Christmas Cards

OK, so I am going to be sending out christmas cards in the next few days and I can't find my address book. Anyone that reads this that wants to receive a card please email me your address. Thanks!
amycraig93@gmail.com

Remind me to hide the scissors!!

OK, so I need to preface this post by saying that Friday was already a busy day. We were finishing up some landscaping and getting ready for a wedding. That said, Alison had been chewing on her hair all day. I told her that if she didn't stop chewing on her hair we would have to cut it all off. The next thing I know, she came out of the kitchen looking like this:

Notice the chunk of hair missing on the right. Naturally I started hyperventilating! Her explanation was that she was just cutting off the "spit part".

Luckily, we were able to get her into a salon within the hour. She had about 6 inches cut off to make it even.

The finished product. Like she really needed a haircut to accentuate her round face!

We still think she is pretty cute. I just need to hide the scissors! We have made her promise to never EVER cut her own hair again!

Time Out For Women

I haven't posted in a few weeks because things have been crazy around here, but I wanted to do a quick post about a great event that I attended last weekend. Deseret Book does of tour of LDS artists and authors that do a two day seminar all over the nation. Well, Nashville was the last stop of the fall tour. Last Saturday I went down with 5 others from my ward (we met up with 6 others there) and I have to say that it was AMAZING! There were probably about 1500 women in attendance from all over Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee. Some came as far as Texas and Florida. Anyway, it was so great to be spiritually uplifted by both music and spoken word. My favorite speaker was probably Emily Watts. She talked a lot about motherhood, so I could obviously relate. I also loved hearing singer/songwriter Hillary Weeks (see photo below). I was really touched by the entire experience. If you ever get a chance to attend I would highly recommend it!!

This is me with my cute mother in law Rosemary. She was actually kind enough to save us seats. Thanks Rosie. I have no idea why this picture is so blurry.

Me with singer Hillary Weeks. A really sweet person on top of being a great singer!

more progress on the house

In the last week Rachel's new furniture arrived and Nathan painted her room green. We think it turned out pretty cute. Today the furniture FINALLY arrived for my bedroom. It is still a work in progress, but let me know what you think!

Trick or Treat!

Most of you know that Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I love the costumes, the candy, even the scary movies. However, this year I must say that I am pretty glad to have it all over with. Halloween should be a crazy, fun, ONE day event. This year for some reason it was celebrated all week long. By the time Halloween was here my girls had already dressed up three times. Alison and Rachel were bored of being the same thing, so they manged to dig out new costumes from our dress up box. Whatever makes them happy I guess. So, you will notice that the costumes change by the end of the festivities.

We kicked off Halloween week with our annual pumpkin carving. Here is Rachel showing off the "pumpkin guts--eew gross".

The masterpieces

Wednesday we went to the trunk or treat at the church. There was a huge turnout and as always, lots of food. This is the first time I have ever had BBQ pork, baked beans, and potato salad on Halloween. You've got to love the south!

This picture was taken after the trunk or treat. The girls ended up filling two bowls with candy. Most were giving Hailey extra candy because she was trying to say "trick or treat" and she was just too cute.

Alison at her pre-school party on Thursday

Halloween night. As I already mentioned, Alison was tired of being a princess. She decided that she wanted to be a cheerleader this time. Rachel switched from Cinderella to Sleeping Beauty. We went trick or treating and then went to a party at our friends' house (Chris and Amy Hughes). We had more great food and then sat around chatting and letting the kids run around outside. It was a beautiful evening with great company.
At the end of all of the parties we managed to fill three large bowls of candy. I am going to slowly start throwing it away!

Saturday we were invited out to the Waldroup's house to have one last BBQ this year. I had to take a picture because notice the kids in their short sleeves. 72 degrees on November 1st. This is my kind of fall weather. We had a blast and then were able to go to the church for a baptism. It has been an honor to witness 5 convert baptisms since we moved here. Each time it strengthens my testimony.

Anyway, things are always so busy, but I hope that you all had a fun and safe Halloween!!!

High School Musical 3

So, last night Nathan and I decided to take the girls to see High School Musical 3. I have to say that it was pretty fabulous. We feel pretty well versed on the whole High School Musical saga considering that we see the first or second movie once a day, so it was a lot of fun to see it on the big screen. This was little Hailey's first movie and she was completely mesmerized. At one point she actually jumped off of my lap and started to dance in the aisle. I caught both Rachel and Alison dancing in their seats on several occasions. Anyway, it was a lot of fun. If you are a fan, I highly reccommend it!!

