A week of mostly just staying at home

10/13: Look where Jared is tonight! He didn't even know his company was taking him to the game until his meeting today in St. Louis. So happy for him, he deserves it. Go, 49ers!

 

 

 

10/14: Jared enjoying his evening in St. Louis after business meetings:

 

 

10/15: Poor Whiskers, Makenna loves him so much, ha ha! And he is such a good sport! He doesn't protest at all!

 

 

 

 

 

10/16: Makenna has been at it again with sweet little Whiskers. First, she put her on a pillow and covered her, then she put a tutu on her.

 

 

10/17: I am so sad and pissed off! If any of my neighbors saw anything or know anything about this, please let me know!

 

10/18: The girls and I had a great day/night yesterday with Kiki and her two youngest kids. The kids played outside for a while and had a tea party, after which the girls were so tired they went right down for a nap, even with their cousins still here; then, we watched "Annie", played some Wii games (mostly Just Dance), and watched "Hotel Transylvania" before putting all the kids to bed at 10:00! Carma was so cute reading books to the twins before bed. Kiki and I stayed up really late and watched a movie and chatted. The twins slept until 8:30 and were really sad to find that Kiki had left before they woke up because she hadn't brought her allergy medicine and was miserable. Avery and Makenna already want them to come back over. Also, I already had to play Just Dance with them again today. I'm so tired!

A sweet neighbor patched up the mailbox so that it will hopefully remain standing until we install a new one. He also fixed the door on it as best as could--it was really dented and messed up.

So here's how today went down: Got ready for church and got in the car at 20 til (we always go that early to make sure we get a bench).  The car wouldn't start!!  Again!  This is the 3rd time in a month that I had to hook the car up to our charger.  The other two times, we missed dance--it only happens when I have to be somewhere on time, never when I'm just going shopping or something.  The first two times, I thought it was because the girls left one of the doors open, then they left the dome light on.  This time, I saw no reason for the battery to go dead so now I'm wondering if there is actually something wrong with the battery.  Anywho, I hooked up the charger and waited 10 min., then decided we'd better just go ahead and walk to church so we wouldn't be late.  We only made it to the corner when Makenna trips and skins her knee and rips a huge whole in the pink tights she was wearing for the first time--oh, and she is bawling, of course.  I asked her if she just wanted to go home so I could patch up her knee and we would go to church late but she wanted to just go (she mainly wanted to see the horse at the entrance of our subdivision, ha ha).  We got to church right on time and even got a bench (miracle!).  Right when we sat down, Avery started crying that the back of her ankle hurt--she got a blister from walking.  I had bought what I thought were two identical pairs of pink tights but one was actually a pair of leggings (no feet), so she was wearing her dress shoes with no sock or stocking feet.  Poor thing!  When I decided to just go ahead and let her wear them, I had no idea we'd be walking that far.  Thankfully, I had a band-aid in my church bag and that got her to stop crying.  As soon as the first sacrament prayer started, Avery started whining that she had to go pee, so I had to take them both out while they were passing the bread (so embarrassing to have to walk out at that time!) and I missed taking the sacrament (kind of defeated the purpose of trying so hard to get there on time!).  I then had to take Makenna out again to go poop right before the closing hymn--plus, their teacher brought them to me while I was in nursery to take them to the bathroom.  Thankfully, someone offered to give us a ride home, so we didn't have to walk and Avery didn't make her blister worse or have to walk barefoot.  Whew!  I was so exhausted when I got home!  The saving grace of today is that the nursery kids were all pretty good today.  Tender mercies, ha ha!!

Halloween season has started! :)

9/30: The girls both went to dance class that morning, yay!!!  That afternoon, Ashleigh (the former YW of mine from Louisiana who was going to BYU last year) came for a visit last Tues. before going into the MTC the next day!  She is headed to Paris next week!  So proud!  She stayed with her uncle and his family and they dropped her off at our house for a bit, then they came in for a while later.  We had a really nice visit with them.

10/2: We got a babysitter (non-family, paid) for the first time and went on a double-date with our neighbor friends, the Breinholts.  We ate at Rodizio Grill while the girls had fun playing with Courtney.  It was so nice to get out with other adults, ha ha!

