Monday, October 31, 2016

Happy Halloween!

The girls were super excited for Halloween today!  Leiden was kind of bummed to have to go to school and not have any fun activities like the other two got, but that's unfortunately part of growing up!

We had an angel and a Monster High character.


Mimi made an excellent monster!  Check out that purple wig! 


Mac was a most glorious angel.  The elementary did their customary parade and it was fun to see all the kids march by, so proud of their get ups! 


I celebrated with Jonathan all day, leaving him funny cards on his car and letting myself into his apartment to leave him a surprise there. 


The girls went with Brad for the evening, and I headed up to my mom's house where she was having HER customary hosting of the ward primary dinner for families up there.  I dressed as a cat, which was simple and fun.  Madison and Joni brought Thomas up for trick or treating. 


He really was not pleased with my face, which I thought was funny, because it wasn't THAT different. 


He wouldn't come near me all night, and this was his face when I tried to get his attention! 


Happy Halloween, everyone!!

Saturday, October 29, 2016

Pumpkins and Parties

Fun day, today!  We have our pumpkins for carving, and today we hit it!  Each year this activity gets easier and easier, which I am very grateful for!  I still have to help them a bit with cleaning them out, but they are quite able to independently work on them.


Later this evening it was time for the ward trunk or treat!  Everyone got to get their costumes on and we headed to the church.


Leiden's friend Natalia joined us for the evening. 


We brought the pumpkins with us to decorate our trunk.  Leiden made a mermaid.  Her own design and execution.  She really is a very talented artist. 


Mimi made the traditional jack o lantern face, but added ears with toothpicks.  They just didn't stay on too well, but it was a super creative and fun touch. 


Mac's pumpkin was a giant mustache, which I thought was pretty dang cute.


Jonathan's was a fearsome monster face.


We set them up on the ground by our car for the trunk or treat.  We got tons of compliments from people on them.


The kids went around the parking lot several times gathering tons of candy. 


Jonathan and I had fun handing candy out.  This was the first year I have let the girls wander around in the dark and handed candy out.  


Super good times, and the girls of course had to sort their hauls before bed! 


The main event is coming quickly!

Friday, October 28, 2016

Leiden's Halloween and Another Party!

Today was Halloween at the middle school.  Leiden was excited to get all dressed up and pretty for her school day.  I'm not exactly sure why the middle school chose the Friday before instead of the day of, but here we are!


Leiden wanted to go very simple this year, as a hula dancer.  Complete with grass skirt, leis, and long wavy hair.  She applied her own makeup, and was THRILLED with the bright pink lipstick I got her!


Tonight I went to a Halloween party with Jonathan's family.  I was in charge of making a dessert, and I went for a bloody cake!  It was actually really fun.  Chocolate cheesecake put on a Styrofoam base so you can stick a giant butcher knife in it!  We had fun celebrating with his family.

Thursday, October 27, 2016

The Big Red Barn!

Gah!! We have been so excited for this!  We headed down to Santaquin today and met the Smarts at the Big Red Barn!  We have missed them so much, and it was wonderful to see them again.  We started off the outing with apple cider donuts.


All of the kids waiting for the tractor ride to the fields.


The kids reconnected like they had never been apart.  Leiden and Ella were queens of the hay stack.


Mac and Coleman masters of the corn maze.


Mimi and Lydia together again!!


And best of all, time for us moms to TALK!!


We had such a fun time together.  After the barn, we headed to Kneaders for a quick dinner, and headed home.  It was so good to see old friends.  We miss them so much!


Monday, October 24, 2016

Leiden snapped this pic as I was carrying out the clippings from the yard to the curb for pick up.  It's fall...check out those beautiful trees in the background!
The girls were very excited tonight to have our traditional Halloween chicken pot pie!  Delicious dinner, and fun to celebrate Halloween in a simple way.

Sunday, October 23, 2016

Banana Tree Care

The girls came home from Brad's tonight, and I found them after getting into their jammies.  They were in the living room reading stories to their banana trees!  It was so cute I had to snap a picture.  They really are sweet girls.

Saturday, October 22, 2016

Halloween Party

This evening was mom's traditional yearly Halloween Party.  I was super excited to dress up, and Jonathan got in the spirit of things and put on his flight suit and aviators!  He was a good sport, attending with me because he knew I wanted him to, and knowing no one there but my family.  It was fun and good food!  My mom knows how to put on a great party!!

Friday, October 21, 2016

Museums and Banana Trees

Jonathan is always looking for fun ways to both teach and engage the girls.  He noticed a bit back that the banana tree in his apartment had grown little baby trees, and thought it would be fun to give them to the girls and plant the trees with them and teach the girls how to take care of them.  They are pretty different size wise, so he determined that the winner of the quiet game one night would get the largest pup, and so forth.  Mac ended up with the smallest, and Mimi with the biggest.  So today he brought over the pups, and we did it!


He rigged a little carrier for them to travel safely in his car.


The girls with their new little banana trees!


He showed each of them how to plant them correctly in the dirt.


After that activity, we headed down to Thanksgiving Point to the Museum of Ancient Life.  It was so cool.  The girls don't have quite the same attention spans as Jonathan and I, but they had fun.  There really is so much to learn there, and so much that is impressive.  Jonathan loved it, and wants to take his dad there when they come at Christmas.


Scary specimens right there!!


Before it was time to meet Brad to exchange the girls we headed to Sugarhouse park and brought oatmeal to feed the ducks and pigeons.  The girls had a great time finding shells, of all things!


Thursday, October 20, 2016

Back in Business

We finally worked out all the kinks with the car repair and am back in the Malibu!  Hopefully we will have no further problems, as we are out of the 5 day no questions asked warranty period.  I actually really like the car, and while the girls are not happy about the smaller space and the lack of a DVD player, I think this is a good financial move I should have made years ago!

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Car Issues

Well, I had the Malibu looked over by Dwight, and he found an issue with oil leaking where it isn't supposed to.  While frustrating, I took advantage of CarMax's 5 day anything goes policy and took it in to have it looked at.  During the five days you get a loaner for free if there is something that needs to be done, so I drove off the lot temporary driver of this fun red car!


Dwight warned me they would try and explain away the oil leak as just left over from an oil change rather than a leak, and not to take any of their crap.  Because of the design of the Malibu's engine, the entire transmission has to be taken apart to get to this part he diagnosed as being bad.

Sure enough, CarMax insisted there was nothing wrong with the car, and there was a big kerfuffle and issues and trying to figure out what to do.  The enormous hassle of returning my new car and buying another one was considered.  Finally I settled on being satisfied with the 6 month warranty on that particular requested part and repair.  This has been stressful!  I want to do things the right way, but man, it can be annoying!