Thankful

Will's List:

1. toys
2. "us" (meaning our family)
3. paper (???)
4. house
5. Dad
6. Kenzie and Grace
7. James and Alli
8. Mom
9. Will
10. learning my letters

Amy's List:

1. My family- Dallas, Will, Annie and Scooter
2. The Gospel of Jesus Christ and all that it involves: temples, the atonement, the Book of Mormon, Bible, and Doctrine and Covenants, visiting teaching, peace and joy.
3. Being able to stay home with my kids.
4. Great friends.
5. Couponing and how it allows me to better provide for my family.
6. Our apartment and its size.
7. An education.
8. Dallas' job and its flexibility.
9. My Mom and all she continues to teach me.
10. The Internet and how it allows me to keep in touch with friends and family that I'm not normally in contact with.

Dallas' List:

1. Home
2. Family
3. Job/extra monuments
4. Church
5. School
6. Grants
7. Health
8. Sleep
9. Heber Valley
10. Holiday Season

Below is the picture Will drew of "bumpy monster truck wheels" while we were making our "thankful lists" for Family Home Evening:

New Moon

After seeing New Moon at midnight, I only have a couple of things to say:

1. Wolves are scary. Especially in really loud theaters where they are super enormous.
2. Thank goodness there were no vampires running through the tops of trees.
3. The awkward teenage moments make me laugh (and bring back horrifying memories).
4. Sure, sure- I'm still on Team Jake, as I have been since I first read New Moon.
5. And last but not least, whoever the costume designer was that dressed Bella and Edward as they were running through the forest as vampires should be drug out into the street and shot. What were they thinking????

Is there even a choice?

I mean, come on people. I would take this:

Over this:

ANY DAY OF THE WEEK. In all reality, I wish I were going to see this at midnight tonight:

Faking Christmas

I know it is only the middle of November, but I've pretty much decided I don't care and I'm celebrating Christmas NOW! I can't help myself when we have a snow day on a Saturday with nothing else to do. So...... we went Christmas shopping (and baby shower shopping), listened to Christmas music all day, watched a little bit of this:
Who doesn't love a politically incorrect Christmas cartoon every now and again? We let Will create his own gourmet sugar cookies- dinosaurs, moons, Christmas trees and gingerbread men all topped with purple frosting and red and green sprinkles- chef's orders! (I promise, we will keep these to ourselves rather than drop off scary treats from the Nicoll's).

Then we finished the night off with a special bubbly drink, a large bowl of very buttery popcorn, and one of my favorite movies- The Family Stone. The best part about this is that it wasn't just me forcing the family into early holiday celebration; Dallas was completely on board the whole day.
Let the holidays begin!!!

The random things I've wanted to post about, but just never got around to.

Over the past few months there have been many times that I have thought- "I need to put that on my blog!" This happens either because it makes me laugh, or consumes my life for a moment in time.

Like how this summer the ice cream man would show up at my house at 10:30PM. Creepy? I think yes.

Or this fall when I was seriously being hunted by spiders. They finally got me in my sleep- four times to be exact. I have the scars to prove it. Those darn spiders left me with nasty bites and swollen lymph nodes for a month.

This is an actual icky spider that was living in Will's room. Hate it.

I didn't even mention how the tree in my back yard would literally fill Annie's room with a golden light because the leaves were so vibrant. When the setting sun would hit the tree, Annie's room appeared celestial.

I never even put the picture on here of the group of baby girls that were born in the Heber 7th ward this summer. There were 9 born this year so far- 6 of which were girls and 5 of those girls were born in June and July.

Bria Thompson, Sadie Wynne, Annie Nicoll, Kara Judd

Or how about the fact that my adorable nephew Alex has the biggest newborn hands I have ever seen. They are bigger than Annie's and she is 3 months older than him. He is going to be one handsome man one day.

And then there is my calling: Bear Den Mother. I love it, and I didn't think I would ever say that about scouts. These boys are smart and funny and make my Thursdays much more interesting than they would be otherwise.

Joey Garcia and Justin Means working on their World Conservation Badge.

And my perfect little Annie- who crossed her legs in the womb, and still does to this day. I can still feel on my abdomen where her little heel would stick out when she would do it.

And then there is Will. He loves his baby sister. My favorite thing is how he always holds her hand when they are in the car together. Never fail. It's how he even sleeps in the car.

It's the little things that I don't want to forget.

Tender Heart

Dallas is the quiet type. He doesn't speak his feelings very often, so when he does it is even more special. The other night we were watching the movie Premonition on TV. In that show a little girl runs through a sliding glass door and her face is cut up badly. Dallas started watching just after he saw the little girl and made some sort of exclamation like "Gross! What happened to her?" I told him what happened and then said, "Wouldn't it be so sad if something like that happened to our Annie's face?"

There was a short pause, and then in a very soft and serious tone he said, "Nothing bad will ever happen to Annie."

It was that first "over-protective father" moment that I had experienced with him. Dallas loves his sweet daughter. It has brought out a side in him that I have never seen before. He has always been tender with me, but with Annie it is totally different. He's always calling her "hon" and telling her how cute her little eyes are as he plays with her so gently. I love it. And she loves it. They have a very special relationship, and it's beautiful.

Monster Trucks

While looking up and printing off Thanksgiving pictures to color:
Will: I bet there are some monster trucks in our Thanksgiving pictures, hu? I hope. I hope...
Me, with a huge smile.

And this is why I love holidays:

Pure untainted joy. That is what was exuding from my three year old on Halloween. Everything was full of excitement and anticipation; whether it was carving pumpkins for the first time in his recent memory, trick-or-treating and coming home with 56 pieces of candy (to which he replied, "Wow! I have a hundred!"), or creating a silly Halloween coloring page book, Will had the greatest time. And since he had such a good time, so did we. I'm so happy we get to have these experiences for many years to come. I can't imagine that it will ever get old for Dallas and I as parents.

Annie's costume accentuates her cheeks perfectly.

Let's not forget this:

It's been 5 years since the last time I used any of my stage make-up skills, but I think I've still got it!

This bum is way cuter than her ducky costume! :)

The Ugly Photo

Everyone has them. The ugly pictures. You know what I'm talking about- the photos you wish you could erase but you just can't because they hold some sort of sentimental value, or are important for doccumentation purposes.

Well, mine just happen to be after I have given birth. Both of them. Dallas has a knack for taking a really awesome picture of me during the I'm-crying-because-I'm-so-happy-but-so-glad-this-pain-is-over stage of delivery. AKA the moment right after birth.

The picture to the left is after I had Will, and the picture to the right is after I had Annie. I don't even have to say which one is worse.

And here you have it:

Dear Prevacid,

Thank you for being invented. I wish I had taken a chance on you sooner. You have shown me that my daughter is in fact sweet, and that her normal personality does not include crying for hours on end.
I may be in love with you.
Love,
Amylee