Things Going On

Well, we painted mini pumpkins last week ,and Jansen's face looks eerily similar to his painted one. 

Last Friday was "Nevada Day," so the kids didn't have school again. To celebrate the great state of Nevada (I just now decided that's why we did this), we went to do a small walk/hike at Red Rock. It was one of those humorous situations in which we were in the car longer than we were outside, and the kids were a little ornery. I'm still glad we got out of the house. 

Saturday was another pretty wide open day that needed to be filled. After cleaning the house up a bit in the morning, we went to a farmer's market at Tivoli Village. It was such a gorgeous day. Natalie wasn't in the best mood at the beginning...

...but she got over it. Our apples were really expensive, but DELICIOUS! Everything was a little pricey of course, but I don't regret my hummus and pita chips or our $3 popsicles for a minute.

This is one of those places where you see lots of dogs in strollers. I, for one, forgot my stroller, so this little puppy roamed and danced her way up the streets.

Emmy's popsicle was coconut, and I had to steal lots of bites.

The kids made masks at this art booth.

One of my favorite parts of the market was the pile of hula hoops for anyone to use.

Later that night was the trunk or treat at the church. I loved hearing Jansen describe his costume to people, "Well, I'm Thor with a big sword from the dollar store." Hush, hush boy...it looks higher quality than that from afar! I LOVE hearing Emmy say Halloween. It's more like "Lalloween!"

This was moments before she ran into a folding metal chair. 

My little man practicing his moves. We are lucky to be able to wear flip flops and have this event outside!

A Few Fallish Things

Poor Emmy was pretty terrified at the car wash the other day. Speaking of scary, since it's the Halloween season she has caught on to some words and uses them a lot like "spooky" and "spider web." All pumpkins are called "pumpkin patches." We have a scary sounds Halloween book that she loves to read.

I am the secretary of our school's PTO. The Fall Carnival that we put on was last Friday. I did about 1/100 of the amount of work some of the other moms did, and I was still so worn out and exhausted. During the actual carnival I was in charge of the nacho booth. I had my kids as well, so I was very relieved when the teenager from my ward showed up to take my place. That way I could take the kids around to the carnival games.

Emmy was pretty good while I ran the booth...the sno cone helped. It was a really hot afternoon.

We were all ecstatic when dad showed up for the last 30 minutes. I spent 2 hours after the carnival ended cleaning up, but at least I didn't have to put the kids to bed that night!

Saturday was our last day with Nate before he left for Washington DC for a month. He took the kids on a bike ride to McDonald's (which has become quite the tradition for them.) He must have stopped at the Wal-Mart on the way back because Natalie came in the door with these for me along with my favorite juice.

That night we went on a double date with the Comins to a Jenny Oaks Baker concert. Our stake choir was performing with her. It was so fun to be with Kiki and Ben.

Kiki took this staged picture from her car on the drive home. We were just, you know, making out at the stop light. 

All dressed up, no place to go.

We don't really carve pumpkins. We should. But we did paint these mini pumpkins the other night, and the kids loved it. Emmy spent probably 30 minutes painting hers, and when I showed her the dried pretty pumpkin the next morning she tossed it in the garbage. Never to be spoken of again. Such a funny girl.

Early to School

I'm working on putting another year of my blog in a book, and I am reminded once again of how much I enjoy looking back on the little details of life. I love the pictures, but it's the specific anecdotes that I'm really thankful I recorded.

I thought I'd do a little update about how our early school start time (7:25) is going. Things have turned out surprisingly well. Life keeps doing that to me. I am presented with a new situation that practically has me in tears, but it turns out to be for the best.

I set my alarm for about 6:25. Sometimes one of the kids wakes up before that, but I'm usually the first one to face the day. I change into some exercise clothes and go get Jansen and Natalie out of bed. Emmy is awake about now as well, and I bring her some milk and head downstairs with her.

Luckily, the kids' favorite show Wild Kratts is on at 6:30. This is an extra incentive to get them going in the morning. They both usually have cereal and/or fruit for breakfast. Natalie doesn't have much of an appetite this early in the morning. They both need some prodding to eat their food faster, but by about 7 we are fed, dressed, hair done (not me or Emmy!), and teeth brushed. I eat breakfast later.

We load up into the car about 7:05 and pick up our friend Jantzen. I park and walk the boys to a gate and continue on to take Natalie to Kindergarten. The weather has still been warm up to this point, but mornings are starting to get cool. The other day the kids wore pants to school for the first time, and they are starting to bring jackets.

Emmy and I head back home to go for a run. That is one of the biggest advantages of this start time...it's convenient for me to exercise. I get her some juice and whatever blanket or animal she wants and load her into the jogging stroller. Luckily, she enjoys it for the most part. I only run for about 30 minutes, always the same route, and when we get back I do a few more things like push ups, jumping jacks, and ab stuff. I exercise more, drink more water, and eat better than I have in my entire life, and yet I weigh more than I ever have (besides pregnancy and right after babies). That's what age will do to you! After showering, eating breakfast, and picking up the house a little, it's usually time to pick up Natalie at 9:55. I like having her home most of the day. Jansen is home by about 1:45, and the afternoons go by pretty quickly. If I was presented the option of starting school later I actually don't think I would want to. Our schedule right now is working really well for everyone.

