Birthdays, Concerts, and Snow...Oh mY!

My Goodness….this week has seemed so long, and we are only 3 days into it! Hallie’s birthday Monday kept me busy, and we have been to Salt Lake and back through a crazy storm the past 2 days.

We just got back from Salt Lake and the Miley Cyrus concert. It was SO much fun. I will spare mentioning all the details, but we did have a wonderful time. Miley was sick with the flu, but she still threw a great concert. Hallie was sick with an ear infection, but was a trooper. We had good food, good laughs, a little shopping, and all in all a great girls’ trip with my mom, sister in law Emily, niece Rachael, and me and Hallie.

I included some random pictures, Hallie’s Birthday pictures, and of course pictures from the concert and our trip.

Now I am fully looking forward to 4 days in a row to sleep in, relax at home with kids, enjoy conference, and settle into fall!

This is a note Hallie wrote to the tooth fairy...It is pretty self explanatory, and made me laugh so hard. BTW: she got 50 cents extra and fairy dust on her note/pillow.



Kayler LOVES to sneak the kids' nintendo while they are at school. Funny thing is that he is actually pretty good at it!



Hallie's Birthday, we got her a desk. She was spoiled rotten by her grandparents too!:











Concert Pictures!










I LOVED the fall colors.



This was the view on the way home....beautiful, but made me sad. It is not time for snow.

Happy Birthday Hallie!

My little girl is growing up. I cannot believe that this precious spirit that changed my life when I was so young myself is now growing into such a sweet and special young lady. She has grown SO much in so many ways this past year:

*She is finally starting to gain weight and get taller. She is 50 inches tall and weighs 50 lbs, which puts her at about the 10th percentile or so.

*She has grown spiritually. I found her in her room the other night reading the Book of Mormon and writing in her journal. I thought my heart would leap right of my chest from being so proud of her. She is very honest and definitely a rule follower.

*She is so dang smart. Her teacher called me the other day to tell me how truly SHOCKED she was at how high she tested on her NWEA tests. She said it made their class average much higher than normal to have a student test so high.

*She is just beautiful. She has the biggest blue eyes, cute hair, cute face, and a cute little figure.

*She is so dang funny. Ever since she was 18 months old, this little girl had full paragraph conversations with me. She always has something super funny or insightful to say, and definitely keeps me laughing and on my toes.

Above all, she is so special to me. She came at a time in my life that I truly needed her. As she grows older, our bond gets even closer. I don’t have any sisters and I am not very close to my mom. I was very close to my Grandma, and have had some very lonely moments since she died 5 months ago today. Hallie has filled that void in my life, and I hope that we will be very close forever.

I am going to take treats to her class in awhile. Then I am taking her to get a manicure- she loves stuff like that. Then we are having her favorite dinner and her grandparents over for cake and ice cream. I have started doing big friend parties every other year only, and she had a big party last year so this year is more low key. She does get to go to Miley Cyrus tomorrow though, so I think that she is having a fun celebration nonetheless!

I love her with all my heart, and I hope she has the best birthday ever!

Creations

Every year the kids have a vegetable creation contest at school. I don’t really know why they call it a contest…because they don’t give awards…but whatever.

I have tried to be a good sport in years past. We have had some great creations:




This year I was really tired and worn out and the last thing I wanted to do was carve and create vegetables. We did come up with Hallie’s Peas in a Pod creation, and Gavin made Pirate Ship. I think they had fun, so that is all that matters!





Speaking of creations, I don’t think I have ever blogged about how creative Hallie is. She got tinker toys for Christmas, and that little girl is constantly building something. Her latest creation had a “blueprint” She made this robot out of tinkertoys, stuffed it with pillows and blankets, put tights, underwear (and a littlest pet shop bra), pajamas and all. Whatever keeps her busy I say!

Feeling Like Fall

I was really procrastinating blogging/journaling this past week…but I figure the longer I put it off, the more I will forget, so here goes:

I have been really busy the past 7 or so months with our ward cookbook. I can’t believe I haven’t blogged about it before now…because it really has consumed a LOT of my time/energy. I would love to say it was a stress free enjoyable project…but not so much when dealing with a huge ward, over 400 recipes, and the delivering and gathering of money for 400 + books and a bill of $2400 at my house waiting to be paid for doing it. I think it turned out great, and we had a super fun enrichment last Wednesday where I was able to get rid of most of them.



Earlier on Wednesday my friend/neighbor Candace called to see if I wanted to go to the temple to do initiatory while Kayler was at school. I love to do initiatory. You aren’t there very long, but you get to be part of a very special process not to mention feel a very special spirit and leave feeling refreshed and renewed. I am so grateful that she called, and that we have such a beautiful temple so close by.

