Happy 31 to me!

I turned 31 on the 14 of December. I now consider myself really in my 30's. When I was just 30 I could always rationalize that I was only 29 the previous year. Oh well. I am happy to be alive and I am happy where I am in my life. I spent the early part of the day at a Relief Society Christmas party and then afterwards we watched a movie. Stuart bought me this cake and a new camera for my birthday. Thula gave me a pair of santa clause earrings. 

After church photos. Little Stuart was napping. I bought Thula her dress for her birthday. The peppermint stick is from primary. 

Thula's "Downton Abby" face. 

Love that face!

"They went to bed with dreams of sugar plums dancing in their heads..."

The birds are coming!

Thula practicing her violin. 

The other day there were literally thousands of sparrows in our yard. THOUSANDS! They covered every square inch of our back yard. I heard Lela yelling, "Our backyard is black with birds!" So I nonchalantly strolled over to the window and was then so amazed. It was so weird. So of course Thula and I had to run out there and scatter them. It was a thrill to see them flutter up. They flew up into the trees and I could only capture these lame pictures.  

Thula's icicle gun. 

French Lick

The drive to the West Baden Hotel in French Lick. Stuart had a conference here for a few days and he invited us to come stay a night with him. It's about an hour and half from where we live on a little two lane country road. It was such a pretty drive. We passed through little historic Indiana towns and with the snow cover it was postcard perfect. 

The Christmas tree in the beautiful atrium. It was so quiet in here. A worldly temple.  

Our room was on the second floor. 

Inside the hotel room. 

The hotel rooms have windows that look out into the atrium. On the ground floor there are shops, spas, and restaurants. 

Later that evening I made outfitss with those curtains

Me! With my newly dyed hair. 

The pool! It was so fun to go swimming. Stuart was busy the whole time with meetings and never was able to join us. While we were swimming Thuls said, "I'm glad I have a responsible dad, but I really wish he could come swimming with us." :-(

Room service! A dream come true. 

The hotel had some nice restaurants but little Stuart just wasn't going to cooperate so we went out for mexican in town. Stuart had fajiatas, I had a taco salad, Lela had chicken nuggets, and Thula ordered the ribeye steak! I told her that reminded me of when I was little and we would go out for dinner as a family. Everyone would order something sensible and then Jeb would be like, "Oh, and I will have the filet mignon with a shirley temple!" We used to laugh about that.

Thula's 10 on the 10th!

Thula wanted a friend party this year. Some of her friends from church came over and shared the day with her.

Thula wanted to bob for apples. This was the best I could come up with on a 26 degree day.

Thula wanted to get her face wet.

opening presents

Emilia gave her a homemade journal

Katie (neighbor) gave her an art kit

Nya gave her a stencil fashion drawing kit

Sara and Abby gave her a purple shirt

blindfolded make-up application

Dress-up and props later. It was so fun taking pictures of the girls.

This is what the Stuart's were doing during dress-ups.

Making christmas tree night lights.

Thula's icecream cake. Thula helped me decorate it. It's the easiest cake I ever made (so my style!) It's 12 icecream sandwiches layered with whipped cream-hot fudge-crushed oreos-and more whipped cream. It was delicious.

Afterwards they played outside; showing off a giant icicle.