Fall Summary

Fall time is a beautiful time of year...I always have mixed feelings about it though. But whatever. I'm happy it's over either way, looking forward to what a new year will bring!

This fall,

Jori took that one gymnastics class offered by the Provo Recreation Center, just like she did last fall. 

This time she was in the 3-4 year old class. She loved it! She had a hard time sitting still long enough to wait her turn though, she was always zipping around. My mom came to the last class to watch, and she laughed and told me she's just like I was. :)

Sam surprised me with an awesome early anniversary celebration in September. We decided having a December 29th anniversary is always hard to celebrate, so we'd start celebrating it on a random day in the year. And this one was our fifth, so we wanted to do something a little bit bigger than we normally have done. So Sam surprised me with an overnight excursion to Park City.

We ate at this yummy restaurant (where I ordered a ridiculous blue drink on accident, I swear the server treated us differently after they brought out that elixir obviously intended for six year olds), enjoyed walking around the shops (including a visit to the Family History Center, which really just added a spiritual boost I hadn't thought we'd needed), got dessert, and the next morning went zip lining! 

 

(The above people aren't us: Sam lost the selfies he took of us immediately before zip lining. But I'm sure we looked similar to them. I was really loud, I'll tell you that much. I like to hoot and holler when I'm in an adrenaline rush.)

I'm so grateful I have such a sweet husband who takes care of me and the kids so well. It's easy to forget how good I have it sometimes. Silly.

I love Halloween, and this year we had a Halloween party with the kids of some of our friends. We had a great time playing "Pin the Bow-tie on Mr.Bones," doing a mummy craft, having a "Ghost hunt" in the backyard (akin to an Easter Egg hunt), and eating snacks. It was kind of weird though, because we had it on the 18th or thereabouts and so it felt like Halloween was already over for a full two weeks before it really was.

Jori and Atticus got to dress up three different times: at our ward trunk-or-treat, at Sam's work's trick-or-treating, and just doing normal trick or treating. And btw, I'm super bummed because Sam took all these sweet pics on his phone, and then lost them all when he replaced his phone because of a problem with the screen. So the ones I'm using are random. :( But...I spent all this time working on a Hello Kitty costume for the record, and that was the one she wore to Sam's work. Which worked out great because it wasn't all that comfortable and that meant she didn't have to wear it too long, but I was still satisfied because of my aforementioned time spent. :)

And our street was HOPPING this year with trick or treaters! It was crazy. I turned off our porch light at like 8:15 cause I was tired of it and we were having to recycle candy from Sam's work's trick or treating by then, anyway. 

We also celebrated Sam's 28th birthday on November 8th, and it was a pretty funny experience honestly. We were in Idaho and I hadn't made any plans for cake, so I used a mix they had in their pantry. But it was four years old, so it didn't rise all the way. Jori also wanted it to be green frosting. So it was this super flat, dense, carrot cake with green frosting. Doesn't that sound delicious?

My friend Rachael and her two sons stayed with us for the first two weeks of November (though we were gone for that weekend of Sam's birthday and left the house to her), and we sure enjoyed their company! Sam joked about how it was like being a polygamist and coming home to his two wives: he'd sit at the head of the table and each one of us on one side of the table and everything. And they made a big impression on Jori, she tells me regularly when she was a grown-up she had three kids and their names were Rachael, Ashton and Bentley (their names). I'm really excited that Rachael has now found a place in Kaysville, has a car again, and a part-time job babysitting for her half-sister-in-law's-sister all lined up. Divorce is awful but I'm excited about what the new year will bring to my friend, and was truly touched at some of the ways Heavenly Father blessed her through people around her, particularly for Christmas. But that's not really my story to tell. :)

We celebrated Thanksgiving with my family this year, having been with Sam's for the past two Thanksgivings in a row. We even remembered to do the traditional field goal kicking contest afterward, at a high school. I didn't do so hot but had fun participating all the same. Unfortunately we didn't have any pictures taken on our camera or Sam's phone, mainly because I broke the camera... :(. My brother Nate did have some taken, but their computer died after the pictures had been uploaded there and they still need to be retrieved from the hard drive...eventually, I'll share pictures is what I'm saying. Doesn't seem like an emergency to me.

And that concludes our fall! I have unofficially declared the seasons to be from December-February Winter, March-May Spring, June-August Summer and September-November Fall, regardless of solstice nonsense. So December will have to be in a different post. 

Halloween Party

I love Halloween time. Love it! I don't love gore though, or nastiness, or creepy things. I don't like being scared. (Went through a brief period in 2009 where I thought I did like scary movies, but that was a fluke.) But cute, cartoony Halloween decorations? Fun, family friendly Halloween flicks? (Think "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!" and "Garfield's Christmas.") I love that stuff.

I get stressed out from trying to host things, but because I have a three-year-old I decided to do something weird for me, and host a Halloween party for kids this year. And it was great! Jori, Atticus and many little buddies played "Pin the Tail on Mr. Bones," "Ghost Hunt" (Like an Easter egg hunt), did a Mummy Craft, failed at a 'Pass the Pumpkin' game and ate some munchies. And it was all done by lunch time. Hurrah!

Here's some pics of the fun:

Oh dang. We'll have to see if I ever dare do it again, but Jori sure enjoyed it! 

girl lips

This was from a little while ago:

Sam took Jori on a daddy-daughter date tonight. When they were leaving, she said, "I can barely believe it!" It took Sam aback, since she's never said that phrase before, so he asked her to repeat herself and again, she said "I can barely believe it!" When he asked her what, she said "That we're leaving!" Then on the way home, she looked up at Sam and asked, "Daddy, do you have lips?" He replied with "Yes, I do Jori. Do you have lips?" To which she stated, "I have girl lips."

OUR SUMMER 2014. Holy cow.

I love summer time. I mean I don't love being super hot, or sunburns (have you seen my skin?), but I love the sense of freedom that I always have in the summer. Because fall is looming, I thought I'd give an idea of what we did with our summer this year.

We...

Visited Cache Valley Memorial Day weekend, to celebrate Sam's Grandma Geisler's birthday (and also enjoyed a fun, easy hike):

Went to the Splash Pad (a lot!):

Had a couple fun outings around these parts, like a family bike ride up the canyon, a carnival visit with friends, a tromp around the temple grounds on a Sunday afternoon and a play date which involved picking strawberries:

Had the Hatch reunion, which was a bit of a disaster for our family (both kids sick in a tent=1 hour of sleep for mama):

Enjoyed the world cup, including Melanie and Jed's family watching a game with us one Saturday:

Enjoyed Jori's 3rd birthday (on the day of which Jori and I went to the Curiosity Museum at Thanksgiving Point with my sister in law Chantale and her kids):

Hiked Stewart Falls with friends on the 4th of July: 

Went to the Scottish Festival:

Went to the cabin, where Jori bit through her lip the first night (when Sam wasn't there) and Sam rolled his ankle the third night (what?!):

Atticus got his first ever haircut, and Jori got her second:

Visited family in Wyoming, so Sam could also get a root canal (our brother-in-law is a dentist):

Visited Cache Valley yet again, for one of Sam's best buds' weddings (and enjoyed the fair, too):

Sam and Jori went on an overnight camp out together:

And, last but not least, we celebrated Atticus's birthday both at Sam's parents place (we went up to help his brother Jotham put a roof on his barn, also) and at my own parents place.