Also on Wednesday….. (That was a busy day), I was able to go to dinner with my friend/cousin Heather. She got married yesterday, so I took her out for one more dinner as a single lady. Our friend Heidi joined us, and it was a great evening to get away. G.J. and I got a babysitter and enjoyed her wedding luncheon yesterday. I saw some friends that I don’t get to see very often, so it was great. I am so happy for Heather, and I know that she and Eric will be very happy together for eternity.

The rest of the week was spent outdoors as much as possible. I love fall, but I can’t help but get that antsy feeling to get outside and soak in all the sunshine possible before winter comes. Hallie and Gavin participated in their annual Primary program today and they did great. I was SO proud of them. They both did their parts perfectly, sat very nicely, and sang the best they knew how. Of course I had Kayler being a little bit of a beast to ruin my warm fuzzy feeling, but it was nice nonetheless.

We didn’t stay to the rest of church because both of my boys were starting a tiny cough. I wasn’t about to be one of those parents who let their kids spread every germ and take them to primary to keep the flu going around. We decided to go up Dry Fork Canyon to look for Monarch Caterpillars. I have very fond memories of my Grandma and me finding them in their fields every fall. We would gather like 10 and I would put them in her old canning jars and watch them hatch. My kids are lucky enough to have a butterfly tent/hatchery thing, and I wanted SO badly to find one. We seriously stopped at every bunch of milk weed to find one….with no luck. So after 2+ hours: I had rolled Kayler’s fingers up in the window, we got rained on, had sand/mud all over our car, had very hungry and thirsty kids, and we headed home empty handed-besides 3 cute pictures. Guess that’s what we get for letting our kids skip primary. I was so sad….so if you see any crawling around….I would love to know!





So here’s to this week. I just made my list of things to do, and thank goodness my schedule isn’t too full yet. The weatherman gives a thumbs up for more sunshine, so that makes me happy!

September Fun

This week hasn’t been too eventful. Just the usual stuff. We did have one fun adventure yesterday (Thursday). My parents called to see if I wanted to take the kids to Steinaker for one last swim before Fall sets in after school. I absolutely HATE swimming in lake water…it scares me really bad. I don’t mind being in the water when I go boating, but on the shore it just creeps me out. But we went anyways.

My dad is so cute to swim with the kids and help out:




Not 5 minutes after we arrived Gavin found a dead fish and he just HAD to poke it. A yucky bee came out of it and stung him. He was so sad, good thing there was lots of mud around.



Kayler enjoying himself:



There was a little island that didn't SEEM too far away. My kids really wanted me to swim to it. It was a LOT farther than I thought! I also swam through yucky slimy muck...I was in a panic the whole time, but kept my cool for the kids.



We made it to the island!



Let me backtrack to Wednesday when we finally got Kayler’s play room up and running. It is kind of hard to explain the logistics of this room, but it is basically a place where I go (or G.J.) with Kayler and we have one on one play time. I try to make it in there for at least 1-2 hours a day with him. Uninterrupted and focused on helping him. The shelves are up high so he has to ask for toys and interact with us. The mirror is so he can see his face, and see us playing right down on the floor with him. The trampoline and ball help get out his energy. The rest of his room kind of is just there. It is a place where he is never told “no” We join him in whatever he wants to play, help him feel accepted, loved, and like he is the coolest kid ever. One day I was in there with him and out of the blue, he comes up and hugged and kissed me and said, “Thanks for playing with my mommy.” Aww….

Kayler's Room:





Today was another special event for Kayler. He went to his first “friend” birthday party. Granted it was for his cousin Rachael, there were still other kids there that weren’t his cousins.

Kayler and Rachael



Isn't he cute, even with no smile!



Kayler on the slide at his bday party:



Eating Cake:



This is something you might never think about when having a so called “special needs” child. I worry about these things late at night. I worry that he will never be invited to parties, accepted, have fun….you get the picture. Well, I had to stay right by his side at the party. He of course never acts like I would like him to, but he had fun nonetheless. He just did his own thing away from the crowd, I chased him around, we had cake, she opened his gift, he got a balloon, then he started screaming bloody murder about something and we got in the car both exhausted….and we were only there 45 minutes!

We are going to celebrate my nephew Kolby’s 1st birthday tomorrow. I can’t believe how time flies! Rachael’s real birthday is on Monday, so we are having a joint family party on Sunday. Hallie’s birthday is the end of this month, and I just have odds and ends of thing going on all month long….it is either crazy busy, or crazy boring around here! But I really enjoy this time of year, and hope that fall lasts for a very very long time.

Other than that, we are all healthy and doing well. Hope you all are too!