Embrace the Camera

My sister-in-law attempted to take a picture of Aiden and I.

I love Halloween.

However, I'm really not into fancy expensive costumes

and things too scary.

Even though I'm grownup I still felt that

I needed to dress up with the kids to help

make it fun.

This year was nice, because I let KMart

do all the work for me.

Nice, not too scary and fit my little budget.

I may have to use this costume next year too.

Do you dress up with the children in your life?

I'd love to see. Be sure to post a link in the comments.

linking up with:

Her curiosity

This was a failed attempt to capture Aiden's curiosity.

I love how she's learning to color and draw.

My dad even pointed out that she's been using her left hand.

She might be lucky to be left handed like her Auntie.

Simple Things-Aiden and The Piano

One afternoon, in her Sunday best, when she thought no one was looking,

I watched her climb up on the bench.

Just to make sure she wouldn't tumble backwards.

She knew exactly what to do.

One day soon, she'll be the next little pianist in the house.

Play the music, not the instrument.  
~Author Unknown

Joyful Moments-Brushing Teeth

No worries. 

I do brush my teeth everyday.

:) 

However, someone thought brushing her teeth was so much fun after Grandpa taught her how.

Grandpa got a little bored after about a half hour.

Aunt La la decided to take over and took a few more pictures.

But sadly, it was time for dinner.

Aiden did not want to leave the bathroom.

She pouted as I carried her downstairs and begged for anyone to take 

her back upstairs to open the bathroom door.

Instead all of the adults, laughed and laughed.

It was pretty funny and super cute.

I love an Aiden girl, oh so much.

Please join us in the continuing journey of finding JOY!

I will blog about my Joyful Moment every Friday, 

where you'll be able to link up your blog as well, 

until the following Monday.

Here's the details for you to join in the photo challenge:

1. take a picture that brings you JOY

2. blog about that Joyful Moment, include our button{on the right} or simply link back to this blog

3. link your blog post up below

4. visit the other Joyful Bloggers and leave happy comments

5. enJOY!

Simple Things-Madi and Aiden

Love these girls.
They are growing up so fast {I know, I say that about all my nieces and nephews}.
I was walking up the driveway at my parents house the other day.
Aiden saw me and started screaming "La la! La la!" really loud.
I'm Auntie La la to her.

The story is that when I was little I kept saying Wee-saw and not Lisa.
My parents then started calling me la la la- Leee-sa, so I could learn my name.

The same has happened with Aiden.
Forget the Lisa part, it's just la la.
Big smile here.

Madeline is smiling and looking all over the place now.
 I can picture her and Aiden running all over the house next year.

Love, love these girls.

"In the eyes of a child . . . there is joy, there is laughter. . . there is hope, there is trust, a chance to shape the future."
~Air Supply

My sweet sister-in-law Jen has a facebook page where these sweet hair flowers are available.
Go and click "like" to support her here!

I {heart} Aiden

She was running around one afternoon with this headband in one hand

 and a valentine card in the other from her great-grandmother.

When she stopped to look at herself in the mirror, I wanted to capture it

 (even though I only had my cell on hand). 

This makes me smile and she does love that headband.

If you must. . .

If one must study during the Super Bowl, at least let it be near the food.

Along with an ice cream sundae please!

And with this girl begging for some ice cream. Again, blurry because she was literally pulling my hand to take a bite while I had my camera in the other one. Love this girl and she loves ice cream just like her Aunt Lisa. That's my girl! 

Congrats to the Packers! 

It was a close game.

And half-time show lights?

Pretty swwweeeettt!

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After School Fun!

A little bit before Madeline was born Katelyn asked, "Can we go out after school?"

With her five-year-old sweet eyes could anyone say no?

I think not. So one day we headed over to Nielsen's for some FC Toppers.

A hot fudge FC Topper is my new crave. 

Katelyn loved it. She ate the whole thing.

We were also excited because they are all decked out for Valentines.

Classic diner.

Then this week Katelyn asked the same thing again.

Most of the attention is now on Madeline and whatever is left, is given to Aiden.

Sometimes being the oldest can be a little rough.

And again, why not? I needed a break as well.

I asked Katelyn what she wanted.

"A brownie, please," she said.

I took her to Dick's and they had the best carts. The front of it was car where she could sit and play.

She was thrilled and $3.50 later with a case of brownies, we couldn't go wrong.

