St. George

Jon had a business trip earlier this month that was taking him to St. George.  Knowing that Lydia will be starting Kindergarten in the Fall we figured that we ought to take advantage of the opportunity to go with him before school starts for her (and then Sophie and then Mia) and especially while the girls are so young.  These business trips are the best treat ever for our little ladies.  All they need is to swim in a hotel pool and they're crazy happy. 

Jon needed to be at his first meeting by 1:00 Monday afternoon on the 7th, so we left early that morning.  And by early I mean early.  We were actually up at 5:00 am. And even more impressive to me was that we were out the door at 6:15, and on the road by 6:21. We love tagging along on Jon's business trips.  Having woken up so early I was sure that the girls would fall asleep fairly quickly once we got going.  They had their "buddies" (Sophie brought her baby doll and her puppy Copper.  Lydia brought Blu and her puppy Queen Amadala, formerly known as Taffy who was formerly known as Max, and Microwave, and Daisy, and so on. And Mia brought her little brown hamster and pink and white puppy) and they seemed super comfortable while watching Lady and the Tramp, but they didn't sleep a wink. Soph eventually did fall asleep for half a second, but Lyds was determined to make it to our destination with her eyes wide open.  Mia was much much more of a sleeping champ, and happy girl in general. We stopped to feed her once and realized she had a major blowout, but our drive down was incredibly quiet.

When we stopped for lunch we had a very hysterical Lydia screaming at the top of her lungs.  Fortunately we were able to work things out and she's doing much better now. Some kid commented that we had a cute baby boy. Baby boy?? In purple pants? And a shirt that says "Daddy's girl Forever"?? Not to mention her feminine features??? Come on now. But that's okay. I agree. She is a cute baby.  Soph's feet didn't agree with her flip-flops and she got some blisters, not that she was complaining. The balmy 70° we stepped into felt like heaven. Clear skies, warmth and no inversion. Perfection. 

That first afternoon of meetings left Jon a little worried that the information he'd be getting during the week wouldn't be helpful, but day two was much better and the fact that his days ended at 4:00 was even better since it meant more family time!! We didn't wake up early enough to eat breakfast with him but it was awesome eating lunch and dinner together and walking around St. George a bit. We brought a twin size air mattress that we put on the floor in between the two hotel beds. Lydia slept on it for the first two nights, but ended up in bed with me and Mia the last two nights. I was sleeping at a strange 90 degree angle with the three of us in there, and Jon was doing his best to defend himself from little Sophie dear who leads a double life. Princess by day, karate star by night. Jon's pretty sure he got a foot to the forehead one night, and it's a wonder to both of us that that little lady is ever fully rested.

After Jon was finished that first day and we'd come home from dinner and were getting ready to go for a swim he was blowing up the girls' floaties when Leafy, Lydia's dinosaur, exploded.  Jon wanted to make sure there was plenty of air in him, but apparently it was too much. Too much for everyone. Tears galore.  Lydia calmed down quickly enough and we still had a fun time at the pool with the reassurance that we'd see if we could find a new floaty the following day.  Leafy had been Brynlie and Brandon's before he was ours, so he'd had a good long life. 

The next day we visited Target and the girls were quick to point out all the Star Wars stuff they saw.  We found a great 5 minute Star Wars storybook full of quick stories that began with young Anakin Skywalker and continued all the way to The Force Awakens and added it to our library so that we could alternate between Star Wars and Princess stories after scriptures at bed time. A win for all of us.

 While there Lydia and I made the mistake of visiting the men's restroom. We were in a hurry and once we stepped in it didn't even occur to me that we were in the wrong place. Lyds knew what was up. Urinals should have given it away. Woops!  And before we left we found a suitable replacement for Leafy.  And one for Bubbles, Sophie's floaty, too.  He'd been leaking air for a long time now. I was so glad that we were in St. George and that they actually had an aisle stocked with swim supplies.  Lydia found herself a zebra and promptly named him Zebie, and Sophie found a giraffe that she named Juicy before changing her mind and settling on Hiney.

