Trick or Treat!

PUMPKIN WALK!








Cute lil joy school kiddies!


PUMPKIN PATCH!











TRICK OR TREAT!!











HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Happy Birthday Elder Larson!

I meant to do this yesterday! It was my brother Kenny's birthday yesterday, the big 2-0. He is on a mission in Vancouver. KENNY WE MISS YOU!!!!

I love reading his emails. He is a great missionary. I appreciate his testimony every week.

He was always the "quieter" brother. Which really doesn't take much, following Neil and Bryce…

I love Kenny's little QUIRKS. He used to love acting like Mr. Bean. ("Ooohh teddy!") Including dancing like him. So funny!! Although we sort of wondered if he'd ever grow out of that stage.

Yep he did, and right into a whole bunch of other characters!


I loved seeing him act in plays in high school, not to mention watch him in the movies he himself made. He did this whole "Pirates of the Caribbean" spoof, called "Pirates of the Great Salt Lake."


Kenny plays Captain Jack Sparrow so well I think of Kenny every single time I see Jonny Depp.

So if you know my brothers, they have been making movies since they were kids. My brother Neil is actually making quite the name for himself, if you've seen the "silence your cell phone" commercials in the Larry H. Miller theaters with the old schoolteacher paddling a little boy... YEP Neil totally made that! And that old lady is my grandma!! ANYWAY Kenny is made from the same mold, and he's done really great things with computer animation. Ohhh Kenny I miss your Chicken Wing Media! I bet you will do big things someday!

When I got married, Kenny, Kimberly, and Preston were 12, 10, and 9, and so they'd come hang out with me and Nate quite a bit throughout the next few years. They'd sleep over and we'd watch movies, it was so fun. When did my little brother Kenny grow up and become a missionary???? I'm proud of you Kenny.

Kenny is the best uncle and my kids just love him.


They miss him. Carter was especially attached to Kenny. I just sent him a birthday package last week and I had told the kids we were going to give Kenny a package for his birthday. YEAH imagine their disappointment as I pulled up to the POST OFFICE. Jenna is like, "MOM, I thought we were going to Canada!!" They were so sad!

I remember joking that I couldn't wait to hear Kenny's farewell talk because it will be the most I would ever hear him say… but it was honestly one of the best farewell talks ever, it was perfect. I knew he meant what he was saying.

I miss singing with Kenny!!! He is one that I would start playing the piano and he would shove a book in front of me and say, "Play this!" and it would be "Les Mis" or "Phantom of the Opera" and my mom and Nate would join us and we'd all sing our hearts out. The day of his farewell, he was singing with a bunch of his buddies around the grand piano, and they sounded so great. I even filmed it with my old camera, and it was right after that I lost it and I am SO mad I don't have that footage!!! Dang camera.

And of course I can't think of Kenny without that fedora!!! I love this kid!! He'd wear that thing everywhere!


Happy birthday Kenny, and enjoy the last half of your mission!

Here Comes the Bride

So what do you do when you are playing the "Bridal Chorus" on the organ for a wedding and the song is three pages long and the bride has finished her journey down the aisle before the song is even half way done???

Well, you try to not think about the fact that everyone is WAITING for the ORGANIST to finish her rushed-but-trying-not-to-sound-rushed SOLO. And I am thinking, "Oh my heck the bride is already there!!!! How can I cut to an appropriate place at the end without taking my eyes off the current page and screw this up, therefore drawing even more attention to me than there already is?" It was seriously horribly funny, it was like "Here comes the bride Here comes the bride Here comes the bride" over and over as she is standing there patiently waiting for me to finish so she can get married already.

AWK-WARD!!!!

Yep that's what I did this weekend. I think the whole wedding party could tell I had never done that before.

And if THAT didn't tip them off,

the fact that I got some sharps and naturals mixed up as the happy couple left the chapel, turning the joyous "Wedding March" into some sort of Halloween horror soundtrack...

well then that surely did.

AHHHHHH!!!!!

Well, I can move on from this having learned some valuable lessons-- like stickin to my day job!

Spilled milk.

I'm gonna try to be more consistent with blogging, simply because I have a lot of random thoughts and it's fun to get them out. Instead of having huge long posts once a week.

So this is what I was thinking today:

You know it is going to be one of those days when you find yourself waking up yelling, "WE DO NOT POUR MILK ON LOGAN'S HEAD!!" before you even open your eyes.

It MIGHT be brilliant to have the kids' cereal ready the night before with milk poured in little cups in the fridge so they can get it themselves. They think it is so awesome they can pour their own milk into their cereal. But I don't think it is so awesome when they pour it on their little brother's head.

THEN when I was doing the morning dishes some dishwasher detergent flipped up right into my eye.

HELLO!! It hurt.

But you know what it ended up being a good day after all. :)

HAIR HAIR EVERYWHERE

Kaitlyn's almost 3 months now, but what the hey, here are her 2 month stats from the doc:

12 lbs 3 oz, 61st percentile
23.5 inches, 68th percentile
Yeah, she's growing! Go Kaitlyn, go Kaitlyn…

I also took Logan in for his 18 month and here are his stats:

22 lbs 8 oz, 9th percentile
32 inches, 31st percentile
Ha ha it reminds me when I took Carter in to his 18 month appointment and what do you know, he was 9th percentile too and I freaked out cause I thought I was starving him. Looks like I just have small boys! Good thing they make up for it with their huge, rambunctious personalities…

SO I always know my babies are 2 months old when:

I get a little more sleep at night. In Kaitlyn's case she is just about the best sleeper ever. She goes down around 8 or 9 p.m., wakes up around 5 a.m. to eat, then sleeps again until 8 a.m. I KNOW! SWEET!

