Halloween!

I'm sure that I think this about most holidays, but I love Halloween! I love all the pumpkin foods and smells and getting dressed up. This was the first year that the kids seemed to have an understanding of what was going on, which made it so much fun! For weeks, Jaxson has been talking about how he was going to be Batman and Aynsley chose to be Ariel/Mermaid for her costume.

We went to a Halloween party with Mike's family and the kids loved being able to dress up and play with their cousins.

I always try to get decent pictures of the kids, but it is tricky when they are both at the age of not wanting to sit still and pose for a picture. Aynsley was being so funny because when I asked her if I could take her picture, she went over and grabbed this little chair that I have had her sit in for pictures before. She sat in the chair and then glared at me for a few seconds to "allow" me to take her picture.

Jaxson was excited to be able to wear his Batman shirt and was a little more willing to let me take his picture. 

Mike's dad has a huge maple tree in his front yard and had raked a big pile of leaves for the kids to play in. I think this was the highlight of the party for Jaxson and Aynsley. They loved playing in the leaves and didn't want to stop. 

Halloween day was also a lot of fun! Halloween is a big deal at my work and I love being able to dress up with my coworkers. This year, we dressed up as a Richard Simmons exercise group and we won the group contest! I think we clinched our victory by performing a little exercise routine for the judges. It made for some good laughs and we had a fun time. The kids had a Halloween party that they went to during the day and they were part of a costume parade through my work. After work, we went trick-or-treating with some friends.

Jaxson was all about going from house to house, while Aynsley was a little more easily distracted. She kept seeing different things (decorations, bugs, etc) and wanting to stop and look at them. I don't think it really connected with her that she would get more treats by going to more houses. Jaxson was not happy when it was time to go home and wanted to keep going out. When we woke up the next day, he wanted to go trick-or-treating again. Maybe he will take after me and have a love for Halloween, too? A mom can only hope...

Fall is My Favorite!

Typically, autumn is my absolutely most favorite time of year. I love the changing leaves, crisp air, fragrant smells, and tasty food. This year I was having a harder time than normal getting into the spirit of the season...I just (and still am not) was not ready for summer to end. I think mostly because I am not looking forward to winter, but I decided I needed to make sure I tried to enjoy this time of year, because it is always gone before I know it!

A couple of weeks ago, we decided to take our annual family fall drive. This never fails to get me in the mood for fall! We drive up Big Cottonwood Canyon, over Guardsman's Pass, and then down into Heber. If you have never taken this drive before, I highly recommend it. The scenery is beautiful! This year, there was already snow in several areas! It made for some different scenery, but it was still beautiful. This was the first year that Jaxson and Aynsley seemed to really enjoy the drive and they both were great at pointing out all of the different colors that they saw.

Last Saturday, we took the kids to Pack's Pumpkin Patch. This is the third year we have gone and the first year that Mike was able to come with us. The kids love checking out all the pumpkins and being able to play in the kiddie hay maze. Aynsley was a little nervous about the maze, but Jaxson loved it! He thought it was so much fun to run around and explore. I love that we have this little tradition and I do look forward to it every year.

On Monday, we had a family night with my parents and siblings at Gardner Village. We got there right after a huge rainstorm, so it wasn't too crowded, but it was definitely cold! It had been good weather at our house before we left, so I left most of our warmer clothes at home. The kids were good sports despite the cold. They really enjoy seeing the witches, but I think it might have been a little more enjoyable for them if it had been warmer and earlier in the day. We ended our night with shakes at Arctic Circle.

I have been loving the sunny weather that we have had the past few days and so we headed out to the park yesterday. It was the perfect morning to be at the park...sunny and warm enough for the kids to play without jackets. We went up to North Canyon Park instead of staying at the ones by our house. This is one of my favorite parks in the area and I think that Jaxson and Aynsley enjoyed going someplace different. They were having so much fun and didn't want leave. Hopefully we have a few more sunny days that can be spent at the park before it gets too cold.

I am so glad that we have been able to enjoy this time of year as a family. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in everything that has to get done and feel overwhelmed, but it is these simply family times that mean the most and put everything into perspective.

Happy Birthday, Aynsley!

Aynsley turned two a couple of weeks ago, so we had to celebrate! I can't necessarily say that the time has flown by and "I can't believe she is already two"...I don't say that in a mean way, but in some ways it seems like she should have been two a long time ago. I guess it helps having a brother who is just ten months older than you are. She really seems to have caught up to Jaxson developmentally in a lot of ways, so it seems like they are more like twins.

