Thanksgiving 2011

We spent a couple of days at my parents for Thanksgiving this year.

The guys installed a new basketball hoop.


We played a game of soccer while the kids jumped on the tramp and Grandma took some of the grand kids for rides on the horses. (The 1st pic. is of Brynn doing a flip)





The cousins have so much fun when they're together.



We went back up to Logan and we hit the "November Fest" which kind of bombed this year. We went to Arthur Christmas with all of the cousins. We put up all of our Christmas decorations and had a nice long relaxing weekend. It was a good start to the holidays. :)

Praise To The Man

Brynn loves singing her primary songs and I am impressed that she knows a lot of the really big words in this song. Enjoy!

Costumes 2011

Brynn's been talking about being Rapunzel for Halloween for months now. She kept talking about how Gavin was going to be "Pascal" and how beautiful and long her hair was going to be. I couldn't find an official Pascal costume so we dressed Gavin up as a frog. He loved it! He thought it was so funny when I showed him how he looked in the mirror and he cried when I took the costume off that night. I thought and thought about how I was going to make Brynn's hair "long and beautiful" for cheap. We found plastic hair at Sally's for $7 and I sewed those extension clips on it so it would clip in her hair. I put it in right when she got home from school so she could enjoy having long hair all day. She was VERY HAPPY with her long hair! She twirled and danced and petted it all day long ;). Here are some pics from the day.

"Rapunzel"



"Pascal"



Kidos loaded in the car to trick-or-treat at Daddy's work. (we're waiting for a guy to fix our garage door because Mommy ran into it that morning AND THEN broke the passenger side mirror off the car not even 20 seconds later... don't ask!)


Brynn & Gavers had lots of fun trick-or-treating. Gavin caught on really quickly and filled his bucket up while simultaneously sucking on several suckers ;). Brynn collected lots of candy but ate only 3-4 pieces. Every year the "Switch Witch" comes to our house. Brynn knows that (when she goes to bed on Halloween night) if she leaves LOTS of candy for the witch then she'll wake up to a PRESENT the next morning. She got a dog this year named "Bumper McBones" and he has a dog house and talks and walks. She couldn't be happier! Gavin got his first pull back car that slams into the walls and a transformer pops out of the top. He says "GO!" and races it down the hallway over and over again. :)

Here they are at Daddy's work.


Happy Halloween!

Loving Fall

This is my absolute favorite time of year! I get so high on the smell of leaves and carved pumpkins. YUM. I love to lay beneath the trees and look through the bright yellow and orange leaves contrasted against the beautiful clear blue sky. These pictures I store in my mind to bring out in several months when there's no color left. I honestly can't get enough of it.

We went to the Pumpkin Walk this past weekend as we do annually. The kids love seeing all the different scenes. Brynnlie's preschool put together a scene so Brynn was really excited to show us the pumpkin she decorated. Matt took us to our favorite Mexican restaurant afterward and we ate delicious chips & salsa, mango & passion fruit lemonade, and yummy burritos (my fave is the shrimp enchiladas ;)). We came home and Matt and I talked about how grateful we are for our little family. We have so much fun together!





There was an awesome pumpkin scene about Adoption so we had to take a picture. :)


We carved our pumpkins for FHE this week and roasted the pumpkin seeds for our treat. Brynn and I carved one pumpkin. She designed it on a piece of paper and I carved it. She named it Furcatsy and Matt named his Jack (so original honey).



We have a small road by our house that is perfect for crunching through the leaves. We go out daily to run up and down it a few times and get our autumn leaves fix (I'm addicted to the smell).




I accidentally recorded this video sideways. I apologize now for the crook you are going to get in your neck watching it ;).


We hope you are enjoying all the fun that comes with this season!

