Russ, Shalae, & Kids

Sunday, December 4, 2016

November 2016

Abby and I saw the "Trolls" movie one night when Russ was out of town and Noah was on a campout. It was the cutest movie and we had to go get some troll toys after as part of our GIRLS NIGHT OUT!


These pictures were taken the night before Grandma & Poppy left for the MTC...


As a surprise to them, the kids performed "So long, farewell" from The Sound of Music and even dressed up as the Von Trapp children!






I can never resist sleeping pictures of Abby. She was particularly cuddly on this night as she was coming down with a fever.

On my birthday, Russ took the day off work and hung out with Abby and I all day. We went out to lunch then shopping... and ran into Santa at Chandler mall. Abby wasn't very comfortable with it and only spoke to him from far away. She told him that she wanted a carriage and peppa pig toys. Santa couldn't hear her and finally said "email me!" haha

Dance picture day with friends Audrey and Kozie (and Kozie's brother Boston!)







We met some friends at Fiiz one day and Abby helped herself up to the bar stool and just hung out there for awhile!

Abby, me, Natalie, and Emily

Abby and Kozie's playdate was a funny one on this day... Kozie was pretending to be the mom (with her heels, hat, and "car")... and Abby was her daughter going to school with her backpack on.


I ran the Gilbert 10K (Shun the Sun race) in mid-November and so did Suzanne and Tyler. The weather was great and I did much better than I thought I would. My goal was to finish in under an hour and my time was 55:32, making my average pace under 9 minutes per mile. I was so glad to be done with this race because training wasn't easy!




After flying home from the MTC late on Friday the 18th, my parents drove out for their mission in Florida on Saturday the 19th. They waited for Suzanne and I to finish the race so we could tell them goodbye... it was kind of sad to watch them drive away :(


Later that day, we took Noah and Sophie to the Gilbert temple to do baptisms for their first time! They each had found a family name to take with them. We thought that the temple would give them more but they were baptized for just one person each that day. Noah did a few more confirmations in addition to his family name.




Sophie was spotlighted in primary on the same day that she went to young women's for the first time! 

Just a screenshot of my mom's instagram during the time her and my dad were at the MTC...

I was so proud of this progress report Noah brought home. Everything on it was 100% besides 2 things, and those 2 things were still A's. He got a perfect behavior report also. He is such a great student!

Abby has been circling the things she wants from the Target and Toys R Us magazines. And by that, I mean that almost everything in both books is circled. She basically has both books memorized.


I have a guilty pleasure of getting a pedicure every month. Most times I take Abby with me just because there's nowhere else for her to go. She loves it and was so relaxed this time that she fell asleep!

Thanksgiving morning started out with a 5k turkey trot for me (with Suzanne - that my stake put on), dirtbike riding for Russ, neighborhood turkey bowl game for Russ and Noah, and cartoon and parade watching for Abby.

We celebrated Thanksgiving with the Sherwood family and Grandma and Poppy's house even though they weren't there. The only thing missing besides them was the turkey. haha!! We originally planned to not even eat Thanksgiving food which is how the name "junks-giving" came about. However, we decided that we did in fact want all the good Thanksgiving carbs, but nobody cared to prepare or eat turkey. The new lightbox that Christy gave me for my birthday was a hit...






We took this picture to send my parents as a joke... that we were all slumber party-ing in their bed while they were gone. The lightbox says "it's wonka time" because the grandparents in the original Willy Wonka movie all share a bed.

Black Friday shopping was a success... we went only to Target on Thursday night but got a lot of good deals and a lot crossed off of my Christmas shopping list.

We celebrated with Grandpa Price the day after Thanksgiving. Abby liked trying on his hat!

Abby and Otto with Grandpa Price. So cute!

Russ built a new wall for me in our dining room and I love it!! Here are the progress pics...



The official before and after photos:

I take Noah to a doctor in North Scottsdale / Phoenix every 3 months and I always get very sleepy at the wheel. It's hard for me to stay awake on that long of a drive during the middle of the day. I guess both kids felt as tired as I did!

3 going on 13...

We decorated the house for Christmas at the end of November and Abby was so in love with every single decoration. She wanted to decorate the tree and kept all the red decorations together then all the green decorations together.


We got a new tree this year which didn't fit in the corner of the room like the old one did. So we had to move the chair and ottoman to the corner instead and it turns out I love that cozy corner so much!

As I was going to bed one night, I could tell that we had left a light on in the family room. When I went in to turn it off, I saw that it was the tree lights - and such a pretty sight!