Anyway...Aynsley has liked "Finding Nemo" for the past several months, so we decided to have "Nemo" inspired party. I wanted to keep it somewhat low-key, but we did plan an underwater themed menu (submarine sandwiches, "seaweed" (aka salad), "seashells" (pasta salad), etc). We also borrowed a huge blow-up swimming pool from Mike's mom, thinking that the kids would have fun swimming and playing in the water, while the adults mingled outside. Unfortunately, it started to rain as soon as all of our guests started raining. Between the rain and thunder, nobody dared to venture outside, so we had to squeeze into our house.

Aynsley was excited to see her presents, but once she opened the first one or two, she was done. She was just happy to try and play with what she had already opened and didn't seem to care that she still had more. Jaxson was more than willing to help her out and proceeded to open up most of her presents. Unfortunately, he ended up being quite upset when he was told that the gifts were for Aynsley and that he couldn't keep the toys away from her. He was not happy to learn that his birthday is not for a few more months!

Next up was cake and icecream. I tried out a new recipe for Aynsley's cake, and it turned out good, which was a relief! We had cupcakes for the rest of the kids (didn't take any pictures) and let each of them blow out their own candle.

Right after we finished up with cake and icecream, the weather seemed to clear up a little bit and a few kids decided to go outside and swim. Aynsley insisted on wearing her sunglasses when she went out to play. Despite the weather, the party was still a success! We are so glad that we have such great family to come celebrate with us.

The Anderson Family Reunion: Bryce Canyon Edition

Every Labor Day weekend, Mike's extended family gets together for a camping reunion. Usually we go camping near Beaver, but this year we decided to change it up and go to Bryce Canyon. I was excited for the change because I had never been to Bryce Canyon before and was looking forward to checking it out. We rented a trailer (thank goodness!), packed up, and headed down for the long weekend on Thursday afternoon.

The beautiful scenery did not disappoint. This is a beautiful national park and I would have loved being able to spend more time hiking. Unfortunately, lengthy hiking can get a little tricky when you have two little kids. We did manage to hike the Navajo Trail loop, but we each had to carry a child for most of the way down and back up the trail, and I was a little nervous that one of the kids would have a meltdown and fall. The trail is lined with pretty steep drop-offs, so fortunately we did not have any problems.

I think that the highlight of the trip for Jaxson and Aynsley was being able to play with all the little kids. They loved being able to play with their cousin, Kambri, and all of the other kids that were there.

Unfortunately, we had A LOT of rainy weather while we were there. A lot. Just when it seemed to be clearing up, it would start raining again. Good thing we rented a trailer, because we would have been soaked otherwise. I would say that it rained 60-70% of the time. Of course, the weather cleared up just in time for us to leave. We were able to get a few good hours of sightseeing in on Sunday. We drove around to some of the other recommended viewpoints that we hadn't seen on Saturday. It was interesting to see how different the area looked from different vantage points. 

We really enjoyed being able to visit with family members that we hadn't seen for a long time. Mike's extended family is pretty large and there were a lot of people that were there that we don't get to see that often. Camping is a lot of work with two little kids, but despite the exhaustion, I know it is worth it and that it is opportunities like this that will help create a lot of fun family memories. 

Wait, Don't Go!

I am really NOT ready for summer to be winding down. Where has it gone? Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a winter person. At all. To put it midly, I despise the cold and snow. Each year, my contempt for the cold seems to grow...last year I went as far as applying for a new job in California. I know it sounds like I probably just have a bad attitude and need to suck it up and deal with it. I've tried, but I just can't really seem to find any winter type activities that I enjoy outside of the Christmas holiday season. Needless to say, I have been trying to enjoy the warm summer months as much as possible. Fortunately, I think that we have been able to do a few more summer activities the past few months. If summer has to end, at least it can go out in style, right?

We decided to try taking out kids to see their first drive-in movie. We took them to the movie "Planes" thinking that this would be a good choice since they really enjoy "Cars" and hopefully they would fall asleep anyway, right? Wrong. I think the problem started with the fact that you need to get to the drive-in pretty early in order to secure your spot. We were trying to keep the kids contained for about 45 minutes before the movie started, and they just didn't understand why we didn't want them running in the road or why we were even hanging out by our parked car in the first place. I was hoping that once the movie started, they would settle in and enjoy the show, but they were still too restless. We had lots of climbing in and out of the back of the car, followed by requests to go home because they were tired. I guess the experience could have been a lot worse, but I think we will wait a while before trying any type of movie experience again.

