November Travels

Looking back on November, we did A LOT of driving. That meant a lot of stuff was going on!

My nephew decided to be baptized, so we were able to attend that which was really special. 

Mom and Mike were still visiting and going between my house and Jessica's, so we tried to spend as much time with them as we could.

They had so much fun with this bundle of joy.

They were here on Veteran's Day, so we went to Olive Garden to celebrate.  This is what they ended up doing at the end of dinner.

So that's what you can do with a little piece of bread and a grandma to entertain a 2 year old.

That next weekend, my sister and I with our two kids (her youngest) went down to St. George for our Grandpa Ab's birthday party.  It was good to see all the family there.  A couple of my uncles surprised Grandpa by coming to the party.  It was also very interesting trying to get the two kids to bed in the hotel room.  Kayla wouldn't stop talking to her cousin even though it was way past both of their bed times.  Silly girl.  Jessica and I ended up playing games in the hallway outside our door, listening to them and waiting for them to fall asleep. Overall the trip was a lot of fun.

While I was down in St. George, Brandon was in Bakersfield, CA going to a film festival there.  His romantic comedy movie that he directed got in to that film festival and won an award! Yay! Hopefully this will mean we get more recognition and maybe even distribution!  

Then as November winds down, we're off to Colorado for Thanksgiving!  Brandon considered that vacation a success because he was able to spend an entire day in his pajamas.  So I guess I shouldn't wonder why Kayla likes to wear pajamas all day too... Anyway, we had yummy food and great company.  I'm so thankful for such a great and loving family for Kayla to grow up in.  Kayla had fun playing with her grandparents, and we had fun relaxing.  We didn't get to stay as long as we wanted (we kept trying to find excuses to stay), but it was a comfort to know we'd be there in three weeks.

I just want to list a few things I'm thankful for: 

• my husband for being the most amazing spouse ever! 
• Kayla for being the sweetest daughter, she just makes my heart melt
• all my family and friends for being so loving and fun
• my warm and comfy home
• my testimony and the knowledge that I will see my Daddy again
• my Savior for all He did and still continues to do for me
• my Heavenly Father, who knows me and loves me despite that knowledge

Happy Thanksgiving.  It's good to remember what you're thankful for, especially during this time of year.

October Projects

Wow. I didn't realize that I haven't posted since September.  So much has been going on, but I should have been updating here. My apologies. Let's see if I can give an update for the last 3 months, starting with October.

I turned 27. Just saying that makes me feel old, but not that old. :)

We went to Idaho to visit Clark, Lonnie, and MaKenna for General Conference weekend.  We heard a lot of good things from the leaders of the Church, and, like any family gathering, had lots of fun, ate good food, and the girls loved playing together.  Now that they're getting older, they're having a lot more fun together. This also means not as much supervision (keeping them from accidentally killing each other), but still keeping an eye on them so they don't destroy the house together. 

So this is what they did instead.  If you can't see what they're holding, it's our Kindle Fire HD.  It has become Kayla's Toy.  We recently put a case on it so it can handle a toddler and survive.  I love it (both the case and the Kindle).  There's a special app for kids where the parents can select which apps they can access.  She can't make purchases or surf the web without the parental password.  She knows that's her app, and she goes right to it when she wants to play. They're also coming out with a lot of good apps for kids.  She's learning and it's easy to clean up afterwards! 

The girl's other favorite past-time together was to play with the Daddys. Here's one example.

We love getting together so we can have moments like this.  Can't wait until we see them again!

The last time Mom and Mike came to our house to visit, they offered to buy us a new toilet in the upstairs bathroom as their Christmas present to us.  So we decided to redo the entire thing since we have to take out the toilet anyway.  This took up a couple weekends, but it was so worth it! So here are some before pictures:

As you can see, the people who painted the poo-brown color couldn't take the time to remove their towel hook thing and paint the whole wall...they painted around it.  It took Brandon 10 seconds to remove it and a good half hour of sanding to try to get the pain levels even before we started painting.

And the after pictures:

I think this is the only room in the house that really feels like us.  One room at a time...

We also took family pictures. We love taking pictures in the fall with all the variety of colors.  We went to the park behind Walmart in Orem.  It was a great location! We were only there an hour and we got so many good shots! One of our friends in our neighborhood took them.  She was great!  Here are just a few of my favorites (it was REALLY hard to narrow it down):

And the month doesn't end here!  There's still Halloween!  I decided to make our costumes this year, and with the help of my mom, they looked amazing!  Since Kayla has been into fish this year and we did a fish-themes birthday party, we decided to extend the fish theme to our costumes.  I became a jellyfish, Brandon a sea turtle, and Kayla a little rainbow fish.  I crocheted Brandon's and Kayla's hat, and it took me 3 tries to get her hat size right!  We also decided to have a Halloween party this year.  So here are some pictures of our party and costumes.

I had a lot of fun making all these yummy treats!

Mom was a bunch of grapes,

I think this was the best picture of the fish hat.

Thinking back on this month, October was REALLY busy, but we got a lot done.  I love spending time with family and we were able to do that a lot.  And the next two months are just as crazy but fun! Stay tuned for more HoStories.