Some happenings around the Read home!

So these past about two weeks we have had quite a few great things happen! First and for most Brandon got a wonderful job that he is really excited about! We feel so very blessed to have this opportunity come our way. He is now working for GoYo Media and is the VP of sales.

This is like the perfect fit for him and his personality. I am so very proud of him and what a wonderful husband, provider, and father he is! So it looks like we will be in Utah for quite a bit longer than we had originally planned. But we are totally ok with that we really love our neighborhood and the friendships that we have made and the ward is great for an extra bonus!

Ashlyn lost another tooth! Yep another one she was wiggling it and it probably had another week or so before it would have fallen out by itself but she kept wiggling it, then went into brush her teeth for the night and ran out totally excited with the tooth in her hand! Now she looks so old with her two bottom teeth missing!

I finally got eyelash extensions, I have wanted them for like a year and a half and finally decided to just do it. So I was totally excited and way happy with how they turned out! But the next morning apparently I am somewhat allergic to the glue that is used to put them on. So I had puffy, red, itchy eyes for a couple of days with a horrible sinus infection...so much fun! Now its all calmed down I really like them! :) Another crazy thing I did was I actually ran for the first time in like, well lets see, since I had Ashlyn almost 6 years ago! Yep I know kinda amazing but it felt pretty good I was quite surprised. Just a little sore! :)

My sweet little Brooklyn is growing up so fast right now. I was just looking through some old pictures and how darling of a little toddler she was! She is becoming such a sweet little girl! She is constantly wanting to play with her friends in the neighborhood which is so great for her to have her own little friends. And I love watching her play baby dolls. She said to me the other day, "Mommy can I be a Mommy like you now? I want to for real life!" I said of course you can to your babies. Her response was, " No I want to be a real mommy with real babies!" She just is so into them and they are so real to her it's so cute! Another cute thing she said while we were watching her favorite movie Little Mermaid, "Mommy can my name be Little Merdmaid (that's how shes says Mermaid) ?" So for the rest of the day I had to call her Little Mermaid! :)

My sweet Parker boy is now 18 months I can't believe it he is getting so big and starting to talk like crazy! I love how happy he is constantly and how fun it is to have a boy in our house! He makes boys sounds for his toys and cars and he is gross and totally messy just like boys are supposed to be! So we are adjusting to his messes but we love the mess at the same time! He loves his footballs! And is starting to play catch with Brandon. Brandon still has high hopes for him to be his left-handed quarterback...so far he is left-handed and loves to throw. He is so sweet, my favorite thing he does is his dancing its so funny! He spreads his feet as far apart as they can go then moves his arms up and down while moving his head back and forth. It looks way funnier than it sounds! And some of my favorite words he says are Mee Mou for Mickey Mouse and when he goes to sleep for the night he HAS to give everyone in kisses and hugs then say Night Night Love You! Its so sweet! He is just such a fun sweet handsome little boy! We are loving every minute of him!

I think that is about all that's been going on at our house! Life is so full of wonderful things when you get to be a mom! I just love every minute of every day!

Happy Valentines Day!

We had such a fun filled Valentines Day! The kiddos woke up and each got a little love present from Brandon and me! They were so excited! We started the day with some heart cinnamon rolls. Then off to school for Ashlyn. I was able to go help at the Valentines party at school. It's so much fun being involved with her school things! She got to give out her Barbie Valentines. So cute watching her with her friends at school. :) Then the girls had been asking for weeks to have a neighborhood Valentines Day party. So right after school all the kiddos from our street came to party! We started by playing some Love Pictionary with heart shaped crayons (the girls made the night before), then we played Balloon Ping Pong, then treat time which the girls picked heart peanut butter and honey sandwiches, fruit punch, heart cookies, apples, and red jello! :) They had this so planned out it was cute helping them get it all together and put on the party for their friends. After snacks we busted out some music and ended the party with some awesome dance moves! :)  The girls got some love in the mail too! Great Grandpa Messinger and Great Grandma Bonnie sent them sweet Valentines notes and Grandma and Grandpa Bailey sent all of us some YUMMY chocolate covered strawberries, the best I have ever had!! Then to top off the wonderful day Brandon came home from work with some gorgeous flowers for me! I just love my sweet little family so much! Happy Valentines Day!

Good Morning Love Bugs!

My little Sweethearts!

All the kiddos at our party! :)

The yummy food!

My pretty flowers from my sweetheart!

