Corinne, We miss you already

This weekend my sweet sister drove up with some of her college friends to our house. Her friends parents live near us (wow I feel old, I live by "the parents") so it was a perfect opportunity for her to come see her favorite sister... or is it her favorite niece? We had fun doing crafts, taking pictures of Adalyn, shopping, and cooking. We made the valentine banner that I posted a little while ago, but had not gotten around to making. They turned out pretty cute and it was fun to do something crafty. We also had fun making a new recipe off of Pinterest for dinner. Chicken Enchilada pasta, that was delicious :)Corinne LOVES to cook and I was slightly jealous of her passion for it (it is just barely above a chore for me on my enjoyment scale). Adalyn enjoyed being the center of attention and proved to be just as social as ever (I was a little concerned that she was getting stranger danger, definitely not excited for the day that she does). Corinne was also a HUGE help today at church and was able to watch Adalyn for the whole three hours while McKay and I spoke in sacrament meeting and taught lessons in our classes. I don't know what we will do without her next week... Thanks for coming Corinne! We love having you.

She seriously LOVES smiling for the camera. Lately I have been trying to take some "action" shots. But I fail usually because the second she sees the camera she just starts smiling.:)

This is us with the banner that we made

Daddy's Sweethearts

Adalyn sure loves her daddy and he loves her right back. So fun to watch them play :)

And he must love me too because on Saturday he got me an early birthday present, a piano :) Then he spent his WHOLE Saturday cleaning it for me. That is true love there folks. So excited to start taking lessons (better late then never)

Valentines Decor

So we are SL...OW...LY working on decorating our house. But the projects take time and money oh and they also involve my very hard working husband (and I don't see much of any of these things these days). So it is going to be a while before I can post much about it. But instead of having my house be completely void of anything beautiful besides the walls themselves (which freshly painted walls are beautiful) I decided to throw together a valentines themed mantle over the fireplace with a few random things that I had. And here it is in its semi-complete form (tonight I am making a valentines banner with one of my friends, if it turns out cute I will post it)

And here is the banner that we will be making tonight. (yes I am not original...thanks to Pinterest) Have a great day!

The Big and the Little

Love this quote from Pinterest...

Adalyn just recently turned five months old. And it is the little things each day that make me realize how blessed and grateful that I am to be her mom. I would be lying if I said that I LOVE every second, but she has been an amazing baby! McKay and I often joke that child raising is not suppose to be this easy and we are sure that one of our next children will give us a run for our money. But for now we will just enjoy the simple/easy life. :) Some of the big changes in Adalyn's life are she can still up! She sat up on her own on January 14 for the first time. I was quite surprised since she has yet to roll over from her back to her stomach, but she can hold her head up :) Also she LOVES eating rice cereal. After our failed attempts when she was four months old I just decided to not force the issue and wait another month. We started again last week and she is totally loving it. I think she likes that she get to eat with a spoon like mom and dad :) We also just switched her to 6-9 month clothes even though she still fits in the 3-6 month clothes. I just decided that I was tired of the same old outfits and can I just say that baby clothes get significantly cuter at 6 months. I am loving getting her dressed each day :)

And so that I don't forget the little things down the road here are a few of my favorites.
-I love the way you LOVE to hear me sing to you. You just sit and smile the whole time. Only thing that will get her to stop crying every time.
-I love the way you pull out your binky from your mouth when I pick you up after your nap and drop it back in your crib.
-I love that you bounce like crazy when I walk into the room
- I love the way you cry when I get anywhere near your crib because you think that I am going to put you to sleep.
-I love the way you peek up at me when I am holding you JUST to make sure that I am still there and still watching you
-I love the way you start giggling at grandpa Pace's dogs when they are growling/barking at you
We love having you in our family Adalyn! Can't wait to watch you grow up even more!