Katelyn with a crazed look from her sugared up bug juice. Aiden is in heaven eating her brownie while peering over to look at the T.V.

Thank goodness there were enough brownies to share! 

I love these girls.

Happy Saturday to all of our readers!

Stressed spelled backwards is desserts. Coincidence? I think not!  

~Author Unknown

Congrats!!!

One of my favorite blogs won this award yesterday.

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I was thrilled!!!

And so to say Congrats to Today's Letters, I'm writing today's post in their style.

 Dear Mr. Jones, I love it when you make spaghetti for me. It's my favorite food in the WHOLE entire world! Dear University of Utah, You should really consider making it appropriate for students to be at least 20 minutes late for class. The fact that you keep tearing out parking lots to build new buildings and not replacing parking lots, makes it a parking nightmare.  Dear Dr. Vergobbi, Do you realize in your syllabus that you have written that we need to attend class at least five different times in bold, italicized, all caps and underlined? Will you please, please, Please, PLEASE, PLEASE let me into your Communication Law class so I can graduate? Yes, I will attend class. Dear Aiden, You are so funny. You pulled your socks off your feet when you were finished eating dinner. Grandpa then put the socks on your hands and you clapped with JOY. Dear Husband, I love you oh so much more. I don't know what I would do without you. Thanks for bringing me JOY everyday.

Dear Today's Letters, You guys are freakin' awesome! Congrats on being the Top Blog!

Tonight, I'm going to be cheering these ladies on.

My friend Sarah Nitta on the right with her mom Denise.

Pink team rocks! Sarah, I am sorry that you have gone through several miscarriages.

Good news is that you're making a difference in the world and I'm sure you'll have a healthy baby soon.

We're cheering you on!

If you have a moment, take a quick look at their video and be sure to watch them tonight!

She turned her cant's into cans,
and her dreams into plans.

~She

A Soules Thanksgiving

Since we celebrated with Kevin's Family early this year, it was now my parents turn.

Actually, I convinced them and begged my mom to have Thanksgiving at home. I wanted to have the stuffing with chestnuts (my Aunt Rebb's recipe) and my dad's chocolate pecan pie. Not to forget that later in the evening Nate and I would watch Home Alone while sipping Cherry 7up. This crazy tradition started when Home Alone first aired on TV. Nate and I were bored, so we watched it and loved it. Every little boy learned how to scream like Kevin into the mirror that year. Now, we have an old copy of the movie and still find it just as entertaining on Thanksgiving night after our stomachs are full. Luckily, my mom gave in and decided to do the works (I used the "I'm your favorite daughter and it would be so much fun excuse").

Daddy Carving the Turkey and our banquet of food in my parents kitchen.

This girl loved it the most.

We also changed things up just a tiny bit. Nate made the turkey (I know, my brother can cook better than I can, shhhhh) and this year, my mom made the sweet potatoes (we usually bought them pre-made) with a recipe I found on Real Simple.

 Serves 8| Hands-On Time: 15m | Total Time: 1hr 10m

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for the baking dish
• 2 1/2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1⁄4-inch-thick rounds
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan (2 ounces)
• kosher salt and black pepper
• 3/4 cup chopped pecans
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
• pinch of cayenne pepper

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375° F. Oil a shallow 2 ½- to 3-quart baking dish.
2. In a large bowl, toss the sweet potatoes with the Parmesan, 2 tablespoons of the oil, 1 teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon black pepper; transfer to the prepared baking dish. Cover tightly with foil and bake until tender, 45 to 50 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the pecans, sugar, thyme, cayenne, the remaining tablespoon of oil, ¼ teaspoon salt, and ⅛ teaspoon black pepper.
4. Remove the foil from the baking dish, sprinkle the pecan mixture over the potatoes, and continue to bake, uncovered, until the pecans are toasted, 10 to 12 minutes. 

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Family+Lots of food+Thankfulness+watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade+Aiden stuffing her face+watching the Cowboys game+homemade chocolate pecan pie+watching Home Alone+drinking lots of Cherry 7up+Chestnut stuffing+homemade pumpkin pie= 

A FABULOUS Soules Family Thanksgiving

I'm one lucky girl.

Shopping for Toys

We decided to do our Christmas shopping ahead of time. Usually, my mom and I are headed out with the 4am crowd on Black Friday. I would have waited for Black Friday but when I looked at Target's ad on Sunday, it was tempting just to get that part of it done. I can always use an extra day to sleep in.

