Christmas Morning

Somehow I managed to not take any pictures of the girls once they were ready for church in the Christmas dresses. Here are the few pictures I did take. We had a great morning, Hailey didn't wake up until after 8 and she had to wake Aida up. The girls were really excited and loved all their presents. When Aida Saw the bed for her doll, she hopped right in it and surprisingly she fit sitting up. The first couple of nights both girls slept with the dolls and their beds in bed with them. They have been thoroughly entertained with all the fun new toys they have. Thanks to everyone!!!

Hailey can read

Hailey has been able to read for quite a while, but for some reason she thought she couldn't. She'd get frustrated if she didn't immediately know a word. We've been working on it and something suddenly clicked for her. She is doing so great, we're so proud of her and she's pretty proud of herself. She is growing up so fast.

Sweet Aida

I usually do posts about Aida and her mischievous endeavors, but she isn't always in trouble when she's quiet.

The other morning Aida disappeared, she was being so quiet I decided I better find her before there was a huge mess to clean up. But, this time instead of a huge mess she was laying in Hailey's bed with Hailey's pillow pet reading stories. She stayed there for at least half an hour reading books. She loves anything that is her sisters!

Polar Express

Matt and I were in charge of the Ward Christmas party this year and since there was no way we could have kept track of our two wild girls while we were there cute Lani invited them to her ward party which was a polar express party. The girls were so excited, Lani dropped off fun jammies and slippers for them to wear to the party.

They had a such a great time, Aida was especially excited that she got to have a sleep over afterwards.

Thanks Lani for all that you do!!!

French Bread

I've had a few people ask me for this recipe so here it is:

French Bread

2 1/2 C. Very warm water

2Tbsp. Yeast

3Tbsp. Sugar

2Tbsp. White Vinegar

-Add these ingredients together and let sit until bubbly.

1Tbsp. Salt

1/3 C. Oil

6 C. Flour (you can use 1/2 wheat & 1/2 White)

Knead for 2-5 minutes then put in the oven with a small pot of boiling water. The water will keep the dough moist. Watch the dough and punch it down when it gets to the top of the mixing bowl. do this every time it gets to the top of the bowl, as long as you have time to babysit it (2-5 times). Put the dough on a greased countertop and divide into 3 sections. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray and sprinkle a thin layer of cornmeal on the bottom of the sheet. Roll the dough balls into rectangle/long French bread shapes. slash tops of bread diagonally 3-5 times and cover with a beaten egg. Let rise 30 minutes (or until doubled). Bake at 375 for 30 minutes.

Enjoy...this is my favorite way to do french bread.

Rhodes rolls

I heard about rhodesbread.com the other day and decided to check it out. I made my own dough, and used their suggestions, I think it may be one of my new favorite websites.

Family photo preview

We had family pictures taken last week, here are a few, when I get the rest of them back I'll put our favorites up.

I am so grateful for my little family, I couldn't have been more blessed. I'm grateful for Matt, that he is genuinely such a good person always doing his best to make things good for his family.

I am grateful for Hailey, she is such a sweet loving girl. I remember when I was having a hard time getting pregnant before I had Aida, I had an overwhelming feeling of gratitude for the wonderful daughter I already had. I remember feeling so lucky and thinking that if we only got to have one child Hailey was the perfect one to have.

I am grateful for Aida, she is so full of energy and love. She's got the cutest personality, she has a way of making you smile even when she's in a load of trouble. I can't imagine our family without her, she was the perfect addition to our family. We are so lucky to have two healthy wonderful children!

So some days when I'm struggling I have to remind myself to count my blessings, I'm so thankful to Heavenly Father for sending these wonderful blessings to our family!

Elder Hurst is home

Matt's youngest brother Eric returned home from his mission yesterday morning. We were so excited to see him again. Hailey brought him a treat and a picture to welcome him home.

Aida is still being a little shy with him, but I'm sure she will warm up soon if he is as fun as her other uncles. On the way home Aida was wishing we brought all her uncles home with us.

The girls were glad to have cousins to play with while we waited. Grace was especially fun and just as wild as they were.

We're glad to have Eric home!

Flour

Aida was my little helper in making sugar cookies for the ward party (don't worry she actually just played with the flour after we were done.) This girl can make a mess faster than anyone I know!

Christmas is coming!

