April 2016

I can't say enough about how wonderful the Henderson family is! We were able to go and stay with them over General Conference weekend, and it's always fun for the whole family. Watching the girls play together just makes me happy, and you can tell how much they love each other. Their goat, Big Mama, recently had baby goats, so Kallie got to help bottle feed them while we were visiting. Jenna liked the idea of seeing the goats, but wasn't sure about them once she got close. Mike and Rob spent most of the weekend outside building a green house, and Mel and I put puzzles together while we listened to General Conference. It was a great weekend, and we love being able to listen to the Prophet/Apostles speak to us!

We are SO excited that Josh and Emily got sealed in the Salt Lake Temple on April 7! It was a perfectly beautiful spring day! We have been praying for Josh for a long time, and it makes me so glad to see him so happy! Congrats Josh and Emily, you two are perfect for each other!

The day after the wedding, Mike drove up to Idaho to pick Matt up from school (BYU-I). He has been living with us since, in preparation for his mission. He works some in Mike's office, and is a big help around the house, and babysits the kids for us when we go on date nights!

We were able to be a part of a big surprise for Melanie this month. Every year in Mel and Rob's ward, they have a daddy-daughter dance. This year, Rob and Keith made secret plans to have Keith fly in just for the dance! Me, Kallie, and Jenna were able to pick Keith up from the airport, and drove through a big snow-storm to get him to Wyoming in time for the dance. The girls and I went into the house first, and had everyone gather at the front door. Mel saw someone walk up to the door and told everyone that Mike was there to pick up his dates. The look on her face was so priceless when the door opened and Keith asked her to go to the dance with him. Lots of tears (of joy) were shed, and it was a really sweet experience! We all went to the dance together and had dinner, then danced the night away!

Kallie is 3 1/2 now:

• Tells us "Jenna has such a beautiful smile! Jenna, smile for me!" 
• Loves to answer the door when the "bell-door" rings
• Loves to go out and play any time she sees another kid in our backyard
• "You can't sing, otherwise I'm going to take your phone away" (when mom was singing to her movie in the car)
• Has decided to make a silly face (seen below) in pictures, instead of smiling normally; often asks me to take a picture of her like that (pulling on either side of her mouth with her fingers)
• Struggling to adjust to no naps. Instead of napping, we try quiet time. She prefers to lay in a sleeping bag in the front room, or in my bedroom, while she watches an iPad. About half the time she will fall asleep if she stops playing to watch TV/the iPad, or she will fall asleep in the car if we take an afternoon/evening drive, or sometimes before we can put her in bed at night. If no nap was taken, she's inevitably grumpy for an hour or two before bed, and usually ends with uncontrollable crying. Hopefully this phase will pass soon, it's been rough!

Jenna is 18 months old now! We've been anxiously awaiting the time for her to go to nursery during church, and are so glad that it's going well! Here are a few things about her this month:

• Got her wipes and a diaper out, laid down, and called my name so that I'd come change her
• Said her own name for the first time: "Nenna"
• Has started repeating a lot of words. Her vocabulary has become very impressive!
• Started calling drinks by their name, instead of calling everything "wa-wa"
• Can walk down the stairs by herself (still prefers to be carried down)
• Already gets super excited when we tell her she's going to nursery!
• Loves to pull our shoes off of the shelf in our closet and try them on/walk around in them

Our close friends, Tanner and Shar Gibb, are expecting a baby girl this summer, so I was excited to throw a little baby shower in her honor! I was excited at how well my first diaper cake turned out! The shower was wonderful, and we had some delicious food! We are so excited for the Gibb's to welcome a little girl soon!

I celebrated my "golden birthday" this year--28 on the 28th! I'm so grateful to have such wonderful family and friends around me to celebrate! Mike sent me on a mini-vacation to Park City with some friends for a night. We ate at Baja Cantina, went to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, bought my neighbors book (Burning Glass) at a little bookstore there, hit up the hot tub at our hotel, stayed up WAY too late talking, and then went to the outlet malls the next day, before eating at Maxwell's pizza and coming back home. It was a wonderful little get-away! Then I was able to go to lunch with my mom and sisters, and had lunch with a small group of friends the week of my birthday, and played volleyball with friends the night of my birthday. I definitely felt the love from everyone, and enjoyed getting some cards/gifts in the mail. I'm a lucky girl to know so many wonderful people!

