December/ Jade's first dance recital/ Santa

December has flown by!  We are now a few days from Christmas and loving this time of the year.

Here's the latest...

LAINEY is still just the sweetest apple of our eye!  She is so fun and easy-going for the most part.

*She has been a trooper with 5 teeth coming in at once!  Poor thing, 2 on bottom, 2 on top and a top MOLAR!  Weird!  So that makes 9 total teeth for this soon to be 16 month old.  

*She is constantly bringing a book to whoever will read it to her.  She is getting so smart and knows most of the pictures in her books when you ask her where _____ is.  

*She is still obsessed with shoes and is changing them out on her feet all day.  

*She has her own version of words which are so funny and endearing!  With Jade, we never experienced the "your child has a language that only the parents understand".  Jade spoke really well starting at about 12 months!  So Lainey is a little slower on the vocabulary but way quicker on the physical development then Jade was.    Lainey can clearly say "Duck, sock, mom, dad, hi, star"  But also says "Nuck" (milk), "Suck" (sucker), "Dadda" (dad, banana, or Minnie depending) "Sheeze" (Cheese),  "Sues" (shoes)...and probably more I can't think of right now.

She is also still a great eater, but is so independent about it!  Which is good and bad!  She WILL NOT let you feed her, or keep a bib on ...so mealtimes often look like the pic below.

She also HATED her first real snow encounter.  It was so sad and funny at the same time.  She wouldn't move and just stared at me crying like, "why are you doing this to me!?"

She did eventually make her way to the tramp to join Jade but soon realized that she hated that too.  Better luck next year.

The next day I wised up and only took Jade out to play while Lainey was napping.  I was even a cool mom and built her a sled hill (which was way more work than anticipated with snow that didn't pack well but I was committed!)

She loved it and it was sooo fun to hear her keep saying, "Let's do it again!"

JADELYN is growing right up before my eyes!
*She always volunteers to say the prayer and has been saying the sweetest things lately.  Her prayers are not the same thing every time like I'm sure mine were at her age.  She thinks about it, prayers for specific people, always is thankful and asks for blessings on her family and friends (one by one haha) and they are always heartfelt.  She makes me so proud and I have a lot to learn from her.  Our bedtime prayer after her dance recital -"and thank you for helping me do so good at my real dance recital".  One time when Kevin was over for dinner- "thank you so much that my grandpa could be here tonight".    Another time- "please bless that everyone can be alright."
*As sweet as she can be...she is still a dramatic and emotional threenager.  She often has to go to time out during dinner or other times for not listening in general
*She all the sudden likes her hair down (she used to freak out if any hair was on her face...I even had to pull her hair back for sleeping) and has specifics on how she wants it done/ curled.

"Do this face mom!" Nailed it.

We had our ward Christmas party last week and it was awesome!  The Young Women put together a video of people in our ward answering questions about Christmas and Jade was on it haha.  They asked her, "What do you like about Christmas?"  She said (with no hesitation), "Uh, Toys!"

These clear pictures were taken by someone in our ward and sent to me

After battling a squirmy Lainey for half of the party, she was content once I put her in her own chair with crayons ha Miss Independent!  And you can't really tell, but Tom is up there in the gray hat singing with the Young Men.

   Speaking of... Tom got a new calling!  He was called as the 2nd Assistant Scout Master.   The Scouting world is foreign to us but it sounds like he's basically a Tuesday night Mutual/ Young Men's leader.  The 1st assistant does the Sunday stuff.  Tom will also go on all the campouts (which are about once a month.  Even in January!)  Bless him and his willingness to serve.  He will also keep his calling as a Gospel Doctrine teacher.

On Friday night we had our Annual Friend Christmas party.  The Fowlers hosted it this year and it was awesome!  We had us, Cole & Steph, Brent & Jenni, Zach & Stacy, Matt & Brittany, Ryan & Shanell and Blake & Annie there!  Here's all the kids minus the Bunkers who were late.

Lainey and Brooklyn discovered each other about an hour into the party and were little buddies and took turns pushing each other on this toy.

The kids drew names and did a gift exchange.

After the little ones were in bed, the adults did a gift exchange too.  Stacy got the selfie stick we gifted and we had a lot of laughs learning how to use it.
Selfie stick 101: you shouldn't see the selfie stick in the picture hahaha.

 Still not quite getting it.... newbies!

 Aww... SUCCESS!

We chatted for hours and the older kids ran wild late into the night!  Jade was still going strong a midnight when we left haha.  We had a great time and loved getting together with everyone.

On Saturday my parents came over after my work and we had a BYU game watching/ mini Christmas!  We are doing Christmas morning at home so they brought up their presents!