The Rest of the Holiday Break

At McKay's work they are required to take the week after Christmas off until after New Years (tough huh?) So we decided to stay and play in Salt Lake for a few days after Christmas. We went bowling, McKay got sick, went to the temple, and we enjoyed hanging out with family. We decided to head home on Thursday of that week and since my parents had not seen our new house yet they decided to follow us back. Along with them coming to see our new house they brought ALL of my childhood "stuff" up with them. They decided that it was time for me to start storing it. Luckily we have a whole basement for storage so I was ok with that. They could only stay for a few hours that night but we were still able to play a few games and eat pizza before they left. We like showing off our new house so thanks for coming and checking it out. :) Adalyn enjoyed all of the attention that week and missed being held 24/7 when we came home. Here are a few pictures from bowling and our bathing beauty :)

Also while we were in Salt Lake Larissa made us a VERY yummy Mexican dinner that she had eaten a lot on her mission. It was so good, especially since I didn't have to make it!

And here is Adalyn "helping" us play our game. She was so proud of herself!

Later that week we just spent time doing projects around the house and getting ready for the new year. Sadly we didn't really do anything for New Years eve. :( We are so not cool... I was sick and went to bed early and McKay stayed up late and organized the guest room closet for me. Such a thoughtful thing to do! I am so grateful for all of the many blessings this past year! 2011 was a year that I will always remember.

Christmas 2011

This year was SO fun. We sleptover Christmas eve night at McKay's parents house. We slept VERY well after such a crazy day before. Then we started Christmas morning out by going to church. Adalyn looked so cute in her little red dress, but I totally failed in getting a picture of her in it. :( After Church we prepped dinner, took a family picture since most of the kids were there, and then opened presents. The opening presents part was different then what I was used to because it was one big free for all and I am not really sure what everyone else got but it was fun. And what else can you do when you have 12 kids? Here is some of the craziness :)

And here is Adalyn on her first Christmas opening her presents from Santa. We had to wake her up from her nap for the festivities, she wasn't completely thrilled. Some of the things that Santa brought her were bath toys, a ball, new jammies, and a play steering wheel.

McKay's parents were very generous and we felt very spoiled with all of the gifts that they gave us. Thanks Mom and Dad Pace! Here are a few more pictures from the rest of the day.

AFter dinner we headed down to Draper to visit my family. They were so excited to see Adalyn and ofcourse we got spoiled once again. Some of the things that Adalyn got were a doll (her first one), a new outfit, light up snail toy that she LOVES, darling new headbands, and a shape sorter.

It was such a fun and special day. I love making memories with family members and I am so grateful that Adalyn was able to be there with us. I hope that all of you had a great Christmas too! Have a great day!

This Week

Yesterday: We had stake conference. I had an overwhelming feeling of gratitude for such wonderful leaders that guide us through this crazy world. They just radiate love, and you can't help but try and follow their direction. McKay got a new calling (young mens 1st counseler) and I realized Sundays will now be our busiest day as we try and juggle me teaching Sunbeams, McKay teaching in his class, and taking care of a baby who has now decided that it is fun to jabber all.the.time. Hope the teachers quorum is ready to learn baby 101. :) Adalyn learned how to scoot backwards and it is SO cute to watch. I am just fascinated that she can move on her own. She is SUPER slow but I count that as a blessing because our house is not quite baby proof yet.

Today: I found two awesome pieces of furniture for our new house on Craigs list for an even better price. Adalyn entertained herself for a WHOLE hour while I cleaned the house. I sold our final dresser on Craigs list (sorry mom) and I am not sure where I am going to put our clothes... The highlight of my day was trying out Adalyn's new umbrella stroller at the library (hello mommy world). She loved it as I knew she would and I loved it because it is significantly less weight than the other three strollers that we own (do we have a stroller problem? possibly...) Unfortunately the library did not have the 2nd and 3rd book of the Hunger Games that I desperately wanted. Speaking of Hunger Games, I am a new fan even if I am still shocked that something so morbid can be so addicting? Are these books "ok" to read? Can't wait for March 23rd, I am already saving up to go see the movie. Tonight I am making Manicotti. I love making it because I use a lot of spices in it so I actually feel like I am a real cook and it just sounds cool "Manicotti". It is a new dish for me, we never had it as kids on account that my dad hates cottage cheese (I think that is why?) so I am pretty proud that I can make it.