Our friends/neighbors took us up to the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium in Draper. The girls and I had gone once last summer with Mike's parents, but we were glad that Mike was able to come with us this time. The girls had a blast, and loved being able to go into the playground area--I would highly recommend paying the extra money to go in there! We loved seeing the penguins swimming back and forth in front of us, and seeing all of the fish. Our absolute favorite part was the shark tank! I think we could have sat in there for hours and just watched! Thanks Judge and Bre for taking us with you!

March 2016

We are so excited that it is almost Spring! It can't come soon enough! Thankfully March has given us some beautiful weather, and we have soaked up every day of it! We've been at our little neighborhood park a lot, or out in our back yard exploring in the weeds, and jumping on the trampoline!

I was so excited when I heard that one of my best friends would be visiting Utah this month. We became very close to the Cutler family while we lived in Indiana, and have desperately missed their family since we both moved from IN. Kallie absolutely adored having Brielle come and play with her for an afternoon. They dressed up and jumped on the trampoline together, and Kallie kept informing me that Brielle was now her sister. Camille and I were able to get together for a little girls night out. We went to the Cheesecake Factory and had a tasty meal together. It was so nice to catch up with her, and it felt like we hadn't been apart!

We were able to attend a few BYU sporting events this month. I went with my good friend, Christie, to a BYU Men's Volleyball game; the men's team is so much fun to watch--I wish we went to more of their games!

Mike and I were able to go to the last home game that BYU had for the NIT tournament. The arena was packed, and it was such a fun atmosphere. BYU played a great game, and made it into the semi's of the tournament. We had a great time with Cory and Emily!

Jenna seeems like she is growing so fast. I can't believe that she will be in Nursery next month! Here are a few fun things about her:

• Started giving high-fives
• Cut her eighth tooth
• Started saying "morning" as a greeting after waking up, loves to run into Kallie's room and say it over and over
• Blew her first kiss (unprompted) to DeeDee over face time, and placed the kiss on her face with her hands
• Can say "Dylan"
• Loves to tease Kallie. Kallie had a toy and some chocolate milk, so Jenna took her toy and ran around the kitchen island, then set the toy down and picked up Kallie's milk (that Kallie had set down to chase Jenna), and ran away with the milk so she could drink it
• Climbed/fell out of her crib
• Nods emphatically
• Has started walking down the stairs
• Recognizes and can say, "lion", "monkey", and "duck"

And here are some fun Kallie facts:

• Got her first bike!
• Has started saying "oh lovely" when things go her way
• "Mom, I want to sing you a song. You need to listen very carefully. And make sure you don't break yourself"
• "I not a baby! I a kid!"
• Has been telling us a riddle: "what says 'hee-haw', has two tails, and eight legs?" (She never tells us the answer...)
• "I'm going to play basketball in the tv tomorrow so you can watch me play"
• Kallie saw a picture of us at the BYU basketball game, and she said "there you guys are at the BYU game! Why you guys leave me? That was not nice!"
• Started teasing Mike by calling him "baby Daddy"
• Whined at me for 10 mins to help her find her blanket, we couldn't find it. After a couple more mins, she opened a cupboard and pulled out her blanket and informed me that it had been taking a nap in there!
• Mike told Kallie it was too dark to fix her necklace, so she told him "dad, just turn on the light and take out the sunbeams"

My sister, Brittany, had organized a little pre-school field trip/tour with their local Smith's, so we decided to tag along. It was actually a really cool tour, and I'm so glad we went; the kids had a great time! The lady who showed us around started by showing us around the store, and let the kids each pick a pack of Easter eggs to keep, then she took us to the back of the store and showed the kids the machine that smashes all of their cardboard boxes, and showed us the big storage areas and massive freezers/fridges that they keep the food in. She showed the kids around the produce section, and we all thought that the dragon-fruit was pretty cool looking. She let the kids each pick a pastry from the bakery, and ended the tour by giving the kids some balloons. It was actually pretty neat, since I'd never seen the back part/behind the scenes part of a grocery store!

