Merry Christmas!!

My day

It was predicted that we were going to get a big storm tonight. When I was out this morning getting some groceries for Thanksgiving dinner, I noticed that the city was lining these sign up the street that leads into our neighborhood. This is the road that goes over the mountain and into Draper. Should I be worried?

ETA: We got a ton of wind last night with some snow. We only have maybe an inch on the ground. So either we got very little snow with lots of wind or we got some snow and the wind blew it all away. And this morning I saw truck picking up the ROAD CLOSED signs. So all is well here.




While at the grocery store, I noticed that they had some of this. I am happy to report that Sadie, Reed and Michael all liked it too!



Sadie had a Thanksgiving Feast at school today. She was so excited for it--she had been looking forward to it for weeks. She chose to be a pilgrim though when I arrived I noticed she was also dressed as an Indian too. I guess she wanted to have it both ways.

Summer Part 3

Summer was coming to an end. Sadie started kindergarten. Here there is not full day kindergarten. At first I was disappointed because I thought that Sadie would be missing out on learning. But now I really enjoy having her home with me for one more year. She is so much fun to take shopping. She is so cheerful and fun to be with. On Wednesdays she goes to play group and then directly to school so she is gone all day and I miss having her around on those days. If only I could bottle her up and keep her little!



We had a picnic at Nicole and Jeff's apartment before Mom and Dad left. (No pictures of the picnic -- just pictures of volleyball!)

special occasions

{I had this left in my drafts folder since July and never posted it to the blog. It was so cute that I had to include it}

I bought a cute headband for Sadie that I was hoping to use when I (hopefully) get around to taking a family picture. I noticed one morning that she was wearing while she played and I was worried that it might not be in good shape for pictures later. So I told her that the headband was for wearing on special occasions. She deadpans, "Like fires and floods?"

Introducing the special occasion headband---

Summer Part 2

Just doing a little catch up... While we were living in a hotel in August we spent a day in Park City. The Reed and Michael LOVED the alpine slide. Sadie didn't want to do it so Sadie, Molly and I waited while the boys went down the mountain.






We also rode the carousel and played some miniature golf.

Summer Part 1

This may be a bit backwards but one of our last stops while driving across the country this summer was Oklahoma. Lucky for us there are some really fun (and adorable) kids that live there. Lisa and Brian let us stay with them for a few days which was very kind because that included our dog too. (The dog is a story in its self. Maybe best saved for a later date.)

Anyway, Sam and Ava allowed me just one or two pictures. But Maggie... what a dream. She asked for me to take her picture. She really like to twirl while I took her picture and then she would run over to see what I had got.

Sadie wants to know when we are going to move again because she wants to move to OK so that she can live next door to her cousins. Visiting our cousins was definitely the highlight of our trip.

Life

We have had a busy summer and now it is hard to believe that it is already into fall. It has been really warm and it still feels like summer so that may be why I am so surprised that it is almost October.

I took Reed to a football game a few weeks ago. Reed enjoyed the second half once the sun went down and it wasn't an oven. When the game was over I took him down to where the player leave the field and go into the locker room and he got to get some high fives from the players. He really enjoyed the game but told me he would go back with me later in the season when it was cooler.



This week Sadie wanted to go with me. I was a bit nervous that she would be ready to go about 2 minutes into the game. But Sadie was just as much fun as the game itself. She entertained herself though some of it was teasing her Uncle Jeff.

When we first got there I stopped and asked if she wanted a BYU t-shirt since she was wearing a pink t-shirt and no respectable fan would show up to a game not wearing blue. But instead of a t-shirt she wanted a Big Finger. She played with it most of the game.



Towards the end of the game, she took over the stairs and made herself comfortable.



Earlier in the week, we took the kids to the canyon for a picnic and to see some of the fall colors. I decided that we need to improve our picnicing skills. We failed to realize it would be cooler in the mountains and forgot to bring jackets. Our lighter didn't work very well so we had to borrow some matches and then our food took so long to cook that we brought it home and finished cooking it at home. Other than all of that, we had fun.

Next time will be better.





Our happy bunch!





We also had some really crazy weather this week. Hail.

Proof

I have heard that perhaps this blog favors one of my kids over the others. It maybe that the more photographed one enjoys getting her picture taken while the others do not. But a couple of weeks ago I was able to talk an especially cute 9 year old if I could take two pictures. I said two so in case one did not turn out I would have a second shot. I think he is really cute dressed up for church. So here is some proof that I really do have more than one child.

Just so you know... he did get a much needed hair cut soon after this picture.

new do

A couple of weeks ago I took Sadie in to get a new summer hairstyle. I love it! I think it fits her personality perfectly. I promised her next month that I will take her in to see the girl who cuts my hair. She is so excited. She wants her nails done too. We'll have to see about that.

I took her to the butterfly garden today. I'll have to follow up with more information on that. Let's just say, Sadie doesn't want to talk about it.

The park

Saturday evening the weather was perfect so we went to the park. The kids love this park because of the soft ground underneath. It is a spring artificial turf. We brought the dog and she was a big hit with all the kids at the park.

After the park, we went to get some frozen yogurt. It was self serve. I learned my lesson--watch/help each child as they fill their bowl. If only I had gotten a picture of Reed's bowl. At this yogurt place, you pay per ounce and Reed's bowl was 17 ounces of yogurt and gummy bears.

While the boys were away

The girls played Princess Yahtzee. And ate tootsie rolls. Last weekend was the Fathers and Sons Campout. Since it was just the girls at home, we got in a few good games of Princess Yahtzee.

Lunch

I had a fun lunch with Nicole, Jeff, Ashley and Ryan. Sorry everyone that I was late-- I was stuck on State Street. The food was delicious and the desserts looks really good. But we were glad that Nicole and Jeff made an exception and were able to enjoy their chocolate covered strawberry.

Just like you

A few days ago, Sadie and I were talking. "When I am big I want to be a mom like you." Well, that made me happy. That is exactly what I hope for her-- to be a mom. But then she continued, "But not boring like you." I did follow up with her to find out what exactly she meant. She told me that I watch the news which is boring. I will try to watch more Disney channel so that I am not so boring.

You heard about all the snow we got this month...

well, we felt really bad about missing it.

HAHA HAHAHAHAH! Okay, we really enjoyed the warm sunshine and the beaches though we did feel bad for everyone still at home. Especially everyone who helped take care of Molly and the house. We came home to a house with 40-50 inches of snow and the drive way had been shoveled.

We were given a bonus day on the cruise. We were supposed to return to Florida on Saturday but with the high winds, the captain of the ship decided it was not safe to leave Castaway Cay so we stayed docked there for an extra 24 hours. I don't think the kids were one bit disappointed to have an extra day of Disney fun.