Surprises, Travel, and Princesses

I think the month of October was full of fun and adventure for this little family of mine.  Let me tell you about it.

We start out the month splendidly with my birthday! I turned 28, and I was expecting the day to be pretty normal.  I hadn't heard any big plans for the day, so I figured it would be another work day with some extra phone calls from family and going out to eat for dinner since I didn't want to cook anything.  I got that but so much more, too! Brandon planned a small surprise party for me when I got home.  It was just a few close friends with their kids, and I loved it! Brandon knows me so well.  He mentioned that he thought about making a bigger thing but then realized it was for me.  I prefer small, intimate groups to the big and loud parties. We had yummy ice cream cake from Cold Stone then pizza (in that order) for lunch. Then after the party, a friend watched Kayla while Brandon and I went to the movies and saw How to Train Your Dragon 2.  It was a fun movie. Favorite character: Toothless! We had a bit of time so we quickly went shopping for maternity pants. It's true that's not a typical birthday present or anything that exciting, but I want to be comfortable for the next 6 months. That day turned out to be a really good day.  And I love Brandon all the more because he made it that way.

Then so soon after such a fantastic day, Brandon has to go and leave me for two weeks for a film shoot.  He was in New York for a week then went to Los Angeles for the second week. He sent me these from New York:

The view from his hotel room, NY

From a rooftop, NY

The Beach, LA

An LDS chapel, LA

He was there doing interviews for the Church.  I don't know how much I can say about it, but it seems really exciting for potential missionaries.  We were hoping he'd get the job to edit the piece, too, but unfortunately that didn't happen. But while he was there he made some good contacts and hopefully something really awesome will come from it.  This job was an answer to a prayer that I feel like I should explain.

Back at the beginning of the year, we were starting to think about adding a new member to the family.  The biggest concern we had at the time (and still kinda do) was how we were going to afford a new baby and how were we going to work out our jobs so that we could take care of our family. Currently, both of us are working part time (with no benefits) and we switch off watching Kayla.  Brandon gets her in the morning then after lunch, he heads into work. I feel like that arrangement wouldn't work and I should be at home full time with two kids.  The problem was that we weren't seeing any good job opportunities at the time for Brandon to work in film full time.  He still has Cinema Book Trailers, but it's an up and coming business and still working out all the kinks. So for now, that wouldn't work.  The LDS Motion Picture Studio wasn't looking very promising either.  Anyway, we just couldn't see a good way to bring another child to the world and support the family.  We've been trying to go to the temple monthly (should be more, but at least we're going) and those thoughts were on our mind a lot at the time. At one visit, we didn't have time for a full session, so we decided to do some Sealings (a special ordinance in the temple that links families together). I was so happy we went.  It was there that we both got the impression, very strongly, that it was time for another child.  After the initial feelings of joy and love for my family and from our Heavenly Father, my silly mind kicked in and I started freaking out again over the problems I've already stated.  But I knew it was the right thing to do.  And it was still on my mind the next time we went to the temple a couple weeks later. Then we both got the feeling that we needed to put our trust in the Lord.  Everything will work out.  If we stay obedient and do what He asked, everything will work itself out.  Not our favorite answer since we would have liked something more concrete, but it was very clear to both of us to move forward in faith. Needless to say, we were obedient, and here's a pic of me at 15 weeks to prove it:

And now, the blessings are starting to come in.  We believe Brandon being offered the job for NY and LA was one of those blessings.  Because of that trip, we've been able to put into savings the amount we need for the medical expenses next year.  And he's starting to get better rates at his work and more exciting jobs there, too.  Before, he was just doing what no one else wanted to do, a lot of grunt work. So I see the loving hand of the Lord in my life. And though I don't always remember that, it's still there.

For those two weeks, it was just me and Kayla at home.  By the end I was a little stir crazy, so I was super excited to hear that the aquarium in Draper had a free admission day. Perfect plan for us!

They had a lot of fun exhibits and Kayla loved seeing everything there. She called it the "fish zoo." They had a section from South America that was very warm and humid.  Kayla's favorite part from this exhibit was the rope bridge and the ducks, go figure. 