Easter was a big hit with the girls! We kept them busy the day before with 3 different Easter Egg hunts! We started with our city hunt, then went up to the Alpine Country Club with my parents, Cory, Emily, Brandon, Brittany, Gavin, and Gwen. The kids all got to look around the petting zoo that they had, and both of the girls got to take a pony ride! We ended the morning/afternoon with a hunt in my parent's neighborhood. The girls got progressively better at the hunts as the day went on!

Easter Sunday was a beautiful day! Mike and I had the opportunity to speak in Sacrament Meeting. Mike gave a wonderful talk on the last few days of Christ's life. Then Kallie got to sing with the Primary for the first time. Then I had the lucky task of speaking after all of those sweet children sang the most beautiful song ("Gethsemane"). I had a couple of friends tease me because I only made it about 4 words into my talk before I started crying! I had been given one of the most interesting topics ("Women at the Cross), and I was so nervous about speaking, but I think it went pretty well. I'm grateful that we had the opportunity to speak on such a wonderful day, and to be able to bear our testimonies of our Savior Jesus Christ, that he died for us, atoned for our sins, and that he lives! What a wonderful and beautiful message! We ended the day with some of our family coming to our house for a yummy Easter dinner! I hope that our sweet girls will know that we truly have a testimony of our Savior, that we love Him, and know that He lives!

February 2016

We hope that everyone had a great Valentine's Day this year. We decided to go out with the masses the day before Valentine's Day (V-Day fell on a Sunday, so it seemed everyone was out celebrating on Saturday). We were able to get together with our dear friends, Sarah and Justin, and went to Olive Garden for dinner, then watched a movie after. We're grateful to live so close to so many of our good friends and family!

My mom found this little dress that was my Grandma's when she was a baby. We wanted to get a few pictures of Jenna in the dress, and Kallie insisted that she tried it on too. I can't decide if I'm surprised or not surprised that it fit on Kallie too! The girls looked so sweet in this dress, and I'm glad that we could have these photos as a little keepsake! And I'm glad that the dress has aged so well! (The little chair that they are sitting on is a chair that my grandma has had in her house for years, and now it's my moms! The girls love to sit on it when they go over there now!)

Here are a few photos summing up our month! We have been outside any day that it's been warm enough to go out for a walk--we can't wait for it to warm up and to have the sun shining all the time! Of course we've been in to Mike's office multiple times this month to visit and to have him count the girls' teeth. We were able to enjoy a little day with DeeDee, we visited my grandma, and then we went to lunch with my mom at one of our favorite restaurants (Mi Ranchito). The girls got to ride in DeeDee's truck that day, and loved being right next to each other so that they could hold hands!

Jenna is growing up so fast, and gets more fun by the day:

• Started saying "berry" (for strawberry), "woof", and "roar"
• "No" is one of her new (and possibly favorite) words. She normally doesn't just say it once, but says "no, no, no!"
• Can repeat lots of words (just doesn't keep them in her "vocabulary")
• Put all of the shapes in her shape bucket with minimal help
• Could be found on the kitchen table constantly (also fell off of the table/chairs a few times when climbing up/down)
• The phrase "if it fits, I sits" comes to mind this month, she's been sitting on random objects!
• Fell asleep on dad's lap at church one day
• Loves to sleep with all of her blankets and her bear, and usually carries as many of them as she can around during the day

I think that some days I could deinitely describe Kallie as a "three-nager", but she constantly keeps us entertained:

• Has started calling Jenna "you stinker" when she does something she shouldn't be doing
• "Be careful! I don't want you to do that! You could knock someone over" (said to dad during a morning wrestle)
• Can't walk down stairs that have holes in them "I'll fall through the holes, you carry me"
• Put on a necklace and told dad "oh no! My amulet isn't working!" (Just like Sofia the First)
• Kallie has caught on to my road rage. Every time we are stopped she says "come on dude, go!"
• Was saying a prayer before bed with dad, and said she was thankful that she would go to dads work tomorrow, eat a cookie, and see Nan
• We have been teaching Kallie to pray, and we take turns saying what we are thankful for. After Mike and I say something we are grateful for, she tells us "oh, that's a good one!" (It's so cute to listen to the things she comes up with. Sometimes it's people, and sometimes it's things found in her room, and if she can remember who gave her something, she always says she's grateful for that thing that so-and-so gave her (like her Hello Kitty sleeping bag from Josh))

January 2016

Happy New Year Everyone! January was a much slower month for us, which is kind of a nice thing after the craziness of the holidays. We've mostly been spending time at home, just hanging out together! Mike's brother, Scott, moved in with us for the month while he looked for housing and a job, before starting school at UVU. He lived here for a month, and then we helped him get settled in just down the road at Wolverine Crossing.

We were excited to be able to attend the open house for the new Provo City Center Temple. I was so sad a few years ago to hear about the Provo Tabernacle burning down. I remember having choir performances there, and going there for Stake Conference after Mike and I had gotten married. It was such a beautiful building. So I was thrilled when the church announced that they would be re-building it and making it into a temple. They did such a wonderful job re-doing it. I can't believe how well they did the layout, and how much it seems like the old building. I'm so grateful that we were able to go through the whole temple with some of our family!

Kallie is busy as usual:

• First day of Sunbeams/Primary! Told me she had fun singing, coloring a picture, and eating crackers!
• Getting really good at singing. Loves to sing along to songs in movies, and listening to primary songs on the lds app
• I looked up from my phone when Kallie told me it was "paint time" to see that she had painted her face and Jenna's with ketchup
• Got to say her first prayer in primary, and did a great job (with daddy's help)
• Instead of saying 'yes', she now says "maybe just a little bit"
• Mike had to take Scott to Wyoming for a day, and Kallie got to go with them and play with dress-up with the girls all day! She had a blast!
• Enjoyed wearing daddy's shirt around for an afternoon

Jenna just keeps growing like a weed:

• Got her 3rd tooth on top (on Jan 4) and her 5th and 6th teeth (one on top and one ok bottom) Jan 13
• Jenna was trying to run away from me and got to close to the stairs and toppled half way down them 😥
• Loves to help clean up; races over to help me pick stuff up if she sees me cleaning up, and enjoys wiping any spills off of the floor with a towel
• Usually takes off shoes and socks once she's in her crib for a nap, but lately she's been leaving one sock on
• Thinks it's hilarious to take something that Kallie is playing with and then run away as fast as she can
• Tries to say lots of new words, one of my favs is "bawoo" (balloon), also saying "again", "me", "nana" (banana)
• Has started nodding her head emphatically
• Got sick this month (we enjoyed the cuddles she gave us), and she enjoyed playing with the thermometer

I can't say enough about these sweet girls! They fill my life with joy and love!

December 2015

December is always such a fun month! I think it's so much more exciting when you can be around children and watch the light in their eyes as they figure out the world. Christmas just seems like such a magical time with kids. The girls had a fun month!

Fun things about Kallie this month/cute things she said:

• "I wear dress to church. At church we have songs, and prayers, and singing, and prayers, and nursery, and all my friends come see me in nursery"
• "Mommy, you're my best friend!"
• "Mommy, you're not poopy, are you? I no like when you poop in your pants"
• Mike asked (while saying a prayer) if she was thankful for mom, and she said "no, she's with her friends" so Mike asked if she was thankful for Jenna, "no, she's already asleep", what about dad, "yeah, thankful for dad"
• Kallie was petting Mike's beard tonight and saying "I like the hair under your nose, it's so nice! I like the hair on your face, it's so pretty! It's so warm!"
• When we asked her what she would ask Santa for for Christmas, she replied "presents"
• Had her last day of Nursery!
• Woke up on Christmas Eve with her eye swollen shut
• Loved building a snowman with dad on Christmas Day
• Enjoys playing "hide-and-sneak"!
• Always wants dad to put her in bed at night