Fall Break

I realized this afternoon that I haven't posted in awhile, so I will give a quick update of the past week. Last weekend, we went to Nathan's hometown of Owensboro for a baby shower that was held for his cousin Jeff and his wife Angie. They are adopting a 2 year old little boy from China and we are SOOOO excited for them. They will hopefully have him by Christmas and we are all so excited to meet him!

This past week was fall break for the kids and we had a great time enjoying the fall weather and doing some fun activities around town. On Tuesday, Rosemary (my mother-in-law) came down and we spent the entire day shopping in Nashville. Let me just say that if you haven't been shopping in Nashville I HIGHLY recommend it! We went to two different malls and they had every store you could ever want. Alison was thrilled because there was even a shop selling gourmet cupcakes with lots of pink frosting. Once she saw the cupcakes, everything else was secondary. As promised, I bought her one for being a "big girl". I don't think any cupcake is worth $3.50, but she seemed to think so. Whatever. Anyway, we had a wonderful time. I am so glad that I have trained my girls to love to shop! Unfortunately, I am sure that it will come back to bite me when they are teenagers!

Wednesday, we joined some friends for a picnic at the park. It was a gorgeous day and the kids had a ball. Here is Hailey enjoying the outdoors.


Alison

Rachel and her friend Camri

The park is called Ruff park, and I just had to take a picture of the sign for my good friend Becky Ruff. So, Becky, this is for you. Of course, Alison started to whine ,"I miss Rachel and Sarah Ruff". We all miss you guys!!

Saturday was my birthday so Nathan and I decided to go out on a date Friday night. We actually hired a sitter and we thoroughly enjoyed a meal at Red Lobster. No mac and cheese in sight! Saturday night Nathan surprised me with bubble bath, candles, and my FAVORITE ice cream (Haagen Dazs pineapple and coconut). It was so sweet. I have a cold, so the bath felt great. We also had our Relief Society super Saturday yesterday, so it was great to relax and unwind after a long day. I think that once you hit 30 birthdays are lame. However, I did love to be pampered. I guess birthdays aren't so bad after all!

LOVE the fall!

I don't have a whole lot to say today, but I had a great day. The leaves are starting to really change and I am loving the cooler days and nights. Fall is definitely my favorite time of year. I absolutely love the leaves, the colors, and the smells. I had my scentsy warmer buring the scent "pumpkin roll" this morning (thank you Tanya!) and I wanted to just sit down and take it all in! In a week or so I am planning to take the kids out and take some pictures of them with the leaves-- I will post them soon. I hope you are all enjoying the season!!

So Proud

I had a very proud day on Saturday. First of all, my sweet, 4 year old Alison scored her very first soccer goal. It was seriously so exciting. I wish I could have captured it on camera! :) I was also proud for several reasons later that evening. I am first and foremost proud to be a member of Relief Society. I was very moved by the talks of the broadcast. Surprisingly, it didn't make me homesick. Which leads me to the third reason why I was proud on Saturday-- I am so proud to be part of the Hopkinsville, KY stake. The stake presidency put together an amazing program and meal for us. It was great to get to know lots of new people and feel of their strength and spirit. The dinner was seriously out of this world. They served BBQ chicken with all of the sides and then an entire table full of desserts. It turns out that one of the pastry chefs over at the Opryland Hotel is a member and he prepared the desserts for us--too bad I didn't have my camera with me. Anyway, after the dinner, I was sitting next to a sister in the Stake Relief Society Presidency and I was complimenting her on such a fabulous meal. She said, "Oh honey, you live in the south now--and we know how to cook!" I am proud to consider myself an adopted southerner!

BUSY BUSY!

What a week!!! Between our church callings and our kids' schedules we always seem to be running. Here are some highlights of this crazy week!

This was on Wednesday at the 1st grade "lunch bunch". Parents are invited to come and see what the kids are learning and stay for lunch. We sat down across from Rachel's friends. When Nathan sat down a little girl named Ava said, "Wow, are you the President?" Before Nathan could answer Rachel replied, "No, but he IS the bishop". It was pretty cute.

On Thursday Nathan's brother Bryon came into town from Hawaii. It has been a long time since we have seen him (a couple of years we think), so it was fun to have dinner and show him around the town.

Nathan smoked three racks of ribs. They were a hit!! After Bryon and his parents left Nathan's buddy Aaron Castleton flew in from LA and his brother Brent and his family came into town from Florida. All of the guys (Nathan, his dad, Mark, Brent, Bryon, and Aaron) all went golfing on Friday and Mark got tickets to the Ryder Cup in Louisville on Saturday. They guys were in heaven. They were able to see all of the greatest golfers in the world play and they even saw some celebrities (George Bush Sr. and Michael Jordon to name a couple). They didn't allow camaras into the tournament, so I can't post pictures, but I know they will never forget it!!