The aquarium had us exit through the gift shop and I felt that since we got in for free, I could splurge a bit and donate by buying their merchandise.  Something for each of us.  Kayla goes to bed every night with her sea horse.  She named it Sea Flower and absolutely loves it.  Best purchase ever! And it was hard to pass up that fluffy penguin pillow for Brandon (though Kayla thinks it's hers). Kayla helped me pick out the necklace. She thinks it's so cute and I think so, too!

Kayla loves Halloween.  Earlier in the month we got out the decorations, and I had to get some candy for Primary, so we've had candy in the house all month long.  She loved the spiders and the black cat decorations we have.  Every day she asked if it was Halloween Day yet. Finally it came! We went for a Cinderella-type theme.  Kayla was the princess (of course), I was the fairy godmother (best dress I could find at home with my tummy), and Brandon was Gus Gus.

Do you see the resemblance?

My dress is from my high school senior prom that my mother made for me in 2004. I was kind surprised it still fit me 10 years later! Yay for empire waist dresses to hide the prego belly!  Comparing pictures, I actually think it fits better now than it did back then.

Best pic I could find.  Not from prom, but it was my senior year.

October was really perfect, aside from the traveling husband.  The weather was perfect, my birthday was perfect, and though I think Kayla would have liked to go trick-or-treating some more, Halloween was great.  We even drove up to Idaho to see family, so that was perfect, too.  I just hope the rest of the year is just as perfect.

Fun in the Sun

Summer is in full swing and we are trying to make the most of it.  With an active 2-year old, I've found that I'm going out and doing things that I wouldn't normally.  But before I get into that, I want to put in an update of Brandon. He's in a partnership with a couple guys with a company called Cinema Book Trailers.  As the name suggests, they make book trailers that are so awesome that they look like legit movie trailers.  Yep, they're that good.  At least, that's what they're trying to do. They've done a few things so far, and hopefully they'll continue to pick up speed and projects. Recently, they finished production on a fantasy book called "The Golden Cord" by Paul Genesse. When it's done, I'll post a link to where you can find it.

Orem has a SummerFest and we went with some friends.  This ended up being a blast for Kayla even though we were only there for a couple hours. 

They had a lot of fun rides for the kiddos to ride on.  (Kayla's friend is actually laughing)

She loves the carousel!

You better watch out for these two drivers!

A couple weeks later Kayla and I went to the zoo (again!) with some friends and their kids.  It was so much fun! We went during the week and first thing in the morning.  I think that was the best thing to do because a lot of the animals were pretty active.  We had so much fun! But I'll let the pictures say it all. 

I was pretty proud of that  framing

Watching the ostriches in Hogle Zoo's new Safari exhibit  

Here's looking at you kid!

Kayla's favorite part of the whole zoo adventure

I was finally able to get the kiddos to smile at me all at the same time!

Just to prove I was there, too.

She loved it so much we had to go one last time before we left.

I'm grateful we went the the zoo when we did because the next morning, I sprained my ankle going down the stairs.  Nothing broken, but highly inconvenient.  Brandon and I were a pretty silly sight going into the doctor's office: me on crutches and Brandon in his boot. both left feet messed up.  I guess we have to do everything together, literally.  I'm grateful that Brandon was far enough in his healing process that he could take care of Kayla while I was out of commission. I'm doing a lot better now.  Hardly any pain. So now we can have more fun during the summer!

Along with all the fun adventures we're having around Utah, we also have an adventure in our back yard. Even though we weren't able to do as much as we wanted to due to injuries, we still got a really good yield in our garden. Here's what it looks like:

Strawberry Hill (Kayla won't stop eating them)

Left to Right: strawberry hill, lettuce, tomatoes (behind my bum sorry), onions,
carrots, peas, cucumbers, more peas, pumpkin patch

And now we're into July where there's nothing but sun, sun, sun.  We went to Colorado to spend 4th of July with Brandon's family.  We had so much fun!  Kayla got her Grandpa Time in and practically everything she asked for from Grandma.  I was too busy relaxing to do much picture taking, but here are some things we were able to get.

