December!

Hello December!

The Christmas celebrations have begun and are in full swing at our house!

We have our tree up, music on and our Christmas count down ready to go.

I love this time of year for so many reasons.

I love all of the special events that take place and the fun things that are happening all around us. I love the smells, Christmas lights, parties and most of all the true meaning of Christmas. 

I do have to admit that it hasn't felt much like Christmas without the snow or cold chill in the air... but we are getting use to our warm Christmas adventures! It is also fun having Lexi around for Christmas. She is old enough to be excited and have some fun when we do little activities. 

Our month started out with a fun girls night!

I have made the BEST friends while living in Arizona.

I honestly feel so lucky. It has been such an easy transition to move to Arizona.

 We feel like we are meant to be here and fit right in.

 I am so blessed to have found so many supportive, friendly, kind, wonderful friends. They are all so willing to do anything for me and I am truly grateful for their friendship. 

We decided to have a Christmas girls night and celebrate a little girl time... without the kiddos.

We had a great dinner and exchanged small gifts. It was a blast to get some "adult" interaction and spend some time with these wonderful ladies! 

Glendale Glitters Festival

Some friends invited us to the Glendale Glitters festival. It is a big Christmas festival that is held in historic downtown Glendale. They have food booths, shopping booths, carnival rides, fake snow :), Santa, pony rides and a petting zoo. It was SUPER crowded and the line to see Santa and play in the fake snow was ridiculously long so we decided to walk around and enjoy the Christmas lights and music.

Lexi has been cutting some MAJOR teeth. She has been chewing on everything. I find her fingers and hands in her mouth all day long. It's like she is 6 months old again. She will chew on anything close to her face... she chose her jacket the night of the festival. It makes her moods very unpredictable. We can't wait for our slow little teether to grow more teeth so she is not so miserable!

(she has 6 teeth with 6 cutting through at the same time) 

We decided to fight the crowd and let Lexi try the petting zoo. 

Something about her and goats... 

she lights up, giggles and says "HI" uncontrollably to all of them. 

It is really so hilarious to watch. She makes us laugh.

Somebody got tired and decided to lay down and enjoy the ride!

I loved all the lit up palm tree's!

Christmas Cookies!

I decided to try a fun Christmas activity every sunday evening.

So far we have made sugar cookies and delivered them to friends.

Next week we will try decorating a gingerbread house.

Having a kid makes the holidays so much fun. I love the excitement I see in her eyes :)

Lexi was a fabulous frosting eater and helped put sprinkles on the cookies!

She took the cookie eating very seriously!

After delivering 10 plates of cookies we still have like 30 left!

Not so good on my "trying to eat healthier plan"

They are addicting! 

*********

Mesa Temple Lights!

A big group of friends got together for a night of Christmas fun!

We started off eating dinner at Cafe Rio :) :) :)

then off to the Mesa Temple to see all of the beautiful Christmas lights.

Some of the kiddos all ready to see the lights!

Beautiful Mesa Temple

Once we got Lexi out of her stroller is when the real fun started... 

she decided once she was out of the stroller she didn't want to get back in... 

This is when tantrum #1 started....

She wanted to climb all of the stairs (without being touched)... little stinker!

We have an active, teething little one year old on our hands!

This is the best family pic we could get with her fit throwing... 

At least the temple is pretty and clear in the background :)

I was not joking when I said this girl was not happy...

Her Best friend Reece was so concerned for her :)

haha oh joy!

Daddy gave in to her stair obsession and let her climb them a couple of times...

Once they found these sparkly lights hanging from the tree's Lexi got much happier!

The temple was beautiful! 

It was so fun to walk around without freezing to death. It was a beautiful night :) I love being on the temple grounds. It helped us remember the true meaning of Christmas and the spirit was strong as we told Lexi about baby Jesus. 

We are excited for all the fun December holds and can't wait to visit family in Utah.

Hope you are all enjoying the holiday season!

Thanksgiving :) and Utah trip!

Nate's second week off from school was spent in Utah.

We spend 3 days with the Bartholomew side and 3 days with the Forsyth side.

Lexi loved being around so many people and has some new favorite words. "Nanny and Grandpa" We are sad that the week flew by so fast but get to go back in just one short month for Christmas... so I guess we will survive! 

This is Nate's grandma. Grandma Curtis! How cute is she? She is so sweet and good with Lexi. This is them having a little bonding time :)

We loved visiting family. 

We are always spoiled rotten when we go home and get to do all sorts of fun things.

Dinner, bowling, game nights, movies..... the list goes on.

Bowling is one of the Bartholomew brothers favorite things to do.

It is one of my favorite things to watch...

They always make our outings so much fun. They are silly and weird... but we still love them :)

When I asked them to smile for a picture I somehow got these poses from them?! haha 

Bowling Bartholomew Brothers! 

Lexi loved all of the attention. Even though her naps were far and few between and she was tired at times. It was still fun to watch her silly side come out for those who love her.

The second half of the week and Thanksgiving day was spent with the Forsyth side. We had Thanksgiving dinner at my aunt Lana's house in Herriman. It was delicious and we were stuffed to the max! We spent the afternoon visiting with all 40 of my cousins, aunts and uncles. I LOVE FAMILY.

I am so grateful for everyone in my life. Especially family. Where would we be without them?