Swimming all week was awesome. Mia was happy as long as she was in her mom or dad's arms.  We tried out a baby lady bug floater that a kind neighbor had given us, but she was not a fan.  Cutest Mia. All smiles with her big bright eyes. Taking it all in. Jon got to swim some laps in the pool. Lydia raced him over and over again. Sophie didn't always want to get in the water, but I sure loved one evening when she let me hold her. We went spinning around and around and raced Lydia a bit when she wasn't playing with Jon and Mia. One night Lydia and I went to the pool by ourselves while Jon rested with Soph and Mia. They joined us before we were done, but Lydia was struggling to enjoy the water like she normally does. She was suddenly overcome with a fear of sharks and was terrified/convinced that one was lurking in the hotel pool. Jon and I had a few discussions with her about sharks and things were much better the rest of the week. Lydia was so proud of herself because her feet reached the bottom of the pool. I loved seeing Soph clinging to Jon when she wasn't with me or refusing to get in the water. Watching Mia's look of surprise when her feet touched the water was so sweet.  Great times in the pool.  And according to Lyds, "best. Day. Ever!"

 

I should probably mention how much the girls enjoyed the complimentary breakfast the hotel provided.  We learned the first day that messing around with hard boiled eggs and yogurt was a waste of time. Waffles. That was all we needed. Waffles. Sophie held strong to her determination to eat nothing but waffles each morning and only made an exception once when she saw sausages, but Lydia didn't budge. Waffles. No need for anything else.

Besides the Home Show that was going on in St. George, there were several soccer and softball tournaments taking place that weekend, so the hotel kept getting busier and busier as the week progressed. One evening after swimming, Sophie, Mia and I were heading upstairs when we met some softball players. They were talking about how cute the girls were and after we passed them Sophie decided she wanted to know their names so we went back and introduced ourselves, found out their names and talked to them for a few minutes. They were really friendly girls, and so nice to Sophie.

The hotel also did cookies and milk from 3:00-5:00 in the afternoon. Once we were aware of that we made sure not to miss it. We discovered a beautiful park close to Jon's meetings. We picnicked there one day and ran around the field, danced in the gazebo and played on the playground. In fact Friday, our last day in St. George, we decided to let the girls get some running and playing in before the long car ride home. While there Lydia became best friends with Chloe. They ran around together, climbed on rock walls and played hide and seek. She really wanted Chloe to come home with us. While they were playing Soph and I were running around from tree to tree. We ran to the gazebo and twirled in it until we were dizzy, and then ran around some more. Mia loved watching her sisters, especially when they ran up to her while she was in the bjorn with Jon. He kept an eye on Lydia and Chloe. Chloe told Lyds that her whole family liked BYU, not Utah (Lyds was wearing a Utah shirt that day) but that she liked Utah too. I overheard and told her that we liked both BYU and Utah at our house.

Sophie "liked when we goed swimming.  And I liked when I swam in Juicy before she was named Hiney.  And I liked sleeping there.  And I liked taking the bath there.  And that's all I liked. Oh! And the waffles and the sausages and the cookies and milk.  And I liked the show with the boys and the girl that was called PJ Masks."

Lydia "liked when we gone swimming.  I didn't like when Leafy broke.  I loved when I was watching Nature Cat. And I liked cookies and milk. I liked when I played hide and seek underneath the stairs. I liked when we pushed the elevator buttons.  Sophie would open the doors and I would push the button for our floor."

2015 missed highlights.

We sold our Rav4 and bought a minivan in preparation for Mia.  Lydia's informed us that she misses the red car, but it's been so nice for the girls to be able to climb in and out of the van themselves and not worry about the doors slamming shut on them.  Brittany's dad was great to work with in getting a good deal and we've really enjoyed it so far, especially knowing that we'll likely be enjoying it for years and years to come!  Sorry, no pictures.  Maybe I'll do something about that...sometime...

Uncle Nate coming home right before Lydia's fourth birthday.  We loved being at the airport ready to welcome him home with posters and a big crowd.  It was a bit of a let down to find out that we were waiting for him in the wrong place!  l love that my Jon found him in another building and was working to bring him to where all the rest of us were when we realized with certainty that Uncle Nate wasn't going to descend the escalator like we thought he was.  Despite that hiccup it was so great to reunite with Uncle Nate and catch up with him after two well served years.

4th of July... I sort of dropped the ball on that one.  Lots of fun time with family.  Mia was barely two weeks old at the time.

