Field Trip to the Fire Station

When I originally planned the monthly field trips, I KNEW the firestation would be the favorite, and I was right. I have never seen so many kids behave so well and listen so intently, including the younger siblings that tagged along. These kids were all so stocked to meet real fire fighters and see the big fire truck!

Just a few minutes after they started our tour of the fire station, they got a "call" and had to rush away in the fire truck. It was the highlight of the day, I'm sure!



Listening to the fire fighter talk about his job and watching him put on his protective gear

Firefighter Jonny in the front seat ready to goFirefighter Emily
They learned about the firehose and even got a chance to hold it.

You would think they were Disneyland, they were THAT excited. It was awesome!

Dress up anyone?

As many of you know, I like to dejunk A LOT. It just feels good to sort through our things and throw away, recycle, or donate the things we don't use. A huge plus for living in Sugarhouse where the homes are cute, but small, is that there's simply not room for junk, so I'm forced to get rid of it. I'm already looking forward to this weekend when I can dejunk my closet and run a load to DI of some of the clothes I don't need, since I just received some new clothes for my birthday last week.
Anyway, everytime I dejunk a closet or drawer, Emily and Jonathan like to be involved in the process. I was FINALLY getting rid of my prom jewelry from high school, but first Emily wanted to play dress up with it. It kept her entertained for like 2 hours. It was great! Oh and don't worry, there's no way I got rid of my ultra cool 80's shirt clip. That's a keeper, friends, a real keeper!
Speaking of dress up, doesn't Jonny look like a little man in this suit? A lady in my ward gave me two suits that her son wore 20 years ago. Jonny looks so handsome, I think. I just can't believe he's almost 3!

1 little, 2 little, 3 little witches....

Every month in my preschool, we have a field trip. Last month, along with learning how to keep our body healthy, we visited a beautiful local orchard and garden and then had a tour of my favorite grocery store, Harmons! This month, to help us get in the Halloween spirit, we went to see the witches at Gardner Village. It was a cold day, but so much fun! We stopped to take a break, and I read everyone a few favorite Halloween stories.

Taylor, Juliet, Quinton, Everett, Miss Catherine, and Jonny as a lion, just like he was last year.

My sister actually lent me an adorable frog costume and a monster costume, but Jonny refused to wear any costume. He wanted to just stay in his pajamas that morning, carry around his blankey, and pout, so I thought, "Perfect, he can be a baby." ;) So I gave him his teddybear and a binky so he really would fit the part. An hour later when he saw how much fun the kids were having dancing around in their costumes during Music Time, he wanted to wear his lion costume from last year, so he could scare everyone.

Emily and Salote in their costumes
Of course, once Emily saw some of the other costumes, she wanted to be a Super Hero Girl rather than a ladybug. ;)

Michael, Damon, Luke, Conon, Cannon, Jonny, Salote, and Em

Dancing to "Halloween on Parade" for the Halloween Program

"1 little, 2 little, 3 little witches, fly over haystacks, fly over ditches..."

The night before Halloween, we went to the Neighborhood Trunk or Treat. My little sister, Ruthanne, is so cute and doesn't feel that holidays are the same without having kids around, so she called me up and joined us just like last year. I was grateful to have her and Austin's help with the kids!

me with my angel, Melanie

Jonny and Emily were all set to help daddy scoop out the goop...

...but it didn't last long. All of a sudden, they got this great idea that it would be fun to clean the floors instead. Random, I know, but I'm not complaining because I could use the help!

Cath getting really intense about this pumpkin carving business! haha

Happy Halloween

Budding Artist

I don't consider myself an artist. I used to think I wasn't creative at all since art was always my worst subject in school, but I decided I can actually be quite creative, I just lack skill when it comes to drawing or painting. I have had a complex about my level of skill in art since 5th grade when Mr. Mitchell asked us to sketch a picture of an owl, and mine looked more like a fat penguin. Do you remember that Katie, Sarah, and Rachel? ;)

However, I have been amazed at how my daughter is drawn to art. She is always drawing, coloring, painting, molding playdoe, you name it! My sister, Margaret, gave her a magna doodle for her 2nd birthday, and she still carries it around all the time sketching pictures of our family, her friends, her toys, or animals. But her favorite thing is actually just to grab a pencil and a piece of blank white paper and sketch for long periods of time. Two months ago (yes, that's how far behind I am on blogging), Emily drew a picture of herself. Wade and I were impressed. :) She's gotten better since then, but I wanted to post her first offical self portrait on the blog, so we will always remember how excited we were when she showed us.

Got apples?

My cousin, Carolynn, called me and invited me to can applesauce with her because her apple tree had so many apples this year, she just had to share the wealth. I was happy to oblige. :)

Emily helped me core and peel the apples.
Then she wanted to show her cool apple peel creation to Jon.

I canned sliced apples I can use to make apple pies later. And Carolynn showed me how to flavor the applesauce with just a pinch of kool aid to make cherry, peach and even tropical punch applesauce. They taste really good, and I'm just excited I was able to can for Free Ninety Free, my favorite way to do everything!

Emily's Superhero Birthday Party

Last month, Emily had a Superhero Birthday Party with cupcakes in the shape of a star...

...and all her friends dressed as their favorite superhero. It was awesome!
I set up an obstacle course, and each superhero took a turn running it while everyone else cheered them on.

Go Superman Jonny!

I made superhero eye masks for everyone to wear. Then we dressed Eston up as a monster and all the superheros chased him around trying to capture him. Then we put minature superhero action figures in the middle of the parachute and made them "fly."

I thought it was hilarious that the 3 batmans were having a secret meeting. ;)

Here's Emily, Salote, Sammie, and Etta in matching supergirl capes. Cute idea, Brynn! And thanks to Traci for being my camera girl.

Go supergirls!

6 years baby!

Last year was our favorite anniversary trip thus far, so we decided to return to the Homestead Resort in Midway again this year to celebrate our 6 year anniversary. It was such a nice get away! Thanks Margaret for watching our kids!Everytime we're in Midway, we throw the idea back and forth whether we should just move there because it's fits us so well. We love the country, the simple life, hiking and biking in the mountains, and genuinely nice people. That's Midway. And really, Wade could still make his new career work there (post about that coming soon!) But we also LOVE Sugarhouse, so maybe we'll just visit several times a year. :) We'll see. The Homestead was having it's annual Scarecrow Festival, which was hilarious to see all the different types of scarecrows. My fav was the Tin Man. They also had a ton of Halloween activities to offer, like making puppets, spooky masks, a spooky hayride, etc.
Before going down to the pool, Wade tried on his robe and suddenly busted out his best Karate moves.

I was laughing really hard, as you probably are, too, right now.

That boy makes me happy. I like him a lot. Happy 6th, babe!