Some randomness....

Here are some of the pics that my talented sister Krista snapped for us while we were in Texas. We had a really fun, really quick trip there last week.





How we found the girls' sleeping.. :)


Christmas dresses...Abby was being a bit grumpy...

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Today starts a lot of cooking and baking in our house. We hope everyone enjoys a safe and fun holiday!

One of the many things we're grateful for:

Trunk or Treat

This October has been filled with sweets-filled parties...and it's not even Halloween yet! At least we are getting good use of the costumes (except Abby rarely keeps hers on for very long). We had a carnival at Grace's preschool last 2 Saturdays ago, a breakfast/parade at her preschool yesterday, and truck-or-treat this week too. We already have enough candy to last our girls the rest of the year! :)Anyway, here are some pics from the festivities.

The girls ready to trunk or treat- Grace wanted to wear lipstick but didn't like holding still. :) Abby is a pink poodle-Her costume has an adorable little hat that she didn't like wearing.


We "cheated" on our pumpkins this year and used the push in face pieces from Wal-Mart. The girls actually loved doing it and we hope we can keep up this less messy way of decorating for a few more years to come. :) I should also note that the gourd looking thing in the picture is the pumpkin that Miss Abby picked out when we went with Grace on her field trip to Wagner's farm with her preschool. All the other little kids were careful to pick out perfect little round pumpkins and this is the one my 2 year old wanted. Lovely. :)


Playing at the church....


Abby at the carnival-My hair looks really long in this picture.. :)


Grace at the carnival


Grace eating at her preschool breakfast (sitting by BFF Megan in ladybug)


They let Abby hang out too. She's eating by her little bud, Zoe who is Megan's little sis...


Abby pretty much is full-on terrible 2s and spent much of the morning we we at prechool running away from me. She even managed to end up in the other preschool class and the DMV next door a couple of times...


Grace's class and teacher--After this pic they went on "parade" through the nursing home next door.

Still here...

Sorry I've been slow at posting...Life isn't really all that busy, but time still seems to get the better of us! :) Grace is now in ballet and preschool and Abby wants to be in both too! :) We are LOVING the fall breezes that are here now--the mornings are even COLD now. :) I love it. Fall is definetely in the air and now we are very excited for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season--absolutely, hands-down, our FAVORITE time of year. We hope all is well with all of you...We'll post again soon....

Grace the ballerina...


Just Grace--looking bigger and bigger to me everyday. These are shorts I bought back in the day for kindergarten...looks like we'll have more shopping to do.


Abby


Breakfast...(The buns were just chillin on the table...We didn't feed them burgers first thing in the morning. :)


A rainbow in the backyard (We had some nice rain FINALLY)

We're alive!

Well, it's been a crazy 2 weeks, but we are back in our house. We had some surprise fixes that needed to be taken care of when we got here, but all seems to be holding up for the time being and we at least have all of our stuff in the house and out of storage. It's amazing how much stuff we have accumulated in just a few short years! Anyway, the girls room is the only one completely finished (see below). Craig was a sweetheart and painted it pink for me on Labor Day although he says the pink is an insult to his masculinity. :) We had a fun little trip to the cabin last week as well and enjoyed seeing G'ma, Granddad and Dana as well as Great G'ma and Granddad.
Here are a few highlights of the trip home as well....
Riding a in a train car with cousin Jacob

Playing in the nice grass with cousins

Cousins!

Meeting baby Josh

The St. Louis arch

Some random water tower on the drive home....Not quite straight... :)

The girls' room

Busy...

Sorry we've been slacking on our blogging....Tomorrow morning we head out to see Katie and Mike and kiddos and Kristy and Peter and kiddos on our way back to NM. The girls are really excited about seeing their cousins. We are hoping to get out ahead of any storms that Fay may or may not bring to SC.
It's with really mixed emotions that we head back. SC is beautiful...Their state motto "Smiling Faces, Beautiful Places" isn't exaggerating. We snuck out after dinner on Tuesday for a quick swim at the beach while the sun was setting (I love being so close that we can do that). My girls love the water and running away from the waves. (Sorry our camera's battery died or we'd have pictures). We are really going to miss the water and the trees.
Grace has already started to ask me when we will be coming back to SC to see her friends. I think we have thoroughly confused our daughter with all this moving around this year. :) She is really sad about leaving behind her new friends and I'm sure will continue to be the devout pen-pal she likes to be. I'm going to miss our new friends too--Our ward here is very sweet and I've been so thankful for the friendships we've made.
Anyway, we are heading back and should be home around Tuesday night next week after some nice long hours in the car. :) We're going through areas we've never been all the way home though, so that is always fun for us. NM has always treated us well so we are optimistic about the coming years and looking forward to being closer to family. We're looking forward to seeing the old ward and friends again. It'll be great being in our house too surrounded by our stuff (we've been in a furnished apartment) and hopefully in a few years the market may pick up and we can try to sell again. (Let us know if any of you know anyone moving to our area :)

We hope you all have a great weekend!

What we've been up to...

This afternoon the girls and I went to a friend from the ward who lives on the island with us and we made little aprons for the girls. The girls were pretty excited about getting to pick out their fabrics and help sew. They turned out pretty cute for a little afternoon project. They helped make doll blankets with the leftover fabric.



And here are some pics of my b-day flowers. So pretty, huh?



Also, fyi for anyone who hasn't heard--we leave SC in just a few weeks. Lots of cleaning to do!