... that I'm finally learning about Jas' hair?

I have been meaning to ask someone who knows what they are doing give me some real tips on how to braid and care for Jas' hair. For the past 18 months. #facepalm.

There are a few teachers at Jas' daycare who have done Jas' hair or talked to me about it, and I finally set up a time to take her to one of the teacher's house so that I could watch her braid Jas' hair. And it was not as terrible an experience as I would have thought. #thankgoodnessforMoana.

With the help of Moana, toys, hairclips, and a Dum Dum that I later had to wash out of my hair, we finally had some super cute braids with only a minimal amount of tears.

While she braided, Jas' teacher gave me all kinds of tips on techniques, products, and hair care. She taught me about hair growth and change, and confirmed that Jas needed a hair cut to remove all of her damaged baby hair. When I got home, I ordered a lot of products and called Kelly to ask her if she thought I was crazy for wanting to cut her hair myself. I know Jas' hair better than anyone, and once her teacher pointed out the dead ends, I could tell exactly where it needed to be trimmed. Kell gave me a supportive "Go for it!" and that was all I needed. A week later, I took her braids out, washed her hair, and cut all the dead ends off, and it has made a WORLD of difference. With all her dead baby hair cut off, her hair is strong, healthy, and so much less tangled! She actually liked having her hair in braids, and I am less worried that her hair is getting damaged. I finally feel like I am really learning how to care for her hair and it makes me feel like a better mom.

Jas' teacher also told us that we need to protect her hair while she sleeps, so we bought her a "sleep cap."

It protects her hair from rubbing while she sleeps, keeps her braids from fraying, holds in moisture, and provides endless amounts of entertainment.

I love this baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

... that things were looking up?

November started off on a great note. I was still riding that Halloween high, the weather was nice, the holidays were just around the corner, and I was just feeling good. Working on our costumes had gotten me all excited about sewing again, and while I was in the groove, I grabbed three dresses that have been sitting in my closet for a LONG time and altered them all so that I could finally wear them. Yay for "new" clothes! I also pulled out a jumpsuit that I bought probably three years ago and finally fixed the plunging neckline with a cross body zipper and I love it!

This jumper has literally been halfway torn apart in my closet for three years because I was too intimidated to try to fix the neckline. But in a burst of inspiration, I decided to throw a zipper on it and it turned out just how I imagined! Then I embarrassed myself, Matt, and all of our neighbors by asking Matt to take pictures of me in it. And he did, because he is an #instagramhusband. I love to sew!

Also at the end of October, Matt and I decided that we felt like it was time for a career change for him. We have loved the firm that he has been working with, and they have given him invaluable experience over the last 5 years. But we decided it was time for him to look for new opportunities to move his career forward and take care of our family. We fasted and prayed to ask Heavenly Father to help us know if this was a path He wanted us to take... and the next day Matt got a call from a firm in Salt Lake asking him to interview for a job that he hadn't even applied for. He had been recommended as a replacement for someone that he had worked with in another capacity a few years ago, and they wanted to know if he could start right away. Now if that isn't a directly miraculous answer to prayers... I don't know what is.

He went in a few days later for his interview, and had an offer a few days after that. We celebrated that night with a family date night at Market Street.



We have really been so blessed when we try to do what Heavenly Father wants us to do! Like it says in the scriptures, He prepares a way for us to accomplish His work.

Here's to a future that's looking bright!!!

... that baby Ellie was blessed!

In the midst of all of our Halloween shenanigans, baby Ellie was blessed! Mom, dad, and NaNa came into town and we skipped out of our ward early to head down to Provo to be with everyone.

It was so sweet and we had a great dinner at the Skousen's house with everyone afterward. My NaNa got to come home with us that night so that I could take her to the airport in the morning and I caught this sweet moment as she was reading to Jas

My NaNa is the most wonderful, happy, sweet lady and Jas loves her!

We love baby Ellie!!!!!!

... that it was HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!

Halloween is the BEST!!!!! We decided to throw a party for the kids in our ward who were in nursery with Jas and it was so much fun! I think Matt got more and more worried with every new skull I brought home, but he is the best and did not say anything about my Halloween Decor addiction. I had these costumes in my mind for almost a year, and I was so happy about how they came together! The costume prep was pretty minimal, since I bought Jas' skirt and I found my amazing dress at DI, but I did bust out my sewing machine to add the frills on Matt's outfit and I think they turned out pretty fun! Even if I made him wear a woman's jacket from DI because it was cheaper, and I could not for the life of me find the red sash that I was going to use as a cummerbund and necktie and was kicking myself the rest of the night for it... Oh well.

We had so much fun with old and new friends! I love our annual Halloween party!

The next weekend was our ward Trunk or Treat, and I had also had these costumes in my mind for months:

This made me SO HAPPY. I made Jas' pants and cape and my habit and I found Matt's outfit at DI, including that wig (which, by the way, I asked if he was willing to wear before I bought it because it was disgusting and I am not that mean). Jas LOVED her cape and was ecstatic to run around the whole church with no shirt on all night long (hopefully this does not encourage a love of nakedness in the future...). I was also thrilled that this brought one small piece of my life full circle: My first date with Matt was watching Nacho Libre in the basement of my house in San Francisco. So romantic that it would be our family Halloween costume 6 ½ years later.