A couple of days later, we went to the Bees baseball game with Mike's family. This was our first time taking the kids to a game like this, so we were a little nervous. Fortunately, they both did much better than we were expecting! Aynsley got a little restless, but was able to be redirected and distracted. Jaxson loved the game and now loves everything baseball. Mike's dad bought the kids their own baseballs, and he carries his everywhere with him...he even likes to sleep with it. A couple days ago, Mike had a baseball game on TV and Jax immediately started watching it. Maybe I will have a little ball player on my hands?



Aynsley and Jax hanging out with their cousins at the game.

Jaxson and his cousin (Kambri) showing off their baseballs.

Loving his blue cotton candy tongue.

On Friday, Mike took the day off of work so that we could have a family fun day enjoying the "hot" weather. We planned on taking the kids to the water park...good thing I checked the hours the night before, because we found that it opened up at 4:00pm instead of the 9:00am time we were planning on going. We decided that instead of swimming, we would take the kids up to Park City for a ride on the alpine slide. We headed up the canyon in our shorts and t-shirts and were met with gray skies, wind, cold temperatures, and changing leaves! Leaves aren't supposed to change colors this early, right? We all had goosebumps as we made our way up the ski lift to ride the slide and were keeping our fingers crossed that it wouldn't rain...rain meant that the slide would be closed. The kids were champs despite the cold and enjoyed riding the slide down the mountain. It started raining right after we finished up and were leaving to get some lunch. So much for a warm summer day, but at least we had fun.

Hopefully the warm weather will come back and last a little bit longer. I absolutely love the fall, but I am not ready at all for what comes after it. I would love to find a few more summer activities that we can sneak in before it gets too cold.

Donut Falls

Last night, we took our kids for their first hike. Having two young kids has made us a little nervous to try some family activities...let's face it, even just taking two young kids on an outing to the store can be an adventure. I have many fond childhood memories of spending time in the mountains with my family, and hiking to Donut Falls was one of my favorites. My brother and sister wanted to hike there again, so we figured it was the perfect time to try it out with our kids.

Overall, the kids did great! They had their episodes of wanting to be held, but I think they still enjoyed exploring and being outdoors. Aynsley especially loved seeing the wildflowers.

Once we got to the falls, they loved being able to play in the shallow water and throw rocks into the creek. Mike decided to explore some more with my brother and hike up to the actual falls. In the picture above, Mike is in red and my brother is in yellow. Fortunately, the kids were quite content to hang out with me where it was a little more level.

All in all, a successful trip! We are hoping to get some other hiking trips in before the end of summer, so hopefully this is a good sign that those trips will go well, too. Anyone that knows me well, knows that I can get a little vocal about loving coastal living more than what Utah offers, but it is times like this that remind me that this is a pretty good place to live. 

Still Alive!

Yes, I am still here and yes, I realize that I haven't blogged in MONTHS! I am not really sure if anyone still reads this, but I am going to *try* to post a little more regularly. I think that blogging has definitely taken a back seat to the business of life, plus sometimes it feels like it is a little repetitive between other social media outlets, like Facebook and Instagram.

Sometimes I feel like I blink, and Jaxson and Aynsley have grown even more. They are starting to act more and more like twins. Really, the only differences are that Jaxson is taller and says a few more words. They seem to have the typical love/hate sibling relationship, but I love watching them play and I know that they really are best friends. They have entered a busy stage...I like to say that they are two tiny tornados, but I prefer that to the alternative of them just sitting in front of the TV all day. They definitely keep us on our toes and add so much to life.

Much of my spare time has been filled with marathon training! My first marathon is about six weeks away, and I am starting to realize that maybe I am a little crazy for doing this. All of my training has gone pretty well and I feel like I am on track, but wow...26 miles is a long way to run! You really start to realize it when trying to plan out long runs and you keep having to find ways to make them longer. My goal with this race is just to cross the finish line. I have had a lot of thoughts about running and training for this race in particular, so perhaps I will save that for another post.

To sum things up, life is busy but still amazing. I am blessed to have a great husband and have these two little people who call me mom. They make each day an adventure, and hopefully I will do a little bit better job of documenting it.

December Recap

I hate having to do recap style posts, but let's be honest, I have really sucked at blogging lately. December was a crazy busy month in our household, so sadly the blog has been terribly neglected. The two biggest events were Christmas festivities in general (duh), but also my sister getting married!

Making their debut as Mr. and Mrs. 

Beth and her husband, Mike, finally tied the knot after four years of dating! This was definitely a long time coming, but I know that they couldn't be happier. It was so fun to reflect back on my own wedding day and remember all of the excitement and emotions that were part of the day.