While Nathan was hanging out with the guys I took the girls to their soccer games. They look pretty cute in their uniforms!

I have decided that soccer is like a part time job! It has been crazy keeping up with both of their schedules this fall. I am hoping that they will want to just stick with dance.

After soccer we drove 2 hours to Nathan's brother Mark's house to hang out with Grandma and the wives and to celebrate Hailey's birthday. I can't believe that my baby is 2! I want to stick her in a little time capsule so that she will always stay this sweet. This is Hailey feeding her new doll that she got for her birthday. I said, "Hailey, what's the baby's name?" She thought for a minute and responded, "baby". Makes sense to me!

Her sisters and her cousins were more than willing to help her with her gifts. If you look closely at Hailey's hair you can see where she gave herself a little haircut.

Notice the tears. I think she was a little intimidated by all of the attention!

Clearly she got over it when she started eating her ice cream cake!

All the cousins getting ready for bed! We look forward to seeing you all at Thanksgiving!! After this picture was taken we drove home (2 hours) , went to bed, Aaron and Bryon flew home, I spoke in church today, and the youth just left our house after a BYD (Bishop's youth discussion). The week has been wonderful, but I am exhausted!! I keep hoping that things are going to slow down, but I am realizing that they never will. I guess it is good to be busy! Seriously, I really can't complain. I feel very blessed.

American Idol Concert!

Last night Nathan and I went to Evansville, IN to see the American Idol's summer tour. Evansville is only about 40 min. from Nathan's parents house, so we dropped the kids off and then we all spent the night. It was so great to be able to enjoy the show and know that the kids were in good hands. Thanks James and Rosie!! I know that most of you reading this are idol fans,
so I am going to give a synopsis of the show with my opinion thrown in. You don't have to agree--just my opinion!
For starters, the Roberts Stadium is a fabulous arena because it is fairly small. We were on the side on the 5th row (GREAT seats), so it felt pretty intimate. The sound was also great. It is pretty amazing that you could hear above all of the screaming, but you could and it was awesome!! Another cool thing about the show was that the idols performed the full versions of the songs--not just the shortened TV versions.
The top 10 performed in order that they were eliminated. The top 8 performed 3 songs, David A. performed 4, and David C. performed 5. They did a finale with all 10 together.

10. Chikezie: I had forgotten about Chikezie, but his voice was actually really incredible, and his energy was a fun way to start the show. I don't remember what he sang, but I liked it.
9. Ramyelle: She was probably my least favorite. Her voice is OK, but I was wondering how she made it this far on the show. She had on a skimpy outfit with high heeled boots (can anyone say pretty woman?). Anyway, as Simon would say--forgettable.
8. Michael Johns: The girls went crazy for him. My favorite of his set was "We are the Champions". He could really belt it out!
7. Christy Lee Cook: Another revealing outfit, but I actually enjoyed watching her perform. She did "God Bless the USA" that she did on the show and it was excellent.
6. Carly Smithson: AMAZING. She was actually one of my favorites of the evening. Her voice was spot on! She did an Evanescence song that really blew us away. I also liked her version of Celene Dion's "I drove all night". She was awesome.
5. Brooke White: Granted, I am biased, but it was so refreshing to see a beautiful girl dressed modestly! She did "Let it be" on the piano, and she also played the guitar. I loved all three of her performances.
4. Jason Castro: I was not a fan of Jason's during the show, but hearing him live was outstanding. He is very unique and fun to listen to. He has such a gorgeous face--if only he would cut those dumb dread locks!
3. Syesha Mercado: I loved her voice, but by this time I was thinking David Archuleta's next!! So, I had a hard time focusing.
2. DAVID ARCHULETA: YEAH! I am such a fan--and so was everyone else in the audience. The stadium erupted with screaming. It was pretty crazy, but so exciting to be there! His voice was as pure and crystal clear as I thought it would be. While he was singing I remembered Randy Jackson screaming "crazy vocals!!" I couldn't agree more. SO sad when his four songs were over.
1. DAVID COOK: YEAH!! I am a fan of David Cook's as well and it was cool to see a rock star in the making. He was throwing out guitar picks and touching the girls hands. He was great. I especially liked "Billy Jean" that he did on the show. Between his loud music and the girls screaming my ears were ringing, but it was so worth it. My only critisism was that his pants were WAY too tight. His butt is just too big to wear those pants. Other that that, great performances!

