Kelsey's Birthday

After Halloween came Kelsey's birthday. She had a week long celebration. For her birthday breakfast she chose pancakes. Her birthday dinner were quesadillas. She was dying all day because we made her wait to open her presents until evening when Brian was home and my family came over. She received shoes, clothes and a Pucci dog from Brian's parents. Brian gave her a My little Pony. I gave her a puzzle (she is really good at these). Braden gave her a Scooby Doo Movie. Right before her birthday she watched a Scooby Doo show and has been hooked ever since. It is all she watches. It is what she wanted for her birthday, but they don't make scooby doo toys anymore. Luckily Brian food a scooby doo candle for her cupcakes.

The next day she spent the morning with my parents. They took her out shopping and stopped for lunch at Panda Express. She found herself a scooby doo coloring book, Rapunzel Barbie, and Barbie 3 Musketeer movie. I know she enjoyed being with my parents by herself.

Saturday came and we took the animal lover to the zoo for her birthday. She took her cousins and she had a great time. Macy and Jensen were repulsed by some of the various smells but Kelsey enjoyed the whole thing. Stefanie, Emily, Jake, Ellie and Grandma Carol came too. That has been the best trip to the zoo. I have come to a conclusion that fall (and possibly spring) is the best time to visit. It wasn't too hot and a jacket was sufficient. It wasn't crowded at all. It was great. The kids favorite part was when the gorilla started to eat his own fresh poop. Many of the adults started gagging at the sight. The second favorite was when the giraffe spit buggery spit on the wall and then licked it up. You have got to love kids.
The birthday fun didn't stop there. The following Tuesday we went out to Grandma Lue's (Kelsey's great grandma and namesake) for family home evening. Grandma had put together a small birthday party for her. We ate dinner. We had ice cream cake with candles and then opened Kelsey's present. I wish I had remembered a camera to get a picture of her face. The present as Kelsey called it was a "money book". Grandma had taken a book and placed dollar bills throughout. I wish I had had a camera to get a picture of the delight on grandma's face too. It was a fun night.

Happy Halloween

Oh wait that was a month ago. I thought I would check in and document some major events. Halloween came and went. Macy was Rapunzel. The first time she put on her wig and looked in the mirror she said "I don't look like Macy any more." Kelsey was a cowgirl. The little guy was a monster. I thought I took more pictures of him but I could only find the following. It is that third child syndrome.

Macy had a huge haul this year. She went out for at least 2 hours. She was quite the trooper and liked getting candy. Towards the end of trick-or-treating she said "I should bought the bigger bucket." Kelsey only lasted about an hour. Her endurance is not like Macy. She would have still preferred the stroller this year. Brian and I were able to take the kids out together because grandma stayed home to hand out candy. Brian took Kelsey home when she was through and then he left for the University of Utah football game. Who in their right mind schedules a football game on Halloween at 6 PM in Utah? Don't they know that this is a very family oriented state and it can get really cold at night at that time of year. Next time they need my approval before scheduling games.

Once Upon Another Fall Day It Snowed

So yesterday the weather was beautiful. A little chilly in the morning but great for raking by afternoon. This morning I woke up to this:
Arizona anyone?

Kelsey asked if we could move back this morning. Then when we getting ready to go get Macy from school she came out with flip flops on. This was right after I showed her it was snowing. I didn't allow this. By the time we got out to the car it was blizzard like. She turned around to go get a coat. She came back outside without anything because her light jacket was in the back of the car. As a note she had already played outside this morning in her winter coat and boots. The picture above was that time. In the car she said she hated snow. So far to date she is 100% better about playing in the snow than last Christmas.

Well it snowed for about 2 hours so the picture above is out of date. We now have 2-3 inches of snow on the lawn and the kids are headed outside to build a snowman.

By the way, I am on a roll for postings. Don't expect too much from me.

To finish off the perfect fall day

We carved our pumpkins last night. Macy is like her Grandma Wendy and had to pick out every seed from the innards. She wants to grow her own pumpkin where grandma likes to make roasted seeds. I think my dad rolls his eyes when my mom tells us not to throw away the seeds. We hate to do this but enjoy her roasted pumpkin seeds.


The finished product. All designed by the individual owners.

Once upon a Fall Day...

Yesterday we had a leaf birthday party for my grandma. Her birthday falls at the end of the month so my mom, sister, and my kids went to her house to celebrate. We took in Paradise Bakery for lunch and then of course we went out to play in her leaves that fell off the large tree in her front yard. After the playing she opened presents and we sang Happy Birthday and made her blow out a candle. It was the perfect fall day and a fun party.