Hair Cut

Gavin's hair was getting SUPER long and Mommy wanted to see more of his cute face so I cut it all off. We cut at least 4-5 inches off the back. We miss all that hair but it grows really fast so I'm sure it will be long again soon. I bet he's had 15 haircuts since he was born. I always tease that all the Pediasure we give him goes right to his hair. It sure isn't going anywhere else :).

Before

He's not a happy camper in this picture but his hair looks great :).


After

Recent Crafties

This week I finished my Christmas Cards for our "neighbor/friend gifts". I haven't decided what I'm going to put with them yet (trying to decide between 2 things). I love getting hand-made-cards and it was a lot of fun making them. I made each one different so that it would be more fun to create.



My sweet sis-in-law Caitlin came over also and we made some wreaths. She made a Halloween one and I wish I would have taken a picture. It turned out so cute! I ended up making one for Brynn's door to her room. She loves it! She's so fun to make things for... so appreciative and kind :).




I'm working on some other projects right now but they're surprises! Maybe I'll share after Christmas. ;0)

Date Night

Going to this concert with my very handsome hubster this month. So excited!



UPDATE: Amazing Concert! We both loved it.

scarf

This is such a fun video & I am so excited that we are in scarf season now. :) I'm going to try out a lot of these in the next few months :).

Catch Up

I haven't taken quite as many pictures over the past few months as I normally do but I have taken some that I want to share. Here is an update from July up to current. Before July we finished our basement so that pretty much took up all of our time.

We got to watch Sophers (I had to BEG :)) while Eli and Chris were at the hospital having their sweet baby girl Lila. Brynn LOVED having her here for a few days. She still doesn't understand why we can't drive to go visit them. I try to explain that we'd have to drive 3 straight days to get there and she says, "That's fine Mom... Let's get packed!" :) We miss them so much!



They came and visited us right before they left for Cleveland and we had an awesome weekend.



Auntie Jenni had us over a few times to swim in her apartment swimming pool. The kids loved it because it wasn't very crowded and they got to be with their cousins.


Annual Pioneer Day Parade & Slurpees with the Geddes Family



Daddy's 32nd Birthday


Canoeing & Picnic up at Tony Grove with Jenny, Nathanael, & Rachael





My little sister Karina came and stayed with us for several days while my mom went to help get Chris & Eli situated. Brynn really had a lot of fun with her. They both ride their scooters like crazy people and love doing tricks (scared me to death but it made Gavin LAUGH).



I had surgery on my girlie parts and got a few things taken out (not the girlie parts I wanted to get taken off but you can't have it all :). There will be no pictures. Mama Miller took care of me and the kids and my sisters here brought me dinner. Matt did an amazing job working and taking care of the kids. Thank YOU. I seriously couldn't have done it without you all.

About a week later we went to Tuacahn Theatre in St. George with all our girls to see The Little Mermaid. We got our tickets months earlier so I wasn't going to back out just because of a surgery. The show was beyond anything I could have imagined. It really was AMAZING. We were on the 5th row in the middle so we were very close to the stage. Brynn did not sit down the entire show. She was in complete amazement the whole time. It was great and we'll remember it for a long time. :)



I came home from St. George to my mom cooking me a gourmet dinner for my 29th birthday (3rd 29th bday that is). She cooked for me the whole weekend and the food was all absolutely divine! She uses TONS of vegetables from her garden and cooks up such fantastic food... seriously straight from a 5 star restaurant. Matt had the house & yard completely immaculate with flowers on the table and a delicious chocolate ice cream cake for desert. I love my family SO very much. That night we went to The Help which was an amazing movie. My Grammy came up for my birthday and it was so much fun having her here. On Monday we got a canoe and went back up to Tony Grove for a picnic. It was a great weekend but I was beyond exhausted by the time it was over.


Brynn started preschool (3 days a week) and is really enjoying it. She brings home so many fun projects and tells me all sorts of interesting things ;). Gavin and I have a lot of fun hanging out, just the two of us, while she's gone.



That's it for now! Just livin' and lovin' it. :)