My cute friends Betsy and Kristen! Love these girls! :)

I almost forgot the Saturday before Valentines Brandon and all the husbands decided to make a nice dinner for all of us girls. There was a total of 20 of us! We went up to our friends cabin in Park City (this house was just beautiful) and the fellas all made a delicious dinner with everything you could think of and for desert chocolate covered strawberries and cheesecake. After dinner we all chatted, goofed around, the boys threw some blue darts around (yes they seriously did that at our age), and we laughed so much! I don't think I have laughed that hard in so long!! Thanks for such an awesome night friends! I'm so glad we have such fun awesome friends! 

We had a special visitor come!!

The cheesiest smile ever...so excited to lose her first tooth! 

All ready for the tooth fairy to come!

Ashlyn lost her 1st tooth! It had been loose for a little bit so we knew by the way it was just dangling in her mouth that it was just a matter of time. She woke up and wiggled it for just a minute and out it came!! She was SOOO excited! :) She had been waiting for this to happen. So she set it on the dresser for it to be kept safe from little hands.  Well her OCD mom didn't know it was there and was cleaning and knocked it onto the floor!! We spent so long looking for it, then we decided to vacuum and sure enough we found it! Thank goodness! Well on the way to the kitchen to put it in a baggie for another safe keeping she dropped it and we had to find it again! Luckily this time it was an easy find, we made sure it was in the baggie tightly closed for the rest of the day for the tooth fairy to come. While she was at school I made her a tooth fairy pillow for each time she looses a tooth. She was so excited to go to sleep and have the tooth fairy come visit her. Sure enough she came with a little bit a fairy dust from the widow to her tooth pillow and a brand new dollar bill! Ashlyn was ecstatic when she woke up the next day! :)

Happy Anniversary!

Last night we celebrated our 8 year anniversary! We went up to Park City for a nice dinner since we decided not to go anywhere this year. We went to the J&G Grill and it was DELICIOUS! We both loved everything we got. The chef even sent out this yummy desert for us!  

It was really pretty too...in order for you to get to the restaurant you get to ride in this finicular up to the restaurant. It so beautiful to look out over Park City at night with all the snow. It reminded me of the day we got married and how crazy it was snowing! Taking pictures outside the temple was so cold but it was so pretty with the biggest snowflakes I had ever seen. That day was so perfect! I am so thankful for marrying my best friend! Its amazing that its been 8 years already but on another note I feel like we have always been together, it's hard to imagine life before I was married to Brandon. He is seriously my prince charming! He is so thoughtful, the best daddy to our kids, he is so much fun to be around and talk to, he is so loving, and he is the man of my dreams! I don't know how I got so lucky to fall in love with him and to be married to him for eternity! I love every day knowing I get to spend it with my sweetheart! 

So I did something kinda fun for him when he got home from work I had 8 balloons in our room each with a little note of some of the things I love about him! And he was so sweet and brought these beautiful flowers home for me! 

Happy Anniversary Hunny! Here's to another wonderfully awesome 8 years! :)

CHRISTMAS!!

We love Christmas time at our house we decorate way too early and do so many fun things throughout the season! This year I decided to do with our Christmas advent calendar to have the girls do something fun each day of December until Christmas. They loved it! Then we also got the opportunity through Brandon's work to participate in their night of giving. So we got to go as a family and shop for 3 little girls. The girls were around my girls ages so they got really excited to help pick out a new outfit, a toy, and one other thing that they each needed. Ashlyn especially was so into it. We picked it all out then went back to his work and wrapped it all up and put it in a big "Santa-like" bag to take to the families. Ashlyn was kinda bummed she didn't get to deliver it herself but she was so very excited to give the little girls Christmas presents. I hope we can do this as a family every year it sure made us realize how blessed we are!

We were able to go up to Boise for just 3 short days and see our family before Christmas. We enjoyed our time with all of them and are very thankful for all that they do for us and for such wonderful family!  The kiddos got to do our traditional cookie bake at my moms house then we did our secret santa gifts with my family and a big yummy dinner. Parker got this really cute truck to sit on with tools and blocks, he just loves it! Then the next day we spent with Brandon's family its so nice to be able to get along and spend time with family! We did our usual Christmas eve day with them even though it was a day early for us to get back to Utah. We had good fun with singing carols, eating dinner, opening gifts, and talking. What a wonderful start to all the Christmas festivities! The kiddos loved playing with all their cousins, they miss them so much!

Ashlyn and Carson making cookies at cookie bake!

Brookie into her cookie decorating

Parker Boy say cheese!

All us Bailey girls!! 

Opening at Grandma Baileys

Parker and Daddy checking out the cool new tractor

The boys playing phone games! Looks like they are having a blast

Grandpa Read reading the Christmas story 

Brooklyn and her new baby

Ashlyn super excited about her easy bake oven

Christmas morning! Look what Santa left ?!

Yeah for Christmas!

Ashlyn's lalaloopsy doll!

Parker said "Car" for the first time when he opened up his car!

