Pumpkin Carving

We all had a great time carving pumpkins! We are officially ready for Halloween! 

All of us are sitting behind the pumpkins we carved. 

The girls after a bath with all of our pumpkins!

Its hard getting a good shot of pumpkins lit up at night with our camera, so here is the best one.

Here are Addie's and Kate's pumpkins pretty darn cute!

Me helping Kate out with her pumpkin carving. We got this new electric pumpkin carver at 

K-mart, it is wonderful I would highly recommend getting one it made pumpkin carving go so quickly.

Addie loved getting her hands in there and getting the "squishy stuff" out as long as she had on a gloves. 

The girls wanted to paint pumpkins like the ones at the store. So we bought some little pumpkins and let them paint them.

Addie's really looked like a face...Kate's? not so much.

Hiking in Zion

We decide to go Zion with Brandan's family over "fall break" formally known as UEA (whatever) 

Anyway, we decided to have brunch at the Bumbleberry Inn Restaurant then go into the park. once into the park we took a shuttle. Brandan and I were talking about how different it was now. The last time we were in Zion was when Brandan proposed to me almost 7 years ago on New Years. If you haven't been for a while it has changed a lot. No cars! Which is actually a nice change I remember hearing the buzzing of cars while we hiked and now you don't. Back to the story... We took the shuttle to the  Emerald Pools Hike. We thought the Grandma's and Grandpa's would like that hike better than Angel's Landing ok and also our kids. Brandan and I took the long way. I didn't think not going to the gym for a week would really make that big of a difference... IT DID. lets just say I was glad I didn't attempt to do Angel's Landing like I wanted to. After we hiked around a while and saw all the beautiful fall colors, we decided to head back. I think we all thought at the same time. "We can't leave without ice cream" so we got some ice cream and walked down to this little ranch that has domesticated elk and buffalo.

I bet you can't tell we had ice cream by Addie's face! 

Buffalo... huge buffalo

Katers loved playing here this was her favorite part. 

I kept throwing food at this elk and it would scream at me it was so funny. I don't know if it was screaming but if you ever have heard an elk call it sure sounds like they're screaming.

This is our little family up by Emerald Pools. We had a great time. I kept thinking to myself why don't we come here more often. I really need to take advantage of the beautiful places me. It was so fun thanks for inviting us grandma and grandpa. 

Guilty Pleasures

Ok so I am sitting here doing my blog surfing and I decided I want to share some of my guilty pleasures. 

First and foremost: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies the ones that are so simple you get spice cake mix, one can of pumpkin and chocolate chip and whawlaa an extra 5 lbs tacked right onto your hips but holy cow it was worth it. ( actually it is a weight watchers recipe and you can eat as many as you want and they have 0 calories) 

Second: Blog surfing. I love getting caught up in the blog web and going from blog to blog reading shamelessly about peoples lives. Thanks for blogging guys!!

Third: The music on my blog.... I know its weird but sometimes I just go on my blog just to hear the music. 

Ok, so I want to hear some of your guilty pleasures please comment it will be fun !!

CANCUN

And so it begins our wonderful trip to Cancun that Brandan planned for my Birthday surprise. We had a great trip and we are so grateful for all those that helped with our kids. We couldn't have done it with out you. Cancun was beautiful! I rediscovered why I fell in love with Brandan and we are truly best friends. I couldn't imagine my life with out him and our beautiful kids. I was rejuvenated and ready to come back and be a mom. This, I think is a mandatory thing for every couple. It doesn't need to be Cancun, though I highly recommend it, it can be anywhere just get away and rediscover your love for each other and your kids. 

This is the view from our hotel room. It over looked this cool little lagoon. My hair went curly and fizzy as soon as I got off the plane it was raining so I instantly had a fro. So my hair will be curly from this point on. 

The hotel was really nice and all Inclusive which I think is soooo much better then a cruise!

Brandan did such a good job booking the whole thing. 

Thanks for the greatest Birthday ever!!!

So on my Birthday it started out nice but then it started raining so we decided to go down town to "Market 28" Its where all the so called "cheap stuff" is well we found out there was a Costco down there and we wanted to see what it was like. It was exactly the same as here just a whole section of alcohol. So we had some costco pizza which tasted the exact same. then it started to rain hard. and this is Brandan trying to catch a bus home. I took the picture from under some shops. It was so fun to be out in the pouring rain in Mexico with Brandan. At least Brandan knew Spanish. I really did have fun in the rain we were laughing the entire time. 