Day Off

No school for the kids today because the teachers are having their parent teacher conferences. I went to Natalie's conference today, and she's doing great. I asked her teacher if she thought Natalie needed any help with her speech, specifically her "r" sound. She said Natalie is SO quiet, so she hadn't noticed anything, but would have the speech therapist come in and ask her some questions. So we will see where that goes.

Thankfully we had something planned to make it a fun day off from school. We went to a pumpkin patch type place that had lots of fun things for the kids to do. 

Natalie rode this ride last year and got scared, so she wasn't up for trying it again. Jansen loved it. 

Poor animals. Can you imagine being fenced in with small children circling and touching you all day? Jansen wanted me to add that all kids were very gentle though.

Emmy had no problem trucking her way to the top of this slide and going down all by herself.

Pretty good shot with everyone looking at me! At least I think Jansen is looking at me.

I was too impatient to wait for the perfect moment, so I just snapped a picture of the group a little prematurely. It was a great morning. Nate is in Washington D.C. right now, so activities like these really help  the days pass quickly.

Kids' Halloween Party

Last Wednesday night we went to the Nelson's after school for a kiddos Halloween party. Emmy was Strawberry Shortcake with a hard hat, Natalie was a witch, and Jansen was a kid in a bad mood. He was just having a bad afternoon...one thing led to another, and he was just NOT happy about life. Luckily, he was in a much better mood for the last bit of the party.

We are imperfect costume kind of people. Here's a prime example. 

We had fun Halloween snacks, played some games, and had a great time just hanging out in the backyard in the sunshine. Poor little Jansen is behind the tree. I'll be honest, it makes me laugh every time I see it.

Becca made some "witch's brew" with all sorts of spooky ingredients like bug guts and crushed skeleton bones. 

Here's Natalie devouring her donut on a string...no hands allowed.

Everyone loves to be a part of fun activities like this, but it's hard to follow through and make it happen. We were thankful to Becca for being on top of things and planning it so that they kids could have some Halloween fun this month. 

Wedding Weekend

Well Kami found her one and only, her true love, her other half. And they decided to get married on October 12, so I drove to Utah with the kids to spend a few days with family and go to the wedding. My mom watched my kids a lot for me (and I am so grateful) because there were a lot of fun things going on! Kami had a bachelorette party on the night I arrived. It was at Classic Skating which is where I spent a fair amount of my childhood. What a blast from the past to be on that skating rink again. I hadn't skated in YEARS, and the skates felt like blocks of cement. It took me awhile to warm up, but it was SO fun.

I just love Kami's sisters. They have always been so good to me, and they are so fun to be around.

I'm not sure how we got a picture with an empty rink behind us. It was actually really busy that night. Lots of fun watching the teenagers flirt and wondering about the older gentleman who was there by himself enjoying a night on his skates.

Amy and I are a deadly combination. We get going and can't stop with the jokes and poses.

After skating we went to Kami's sister's house and played Bunco. Each time someone got a bunco, Kami had to pull something out of a bag and tell how she was going to use it. *blush*

The Bunco gang

Moving on to Thursday night...shower with my best friends from high school. Other people are always so amazed that we have stayed in contact. How could we not!? I love these girls. We had the shower at Janelle's house, and her mom came and did games and dinner with us. She used to throw Halloween parties for us, so this was reminiscent of our high school days.

We even did our favorite game, The Penny Toss. I just grin thinking about a bunch of 30+ year olds doing stuff like this...and loving it.

We had a delicious spaghetti dinner and played Bingo.

And now for the big day. I drove to Salt Lake with these girls and cherished every minute we got to talk and catch up.

The temple sealing was wonderful. I guess age and experience have caused me to be pretty emotional and I also really felt the Spirit being in the temple. The luncheon was at the Lion House, and we ate till we thought we might burst. Amy and I had joked with Kami that we might burst into song when she gave her little "speech." Well, we didn't do that exactly, but something came over me and suddenly during one quiet moment, I started snapping my fingers and making weird be-bop noises. My friends joined in, and we had about 6 seconds of glory...which turned into embarrassment. I don't regret it though. :)

The reception that night was at a place called Castle Park Events Center in Lindon. It was beautiful, and so fun to chat and mingle with great friends and people from my past. Kami looked stunning and her dress was incredible.

These are all girls I lived with at the Riviera in Provo. We sent Jason and Kami off with sparklers...and they are spending their honeymoon in the Dominican Republic. 

Nate had to work and also was interviewing in California, so he couldn't make it. That was a bummer, but the kids were great, and the drive to and from Utah actually went really well.

Date Night

Date nights are actually fairly stressful to me. The kids don't love having a sitter, it gets expensive, and I have to clean the house so we don't look like nasty dirty people to the babysitter! BUT, it's so worth it, and I love knowing that being together and having dinner or whatever is exactly what we should be doing at that moment. It's time well spent.

We met up with the Nelsons and had delicious Thai food first. The BYU/USU game was on, so our husbands were a little distracted for part of the night. :)

Next up, miniature golf. We were all pretty awesome. And I proved to be extra brilliant by wearing wedges...to play a sport...in the dark...on terrain that included small hills, rocks, and sand.

We had so much fun with these guys.

Hole in one, baby!