My family is getting bigger...

we are still silly...

This time of year is such a good time to reflect on what is truly important. I am thankful for my family and all they do for me. I am thankful for my health and the health of those I love. 

I am thankful to be a mother. I am thankful for the gospel and the happiness it brings to my life.

We hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving FULL of THANKS!

We returned to Arizona a few days ago and have already put our Christmas tree up!

Even if it is 85 degrees... we are making it feel like Christmas!

Happy Holiday Season

Love, The Bartholomew Family! 

Hope you are all well and happy :)

November 2012

November has come and gone. It was one of the fastest months of my life.

It was FULL of fun, food, friends, and family. 

WARNING...

This post is HUGE!

........

November 2012

........

Alexis has become a MUCH better eater.

She was beginning to become so picky and wouldn't let anyone help her eat.

Little miss independent. 

After this picture of her eating her pudding cup I decided I would try to teach her to eat more like a lady ;)

We started working hard with using a spoon and being a bit less messy.

It saved a lot of spray and wash and she started to eat more because she could feed herself!

My messy little girl.

(look at those cute top teeth)

This little babe loves to help me clean. 

She always pulls a wipe out of her case and washes the mirrors, fridge and floor :)

 If I am doing laundry she helps pull all of the clothes out of the dryer. She is the best little helper!

She also loves to use her vacuum and clean the rug.

 Let's hope this continues. I have a feeling it might get harder when she is older...

After working for a good week with using the spoon... she improved SO MUCH!

I was amazed at how well she has done.

She eats cereal, mac and cheese, yogurt and almost anything else I put in front of her :)

I am so proud at how fast she has learned! She even says "spoon"

My big girl

Nate finished his first quarter of his masters program!!!

:) :) :) 

Only a few dozen more until we are finished :)

What a fantastic accomplishment! I have experienced how it feels to be a single wife and mother ;)

To be honest it feels kind of normal. He has always been a busy guy working hard and doing his best.

The support system here is so wonderful and I have made some of the best friends.

That helps SO much and keeps us busy throughout the day while he is gone.

We are so proud of him. We were so excited to have him home for a 2 week break. We started the celebrating that night at dinner with friends and then off to the Arizona zoo the next morning.

Thanks to our fabulous friends who had 2 free zoo tickets and invited us along :)

We loved it! 

Phoenix Zoo 2012

My sweet little girl is such an animal lover.

Petting zoo's are her favorite :) she is not afraid in the least bit! Goats seem to attract her attention. She goes right up to them and hugs, pets and lays on them. It is the sweetest thing to watch!

Giving the goat a big hug :)

Playing at the children's area

Lex loves babies. She will be the best big sister!

Saying "cheese"

Thanks again Becky and Jon for letting us tag along with you at the zoo. We had a blast!

This post is getting long... so I will break it up into 2! Thanksgiving and second week of Nate's fall break to come...

Halloween Adventures!

Happy Halloween everyone!

Halloween has been good to us this year. We have been partying it up! Too many halloween parties to count now... we are on a constant sugar rush from all of the candy. 

My mom was able to come visit and have some halloween fun with us as well.

We loved having her visit and wish she could have stayed longer. 

Lexi loved the attention and opened right up to her :)

I'm sad I didn't take pictures while she was here... sorry mom! 

We started out the festivities with trick-or-treating at daddy's school.

They had a darling set up for the students and families.

Lexi had fun going around to all the offices picking out candy while hanging out with her daddy.

They had so many fun things going for the kiddos. Blow up slides, crafts, treats and a spook ally. 

We had lots of fun exploring and celebrating with daddy at Midwestern University! 

We met up with some of our friends who also attend Midwestern.

Look how darling these 3 little kids are.

Midwestern Halloween Party 2012

We went to our ward truck-or-treat the following night.

Lexi loved getting dressed up again and getting another bucket full of candy.

Nate and I were in charge of setting up the games.

Nate hung doughnuts from strings and watched as the kids tried to eat them without hands :) pretty entertaining stuff! I love halloween :)

These next two pictures were taken at a friend halloween party.

Nate had an old batman costume on from a few years ago and Lexi was hot so her costume got taken off... the kids ran around and played most of the night and the parents ate wonderful food and visited.

My kind of party :)

The kids got to decorate cookies. Nate helped and then ate lexi's cookie :)

Halloween night!

Some friends were going trick-or-treating and invited us to come along.

We decided to dress Lex up and try it out.

She loved it!

She was a professional at this point and went right up to the candy bowls and picked her piece of candy. We were trying to teach her what reese's and snickers looked like ;)

The weather was amazing and people had set up chairs in their driveways to pass out candy.

It was perfect weather for a night walk around the neighborhood.

Trick-or-treating with daddy!

Lexi got a hold of a kit kat and didn't want to wait to eat it...

wrapper and all she figured it out! 

Trick-or-treating with friends :) Halloween 2012 

The 4 kiddos on the left are all within a few weeks of each other in age :) We love it here!

A few pics of our little "ZEBRA"

Happy Halloween!!

Can't believe it is already November!

Still feels like summer here in AZ.

Looking forward to the holidays :) we will be headed to Utah in 2 weeks!

Excited to have some break time with my hubs! Wish him luck...finals start monday! WAHOO