And this month for miss Jenna:

• New words include: "pappy" "ball" "book"
• Likes peek around things (like the kitchen island) and say "boo!"
• Gave the girls a bath, got Jenna dressed in jammies, got Kallie out and was dressing her, when I looked up, Jenna had climbed back into the tub...
• Loves both Pappy and DeeDee, but follows Pappy around like a Puppy dog and gets very concerned if he leaves the room, usually follows him, and wants him to hold her as much as possible
• Gave good snuggles to almost everyone in my family at some point this month
• 15 month checkup:Height: 31" (70%)Weight: 21 lbs 1 oz (50%)
• Tried to cut her top 4 teeth this month, but none of them cut through!
• Loved giving dad morning snuggles and kisses every morning while he was home for Christmas break

And here are some pictures of the girls playing together this month:

One of my favorite traditions is to go to Temple Square in December! The lights are so beautiful, and it's always enjoyable to be on the temple grounds! We met up with my parents and siblings for a nice dinner together at Olive Garden, before walking around the temple. It was a perfect night!

Tim and Tamera have been doing performances at Brigham's Playhouse in Washington, UT (just outside of St. George). They both got the leading roles in "It's A Wonderful Life". Tim played George and Tamera played Mary, and they did an AMAZING job! Both Mike and I cried a little at the end. They were both very convincing and honestly did such a wonderful job performing! We were so glad that we were able to make the trip down (with Matt) to see such talent!

Another fun tradition is to get together with the Harvey side of the family for a Christmas party. Most of the kids put on a little Nativity play for us, and we had a fun night chatting and eating some yummy food. The family is getting so big (and there are even some people missing from the photo!)

Mike was able to go with part of the family to Las Vegas for the BYU Bowl game. It was Bronco Mendenhall's last game as a coach for BYU, and we played the Utes. It was a rough first half (to say the least), and BYU ALMOST had a huge comeback in the second half. (Seriously, if we had one different play in the first half, it would have ended in a win for us...but oh well.)

I had the pleasure of going with part of the family to the Brigham City temple to be with Emily when she received her endowment from the temple. It was a cold, snowy day, but a beautiful thing to be a part of! And we got to try her favorite restaurant after (Maddox). We are so excited for Josh and Emily to get married in a few months!

I was very interested to see how Christmas would go this year with the kids, especially to see how visiting Santa would go. The last two years, Kallie has not been a big Santa fan, but she was so excited to see him this year. We practiced over and over what she would say if Santa asked Kallie what she wanted for Christmas (she said she would say that she would like presents). It went basically like I thought it would. Kallie was SUPER excited to see him and absolutely loved it...and Jenna totally lost it! We had the whole room laughing while Jenna sat on his lap (she didn't breathe for the longest time before she started to cry; poor girl!) Kallie loved it so much, she asked me for days after if we could go and visit Santa again! I'm so glad that one of my children enjoyed it!

We were able to make a quick trip up to Wyoming for a few days before Christmas (unfortunately we didn't get any pictures while we were there!). Of course, we chose the worst day (weather-wise) to drive up, but thankfully we made it safely (and before they closed the Interstate for two days) and enjoyed some time with the Henderson's. I think that being with family is the best part about holidays! 

Christmas day was perfect! We had our own little Christmas celebration together first thing in the morning, and had the girls open all of their presents. They loved it all (despite their faces in some of the photos!), and their favorite part was probably their new wagon! They sat in it for a majority of the day, and played with their toys while they sat in there, and just had fun entertaining themselves! Mike had to shovel about 12" of snow off of our driveway before we could meet up with my family at my parents house to have another celebration with them. We opened a few more presents, and had a delicious meal together. Kallie and Gavin (and Mike and Phillip) had a few light saber fights, and then they all went outside and built a big snowman in the back yard (using Kallie's new snowman building set that she got for Christmas). It was a beautiful white Christmas with some of the people that we love most in this world! Merry Christmas to all!

