Quick Update

I have been such a slacker at taking pictures and blogging ever since school started. Life is just busy and never seems to slow down. We have had a lot of great memories over the last month but only a bit that was captured on film.

We had a really great Thanksgiving Break spending most of our time surrounded by family, which was really nice. First was the HUGE storm that came on Tuesday night where we got about a whole 2 INCHES of snow - now that was a pretty forgettable storm of the century. We spent Thanksgiving day at aunt Josalyn's house. There was a ton of good food and good company. The girls went shopping at Old Navy. We got Black Friday prices early with Grandma C's Old Navy card. We also spent the day planning out Black Friday shopping. John's family is a pro at it and have it down to a science. We usually don't participate but John went this year and actually enjoyed it. With the help of his family we got everything we wanted (lots of stuff!) and only spent $69.00!!! Hopefully we'll do it again next year! The day after Thanksgiving we decorated the house for Christmas and then Grandpa and Grandma B. came over along with Jimmy and his family and we decorated gingerbread houses. This is a favorite tradition dating back to when I was super little. My mom bakes and makes all the gingerbread houses and we get to decorate them. My kids love it and we had a ton of fun! Then we went to see the movie Tangled in 3-D. Every single one of us (young and old) loved it! I could easily watch it 2 or 3 more times.

December is finally getting to the part where it is going to wind down for me and hopefully I can take a much needed break. My Christmas shopping is done, my cards have been sent, neighbor/ friend gifts delivered, and about 75% of my holiday baking has been done. We had our preschool Christmas programs today - we performed the same program 3 different times with 3 different groups of preschoolers for about 900 different people. It is always a lot of fun and the kids are always so cute! We practice, practice, practice like crazy during school and by the time the programs are over all the teachers are exhausted!!! I am looking forward to sleeping in and putting my feet up. I am glad the kids are done with school tomorrow so we can hang out and play together. I love the holidays! John and I had the opportunity to go with the YM/YW to Temple Square to see the lights. It was a nice warmish night and I think everyone had a lot of fun. We divided into groups and went on a picture scavenger hunt. John and I were together as leaders for one of the groups. It was great! Temple Square is truly a magical place!

Can I just say how much I love my two kids? I am so glad they have each other. The other night I walked in to our family room to find them watching a movie curled up like this:

Hopefully I will have many more pictures and holiday memories to post soon!

April

It breaks Kaycee and Luke's hearts to tell you that our big bunny rabbit named April passed away last week. We are not sure of the cause of death. She was found dead in her cage last Thursday (November 11th). Both of my kids cried and poor Kaycee had to head out to tumbling 5 minutes after we discovered her. Luke went with John to bury her.

Luke won April at a kids rodeo a few years ago. They put some rabbits out in a rodeo arena and then had a bunch of 3 and 4 year olds try to catch them. If you caught one then it was yours to keep. It's fair to say that April was full grown when Luke got her (of course he had to get the biggest rabbit in the whole place). We never new how old she was and we actually never knew if she was a boy or girl. Luke named her April and we have always referred to her as a "she" probably because of her white fur and pink ears and eyes. She was our own little "cadbury egg" bunny. She made a good pet because all she required was food, water and a little loving. We learned right from the start that she had a big attitude and at first she kept getting out of her cage and eating everybody's flowers. Hopefully she had a good life on earth.

May April Rest In Peace in Bunny Heaven!

FALL FEVER!

I absolutely love fall! I love the weather and I love the colors of fall. I always get in a baking mood when fall comes around but haven't had much time to do it. I did pickle a few bottles of beets and I finally got some super yummy pumpkin bread made today. We have been staying busy and having fun the last couple of months. Here's the lowdown:

Last night John and Kaycee went to a daddy/daughter NERD night for activity days. They had pizza for dinner and played a lot of "nerdy" games. Kaycee never gets to go to activity days anymore because it's at the same time as dance so she was so excited just to get to go! They had a blast! They won the award for best costumes. John was hilarious!!! He was a jock type nerd and kind of reminded me of the nerdy basketball guy on Maid of Honor - only John was way funnnier! I was impressed that he came up with his outfit on his own a couple of hours before it started (with a few touch ups from me). Kaycee was funny too in her swim goggles with her "kick me" sign. Too bad the pictures just don't do them justice. Kaycee also won the nerd quiz about her dad - apparently she knows John pretty well. I am so glad they had fun!

Kaycee and Luke participated in the primary program and did a wonderful job! They both had their speaking parts memorized and sang really great. The senior primary sat up on the stand for all of sacrament meeting and it kind of stressed me out to see Luke constantly talking to his friends during the sacrament. I kept giving him the evil eye and then he would be quiet for 2 minutes until he started up again. At one point he was making faces at me and making me laugh. What a nut! Kaycee keeps saying she can't wait until she can be in young women's. Only one more year now. It seems forever to her - she's ready. After the program I had 2 different people come up to me and tell me how they can't believe how grown up Kaycee is - I've only heard that from somebody after every primary program for the last 3 years. She stands so pretty and acts so mature. Where did my little girl go?

We celebrated Kaycee's 11th birthday with a Clue themed party. We had fun planning it and I think all who attended enjoyed themselves. Every guest was a relative of one of the clue characters. They all dressed up to match the part. They were cracking me up because they were totally acting out their characters so dramatically, it was awesome! We watched CLUE the movie and went on a weapons scavenger hunt - which at the end - revealed the death of Shamu the whale - whom we discovered in the basement killed with the rope by Gretchen Green. It was fun!