I have always gone over to my grandma's house to play in the leaves and then help her bag them when done. I can't remember when this started but I believe my older cousins did this before me. Some years I remember a foot or two of leaves covering her lawn. My memory may be exaggerating this but there is usually a lot of leaves. We used to pile them and jump. Sometimes we would make pathways through the leaves or outline rooms of a house. Grandma would let us just imagine and have fun. She even let us have fun with the leaf blower when she purchased one. It was one of the best chores (if you could call it that).

Now that my siblings and I are grown, my mom likes to make sure we go over and still play in the leaves especially with the grandkids. Of course we still help clean up but it is still not a terrible task. In fact, raking the leaves stirs up the most wonderful fall aromas. When I smelled the fallen leaves my mind quickly return to autumn days of the past.

My kids enjoyed piling up the leaves. It took us awhile to get them to stop and play in the leaves. They found baskets to fill and dump. The basket idea was the first in all these years. The girls didn't think there were enough leaves so they went to the neighboring yards to gather more. This year many of the leaves were blown by the wind into the neighbors yards. But there were still plenty so the rest of us kept to our yard.

So what do you do once the leaves are in one big pile?

Well you can ...

...eat them. Only Braden recommends this. Or bury yourself in them. We buried Braden and he didn't seem to mind.

... you get your picture taken. The little baby is my sister's brand new baby. When she is around Braden gets demoted to the number 2 spot. Macy wanted to take Ellie home the other day. My mom told her then Emily wouldn't have a baby. So she said that Emily could take Braden. She also told my mom that Emily could just have another one.

Another funny story about Ellie. Kelsey asked when she was going to get her bump.

Back to what you do with a pile of leaves. Of course there is the classic, jumping in them.

And jumping some more.
Then have mom jump in them.

Or throw them in the air.

I loved visiting my grandma and I love all the memories I have made with her. I am so glad to have wonderful family. I am glad my mom gets to join in on this tradition.

I just thought these pictures were cute.

St. George - UEA (fall break)

I found my flash drive so I can transfer pictures from computers. Yea!

The first weekend of October was fall break and General Conference so my family made their way for warmer weather. My whole family prefers warm weather except for maybe my dad. The plan was to take the boat for one last ski of the year but the weather didn't cooperate. The boat was left home because it was too cold. It was still warm enough to find some water to play in.

We all had a great time relaxing and hearing the words of the Lord through our prophet. Macy would argue that the best thing was riding on the 4 wheelers.

Of course my sisters were there to continue to introduce my children to new things.

Painted horses and teeth

The other day Brian took the kids to see his Grandma and Grandpa K. Part of any trip to their house includes visiting with Bullseye, grandpa's horse. When the kids went out back to see Bullseye they noticed the neighbor had a different horse in their corral. Kelsey turned to Brian and asked "Dad, why did they paint their horse black?" This new horse was all black with white boots and the other horse (which they still own he was just hiding) was a brown and white paint.

Well Braden continues to grow. Yesterday my sister asked if Braden had another tooth. My mother-in-law noticed it too. I thought it must be getting ready to cut through. I was wrong. His top front tooth is already in plus he has 2 others on the top that are through with another one on its way. I think he has another bottom one bringing up the rear. That is 6 teeth (4 on top 2 on bottom) possibly 7 for this six month old. I might as well skip the baby food. I don't how I missed it. Of course he is such a good kid that he has hardly been fussy and the drool didn't increase like the first teeth. I thankful I didn't have any warning signs.

He went to the pediatrician for his 6 month check-up. Yes I know that his last appointment was only a month ago, but we were playing catch up. This time he weighed 17 lbs. 7 oz. and was 28.5 inches tall. He lost 2 lbs. and grew 2 inches. Okay he didn't really. The only explanation that the doctor and I could come up with is that the nurse measured inaccurately last time because we did a double check this time to be sure we weren't wrong. It still makes him too big for his infant car seat. My problem is I don't know how we are going to be able to fit a convertible car seat, a regular car seat and a booster seat in the one row. I looked at Target yesterday and all the car seats are too wide. Do they think we have extra wide children? He might force us to get a larger car. Kelsey isn't any help either because she won't put on any weight or sprout up to help get her into a booster seat. I don't know why they won't cooperate.