We all loved our gifts and loved spending the day with Gammy and Gampy!  Thank you so much Mom and Dad!  You both are so sweet, generous and thoughtful!

Then we got ready for the big dance recital!!  I was a nervous wreck!  Jade had several meltdowns at the dress rehearsal and before the show.  At the dress rehearsal she didn't even do the dance because she just lost it when another girl was accidentally in her spot and ran to me and couldn't get it together until the end when she literally made back up there for the final pose hahaha.   I don't think it helped that there were 12 girls in her group of chaos.   I was just hoping and praying she would at least stay on the stage.... but she did GREAT!!!!!  I couldn't be more proud of her!  She got flustered right at the beginning when she couldn't find her name/ spot but once she found it she was fine!  Watching twelve 3-4 year olds dance is like the most entertaining/ cutest thing ever.  Each time I watch the video I focus on a different girl and laugh all over again!
She was so pumped and proud of herself too which was so good to see.  She said she had so much fun and can't wait to do another recital!
Aren't these 2 just the cutest scare-leaders you've ever seen!  I'm so proud of how great they did at their first dance recital.  And I will cherish the video forever.

Jade is 3rd in from the right

Jade is far right

Jade and Swayz

And the cutest silhouette I've ever seen!

Her cheering section came over to the house after for doughnuts and hot cocoa.  Thank you Mom and Dad and Michelle and Larry for coming to support her!  It meant a lot to all of us.  It was a long ways to drive for a 3 minute performance.  We are so lucky to have you in our lives and we love you so much.

And last night we started our week of Christmas stuff by braving the rain and going to see Santa Claus!  It was Jade's first time meeting him and it was so awesome!  She was so excited the whole drive there saying, "I'm going to see Santa right now? Tonight?"

 She patiently waited in line and when it was her turn, with no hesitation, she ran right up to him and gave him the biggest, around the neck, bear hugs!  It was just so sweet.  She just loved and cuddled him with the biggest smile on her face.  And I think he was genuinely happy to have her on his lap.  The family before us, you could tell he was a little annoyed at how long the parents were taking with pictures and I was thinking that he might not be the jolliest Santa.  But when Jade ran up and just loved him, he completely changed.  Like he was so happy to have a kid that actually wanted to see him!  The whole thing was so sweet and so worth it!  She told him that she wanted a new doll (phew!)

 Lainey liked looking at Santa but clung to Tom when we tried to see if she would sit on his lap.  So just like with Jade, we'll wait until she wants to.
On the way home we stopped at the Sweet Tooth Fairy for a treat.  Such a fun Family night!

 We can't wait for Christmas!  It turns out that having kids at Christmas time is even better than being a kid at Christmas time!

Miller Thanksgiving in Arizona

This Thanksgiving was a little different and really awesome!  My mom's Foree side had a reunion down in Mesa, Arizona on the Saturday after Thanksgiving and my parents arranged to make it a little vacation for our whole family to spend some time together!

We rented a mini-van and headed out Tuesday night!  The sunset on the way down to Kanab was ridiculously beautiful...of course my phone pic does it no justice.  Also, we fell in love with our mini- van and might..just might...be converted.  We thought we would never want a van, but wow!  The room and convenience is amazing!  So we'll see haha we may be dorky mini-van owners in the future.

 We made it to Kanab to spend the night with lots of tears shed and one puke clean-up....but thankfully, the entire rest of all the driving, the girls were rockstars!

Wednesday morning we caravanned with the family the rest of the way to Gilbert, AZ.   We stopped at the Walmart in Page, AZ and Jade was thrilled with the little arcade place and said, "This is the best vacation ever!"  LOL glad we drove her all the way to the Page Walmart for a vacation.

We finally made it to the amazing house my parents rented for all of us and got all settled in that night!  We went out to eat at Firehouse Subs and Lainey pounded a whole grilled cheese sandwich and Jade had only a bite or two of her sandwich...haha typical

 The next day was Thanksgiving and of course Lainey was up bright and early with the sun!  It seemed that almost every morning throughout the week it was Lainey and I, and my dad awake first.  My dad was always a good sport to read to Lainey who demands books all day long, especially in the quiet mornings.  Such a cute grandpa.

 We got all ready for our annual family pictures!

 Poor Jade had a sad looking cold sore on her lower lip and chin all week:(

 We got a few good ones and lots of funny outtakes!
This is about as good as the Grandparent/grandkids ones got...

The wonderful Patriarch and Matriarch of the family!

Then we had our amazing Thanksgiving Dinner!  Catered by Mimi's Cafe.  It was awesome with all the fixings!

Gregg and I handled the de-boning of the turkeys!  Elbow deep in giblets!