Tomorrow: I will FINALLY be taking down the Christmas tree. Hopefully I can muster the energy for it. I will come up with a yummy yet not too unhealthy dessert (I think that is an oxymoron and may be impossible) for my girls night on Wednesday because I am sure we all don't want to ruin our healthy resolutions for atleast another week. :) And maybe Adalyn will realize that rolling over can get her places, but lets hope not.

Have a good day!

Christmas Eve 2011

Christmas Eve was a VERY busy day. I was pretty nervous about how it would all go for months before hand and just kept telling myself that it was only one day and we would survive. Haha it is sad that I got so nervous but there was a lot of driving involved and Adalyn only lasts for so long in the car. Probably in the future we won't plan so many things in one day but we made it thru this year and had a good time with family.

We started out the morning by going to the Cannon family Breakfast at my Aunt and Uncle's house. There was a great turn out and it was so fun to see a lot of my cousins and their kids. Adalyn met a lot of them for the first time and was a very social little girl. I didn't even see her for half the time since she was being passed around so much, but luckily at this stage there is no stranger danger so she just soaked up the attention and loved it. After that we headed south to see McKay's mom and his siblings.

We met at a church so that we would have more space to hang out and play which worked out great. It was fun visiting and opening presents with his siblings and playing with all of the nieces and nephews. Adalyn enjoyed laying out on the blanket and checking out all of her cousins.

Opening white elephant gifts. We walked away with popcorn, movies, and root beer...not too bad :)

All the kids. We told Natalie that she should stand in the picture too so that ALL of the grandkids could be in the picture but she didn't go for that (I would not have either) :)

After partying at the church we headed north to downtown SLC to go to Danish Christmas at Liz's dad's house. It was late by the time we got there and Adalyn was losing steam/energy. But the food was delicious and we enjoyed visiting with everyone. In the end though we left early to get a head start on the drive to Evanston where we were going to spend the night. Adalyn had quite a melt down at this point, but we made it/suffered through and then we all had a good night's sleep. :) Stay tuned for Christmas 2011 aka. Adalyn's first Christmas

Christmas Adam

must.write.new.blog.post.  Sorry that it has been a while.  We dropped off the face of the earth for a few days when all three of us got sick.  So sad to see Adalyn sick :(  But I will try and get caught back up and start talking about more exciting things.  I may be weird in this but Christmas posts aren't that exciting to me.  Maybe because I would rather be spending time with family rather than reading about it or maybe it is the masses of pictures that you have to search through to write it and that just feels overwhelming.  Who knows? but I will be glad when I am done typing this.  on a positive note once I finish writing these posts I can send my 2011 blog book to be printed.  :)  I am still SO in love with my last blog book and I can't wait for this one.


This year we headed to SLC on the day before Christmas Eve after a quick change of plans (we were going to go to Evanston).  We did some last minute shopping on the way down and then headed to my parents house.  They were hosting the annual Fry family Christmas party.  Always a good time there.  The food was amazing thanks to my mom's expert planning and the white elephant exchange was pretty uneventful (no tears).  Best gift was Trevor's air guitar in the LARGE mysterious box. (why do those ones always get chosen first, curiosity kills the cat I guess?)  The nativity was slightly PG with Mykelti's accidental miss use of the word "hail".  :) But she corrected herself and no the Angel does not swear when appearing to Mary.  Classic.

That night we also opened our Christmas jammies since we were going to spend the next night in Evanston. It also happened to be Adalyn's first Christmas present ever so we made sure to document it. Thanks Dad they are so cozy!

Love Adalyn's striped jammies, she is a cutie! Thanks for spoiling us mom and dad :) Hope you are all having a great 2012!

P.S. Here is a quick picture of my two shadows. Follow me around all day long, no wonder I don't get much done when he is home. But sure feels good to be loved :)