Beth lived with us for about 18 months, so we had the opportunity to get to know her husband even more. They seem to genuinely make each other really happy, so it is exciting to have another member in the family!

The Swain Siblings, plus our new addition: Kristin, me, Mike, Beth, David, and Khemia.

We did have a little bit of drama for the wedding. Jaxson and Aynsley were diagnosed with croup just two days before the wedding. Our pediatrician advised us not to take the kids out, as it seemed they would probably be getting worse before they got better. It seemed like their illnesses were pretty mild and they were getting better earlier than expected, so we decided to take them out anyway. Khemia watched them during the temple ceremony, and they seemed to be doing pretty well. Once we went outside for pictures, everything changed. I think a big part of the problem was the fact that the wedding was right during their naps and it was FREEZING cold. Both kids were miserable, kicking, screaming, etc. We ended up being in one picture before we decided that enough was enough, and Mike took the kids home for naps. I stayed behind to be in more of the family pictures, but it was kind of sad to not have the rest of my family there with me.

Beth had asked Mike to help out with the sound equipment during her reception, so he had to leave early to help get everything set up. I was kind of nervous when the kids woke up from their naps, and there was one point when I honestly thought I was going to miss my own sister's wedding reception because of the kids. Fortunately, they started to perk up and so I decided we would try the reception and see how it went. They ended up doing great! I think that they loved the party atmosphere and being able to move around and explore. Poor Beth, Jaxson kept trying to get her to hold him at every opportunity. She was a good sport and kept saying she didn't mind, but I would be willing to bet that there were a few people wondering if Beth already had a kid. 

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This Christmas season seemed especially busy. Between work events, family parties, and everything else, it seemed like there was something going on every night. As nice as it was to be able to see everyone, it has been nice to slow down a little bit and enjoy time with just our own family. 

Our Christmas Eve/Christmas Day was really nice, and actually ended up not being quite as busy as years past. 

We spent the night at Mike's mom's house on Christmas Eve. We ate a delicious dinner, played games, and watched a movie. She had a pinata for the kids, which Jaxson thought was so much fun. I think that Jaxson and Aynsley were still a little young to really understand what was going on, but they knew that something was up. On Christmas morning, the kids had a lot of fun opening up their gifts. They both were able to do pretty well on their own, so this was the first Christmas where it wasn't Mike and me doing all of the unwrapping for them. After breakfast, we headed home just in time for the kids to take their naps. I was SO glad that we were able to get their naps in...both kids were getting pretty cranky by this point, so I know we wouldn't have survived the day otherwise. 

Aynsley, Mike, and Jaxson on Christmas morning. 

Look what Santa brought...a kitchen!

After naps, Mike's dad and his wife came over to visit for a little bit before we headed down to my parent's house. We ended the day with dinner and gifts with my family. Nearly all of our extended family lives out of town, but we had a few family members who were able to come in for Beth's wedding and stay for Christmas. It made it so nice to have everyone there, especially since I think that the last time we were all together for Christmas like that was when I was in elementary school.

Also, my sister Khemia got a special Christmas present that arrived a few days late...her mission call! She is going to the London, England South Mission and reports to the England MTC on April 4th! We are so excited and proud of her, but will definitely miss having her around as our live-in nanny. :)

Jaxson's Second Birthday!

Jaxson turned two...almost two months ago. What can I say, the last few months have been BUSY!

We celebrated with a "Toy Story" themed party (his favorite). We had pizza and alien juice from "Pizza Planet" for lunch and played a game where the kids had to pin the badges on Woody and Buzz. Jaxson loved being able to wear his "Woody" shirt, have a cake with all of his favorite characters, and of course get lots of new Toy Story toys!

By far, I think that Jaxson's favorite new toy was his Buzz Lightyear action figure. He was so excited when he saw what it was; he didn't even want to let anyone take it away long enough to get it out of the package. He had to carry it around with him and is still very protective of it.

Happy birthday, Jaxson! We sure love you!!!

Trick-or-Treat!

I LOVE Halloween! I love the movies, the treats, decorating, costumes, you name it! I have been looking forward to the day when I would have kids to enjoy Halloween festivities with for a long time. Although it was both Jaxson and Aynsley's first Halloween's last year, I think that this year was a lot more fun. It has been so fun for me to watch them get excited about the different activities, even if they didn't completely understand what was going on. I am pleased to say that I think that my kids have inherited my love of the holiday. Jaxson seems to be fascinated with pumpkins, and even sat through "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" with me.