The following is a you tube clip that was posted today of the concert last night. I can't take credit for filming it, but it is really close to our seats, so this will give you an idea of what the concert was like. It is David A. perfoming "Angels". It was definitely one of my favorites. Anyway, I think that is enough rambling about the show. It was a great time. I am glad that Nathan and I will be able to share this memory!! Just for the record, he was screaming too :)

A great week with grandma!

My mom has been here all week and I am sad that I didn't take any pictures!! Every time there was a great photo opportunity I forgot to bring my camara--I am so scatterbrained!! We had such a great week though. It was so fun to show her abound the area. Nate was a great tour guide both here and in his home town of Owensboro (now my mom can brag that she has seen the largest sassafrass tree--in the world). Serioulsy, it was great to show her around and give her an idea of what our lives are like here in Kentucky. Yesterday, we had a fun day shopping in Nashville and the kids were thrilled to eat at the Rainforest Cafe. Hailey cried and cried when we dropped grandma off at the airport. We will all miss her, but what a great week of memories!

Our new bishop

What a week!! We knew that our bishop was moving, but we were shocked when the Stake President invited us to his house last Tuesday night and he extended the call for Nathan to serve as the new bishop. We are both overwhelmed, but I am so proud of Nathan. The Stake Pres. said that I will need to be released from my calling ASAP, so I will have served as the Relief Society Pres. for just over a month--kind of crazy. Church today was good. Nathan's boss Denny and one of his paralegals came to support him and his dad ordained him as a High Priest. My mom had already planned to be here over Labor day, so she was also here to see him be set apart. We were both asked to bear our testimonies and there was a good spirit in the meeting today. A whole new adventure awaits. I know that Nathan will do great things for this ward!

Happy Birthday Alison!

Alison turned four last Saturday! We spent the day swimming and then going to Chuck E. Cheese (which, by the way, is NOT a good place to go on a Sat.--so crowded!). Anyway, she had a blast! Sunday Nathan grilled out for his parents, grandma, brother and his family, and some good friends. Alison was so spoiled!! The food and company were fabulous. It was a great day!

Alison with her new Sharpay doll. She likes Sharpay because "her has blond hair like me and she so bootiful!"

Obviously we are biased, but what a cute little girl!!!

Make a wish!

Back to school!!

I am so excited to have the girls back in school! Rachel started back on Aug. 6th. and she is already adjusted to going to school all day. She loves her teacher and is very excited about school lunch! She is riding the bus home from school each day (Nathan drops her off on his way to work). We feel very spoiled because the bus stops right in front of our house.

Alison started preschool this last Monday (the 18th). She is going to school at the same elementary school as Rachel. She is thrilled to be going 4 days a week in the mornings. Alison is also excited to be riding the bus. She looks like such a big girl going to school like her big sister!
As for me, I am feeling pretty spoiled to only have one to take care of in the mornings. I actually went visiting teaching this week and it seemed so odd to only have Hailey with me. It will be nice to spend some quality time with her!

The city that never sleeps!!

Last weekend Nate and I had the awesome and long awaited opportunity to go to NYC to celebrate our 10th anniversary. Nathan's parents came to our house and watched the girls for four whole days. I don't know if we can thank them enough!! It was so amazing to experience all of the history and excitement of New York City--without kids! Yeah, like I said--AMAZING. Here are some of the highlights of our trip.

This is our fancy hotel. It's a French chain called Sofitel. Great location and a BEAUTIFUL room.



Nathan surprised me and called the hotel ahead of time to let them know that we were celebrating our anniversary. The basket on the bed was filled with bath products.

This restaurant was across the street from our first show (Chicago). It is called The Playwright. Fabulous!!!

That's me standing there looking like a dork. Oh well. I was excited!!

At Chicago. What a great show. Very sassy.

We took a harbor cruise that took us right in front of the Statue of Liberty. It was relaxing and the weather was so beautiful.


Nathan's was thrilled to see the Yankees play in the old stadium.This is the last season here. The new stadium is almost finished (It is across the street).

Great seats too!

Our second show we saw was a matinee of Grease. It was fun and energetic.

Do I need to say more??? We had Heath Toffee crunch cheesecake in this deli called Roxy in Times Square. It was seriously the best cheesecake I have EVER had. Yes--Utah ladies--even better than the Cheesecake Factory!!!

Our final show on Sat. night. We saw Legally Blond and we were so happy that we did! It was our favorite of the three shows. It was funny, modern, and the talent was unbelievable. It was the only show we attended that received a full standing ovation.

What a great trip. We will never forget it!