10/3-5: We had a great weekend, which ended when we got home just before midnight Sunday night. We went and visited the girls' birthmom; we got a hotel Sat. night in Logan and took the girls swimming, then went and walked around the Logan Temple, then went out to dinner, then went to her house on Sunday, where the girls had fun playing with her. I thought we were headed home and fell asleep as soon as we left. When I awoke an hour or so later, I realized we were not in Utah, but in ID! Jared surprised us with a visit to his sister's house to see her family and new baby. The girls had so much fun playing with their 7 cousins and seeing/petting all their animals (a huge St. Bernard, at least 8 cats/kittens, 2 goats, ~7 bunnies, and several chickens). When we got there, we went to get some stuff out of the trunk and that's when I saw the pet carrier Jared had snuck in there. He had planned all along for us to bring one of their kittens home. I had my eye on this orange one and Makenna took right to it, so that's the one we went with. We asked the girls what we should name it and Avery said, "Whisker!" So we named it Whiskers. It was the runt of the litter and the mom and some of the other kittens had died. It has two living siblings and they are over twice his size--he's over 12 weeks old but barely looks 6 weeks. I THINK it's a boy but I'm not really sure. My existing cat, Chloe, won't have anything to do with it yet, of course--just some hissing and growling. The girls won't leave him alone, though. They love him! He is SO SWEET. I'm so happy we got him, even if I have to spend all day telling the girls to leave him alone for a minute and stop them from fighting over him. We also had our first scratching incident this afternoon. But Makenna still wanted to pet him afterward--she sure did milk it at naptime, though!!! Isn't he a cutie?!

Walking around Logan Temple:

 

 

 Watching conference:

 Petting the goats:

 Playing with Katie:

 Katie found a snake in the backyard!

 And the girls actually touched it!

 

 New nephew:

Avery cuddling with a cousin:

 

Makenna enjoying her time with cousins:

 

 

 

 

 Introducing Whiskers!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The scratching incident required 3 bandaids (not really, but it helped her feel better):

 10/8: Our annual visit to the local pumpkin patch:

Petting the pig

Petting a goat

Petting a goat

Riding the barrel train

 

Traditional family photo

 Fall Cuties!:

 

 

We live in such a beautiful area!

The corn pit--two days later, we are still finding corn around the house!

 

 

 

The corn maze!

A witch at a dead end!

Makenna wasn't too sure about the witch

The hay pyramid

 

 

 

 

Hay maze

Picking our pumpkins--we didn't actually go into the pumpkin patch this year--we just picked them from the pile at the front

10/9: The four of us spent a few hours at the Museum of Natural Curiosity, with a snack outside on the picnic table in the middle.

10/10: Timmy came over to say good-bye before heading to Louisiana, where he plans to stay for a while, then come back to Utah.  Jared left for another trip this afternoon.

10/11: A little while ago, Avery was sitting on the potty singing, "She's a good mommy! She's a good mommy!..." She's in a stage lately where she comes and gives us kisses all the time and tells us out of the blue that she loves us. Brightens my day each time I hear, "Mommy, I love you" in the sweet, sincere way she says it. Such a sweetie!

10/11: Spoiled much?

 This one is spoiled, too--must have fresh water straight from faucet.

10/11: Had a great night with a few Louisiana peeps. I really enjoyed the shrimp etoufee, jambalaya, seafood gumbo, and my bread pudding and the girls had fun playing with the other kids. And LSU finally won a SEC game! Awesome night!

Whiskers (kitten) is asking for trouble! She is following Chloe (14yo cat) around and Chloe is having none of it. Whiskers just keeps going near Chloe and even tried to play with her tail, even though Chloe keeps hissing and growling. Doesn't seem to phase Whiskers, ha ha!

10/12: I left the girls upstairs to watch "Chicken Run" while I went downstairs to watch football. I just went upstairs to check on them and this is what I found. I guess they are worn out from getting home at 11 pm last night and waking up in the middle of the night, plus not getting their nap today because of church at 1. Not sure if I should just let them sleep and try to put them in bed in a while or wake them up and put them to bed in a bit. I'm not sure exactly how long they've been out.

 

My cuties before church today.

Not sure what we'll do this week with Jared out of town.  Also, the kids around here are out of school later this week so I won't want to take the girls to any of the museums or anything like that.  Maybe we can hit up a park before it gets too cold to do that.