1st Thanksgiving

This year was Barrett's first Thanksgiving. We thought last year would be his first, but he missed it by about 5 hours. 
I think we might be doomed to never get any sleep on Thanksgiving eve.  Last year, I went into labor at midnight and was in the hospital all day, and this year, I was up til about 1 with Bear who is getting another molar.  A new tradition, I guess.

This year was spent with my dad's side of the family at Kathy and Gary's.  We tried to get a some good pictures, but Bear was supposed to be having a nap when we went to the party, so he wasn't exactly thrilled to take pictures.

The decor was amazing though and worth posting despite a grumpy baby!

Some of our big family. I doubt this is even half of us though!

While Neil and I stuffed ourselves, Bear and Liv played in the little kitchen and Bear loved this little microwave!

I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving too!  We all really have a lot to be grateful for!

Another Trim

As I mentioned earlier this week, Bear has had a mullet for the last little while.  The other night we tried to deal with the situation...

 We got him to hold pretty still with some snacks and Baby McDonald, but neither of us actually know how to cut hair so you can probably imagine the not so perfect result.  We didn't do anything to the front/top of his hair because I like it long, Neil just trimmed the back.  It doesn't look bad, but I think you can tell it wasn't done by a professional.  The mullet's gone at least!

Other pictures from the last few days...

Bear and Pops in their church clothes

 Neil pushing Bear out on the swing.

Nutcracker

My niece Reagan got to be in Clytie Adams' Nutcracker this year.  Normally you have to be 9 to even try out, but Clytie wanted to add some baby mice to the fight scene and needed cute little girls for that.
Reags was great and knew her dance perfectly!  Here's some pictures from after the show.
Tink, Lindsay, Reagan, and Liv.

 

BFF's Lu and Reag

Grandma CC, Livvie, Lindsay, Reagan, Tink, and LaLa.
 

Gym Friends

Neil and I got to go out to dinner with a few of my gym friends last weekend. We had such a blast and it was SO fun to see them!!
I love that Bruce and Lonnie are both hiding in this picture.

Same group, other direction :)

Jen, Ashley, Michele, Diane, and me

 

On Thursday night, we had tickets to Dr. DeDecker's annual Twilight event.  The past few years when we've gone to those, we've had a blast, but this year was not nearly as fun.  We got to see the movie early and for free, so that was good, but this year we had to go to Centerville, had (crappy) reserved seats, and it was a mad house!  We didn't even get a picture together!!  We had a fun group, it was me, my cousin Liddle, Shelley, Berrie, my mom, and Taylor's girlfriend Brittany.  Next year he's renting a theater for Hunger Games, so hopefully we won't be as rushed and we can enjoy ourselves! 

The Mullet

Barrett's hair is just getting longer and longer and I don't know what to do with it!  He's totally rockin a mullet right now because I don't want to have all his hair short but I don't think he'd sit still enough to let anyone cut the back of it straight!

Any suggestions?

Dad's "Procedure"

It'll be 2 years in December since my dad had his big fall.  (If you don't know what I'm talking about and want to, click here and scroll down a little to read 5 or 6 posts about it.)
He's felt like the screws in his knee and the rod in his femur have negatively impacted his running so he talked to his surgeon about getting them removed.  Getting the rod out of his femur is a huge deal, but the surgeon felt like taking the screws out would be a very simple outpatient procedure. 
Dad decided to have it done last Thursday (only the screw removal part).
 Here's the screws that were removed, don't worry, they'd been sterilized.  I should've put my finger next to them to show you how big they really are.

My dad came walking into the house after the surgery like nothing had happened at all.  He said he didn't have any pain and he could've gone running if he really wanted to!  He put some ice on it a few times that day but that's it- no pain meds at all, not even tylenol!  That crazy dad of mine!  He still played with Barrett just like any other day.

He went on a long walk yesterday (Saturday) and he'll probably be back to his usual workouts in the next couple of days!  

Barrett is having way too much fun here in Utah- he's going to suffer from depression when we get back to lonely old Texas again! Luckily we have a week and a half before we have to deal with that and it won't last too long as we'll be back in Utah 3 weeks later :)

Bear in the Madagascar wig.

And riding the rocking horse

Barrett's not lacking attention, that's for sure.

Bear LOVES stuffed animals and especially puppets!

 

He cuddles George the platypus and that monkey puppet everyday!

He got to color with markers for the first time.

