March 2012

March started out crazy!! Our townhouse sale finally went through, and we moved into Jeff's Mom's house. Brooklyn  had a hard time at first, but quickly adjusted. Emmalyn did fine at first but after a week or so she started crying and begging to "go home". They're doing great now and love doing stuff with their Grandmas (Jeff's mom and grandma)

Brooklyn wearing a pair of Mommy's boots.

We had a pretty decent day so I took the girls up to the zoo. Here's Emmalyn watching the elephants, they especially loved the baby Zuri.

Jeff was contacted by the company he was working with over the holidays and they wanted him to go back on another contract. We were very excited, Jeff loved working there (Ceridian) and was excited to go back.

The last weekend of March I took the girls down to my parents house in Caliente. They love their Papa and Grandma, and buddied right up to Neal. They LOVE seeing all the trains being able to walk just about anywhere! Here a few pictures from that weekend.



SWINGS!!

E pushing Neal on the swing




Neal, Papa, and Brooklyn swinging

E and Grandma at the park

The girls watching a movie on Neal's laptop while we watching General Conference

B's favorite game down there - stuff as many things (in this pic cars) in that barn as possible!!



What's better than swinging and watching a train some in at the same time?






Helping Neal do the dishes

E playing with Papa




E getting Neal

Grandma giving Brooklyn tickles



Tickles!!



Doing dishes with Papa and Great Papa

Racing with Neal

Watching yet another train with Neal!




February 2012

February started out a little rough with Jeff having emergency surgery to have his appendix removed. It was a crazy weekend and it took him a couple of weeks to recover (his appendix was higher up and in a weird place so they had to "dig" a little for it). The middle of the month my "little" brother, Neal, came home from his mission. The girls did remember him, but quickly became buddies with him. They were really excited to see Papa and Grandma though!!

I couple of weeks after Neal came home we all went to Caliente to celebrate his coming home. The girls LOVE going to Papa's house and seeing all the trains. I didn't get very many pictures of that weekend, but here are a couple from when Aunt Vera took us all out for ice cream.

The end of February was busy with cleaning, de-cluttering, and packing. Here are my two little helpers that got their own shoes on and came out to help me put some stuff in the van.

New Years and January 2012

New Years weekend was fun. Jeff's brother John and his family came up for the weekend and we had a lot of fun.



Friday we started things off by taking the kids to a bounce house place. They had a ton of fun!

Emmalyn on the big bounce "pillow".

Brooklyn in the jungle gym area.

Saturday we all went to Hollywood Connections and had lots fun. The girls had a lot of "firsts" there too. First time mini golfing, first roller coaster, and first magic show. They had a blast and were running around all over the place. They even gave everyone in the mini golfing area quite a show when they decided to start dancing to a song that was playing, it was really cute!! Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough to get a video :( Here are some pics

Emmalyn and Aunt Jen

Brooklyn

Tired, worn out little girls!!

In the beginning of January our whole family managed to catch a pretty nasty cold. We had a few days of laying around the house in our pj's watching movies and cartoons all day. Both girls ended up with ear infections, which was a first for Brooklyn and she was NOT a fan!!

Yet another first for the girls happened this month. We were invited to a movie with some good friends of our from our ward. If you look back at posts from during the summer you will see a lot of posts about our girls playing with their twins. This was the girls' first movie!! They actually did really well. Emmalyn got a little restless towards the end, but all in all it was a good, fun experience.

I just have to mention about these dresses. One of my sisters also has a set of twin girls who are now 5 years old. Anyway, the dresses that Emmalyn and Brooklyn are wearing in this picture and the dresses that my sister's girls wore at my and Jeff's wedding!!

Another BIG thing that happened at the end of January is the girls got potty trained!! I was only going to work with Emmalyn because Brooklyn had shown no interest whatsoever in using the potty. However, when she saw Emmalyn going to the bathroom on the potty and then getting a treat for doing so, Brooklyn was gun-ho about it. She has done amazing and it's so nice to be done with diapers. This is just a cute picture I snapped of Brooklyn while she was using the potty once...she looks so comfy!