November 2015

November had it's ups and downs for us. I wanted to start by paying tribute to our dear friend and Mike's mentor, Eric Vogel. He had a long fight with cancer, and passed away this month. It was so hard to watch such a sweet man go through so much pain, but we are happy that he has found peace with our Heavenly Father. We definitely wish we had more time with him here. He made such a difference in our lives, especially Mike's life, but we are grateful for the time we had with him, and we are so glad that we knew such a wonderful man. Thank you for all you've given us, Eric--we miss you!

We were able to take the girls to Disney On Ice (thanks to Emily Clark--she got the tickets through work, and was so sweet and thoughtful to give us the tickets). Kallie absolutely loved it and danced and called out the names of the characters she knew. Jenna mostly enjoyed it, but also liked to climb up and down the stairs too! We got to take my mom with us, and the girls enjoyed being able to walk around in front of us and took turns sitting on all of our laps. It was a great show!

Kallie is certainly keeping us entertained these days. It's so fun to hear the things that she comes up with, and she is always saying silly things:

• Kallie is calling scrambled eggs, "scratchy eggs"
• After I lay Jenna down, Kallie has been telling me "Shh!!! Jenna is sleeping!"
• Multiple times Kallie has told me "mom, calm down!"
• Has been doing gangly interpretive dances (Mike says she looks like a newborn giraffe)
• Has started telling me when it's time to go home
• Wanted to comfort Jenna when she was sad, so she sang "I am a child of God" to her (it is SO sweet)
• Kallie yelled for me to turn on minions, so I said "yes ma'am" to which she replied, "no, I not ma'am, I Kallie"
• Gets so excited when it snows, and always wants to go out and play in it

Jenna gets busier by the day:

• Finally started walking (then fell off of a toy and stopped waking...again)
• Has been heard saying "Pap", "baby" and "shoes" this month
• Fell down at church and smacked her face on a folding chair, cut her lip so it was red and swollen the rest of the day
• Loves to raise her hands for "blastoff" (while watching Little Einsteins)
• Loves to dance/bounce when she hears music
• Likes to help wash her hair when in the bath
• Helps mom blow on her food to cool it down

We were able to have some more visitors that we knew in Indiana; our friends, the Burrow's, stopped by for a quick visit! They moved back to Canada after dental school was over, so we were so glad that they decided to stop in and see us for a little bit!

Mike was able to go with Josh and my dad to Kansas City. They were there for the BYU v. Missouri. They got there early enough that they were able to go and visit Far West and Independence, they got to visit the Independence jail, and went to the WWI museum the day before the football game. Even though BYU (barely) lost, they had a good trip together.

The girls had a fun month together. We went to Smith's to do our grocery shopping one day, and discovered that they have these adorable car shopping carts that seat both of the girls! It's our new favorite place to shop, and we always have to have a car (otherwise Kallie gets pretty sad). These two make me so happy!

We had an AMAZING Thanksgiving Day this year! Most of Mike's family gathered here to celebrate together! We had the Henderson's, the Texas Merk's, and Matt all stay with us, and Tim/Tam joined us for the afternoon! It was a full house for sure, but it was sure full of fun! The kids all had a blast together, and we were able to pull together a delicious meal! It's so sad to live so far from the Merkley family members, but we love any opportunity to get together! The kids are all growing up so fast, but I love that they all love each other so much! We got to do some Black Friday shopping with Mel and Rob the next day too, and got some good stuff! We love you all!

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, the boys all got together and went to Logan for the BYU v. Utah State game. It was a rough first half, but the cougars pulled out the win! I (thankfully) stayed home and watch the game on TV with Rachel and the kids, but I could tell it was so cold out there! The boys managed to stay warm, and had a fun time cheering on our team!

