MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Merry Christmas to you all!

We love you all and hope you are having a WONDERFUL and HAPPY and SAFE and just PERFECT day!

Here's a few pictures of our Christmas princesses:

Oh wait.. .am I forgetting something???

ohhhh yeah. . .

I know that I told most of you that I REALLY thought I was having a boy this time a round. . . .

hooowwweeevvveeerrr. . .

we are EXCITED to be bringing a third PRINCESS into our home! Can I get a WOW?!?
I guess maybe a boy with baby number four someday. . .if we survive three that is. :) Poor Adam - he's getting more outnumbered every day!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!

Gingerbread House Fun

On Sunday, almost all of Adam's family was in town, so we decided to do a gingerbread house contest. If you know the Grover's at all, EVERYTHING turns into a contest. It does make things a little more interesting at times. :) So we all had about 3 hours to decorate our gingerbread before a unbiased neighbor agreed to come over and be the judge.

Here's what we came up with:

Adam and I had so many troubles with our house! First it started with us accidently cutting windows on the roof of the house instead of on the side walls (they turned into dormer windows), and then our frosting was just plain too hard and nothing wanted to stick to it. Finally, after one wall caved in, we found a toy truck to put into the wall, put a fake tea light inside, and dubbed our house, "crash and burn." Surprisingly we took 3rd. Jandy (sister-in-law) took the gold and the grand prize. They were all really good though, but I'm not sure Adam's parents will volunteer their house next year to decorate in. We sure made a HUGE mess, but it was fun!!!

Heidi and Brad - We MISSED you guys! Maybe next year!?!?! And thanks Mardie for our super cute Christmas aprons you made us. They worked very well in this messy adventure.

12 Days

I promise you won't be disappointed if you watch this! It's laugh out loud funny! I stole it off of my sister-in-law's Megan's blog - forgive me Megan! :)

Mute my Christmas music at the bottom first!

First Snow

Yea! We woke up this morning to the first snow of the year. Though I don't enjoy the slick roads, I do enjoy snow - especially when Christmas is around the corner! (BUT when it's May and it's STILL snowing - I start getting really grumpy about it!) My girls were thrilled to say the least. They stared at it out the window for quite awhile this morning, and then made a run for it outside around 11:00. They were pretty mad at me when I dragged them back inside kicking and screaming because they weren't properly dressed. Time to go dig out their snow clothes!

Thanksgiving Pictures

Thanks so much to Adam's cousin CANDACE for the awesome dinner on Thanksgiving and all my family (and Mardie the turkey was perfect!) for putting together Thanksgiving the next day. Both dinners were fabulous! WE had a GREAT time! I could get used to having two Thanksgiving's every year!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I know this is a couple days early, but we're leaving town tomorrow and I wanted to make sure to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving! Adam and I are lucky enough to be enjoying two Thanksgivings this year -- Thursday with some of his family, and Friday with mine. I'm super excited to see everyone and of course stuff my face with all the yummy food too. Everyone travel safely this holiday!

P.S. I just wanted to say thanks to all of you that have expressed love and concern for my brother's family, and my own family as well, after my last blog post. I'm sorry if I came across really sad - I'm not - it's just been a rough couple weeks and it doesn't help that my hormones are already out of whack being pregnant and all. :) Thank you again!

Be Still, My Soul

Sometimes I wish I had just the right words to say. That I could tell you all exactly how I'm feeling and you would understand. I have not been blessed with that gift.

Without going into much detail, my sister in law delivered her twins at 28 weeks. For reasons we do not fully understand, one of their sons passed away, and one fights everyday for his life in the NICU.

It's times like these that the veil seems so thin and I can feel my Heavenly Father's and Savior's love for me as an individual. It's times like these that I find myself pondering what's truly important in this life. It's times like these that I wish I could see into the future and know that everything will be okay. It's times like these that I realize that everything is the Lord's Hands, and though this is so hard, that the Lord loves us and understands our pain.

I love my family so much. Each and every member. I want you all to know that. I also love the Savior. I have felt His love and felt peace from heaven everyday during these last two weeks.

This hymn has brought me much peace this week. If I could express the words to one of the ways my heart feels right now, this would be it.




Be Still, My Soul
1. Be still, my soul: The Lord is on thy side;
With patience bear thy cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In ev'ry change he faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul: Thy best, thy heav'nly Friend
Thru thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

2. Be still, my soul: Thy God doth undertake
To guide the future as he has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul: The waves and winds still know
His voice who ruled them while he dwelt below.

3. Be still, my soul: The hour is hast'ning on
When we shall be forever with the Lord,
When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul: When change and tears are past,
All safe and blessed we shall meet at last.

