Halloween

Quick story before I forget!
So we did the trick-or-treating tonight in our own neighborhood first, but a lot of people had decided to go to the trunk-or-treat at church instead and were not home. So then we left a bowl of candy on our doorstep and took our kids up on the hill in town (aka: the rich people neighborhoods) and let them knock on doors there. As we were walking up to a house, I said to Gabe something about, "This is where the rich people live…." And then he responded something like, "I am so excited to go to this house! This house is so HUGE! These people  are really rich, right mom?!" I quickly shushed him and was like, "Shh… yes, but they probably don't like people saying that!" And then Gabe asked in a confused way, "Why? Don't they know?" (Like, "don't they know they are rich?")
hahaha it just made me laugh….

Okay - but more about Halloween now!

On the Saturday before Halloween, we went down town to the little Hemming Village Party. That's where this cute first picture of all of us was taken. They had a Photo Booth set up and were taking free pictures. They also had bobbing for apples and a hay ride that we all did. (The hay ride, not the apples - just the boys did that - gross.)

Thursday night (Halloween Eve) it was the school Halloween carnival. They really went all out this year! It was so much fun! They even did BINGO and had some amazing prizes that were donated - including a TV, HUGE Barbie DreamHouse, Big basket full of Nerf guns, etc. Sadly, we did not win anything though. :( But I;m sure the pTO made a ton of money for the school so that's always good! ;)

Friday at school, the boys both had spectacular halloween class parties (I'm serious, these room mothers are amazing this year - I was at Gabe's helping out and I was blown away. There was a mom dressed as a wicked with conducting all the games, then another dressed as a Mad Scientist showing them how to make their "experimental" treats, and another mom dressed as a fortune teller with her husband sitting under a table and his head sitting "on top" of the table, inside of a crystal ball, telling fortunes. They are crazy overachievers here.) They also did a big Halloween costume parade around the school that everyone came to watch.

In the evening, we started our Trick-or-treating at about 5:00 when Josh got home. Like i said, we did our neighborhood first, then a few houses in the Willowbrook neighborhood, then went up on the hill. We were going to go to the Fat Cats indoor party (movie theater/bowling alley place) but when we drove by the line was wrapped around the building and we were like, "Um… no." So then we went up on the hill. We got back home at about 8:30 and the kids had PLENTY of candy and we rounded out the night watching movies in my bed and falling asleep in sugar comas.

Here are some pictures of our Halloween adventures!

Parent Teacher Conferences

It's been a while! I have a lot to catch up on, but I just wanted to write briefly about the boys' parent teacher conferences. A little back story…. so Gabe has always seemed to be a little behind. Ever since the day he was born, it was "This is what he needs to catch up on…" from day one in the NICU. And then in preschool it was his speech, and then in kindergarten his reading, and so on and so on. It's always seemed like things have been a little bit harder for him and he's always had to work a little extra than everyone else to just keep with the pace. So, going into his parent-teacher conference, I was expecting kind of the usual "Gabe is such a sweet kid. *smile* But here's a few things you need to work on with him…." (And then the list of things he's behind on…) So I get into his teacher's classroom, and I have to say, Gabe LOVES his teacher. He has loved her since day one. He just kept saying "My teacher is SO NICE!" after the first day of school. And let me tell you - that kid wasn't lying. She is amazing. I actually cried during our parent teacher conference. (It was kind of an emotional moment I guess… lol… but she cried too!!! I swear! It was like an episode of Oprah.) But so this is what happens…
I go in there and she's like, "Do you have any questions for me to start off…?" and I am like, "Well, I know he's behind in reading so…. what can we do to help him… etc. etc…" and she kind of gave me this look like she wasn't sure what to say. Then she's like, "Well let me show you his scores…" and then she probably thought I was the bad reader because I looked at them and was like, "Wait… you're saying he ISN'T behind?" And she just looked at me like I was this crazy lady and went on to say, "Gabe is my class leader. He is a marvelous child. He is the child that I try to keep up with throughout the day because he is just ON IT all the time. I can't even keep up with him sometimes. He is excelling in every area. HE. IS. AMAZING." And I just sat there like, in shock. I said to her, "Well, this is like night and day to his first grade and even second grade parent teacher conference. He has always been trying to catch up. ever since he was born, he was behind and I feel like for years we've just been trying to get caught up." And she looks me in the eye and goes, "He's caught up." Like, as in, "Your child is amazing and I'm sitting here telling you he's one of my best students and you're not believing me?" haha No, but she was super sweet and not at all judgmental. I think she may have just thought I was a little crazy. But i even was like, "Yeah, yeah, you're saying he has amazing behavior and i get that, but are we talking about his actual academics here?" And then she showed me his scores in math, reading, etc. and they were actually all nearly perfect! She said his reading must have just taken off during the Summer because at the end of second grade when he was tested, he was reading 45 words per minute and at the beginning of this Fall he was reading at 96 wpm, which is the benchmark for Winter of this year! And not just that, but his comprehension was even above average! I was just so floored. It was like, the best experience with a parent teacher conference I have ever had. It lasted an hour. I am not lying. Luckily I was the last one of the evening so no one was waiting. But she probably felt like she needed to spend that long to convince me that my son was actually doing WELL in school! haha