Helping put together his car track!

Santa's key to come in since we don't have a fireplace! (He mailed it from the North Pole and the girls opened it on Christmas Eve to leave on the door knob to let him in)

Santa's footprints!

Brookie Boo and her feeding baby!! She is just in love with baby dolls, its so cute!

We then left early Christmas Eve morning to come back home to spend Christmas as a family. The girls were so excited!! We did some fun Christmas activities then got all ready for Santa to come. We opened pajamas, set out milk and cookies, read a Christmas story by the tree, and then watched a movie on Christs birth. The girls must have been super tired because they went to bed early which was nice considering the things we had to put together and do. :) The next morning Ashlyn woke up and went and peeked to see what Santa had brought then came running in "Mom Dad!! Santa came!!" (Usually Brandon and I wake up before them and wait around until they wake up) so we all then had a wonderful Christmas morning opening presents. Then I made for the first year scones (just like my mom always makes on Christmas morning) and a big breakfast. The whole day was spent as a family just hanging out! Now we are totally addicted to the xbox kinect Disneyland game. Our Christmas has been wonderful! I am so very thankful for my sweet family and for such a loving husband! Merry Christmas!

Christmas Dance Recitals

Brooklyn's Dance Recital

My sweet Brookie and me

Santa came to watch the Christmas dance recital!

Ashlyn's school class after their Christmas song!

Ashlyn's Christmas dance recital

Always posing! 

This year the girls Christmas dance recitals were so cute! Their teachers are just so darling with them! So we had  all in one day; Brooklyn's dance recital, Ashlyn's school music program, and Ashlyn's dance recital. They both did so good in their dances!! It was a crazy busy day but nice to have it all done! :)

Thankgiving

My Mom and me doing the traditional Thanksgiving rolls!

Getting excited to ride the train 

At the "North Pole" with Grandma Read

Sitting on Santa's lap...Parker not liking it so much! 

Telling Santa what they all want for Christmas!

Thanksgiving was great this year! We went up to Boise to spend it with all of our family. We had Thanksgiving dinner with Brandons family on Wednesday then on Thursday we had Thanksgiving dinner with my family. It was special this year at my families house because we were all together it had been two years since we all were together. It was so great to get together with all of our family and spend lots of time with them! Black Friday was always great with kicking it off at good old Sharis for breakfast with my fam then off to shop for the day! On Saturday we went on the Holiday express train to see Santa and the North Pole. It was so much fun the kiddos got to ride on a train for the first time. Which Brooklyn was in heaven! Parker even loved sitting there looking out the train window. The got to play with cousins on the ride and then Santa came and sat down with them and asked what they each wanted for Christmas and talked to them a little bit. It was so cute! Ashlyn jumped right in and said all she wanted but Brooklyn was a little more hesitant. Luckily the only was she would get close to Santa or talk to him is by sitting or talking to Mrs. Claus, luckily she was there too! :) Parker....well he wasn't too thrilled to sit on Santa's lap! Maybe next year. We had just so much fun with our families! It was a great Thanksgiving!

Happy Halloween

At the Halloween Express train ride!

My sweet Little Merdmaid!

Decorating pumpkins

This was a big day she loves playing wedding so when she got to be a bride all day long it was the best day ever! My Cinderella Bride

My Monster! He loved his outfit we put it on him and he gave us the cheesiest smile ever it was super cute!

So I am a little behind posting Halloween but I guess better late than never for my blog book. This year was really fun! We carved tons of pumpkins. When we finally finished we had a Rapunzel, Snow White, Minnie Mouse, Lightening McQueen, Spiderman, a happy jack-lantern, and Jack Skelington. We went a little pumpkin carving crazy but super fun!While we were carving Parker thought it would be fun to try and eat the pumpkins he of course like it just like everything else he puts in his mouth...the little stinker. :) The kiddos got to dress up 3 times! Once for ward trunk or treat, once for the Halloween dance recital, and then for Halloween! Halloween the girls really wanted me to dress up especially because I was helping in Ashlyns class. So I was Jessi/cowgirl it was fun to dress up! Ashlyn was Cinderella bride, Brooklyn was Little Mermaid or as she says it Little Merdmaid, and Parker was a monster. We did Ashlyn's school party which was totally fun then a couple of us from the neighborhood went to trick or treating in the park and let the kids play for a little bit, then over in Linden there is a real train that a couple families make into this really cool Halloween train ride so we went and checked that out. It was so cool with music coordinating with the scenes throughout the ride. Brooklyn loved it! She loves trains and to get to ride a real one was totally awesome. Then of course trick or treating in the neighborhood. The kids had a blast! Topping off the evening with our usual homemade chilli and cornbread. :) Happy Halloween!