Halloween 2013

It's no surprise that I love Halloween.  It is one of my favorite holidays. I spend the whole year thinking about what we will dress up as.  I had plans this year which involved an already sewn Cinderella and Fairy Godmother costume.  I was ready for a low stress Halloween.  Well... Emmie REALLY wanted to be a vampire.  I was talked into it and about a week before Halloween my life became a sewing sweat shop. I made all the costumes except mine.  I think Pete's took the longest.  I sewed the strips onto a thermal shirt and pants.  I have to admit, I kind of enjoyed sewing in such little time, it made me feel like I a contestant in one of my favorite shows, Project Runway!

In case you are wondering, we are a mummy, vampire, werewolf (not a bear) and a witch. We really wanted to get Brenden some tiny basketball shorts so he could be teen wolf but we ran out of time... lucky for him!

Road trip

 The kids and I made another trip down to AZ for my newest niece's baby blessing.  Frances is super cute with big blue eyes and fuzzy dark hair.  Emmie was smitten and tried to hold her any chance she got. We had lunch after church at my grandparent's house in Gilbert. The kids enjoyed running wild.

Peter had another birthday party.  This time with ALL the family.  It was fun to have an excuse to be together and have a party.  Peter requested a monster cake which we happily bought at Fry's.  It wasn't nearly as good at the dirt cups grandma made for everyone... complete with a worm.

I am going to say this now. In a year or so these three are going to be trouble.  Look.. Noah is already eating Henry's cake and Peter is happy about it.  I bet Peter put him up to it.

The weather in Arizona in October is almost perfect.  Upper 70's is awesome so we spent many afternoons outside on bikes.  It's a good thing Emmie learned how to ride her bike before this trip!

We had lunch with Great Grandma B. It was a delicious burger from In-N-Out.  I want you to take notice of the extremely large dog in the back.  This dog's back was as tall as Peter's head.  Peter kept going over to it to pet it but then would chicken out.  He could have ridden this dog like a horse. 

No trip is complete without a trip to IKEA.  I love to these kids make themselves at home. It does look pretty homey doesn't it?

My cousin Heather and her family were in town so we got together with them for a brunch at my sister's house.  It was fun. We have the best family.  I am so glad everyone enjoys being together.  This is Great Grandma C with some of the great grand kids.  Grandma holding Frances makes Frances look like a giant baby...or a tiny grandma. 

Emmie and I got to go see the Lion King.  It was AMAZING!  We took Emmie to see Beauty in the Beast last year but it was in a hockey arena.  Not a good place for broadway.  We had the best seats and we loved every minute.  I would go see this again in a heart beat.  

We followed Grandpa Pete and Grandma Linda a few days after they came down.  It was fun spending more time with them.  If you can't tell, these kids love these two. 

Rita's.  Italian ice+ice cream= perfection.  If you haven't tried it, you need to. 

I took some pictures of all the cousins.  After we let them play at the park.  Aunt Carianne was nice enough to swing the guts out of these guys.  Jenna, Cora and Kate loved it.  Emmie had a harder time but succumbed to peer pressure and toughed it out.

On our last night we went to the pumpkin patch at Schneff farm.  It was great! They had rides, petting zoo, hay ride and the best funnel cake I have ever eaten. 

Grandpa Randy loves the roller coaster!

Before we left I tried to get a picture with my dad and the grand kids. When I said sit by grandpa that meant stand in a line behind grandpa.  I don't know what Emmie is doing.

It was a fun trip. Thanks to everyone who rearranged their schedule!  Well worth the 12 hours of torture each way in the car.

Petester turns 3

The day after Kate and Becca left Grandpa Pete and Grandma Linda came to visit.  The kids LOVED having them here (and Brenden and I did too).  We had an action packed week.  We celebrated Pete's birthday, went to my orchestra concert, got a tour of the church history library by the church's cutest historian and attended general conference.  Pete keeps asking where grandpa and grandma are.  It is nice we get to see them in a few days in Arizona! 

Peter 3 years

Favorite food: noodles

Favorite toy: cars

Favorite TV show: Cat in the hat

Favorite movie: Wreck it Ralph

Best friend: Solomon (lives across the street)

Favorite thing to do: play at the park

Leah, Kate and Becca

One of by best friends from Kearney is originally from Ogden. She was visiting family and decided to come stay with us for a couple days.  We had a blast.  The kids loved having Kate and Becca around and I loved having Leah around.  I miss her! 

We went to Temple Square and met us at the Blue Lemon for lunch.  Don't you love that cute photo bomber? 

 

We went to the church history museum's children's section.  They have dancers you watch and these awesome skirts you can wear to dance with them.  I want one.

It was fun having them come to Emmie's school carnival.  There was face painting, cold pizza, jumpy houses, and balloon animals.

One of the bonuses of living in UT is knowing that Leah and her family will be traveling through every so often.  Thanks for coming to visit!  We loved it.

September

It has been so long since I blogged I had to look to see what the last post was.   I know there are many of you out there waiting everyday to see what we've been up to.  I will be one of those annoying people who post 3+ posts in one day. Me so sorry. 

First up- we hit up the state fair.  It was fun.  We had funnel cake, played games, gawked at all the animals, and even saw a magician.  Emmie was picked out of the audience to help.  She ate it up.  

We have been going on hikes up in the mountains.  I would have never imagined we would be living so close to nature.  The kids are loving it... and so is their dad! Sometimes I pull out of my driveway and look up and think to myself... I live here!? It is gorgeous.

 We go to the park almost daily.  This particular time it had just rained.  As you can see, Peter can't resist a good puddle.

Right by our house is a great outdoor mall with a frozen yogurt place.  If you know me you know that frozen yogurt is inferior to ice cream.  I went because our good friends Brent and Ashley love frozen yogurt.  It is fun having fellow Nebraskan's so close. The kids obviously love Brenden. 

I made a new friend who has a little boy in the PM kindergarten class.  She has 3 boys... the same ages as my 2.  We thought it would be fun to ride the train downtown and go to the children's museum.  We missed the first train, got to the children's museum 30 minutes before it closed, ate dinner and then missed the train back home.  Overall, we spent more time waiting for the train then we actually did playing or eating dinner.  It was really fun up until the sun set and we were eaten by mosquitoes.  Did you know mosquitoes has an E?  I just auto corrected.  I didn't know that.

 A couple weeks later we decided to try out another outing.  This time to the trampoline park and chick-fil-a.  The trampoline park was great.  My high energy kids loved it.  Once we got to chick-fil-a the baby threw up all over.  I felt bad for the poor boy.  He was naked because his clothes were covered and that dumb cow mascot kept walking past scaring him to death.  Poor little guy!  We are scared to go on another outing.