This year, Christmas is going to be a little interesting. Our budget is incredibly small to where, Kevin and I aren't going to be giving each other presents this year. "It's going to be a hard candy Christmas." 

However, if anything, Christmas must come for all children. We're pretty lucky to have these cute nieces to buy presents for. 

Katelyn and Aiden

They're growing up so fast.

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So with what little money we have, we did make it to Target making the best of things. Like I said, it was a really great sale.

We started out by finding a favorite game of Katelyn's and mine:

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Then we found this for less than I thought we would (always a bonus):

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We are pretty lucky that Katelyn is a girl. The sale was so good that Target's shelves were close to empty. They had this game and a Tinkerbell game. Since Katelyn loved The Princess and the Frog, it was an easy choice.

Then I saw this:

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So cute for Aiden but above our budget. I played with it for a little bit and the sink sang about washing your hands.  Kevin found it really neat that it has a learn Spanish mode. We went to pay for Katelyn's toys and I moped over to the checkout line thinking about the little kitchen.

I then started thinking about the last Sunday's ad (I was holding it in my hand, we used it as a reference) and started looking through it again. Right in front of my face was a coupon! I did the math and we were still a little bit short. I then started thinking about where I could find a few extra bucks and come back.

Suddenly it occurred to me that from cleaning out my room, I left the pig in my car (I know, all this time, you can tell I don't clean out my car very often. Sorry, dad).

The pig.

The pig was originally my Uncle Paul's and somehow my dad had it. I then took it from him and it has always had a special place in my room (even as a little girl, I loved vintage things). I must have been about five when I found out it was my Uncle Paul's. I then put it in a box and told my dad that we needed it mail it to him. My dad told me that he would probably just throw it away, so I kept it.

It officially came in handy because it's filled with coins! We went out to the parking lot and shook the pig and out came some lovely quarters. Good times.

With the coupon and coins in hand, we were able to buy the singing kitchen for Aiden after all.

On top of all of that, I recently found an unused gift card from Kohl's. I had also looked at their ad and they have a really good special right now and it goes towards charity.

Kohl's Special that we picked up:

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For five dollars each, I couldn't beat that. I couldn't imagine a better way to use that gift card. I will soon be reading these before tucking little girls into bed. Plus, they also have a friend to sleep with.

SO yes, Virginia there is a Santa Claus!

We're glad that Target and Kohl's had things we could afford.

Christmas is coming to these special little girls! Please, if you see them don't ruin the surprise. I'm also making a lot of other presents for family which I'll do a mini post about later but it won't be given in full detail since a few of them follow this blog.

Happy Holiday Shopping!!!

It's just around the corner

Tonight was the traditional family night dinner at the Soules home. We love our Sunday nights for this reason. Tonight, Aiden had little pigtails in her hair and was wearing her Utah cheerleading outfit. I think she's getting ready for the big game.

There was a small surprise for all of us when Kevin and I arrived. I had ordered a movie for all of us to share, Christmas Eve on Sesame Street. 

Aiden loves Sesame Street! It's the only show that she'll pay attention to the entire hour. It was also my favorite show as a child and absolutely LOVE that she loves it too. That is one show that is fun for adults and kids. I'm amazed at the creativity and adult jokes that are included every show.

True Blue Miracle

This reminded me to ALWAYS believe in miracles. This movie made the night! Aiden was glued and we passed around popcorn and of course, I made a GIANT cup of hot chocolate. It was oh sooo good. Plus, great memories. It was made in 1978 and still being passed down.

Kevin and I love going to my parents house this time of year for another thing, which is the frosting on top for us, the piano. I have pulled out the Christmas books and we love playing duets together. We're currently polishing up several songs and laughing our way through it.

We both agree that when we buy a house, a piano will be the first thing that we want to move in. If it were left up to me, we'd get a piano before we get a full size couch.

Get ready, "It's the holiday season and Santa Claus is coming back; the Christmas snow is white on the ground."

Sunday Drive and Cute Aiden

It had been quite the busy week and I was in need of a break. We decided to escape for a little bit before heading up to my parents for our traditional Sunday dinner. It was beautiful.

up Emigration Canyon

Kevin was driving

We soon reached a point where 1-80 meets up to the canyon and we knew it was time to go. Luckily, this cute girl was waiting for us all dressed up.

Aiden in my parent's yard

What a nice Sunday.