JUST ONE MONTH LATE

Well now that it's halfway through December I figured I should go ahead and get updates done for the rest of November.  It's only one month late, I've done worse!

Columbus started to get pretty chilly.  No snow yet, but it has been rainy and we've had to scrape frost off the windshield a few times now.  Definitely coat weather.  Except for this random blissful day we had just a couple days before Thanksgiving.  We just had to go out and enjoy it!

She is the loviest little thing!  I love that she loves to cuddle.

If this isn't Tim's child...

For Thanksgiving this year we buddied up with some friends from our ward.  The couple that hosted actually really loves to cook, and they're really good at it.  They made a killer turkey!  It was really fun.  Before dinner I was getting the girls dressed and Brinlee told me that she and McKenna needed to have turkey hair.  So that's what we did!  This was McKenna's first little pony tail, such an important day for a lady.
Love these little turkeys.

We've been talking about being more reverent at church.  That's tough sometimes!  But you know what they say about practice...

Such a good little helper.

Mickey Mouse had a birthday!  On the 18th of November he turned 87.  Happy Birthday Pal!

Look what finally came in the mail a couple weeks ago!

I know what you're thinking.
"But DeeAnna, didn't you graduate 4 years ago?"
And the answer to that would be, yes I did.  Proud class of December 2011!  Leave it to me to put off and forget about the paperwork to actually get my diploma, for 4 whole years. That's classy.  At least they were kind enough to print it with the right dates on it, so no harm done right?

This is what a lot of our days look like.  I love that my girls love to read!

This stinker has been cruising along furniture and figuring out those legs for quite a while now,

but in the last 2 weeks of November she started trying some little steps, and look at her now! She is really starting to move.  She can free stand from sitting without any help, and she walks herself most all of the time.  She is still a little wobbly and sticks to shorter distances.  But she's totally going!  Look out world, this baby is ready to be a walker!

What better to do when it's cold outside than curl up on the heating vent with a stack of good books!

We are actually in Boise right now!  The girls and I made the journey here last week and have been soaking up some long overdue family time for the last few days. It's been wonderful!  Poor daddy had to stay and study, but he'll be coming to meet us on the 19th and we won't be back to our Ohio home until the 31st.  So, lots of fun to still be had!  

And since it's apparently my style to go for a month without posting anyway, I guess you'll just have to wait on the edge of your seat for all those fun updates  :)  

FUN TO BE ONE

Guess who had her first birthday?!

Yep, it's true.  Our sweet little McKenna Monkey is one!

I cannot believe it was a whole year ago that we first looked at her perfect little face.

I wish time would slow down, just a little bit.  She is getting so big, and is growing way too fast.  But she is so much fun!  She makes us laugh every day and has brought our family so many smiles, we can't really picture life now without her!  We are sure in love with her.

To celebrate McKenna's big day, we took a trip to the puppy store, then headed out to an early dinner at Chick-Fil-A.  They have the best chicken nuggets, yummy milkshakes, and a really cool indoor play place. All the kid favorites!  

When it was time for the real party, she was actually mostly just a little confused.  She was a little unsure of the present unwrapping (Brinlee was more than happy to step in there), a little concerned by her candle being on fire, and she took it very seriously when we took away the rest of her annihilated cake. But she sure was cute, as always!

Happy Birthday to our big one-year-old girl!  We love you Kenna babe!

HAPPINESS IS...

...family 'pizza and a movie' night, 

picnic style!

We finally saw Big Hero 6, and everyone liked it!  Both Brinlee and McKenna giggled out loud actually, and they both ate better than ever! We might have to make this more of a regular thing.

WORLD CLASS PARENTING

Do you remember that time when you thought your almost-one-year-old had mastered the stairs, so you left her upstairs to finish her tantrum while you went downstairs to clean up dinner...  and then, she did indeed find her way down those stairs, and ended up with a beauty mark like this?

You don't remember that?
Well unfortunately, we now will remember just exactly that!
In our defense, she really has done those stairs just fine probably 1000 times!  I guess tonight she just wanted to try tumbling down them instead.  Just to mix it up a little, you know?  Get us all a little more excited.

Poor baby girl. I guess she's not so keen on me trying to crack down on some discipline tactics for her.
At least she recovered quickly!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TIMMY

Our handsome man had a birthday!

The big 28.

He might be getting old, but he's still cute!  :)

The birthday boy is actually getting ready for a test (I know, shocker), so we didn't do much partying.  The girls and I got up and made him some breakfast, and once we were done eating, Brinlee gave Tim the ziplock bag of loose change that has been sitting on our dresser for the last few months, announced that daddy's birthday was over, and asked when she was getting her present...

and that was that.

We did get out of the house for a while though without kids.  Best present ever!  Tim has been to a couple OSU games, but this was my first.  And it was actually pretty fun.  Freezing cold, but fun. Go Bucks!

Happy Birthday to the most wonderful man there is!

SISTER SUNDAY

The other day I went upstairs to find the girls playing in the middle of a serious disaster.

Brinlee looked up and said "Hey mom, McKenna and me both made this mess, because we just love playing together!"

I watch these two together every day and still can't get enough.  They are so amazing.  

Happy Sunday!