Lydia gave her first talk in Primary in October.  She was asked to talk about the miracles Jesus did.  We read several scriptures and showed her pictures so that she could decide what she wanted to talk about.  She was fascinated about Him walking on water and was amazed with the story of Him feeding the 5,000, but when she heard the story of Jesus blessing Jairus's daughter she knew that that was what she wanted to talk about.  She mentioned the other miracles Jesus did, but went in to much more detail about Jairus and who he was and how he had so much faith that Jesus could heal his daughter even after he was told that she was dead.  She loved that Jairus's daughter was raised from the dead and then bore her testimony that Jesus still does miracles.  She did an awesome job and we had a good time with girls practicing Lydia's talk in front of a "podium" made from an old car seat box. Both she and Sophie really enjoyed getting up there and preparing for Sunday.

Early November was a rough time for us.  We were pretty much a vomit factory and the most miserably sad case of sad you've ever seen.  It was at the end of the sickness that Jon was out of the office checking things out in "Vanilla" (Manila Utah) when he sent me this:

 

I figured he must be okay if he was able to send the picture, but it was really hard to tell how damaged the truck was, if at all, how he was really doing and when he'd be able to make it back home.  So I talked to him and got the story.  He was driving on wet clay underneath the snow.  He thought that the soil was frozen (which would have made for a better scenario) but as it was Jon started sliding off the road and the truck tires didn't have very good tread so he eventually slid off the road.  After several failed attempts to get back on the road he called the contractor to pull him out.  The contractor's truck wasn't enough to pull Jon free, so the contractor got his backhoe and they were able to get Jon back on the road.  I was so glad he wasn't going to be stuck in Manila for the night and incredibly amazed that his company truck wasn't dinged up after being so close to that huge tree.  My favorite was hearing the girls tell Uncle Isaac (we were at Grandma and Grandpa Blackhurst's at the time) about Dad's work truck going off the road in Vanilla.

Sephora with Aunt Abby.  I mentioned in the Christmas post that this was a dream come true for these girls. Abby obviously had a purpose in going to Sephora beyond introducing her nieces to a rainbow of beautiful makeup, but it became so much more than that when she discovered that I'd never been there myself.  The fact that I didn't know what Sephora was was just too much to handle.  So we quickly remedied that and now look forward to continuing the tradition with Aunt Abby whenever she is in town.

Thanksgiving was wonderful.  We love living so close to family and being able to do Sunday dinners together with both of our parents and love that these girls get to see many of their cousins and several Aunts and Uncles as well.  Dinner was delicious (turkey, stuffing candied yams and pumpkin pie!), but the girls especially loved the turkey craft Grandma Frazier prepared where they made turkeys from Oreos, peanut butter cups, candy corn, swedish fish and all sorts of other tasty treats. They enjoyed putting them together almost as much as they enjoyed eating them. ;)   The cousins got to play Wii Resort and we watched them bowl and sword fight.  I was surprised that Lyds wanted to sword fight at all, but watching Conner coach Lydia was actually really sweet. Also, you can probably see the paper chain hanging from the lights behind us here. I loved the gratitude lesson Grandma and Grandpa Frazier had the Sunday before we'd be getting together for Thanksgiving where they set the slips of paper in front of us and let us all write down things we were thankful for.  Lydia and Sophie had a long list of people and things that they are grateful for in their life.  Their parents and sisters, extended family, the gospel, Jesus, books, toys and much more made the list.  I loved watching Lydia write down the things she was grateful for as we spelled them for her.  She wrote really small and very clearly.  I wish I'd taken a picture of it!  It was nice to see them thinking so hard about what really matters to them and what they really appreciate.

Utah Football games are usually much more a part of our lives than they were this past year. We were in Oregon for the first home game, and then Jon was away at a Leadership Conference for another game.  One of the games was on Halloween and we weren't going to miss trick-or-treating with our girls, so Jon sold those tickets.  There were a few that he went to without me.  He took Grandpa Frazier to one and his best friend Clint to another.  I was a little sad to think that Lydia and Sophie had both been to multiple games with us in the first year of their lives and it looked like Mia wasn't going to make it to even one.  Part of the problem was that the games were all played so late.  Getting a babysitter for Lydia and Sophie was hard to begin with, but add to that a late night and that discouraged us quite a bit.  But at the end of the season Utah was playing Colorado and the game was scheduled to start in the afternoon.  We felt much better about the time and planned to drop Lydia and Sophie off at Grandma and Grandpa Blackhursts and took Mia to the coldest game of the season.  Parents of the year!!  She was a champ and slept through quite a bit of it.  We left before the game ended too, but I'm glad we did it.

