family fest

we spent the weekend at a cabin in pine valley with dave's family. the kids had a blast with their cousins, and it was refreshing to spend time with family.we did a lot in a short amount of time. some of the highlights were the treasure hunt in the saw dust. dave used to do this as a kid. they really got into it. abe held his first flag ceremony, we carved pumpkins, had a talent show, and made movies--i love that dave's family can laugh so easily together. it is a great quality.max -loving his finds.we made t-shirts with masking tape and spray paint. an easy project that the kids loved.

we spent the last day in st. george by ourselves. we stayed in a hotel, swam, ate out, visited friends from medical school and of course, imagined if we could live there for the rest of our lives.

a small thing

everyday sadie brings me home something beautiful. it is a small thing but i look forward to her biking up the driveway, with a little gift in her hand. it is a beautiful time of year and i love that she thinks about me enough to bring me something to put in a jar.

conference breakfast

one of our favorite family traditions is conference breakfast at my mom's house. since we were at our house this year and my parents are in italy, we had our own. it was not the same without cousins and grandma's touch, but it was our attempt. sadie loves traditions.
the menu was scrambled and they had fun trying to figure it out.

we ate while we watched, but watching on my laptop isn't quite the same as watching on the big screen at grandma and grandpa's. conference was wonderful either way. i think this tradition helped me gain a love for conference as i was growing up. i love listening to the prophet speak and i hope my kids gain this same love.

a perfect start

my kids had been begging to decorate for halloween...i was not anxious to unburry the halloween box hiding in our small storage closet in the garage. saturday was the day. everyone did their jobs in anticipation of digging out the box and getting in the halloween mood. the boys helped me take out the winter gear, memory box, car seat, boots, christmas box--and finally we pulled out the halloween box. i immediately noticed a stench. i thought it was me since we were working and i hadn't showered, then i noticed it was coming from the box....i opened it....a dead mouse laying inside a plastic orange jack-o-lantern! scary, gross, a perfect start for halloween! it must have climbed in last year while our box was hanging out in the garage, waiting to get put away. of course, dave was working all weekend so he missed all the excitement. i decided our halloween decorations were not that impressive and this was the year to start fresh. after drying some eyes and listening to max say, "mouse. died. stink." a few times, we spent the rest of the afternoon "making" decorations. plastic ghosts, paper ghosts, black cats and the big make of the day was our paper mache bats. it was messy and fun. at the end of the night, we headed to the store and everyone picked out a few new items. i wish i had a video of max (at target) lining the musical skeleton heads in a row on the ground, then dancing his little heart out. his purchase was a "nice pumpkin...no stink". i thought about getting the bag of plastic mice for the kids lunches, but refrained.