Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Oct- Week 4- Logan Pumpkin Walk, Trunk or Treat, Anna Preschool Halloween Party, Carving Pumpkins, Halloween, Leaf Jumping

Saturday morning we had a big breakfast and chilled till about 10:30 when we went to the North Logan Pumpkin Walk.  We love this Halloween tradition we've been doing for 8 years now! 
It was so fun to have Adam and Amelia, and Swa and kids with us too! 
The theme was something along the lines of, "What's more American than _______?" 
This flag had over 200 Pumpkins in it.  Weighed over 2000 pounds! They of course had to have a Donald and Hillary scene as well.  
Other highlights include Charlie Brown, The Tonight Show...
McDonald's, Hamilton...
Norman Rockwell, and the cutouts are always a big hit! 




All the cousins who were there! 
Cutest babies playing by each other.  Anna was very concerned about the car wash we went through; love her concerned eyebrows.  
We had lunch at Chick Fil A, then headed back to Mantua and the kids watched Hocus Pocus.  
We left by 4:40 and made it home for dinner, baths, and bedtime.  

Sunday the power went out during church and stayed out for quite some time.  Kind of unusual.  Dan taught a great lesson to the youth about standards and how living them can give us freedom.  

Monday we had lots of rain!  This was the day we said goodbye to Dan's Natural Gas Honda Civic!  Over the last year we had spent more on repairs than the car was worth, so it was time to trade it in.  Dan found a GREAT deal on a 2010 Nissan Xterra with only 20,000 miles on it.  

Tuesday I worked on organizing a bunch of pictures on my phone and dropbox.  I also worked on sorting Ben's clothing.  That evening we played and swept outside.  The kids played Hocus Pocus on their brooms. :) 
The kids had Spirit week this week at school, but none of the days were that significant to take pictures of.  Kind of lame themed days.  Oh well.  Hope it's better next year.  

Wednesday Bethany started taking lots more steps on her own! That evening we had our ward Fall Carnival and trunk or treat! Introducing our Star Wars Theme!  McKenna as Rey, Ben as Kylo Ren. Anna as BB8, and Bethany as Chewbacca.  Dan had crazy hair because he was the mad scientist in the spook alley the youth were in charge of.  
My siblings came too! Jonthan found a sweet disco suit to go with his 70s hair! 
Cute Bethany.  Found her reading.  And I also have found her in the morning several times with one arm out of her jammies.  
Thursday, Anna had her Halloween party at preschool at Rachael's house.   



My visiting teachers came over that day.  I also went to a Discovery Toys party in the afternoon.  I wanted to buy everything!  That evening we were able to play outside a little more due to really nice weather.  I did more baptism prep while Dan worked on writing remarks for his first civil marriage he would perform the next day.  

Friday I babysat Ivy Roth in the afternoon and started working on another 6 week online class for teacher licensure.  That evening the Winegars babysat while Dan and I went to the wedding of Ann Marie Wallace and Cory Birkholz.  She is McKenna's primary teacher and they are a great couple!  Congrats to them! 
The marriage took place at the Farmington Botanical gardens and the dinner afterwards was delicious!

Saturday, I finished organizing Ben's clothes and went grocery shopping in the morning.  After lunch, we babysat the Winegar kids while they went to the Utah game.  The kids played great and babies napped well until about 4:30, then we all went outside for some fresh air.  It was the kids idea to rake leaves to jump into...by all means, go for it! 
We did dinner, baths, and bedtime after that.  

Sunday I sang in church with some other women.  We sang, "I Know that My Redeemer Lives."  It was also a particularly hard Sunday with Anna for some reason.  
That evening we celebrated October BDs at Webster family dinner.  
Monday was Halloween!! The kids actually didn't have school due to a teacher work day.  Unfortunately, Anna was up at 6:45!  McKenna was invited to go to the Leonardo with the Roths.  Ben and Anna played with the Alexanders in the afternoon.  We did a little yard work after lunch. Then we finally carved pumpkins while Bethany napped.   Ben chose a stencil one.  McKenna drew her face on (with eye lashes) and I did most of the carving.  Anna's colored on hers for a good while before she changed her mind a thousand times about what she wanted her jack o'lantern to look like.  Good times! 
We had Papa Murphy's Jack O Lantern Pizza for dinner.  Unfortunately, due to Anna's early wake up time, she was quite sleepy at dinner.  We let her take a quick 15 min power nap before getting everyone changed into costumes for trick or treating!  
She was of course grouchy, but managed to smile for this awesome picture!
Happy Halloween 2016!  
I don't know if we'll ever be able to pull off another theme as good as this one, but it was great while it lasted!  
Anna was quite grouchy for most of trick or treating.  She didn't go to any doors and she even refused to choose candy even when it was brought out to her.  Oh well.  The weather was decent but our hands were definitely cold once the sun went down.  I was impressed at how dedicated Ben was at wearing his mask the whole time.

