"I'm so glad when daddy comes home, glad as I can be!"

As I've mentioned before, Evelyn has been LOVING having her daddy around and I loooove watching them! So cute and wonderful and sweet and funny! They are so silly....anywho...here's some pics from the last few weeks (I can't believe it's already been three weeks since he came home! Time really does fly by...), that I thought I would share with you!

helping Daddy cut out a snowflake

time to unfold!

yay! done! :)

Evelyn and Mark had lots of fun one night playing with bubbles!

She has had a slight obsession with bubbles lately...love this pic!

trying to eat one

more bubbles!

cutey cute!

this is just them playing on Evelyn's dry erase princess table, she loves it! I'm actually using it right now to put the laptop on to type this...pretty nifty little table!

playing Memory! Evelyn is actually pretty darn good at this game! Smarty pants! Mark taught her to  put her pointer finger on her cheek and go "hmmmm" when she's thinking of her next move...so CUTE!

what mom?? we're playing here! :)

"Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall." --Larry Wilde, The Merry Book of Christmas--

Last Saturday Mark, Evelyn, and I went and got our Christmas tree! This year though instead of going to a boring ol' lot, we found a Christmas tree farm about 25 minutes away and went and picked our own! It was pretty fun, much more fun than a lot and actually a better price and looked better too! :) Anywho...Evelyn was excited to go get one although from the get go she was like, I want a baby tree (she wants everything baby...baby chip, aka: small piece of chip, etc....she also wants everything PINK but I'll get into that later :). So we get there and go in, which first off there was Santa in there and she did not want to go near him. Although this year she didn't cry when she saw him so that's improvement. The closest she would go to him (this IS just like last year) was to reach the candy cane he was giving her....oh Evelyn...silly, silly girl. :)

So after she got her candy cane we headed out to look at trees...we'd ask her if she liked this one or that one and she'd always say no. Baby tree. Ugh. That girl is PERSISTENT! So we kinda just let her run down the aisles and I found one I really liked, Mark approved, Evelyn didn't care, so we got it! :) They did have some small trees but those were kinda pricey for a small one so we skipped that and instead we are gonna have my friend get us one of the ones you can planet yourself, which I thought would be cool. I didn't get it while we were there cuz I didn't think of it but it is a cool idea. Buy the tree now and watch it grow while Evelyn grows, super cute! And only $2 so why not? :)

Anywho...we packed up our tree and headed home. Luckily Evelyn took a nap right after that and Mark and I set it up and put the lights up and got the ornaments ready so when Evelyn woke up she could help us decorate! She really enjoyed that, then got bored, then we let her put on the star and she was excited again :) After that we hung up our stockings, got out the nativity, and wa-la! Christmas cheer! :)

 Santa, no...candy, yes! 

 this one, Evelyn? nope....

 cheese!

 nope..that's not the one...let's keep lookin....

 baby tree!

 oh goodness, this girl is just something else! look at that little poser....she was too good to help daddy put hooks on ornaments so she sat like this and watched him do it for awhile....

 wait, what? you want me to put it on the tree? :)

 boooring!

 now this is more fun!

And there you have it! Happy December everyone!

"Gratitude is a mark of a noble soul and a refined character. We like to be around those who are grateful. They tend to brighten all around them. They make others feel better about themselves." -Joseph B. Wirthlin-

This Thanksgiving was a pretty mild on for us. We spent the week hanging out together, enjoying having Mark back. So for Thanksgiving we had a nice dinner and invited our friend Chelsea and her two cute kiddos over to enjoy it with us. Her hubby is in Afghanistan so we were happy to have her over with us! Then after dinner the Evans came over and had dessert with us. So mild, but fun! I hate being away from the fam on holidays but am super glad to have such amazing friends to be around when family can't. :) I've been very lucky to find some wonderful friends here and am grateful for all they do for me! I am also very grateful for my family even when they are far away. I miss all of you, from Cali to Utah to Missouri to Alabama/Georgia, on up to Canada and more! :)

And of course I am ridiculously grateful for the wonderful, amazing, awesome husband that I have. There are no words to describe how grateful I am for him and how much I love him! He does so much for Evelyn and I and I appreciate all the hard work and willingness to do the things he does to provide for us. He's an amazing father and I absolutely LOVE watching him with Evelyn. They have so much fun together and she just adores him. I'm so glad he's home, a big part just to see them together, she definitely needs her daddy around!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you all found lots of things to be grateful for! I have had a very grateful holiday this year and look forward to the rest of the holiday season! :)


Oh, and here's a couple pics of course :) Although these are the only pics I took on Thanksgiving! I was too busy cooking and then hanging out with my friends/Mark/Evelyn. But I had to take a pic of my beautiful turkey, just for proof that I actually did it :) and then dessert is always the prettiest! Cherry cream pie and Pumpkin Cheesecake! YUM! :)

"Homecoming means coming home to what is in your heart."

As most of you know, Mark is HOME! He's been home a week now and we had a wonderful, wonderful, week off work to enjoy, as well as Thanksgiving! But that's for later...first of off his homecoming! He was supposed to come home around noon but that got pushed back so we had to waste our day away until 5:00 which is when they really got there. We went to the theater on base (that's where the buses drop off the guys) and waited for a loong while. Our good friends, the Evans, were there with us (her hubby was in Okinawa with Mark the entire time and they are also in our ward so we've gotten pretty close). Our other good friend/ward buddy, Chelsea, graciously took some pics for us so here they are!

Evelyn in her cute little outfit! LOVE it! 

My friend Gwyn braided her hair for me, SO FLIPPIN' CUTE!

instead of a sign outside we made cookies! 

Nicole and her kiddos came over to waste time before we headed over to the theater. 

waiting at the theater! 

two hot momma's! :)

or not... :)

playin' at the theater with all the other kids!

Nicole and her beautiful baby!

the buses are sighted!!!

they're here! unfortunately they stopped RIGHT there to do the colors before they let the guys off...ugh! soooo cruel and such a major anticipation builder!!!!

luckily they gave us a heads up that they were on the last bus!

so intense!!!

and Nicole's hubby was first!!! :)

Mark was the LAST one off! 

but yay!!! he's home!!!!

Evelyn wasn't so sure after the initial greeting.

so happy!

super happy! 

she was still a little iffy...

not me though! :)

once we got home she was totally fine! she was so excited to play...she kept saying, do it again daddy! 

see? happy :)

this is her saying, do it again, daddy! So pushy...

so cute!