Anyways! And little Caleb… He is also doing well (academically) haha, no his teacher is really nice too, but the one negative thing I heard all night was that Caleb can be a little bit…. um… loud. Which, I already knew, so that was no surprise. She said that sometimes he has a hard time not, "Jumping the gun," and he's always in a hurry to move onto something else, be the life of the party, get the focus onto him and off the boring school work type of thing! haha I can totally see that. But she didn't seem too offended by it. So I think we're good.

Well that is my little blog for now. I will try to do more later when it is not midnight! ;)

Fall Fun

I am trying to play catch up again, but I had to mention a  few of the fun things we did this Fall!
1 - Mesa Falls, hiked around, saw a rainbow over the waterfall! Fed the fish at Warm River.
2 - Bike ride down the mountain (I picked them up in the car at the bottom… haha)
3 - Trip to Jackson - went swimming at the indoor watermark with cousins Berrick and Wylder and Aunt Heather; also ate pastries at a ridiculously overpriced upscale bakery (they WERE very good though)
4 - Went to a pumpkin patch to pick out the perfect pumpkins and a Farmer's market on the way home for some fresh apples, corn, grapes…. I would've bought pears if I wasn't all "peared out" from canning the two huge boxes of pears I had bought from the church people. I do not want to see another pear for a long time.
5 - Josh went fishing with his boyfriends (actually they are both his cousins, on two different sides… so I guess that would be incest…They really do have too much fun together though)
6 - Dog sat for Josh's dream dog - a little Gareman Shepherd puppy named Axl. he even took him to work in the K9 SUV a few times.
7 - The boys each played on a Flag Football team - they get assigned to a real NFL team and are given jerseys of that team. Sadly, neither of our boys were the Packers. :( Caleb was the Arizona Cardinals and Gabe was the Jets.

The weather this fall had been pretty amazing, I gotta say. Even Halloween was in the upper 60s. Can't beat that! If only we had tons of tree-lined streets with amazing fall colors…. oh well. I will post this first picture of what I wish it looked like on my street.

Here's some pictures!

Stacey and Kamrie

It has been brought to my attention, that I have never once posted a picture of my friends Stacey and Kamrie. I wanted to take this time to dedicate a post solely to them.

 I first met Stacey when she was a little freshmen at BYUI-Idaho, living in the apartment complex that we managed. I got to know her especially well because her mom was trying to cut her off slowly from the money tree and was trying to discipline her to pay her own rent. Stacey rose to the challenge and took care of it like any other Northgate college girl would. She walked right into my office with a determined look on her face, got on her phone, and said, "Grandma….? My mom is being so mean. I don't have any money! Will you help me pay my rent?" Hahahaha After that, we continued to get to know each other as she frequently would stop my my office to say "hi" and talk to my kids. She was always in a happy mood (except when talking about her horse-loving room mates) and she was always willing to babysit (which I loved.)