Oct- Week 3- McKenna's 8th BD Party, Corn Maze, A and Bth Dr. Checks, McKenna's Actual BD, Pumpkin Painting

Saturday morning before McKenna's party, I went grocery shopping, and Dan took my mom to the airport to head home to FL.  Ben also got to go to his friend Freddie's BD party at the Natural History Museum.  

McKenna's party started at 12:30.  The guests first colored Halloween pictures while we waited for everyone to arrive. Lunch consisted of mummy hot dogs, bones (pretzels), eyeballs (grapes), and pumpkins (clementines).  
After that, we watched some of Charlie Brown's Great Pumpkin while we waited for everyone to finish eating.  Then we played some games-- pumpkin bowling and bean bag toss.  The girls got Halloween stickers as prizes.  
We also made two crafts; A Q-tip skeleton and foam Halloween creatures.  Then we opened presents!
Her birthday "cake" was donuts that we stuck vampire teeth into.  They turned out so cute!
Ben enjoyed the vampire teeth!
All the girls!
Top: Sienna Dandurand, Kate Drumond, Gaby Jensen, Katie Stewart, Brinley Aune, Ben.
Bottom: Bridgette Moulton, Phebe Reudter, Camille Roth, Whitney Winegar, McKenna, and Brittana Alexander.  Such a good group of girls!
After cleaning up and chilling for the rest of the afternoon, we went to an Elder's Quorum activity which was a chili dinner and a dessert contest.  Dan had the rough job of being a judge.  ;) 
Sunday I went to ward choir and Mickelle came to church with a brand new giant tattoo on her arm!
That evening we had my siblings over for a birthday dinner for McKenna.  We had Orange chicken, rice, rolls, and pomegranates.  My brother also brought yummy treats.  
Monday I got to help with reading in Ben's class while the girls played at Swa's house, then I went visiting teaching.  We had an FHE that evening about baptism.  
Tuesday we babysat cousin Hailey for a bit while Sam and Lara were on a trip.  

I also worked on sorting kids clothes and our handyman, Genie, finally came to fix a few minor issues with the patio room carpet.  
In the evening I helped take dinner to my friend Kylee who just had a baby.  Then McKenna had her baptism interview with Bishop Dad!  
Wednesday was our sweet McKenna's 8th Birthday!  I went visiting teaching in the morning.  I also got a call from the school saying Ben had fallen off the monkey bars and was a little shaken up.  Not injured per se, just sad.  He still went to gymnastics that day where they danced to the "Monster Mash."
 Then we headed to the school to spotlight McKenna in her class.  We showed this poster with all her favorites and then she passed out little Halloween buttons.  Later, McKenna got to go to her first Activity Days.  She also skyped with family members and we sang to her one more time.  
From birth to age 8!  Cute little lady that made me a mama! 
I let McKenna stay up a little later that night and we painted nails and started watching Hocus Pocus.  Thursday Dan took McKenna out to breakfast since it was UEA weekend and she didn't have to hurry off to school.  (The night before, on Wednesday, I had a particularly hard time making dinner that night while the baby girls needed me and cried lots.)
Later on Thursday the Alexanders came over to play for a bit then my kids went to their house to play together more after lunch.  The girls tried the window markers McKenna got for her BD.  
Thursday Dan was also interviewed on channel 13 to advertise for their Pumpkin Festival coming up at the Gateway.  
Later in the day, Bethany and Anna had well checks at the doctors.  