Sally Sue Scarlet

Petunia Peacock

Pollyanna Plum

Margaret Mustard

Gretchen Green

Winnie White

Matilda Mustard

Patricia Peacock

For Halloween we did the traditional pumpkin carving, twice actually. Luke carved a cute little one at my mom's house over Fall Break and then Kaycee carved her little one along with John a couple of days before Halloween. They turned out really cute. Kaycee did a really good job with her jack-o-lantern and John carved a cool haunted castle out of our big one. It was a difficult one to do (lots of little things to carve out) but the kids loved it when it was finished!!!

For Halloween Kaycee dressed up as a Southern Belle/Miss Scarlet and Luke dressed up as his favorite (dead) person in the whole world - Michael Jackson. Between Halloween parties, birthday parties, dance parties, school parties, etc., the kids got to wear their costumes several times making it well worth it!
I was in charge of organizing our Young Women in Excellence this year. We did an academy award theme and called it our 1st Annual Torch Awards. The colors were black and gold and we even had a real red carpet. We handed out black and gold torch trophies to all of our "winners"! We filmed each of the girls doing a talent/personal progress goal and our bishop was our M.C. for the evening. For refreshments we had a chocolate fountain with everything you can imagine for dipping. The dress was formal or church and everyone had fun getting ready. It turned out great and everyone said they had a wonderful time. It was a huge success!!!
Luke played flag football this year for the first time ever. He didn't really want to do it and at first he didn't love it at all. But funny enough right before the last game he told me he wanted to play next year. I think he was frustrated learning the sport - it's complicated to teach to little kids - but once he got to throw the ball and stuff then he liked it. He doesn't like to run the ball but he can throw. The kid has got a great arm! This is my one and only picture (I only got to go to 2 of his games).:(
Now I am looking forward to the Holidays! I only hope the snow holds off until Christmas Break!

The First Day of School!

The How To Train Your Dragon Kid (shirt, backpack and lunch box)

and the fluorescent girl. Can I just say I love that fluorescent is back in. It's totally what I wore in jr. high and Kaycee loves it too!:)

The Wii

This kid loves the wii! To the point that it drives me crazy. He loves the Super Mario Brothers game that he got for his birthday. We only let him play for an hour 3 times a week and the rest of the time he bugs us about playing it. He told me he had a dream that he was the best player in the world and he passed off all the levels. I keep telling him that I'm going to throw the wii away if he doesn't stop talking about it. This is how I found him a couple of days ago on a day that he couldn't play the wii:

BEAR LAKE - "The Caribbean of the Rockies"!

We spent a week at Bear Lake with my side of the family. It's a favorite place to go. We have looked forward to it all year. It was so fun!!! We relaxed and stayed busy at the same time. I already miss it!

Here's the whole gang!

This picture from the car window just doesn't do it justice.

We stayed at this great cabin. It has plenty of room for all of us and the theme throughout it was "NO EMPTY CHAIRS".

The back of the cabin had the greatest view of the lake.

There's a pool table, air hockey, ping pong and

a slide that the kids love, love, love! It's pretty steep and a little scary -but fun.

We swam.

Check out those farmers tan. This picture makes me laugh!

We rode jet skis (definitely a favorite all around).

The girls had to stop at the Nifty Gift shop to get some new silk nightgowns. Hailey and Kate found some really cute ones. Kaycee and Claire are officially to old to wear them so grandma bought them each a cute vest thingy at Whimsy boutique instead.

Of course we had to eat at La Beau's and get some of their famous raspberry shakes.

The food really isn't anything special but the shakes were delicious as always!

Our friends came to hang out with us for a day. We had a lot of fun! John and Jeremy went golfing while the rest of us played at the beach. The kids loved playing in Brooke and Blake's raft.

Aren't these 3 mermaids cool? (Syd, Kayc and Claire)

We also went to the Raspberry Days parade. It was a lovely small town affair but they did know how to throw the candy.

After the parade we took some pictures. Doesn't this picture look fake? I think it does.

Next was the Pickleville Playhouse. I love that place. This time we saw "Juanito Bandito Rides Again". It was the best play we've ever seen. Everyone laughed the whole time - even John.and I thought Kaycee pass out because she couldn't breathe because she was giggling so hard. Even the cast improvised a lot that night and at one point one of the main characters couldn't even say her lines because she was laughing so hard.

Juanito Bandito and the kids - this guy was the best. Hilarious!!!

My mom turned 63 while we were there (but we all agreed that she looks 33). We celebrated with this lovely cake of cupcakes and cookies.

And she opened up some presents with plenty of help from the grand kids.

We also went to the craft fair and carnival. It was so hot and then right before we left, a huge storm rolled in. It was awesome. Kaycee loves to do these trampoline things.

Luke's favorite was the blow up slide!

The lake was amazing and beautiful even during the storm. The waves were so big it looked like the ocean.

We went to the Minnetonka Caves and the wait was 2 hours - which we didn't have time for so we hiked instead. It was really pretty.

All the kids did good. I was so proud of them.

Another favorite: the Laketown rodeo.

These guys are so amateur. You can always count on a lot of intense moments. Someone always gets hurt.

I love this picture of Luke and Kayc on the back deck.

Thanks grandma and grandpa for the fun time!!!