Halloween Party

Tonight we had our ward Halloween party and chili cook-off. Kayla and Cayden were so excited to dress up in their costumes. They have been very patient, I have not let them play with them because I did not want them ruined before Halloween. Cayden is a white Ninja and Kayla is a pink princess. If you ask her, she is Sleeping Beauty.

Here they are posing after the party. Kayla had to pose too because she follows everything that Cayden does, he hates it (at least that is what he says, I think he loves it really!)

Her is my princess getting ready for the ball.

She has her golden sparkly princess slippers on and her beautiful crown. She knows she is beautiful. Whenever anyone told her how pretty she was at the party, all she said was, "I know!" Then she would show them her earrings and her necklace. She got to wear mommy's real pearl necklace and hoop earrings so she thought she was a rock star!

Football

Cayden was so excited to play flag football this fall. When he brought he flyer home from school, he asked me every day if I had signed him up yet. Mind you this was at least 2 months of asking, he brought it home the beginning of August and the sign-up were not until the end of September. He had a clinic on the basics to start off the season, and then they had games for 5 weeks. he had so much fun. The team only won one game, but I just asked if he had fun after every game. He never said they lost, he always said, "Mom, I had so much fun today at my game!" I was so grateful to the coach for teaching my son that playing was not all about winning.

Cayden is a good little player, when he pays attention. He made a ton of plays where he pulled the flag of the other team members. He was not so good with the running, but he does not want to practice either. He thinks that he should just be good at it like the other kids. He just would argue with me when I told them that the other kids practiced running at home. Oh well, maybe he will be a lawyer like his brother Jared.

Promised Photos!

Cayden on the ferris wheel at Lagoon. Kayla

My little Josh

Funny hair-do for Kayla. I love looking up hair -dos for her. I love having a little girl!

My little Josh playing video games. He did this most of the summer. In fact, he summer consisted of video games, lagoon and working with Blaine.

Cayden learned to swim this summer. He has gotten pretty good at it. We have a pool at our club house so we go about once a week.

Kayla swims with her floaty. She was in swim lessons but she has not learned to swim well enough to go without it yet.

The last night we all got to go to Lagoon before Josh left. I really loved having him here for the summer. I just wish Jared would have wanted to come also. Josh is about 8 inches taller then me and outweighs me by 75 pounds. I kept teasing him that he was my little Josh, and her would respond back that I was his little mom.

Cayden's first day of second grade. He is getting so big!

Kayla's first day of preschool. She was so excited to go to school like Cayden!

First day of school hair. Have I mentioned that I love doing her hair??

One room of our flooded basement is almost finished after 2 months of living out of boxes. Hooray!

Here is the other room.

and the great room in the basement holding all of the crap from the two flooded rooms

Summer.....

Well, there is so much to update everyone on. I am almost done with my bachelors degree, less then a year left. I have slowed down and am not working any extra shifts and I am just taking one class at a time. I was under too much stress and pretty much had a mental breakdown. I have learned that I must accept the things that I can not control, and all that I am able to control is my attitude. I hope that this lesson sticks, I really am not wanting to learn it again. Cayden has one more week of school. He is remaining on D track and is so excited that he is going into the second grade next year. He is reading chapter books and is awesome at spelling and math. Kayla is officially potty trained both day and night. She just decided that she did not want diapers any more and pretty much did it herself. I was so happy that I did not have to buy diapers any more. It means that I will not have any more children in diapers! HOORAY! Blaine is still working for the same company. He is also working with his brother roofing and remodeling homes to sell. He is enjoying the hard work, but is glad that it is not a full time thing. Josh finished the 10th grade. He is getting so big! He is taking a CAD class and learning to build robots. He is really enjoying the class and is so excited to continue with the class next year. He will continue to live in Huntington Beach with his dad and come here for visits. He has gotten the best grades of all his school years this year, so I thought it would be best to allow him the choice to stay. He plans on working toward an engineering degree, so these classes will help him. Jared continues to be my challenge. He also will remain in Huntington Beach with his dad. He was promoted from the eighth grade and will start high school next fall. He is excited for this new journey. I just pray that he will do better then he did this year so that he can graduate high school. We are planning on living in South Jordan for a while longer, (hopefully a very long time) I really am not thrilled with the idea of moving.
We are looking forward to a warm summer and playing at Lagoon. We got season passes this year, so we plan on going at least once a week. If anyone wants to join us, let me know. I will post pics of the kids soon!