On Sunday, we celebrated Halloween with Mike's family. The kids dressed up in their costumes - they dressed as Jessie and Woody from Toy Story. Jaxson LOVES Toy Story. Anyway, it was fun to have the kids dressed up and see the cousins in their costumes. We had a delicious dinner, played some festive games, and ate more good food. It was such a fun evening.

We had to pose for some pictures while the kid's costumes were still looking good. Getting two toddlers to pose for pictures is tough!

For family home evening this week, my family came up to carve pumpkins together. Both of the kids seemed to think it was pretty interesting and wanted to be involved at the table. Jaxson even helped scoop all the guts out of his pumpkin. My dad helped Jax with his, and I think that Jaxson was pretty proud of their creation.

My work gets really into Halloween, which makes for such a fun day. This year, the people in my department dressed up as super heroes. Most of us were Avengers, but we also had Super Woman and Poison Ivy make an appearance. My boss dressed as the hulk, and ended up winning an award for his costume. 

I love Halloween night, and this has been one of my favorites so far. We took Jaxson trick-or-treating for the first time, and it was so fun. Mike took him to a few houses, but then I decided to take him out again because he was having such a fun time. He lasted a lot longer than I was expecting, and was seriously running from house to house. He was so cute to say "trick or treat" and then "thank you" at each house. Poor boy didn't want to come home, he was having such a fun time. I think that I am going to have a hard core trick-or-treater on my hands!

Autumn Activities

Wow, where has October gone??? I have seriously had so many times when I had posts in my mind, then time just flies by. I feel like we have really been able to take advantage of the beautiful fall weather and enjoy these last few sunny days. It has been so fun for me to experience the season through my kids and enjoy getting excited over the little things. We have loved our autumn outings, yummy treats, festive movies, and fun craft projects. Here is a look at what we have been up to:

We have been able to take a couple of trips to Gardner Village to see the witches. During our first trip, we went with our family and Mike was able to come. It seems like most of our activities are always during the day, so it was nice that he could join us.

To say that the kids loved the witches was an understatement. Jaxson especially was so fascinated by them. There were two that were his favorite, and he spent quite a bit of time running back and forth between the two witches. He would run to one, copy whatever she was doing, then run to the other. He did this for at least 10 or 15 minutes. 

I had to go to a conference for work in Tampa, Florida, and was lucky enough that we had our spouses join us. Our hotel was right on the beach in Clearwater, and it was absolutely gorgeous! Clearwater was seriously one of the nicest beaches that I have ever been to. 

Mike got to beach bum it while I was in classes, but I did have a chance for a few fun outings. We flew in a day early so that we could go to Universal Studios in Orlando. I was pretty excited, because I had never been to either Universal Studios park, and I also wanted to check out Harry Potter. We must have chosen a good day to go, because the lines were not bad at all. We had a lot of fun, but I must admit that I am still a Disney girl at heart. It was pretty cool to see the Harry Potter area of the park, but I was expecting it to be a little bigger than it was. Still, I have no complaints about the day. It was so much fun to spend a carefree day with Mike without worrying about the kids. Unfortunately, the camera that I brought with me that day was out of batteries, so I was only able to take a few pictures on my phone. 

Enjoying the beautiful sunset on Clearwater Beach

Although most of the time I was at the conference without Mike, he and the other spouses were able to come on the last day when we received our award. He was also able to hear the closing speaker, Commander Kelly, who was the commander on the last space shuttle mission and the husband of Gabriel Gifford (AZ Senator who was shot). It was really interesting to hear him speak, and I am sure that Mike enjoyed it since he is so into space stuff. After the conference, we went out back by the riverwalk for a few pictures.

Last week, we headed out to Pack's Pumpkin Patch with my cousin and her two kids. Jaxson and Aynsley loved being able to run around and check out all the pumpkins. I love going to this pumpkin patch because they have a little hay maze that is the perfect size for Jaxson to explore.

We had our second trip to Gardner Village on Friday. We went with my cousin and her kids, and it was crazy busy! Jaxson totally recognized where we were as soon as we pulled in  and was so excited to see the witches again.

We ended the day by going over to Gardner Village's petting zoo. I really wish that I had taken my kids hear before, because they both loved it. They went from being cranky and ready to go home to smiling, laughing, and not wanting to leave practically instantly. Aynsley was a little nervous around some of the bigger animals, but she and Jaxson both loved the bunny rabbits and the chickens. I loved that the workers were so willing to help the kids hold, pet, and even ride on the animals. We will definitely need to remember to come back next year!