For more check out my design blog!

Aida Elaine

Look at this face, you can't help but LOVE it! Aida is growing up, she has always had a great little personality, but now she is oozing with personality. She is funny and she knows it. She's mischievous and full of energy! Lucky for Aida she's got that cute sweet face, you can't be mad for long even if she did get into the chocolate (which at age 2 she already knows she loves).

Sometimes she struggles to stay in bed at night, we put her to bed at 8:30 and it is not at all uncommon for her to still be awake at 10:30 or even 11:00. Last night Matt told her that he would lay in bed with her as long as she didn't get out of bed (thinking that she was exhausted and if she would just lay still for 5 minutes she'd be out) she stayed for quite a while, but when she thought Matt was asleep she snuk out of bed to get a toy. He had to leave and she cried like it was the end of her world. She finally made her way into our room with the saddest little blue eyes and a quivering voice she said "I want my daddy in my bed". It was so hard to resist, Matt had to turn away a couple of times so he could resist. This sweet little girl is the one who is going to give us a run for our money. WE LOVE HER!!! And we are so grateful to have her and her wonderful....sweet....much less mischievous sister!!!

Christmas is around the corner

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Hailey's Halloween Program

I've tried several times to get the videos I took at Hailey's program to upload, but there's always an error so I've settled for a picture. Just know that they sang some really fun songs and Hailey was thrilled to be there.

This is Hailey in one of her pairs of glasses, I think she looks so cute! I'm glad we took Merijane's advice and got two pairs. Two days after she got her glasses we lost one of them, it took several days to find. She is still getting used to wearing them all the time, I guess it takes time.

My Design Blog

I've been refinishing things and turning someone elses trash into my treasures for at least 10 years, I finally got the courage to try to make something of it.

I've decided to refinish furniture and sell it, and as soon as I decided things started working out. I couldn't do it without out Matt, a lot of times things are "trash" to someone for a reason, Matt is a great handyman. We'll see what comes of it, but I am pretty excited, I love seeing what something can turn into.

I've started a blog if you would like to look at the things I'm doing. There is a link on the sidebar. It's Simplyyoufurniture.blogspot.com

Pumpkin Carving

Thanks to Matt's sister Heidi we had enough pumpkins for everyone to carve their own. Hailey has been wanting to carve pumpkins and Saturday was the night for it. They turned out pretty spooky!

Hailey is getting glasses

Ever since Libbie got glasses last year Hailey has wanted them. After she knew Libbie had them she was sure she couldn't see as well as she used to, I told her she was being silly. Turns out she does need glasses. She went to the eye doctor on Thursday and he said she definatley needs them...it was her best day! Who knew a kid could be excited, she wanted to get them immediately. We went shopping that night and then again Friday morning, I had no idea it would be so hard to find some to fit her cute tiny head. They were all so wide, some were quite funny.

After a lot of debating we finally chose some. These were some of our options, we'll post pictures of the ones she got when they come hopefully on Friday.

Who knew a 5 year old could be so excited to get glasses.

Primary program

Sunday was Hailey's primary program. She did a great job, she's been working on memorizing her part for a couple of weeks. We made a little note with some pictures to help her if she go nervous and she did a great job.

Grammy, Opi and Lani came to hear.

As a little side note on Monday night Hailey was giving her talk for the lesson and Aida finished the sentence. Who knew she was paying so much attention.

Witches night out

Last week for our adventure with Gigi we decided to go to Gardner Village to see the witches. Because we wanted to take Hailey with we didn't go until after Ballet. Papa came too, we were "lucky" enough to be there for witches night out (something we didn't plan). It was wild and crazy, but fun. We loved seeing all the fun witch costumes. It was a beautiful day.

Hailey was Tiana (the frog princess) and Aida was Tinkerbell. Aida was quite thrilled to be in her costume, so I was quite surprised when she took it right off in the middle of the doll store. Luckily she's 2 and running around in a onesie and tights wasn't a problem for her.

We loved the doll store, when I was little I used to call Gigi the Queen of the Doll Clothes, it was the perfect store to visit with Gigi and two doll loving little girls. Aida was quite impressed with all the tiny adorable doll shoes, she has been wanting her doll to have shoes, but we can't find any that fit and this was no exception these were too tiny.

Lani came at the end just in time to get the girls faces painted. We had a great time!