Christmas PARTAYS!

Christmas party 1/4:  Miller Family!
My sister Sharice is due any day now and she won't be able to make it down to Delta this year so we had our Christmas Eve party a little early up in West Valley City at Sharice and Gregg's house!!  We started out by meeting for dinner at Chili's!  It was fun and the whole family was there and Conlan's girlfriend Desiree!

 Then we went to Sharice's and opened our Christmas pajamas!  This year was awesome because we got to pick our own!  So I got a long robe (because let's be honest, I don't get dressed unless I'm going somewhere) and Tom got some Air Jordan basketball shorts and you can see Jade's cute pj's

 Then we played lots of fun games!!

 My parents are pretty much the coolest..They planned lots of really fun things for us to do, and in one of the games, the winner of each round could win 25$$  We played a few rounds but tragically, Tom and I were the only family that came up empty handed! 
Thank you Mom and Dad for all the fun and planning to make it a great, memorable night!

 Boys team...

 This is a game from our childhood family home evenings haha!  It's packed flour with a dime on top and everyone takes a slice until it falls and if it falls on you, you lose!

Christmas Party 2/4:  Salon on the Ave.
The salon owner took us all to dinner at Brick Oven and then we did a gift exchange!   I love that even though I am there only one day a week, I still know and love these girls so much!  They are great.  A few came later so I didn't get them in the pics

Christmas Party 3/4:  Best friends in the world!!
Brent and Jenni let us all fill their house for our annual friend party!! It was soo fun and my cheeks were sore from laughing the next day!  We did soup and salads and all the food was delicious!!!  It is so crazy how many kids are in our group of friends now!! I think there was about 16 adults and about 9 kids! And it was nice to see the Wood's who are here from schooling in Atlanta

 Jenni was so sweet and got the bigger kids little gifts to open while we did our gift exchange

 The kids are always a blur haha but Jade loved sitting in that jumper watching everyone!

Christmas party 4/4: Aveda!
 My Aveda work parties are always pretty awesome!!!  This year we went to La Jolla Groves and it was great!  Great food, great celebrations of this year, and amazing people!  I always leave feeling so appreciated and inspired!

 This here is Dale aka "the man".  He is the owner of our institute and our sister schools in Denver and Tucson.  He is incredible!! His story of getting to where he is now, from where he started, from with literally nothing is so inspirational!  He is so caring, business savvy and an honor to work for.  Every year Tom and I talk the whole way home about this guy... he is pretty cool...

 These were our table dates haha!  This is one of the many glamour shots we took:)  Chelsea is moving...I'm so sad :( :(

 This is Kenzi, my friend and our school director.  I just love her to death and I really appreciate all the kind things she said about me and my co-workers!  It's so nice to be appreciated in the workplace.

 Awful picture of me.....but a great night!

 mmmmmm fancy dessert!!

Needless to say...with all these parties...I will definitely NOT be losing any weight this holiday season!!

Now my sweet Jadelyn!!
She is cracking us up all the time now!! She crawls EVERYWHERE, and will pull herself up to stand on ANYTHING (couch, shoe,... Marley:))  And JABBERS constantly.  She loves to copy cat when you make noises to her.  She can say 'dada' like a champ, sometimes 'mama', and 'wow' and 'whoa'.  She also loves peek-a-boo now, and if she is ever holding a blanket or anything (she did it with the wrapping paper she unrolled) she will hold it with both hands and raise it straight up to cover her face and wait for you to say, "Where's Jade???"  then she will whip it down as fast as she can!
She likes to entertain and play with her toys by herself more now which is sometimes nice so I can do things, but also kinda sad!! I don't know about this independance!?! 
She also still does her rolling-the-tongue-cry when she is mad!! Tom and I are so used to it that it doesn't seem like a weird way to cry to us, but recently being around people (even her pediatrician) that don't know her as much, have said something about it, and then I remember...oh ya it's not normal haha!  If you haven't heard it just pretend you are trying to speak Spanish by rolling your R's, then do it as loud as you can, and hold that note for about 20 seconds (while producing tears of course)...it's pretty funny!! Maybe she will speak Spanish??
She also loves Super Simple Learning and Disney's Small potatoes videos.  Both are just like 2 minute clips that she likes with songs.  K here's some pictures:
Tom is showing her our Christmas lights that he had just put up...she was saying (after some encouragement from us:)) "ooooooooh"

 She has been so helpful with all the wrapping...

 This picture just makes me laugh-Meet: - sleepy Jade:)  This is about a month ago when she was still new at sitting herself up and this is how Tom found her in the crib after a nap...
But now a days, in the mornings, or after her naps, I find her STANDING in the crib holding on to the bars!

 She is OBSESSED with this rubber ducky!!

Loves searching through her toy basket!

 And she now would rather push the walker, or pull herself up to standing with it, than be in it, usually

 She has mastered how to get into the game cupboard!! This thing is a child magnet...every child that has been in our home automatically goes to it and opens those enticing handles:)

She has also mastered the over-the-shoulder-pose....Super model in the making:)

 She has also found the dog door!!!! Crap...She only seemed to care about it one day and hasn't paid attention to it since then...Wish me luck

 I know I have said it before, but mornings are my favorite....she just cuddles and wants me to hold her.  I seriously love it and cherish those moments, because I know they won't last.