Also around 2 months I can totally multi-task and do the most amazing things while nursing a baby. It's funny when I think of those excruciating moments of nursing in the beginning. Before I know it I'm an old pro again.

I also know it's been 2 months when my HAIR comes out in GOBS. It is just INSANE. I should be bald by now. What a fun side effect of childbirth. I was thinking of all the things I could do with my trail of hair throughout the house:

*Use it to build a nest for my babies. Come on I am a little mother hen.
*Tie my kids' bedroom door shut.
*It IS sweater season now!
*Glue some to Kaitlyn's bald spot on the back of her head.
*Create some fine looking spider webs for Halloween decorations.
*Save it for the Christmas tree. Hair, the new tinsel!
*Wrap a bunch around my flabby waist, corset style.
*Stick some to my eyelashes, which could really use some lengthening and thickening.
*Okay that's all I got.

I also know my baby is 2 months old when I get that ITCH TO RUN!!!! I've been wanting to get out there and run again for a few weeks, but somehow time slips away from me, if you can imagine. SIGH! I've got to start while I love the weather, cause then it will be winter and won't be so motivated. I keep meaning to write a more detailed post about how I started running, why I run, how I came to love it, and how it truly has changed my life, but haven't done that yet. Anyway, I also need to get out there cause I was brave, or perhaps crazy and dumb, and signed up for THIS:



Yeah I actually wanted to do the half marathon, but it sold out in like 4 days and I was too late, SOOOOO since my mom, sister-in-law, and her husband are all signed up too I got way too excited thinking about it and signed me and Nate up. SO in all my spare time I am going to be training for a MARATHON. It makes me so excited. Participating in races is the coolest thing ever, even when you're not fast, trust me. I've done 3 half marathons, and then before I had kids I did 4 full marathons. Last year, if you recall, I actually did run a marathon with my mom and dad, having only trained to 13 miles and while it was a great experience, I would actually like to train for this one! BUT we'll see how it goes!!!! It's not until May so I have some time!

TIME. Man I need more of it. Sometimes I feel so spread thin. Life is just busy, and there are so many things I want to do that I don't get around to. I have so many good intentions and then I am lucky to get dinner made.

How is the job going? I think it's only the best job ever. I cannot believe I am getting paid to sit at home and type stuff. I am getting paid more than I thought I would be. I got another raise and am making like $1000-$1200 a month. I only tell you this because I know a bunch of people going through the schooling right now and for me personally it has been a total success and totally worth it. It's not easy, for sure, but to be where I am at right now looking back makes me want to tell my frustrated self at the time, "YOU CAN DO IT!" cause I did!

So it would be the perfect job if I didn't have kids, because what makes it hard is finding the time to do it. I still try really hard to get up early to get it done. But, then I am dumb and stay up late with Nate (we are on this whole "Prison Break" thing, the series recorded off the TV and now we are in the 4th season, PLUS we have stuff like "Biggest Loser" and "Amazing Race" and "The Office" to watch!) Anyway so when I don't get up early and I try to get done throughout the day it is hard. If I didn't have kids I would type and type and type because I really enjoy doing it and my favorite part is putting in my word count on my invoice to see how much I made. BUT--- OBVIOUSLY my kids ARE my number one priority, and so I have to be careful not to brush them off when I am working. I do love my job, but it isn't easy to juggle everything. BUT somehow I am doing it. I have to let certain things go, like, looking presentable in public (have you SEEN me at Walmart lately?!) but I'm totally okay with it. I mean I totally got hit on at the park today, so I must be doing pretty good. So the kid was like 8 years old, what of it??

Well I'm about to start my ER/OP (emergency room/operative report) shift, I have a 4 hour shift every Wed and Thurs night. It's on call, so sometimes there are reports to do, sometimes not. I hope there aren't many tonight cause DUDE I have Michael Scofield to watch!! (ha ha.) Chow.

Horses and Halloween fun

For Jenna's little joy school class they went to visit one of the kid's grandma's... who lives on a farm! Jenna even got to ride a horse, which is like a dream come true for her cause she's been talking about riding a horse for months and months. She always said she wanted to ride a WHITE horse. But she was pretty okay with riding a brown one though!








Carter was actually at his own joy school class so he didn't get to go. I told Jenna not to rub it in too much. :)

THEN my cousin Danielle threw a little Halloween party for the kids and it was so much fun! There was a yummy spread of treats:

BRAIN punch!

Mummy pizzas!

Jello popcorn balls!


We had the kids dress up and I pulled this bee costume out for Logan, except it is a LIT-TLE too small, check out his crotch. I laughed so hard!


They played pin the tail on the cat.


And they made ghosts and spiders using paint on their hands and feet. So cute!!




Thanks, Danielle for a SPOOKY time!



Then yesterday my mom and I took the kids to Frightmares at Lagoon, which I LOVE!!!! I love Halloween. And I love Lagoon (yep my dad has worked there since I was like 5 and as often as we went I have never once gotten sick of it.) So put them together, yep I love Frightmares.








I was thinking as I watched my kids at Lagoon how much I love living life through their eyes. It's like reliving my childhood all over again and it reminds me how much fun being a kid is. I get so excited watching them get excited. Their happiness is my happiness. Having kids makes me feel young. It keeps life from getting old. My favorite thing ever is watching my little babies have fun.

ANNNNDD who knows how long I will keep blogging about Logan's sleeping habits, but it sure keeps things interesting around here. When I went to ahem, untie the kid's bedroom door last night, this is how I found Logan asleep, on Jenna's bed.




Feet dangling and all. So funny!