Octoberfest and Pumpkin Carving

This last Sunday was our family's annual Octoberfest! My mom is so creative and cute! We celebrate Octoberfest to enjoy being outside with the fall leaves for one last time, we have a very yummy dinner in the backyard. My kids love it! This year it was nice and warm. And when it started to get chilly my dad started a fire for the kids.



Monday we went to our friends house and had a little party. It's so hard to go and see everyone on Halloween, so we dressed up the kids and showed 'em off to each other. Katherine was a great hostess and our kids just love being together. I don't think me and Derek have ever dressed up for Halloween so it was fun to give it a try, even if nobody knew who we were:) And the pumpkins looked so good!







(See if you can guess who we were:) )

Fall; Greatest Season of them ALL!

This is my favoritre time of year! I love that when you get up you dress for winter and by the afternoon you've redressed for summer:) Me and my mom loaded up the kids and hit Little Cottonwood Canyon. It was so worth it when just in the car Dillon was yelling; "This is so FREAKING AWESOME!!" We pulled off to the first trailhead (luckily it was paved) started hiking and picking fall leaves. The colors were so pretty! If you haven't already, you too should go and enjoy some fall foilage:) When we came home we made our own fall trees. I love days like these:)

Double the Trouble, Double the Fun

I watched my neice and nephew twins, Sadie and Sawyer, Sat. night. I have to say- I have a new found respect for their mom:) When she dropped them off they were screaming (they hate their car seat) and they were hungry so I asked Dillon to hold them while I made bottles. Here's a picture of Dill plugging his ears. I fed them and Dill took a picture of me. After they ate they were happy and we cooed and smiled at each other. Then I put one to sleep then the other, played a few games with Dill, and 30 min. later they were awake. It is alot of work. I didn't do much else that's for sure. My mom came and she said that I could handle twins. I thought for a minute that I could! Then remembered it had only been 3 hrs! Amber my sis in-law is a great mom and does a way better job than I could. I'll love them for 3 hrs any day and then send them back to her:)

Zions Bank and The Utah Jazz

The Bishop in our ward is a "Big Wig" at Zions. He was over the construction of the Jazz training center. So the YW and YM had an "in" to go and take a tour of the facility. It is the newest and nicest training center in all of the NBA. Of course the Jazz were out of town so there were no big appearences. But still very cool to sniff the sweat rags of, hopefully, Matt Harpring:) Here are some pictures- (I swear I was wearing a shirt under the jersey!)



Me and Derek in front of his fav players locker. Those Jazz boys are very, very messy! It was crazy in there- IPOD's all over, size 20 shoes all over. Expensive messy stuff.



Us giving a great press conference.

Love those Crafty Homemakers

Kasidee has wanted to play the piano for as long as I can remember! She loved pounding on my moms piano and as she watched others play, wanted to be as musical. One problem- I didn't have a piano. Of course my mom did offer me her piano a while back. At the time I didn't have room for it so said no. Where is the piano now you ask- oh, at Brookes! No I'm not bitter at all. You snooze you loose. So I've been looking and thinking I was going to spend hundreds. But -Oh lucky day! I found one for $50 bucks! Gotta love KSL classifieds. If you can look past the crazy heart stencil, it's a lovely little piano. And I'm sure in it's day (20 years ago) that sweet little crafty paint job was oh-so-hip. My silly hubby put his foot in his mouth when the lady we bought it from was explaining that the lady she bought it from had painted it and Derek said, "I have a feeling that's the first thing to go." He said she seemed a little sad by that. Oops. My Kasidee thinks it so pretty! But she also likes to wear her clothes two days in a row so I won't be taking style tips from her!

Finding Joy in the Journey

I loved all the conference talks this past conference weekend. I found conference packets online and printed them off for the kids so that they could keep busy and also try to listen. Growing up my mom always made an effort to try and get us naughty kids to hold still and listen to our Prophet. She was so creative -usually treats were involved- so I carried on that tradition. I made a list of words to listen for and every time someone said it they could take a treat out of the bucket. Dillon was cracking me and Derek up, he'd say, "I just heard revelation, is that a word on my list?" or "I just heard virtue, that's a word right mom?" Even though no-those word were not on the list (the words were love, Jesus, prophet- easy, simple words) Dill got a treat just for listening and because he said those words so cute:)
This conference was exactly what I needed to hear. I felt very at ease and also very loved by my father in heaven. I've always loved President Monson. His humorous stories and his love for this gospel has always inspired me to do better and be better. He motivates me! He talked about how things will change. Change is sure to come. And how we should find joy in the journey. That one day all the laundry will be gone, there won't be hand smudges around the house. But to also not sit and be sad about those things when they are gone! Don't let the time just go by you. Be a do'er! Create memories, it's never to late. So my goal is to let the toys lay on the floor longer, and not say to my kids "I'll play with you as soon as I'm done cleaning this." My family is greatest thing I have going for me and I need to cherish that as much as I can!