Text: Katharina von Schlegel, b. 1697;
trans. by Jane Borthwick, 1813-1897

Birthday Dress #2

Here's my beautiful Adalyn in her beautiful birthday dress from G-ma and G-pa Grover. She wasn't quite as cooperative in this "photo shoot" as she was in her last one, but still cute none the less. Thanks Grandma for her dress. We both love it!

And of course I never forget how cute Mieley is too!

I just love my girls so much! They're growing up way too fast!

Utah Jazz

Adam and I got to go on Wednesday to a Jazz vs Trail Blazers game. It was one of the best games I've ever seen (atleast in person that is)! I brought my camera to Utah, but forgot to bring it into the game. Oh well. And even though it was a quick get away for Adam and I. . it was well worth it. THANKS Peggy for the tickets, Danny-yell and Todd for going with us, and last but not least, Jandy and Troy for taking care of our kids!!!

Did YOU Vote???

Just to get you in the spirit: :)

~ Vote for the man who promises least. He'll be the least disappointing. ~
Bernard Baruch

~ Half of the American people never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half. ~
Gore Vidal

~It is fast approaching the point where I don't want to elect anyone stupid enough to want the job. ~
Erna Bombeck

Happy VOTING!

Birthday Dress

Adalyn got two very pretty dresses for her birthday this year (coincidentally a dress from each set of grandparents ). Here's the dress she got from Grandma Bradshaw. THANKS GRANDMA! She looks so grown up to me now! Next week she'll have to model off the other dress. Such a lucky girl!

Halloween

We had a very fun Halloween. Thursday night we had a neighborhood party, and Friday we had a party at my brother and sister in law's house. Thanks to everyone for the great times! Adalyn can't wait until next year when she gets to do this all again. And I'll have 3 kids to take trick-or-treating by this time next year. That's a weird thought.

I love seeing the excitement on Mieley's face here. This is after she won a cupcake at the neighborhood party by doing a cake walk.

Here's most of the neighborhood kids that were at the party. They were all too cute!

Here's Halloween night at the party. Adam's with his wizard brother Troy. Troy's costume was awesome! Adam and I went western - but the funny part was Adam wore pleather pants! It was hilarious!

YEEEEE-HHHAAAWWW!! I know, not the best costumes this year, but atleast we tried!

Oooohh, scary teeth Adalyn!


Adam with his parents. Do you see any family resemblance?

Just a funny picture!

Thanks again Troy and Jandy for the party at your house. It was A LOT of fun!!!

Adalyn's 4!

Four! Four? Four. Already. Where has the time gone? My little girl's four going on sixteen!

Last night we had her birthday party. We had pizza for the kids, and homemade soups for the adults. It was a fun night! I feel lucky to have family members that live close by and are able to share in these special days with us.

Here's the finished cake a couple hours before the party. Adalyn loved it! Whew! Way easier, and I mean WAY EASIER to do this than last year's princess castle cake. I practically jumped for joy when Addy said all she wanted for her cake this year was a butterfly.

Adalyn's "princess" hair. Adam gives me a hard time that I don't ever do our girl's hair cute, so I wanted to prove him wrong. I think it turned out very cute myself.

Presents!

Blowing out the candles. We found "princess wand" candles for Adalyn. Very cool.

Cheesy cake smile. Adam took my picture with the cake in all it's glory before it was demolished and devoured.

I think if Mieley could open her mouth wider she would shove the whole thing in.

I know that the two grandmas in this picture probably aren't going to be happy that I posted this, but I think it's a VERY special picture. Adalyn's with her Grandma Bradshaw and Great Grandma Parker.

A HUGE thank you to everyone that came last night, helped out with the food, and for all the wonderful gifts. I appreciate you all more than you all know!

Today is Adalyn's actual birthday. I decided to do the girls hair cute again - just to really give Adam something to talk about. :)

Here's how it looks from the back. Cute huh?


Mieley's super cute too! I must confess that I got these ideas off the internet, but they weren't too hard to do. A definite bonus for me.

Sharing some love.

Here's what Adalyn got for her birthday today. I originally wanted to take her to the movie theater to watch this for a girl's day out, but only a couple days ago did I realize that Tinkerbell went straight to DVD. So tonight, I think we may make popcorn and have a little family movie night instead.

WE LOVE YOU ADALYN! We can't wait to share many, many, MANY more birthdays with you! Try to stay my little girl for a little longer!

A Few Fun Fall Family Photos

Say that title 10 times fast. . . I know some of you are doing it. . .

So, without further ado:

Fall photos are the best. What's better than running through, jumping in, and throwing leaves?