  

Jon had this brilliant idea to set Nate up with our Bishop's daughter.  Both of us kind of had her in mind for a blind date with him.  But Jon doesn't just set people up.  Not always anyway.  He made this amazing dating trading card.  And then wrote a letter as if he were Lydia and had Lydia hand it to her Primary teacher, who happened to be Breanna, one Sunday before Thanksgiving.  She was going to school at BYU-I and this would allow for more than one date should they choose to do so.  It sounded like the first date was awesome, but that's about as far as it got.  Still.  Major props to Jon for coming up with such a clever set up.

  We picked up Uncle Nate from Provo after his finals ended.  Who can't go to Provo without stopping at the Creamery?  It was a fun trip.  We got to hear one of Uncle Nate's mission stories when he was separated from his companion and all their luggage.  It was pretty exciting and such a relief to find out that it had a happy ending.  This was during the time that Lydia and Sophie started asking to hear our stories.  I told them mission stories like the cobra and the carabou.  I also told them things I remembered from when I was close to their age.  Show and tell in Kindergarten when I lost Grandma's pretty ring on the playground.  Don't worry, Fallon and I found it in the end.  Jon would tell them surgery stories; his gallbladder, surgery on his jaw and getting a hernia repaired.  After they'd heard all of these, they'd start requesting to hear a specific one.  It was fun to get Uncle Nate in on that action.  I especially loved hearing stories the girls would make up.

Lydia the dog walker.  It's not quite as good as Lydia the dog owner, but I think she'd confess that it's better than nothing.  Jon's Grandma moved here from California a few months ago and brought her dogs with her.  Lydia loves all dogs and talks constantly about wanting a dog of her own.  Her stuffed animals and little tiny puppies are pretty cool, but not quite as good, so she thinks, as the real deal.  So, when the Frazier family gathered at Grandma Duse's for the Christmas party, and we showed up an hour early, Lydia got her chance to see what life with a real dog might be like.  She walked those little dogs for quite a while and, by the look on her face, still thinks dog ownership is the life for her.  I'm glad she has the opportunity to spend some time with animals without actually making one a part of our family.

Christmas 2015

Last Christmas Aunt Stacey gave the girls snowmen kits, but we didn't get a chance to use them because there just wasn't enough snow!  So the first snow fall this year (which brought at least a foot to our neighborhood) was the moment we'd been waiting for!  Jon came home early from work that afternoon so that he could build some snowmen with his girls.  Lydia, Sophie and I had already been outside for a solid hour or more shoveling the driveway while Mia napped.  They loved playing in the snow and joined in with our sweet young women neighbors when they came to help clear the concrete.  Things worked out perfectly so that Lydia and Sophie had enough time to warm up with hot chocolate just before Jon came home.  Then they headed back out and were incredibly helpful (eating snow and stomping through the newly shoveled piles) while their dad shaped the snowmen.  In fact, their biggest contribution included putting on the coal buttons which eventually ended up in the right spots.

A new tradition began around Thanksgiving when Aunt Abby took the girls to the mall and introduced them to Sephora.  It was, in a word, heaven. Honestly, that outing changed Sophie's life; she will never be the same.  It's something she's talked about often and knows that if Aunt Abby is in town there will absolutely be a trip to Sephora.  This time around Lydia knew exactly what colors she wanted and didn't waste time admiring anything else.  After looking like a butterfly in November Sophie had all the confidence in the world that her Aunties would make her look beautiful.  And Aunt Abby and Aunt Sarah did just that.  They dolled them up while Aunt Jess, Mia and I watched on. 

Preparing for Christmas is always a whirlwind and incredibly stressful.  This year was a little better since Jon and I had made great efforts to not procrastinate homemade gifts and shopping in general, but somehow things still were being finished at the very last minute.  I love doing the calendar for Grandma and Grandpa Blackhurst and it's been so fun to make a calendar for just our family, but I'm learning that I'd really benefit by collecting/filing pictures throughout the year.  Hopefully I can remember that for next year! Jon's magnet board for Uncle Nate looked awesome when he finished.  He'd learned some tips from making Isaac and Amber's last year and we got a kick out of plastering it with pictures of our family.  We also included Nate's "dating" trading card that Jon came up with when we decided to set him up with our Bishop's daughter.   We thought he ought to have a copy.  Baking neighbor treats was also a little more stressful than it probably needed to be.  Why is it that baking for someone else often leads to poorer results than normal?  The caramel I was melting nearly burned before I realized I should take it off the stove.  Fortunately the caramel filled brownies turned out just fine in the end.  Our neighbors are too kind, but we do enjoy sharing the love this time of year.  Our Christmas card came together in the end too.  