Merry Christmas to all!

This is our Christmas card this year. My wonderful sister in law Andrea of Andrea Whittle Photography took our amazing pictures before we left Arizona. She is able to capture each child's personality, I love getting their pictures done by here. i am trying to get them to move move up here, so far it is not so successful. I hope that you all have an amazing Christmas holiday with you families.

Christmas....Already??

I have been such a slacker in the picture taking department. I have not taken any pictures since Halloween. Well, I did at least get some decorations up and the shopping is done, batteries for the camera, so Christmas pictures are a go.
I have some really cute things that the kids have said recently:

While watching the Nativity
C: "mom do we get to see how baby Jesus comes out of his mom's tummy, cuz I really want to see that part!"
Me: why do you want to see that?
C: because I did not get to see how Kalya came out of your tummy.

Honestly, how funny. I really had to concentrate and not laugh, then I said..
I pushed her out and someone caught her.
He thought that was pretty cool, and he was satisfied with this answer.

When coming home from work and into the door Kayla says
K:"Mommy, I lub you."
Me: I love you too Kayla
K: "I hungy, k."
Me: ok what do you want to eat?
K: "ummm...becfist"

I think she has my trained.

When Cayden was sick and wanted to play outside,
C:"But Mom i feel good."
Me: but you are still coughing.
C: "but mom it is the cough that you like to hear."
Me: I do not like to hear you cough at all
C: "but you said that you like it better then my other cough."
This would have been the croup cough he had 2 days before. Silly kids!

When out shopping with Kayla
K:"Mommy we look at babies k"
Me: we will look at the babies in a minute
K: "mommy santa not coming cuz you not listen to me."

I love my kids, they make me laugh every day. It breaks up the stress that tends to surround me most of the times. Hope you all have a great holiday!
Merry Christmas!

Up in South Jordan

We moved and arrived safely in South Jordan just in time for fall and going to the pumpkin patch. Things have been much more quiet around here without the older boys. I am trying to look for the positive things with this new living arrangement. So far, there are many days that I am missing them like crazy. I just keep thinking this is temporary. Here are some of the things we did since we have been back in Utah. We took K and C to the pumpkin patch. Here is K with her daddy and her pumpkin. Here is C with his pumpkin. He said he needed a bigger pumpkin then K because he is bigger then she is.

Here we are on the hay ride. Daddy did not want to go, so he took pictures instead. It was so fun for K and C, they thought it was cool that the tractor pulled the hay wagon all around the pumpkin patch.

We also arrived just in time for the first snow. We got about an inch that stuck to the ground. I had forgotten how pretty things look in the morning right after the snow has fallen. Daddy did not take the trampoline down in time for the first snow, but hit was so nice right after this that we left it up for 2 more weeks.

We have such a fun backyard. The kids love the play set and are outside for as long as they are allowed. It has not been too cold other then these two snow days so they have played for hours.

We went to the church for a Halloween party. They had chili and soup and cornbread contests. We got to try some really good recipes and some interesting ones also. We had so many people come and introduce themselves, I was a bit overwhelmed with the numbers of people that came. I did very well though and did not have to leave to catch my breath. The kids had a pinata to hit and C loved it!

K was a ladybug and C was a SWAT member. I did not have to buy costumes this year. It was so awesome. I save some money with that.

Here is K with her pumpkin of candy after the Trunk or treat out a Tammy's house (Blaine's sister).

Here is C with his candy after the trunk or treat

Here are the little one just before going out to houses for more candy.

Here is the huge amount of candy that the kids got. I did not buy candy this year. I gave out pretzels and fruit snacks. This was the container that the pretzels came it. I just had 2 kids going trick or treating this year and still ended up with a ton of candy!

Here is a photo of our back yard today. It is snowing again. K and I have been sitting in front of the window watching the snow fall. She thinks it is so pretty. C is at school and loving his new class. He had a 5 week break between fall break in AZ and being off track when we got to UT. He is in a tiny class of 15 kids. His teacher is super cute and very organized. She loves C so I am happy. I am loving my job at the Riverton Hospital working with moms and babies again. I love going to work every day and am so thankful for the opportunity to work there. I am still not thrilled with the cold weather up here, but having a husband home and a job I love makes it worth it!