November

The month of November went by so quickly. This month I have been thinking about how blessed I am. I wouldn't say I have a perfect life because I do have a few hard days but I have been incredibly blessed to have very few bad days or even negative things in my life. Tanner and I have chosen to see things in a positive light.
This month has been filled with such fun and progression. We started it out in Las Vegas. Which I already wrote about but I want to say again how blessed I am to have a husband with a wonderful job and that I get to be blessed to spend time at home with Layla. We love to travel and have been very blessed to get to do it pretty regularly. Since I do get to be home with Layla everyday, I get to catch her doing such funny things like sleeping like this!

She even got to get all dressed up warm to delivery a little treat to the sisters I visit teach. I love to bake and cook so my visiting teaching sisters get to try out all of the things I make and Layla is my helper. Even when it's freezing outside and Tanner has to take her back home after two homes. I am so blessed to have a wonderful baby, husband and a reason to serve those around me.  I love the gospel and that it gives us the chance to help God's children. 

We also had the first snow of the season and Layla was able to experience that again but really for the first time because last year we wouldnt let her be outside long enough to really see the snow fall. Now that Layla is old enough to see and explore the snow I cannot wait for it to stick to the ground so we can play in the snow for the first time. 

I have been blessed with such a wonderful home that is perfect for entertaining. I was asked by Tanner's mom to let my house be used for a bridal shower for my future sister-in-law. As a family, us girls were able to put together a wonderful shower. Jenna helped with food and decorations, Marci did much of the food and Leanne provided the cutest games, and even Tanner's grandma brought some food. We had so much of Tanner's extended family over that I was so happy to see many of them and get to hear about their lives. It truly is a blessing to have that much family live close enough to come. I did not get to many pictures because I ended up being the hostess when I was not planning on it but I am always up for changes and I don't mind taking the lead to help things move and progress. My mom was a HUGE help for me she let me borrow so many things from her house to help decorate my house for this and I used my Grandma Woolley's recipe for creamy chicken noodle soup to make for the night.  

This month also marked Layla's 11 month birthday! My baby is growing up so quickly and becoming a little adult. With this month she has learned to crawl up the stairs, she has started to WALK. AHH! She has even started to only want what mom and dad are eating so less formula and baby food for her! I am so amazed at the blessing children are. I want to enjoy my time with Layla because she is so happy and playful and is such a huge helper in my life to keep me focused on what is truly important in my life and to have an eternal perspective. 

Tanner and I started our Christmas shopping early this year because we love to spend time together and go on adventures but we love to share with others and what a better way to do that then during the season of giving. This is Tanner and Layla up at the Traverse Outlet Mall. 

Tanner bought us tickets to go see TranSiberian Orchestra this year. We invited Austin and Jessica to come with us and then we went out to dinner. We truly enjoyed our night and the concert as always was the perfect way to start our the holiday season. I am so in love with Tanner and how we keeps traditions alive for me. I love traditions new and old and he helps to continue them. 

 My sister invited up to go to The Shoppes at Riverwoods lighting festival. It has been a long time since we have been down to those shops. I use to work down there for years but since we moved to Lehi I maybe went once since then but I love the atmosphere there and Layla loved getting to see the lights and fireworks and she always likes to spend time with her cousins.

Tanner and I put up Christmas lights on our house the day before Thanksgiving because Tanner did not work that day! I love that he has Wednesday off work so we get to spend that day together doing fun things! I will post more pictures about these when I do a December post and about our Christmas house decorations. I love to decorate our home and make it feel festive for every Holiday but especially Christmas. 

Then we come to Thanksgiving Day! I love this day. Especially when I get to spend the time with family. This year I got to bring food to the dinner. I feel like such an adult when I get to do things like that and man do I love getting to try new things to cook. I made a salad and green beans. One of the best parts of having Tanner as my husband is he always says how much he likes my cooking but when I made the green beans he was really enjoying them. It makes me feel so happy! 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! 

Las Vegas 2014

Las Vegas 2014

We made Layla a bed on this square couch but it only lasted one night because I was to worried she was going to climb off or push of the pillows and fall. 

Layla and I at the pool on Monday. It was to chilly to be in swim suits but warm enough to still be outside. 

Layla at the shark reef.

Layla and I at the pool on Tuesday when it was warm enough to swim. 

Shopping on Wednesday with Tanner and Caesars Palace and eating Gelato. 

