Picture This

A few months ago we took these adorable pictures of Dallen in a red adirondack chair in my parents backyard.




I had this great idea to somewhat recreate this photo shoot, and set up Dallen’s cute red chair in front of our Christmas tree while D was all dressed up. The result, not what I expected but cute nonetheless…We thought we'd give a distraction a tryHe was trying to put his ball in the treeHe looks terrified or completely irritated in this picture, not sure, but funny!!We got a couple really good candid ones too...

Home Sweet Home

The other night we went over to the Curry's to make gingerbread houses with the kiddies and friends. It was so much fun and a big sucess!All the kids had so much fun and ate way too much candy:

Dallen found the frosting
Parker was my favorite with this little bowl of M&M's his face was covered in chocolate

Stanton showing his Daddy exactly how much candy he was eating
Noelle was my little buddy all night

The hostess with the mostest, Kimmie
Here's our crew with their fabulous houses
It was an almost perfect evening with lots of fun and many laughs, especially when I ruined it all and sat on Kimmie's poor little house!!Thanks for a super fun night making gingerbread houses and making memories!!

The Happy Road to Disaster

While visiting Auntie Aubrey at work at Fashion Island, we stopped off to see another jolly friend. We had to walk this little brick road...Lined with Christmas trees...
And gingerbread houses...

All for this...

Wet Winter Wedding

This Saturday my favorite cousin was married for time and all eternity in the Newport Beach, California temple.It was a beautiful day, well, not literally. The skies were rainy and I was sick as a dog (at the doctor just a half hour before we left) but I was so grateful to be there to witness the union of Jason and Nicole. Dallen was glad to be there too...

He had fun with his Mommy and Daddy:


His Auntie:

His babysitters, Uncle Scotty and girlfriend Kenzie:


His Mimi and Grandpa:
(Would have been a super cute picture if Dallen wasn't blocking my Mom's face)

And all things not wedding related:



(I wasn't by Dallen when he was playing in the water with his Mimi and Auntie and I heard someone saying "When I have kids I am never gonna let my kids do that" haha, that's my boy!!)

Also, I just had to share the photographer's hilarious solution to the rain problem :)

All in all it was a wonderful day and I was so glad I was there to be a part of the celebration!!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree?

This year we decided to get a recession proof tree, well, bush!! We are going to California for Christmas so we didn't want to spend a fortune on a tree that would be alone on Christmas Day, but we wanted Dallen to get used to the idea of a tree so he wouldn't terrorize my parents' tree. So as a solution we got this little living, potted pine bush to hold a few of our plastic ornaments, or as Dallen likes to call them "footballs". We love our little "tree" and are so excited to have a little Christmas spirit in our home!!

**Let it snow**

We found snow in Arizona, at one of our favorite places, the Tempe Marketplace!! Good thing Mark had his new handy dandy iPhone to snap some pictures of Dallen enjoying the wintery white stuff. It took us a few minutes to figure out that it was soap, we finally realized when Dallen was rubbing his eyes, poor kid!! Happy Christmas :)

Holy Guacamole!!

This kid definitely has Messick in him. Let me explain...at nearly EVERY Messick family function you can find a bowl of fresh, homemade, delicious guacamole. At the last event I remember my Dad made the most ginormous bowl of guac you can imagine, using a dozen, yes 12 avocados, and the bowl was gone in less than 30 minutes. I am not exaggerating when I say that my family LOVES us some guacamole and little D has not missed the boat on this one!! He will devour the green stuff like candy whether it be on a chip or with his fingers :)

More Gratitude

Some more pictures from Thanksgiving weekend...

Dallen playing with baby Emma
Ride 'em cowboy!!


Strike a pose
Busted, Mr. TroubleThis beautiful little boy is definitely counted among my blessings!!