There was one downside to our theme: no one knew what Matt's costume was. We were apart most of the night, with me chasing Jas and him doing Bishop things/being the impromptu emcee of the party, and his costume didn't make a lot of sense by itself. Plus, I had to go with a less well known outfit for Esqueleto because I couldn't very well have the Bishop walking around in a blue diaper and no shirt at the ward party. So he spent the night in a gross costume that no one recognized. Also, I was shocked at how many people at the party had never seen Nacho Libre! Seriously people, you are missing out!

Poor Matt. He is such a good husband. Maybe next year I will let him wear a costume that is actually flattering on him. But probably not.

On the actual day of Halloween, all of Jas' other costumes were dirty so I almost didn't send her to daycare in a costume at all. But then I remembered that Lisa had given me an old Halloween costume just the week before, so I had Matt throw it on her and it was the most adorable thing in the whole world:

Be still my heart.

She ran around in that little strawberry outfit all day and loved it. And every time she walked, the whole costume would bounce around her bum and make me laugh so hard. She kept it on all night while we watched Harry Potter, passed out candy, and made the most delicious butternut squash soup for dinner.

I LOVE HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

... that Jas was 19 months!

This beautiful girl. All the heart eyes. Sometimes we have our act together and she is absolutely perfect, and then sometimes we go to dinner in our pajamas with a rat's nest on our head.

You win some, you lose some.

We have reached the wonderful stage where she is tall enough to beg/reach for food/plates/sharp knives at the table and on the counter tops, which adds whole new levels of fun and terror to any and all mealtimes.

She loves her uncles,

And fashionable twinning leather jackets,

And is learning how to appropriately love the bun. It is definitely a love/hate relationship. And we are still working on teaching Jas to be "soft" 

Because sometime she likes to show love by hitting. Hard. Because sometimes she just wants to be a thug.

But then sometimes she just needs a hug.

And sometimes she just wants to be straight cray.

Love my Jas!!!!!!!!!!

... that we love Gavin!

Matt's nephew, Gavin, is a wonderful, smart, sweet boy who has muscular dystrophy. He was just accepted into a medical study here in Salt Lake, so we have the opportunity to help their family! Gavin has to come out regularly for testing and his parents can't come every time, but thankfully we have LOTS of family in Utah to help! Matt and I signed up to take Gavin to one of his appointments, and we had a ton of fun with him!We may also have traumatized him through several inadvertent actions which I claim NO responsibility for...

Anyway, Matt took the day off and picked him up from the airport

Then got him ready for his appointment and took him to the hospital. They had a great time and everything went well... and then Matt gave me a strange call. Someone had passed away in a car accident literally right in front of our house, and he had received a couple of phone calls from people making sure we were okay. He called to let me know, in case the police were still there when I got off work. When I got home, I found our house still surrounded by police cars, our driveway completely taped off, and a large group of people standing at the end of our driveway around a body. I asked a policeman if I could go inside and he offered to escort me in, but I quickly decided against it. I felt so bad for the family that was gathered, I didn't want to disturb them at all. I called Matt and told him that we couldn't bring Gavin to the house and traumatize him, and he agreed that he would pick me up down the block and we would go to dinner.

As I waited in the car for Matt to pick me and Jas up, I felt so sad for the grieving family. There were so many people gathered, I could tell the person must have lived close by and been very loved (I later found out he lived just a block or two away). As I sat in my car trying to be inconspicuous, the sun started to set. Suddenly, a member of the group stepped away from my house and walked across the parking lot, stopping on the grass directly in front of my car. I watched as he faced East, closed his eyes, held up his hands, and began reciting prayers. I was struck with awe as he knelt on the ground ten feet from my car and offered praise to his God in the midst of his grief. I was so overcome with reverence and respect for this humble man and his beautiful display of faith that tears came to my eyes.

Matt came to pick me up (thankfully without Gavin seeing any dead bodies), and Gavin said he wanted to go to Olive Garden for dinner.

Jas trying to smile and eat fishy crackers at the same time = L to the O to the L.

Dinner was fine (except for one very cranky baby) and we eventually headed home, only to find that there were still tons of police cars out front. But the body had been removed and the police allowed us to go inside, so in we went. 

We spent the rest of the night continuing to scare Gavin with our creepy Halloween decorations ("There sure are a lot of skulls....."), watching some planet of the apes movie (with his dad's permission!) that definitely ended up being too sad and intense so I made Matt turn it off, and by making him sleep in the snake room. He even said the next morning he had nightmares about clowns. Best Aunt and Uncle awards for sure. But we made up for it with a cute bunny.

We love you Gavin! And we hope you don't have any lasting PTSD from staying at our house!

... that it was Conference time?

Conference is always great! Jas was really good and thankfully not too distracting, even though she did NOT nap that much during the sessions like I had wanted her to. Mom and dad came into town obviously, and we were even able to steal them away from Caitlin and Kade to stay at our house for a night! We made the most of it by making all the yummy food!

Dad enjoyed himself too

And Jas LOVED having NaNa and Grampus around!

She loves them so much now and asks for NaNa on a regular basis, which means lots of facetime calls. So glad we are seeing them often enough for Jas to love them so much!