I am so blessed to have a husband with a wonderful job. With his job he gets a few fun benefits. One of those is that he got to go down to Las Vegas for a NextGen (software they use at his work) convention. So, it might not have been as fun for him because he sat in classes Sunday through Wednesdays but we did get evenings together. We left Saturday morning and flew down to Vegas. The plane that we flew down on was a plane with propellers on the side. This made for a louder than normal plane ride. Layla as always did well on the flight. She is such a great traveling baby. The flight was pretty bumpy because of the wind in Vegas and just outside but it was a short flight only an hour and a half so it was okay to have some bumps. We got to check into our hotel(Mandalay Bay) early which was nice with all of our luggage and baby stuff. After that we spent that day walking around our hotel. Which we got lost once or twice but we ate lunch there at Citizens Kitchen and got hamburgers. That is one of my favorite first meal while on vacation. Then we walked down the stripe and looking at the hotels and going to the malls where we knew we couldn't afford any of it. We really enjoy any adventure with each other even if it is something we have done in the past. That night we met up with the employees of Tanner's work for dinner. We ate at Lupo by Wolfgang Puck that was inside of the Mandalay Bay hotel. It was pretty good food and the service was a little slow but it was fun to get to know some of Tanner's coworkers a little better.

Sunday, Tanner woke up and had to be down stairs by 7:30 so Layla and I just relaxed in the hotel. I still had us dress in our Sunday clothes even though I knew that we weren't going to go to church because I am a total wimp when it comes to getting a taxi with just Layla and I.  Layla and I spent the day walking around the shops at the hotel, exploring the pool/beach area and then reading and watching the Joseph Smith movie. Around 4:30 Tanner was done for the day and we were able to spend a little time together before we met up with his co-workers for dinner. Sunday night we ate at this restaurant in the hotel called the Border Grill. It was Mexican food. The service was pretty bad but the food was okay. (This is coming from me who does not like Mexican food)

Monday, Layla and I decided to see if it was warm enough outside to go to the pool. In the sun it was definitely warm enough but there was a lot of wind that day. Layla and I ate lunch and then we decided after about an hour and a half that it was time to go inside. About that same time Tanner had a break for lunch so Layla and I went down and said hi to him. It is way nice to get to see him during the day. After that Layla and I took a nap and got ready for the day. We decided since this was going to be one of the days were Tanner was getting out a little later than the other days. Layla and I decided to go to the shark reef that they have at Mandalay Bay. It was a lot of fun and Layla liked to point at the fish swimming by the window. She really liked the rays and any of the colorful fish. After we were done we had a little time to waste so I walked through the gift shop and Layla picked out a toy. She choose a stuffed animal turtle and wanted to just hold on to it.  We then met up with Tanner down in the convention center. That night Tanner's coworkers were going to dinner with Equinox. That was the company Tanner worked for before he got hired by Foothill. Equinox said that they are not going to let kids come to this dinner so Tanner was nice and stayed with me and Layla for dinner instead of going to dinner without us. That night we went to a sushi restaurant at Mandalay Bay and it was really delicious sushi. Layla was having a hard time so we did not get to stay long we ate and ran. That night we also went and got some frozen yogurt which is really nice. I like frozen yogurt and especially all the toppings you can put on top.

Tuesday was a nice day. Layla and I spent the day at the pool. We swam a little we played in the sand, I read, and Tanner came to visit up during his lunch break. It was such a nice relaxing day. I went upstairs and got ready while Layla got to play in the tub.  I read and watched a little T.V. Since we don't have cable at our house it was fun to see what was on T.V. these days. I learned that during the day nothing is on. Then we played while waiting for Tanner to be done with his classes that day. It was always may favorite part of the day when Tanner would come back to the room. I love getting to see him as much as I can. That is way I am so grateful I was able to join Tanner down in Vegas this year. This was our last night in Vegas and we went to dinner at a place called Burger Bar at the hotel. I have to say I really enjoy a good hamburger. These were pretty delicious. As we were walking back to our room Tanners coworkers decided to try there luck at a few casino games. I heard they actually did well. They did not lose any money and made a little. Tanner and I joked about that it how they get you when gambling. We watched three hands of 21 and got kicked out of the casino because we had a baby. I was a little glad I was very tired of smelling smoke and alcohol the whole time we were in Vegas.

Wednesday was our last day in Vegas. Tanner had a two classes he needed to go to until the conference was over. I got everything packed and ready for us to check out. Tanner came up and helped me take the bags downstairs to have them store them but then we found out you could check for the airplane at the hotel. We thought that was such a great idea. So, we check our bags and did not have to worry about them the rest of the day. Tanner went back to the hands on room so that he could play around a little with the software. Layla was asleep so I went and sat in the food court right by his room and read. He was only there for like 30 minutes and then was done so we headed to go walk to the strip, specifically Caesars Palace and go shopping at stores that we could actually buy stuff. Tanner and I love to go shopping together. Even just grocery shopping. So, this was so much fun going to try new fun clothes on and getting to buy some cute things. We ate some Gelato by the fish tank which Layla loved. We shopped and dreamed of buy some of the things we saw. We decided to go to California Pizza kitchen before we had to catch a taxi to the airport. We ate at the Mirage and catch a taxi from there to the airport where no one was. We walked right through security and right onto the plane. We had a great customer service desk worker. He was nice enough to keep the seat next to us open so that Layla could have a spot on the plane. The flight went fast and uneventful. Layla sat in her car seat in her plane seat and played with the toys we gave her while Tanner and I played ticket to ride on the I-pad together. Ticket to ride is our plane ride activity. A movie is to hard to watch when you have a baby that is a wake while flying but the game is good because we can play and watch Layla. We were finally home and ready for the holidays to begin.

