Thanksgiving Break

I've been waiting for this holiday break for a while now, and in the blink of an eye it's over! We had a nice Thanksgiving this year and enjoyed a lot of fam time.

Thanksgiving morning we played in the annual Stapley Turkey Bowl. We had a smaller crowd this year, but it was still a lot of fun. My dad was sick so he played quarterback for both teams. We ended in a tie....boo! It's alright though, white will come back next year :) Charlee & my mom were awesome for chasing after our kids during the game. How adorbs is this picture?

Thanksgiving dinner was spent at Joni's house, my moms cousin. We had a delish dinner and there are a lot of little kids running around these days which is fun, especially for Beckett. After eating dinner there, we visited my grandma Stapley & the Rackhams.

Josh & I did do a tiny bit of Black Friday shopping afterwards, but we were in and out. It was pretty nice and relaxing compared to years past. The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing at home, getting Christmas lights up, and Christmas shopping of course! We are almost done Christmas shopping which takes a big load off, now we really get to enjoy the festivities.

Boards

Woo hoo! Josh passed his boards!

Josh took the boards on November 3rd & 4th. The test is very difficult and the last big test of his dental schooling. He studied a lot for them and was pretty nervous....it's a big deal! Josh is good at taking tests, so I wasn't too nervous for him-I knew he'd pass :)

They told him he would get his results the beginning of December. We were prepared to wait....and wait. However, low and behold his results came in the mail exactly two weeks later! He came home, found them in the mail, opened it nervously and it said....PASS!

He was ecstatic, as were we. We went out to dinner that night to Sawadee (our favorite Thai restaurant) to celebrate.

 All of the REALLY difficult tests are done which is really nice. He just needs to finish out the school year, keep practicing, and take his clinical test in the spring.

It's been a long journey to get to this point and it's pretty surreal that we are almost done. Josh has worked really hard and I'm glad that we're starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I think it'll be totally bizarre once he actually graduates the first week of June; we don't know any different than being a student and living the 'student life'. How exciting it is that we are so close to starting our next chapter as a family! We love you Josh!

Harlow: 10 Month Update

My baby girl is 10 months old! Time is going by way too fast and I don't like it, not at all. With Beckett, I was always excited for the next step, probably because he was my first and it was all new. But with Harlow, I am in NO hurry and it makes me sad that she is growing up so fast. It seems like the newborn stage flew by....

Harlow these days:

• She is crawling like a champ! If she wants something, she goes for it! It's so cute to watch her little bum go back and forth as she crawls around.
• Smiley! She is almost always happy! She has a very happy demeanor and lights up the room.
• Starting to like 'people food' more. She still isn't a huge fan of baby food, but she likes munching on baby Cheetos, crackers, fruit, and pickles.
• Harlow is starting to self-feed. She likes to hold the bottle or sippy herself. She isn't always able to drink it, but she is getting more independent.
• She has a big personality! Her personality is really starting to come out, I love it. She is happy, a little sassy, and loves attention.
• She is trying to communicate. She squeaks really loud or does a grabbing motion with her hands if she wants to be held. She is REALLY good at shaking her head 'no' if she doesn't want to eat.
• She loves the bath, she could play in it all day.
• LOVES her brother. He is constantly making her laugh.
• Harlow can be a cuddler. She likes to rest her head on our shoulder or chest.
• She is standing up by herself a lot, while holding on to objects. She is mastering walking around while holding on to couches, tables, etc.
• She has stood on her own for a few seconds, I think that is what she'll be doing a lot of this next month.
• Overall, she has become a mover and a shaker!

Beckett: 3 1/2 Years Old

Beckett has been growing up so much lately. I wanted to do a 3 1/2 year update on the little man so that we can remember this time.

First of all, he is a great big brother. He does have a hard time sharing with sissy but he is so affectionate and loves her to death. It's the cutest thing ever to see him try to get her to laugh. It's really important to him that she thinks he is funny, and she definitely thinks he is funny!

Beckett started the tantrum stage at about 2 1/2. My mom told us that she thinks the 'terrible 3's' are more like 2 1/2-3 1/2. She was definitely right, at least in Beckett's case. He was starting to throw tantrums around 2 but they went to a whole different level at 2 1/2. I can distinctly remember one of our first trips to Costco after Harlow was born.  Beckett literally scram through the ENTIRE store. I was mortified, especially when all the elderly were staring at me to get my act together. I can gladly say that Beckett is now started to transition out of this tantrum stage. He still throws tantrums, but they are definitely a lot less frequent and usually less intense than they used to be. Praise the heavens!

His favorite thing to do, in general, is just to play with his friends or be around people. He is definitely a people person. He loves all of his friends at school and playing with our neighbors, Elliott and Jensen.

His favorite toys are anything that has to do with building: blocks, big legos, lincoln logs, etc.

Beckett is a very affectionate little boy. He loves to cuddle and give loves and kisses. I love that about him.

Our little stinker is not a good eater! There isn't any food that you can get him to eat 100% of the time. Dinner time is usually the worst time of day for him. The foods he will eat are fruits, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, ramen, crackers, popcorn, and yogurt raisins. Other than that....good luck!

We love our little boy and I can't believe how much he has grown. Sometime he seriously looks like a little man. Time goes by too fast! :(

Strike!

We had our first family bowling experience the other day, so I thought it should be documented. We brought up the idea of bowling the other day and B had been bugging us about it ever since. So....for family night we went up to Orchard Lanes and bowled.

They treated us great there and got us all set up. Beckett looked adorable in his little bowling shoes. He had a really fun time bowling and has already asked to go again.

Josh, dominated in the actual game of bowling. We won't talk about my score (Beckett beat me), but Josh got 5 strikes in a row! One of the employees of Orchard Lanes was so impressed that he stopped and complimented Josh on his bowling skills. I guess his bowling class, Bowling with Bob, at Snow College really payed off in the long run :)

Halloween 2014

This year we had 2 kiddos enjoying the Halloween festivities. They got a lot of practice before the actual day to trick-or-treat. We had a trunk-or-treat with our ward the week before. And not to toot my own horn or anything (toot toot) but my soup won the best-overall award ;)

On Halloween, Beckett and Harlow had a Halloween party at school (Spartan Station). They got to trick-or-treat to a lot of the high school classrooms. They had a lot of fun and came home with a lot of candy.

Halloween night we went to my parents house, per tradition. Had dinner and went trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. By that time I think Beckett had had his fill of trick-or-treating, so we didn't last very long which was fine by us. These two were the cutest little things. I think Josh & Harlow's costume with be very hard to beat in the years to come.