Here's a random, freaky picture of Marley for you:)  Wearing my hoodie

oh I'm not picky about my binkies...............I want them all

Whenever she notices Marley's tail wagging, she tries to grab it! 

She was playing by the window and just saying "whooooa"  over and over again.  So I snuck (snuck???...is that a word?) this picture right in the middle of one of her "whoooooooa"s

Thanksgiving time

So...when I told Jade that the holidays were coming up, she got a little bit excited....can you tell?!

 So she knew it was time to prepare!!  She was such a cute little helper at Joann's to get the supplies she needed to make her christmas presents for her grandparents...This hand print tree:)  I love how it turned out and she worked very hard on it:)  Needless to say, her grandparents loved it and her work is on display for the holidays

 And she had to look festive for her first Thanksgiving right?!  So Jenni had a stroke of genius to make the girls turkey day shirts!!  And after a couple of trials and error (Yes I had a good laugh when Jenni accidently sewed through her whole T-shirt, and No, it WASN'T funny when I did the same thing 2 minutes later) the end result was really cute!  And even though it is now in the bin with many other things Jade could only wear once...it was worth it

 THANKSGIVING DAY
was awesome!  Filled with lots of Tom's family! I didn't get pictures of everyone but we had an amazing dinner with Michelle and Larry, Kimi, Sadie and Brock, Aunt Karen, Lacrista, and Tyler, Grandma and Grandpa Probst, Aunt Bethany, Darren and Dani, John and Tracy, Tabatha, Taylor, and Taven

I absolutely love this picture!  Jade loves her Aunt Bethany:)

A ping pong tournament

Great Grandpa Probst

Kids LOVE Tom!  Even when they have just met him, they always migrating over to him and end up playing with him:)  It melts my heart, and is one of the many very attractive things about Tom.

Getting words of wisdom from Grandpa :)

FOOD!!!!!!!!!  And this is only like half of the feast

She loved all the Grandma time!!!

And running around in her kitchen

 Then on Friday morning we went to the festival of trees before we headed back up to Oak City spend the day at Tom's dad's house

I of course had to get a picture of Mom with the Dr. Pepper tree:)

Conlan and Desiree:)  Love them

Then up in Oak City, Kevin pretty much made another Thanksgiving feast and we ate and played all day

She was so confused and concerned with this singing/dancing dog!  It was so funny to watch her just stare at it for minutes on end with those furrowed brows

Jade is sure blessed with such amazing grandparents!!!! Spoiled rotten:)

 Then Friday night, I spent the whole night throwing up!! Good times:( No need to remember that awful night, but it did bring back memories of me being sick as a kid and laying on the rug near the toilet in the bathroom haha.  Being sick was awful but I guess there is not a better place to be sick at, then one's mom's house right?  Everyone was so nice taking care of Jade and checking on me since I stayed in bed all day Saturday. 

Anyways, by Saturday evening I was at least feeling alive enough to get some fresh air and take Jade out to watch dad play basketball with Conlan and Desiree

The dogs had a blast in Delta also

Pick up the pace Grandma! :)

 Almost every night, Wed-Sat, after we put Jade to bed, was spent playing a classic Miller past-time.....ROOK.  It was really fun, but it sucks that the girls got killed every game!! what?!.  It's on next time boys!

We got to see Tasha, Roger and Alyssa for a little while too!

 

It was an awesome weekend and a fabulous Thanksgiving, but I was definitely happy to be home on Sunday feeling better thanks to my little cure Jade.

 Now for the obligatory random pictures :)

I got some new hair!  Go me!  I love the color and got used to it shockingly fast!!!

Once again, kids love Tom:)  Swayzie loves him

Dogs got haircuts and its chilly!!  Snuggie time!  They look so ashamed and embarrassed

Finally started decorating this week and this is my very favorite piece.  I love this nativity.  The pieces were given to me over the years from Tom's parents.  It has been complete for a few years now, and it's something I will treasure forever.  If my house is ever burning down, this is something I will grab:)

Now just some pictures of my big girl!!
She is growing and changing so fast it's crazy!! She says dada and mama.  She is so expressive now too with her facial expressions and voice!

Jenni sent me this one.  She just pushes herself around on this

If this picture doesn't make you happy then there is something seriously wrong with you!! I laugh everytime I see this picture of that little human being just checking out the back yard

 Her biggest news is that she is officially CRAWLING!!!  She has been getting to where she wants to go for about the past month but we can now actually say she is crawling as of Friday 11/30.  That's why these pics are crazy, because she is on the move!

 She also makes a pretty good third wheel when we go out to dinner:)

 She is a pretty good eater for the most part (minus the fact that she quickly gets fussy and really grabby and wiggly and seems to eat best and stay focused when we show her nursery rhyme videos or some visual distraction.  I don't like that this is becoming a habit, so any suggestions would be helpful)  The only thing that we eat that she really cares about or wants, is the green smoothies we make!  We will give her sips and she really obsesses over wanting more and more!! Funny girl

This picture features some delicious squash on her face...mmmmmmmm mmmmmmm