HALLOWEEN 2014

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

2014

Every year Tanner and I talk about Halloween and what we are going to dress up as. Each year we always come to the conclusion that we don't really like dressing up because we don't want to be anything but ourselves. Added to that we dislike buying things for costumes because we believe it is a waste of money. So, that means we have to be a little more creative as what we are going to be. Since, this is our first Halloween with Layla it made it a little easier and more fun to dress up because it was entertaining to dress her up. When we were thinking about what to be for Halloween it was around the same time that Layla was learning to crawl and would crawl very slow. Because of that we decided Layla should be a turtle and that we would be too.




My sister started a fun tradition a few years ago of having a Halloween party. So, each year my sibling and cousins have a Halloween party. Now that two of us are married, one engaged and the other one single it is fun to get us all together with our "dates" and have a party. We love inviting my cousins to come especially with us getting older we have little time to get together with them so it is always great to have a reason to get together.
This year my sister let us have the party at our house. We had home made root beer, caramel apples, cupcakes, cake, doughnuts and veggie tray for food. Then we had a few games of bowling, eat the hanging doughnut, and clue. It was a lot of fun. Of course the BYU football game was on in the background.

My sister took the good pictures from this party these are just the ones I took as things were happening.

Warning: There are going to be a lot of YouTube videos of all the doughnut games! 

Somewhere I had Annalee and Chad's but I cant find it now. So when I find it I will add it. 

Also, this year I was trying to think as a mom what would be a fun but easy tradition for a Halloween dinner. Once Layla is older we will be going out trick or treating and we will need something fun and easy for dinner. Tanner and I decided home made waffles would be a fun thing to do. Especially because I don't like making "breakfast" for dinner very often if ever so it will be fun to do something different. We invited Chad, Leanne, Aubrey and Chance over for dinner this year and then we headed over to Grandma Nilsson's for chili and doughnuts. As always we love getting to see Grandma Nilsson especially with her being closer to us we can just stop by.  I love that Layla will get to see her great grandparents often!

October Minus Halloween

October is the month that I start to get excited about the holidays that are coming up. Christmas music is playing in our house, we have decorations for Halloween up and we are getting ready to have the leaves change and the winter come. Most people say October is their favorite month. Mine is basically every month from September to December. I love the end of summer, fall and the beginning of winter. This month I am not going to write to much but I am going to put up a lot of pictures of what has been going on in our lives but I am not going to include Halloween or Halloween stuff in this post.(Obviously since it is not even Halloween yet.)

 Tanner and Layla cuddling together. (Very rare to have Layla to snuggle with)

Tomatoes, Carrots and Green Onion from our garden. Plus the LARGE carrot we grew!

This is Layla watching General Conference. 

Layla's ten month Pictures

Grandpa Woolley with the Great Granddaughters the night before his open heart surgery. He had 6 bypasses done. He is doing well now. 

The stroller gang with their tough faces on.

Our attempt to get granddaughter pictures taken but they all would never look at the same time. Here are just a few from that night. 

We had a few days of entertainment at our house with this bee head band. 

Layla's new favorite thing is to watch the laundry spin in the washer and drier. She will crawl over to is and stand right in front of it to watch it go around. 

Sometime we stick Layla in strange places. Like on the shelf in our closet.

We enjoy going swimming with cousins but it tired Layla out. 

Andrew got to hold Layla while she slept and Jacqui( Andrew's fiance) did my hair. 

Layla loves to empty things now and then crawl inside them. 

Annalee and Chad invited us to go to the Edge Homes pumpkin party they were having. Layla got a pumpkin and balloon and loved them both. We got to play with cousins and hear some music and eat food. It was a lot of fun!

Tanner and I went on a date that night to the Hudson Lights concert to see McKay, Keith and Ross sing. We were glad we got to see them and some friends we haven't seen in awhile.

Layla was helping me clean by standing under the step stool. 

Layla loves bath time and not having to wear clothes. She is happy to crawl around with just a diaper on!

Layla is starting to really like having Alec hold her. She would prefer that over having to be on the ground. But with both girls in his arms they mostly trying to grab each others faces.

Tanner was able to go to a BYU football game with some of the young men and leaders in our ward so I decided to can for my first time ever. It was easy once I knew what I was doing and I actually enjoyed it. I am looking forward to canning more fruits and vegetables from our garden next year.!