... that it was my birthday!

I always love flowers for my birthday!!!!! Matt is so good to me!!!!! He also got me an awesome present this year: tickets to the Mariah Carey Christmas Concert in Las Vegas!!!!!!!!!!! It was a huge surprise and I was so excited!!!

My birthday was on a Saturday, and it happened to coincide with Mira's baptism. So we spent the morning with Matt's family, and Mira asked for stomped lemonade from her favorite hot-dogger uncles! HDOS lemonade is a very precise science, but these guys performed beautifully. With only a few apron mishaps.

 

The rest of the afternoon was spent on a little bit of family shopping together, then Sam Hawk for dinner with the Skousens for a perfect ending.

Happy birthday to me!

... that I FINALLY did Jas' hair?

A couple weeks after I had my "hair lesson," I decided it was time for me to do Jas' hair on my own. And by on my own, I mean with a lot of help from Matt.

I set aside a whole evening. Gathered all of my products, combs, rubber bands, barrettes, and spray bottle. Had all my treats and snacks ready. Queued Moana in the DVD player. Made sure Matt was there to help me. Bought a bag of emergency dum dums just in case.

It really was not as hard as I thought! I tried twists for my first do, cause I thought it would be easiest. It took me the entire length of Moana to do (curse my OCD, but those parts were PRISTINE) and Jas never cried once (I may have teared up a few times... and yelled at Matt... I don't remember). The twists were a little harder to get the hang of than I had thought they would be, but it ultimately turned out looking great and I was super proud of myself!

I love my baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

... that Jas was 20 months!

Jas is extremely needy a huge cuddlebug!

She usually prefers to be leaning on us,

 

In our arms,

 

Or perched on top of us.

When mom and dad aren't around, cuddling babies is an acceptable alternative.

Sometimes we can distract her with a book or a baba

But that only lasts so long before she is clamoring all over us for attention again. I love this stinky baby! Someone asked me the other day if she is a momma's girl or a daddy's girl, and I honestly couldn't say one or the other. Her most recent favorite is to sit on the couch with one parent and then pat the couch on the other side of her until the other parent completes the Jazzy Sandwich.

She is getting so big and tall now!!! People make fun of me all the time when they see me still trying to carry her around. Daddy did her first big girl ponytail one day and suddenly, she's just not a baby anymore!!!!!!! *ugly crying*

I love my Jazzy!!!!!!!!!!

... that we love Auntie Kaari?

Kar brought her camera with her so that we could take some family pictures, and then took individual family pics for anyone who wanted them too! #allthehearteyes

Some noteworthy commentaries on this lovely photo shoot:

1. Jas was in a VERY bad mood (probably because she was starving)

2. She was only happy if she was holding rocks in both her hands or running around

3. She hit me very hard in the face with said rocks right at the beginning of this shoot

4. Every time I picked her up, her boots covered my dark jeans with dust

5. One of her rubber bands burst and we didn't have a spare to fix it (thankfully you can't tell)

6. She threw multiple crying fits and I finally said "enough" when she sat down in the dust and completely destroyed her outfit.

Thanks Kar for editing out the crazy! Love my family!!!!!

... that it was Thanksgiving!!!!!!!

Kelly loves Utah so much that she talked mom and dad into having Thanksgiving in St George this year! They rented out a big house in LaVerkin so that we could all stay together and it was so fun. Jas was pretty good in the car, but is getting older and learning what "boredom" is now, so she needed a little more entertaining than usual. But once we were there with cousins, aunts and uncles, NaNa, Grampus, and AhTa, she was happy as could be!

So much food, fun, games, laughing, talking, kissing, fighting, hugging, and playing.
Not enough sleeping.
Too much waking up in the night.

We love Thanksgiving!!!!!

... that we went to the cabin?

Mom and Dad finally fulfilled their dream of buying a cabin! We missed the first family trip to the cabin, so we got a special invitation to spend a night with mom and dad all to ourselves! We had a great time and the cabin is awesome!

Cute, cozy, and plenty of deer to keep us company. Not too long of a drive, hidden in the beautiful mountains, but close enough to town to be super convenient.

Thanks for the invite Mom and Dad! We love the cabin!!!