I Scream, You Scream

We all scream for ice cream!

Last week, I took my two princesses to Provo for the Princess Festival. We had fun there, but probably just as fun was meeting up with Olivia for ice cream at the Creamery!! Mmmmm.

My Grown-Up Christmas List

For those expecting a deep post here about my desire for "no more lives torn apart, that wars would never start, and time will heal all hearts," I'm sorry. This isn't that kind of post. Rather, I'd like to talk a little bit about my actual Christmas wish list I wrote up about a month ago. It seems that every year in November and December, I get asked by my mother, a sibling, or Tony, "What do you want for Christmas?" I usually answer with, "I don't know," since in that moment I really can't think of anything. But this year, I decided to be prepared for that question by writing a few things down for reference. Nobody asked, and I kind of forgot about the list. Until the other day. And when I glanced at it, I had a flashback to my childhood. Every year, my mom would get some sort of domestic device for Christmas and seem truly happy about it. I couldn't understand why she acted that way, since in my juvenile mind, I figured that what she REALLY wanted probably fell into the wardrobe, accessories, or toys and games categories. But maybe it really was what she wanted, since my grown-up Christmas list (at the ripe old age of 31) looks like this:

wash cloths

earrings

good knife

electric griddle

apple corer/slicer

bread pans

Pathetic, right? I thought so for a few moments after seeing the list the other day. But then I realized that it's not pathetic. Although I am still Taffy, I have grown to love my role as wife, mother, and homemaker. I have embraced it to the point that when I think about what I'd like to have, many of the items are things to help me fulfill this homemaker role a little better than I currently am. I just need a little better tools, I guess. And the Taffy inside me would like a couple pair of earrings--I even like the dangly kind!

Best Friends

These two girls have become self-proclaimed "best friends." Mariah really does fine when Mylie is gone to school, but from the minute she gets home, they are inseperable. Last Friday Mylie didn't have school, and they literally played together all day! They play really well together, too, rarely getting in a fight or argument.

In fact, they say that they are "almost twins" since their names both start with M ("like twin names"), they both have blue eyes, they sometimes wear the same clothes, and they kind of look alike.

Both of these cuties have had birthdays recently. Mariah turned 3, and Mylie 6. Hard to believe. They're growing up so fast!

One thing these two friends love is to have "girl parties" with their mom when Tony and Connor are gone to basketball practice or games. Last week we had two girl parties. The first one was an ironing party. Sounds fun, huh? Well, they loved it! And I got my ironing done. :)

Then this weekend we made some fun (and incredibly easy!) Christmas treats. They had fun making the different shaped rice krispie treats and decorating them with sprinkles, or sparkles, as Mariah calls them.
Gotta love these girlies!

My little GQ

I mentioned a few posts back that Connor's interest in clothing has increased. Well, in true Connor fashion, he isn't going halfway with this one either. He has turned into a full-blown GQ! He hasn't missed one of Tony's basketball games yet, which isn't unusual, but this year, he looks just like the coaches each game, complete with dress pants, shirt and tie. He has had Tony teach him how to tie a tie, and his clip-ons or zip-ups are no longer good enough for him, so he has resorted to borrowing his dad's much superior ties.

Here's my handsome man this morning before boarding the bus for Lander.

(By the way, Tony's team is 4-0, which has everybody pretty excited since last year they won 4 games total, and the year before that, the big 0!)

THANKSGIVING

This year, my family (minus my two brothers, who we really missed!) all got together in Cokeville. This was the first time in a LONG time that we had all been together, and it was fabulous!

The first day, my brother's friend, Michelle, took our family's pictures. She had them back to us by Friday, which I was thrilled about! They turned out so great! I already have one as my blog header, and new pics of the kids on the sidebar, so I'll spare you the entire shoot and leave it at that.

In addition to a fantastic feast on Thanksgiving Day, we also had fun playing basketball (although us has-beens got pretty sore), coloring and crafting, playing cards, sledding, and decorating cookies. The cousins all got along great. I can't wait to all get together again--hopefully sometime soon!

The kids showing off their fun snowman cookies

Climbing up Test Hill can be a pain . . . (although Mariah was really a trooper!)

. . . but it's totally worth the ride down!

Sisters!

The weekend before Thanksgiving, my sisters and I got together for a fantastic weekend! We did a little shopping, had dinner at Olive Garden, then headed to our hotel suite for "spa night", complete with lots of laughing and reminiscing. The next morning, we enjoyed the hot tub and hotel breakfast, then hit the town for some more shopping.
After we were all shopped out, we headed to the BYU campus where we saw a wonderful production of "White Christmas." All the kids in the play were very talented, and we had a great time there. We then finished off the weekend with some dinner at Cafe Rio--Yum!

I feel so blessed to have so many sisters! (And a wonderful mother as well, who, if you don't look closely enough, just blends right in and looks like another sister.) Like the song in the play . . . "Sisters, sisters, never were there such devoted sisters." I've had that stuck in my head periodically ever since!

"Bah-la-bah"

Translation: VOLLEYBALL

Today Mariah wanted to play some "bah-la-bah." It was so funny to see her interpretation of the sport. Of course, she was very concerned about having some time-outs: "You gotta say, "TEAM!" Then go to the sides and listen to the coaches. Then you run back out!"

And her favorite thing to practice was the sprawl: "When you trip, then you gotta get the ball up." Very true, although it should be slightly more graceful than tripping!

And for you volleyball players/coaches/fans who understand a bit about the game, you gotta love the work on transition and approach in the next clip. Made my day!