Turkey Day x 2

In keeping with our tradition, we spent the day before Thanksgiving with Corbin's side of the family and then hung out with Stef's family on Thanksgiving day. That means we got to experience Thanksgiving dinner twice- which made Ashlyn extremely happy because mashed potatoes and gravy is her favorite food. Consequently, if you ask her what her favorite holiday is, she will tell you "Thanksgiving, because we get to eat so much smashed potatoes and gravy!"

 All the cousins (except Emilee, Ally, Anna & Ethan) from L to R: 

Gabriella, Dash, Ashlyn, Samantha, Isabelle, Layla, Jacob, Max, Parker, Olivia, Liam

Alec & Zackery (above the couch)

 This is what too much turkey does to Daddy :)

 The traditional kids "freeze dance"

 The 4-year old "cool" kids

 Ashy & Sam LOVE their baby cousin, Layla :)

 Thanksgiving Day story time with Grandma

Preparing for Black Friday!!!

Ballerinas & A Snowman

We finally signed the girls up for some Ballet lessons in November. They were pretty excited!

 Not bad form for amateurs :)

November also brought our first big snow storm and Daddy, Ashy & Sammy wasted no time using most of what fell to build a 6 ft something snow man.

 Kids HAVE to eat snow. They just can't help themselves :)

 They found a plastic toy carrot and some old charcoal from the shed to complete the masterpiece.

Halloween Rewind

Time to catch up (again) on the past 3 months! For Halloween this year we decided on "The Wizard of Oz" for our family costume theme. It was Ashlyn's idea, since she had just recently seen the movie for the first time and really liked it. Hopefully the girls will keep letting us dress up with them for a few more years!!

 Ashy was "Dorothy" with "Toto" in a "basket" and everything.

 Sammy was "Glinda, the Good Witch of the North" because she looks like a princess, of course.

It took a lot of work (and tin foil) to transform that Burger King crown into a head piece fitting for Glinda!

 Mommy got to be "the Wicked Witch of the West"... pretty scary, huh?

 And Daddy was the "Scarecrow" :)

 Sammy's preschool Halloween parade

 We made a trip to Lagoon's Frightmares... and stayed away from all the Haunted Houses at the girls' requests. But we made sure to hit all the spinning rides :)

Fun Times in the Family Room

Ashlyn & Sammy love to make up games for all of us to play. They call this one "Jump the River." It involves making repeated attempts at leaping over a continually widening river (or blanket) with the objective being to not fall in the "water". Beats sitting around watching TV :)

Catching Up

It has been a really long time since we updated our blog, but we are trying to get back in business. A lot has happened in the past two years. Ashlyn is 6, and started 1st grade this past week. Samantha just turned 4, and is getting used to the preschool scene.

One reason for updating our blog is that we have been approved through LDS Family Services for another adoption. We had such an amazing experience adopting Ashlyn, and we were so blessed to have Sammy. But we feel like our family is still missing someone special. We are excited and hopeful.
We thought we would start off with a post of some family pictures from this past summer . . .

 Silver Lake by Brighton (we saw 3 moose on our hike)

 The Ranch near Evanston where we camped with some old college friends

 Sometimes it's hard to get Ashlyn and Sam to smile, but they are always up for a silly face

 Enjoying a sunset after the rain out by the Great Salt Lake

 Date Night at Needles Lodge above Snow Basin Ski Resort

 Camping near Monte Cristo (above Pineview Reservoir)

Sisters and BFFs