She loved Grandma's yoga mat and found a lot of interesting ways of playing with it.

She loves her grandma

She let Grandma do her hair!

I did get a video of Grandma and Kayla dancing together, but Grandma didn't know she was being filmed, so we'll just keep that to ourselves.  Needless to say it was extremely adorable and hilarious. Things you do for that face up there.

And then, as if our extended weekend couldn't get any better, we went to a community pool, and Kayla LOVED it.  It was a struggle to get her out when it was the adult-only time to swim.  All of us ended up getting out, too because if she saw one of us in, she was going in as well. I love that she loves the water so much.  My mom would tell stories of how I was a fish as a small girl. It's fun seeing little bits of my personality and preferences coming out in her. Mostly, I think she's more like Brandon. But we'll see how her own personality develops as she gets older.

If you notice in the video, she started going for the diving board.  She eyed it several times and once went over and stood in line to jump off it!  Luckily, Brandon got her away from there and safely jumping into Grandma's arms from the side of the pool.  I don't think she realized what really happened if she jumped off it (her head would go all the way under) and we know she doesn't like it.  Silly goose. Besides that, I'm super impressed by her swimming skills. Hopefully I can teach her all I know and she'll be a fantastic swimmer. 

So I think thus far our summer has stayed pretty busy. And I know we have more fun adventures coming our way!  I love my family so much!

Spring is Here! I think...

Lots of exciting and not-so-exciting things have happened over the last couple months, and I am determined to write them down. There will be lots of random moments in this jumble that is our life in the Ho House.

The first one is about Brandon. Love of my life.  Back in March, Kayla and I decided to go to the park because it was a BEAUTIFUL day.  We were having a really good time until a crazy little idea popped into Kayla's head.  Our park is right next to an elementary school, and this school has their own small playground.  Kayla saw it and wanted to go over to play there.  The whole time I was trying to explain to her that we can't play there. Being a 2 year old, she doesn't listen to anything you have to say unless it's something she wants.  We get to the small playground and I finally pick her up and try to start walking back to the playground she CAN play on. Being a 2 year old, she's kicking and screaming, making it very difficult for her mommy to carry her anywhere without a lot of effort. When I put her down I noticed that in the thrashing and crying, she had broken my necklace.  It was a simple necklace: a silver chain with a tiny CTR ring looped on it; the CTR letters were actually a Chinese character.  The ring was one of the first gifts, maybe even the first gift, that Brandon gave me when we were dating.  It had fallen off when the necklace broke, and I didn't realize how much it meant to me until it was gone. We went home and Kayla told Daddy why Mommy was sad and said that he could fix it.  Brandon put the chain back together, and that made Kayla happy.  She said "Daddy fix it!" He comforted me and I was resigned to the ring being lost. 

The next day was Sunday. Brandon was busy with church meetings, so I didn't see him much until the evening.  When he got home and into more comfy clothes he got a text message and told me he needed to go back out again.  There was nothing surprising in that, so he changed, left, and I finished making dinner.  He came home soon after that with my tiny CTR ring.  Then he went on to tell me how earlier that afternoon he went out looking for it but couldn't find it either.  He asked a couple people he met at the park and asked them to keep their eye out for it and to contact him if they found it.  Someone did! I couldn't believe it! Brandon was so sweet to go and do something like that for me. It's those simple things that he does that means so much.  I'm really lucky to have him.

I felt like I needed a picture break before I moved on to the next fun event in my life. This is a picture of a few of my tulips that came up this year in my garden.  They all turned out so beautiful! I love my tulips!