This is on the party boat to Isla Mujeres. when Isla Mujeres (which means island of women) was first discovered by the spaniards they didn't find anything but a temple and statues of pregnant women. They later found out that it was the island of fertility and so when the Mayans wanted their crops to grow better they would visit the island, and when women wanted to get pregnant they would visit the island. Our guide told everyone that if you didn't want babies then go to the hotel and go straight to sleep. No hoochy coochy . 

The water was this color everywhere. True paradise

This is the view from the beach side cafe we ate at. 

Brandan, Coke in hand, at the very tip of the party boat we took to the island. 

This is Tulum some mayan ruins. It was beautiful. 

Look at that ocean. Really, if you ever get the chance to go to Cancun, go to Tulum and make time to swim in the ocean there. We didn't have very much time here so we didn't get to swim and it was really hot so we really wanted to. 

This is an Iguana they were hundreds of them at Tulum

Isn't it amazing what these Mayans could build!

Me with my constant companion a virgin pina colada. Our hotel was all inclusive so all the drinks you want. Yes we would get funny looks asking for virgin drinks but hey we at least got our moneys worth

We went to a place called Xel-HA to snorkel it is a place where fresh water and salt water mix. We saw Sting Rays, we took an underwater camera but we have to develop it so I will post it if and when we get it developed. 

This is us in a hammock after we went snorkeling.

Look at my HOT husband!! This is the beach right outside our hotel. It was so fun because there was a sand bar right in the middle of the ocean you would swim out to it and catch some awesome waves back into shore!!

We are so sad to leave...

The last Sunset we saw in Cancun

My Birthday Surprise

Ok, I just have to say that I have the best husband ever. My Birthday is on Tuesday the 30th of September. Last night Brandan brought me flowers and a card . In the card Brandan said that he had planned a trip to CANCUN for my birthday (which I kinda already knew about because of a bank statement... long story) the card also said that "to find the dates look through all the petals of the flowers and find numbers and try to place them in the correct way." So thats exactly what I did and we are leaving this Sunday AAAAHHHH!!! What an awesome surprise! We are leaving from September 29th - October 4th  a whole week!!! I also want to thank my in-laws for volunteering to watch our girls I know its along time but I really appreciate it.  I know they are going to love having a week with Grandma. So I am off to pack for CANCUN! Oh man I wish I would have stayed on my diet for a while longer so I would look smokin' hot but oh well we are going to have the best time. Thanks Brandan for a great Birthday present. 

Family Pictures

This was at the end of the shoot and the girls just wanted to play and hang from the trees.

I love it! 

Priceless. 

Everything I needed to know I learned in Kindergarten

Addie was so excited for her first day of school.

She is such a big girl already I can't believe how time flies. Her daddy took her to school her first day and that meant a lot to her. 

So this was her second day of school. I know, I know I can't take a picture of her everyday at school can you imagine what my blog would be like... and this is Addie on her 157th day of kindergarten.  

I asked Addie how her first day of school went and she said "it was so oh... it was just wow.... AMAZING!!!!" That was the exact reaction I had hoped for. 

I am so proud of the girl you are growing up to be Addelyn.

Brian Regan

So a few months ago a good friend; Ashley Lund told me about the Brian Regan Comedy Show up at Thanksgiving point in Lehi. It sounded like fun so we got tickets for us and our husbands. and waited for the date... When it finally came we decided to make a weekend of it and take our kids. With the help of some friend in West Jordan we had babysitters. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. It was a perfect way to begin a good trip. the only down side was that our camera battery died and we didn't bring the charger. so hopefully I can get pics from friends who were there and took pics. 

Brian Regan continued

Yeah... I am stoked to be there look at my face.  you can see in the back ground how many people were there to hear some good clean jokes.... and let me tell you I haven't laughed so hard for a long time.

This is me and Ashley Lund. we got really good ground to put our blankets down on right up front. I am already laughing, giddy with excitement to laugh all night long.

Our pet the horny toad...

My girls are in a neighborhood full of boys. So, naturally they are going to want a lizard and want to lizard hunt. So Addie found this "frog" out in our front yard. Well I, as you know catch frogs, so I went out to catch it and to my surprise it was a horny toad. It brought back a lot of memories. I used to catch horny toads up at our property on Cedar Mountain when I was young.  So to make a short story long, we caught it and the girls loved it.... until it died. 

Now the new thing is an iguana.... I don't know if I am really that excited about an Iguana. So we'll wait and see.  I am putting it off as long as I can.

Addie and the horny toad

Katers and the horny toad