Preference

Elise's first girls choice dance.
I only wish I could write more about her dances and things.  You realize that by 16, privacy is an issue.  And I want her to create her story, not me.  So I'll just post pictures.  And tell about the mom stuff.

She asked her date with hot dogs!  I thought it was pretty funny.  She had a sign that said, "I would be one lucky dog if you would go to preference with me." and then put a bunch of hot dogs on forks and stuck them in his lawn.

She smirked when I pointed the camera at her.  She doesn't like this one but I think it is so pretty.  

There are a bunch more with her friends but they are all on her phone.   She has such a fun time.  They did the Escape Key for their day date, and went to Tucanos for dinner.  They have been doing lots of stuff lately and she had a great time with JT.  His little sister is friends with Simone now too.  So cute!

We were super excited about how well we bargain shopped this time.  Her dress was so pretty on her and it was only $30.  Shoes were from Amazon and only $35.

The house where they all took pictures was incredible!  I loved it and want to have a house like that someday.

Sandstorm Lacrosse Tournament

This tournament was HUGE!  50 fields and I heard there were 200 girls teams.  Utah Liberty played well and won 5 of the 6 games we played.  We lost by one in sudden death overtime in the semifinals.  Bummer!  But they did well and it was so fun to have a little break from the snow. 

We stayed at the Marriott in Palm Desert.  I drove the kids down since Jared had his doTERRA trip to Dominican Republic.  It was fun to do a roadtrip.  It was cute to see Soren swimming again.  He sure loves hotels just as much as he used to.  It IS pretty fun to have everyone so close for the weekend.

Christmas Cooking

Having a three-year-old really changes your perspective on Holidays.  Soren was SO excited for Thanksgiving.  And he realizes what Christmas is and is very excited for it.  But the concept of time is hard for him to grasp.  He has been asking me for awhile if it is "almost Christmas."  It is pretty cute.  So we set up the tree a few days ago.  We found a little Christmas apron in there and I told him we were going to use the apron when we make Christmas cookies.  He asks me each day if it is almost time to make Christmas cookies.

He came upstairs this morning and exclaimed, "Oh yay, the Christmas tree is still up!"

We are still a long way off from making cookies together, but we made "Christmas Soup" instead.  I am pretty sure every meal we cook between now and Christmas will be renamed.  He was so excited to help with the rice for the soup.

Halloween 2015

Simone was a Musketeer, Miles a chicken, and Soren was Spiderman!  Love these cute kids!  

Homecoming Pictures

Elise had a great time at Homecoming.  In Utah they do these day dates that are a lot of fun.  So the dance is like a whole day event.  So around noon they went to an indoor rock climbing gym.  She loved that!  Super fun.  We had to figure out the whole corsage/boutonniere thing.  That was new to both of us.  We never really did that at my school except for prom.  And I don't remember much.  

Dress shopping was so fun.  We had a great time looking for shoes, jewelry, etc.  It really is fun having a girl this age!

The dance was a lot of fun too.  She had a great time with her date.  

Since the dance, they text/snapchat each other lots and have a class together.  A couple weeks ago he picked her up and they went to get ice cream.  So that was fun.  

Elise is always busy with friends, and has a really great group of friends.  They go to the temple every Tuesday morning before school.  The boys she is friends with are such nice and fun kids.  They went paintballing this past weekend and the week before they went rappelling in a slot canyon in Southern Utah for the day.  I love her friends and think they are all great kids.  

Happy 16th Birthday Elise!

Elise's birthday fell on the day of the exciting astronomical event, the Blood Moon.  So we packed up friends, dogs, and cake and headed up the canyon in the razors.  It was a pretty dreamy birthday in my opinion!  She had a party with friends as well.