One of the biggest events in March, for me, was Brandon's birthday. I've been planning it since the beginning of the year, so I was very excited for it to finally come.  Brandon turned 29 this year, so I wanted to make it a memorable one.  It's his last year in his 20's; we needed to celebrate! So I surprised him by taking him to Nickle City in Orem. He knew we were having a party, but didn't know where exactly.  We got a group of friends together (and their families) and had a really fun time.  Brandon was surprised and very very happy.  We had pizza, cake, and  ice cream.  Unfortunately, I was an idiot and didn't take pictures of my beautiful cake that I made!  It was a two-tier cake with yummy cream cheese icing (dyed blue) and surrounded by twix bars. I had balloons for the kids (including Brandon), and I still have some left over on the ceiling of my house weeks later!  The best part about having a party at Nickle City was that I didn't have to worry about the entertainment.  They could just go and play games! I loved it! Brandon loved it; and Kayla really loved it! We'll have to go there with her again.

The next day, we went to the Filmed in Utah Awards.  Brandon's feature film, Missed Connections, was nominated for 9 different awards.  Unfortunately, we didn't win anything, but it was fun to get all dressed up and go to the awards ceremony.

Now we enter into the month of April.  It's been a pretty interesting month.  Some good. Some not so good.  So here we go!

The first weekend of April is always one of my favorites.  It's General Conference weekend: two days of spiritual enlightenment from the leaders of our Church.  One of the traditions we now have in connection with that weekend is visiting my brother, Clark, and his family.  Either they come down to us or we go up to Idaho to visit them.  This time around, we went up to them.  They have a little girl about 9 months younger than Kayla, and they have so much fun together!!!  Sometimes it's so much fun, the mommies don't get much out of a talk or two...but these cousins sure do love each other.

One of the things I like about April, beside my beautiful tulips, is the warm weather after a long winter.  Having a very active child cooped up inside for that long just makes us all go a little crazy.  So on any warmish day, you can find us at the park.  Hopefully with some of our friends, too. Parks make everyone so happy!

This is Kayla with her friend/cousin Amy. They love playing together!

And this is Kayla with Cami playing "Ring Around the Rosie" 

The other fun things that come with warm weather (though I guess it's not really necessary, just nice) are BBQs and S'more nights at our fire-pit.  I had given Brandon a s'more box for his birthday, so we could keep all his yummy s'more making goodness all together.  Best present ever! A friend of ours had a birthday the same day Brandon planned a S'more party so Brandon asked me to make a s'more cake.  This time I took a picture!

I found the recipe on Pinterest, and it's super yummy! It's a graham cracker cookie with a brownie mix and marshmallow cream in the middle.  I think I'm going to tweak it a little more to get the sizing right.  Right now, it's a little on the thick side (I think at least 6" tall). Needless to say, Brandon will appreciate any "testing" I do on this yummy thing.  Now all I need is a kitchen torch...

The next best thing about April (most years anyway) is Easter.  It's a time to celebrate and remember the sacrifice of our beloved Savior and His resurrection.  Our Father in Heaven loved us so much that He sent His Son to suffer for our sins and die for us.  Our Savior loved us so much that He experienced the atonement so that we might one day live with Him and our Heavenly Father again.  What ultimate examples of love.  And if we love them even a little bit, then we must do our best so that the Atonement wasn't made for us in vain.  I've been thinking a lot about this and families in particular.  Christ atoned for us so that we can be forever families.  He was resurrected so that we can one day be resurrected with our families, too.  It all boils down to families.  Everything.  The gospel, the purpose of the Church, our purpose here on earth, and the ordinances we do for ourselves and those that are dead.

I love my family, all of them.  They enrich and bring joy to my life.  Raising my daughter has really challenged me and helped me become a better person.  I have such hopes for her, but ultimately I hope that she continues to be the happy, sweet girl I know she is.  

Easter morning, when I dressed Kayla up in her pretty dress (thanks Mom!), she wouldn't stay still long enough for me to get a decent picture, so I had to get a video instead.

That afternoon, we did a small Easter egg hunt for Kayla (loved it), and then had the Bobo's over for Easter dinner.  I really liked the idea of making dinner extra special for that day.  We had ham, slow cooked scalloped potatoes, rolls, salad, and deviled eggs.  Everything was so delicious!  I feel a tradition coming on...