October 2015

October is always a fun (and usually busy) month for us! Jenna had her first birthday! We had a combined party with Gwen at my parent's neighborhood park, and it turned out so cute! I was hoping that she would dive right into her cake and be a big disaster, but I could hardly get her to touch it! She eventually started eating it a little bit, and it she still looked so cute with the pink frosting on her hands and face. Happy Birthday my sweet Jenna! We love you, and are so grateful to call you ours!

• Started saying: "Kallie" (sounds like Ka-yee)
• Took her first steps (on Oct. 4, we were watching General Conference, and Matt actually caught it on film), then refused to try walking for the rest of the month
• FINALLY mastered the art of going down the stairs
• Loves the fan in her room. Begs me to turn it on so she can stand in front of it and feel the air on her skin
• Every time Jenna picks up a toy phone, she puts it to her ear, and says "daddy!"
• Climbed to the top of the big slide at the PlayPlace (without mom seeing), so I had to club to the top of the PlayPlace to get her down

Here are my fun facts for Kallie this month:

• Getting into the bossy/instructive phase
• If we get too far in the car and I haven't put sunglasses on, Kallie insists that I put them on (even on cloudy days)
• Carried her trick-or-treat pumpkin around the house saying "hi friend! Can I have a trick or treat? Thanks friend!"
• Thinks it's funny when dad "smooches" her
• I cut her hair for the first time
• Loves doing puzzles, and is getting really good at it!

I got to go with my dad to a pre-season BYU Basketball game. It was fun to go on a little daddy-daughter date together. We had a yummy dinner before the game, and got treats during the game and at half time! I'm grateful to have my parents so close, and to have such a good relationship with them!

We have definitely missed our friends that we made in Indiana--they were really more like family to us while we were there. So we are always excited when any of them come into town! Our dear friends, the Wade's, came into town this month, and we took every chance we could to hang out with them! We got to go to dinner with them, hang out a couple of times, and go to breakfast together one morning! Thanks so much for making time for us while you were here--we loved seeing you!

Mike's brother, Scott, finished his church service mission in Salt Lake City this month, so we got the chance to pick him up from his mission and spent a day with him, before taking him to Wyoming. Welcome back, Scott!

The girls are cute as ever this month! They are always so excited to see Mike when he gets home from work, and they have fun playing with each other. Life isn't always picture perfect, and things don't go according to plan, they throw fits and have tantrums, but at the end of every day, we know we love each other and we wouldn't trade any of it for the world! They are my world!

I took the girls to Cornbelly's with some of our family for a fun evening together. Kallie's favorite part was riding the cow train (barrels that they've painted with cow spots), and all of the kids enjoyed playing in the corn pit. Kallie and I got to go down the big slide together (but she only wanted to go down once). I took Kallie back for one more afternoon with a bounce-back pass, and we were able to "dig for stones", and just have fun running around and exploring a little more. Thanksgiving Point really does a great job with this every year!

We had a lot of fun for Halloween this year. We got together with my family and did pumpkin carving (and by we--I really just mean me! But the kids thought they looked pretty cool!) The girls enjoyed dressing up, and we went to visit my Grandma at the care center the week of Halloween. She had made these cute little spider suckers for the kids, and got to hand them to the kids herself. And of course, the kids had to take a little ride on her walker while we were there to see all of the fish tanks!

My sweet neighbor and friend took some free pictures of the neighborhood kids for Halloween this year. She took these adorable photos for us (Kallie wouldn't stand for the pictures by herself, so Mike got to be in the pictures with her):

We went to our neighbor's Halloween party a couple of nights before Halloween, so we threw some costumes together to go: Kallie chose to be Elsa, Jenna and I were pirates, and Mike put on his awesome Dracula costume (he custom made this retainer with fangs on it--super cool). Kallie got to try her first pinata at the party, and had fun running around with the other kids. On Halloween, we went to my parents house for dinner, then had fun Trick-or-Treating around the neighborhood. The girls looked cute in their matching Minion outfits, and were glad to go out with their cousins. We had a great Halloween together!

Josh and Emily also got engaged on Halloween, and we are SUPER excited for them! Congratulations you two, can't wait for the wedding in April!