirety of our Christmas decor - tree included - and I'm feeling good about that :). 

We are on the hunt for beautiful stockings, though! Any leads? We have a set of cheap-o dollar store ones that are this cute. We're wanting to get nice monogrammed ones that can last us for years! Michael and I also have differing opinions on stockings, totally dependent on how we grew up. He grew up with these amazing hand-stitched woven stockings so he thinks those are more traditional and home-y. We had very formal quilted monogrammed stockings so of course that's what I picture for family stockings. 

And thankfully Lydia's been pretty good about not ripping off every single ornament! We hung anything breakable up high and the lower ones are mainly just dollar store sparkly snowflakes. So far so good! It's adorable watching her wake up every morning, head straight for the tree and touch all the lights. It's gonna be a sad day when I have to take it down!

My dress: Dwell + Slumber

Also for those who asked, we got our tree three years ago at Target for $20! It's a 6ft unlit tree. Super tiny but it works for now!

Thorns and Roses

My little explorer. Outside Lydia = Happy Lydia.

Living in this Dwell + Slumber dress.

Again, happiest in a big pile of leaves. 

HAAAA. Cleaned out the kitchen drawers and apparently I am a little obsessed with sweet and sour sauce ;). Hashtag GHETTO.

Trying to envision what our boy will look like with that backwards hat.

Making mint cranberry sauce for last week's party.

Oh my gosh! Dug up this little gem from the archives. Tiny bald chubby(!?) baby!

Feeling super nostalgic over heeee-yur. Where's my little boo thang?! They grow up too fast!

Thorns: 

- Lydia putting her hand in someone's (eh hem, Michael's) unflushed pee in the toilet. Lovely.

- Cracking my brand new iPhone 7 on day five. I am ridiculous. Feel free to yell/laugh at me. I would consider myself to be a fairly coordinated human but man I struggle with these blasted iPhones.

- Facetiming my mom, dad, sisters, Michael, neighbors - really anyone who will answer - every single night between 5-7. This is going on the thorns list because it really just means that we are so exhausted and bored and lonely that at this point in the day we just hope other people will entertain us. Also it is pitch black outside come 5pm which makes afternoons a drag.

Roses: 

- Teaching Lydia that Santa says, "Ho! Ho! Ho!", and on a similar note she equates the name Jesus with blowing kisses.

- Michael asking me at our Friendsgiving last week if I was wearing hair extensions since my hair looked long - and I wasn't! Yay! I actually haven't put them in for about a month now. The last post with them in was here. Just too much work. But hey maybe there is some hair growth perk for me this pregnancy after all??

- Requesting a heartbeat check on Baby Boy since I'm paranoid and thought my slight cramping combined with decreased fetal movements was FOR SURE bad news. But turns out there's a strong heartbeat and I'm just that annoying worried mom!

- Thinking my child is a genius by correctly pointing out the letter 'L' at the grocery store. (Turns out she thinks ever letter is 'L' but what the heck.)

- This website is everything. I LOVED it last time I was pregnant, then totally forgot about it until it randomly popped up on my pinterest feed tonight. I quite literally have to restrain myself from laughing too loud. The author is HILARIOUS and so relatable.