Thanksgiving in Utah

We always enjoy Thanksgiving in Utah. On Wednesday, the boys went on a boys' outing to Thanksgiving Point with Dad, Grandpa, Uncle Jared & Tian. They did the Dinosaur Museum, Farm & tractor ride, and a picnic. What a great day!

Thanksgiving dinner was delicious and fun to spend with Amber and Jeff's crew. On Saturday, we had our big Jolley family party with a super-fun Minute-to-Win-it competition of 6 teams planned by Tawnya and Dan. Then back to Oregon on Sunday. Our trips to Utah always go by so fast!

Allie

Our Little Miss is growing up. Here is her whopping 17 month list:

She says her name and recognizes herself in a picture, mirror or camera phone.

She knows how to turn on the iPhone and the music so she can dance.

Climbs onto anything she can. Made it up on the couch the other day...oh, say it isn't so!

Now she looks at books instead of beavering them...usually.

Has excellent hearing. She wakes up from a nap when she hears the school bus pull up outside. She still squeals when she sees the boys coming home from school.

Allie loves frozen peas. There is no better treat on the planet! But they MUST be frozen or they aren't nearly as yummy and might be thrown on the floor.

I can have a conversation with her entirely with American Sign Language. Although, she is talking well and saying new words every day.

It is always fun to see what tomorrow brings! Love you Babes!

The BEST Florida Christmas EVER!

Saturday - Christmas Eve
Super-dee-duper early (4:00a.m.), we left to drive to the airport to catch our flight to Atlanta, Georgia and then connect to Orlando, Florida. Disney World here we come! The kids were such great travelers. We arrived at the two vacation homes we shared with all of Travis' family just in time for all the Christmas Eve fun with the whole group. I felt like singing, "I'm Going to the Bahamas for Christmas!". It was warm and even humid. Perfect!

Sunday - CHRISTMAS!

Santa found us in Florida! The boys got exactly what they were wishing for (did I say LEGOS?) and Allie was happy to finally get some girl toys. O.K., Mom was the over-joyed one about seeing Allie play with girly things! (Tripping along in her first high heels, brushing her My Little Pony's hair, playing with her princess hair brush & curling iron kit in a cute purse...my list could go on...but you get the point.)

We spent Christmas morning over at the other house with all the Guptills. The cousins opened their exchange gifts to each other and we played all day back and forth between the two homes. We were a loud, crazy, happy bunch!

After our day of rest, our week took off at full speed ahead. Each day was jam-packed fun, simply perfect! We left bright and early each morning and came back home just in time to crash into bed.

Monday - Disney World's Magic Kingdom

Justin's "Do again!"-Tom Sawyer's Island
Tyler's "Do again" - Mickey's Christmas Parade
Allie's "Do again!"- The Tikki Room
Dad's "Do again!"-Space Mtn.
Mom's "Do again!"- The castle all lit up like an ice castle at night and walking down Main Street in the fake falling snow. So magical!

Tuesday - Disney's Animal Kingdom

Justin's pick-Dinosaur Carnival
Tyler & Daddy's pick-Safari
Allie's pick-the animals, especially the little birds hopping along the walkways.
Mom's pick-Getting drenched like a drowned rat in a torrential downpour! (We all did!) O.K., my real pick is a tie...the gorgeous, green grounds and the nice, private, warm mothers' rooms.

Wednesday - Sea World

Justin's fav -feeding the dolphins
Tyler's fav-feeding the dolphins and rays
Allie's fav- the dolphin & whale show. Fantastic!
Mom's fav- Watching Allie break out in dance whenever she heard music on the loudspeakers.
Dad'd fav- Feeding the dolphins and twitching the dolphin & whale show.

Thursday - Lego Land

Justin's Lego LOVE - Lego car driving school
Tyler's Lego LOVE - Safari with "life-sized" lego animals
Allie's Lego LOVE - Mini-land with the short little gates she could stand up to and look at the little Lego buildings.
Mom's Lego LOVE - Losing our Lego Big Store shopping bag. That's not a favorite, but the Lego Land Customer Service department is the BEST EVER! They re-bought ALL of our purchase. The boys could breathe again! I wanted to hug the man! But, for activities, I really liked going on the Techno rollercoaster with Tyler and watching the fireworks in 3-D. Imagine Lego bricks breaking apart with each blast.
Dad's - Mini Land

Friday- Disney's Hollywood Studios

Boys' #1 - Star Tours
Allie's #1 - getting out of the stroller!
Mom's #1 - Extreme Car show
Dad's #1 -

Saturday - Disney's Epcot

Justin's Best - Test Track
Tyler's Best - Picking out a Mickey toy at the Big Disney store.
Allie's Best - Hugging her brothers as we were standing in line.
Mom's Best - Amazing Moroccan food for lunch eaten on a narrow, cobblestone street. We were transported to Morocco! I loved walking through the countries.
Dad's Best -

Sunday- Back to Oregon! Now we need a vacation to recover from this vacation! Phew! We made it! And we'd love to go do it again some day!

Tyler

Tyler was given TWO Jackson Jaguar Awards at school this winter. At the monthly "Town Hall" meeting (assembly) with the principal, teachers spotlight a few kids in their classes with a certificate stating what makes that child a great student.

Tyler's award was for always staying on task and always being ready to listen to instruction.

These are the best days as a parent to see how our boys are growing up to be such great kids and how the teachers love our children. Way to go Tyler!

BANG! And they are off!

I thought I'd write a quick update about what's going on with our house.

Mid-December, we accepted an offer on our house after listing it for 6 weeks. We sign on Valentine's Day and will be moving two days later. It was so nice to have a couple of weeks before Christmas without any showings. Now comes the fun part of looking for a new home. We are hoping to find it ASAP do we only have to move once. We feel like we're off to the races!

We didn't ever decorate for Christmas because our house was staged and the boys were feeling like they were missing out on the whole holiday. Honestly, they really were. They have been troopers through this whole thing, but it was really starting to wear on all of us. We felt so blessed to get an offer we could accept before Christmas.

Travis got out the Christmas train and instead of dragging out our big tree for just one week, Travis bought two, potted & lit 2 1/2 ft. trees to place on either side of our fireplace. It almost made me cry. I kept thinking of that song by Faith Hill "Where Are You Christmas?". But just like in "The Grinch", Christmas came just the same and we had an exciting plan to make it happen...we went to Disney World!

We had a fantastic time with all of Travis' family. But that's another story.

Just Dance!

Life is one big Dance Party for our little Allie. She was born to groove and she does every single time she hears music. She even be-bops to the chime on Travis' computer or cell phone.

Our lucky duck got to spend her 16 month birthday week in Florida at DisneyWorld. One thing I'll always remember is walking down the pathway at SeaWorld. I was holding one of Allie's hands and Justin was holding the other. Christmas music was playing on the loudspeaker and the every 10 steps or so, Allie just couldn't take it any longer and had to stop, shake off our hands and dance for a bit before we could start walking again. Justin thought it was so adorable and hilarious! People passing were chuckling to themselves. I couldn't stop smiling.

One thing Allie just started doing is giving hugs and kisses right on the lips. Grandpa Guptill was her kiss of choice in Florida. She is so affectionate now. We love it!

She definitely wants to eat what we're eating and she wants to be held to fall asleep. She likes anyone to do her hair and she likes to hug her dollies.

Here are some sweet moments caught on my phone with her daddy at the Shamu show at SeaWorld and with Dad and presents on Christmas Day.