Giving Thanks

This was a fun weekend filled with family.  I love them all so much!  A lot of my mom's family came in town this year so we had dinner with them Thursday.  It was so fun to see everyone.  

My mom hosted and did such a great job with everything. 

I find it funny that people get so wrapped up in being annoyed about playing Christmas music early or stores getting decorations out before Thanksgiving, because to me it's just all one wonderful season when we remember what matters most in life.  The earlier the better! :)  What a wonderful time of year to reflect and focus on all of our blessings.  Most importantly: our families, our Savior, and serving others.

We missed you Grandma and Grandpa J!  {And Mark & Jill, Jessica, Kara, Dallin, and Jenna, Jared & Tiff, and Jed}

The turkey naps:

Thanksgiving dinner #2!

 Friday night we went down to Heber to see my cousin Jared and Tiffany (we lived by them in Cali).  Tiff's family had a barn rented out and a FABULOUS meal and line dancing!! It was SO fun to see them and get Reese and Claire back together, even though Claire was a bit of a sass:)  She immediately claimed Reese's doll stroller as her own and it was hers, ALL night.  I'm so happy we were able to make this work and see each other, it had been TOO long!! Love you guys!

 

Thanksgiving dinner #3!  

Poor Nan fell and broke her hip a couple of weeks ago so she is back in the rehab center.  We had a yummy meal there together and had a great time together. 

Last year, we were in Vegas and Disneyland for Thanksgiving and Claire was only 4 months old and looked like this:


She was such a cute little baby and is turning into our beautiful little girl!!

Things to remember now that she's 16 months old:

If she wants you to help her with something, she comes and grabs your finger and holds your hand all the way to where she wants to be. We love it.

No new words this month, just new animal sounds like: elephant, lizard (sticks out tongue), hippo (opens mouth really wide), goat. Still can't get pig, frog, and bird.  Said "momma" twice this month.

Her daddy missed 2 weeks of the new month. We were happy to get him home this week.  He has to take us with him next time he goes.

Remember last month how I said she just had 2 teeth still?  She has 4 molars and her top tooth coming in all at once.

Has gone to nursery 2 weeks in a row (with Ben gone and my class I had to teach, I just went for it) and she loves it. The teachers say she does awesome and should stay in there. OKAY!!

She is so social and independent.  Loves to walk the pews at church saying hi to everyone and getting things out of their bags for them.  She couldn't care less about where we are and if we leave her somewhere.  When we say "BYE!!" and turn to walk away to try to get her to follow us, she just waves "bye!" and goes the other way.  SO funny.

Thanks to Aveeno Baby lotion, her eczema on her face and whole body has completely cleared up.

Her afternoon nap has officially left us.  She takes a good 10am-Noon nap and then sleeps 7pm-7am every night. 

Loves to dress herself, put shoes on by herself, brush her hair, put a hat on, put lotion on me, brush her teeth, eat with a spoon or fork, and help mom around the house.  Her version of a vacuum is a fly swatter.

Loves to dance. So much so that the other day she and my siblings were dancing to some music and anytime anyone would leave or sit down, she'd run over and pull them back. They danced for like 30 minutes.

Hasn't figured out the difference between a sippy and one with a straw... you don't have to tip the straw UP! :)

The few times this month we've been around other young kids, she gets SUPER jealous if they're around me and becomes a major momma's girl.  We need more practice sharing!

A bit of a picky eater we have here.  Her new faves are frozen peas, ham, pizza, black olives, cottage cheese (she could eat a WHOLE container), grapes, bananas (FINALLY), and baby granola bars.



 And that's a wrap.  I'm so excited/ready to have a little break from pictures (that is as soon as I catch up on editing) and get some projects done and quality family time!