February has started out rather crazy. Jeff had been working a contract position over the holidays and that ended Jan. 31, so he's been back home with us during the day. Then on Feb 3 I ended up having to take him to the ER and he had to have an emergency surgery done to take out his appendix. He also ended up having to stay an extra day at the hospital because he had some problems getting the junk from the anesthetic out of his lungs which caused his oxygen levels to be low. He is home now and recovering well. He's still pretty sore and tired, which is to be expected, but it drives him crazy. I just tell him that now he knows how I felt when I was on bed rest!!

December 2011

December was a good, but busy month. We celebrated Jeff's birthday and did a lot of stuff with family and friends. I didn't get pictures of everything but here are some that I did get.

First off we went to the Festival of Trees. It was pretty cool and fun to see all the different "themes" people had to decorate the different trees.Denver Broncos (for Joe, Tyler, & Shayler)

M&M's (for my Dad)

 

The girls admiring the Barbie tree

GO UTES!!

Next was the Santa Run! On the first weekend of December my parents, my sister and her family came up for the "Santa Run". Imagine hundreds of people dressed up in Santa suits running a 5K. We had three generations from our family participate...

(L-R) Tyler (my nephew), Joe, Marie, Matti, Alma, and my Dad.

 

Emmalyn and her Papa

Our cheering section.

It was a really fun weekend, and the girls loved seeing their Grandma and Papa Smith and their cousins.

The next "event" was decorating the tree. I'll admit, this didn't get done until the Tuesday before Christmas!! The girls had a blast and had to have the lights on at all times.

B - left, E - right

Santa left some great presents!

 

My Christmas Angels.

Thomas family, Christmas 2011

One of my gifts from Jeff was tickets to the Trans Siberian Orchestra concert here in SLC. It was AMAZING!! I loved it. I tried to take a few pictures during the show, but they all turned out horribly. So the only photo you get is one of the stage before the show started :)

Jen & Adam Wedding 11-11-11

On November 11, 2011 we had the wonderful opportunity of witness and participating in the wedding of Jeff's sister Jen and her husband Adam. The girls were the most adorable flower girls and Jeff walked Jen down the aisle. Here are some pictures from the blessed day!

 Brooklyn getting her hair done

Coming down the stairs to line up.

 

                          



Dropping pedals for Jen 

Brooklyn giving Adam kisses 

These are some cute pictures of the girls with their Great Grandma Ivy.

                                           Brooklyn                                                 Emmalyn



The bride, Jen, and the girls all in their "Princess" dresses! 

Our little family. 

Tired girls after a long day 

Brooklyn sporting her pj's and my heels.

The wedding and reception were absolutely beautiful. The girls love Jen and Adam and wanted to be by then most of the day, especially during the reception. They loved wearing their Princess Dresses, and loved that Jen was wearing a Princess Dress too. We are so happy for Jen and Adam!!



Halloween 2011

The girls had a great Halloween and got WAY too much candy, in my opinion :) This is the first year they were really able to get into it and it was fun to watch. They always made sure they both got candy, which a lot of times meant they both got double the amount of candy. We start out in the morning going to where I used to work, before they were born. It was good to see everyone and visit with some friends I haven't talked to in awhile. For that particular trick or treating trip Brooklyn was a little pirate and Emmalyn was a cow girl!

Later that afternoon the girls and I went to Jeff's work and enjoyed another round of trick or treating. At one cubicle the guy offered the girls either an apple or a piece of candy. At first the girls both chose an apple, but then decided they also wanted a piece of candy, but then they munched on the apple the rest of the time we were walking around. The girls decided to switch costumes so this time Emmalyn was the pirate and Brooklyn was the cowgirl.




That evening we went to our wards trunk or treat, that was a lot of fun, and I "borrowed" some of the girls candy from earlier to pass out to the other kids in the ward/neighborhood. I didn't get any pictures there because I was busy handing out candy. We ran our of candy a lot sooner than we thought, so we decided to take the girls out to their grandma's house to show off their cuteness :) We took them to a few houses in Jeff's mom's neighborhood, but the girls tired out quickly. When we got back to their grandma's house they realized what was happening when other kids were coming to the door and thought it was the best thing ever. They LOVED handing out candy to the other kids that came. They would wait at the door and get so excited when kids started walking up the driveway. It was really cute to watch!