Soon after meeting Stacey, I met Kamrie at a Northgate Girl's Night Party where we ate lots of junk food and had a very large poster of an Abercrombie model. Kamrie was so cute and bubbly and was telling me all about how she was waiting for a nice little missionary boy that she was destined to marry. (No, they did not get married. And phew, she dodged a bullet on that one let me tell you….)

So now these two fine girls are graduated from BYU-Idaho and living in the Provo area, working at a fun job together and going out on frequent Tinder dates. So if you are in the Provo area and are a good-looking, 23-29 year old guy, don't be afraid to look them up! ;)

1st Day of School!

Wednesday, August 27th marked a very special day… it was the day that the boys finally went back to school!!!! haha No, I did totally enjoy Summer with them. But I (like most mothers I would assume) was also very ready for school to start again.

This year they both have fabulous teachers. Gabe has Mrs. Burt for the third grade. I don't know her personally, but every mom who has heard Gabe had her has responded with, "You are so lucky! She is the best!" Someone even told me they tried to switch their kid into that class and were denied because he class was already so full. Gabe has only had her for three days but says so far "She is sooo nice!"

Caleb has Mrs. McCoy for first grade. I DO know her personally because she is in our ward. I also have one of her daughters in my activity days girls group. She is also very nice I am sure will be great. Caleb already knew about half the kids in his class on the first day, because I think everyone in our ward who had a first grader also requested her! ;) Some of his favorites include Camri Call (our neighbor), Apsen (another neighbor girl), Benson (another neighbor boy who he already got invited over to his house to play since school started), and many more. So I am not too worried about him loving school. I saw Mrs. McCoy on Friday night when she was picking up her daughter from the activity I was in charge of and I said with a smile, "How do you like having Caleb in your class so far?" and she smiled and said, "He is quite the chatter box isn't he?" hahaha "Yup!" But then she added, "He is so sweet though."

So now it is just me and Avery every day from 8 am to 2:45 pm! I know she already misses them because she walked around saying, "Dabe? Dabe?" (Okay maybe she just misses Gabe…haha) Then I said, "They're both at school." And she was like, "Oohhhh….." in a sad voice. Hopefully we will find some fun things to do! (And I will still get a few things done with my Etsy shop somehow!)

Here are some pictures of the boys on their first day! (and Avery at home with me in my office with her stuffed animals)

Family Pictures - August 2014

I have really tried to make it a ritual since Avery was born to be good about taking family pictures! I was kind of relaxed about the whole thing before and had never once paid for a family portrait. But once Avery was born I was like, "Alright, our family is complete… let's start doing this for real."

So, the only problem is, I am still a cheap girl at heart. I hate paying an arm and a leg for pictures. Two years ago (the first time I paid someone) I had this college girl do it who charged $100 for an hour shoot and gave us a cd with about 40 images on it. I thought that was a little high, but still ok since she was pretty good. Then the next year (2013) she upped her price to $150 and said she lowered the number of images to only 20. I was like, "No thank you." So I had our friend, Stacey, just take some. This year, I found a girl through a friend of a friend and she only charged $50 and gave us a cd with about 40 images on it. Just right! ;) Although I do wish there would have been some more options for the family pictures of us all together, Avery was being a monster so it was hard to even get one good one. I will post those at the end, but first, a quick walk down memory lane….

{ Fall 2010 - thanks, Gini! }

{ Christmas 2011- thanks, Diane! }

{ Fall 2012 - the first professional ones… }

{ Fall 2013 - thanks, Stacey! }

And finally! Here are some of our pictures this year! { August 2014 - Katy Montross Photography }
My kids were being monsters so it's a miracle we even got a few good ones...