And that brings us up to date to this week.  And though it's only been three days this week, they have been pretty full, kinda stressful, and pretty much  overshadow all the good things that happened this month.  At the beginning of April, Brandon went to play basketball with the Elder's quorum.  He stretched, warmed up, and then started to play a game of 21.  He shot the ball, then seeing that it wasn't going to go in the basket, went to go after it.  He took one step, heard a pop, and went down.  It wasn't a loud pop in his ankle, and he didn't feel a whole lot of pain, so he came home where we elevated it and put ice on it even though he didn't get much swelling.  We later got a brace, and he went on crutches for a while until he felt good enough to limp along without one.  He continued to get better, but was still having trouble putting pressure on the front part of his left foot.  On Sunday (the 27th) as we were coming home from church, Brandon decided to try his foot out a little bit.  He didn't put a lot of pressure on it, but it didn't take much for the rest of his Achilles heel to tear.  That same day, we went to a friend who's a physical therapist and he did a reflex test and told us that it had completely torn. We then speculated that it had partially torn at the beginning of the month and then finally finished tearing the rest of the way that day.  Monday, we make a lot of phone calls to various doctor's offices, and finally found one that accepted our health insurance (I didn't realize that would be the hardest part of the process, but that's another rant for another day).  We went in today and they verified via a sonogram that it had indeed torn all the way.  Brandon will have surgery.  He's going in tomorrow to consult with the surgeon and will then schedule a time to go get that done sometime within the next week or two.  It should be a one day hospital visit.  No overnight.  Just the surgery and then a boot for however long it takes to recover.  Hopefully everything will go that easy, so I will be praying that happens.  Through this whole thing, Kayla's been really sweet and understanding that her Daddy can't always pick her up and run with her like he used to.  She's confident that the doctors will fix Daddy's foot. I love her for that.

So with all of April's ups and downs, I'm really glad it's over.  May, here we come, whether I want it to or not...I'll just be happy if it's warmer that what we've gotten so far this week (rain, snow, and lots of chilly wind). May it be filled with warm park days for Kayla and safe recovery days for Brandon.  

Loving Gifts

February is the time of love.  And for some reason, that translates to be a lot of Chik Flicks watched during this time for me.  It's the time to show those you love how much you care.  Some go extravagant, others more simple, depending on taste and budgetary constraints.  This year we decided to keep it on the simple side.  Starting Feb 1, I put a cut-out heart on the entertainment center in the family room, where Brandon could see it clearly, and added another heart each day until Valentine's Day.  On each heart, I wrote down one thing I loved about him.  I also attached his favorite candy bar so he could have a yummy treat, too. I thought it turned out really great.  It was fun sneaking the hearts on there so he wouldn't see me doing it.  

The next thing I did was make a cake.  This was my first try making a layered cake and decorating it (mostly figuring out if I have enough icing).  The recipe was one of our wedding cake flavors and supper yummy. The real reason I made one was to practice making a cake for Brandon's birthday. So when I was telling my mom about making a cake for Valentine's Day she told me how to make a heart-shaped cake really easily:  use a square pan for the main body and a round pan where the diameter is roughly the same length as one of the sides of the square.  After the cake cools, set the square diagonally (to make the point of the heart).  Cut the round cake in half and set each half on two adjacent corners.  Ice it up and you get something like this:

I used a Twix bar for the "I" and M&Ms for the other letters and decorating.  It was actually Kayla that decided it needed more M&Ms, so she helped me put them on. It was a lot of fun and she got to eat her favorite food: chocolate.  I was planning on doing regular white icing, but she also convinced me that it needed to be pink. Very pink.  My girl loves pink...

Since Valentine's Day this year was on a Friday, I decided that I did NOT want to go out for dinner.  It would be too crowded and too long of a wait.  So we went out for lunch (the Pretzel-maker) and I made dinner. Brandon went out with Kayla to get some things I needed to make dinner, and came back with this:

Who picked out the pink mini-roses, do you ask? Why Kayla of course! And I love them. They smell wonderful. Brandon was really sweet to get them.  He doesn't like getting cut flowers because they don't last as long as potted ones.  If you ask me, I think it's a risk on those potted ones, too. I'm no green thumb. We'll see how long these last...