 

Christmas Eve with the Frazier side was wonderful even though we started it by spending the afternoon out in the bitter cold.  We braved the biting wind and snow (at least that's how I remember it) and went sledding at the Elementary school behind Grandma and Grandpa Frazier's school with Grandpa and the Talbots.  I, sadly (wink wink), needed to feed Mia so we weren't able to endure as long as everyone else, but Lydia had the time of her life sledding on her own down the hill again and again and again.  She was so proud of herself!  Sophie and I slid down together a few times before I went in and then she and Jon went down the hill over and over again until the girls' little cheeks and noses were bright pink.  Dinner was delicious.  Shrimp. Little smokies rolled in crescent rolls.  Cheese ball and crackers.  Veggie tray.  Lots of fruit.  Meatballs. And probably more yummy goodness that I can no longer remember.  

  We then dressed up for the nativity.  Well, Mia and I watched everyone else get dressed up and prepare to perform.  I loved doing this as a kid growing up and love that the girls get to participate with both our families each Christmas Eve.  I'm sure the time will come when we'll do it with just our little family, but until then we look forward to these moments. 

And then it was time to open presents.  Cathy made the girls the cutest hats!  Anna for Sophie, Elsa for Lydia and the cutest little white and blue hat for Mia. We took a time out to admire them and the girls just adored the hats!  So we snapped several pictures of the girls wearing their beautiful new hats and then moved on. When Sophie opened Stacey's gift card to McDonald's we all knew who had won Christmas for her!  She could not stop jumping up and down and running around exclaiming, "Aunt Stacey's taking us to McDonalds! Aunt Stacey's taking us to McDonalds! Aunt Stacey's taking us to McDonalds!"  It was truly a thrilling moment for her.  And it lasted much much longer than anticipated.  When everyone opened the Lagoon passes from Grandma and Grandpa Frazier we knew that Christmas could have ended right then and there and we'd been super spoiled.  We are so excited to visit the carousel and ride the boats and go to Lagoona beach this summer.  And getting to go with cousins makes it even better!

Christmas morning was a delight.  Lydia got her Care Bear and jump rope and Sophie's kitty, puppy and tree with a star on top were exactly what she wanted.  The Star Wars books we got for dad would bring much entertainment in the weeks to come (more on that in a later post) and Mia sucked her thumb and happily watched her sisters.  These horses have been and will continue to be used for many horse races around the kitchen and living room and our Monday night games have and will continue to include Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders and Hungry, Hungry Hippos as part of our family night after our lessons.  We still need to work on being happy for whoever reaches "King Candy" first, but we are working on it.  Oh, and it should be noted that the Utah shirts and the BYU sweaters will be worn and enjoyed by all. They already are. Mia looks especially awesome in her dress and onesie.

Christmas morning with the Blackhursts was an extension of the spoiling that began the night before.  Aunt Sarah made these awesome cinnamon rolls and we got to talk to the Heiselts before everyone arrived. We then gathered together to open gifts.  Isaac and Amber really outdid themselves.  The Treehouse Museum passes are so perfect!  Between going there and to Lagoon our girls have it made this year!  And the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books have been a hit already.  Both Lydia and Sophie have their favorite stories, but we look forward to completing the series and then revisiting them again and again.  The family trees with pictures of everyone in both our families made me want to cry!  They're such a beautiful and thoughtful gift and I look at them every day.   I love that every member of the family is included on our trees, and find the girls peering at them often.  I know that took quite a bit of work to put together and getting all the pictures from Jon's mom seemed like really going the extra mile for sure.  And the aprons!  They. Are. Adorable!  The girls look so darling in them and since they help me so much in the kitchen it'll be even more fun for them to dress up a bit when we're getting fancy with the spices. ;) Such a fun day.  So great to spend time with family.

Chuck-A-Rama was a fun night as always.  Thanks Mom and Dad for taking us there each year.   Love their scones.  The girls could probably have slurped slushy all night and been perfectly happy. It was so fun running into friends from the home ward and I got to catch up with Martha and meet her cute family.  Afterward some of the brothers came over for games, Inside Out and fun discussion.  I just love this pic of Mia with her Uncles.  That little tongue! Always making an appearance.