Anna 3 Year Stats
Height: 37in (2in increase in 1 year) 30th percentile
Weight: 32lbs (5lb increase in 1 year) 50th percentile 

  • At 3 years and 3 months, Anna is not the least bit interested in potty training.  
  • She is loving the co-op preschool.
  • Starting to know more letters and sounds.
  • Can count to 12 correctly.
  • Has a great imagination and loves to play with McKenna and Ben

Bethany's 15 Month Stats
Height: 28.5in (2in increase in 3 months) 4th percentile
Weight: 19lbs 16oz (2lb increase in 3 months) 30th percentile 
Head: 50th percentile
  • Lots of cruising
  • Some standing and balancing practice
  • Took her first steps on Sept. 7th
  • Still has 7 teeth, though molars look like their bulging
  • Went through a picky eating phase, getting a little better

Everyone also got flu shots and did like I expected; they all cried.  :( We picked up my sister Mickelle then headed to eat at In N Out.  Then we met up with Dan and went to a corn maze in West Jordan.  They had fun true/false questions to answer along the way and helped you know which way to turn.  They also had these fun cutouts!

They also had a corn pit which the kids loved.  It's hard to tell but Ben got a corn kernal right in his crack.  :)
We got there around 5:30 and it took us about an hour which was perfect.  It was starting to get cold and dark right when we finished.   
Here's an adorable video of Bethany laughing while chasing the kids through the maze.  Afterwards we got hot chocolate and played at a McDonald's play place.    

Friday I got some follow-up blood work done for my thyroid and also got my flu shot.  Then we went grocery shopping.  After that, we headed to Dan's work Pumpkin Festival.  The Stewarts met us there too! The kids painted pumpkins and got balloon animals and swords.  
The fire department was there and the kids got to check out the truck.  
My car hit some fun mileage milestones as well!  56765 and 56789!
After the festival we packed up and headed to Mantua for an overnighter.  

Thursday, November 10, 2016

Oct- Week 2- Ben's Recital, M Baptism Pictures, Letter Ee, New Park, LPA Fall Carnival

Saturday, Dan mowed the lawn then took Ben over to our friends' house to help them install a new deck.  I took all the girls grocery shopping, then McKenna and I attended a baptism for a school friend of hers, Brinley.  After that, we went baptism shoe shopping.  
Later that afternoon, Ben had a brief music recital where he showed off his skills playing the "red chord."  
We went straight from there to the Bountiful Temple for family pictures and McKenna's baptism pictures with Aunt Lara!  Here are the baptism shots... 


















Sunday I shared my testimony about making my to-do list help me become who I want to be!  I also talked about the couple we sat with at dinner on our cruise.  The purposely never wanted to have children.  The more we talked to them they felt like the world is too dark and scary and don't want to bring a child into a world like that.  All I could think was that this kind of attitude and belief is the exact opposite of FAITH!  I'm so thankful for the faith and hope in my Savior while I raise my children!
We had Webster family dinner that evening as well.  

Monday Ben went to his friend Jordan's BD party at Lewis Park.  That evening was also the Nelson Family BD party for October babies.  Anna's real costume hadn't come yet, so she was princess Anna and her cousin Kate was Elsa.  
 Our October BD girl!  

 Tuesday I hosted the co-op preschool teaching the letter Ee!  It was a little harder than I thought, but still lots of fun with eggs, exercising...
Erasers and elastics
We played hookie from homework in the afternoon and I took the kids to a new park with a sweet zipline and little stream. The weather was too nice not to be outside! Henry and Brittana came with us.  
 Cute Bethany still loves selfies! 
 Wednesday Bethany woke up with one arm out of her jammies.  Super cute!  I listened to some talks from the "mom conference."  While Ben was at gymnastics, Anna wanted to take a picture with their witch decorations.   The kids also had dentist appointments that afternoon.  No cavities!! 
 Dan took McKenna hiking with the youth that night for Mutual.  
I listened to more "mom conference" that night.
Thursday we continued on with more letter Ee at preschool, I did some sewing for McKenna's costume and listened to MORE "mom conference."  All of the talks I listened to had 2-3 things that stood out to me of things I can do to be a better mom.  One was making a "live list."  This is a list of thing we want to do as individuals or as a family to help us develop traits and skills and experiences that will shape us into good well-rounded people!
That evening Dan and I went on a temple date and got treats at Chick fil a afterwards.  

Friday I went to ladies lunch.  McKenna almost came home early because she fell off the swing at her last recess and got the wind knocked out of her and she was pretty sad.  So I made sure to snuggle her LOTS when she came home! 
That evening the kids school had their Fall Carnival.  Introducing our Star Wars: Force Awakens crew!  Rey, Kylo Ren, BB8, and Chewbacca!
The kids made a cute paper plate ghost craft.  
 Lots of other fun carnival games!  I'm so glad it wasn't on a school night this year! 
 That night we set up and decorated as much as possible for McKenna's 8th BD party the next day!