 I love this face!

We got to play with my cousin Liddle and her sweet baby Soleil (who is only 1 day older than Barrett).

Barrett loves Rocket!

Of course, Barrett loves opening and closing cupboards and drawers

And I'm having fun too getting to hang out with my friends again!  Kelsey and I went down to City Creek for a little shopping trip.

What's Up, Doc?

(I actually really hate all things Looney Tunes, but I thought that was a fitting title.)

The Main Event

Because it was such a fun/busy day, I only took one picture of the wedding day! All the pictures I have I stole from friends on Facebook or the photographer's website.

We walked down a pretty steep hill as the aisle.  I am so glad no one slipped!

Georgy and her sweet dad walking down the aisle.

3 of the 4 bridesmaids.  Bella, Lizzie, and me.  Sarah was over witnessing Georgy and Rhys sign the marriage certificate at this point, I think (that's why I'm holding her bouquet too).

 

Me and Howard.  We got really lucky with the weather that day and it was the perfect temperature with the sun peeking out every now and then.  Actually, it wasn't luck at all, it was magic!  It had rained the day before and Georgy's parent's neighbor called to ask if Georgy was worried about the weather for her wedding.  Georgy said she wasn't because there was nothing she could do about it.  Long story short, Rowena (the neighbor), came up to the house and stuck a broom in the garden, put a brown onion in the broom, and put a circle of salt on the ground around the broom stick and that's what really cleared up the weather. Go Rowena!

 

You can barely see us, but while people were munching on delicious hors d'oeuvres, we went down to the creek to take pictures.  I saw a python on the way down there.  I'm not kidding or exaggerating or anything!  Seriously, a python!  It was probably 4-5 feet away from us and luckily it was just sleeping.  It wasn't there on the way back up from the creek though, so that was a little creepy.  Later that night, I saw a little green tree snake that was about to crawl across the sidewalk- that one scared me more than the python because it was moving towards me!  I nearly jumped into the pool trying to get away from it!

Here's some of the amazing professional pictures and this is her website if you are interested in seeing more of Georgy and Rhys' gorgeous day. http://www.blog.mihajaphotography.com.au/  I seriously could've stolen every picture she took because they were so fun to look at!

We got ready at the house across the road so no one had a chance at seeing the bride before the ceremony.  Tamara bought us these dressing robes from the Japanese store for us to wear while we got our hair and make up done.

I was in charge of putting in Georgy's veil.  I was concentrating pretty hard on it because it had to be perfect!

Here's a view of the ceremony from the bottom of the hill.

This is down at the creek.  These two people are so freaking cute- I just love them and they both looked so good! You can't see in these pictures, but we all put on wellies to go down to the creek so we wouldn't ruin our dress shoes.  You can see the boots in some of the pics on the website.

Also down at the creek.

We had like a 5 or 6 course meal and several sweet and HILARIOUS speeches during dinner!  This is Rhys giving his speech and we were all laughing our guts out!

 awwww...  first dance :)

Best. Wedding. Ever.

Let It Snow!

If you live in Utah you know that we got a lot of snow last week! It was so pretty and it was especially nice that I didn't have anywhere I had to go! 
I took Bear outside a couple of times but he didn't have a snowsuit to actually get in the snow (plus we're more of an "inside family").  Actually, since this is the first time he's needed more than a jacket, he's already grown out of a ton of his snow clothes!  He has 4 or 5 hats he never got to wear and even some cute snow boots.  I left his coat in Texas because I'm a moron, but he was fine in his jackets and puffies. 

Bear's Owie

My family and Neil's family kept Barrett in perfect condition the whole time I was gone and as soon as I get him back, he hurts himself.  Some mom I am!  He pulled a bike pump over on himself and it bonked his forehead and underneath his right eye.  Poor little guy! 

To make me feel even worse about it, he didn't want me to comfort him :(  He's still mad at me for leaving him for so long so he wants everyone but me!
This isn't the first time he's gotten hurt and it won't be the last, but it is his worst one yet so it made it on the blog.

The Witch

(I forgot to post this earlier)
My mom got a new witch for the front entry way this year for Halloween.  I didn't mind her at first, but the longer I stayed at my parents house alone, the less I liked her!  Going up to check on Barrett in the dark got scarier and scarier every time!  

Bear's not afraid at all, he loves her! He'll crawl in there all the time and try to get her.

I guess I'm the only scaredy cat!