Then we went swimming!! You heard that right!  Swimming on Thanksgiving day!  I think Utah had snow that day haha.  The outside temp was only mid-60's but the pool was heated to 92 degrees!  It was like bath water...sooo nice!  Thank you again to my parents for paying to have it heated.  It was really so much fun!

 Thanksgiving night we had our Family Christmas party!   We got to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas all in one day!
Gammy and Gampy gave all the grandkids christmas jammies!

And we did our sibling/cousin gift exchange!

 And after all the kids were in bed we played games!  Including the money game!  Where unfortunately Tom and I came out the only empty-handed losers haha!

 
Friday was such a fun-packed family day!
That morning we went to Freestone Park and played on the playground and also rode their carnival-like rides

 My phone randomly reversed the colors of this picture to make it that much more awesome haha!

 Lainey was freaking out over all the ducks we saw!  She just kept shouting, "DUCK! DUCK! DUCK!"  It was so fun seeing her realize that she is seeing the real thing, instead of just a picture of one in a book.

 I love this picture of the oldest cousins!

 We all got to ride around the whole park on this legit little train!

"Duck! Duck!"

 

The dad's and Gampy with the kids...
It was such a fun morning at the cutest park!  Thanks Mom and Dad!

We went home mid-day for naps and some more swimming!

Then that afternoon my mom reserved us a spot at Bounce U!  It was a fun bounce house and the kids and adults had a great time!

 Then that night we went to dinner at "5 'n Diner"  and Tom and my mom got the biggest burgers of their lives!

After dinner we had one last stop at my cousin Domini's house!  It was so great to see her and Porter and their darling girls and house!  Taylor and his wife Natalie were also there with their new baby!

Here is a picture of the 2nd cousins! 

Saturday was the big Foree Reunion!  It was a lot of fun and so great to see my Foree cousins that I haven't seen for about 8+ years.  All of my Mom's siblings were there except Uncle Jack.  It was awesome to catch up with everyone and even though Family Reunions are typically awkward...this one wasn't at all.  It was truly fun to chat with everyone!

 The Foree siblings!  Renita, Dorothy, Dan, Mark, Tom, LuAnne

 I was cracking up at these pictures that were displayed!  This is how I remember most of my cousins... I'm the attention seeker in the blue and white striped shirt.

My grandma Luella Foree (who passed away in 1997) is right next to my mom:)

 The house we stayed at was literally right around the corner from the beautiful new Gilbert Temple!

 After the reunion, we had one last round of swimming and hung out with my Aunt Renita, Uncle Dave, my cousin Amber and her son Walker at the house.  Then we packed up to head out EARLY the next morning!

 THANK YOU SO MUCH MOM AND DAD!  For such an awesome get-away vacation!  We truly value and soaked up all the family time together.  Thanks for helping us out and making arrangements for us to all travel comfortably and to make so many memories together.  We ate way too much and had a blast!  We love you!

Sunday morning we woke up at 4:00 am!! (And Lainey randomly decided to party all night and was wide awake at 1am, 2am, and 3 am!  What!?  How inconvenient Lainey girl...)  We needed to be out the door at 5am for our 7 hour drive to get to Enterprise for Stratton's baby blessing by 12:45pm.  Thankfully the girls transported well and slept in the car until about 7:30am.  And they were exhausted angels the rest of the way and napped too.  Needless to say, we were downing energy drinks and I may or may not have drifted off to sleep while Tom was driving and he may or may not have contemplated peeing in a Pringles can to avoid stopping and waking us all up.... anyways we got there and had a great day with the Stylers!

 I didn't take many pictures but... the blessing Trevor gave Stratton was beautiful and it was a fun day at Trevor and Lashel's new house in Enterprise.  Kevin, Michelle, Darren & Dani (and we also got to meet their new little girl Swayzie for the first time!) , and Sadie & Brock were there.  And also the Terry clan whom we love!

 We spent the night at their house and made the most out of the short time we spent with them! I absolutely soaked up the time I had to cuddle cute little Stratton baby.  Thank you Trev and Lashel for being amazing hosts to us on such a busy weekend!!

We made the final stretch home Monday morning and were so happy to be home!  (And sad to say goodbye to the van!)

 We got our house all Christmas-ed up!

 Back to the routine... Jade basically had a 1 on 1 Tumbling class last week... everyone out of town

There was a nice day when we went to the park.... and this is Jade hiding from me during hide and seek...

My girls fresh and clean out of the tub enjoying some milk and a show

Jade begged to bring the wiggle car in and Lainey demanded to be on as well, but wouldn't hold onto Jade so after me following them around for several laps catching Lainey... we had a brilliant idea to strap them together!!  Safety first??

And this was tonight.  That cute dad pushing the girls in the "car"!  I love my people.