Fall

Hey all!  I'm playing catch up... again.  I bet this comes as no surprise to most of you.  But I digress.  

So here's how our fall has continued.  

Halloween:

Ian chose our family costumes this year... Super Mario World. 

 

Ian was Mario.

Kenya was Princess Peach and Trey was Toad (he wouldn't wear anything but the hat I made and even that was a stretch).

I was Luigi and Brian was Waligi. 

 I didn't do very well on getting pictures this year.

Kenya's 5th Birthday:

My sweet girl is now 5 and I can't believe it.  She is growing so quickly and I enjoy watching her learn and grow.  Although, there are times when I think she acts just a little too much like me... stubborn and irrational.  Oh well, old habits die hard. :) 

It was also my sister Britt's b-day party too.

Thanksgiving:

Ian in his Indian getup for a Thanksgiving program.

Other than Ian's Thanksgiving program we just prepared for the big dinners.  On Thanksgiving day we went to Brian's parents for an early dinner and then Britt and I prepared part of the big dinner at our home for all of our family in town.  It was busy and fun with tons of left overs. 

The Friday after Thanksgiving I was able to go out with my mom-in-law and sisters-in-law.  Mom treated us to a wonderful night and we were able to see the play based on the Liken films: "The First Christmas"

It was such a joy to see and I highly recommend it to everyone. :) 

  

The Hunt:

Brian has been itching to start a tradition in our family that his family had when he was young... Christmas Tree Hunting. So he purchase a tree tag, and the Saturday after Thanksgiving we headed off to get ourselves a wonderful tree.  

The excitement was buzzing until we got the kids out into the cold and snow.  For some reason Trey refused to step in the snow and Kenya mostly just screamed while we pulled her through the snow.  Although it was painful at first, we did have fun and did come back with a decent tree.  It wasn't as full a tree as we'd hoped for, but we are pleased with it.  Maybe next year we won't have so many screaming kids. :) 

Ready to go

Making our way up the road to search

The tree

Timber!

  Well, now you're caught up and hopefully I can try and stay on top of things. :) Hope you enjoyed it. 

Goofy kiddos

Trey just cracks me up.  He's got such a personality and I just adore him.  Look what he's done now. :) 

Speaking of goofy... although I HATE haunted houses and places that scare me intentionally, I went through the Nightmare on 13th Haunted Castle again.  I know, I'm crazy.  It was even more scary the second time through and I thought for sure that I wouldn't be as scared because I already knew what was happening, but it was definitely worse. :)  Thankfully my mom and brother Wes were there to protect me. :) 

Goblin Valley Trip

Ever since we've been back in Utah Brian's been itching to take the kids to some of the beautiful parks here.  So over UEA weekend we hit our first one.  

On Friday we drove out to Green River to camp for the night.  The kids had a blast.  Once the tent was set up Trey wanted nothing more than to lay down and smile at us.  Such a goofy kid.  We played games, had a camp fire, roasted marshmallows and had some good family time. 

The next morning we packed up the tent and headed to Goblin Valley (about another hours drive from where we were).

Right as we reached the park entrance Kenya yelled out that her stomach hurt and she thought she was going to throw-up.  Brian quickly pulled over and I jumped out and got Kenya to the side of the road just in time for her to loose breakfast all over the pavement.  Thankfully there was no mess to clean up.  

At that point Brian and I had to decide if we should stay and play or drive the 4 hours home with a possibly sick child.  We decided to stay and if she needed to loose it again we'd still be outside.  

Remarkably, Kenya did really well.  She was pretty close to normal and we were able to run around, hike and have fun.  Enjoy the pics below. :) 

At one point we climbed up pretty high and deep into a crevasse in the wall.  The kids did great and we will definitely be going back again. 

Nightmare On 13th

It's been a long couple of weeks and it seems like almost constantly someone has been sick.  There was finally a breather and so the four adults (Britt, James, Brian and I) decided it was high time we went on a double date.  Somehow Britt and Brian convinced James and I to join them in going to the Nightmare on 13th Haunted House in Salt Lake City.  You see, both James and I are wary of going to scary places like this, but Britt and Brian wanted some good Halloween fun, so off we went.

My favorite part of this photo is Brian's face!  It's AWESOME!

As we walked through the maze of turns and twists (Brian in front, myself gripping his hand and my sister's hand, Britt's, who was behind me and James bringing up the rear with his head buried in Britt's hair most of the time) I was utterly terrified more than a few times.  It was like the spooks new that I was the one to target (which they probably did considering I was gripping hands for dear life).  We had some good screams and fun though and in the end enjoyed ourselves... for the most part.  

It was nice because before we went to the Haunt we joined our little brother Wes for dinner at a place called Noodles & Co. which was actually really good food.  It was fun to spend time with Wes and hang out. 

A Work in Progress

I finally feel like I'm getting somewhere on the house decor and whatnot.  After what has seemed like forever (but really just two long months),  I am very close to finishing one room in our house.  

See, I'm taking the remod room by room; painting, furnishing, decorating.  It's a slow process, but I'm enjoying it.  So here is the almost finished mudroom.  I only have a few pictures left to hang.  

Just about everything was made/done by yours truly.  I made the light shade (I didn't like it at first, but I'm actually really in love with it now.  I made and installed the wainscoting on the walls, painted the whole room including doors, installed the flooring, etc...  I really enjoyed almost all the work (I had to repaint the bottom half of the room 3 times and that got tedious, but it's done and it looks great! 

The mirror was a great buy at Gordman's (Love that store!) I got the two basket's and red bin at DI and lined the out side of the baskets with yarn to match the light shade. 

 

I'm actually kinda proud of this particular art piece.  I saw something similar on Pintrest and decided I wanted to make something to match my decor.  I really liked how it turned out. 

 

And there you have it.  My first room accomplished.  Now on to the next.  :) 

School

I'm going to backtrack a little and post pictures about the kids first days of school.  

 

Kenya is in a dance class right now and here is her on her first day of dance. 

 

We also had the privilege of entertaining Brian's good friend from Hong Kong.  They were missionary companions and it was great to meet Calvin.

School Pictures

I am actually way behind on the blog upkeep right now, but here are the kids school pictures for your viewing pleasure.  

 

Ian

The school districts all do the same photos since before I was born, but at Kenya's preschool they hired this awesome company, Camera Shy,  and the did several fun poses for the kids. 

Camera Shy Photography also let us bring siblings in to have pictures taken, so Britt and I took Trey and Alice in for pictures.  They were great with the little kids and would highly recommend them.

Thankfully they were very patient with my quite nervous and shy little Trey.  But we did seem to get some good photos out of the short time we were there.  We also got some darling photos of my cute little niece, but it'll be up to my sister to share those. :)