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.

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.

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!

July Recap

July seriously flew by so quickly...it seemed like it was such a busy month for us, but in talking to others, it sounds like it was that way for everyone else, too.

Our family was able to do a lot of fun "summer" stuff this past month, which I loved. The kids are getting to an age where they really enjoy doing things away from home (especially Jaxson). Here are a few highlights:

We finally made it up the canyon for a campfire dinner. I love going up to Mueller Park for dinner...it is nice and close to home, plus there are some good picnic places and lots of shade. Jaxson was fascinated by the campfire and wanted to help Mike set up the fire and cook dinner. He was pretty disappointed that we didn't let him make his own hotdog and s'more on his own. Jax is definitely getting to that stage where he wants to be as independent as possible. We also learned that Aynsley seems to have the makings of being a true camper. She kept putting her food down on the ground and rubbing it in the dirt before eating it. No matter how many times we tried to distract her, she just kept going back to the dirt.

We were able to go for a long weekend trip to Bear Lake with Mike's family, and we had so much fun! It was really nice to take a break and just relax. I was pretty nervous about how well Jaxson would do because he typically won't sleep anywhere besides his crib, but he did great! He absolutely loved being able to play with his cousin and Aynsley became best friends with her Aunt Mandy.

While we were there, Jaxson was able to go on his first 4-wheeler and waverunner rides. He was pretty hesitant at first, but then ended up enjoying both. On his second waverunner ride, he kept looking up at me with the biggest smile on his face; I could tell that he was just loving every minute of it.

While we were waiting to switch out riders, we put Jaxson on the waverunner by himself so that we could take a picture. As you can tell, he was not very happy about that!

Hanging out by the beach...although the shore wasn't too great for playing, we were able to still find a pretty nice beach that worked out really well for the afternoon that we had the waverunners. It wasn't crowded at all, plus there was sand and shade for the kids. We had such a great time and are hoping to be able to go back again!

Recently, Jaxson has been really interested in farm animals. Last week, I took the kids to Wheeler Farm, and he absolutely loved it. I think that his favorite animal right now is a horse, so he was so excited when he got to see one up close. Unfortunately, Aynsley wasn't so into the horses, and she burst into tears while we were up close to one.

One of the employees was really sweet and let Jaxson "help" take care of the pigs. He was able to help spray them off and give them a drink. Later, the same employee helped Jaxson pet and get a few licks from Snickers, which is a pony. His whole face lit up when he was able to be that interactive with the pony. Once again, Aynsley wasn't too stoked about this, but I think by this point she was just ready to get out of the stroller.

Both of the kids really enjoyed being able to feed and look at the ducks. I think Jaxson was enjoying it a little too much, because he kept trying to pet them.

Besides the outings, the kids are keeping us as busy as ever! Aynsley started walking about three weeks ago, and I swear she is already going to be running soon! She can also say Momma, uh-oh, and that.

Jaxson is getting more and more grown up all the time. We have slowly started potty-training, and have even seen a few successes! He is getting very good at following directions, and is always trying to help his sister. He is such a sweet older brother. He loves going to nursery and playing with other kids.

Parachute Date Night

Last week, Mike and I had the opportunity for a rare date night out without the kiddos. We headed out to Club Sound to see Parachute in concert.

We had such a great time! We kept joking about how it felt like we were back in high school...this had definitely been a long time coming.  When Mike first said that he wanted to go, I was a little skeptical because I wasn't very familiar with their music. I had only heard the one or two songs that they have on the radio. After the concert, I definitely became their newest fan!

Big thanks to "Hoppa" and "Nina" who were willing to babysit, despite a little girl who decided to throw a big fit!

Summer Fun

Wow, I can't believe that July is already over. This summer has been going by SO fast, but we are definitely taking advantage of the warmer weather and having so much fun.

Here is a look at what we've been up to:

{Jaxson's First 4th of July}

We had a great Independence Day and were fortunate to spend a lot of time with family. We got together with some of Mike's family on Sunday for a BBQ and fireworks.

Jaxson is hanging out with the cousins...the boys all looked so cute together in their matching swimsuits. It was so fun to visit with everyone.

On Monday, we headed over to my parent's house for their annual BBQ and fireworks show. For as long as I can remember, my family has invited the neighborhood over for fireworks. Every family brings fireworks and snacks to contribute, so there ends up being a lot of great food and fun. Jaxson LOVED watching the fireworks. He was so tired from staying up so late, but he did great because he was so mesmorized by the fireworks.

Our family on July 4th.

{First Trip to the Zoo}

Jaxson and I went to the zoo with my mom, cousins, Denece, and Kambri. Jaxson seemed to really enjoy looking at the animals and any of the exhibits with water. He especially loved the panther and the lemurs, probably because they were so active. I am looking forward to taking him back next summer because by then he will really be able to enjoy it!

{Bountiful Handcart Days Parade}

Since Mike's work is right on the Handcart Days parade route, we decided it was the perfect opportunity to take Jaxson to his first parade. I was a little nervous that he would get bored from sitting in his stroller, but he was fascinated by everything. He especially loved all the marching bands.

We loved the Utah Utes "Pioneering into the Pac 12" float!

{Water Fun}

Jaxson absolutely LOVES anything to do with water, whether it is taking a bath or playing in the pool. We decided to let him play in the sprinklers, and he had such a fun time. He loves to try and catch the water in his hands and mouth.

{Mueller Park Canyon}

A couple days ago, we decided to head up the canyon for a campfire dinner. This was Jaxson's first time in the mountains.

Unfortunately, we had to cut our dinner short and pack up early. There was a HUGE rainstorm, so we only were there long enough to make a fire and roast one hotdog. Mueller Park is such a pretty area and it is so close to home, so I would love to go back up again this season, but we'll see if that happens.