Happy Birthday Molly!

Our sweet little Molly turned 3, yes THREE years old this past Monday.  She is just such a delight to have in our family.  She is sweet and funny and happy and we all just adore her.

Although the other day when Molly was being a stinker Brielle did say, "Uh...she turned three, so why is she still being terrible."  Three is a funny age.

(Some of the MANY outtakes from trying to take her picture)

Molly is OBSESSED with the movie Frozen and is almost always wearing her Anna dress and playing with anything Frozen related.  She was ecstatic to find that, even though nobody was told beforehand, she got quite a few Frozen things for her birthday.

Bummed this is blurry.  But she yelled, "Yay, a box!"

 One of my favorite new developments of Molly's is she's become a back seat driver.  It. Is. HILARIOUS.  She spends the whole time we're out and about shouting "Stop dad, red light.  GO DADDY it's a green light!  Go faster daddy!  Slow down daddy!  Don't crash daddy!"  It cracks me up.  Marty might not find it quite so funny.  At least she knows her colors and what the lights mean. :)

Anyway, we are so grateful for Molly in our home.  She is happy 99% of the time, always giving hugs and loves and brightens every room she comes into.

WE LOVE YOU MOLLY!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! 

Thanksgiving Getaway

This Thanksgiving, my family (my parents, siblings and nieces and nephews) decided to do a Thanksgiving getaway.  We found a cabin in Cedar City and for 5 days and 4 nights were unplugged from the world and enjoyed our time together.

I cannot say enough how wonderful the week was.  My sister Emily said it best:

"The past two to three years have been a very interesting time for my siblings and parents; we watched our brother suffer and eventually pass on to the next life from cancer, we experienced other forms of loss through miscarriage and moving - including physical ailments, surgeries, procedures, etc. and found ourselves stretched thin. To say it was easy is a lie, to say it was worth it... I still don't know. To say that this Thanksgiving Weekend was a healing balm to my grieving heart is the best way I can describe my feelings. We had an amazing family trip that I felt Ben was so happy about! Five days and four nights of all of us under the same roof. No cell service. Celebrating all of our reasons to be thankful."

It was EXACTLY what we all needed.  I wish we could have stayed there forever!

I took a TON of pictures (almost 500...but don't worry, I'm not putting them all on here) and don't have many more words to say.  So enjoy the pictures!

Grandma wanted to take Brody outside with her one morning.  It was cold and we didn't have great winter clothes for him...so we improvised.

The kids getting ready to make their personal apple pies

Cute cousins!

 Working hard!

 The finished product...they turned out great!

Out for a walk one evening... 

Cousin Cadence was so nice to cuddle and tickle backs.

Rocking on the front porch

Another walk out near the iron mines

Movie night

  Lots of gaming happened in the rec room

Grandpa surprised everyone by bringing the stuff to make stilts!  It was WAY fun!

Some of the kids took me to their secret spot...we took some fun pictures. 

 Cute cousins, so HAPPY being together! 

Setting up for the Thanksgiving feast!

Molly...just being silly

Hot tubbing!

 Daddy and his boy

Christmas paper chain countdown craft with Grandma

And there we have it!  It was truly an amazingly fantastic few days.  I wish we didn't have to go back home.  Living away from family is always hard, but it gets magnified every time we go visit and have to leave.  Some day maybe we'll make it back to live by family....we can always hope!