And since there haven't been any pictures of Kayla this entire post (crazy I know!) I figured I can show a recent video of a Kayla and Daddy Play Time session. Warning: there is squealing.

December Celebrations and the New Year

I need to come to terms with the fact that my life will always be busy, and if I want to keep up this blog that I will have to take time out of the month and write.  Writing isn't that hard.  Remembering stories about my family really isn't that hard either. And I've always got photos or videos to share. So I just need to get my butt in gear. 

So here we go with the recap of the last couple months:

December was full of fun and holiday spirit. We weren't home for Christmas, so we didn't get a Christmas tree. But I have a small plastic one that we used to decorate with some of our ornaments.  I was really happy I did this because Kayla loved the tree and kept taking off and putting the ornaments back on.

I decided to make this year's ornaments. I wanted sea-themed ones, and I knew I wouldn't find any I liked at the store. So I found patterns and made one for each of us.

Kayla's

Mommy's

Daddy's

If you look back at our Halloween costumes, you'll understand why I chose a fish, jellyfish, and turtle for each of us. I thought they turned out really well!

We also stayed busy going to Christmas parties for work and our neighborhood.  Brandon and I were able to go on a DATE and see The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. That was really fun. A week or so before we saw it, we watched some behind the scenes of creating the dwarves, highlighting their different personalities and trying to show that through their costuming and appearance.  It was really interesting and I paid a lot more attention to the different dwarves while watching the movie than I did in the first movie.  

We also had Clark and Lonnie come visit before Christmas.  Clark helped Brandon put together the play kitchen we got Kayla (because we weren't about to haul it to Colorado) while Lonnie and I went shopping for last minute gifts. And speaking of gifts, it was Clark's birthday while he was visiting, so I made him a little something.

I thought it turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. :) Oh, and he liked it too.

The Sunday before Christmas we left for Colorado. It was one of the worst driving experiences of my life.  Luckily I wasn't driving or it would have been worse.  We got there safely, but I think I may have had a number of heart attacks along the way.  It snowed the whole time, some places worse than others, and after 9 hours of driving we made it to Brandon's parents' house.  Thinking back on it, I believe the worst part wasn't the snow that was so thick on the roads, we couldn't see the lines, but the crazy drivers around us.  We didn't have many, but those few were too many.  None knew how to drive safely and they gave me the most panic attacks.

Vacation in Colorado is always full of fun and, most importantly, relaxation.   Kayla had fun Christmas morning with her presents (thanks everyone!!!), but I think she had the most fun helping her Grandma pass out the presents to everyone.  I hope that sort of attitude stays with her as she grows. I think it will, and it's a joy to see how much she loves everyone without reservation. She also likes to wear out Brandon without reservation.  Here's proof:

and after that dancing session she wanted to do this until 

Brandon almost collapsed from exhaustion :

She also enjoyed dancing with her Grandpa, but I don't have a video of that to post up, unfortunately. She had so much energy that week, it took all 4 adults to keep her entertained. Now imagine that same energy and only 1, sometimes 2, adults keeping her entertained when we're home. No wonder we're so exhausted.  And as life goes, we had to leave Colorado (the drive was MUCH safer) and come back home to work and more work.

January
On New Year's Eve, we had some friends come over and play games while we ate yummy snack foods.  I'm thinking that will become tradition in our home.  That was lots of fun.

Near the end of January, Brandon filmed his teaser trailer he's doing for Brandon Sanderson's Alloy of Law.  This was a picture he sent me that night (and there's other pictures on Facebook):

Just looking at that picture gives me the tingles. So excited! So a lot of good things are happening in that area, and when we get something more definite, then I'll make a post.  

So overall, I'd say that 2014 is looking very promising. I think as long as we're going good things, good things will continue to come our way. One can hope anyway. 

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.