October 2015

10/1: We had fun on our joy school field trip to Evan Family Farm; the kids got to play on the hay pyramid, pet some farm animals, ride the barrel train and hay ride, get lost in the corn maze, and find pumpkins in the hay maze to bring home. We love our joy school friends!

10/3: Uncle Jason graced us with his presence to watch the afternoon session of General Conference with us, after he attended the morning session in SLC.

10/4: Avery puked up chocolate cake. Three times. Once upstairs and twice downstairs. Yep, that was fun to clean.

Makenna told Avery, "Avery, I'm not happy that you're sick."

10/9: Katie (birthmom) dropped by after picking up her new puppy near our house and she stayed for dinner.  Michelle, Mariya, and Hailey drove down from ID and stayed the night with us.  We had fun playing Wii games and snacking 'til late at night.  They were supposed to stay Sat. night, as well, but Jared R. got sick, so they had to go home Sat. morning to take care of him and the other five kids.

10/10: Laura came down to Lehi and ate out at Culver's with us.  Yum!

10/12:

Yep, ha ha! The twins were in their room for an hour today before they even started cleaning. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

10/13: Our theme for joy school today was music. I got to show them all of my instruments, we made little drums and maracas, and they formed a little band as our last activity. grin emoticon [I didn't let them play my clarinet or flute, though--didn't want to deal with disinfecting.]

10/14: The twins have been counting down the "sleeps" until Maw-maw and Paw-paw get here from Louisiana. They'll arrive at our house tomorrow night but probably after the girls are in bed, so I told them they have two sleeps left. We are so excited!!!

10/15: Halloween color by number after our joy school lesson:

 

And the letter C caterpillars we made in the joy school lesson that I taught:

I helped her with the K but she wrote the rest of her name:

10/16: We had a nice time up Provo Canyon with my parents and Kiki's family. We had beautiful, perfect weather and grilled hot dogs and woof 'ems.

Being so gentle with a ladybug :)

The Utah Tassin cousins

Carma eating a woof 'em

Juddy

10/17:  We went with Kiki and her 2 youngest kids and Maw-maw and Paw-paw to the Museum of Natural Curiosity, then we went and ate at a Mexican restaurant near us, then we went home and watched the LSU football game.

Paw-paw had as much fun as the twins did in the Water Works area

The weather was perfect for the kids to enjoy the playground outside

My little witchie-poos before we left the museum

Fried ice cream following our meal on the way home from the kids museum. Enjoying our time with Maw-maw and Paw-paw!

Relaxing and watching football :)

10/19: Kiki gave Makenna $1 as a reward for finding the case to a Redbox DVD rental. She used it today to buy candy bars for her and Avery. They paid for them all by themselves. After the purchase, Makenna said, "That was fun!" Uh oh, Jared!

We went to DI (thrift store) with Maw-maw and Paw-paw to look for shoes for the twins' Halloween costumes. We didn't find any but Makenna spotted this purple robe and was so excited I just had to get it. She refused to put it in the cart and held it until we got home. I was lucky enough to find a Hello Kitty robe for Avery, too. We had to wash them as soon as we got home. They couldn't wait to put them on!

10/20: Jared was working in CA while my parents visited us from Louisiana. They had planned to go visit my mom's brother in CA after leaving our house and I decided to tag along with them, with the twins. We had a great time! It took us 13 hours to make a 10 hour drive but we finally made it here to my uncle's house a couple of hours ago. The girls were so good in the car! We had to make a lot of potty stops--mostly for my parents, ha ha! My girls and my two little cousins were so excited to be together. They were running around like crazy, having so much fun together. I wasn't sure we'd ever be able to get them to bed. Oh, and they were so excited to be sleeping in bunk beds!

10/21: My parents and the girls and I went to Fairytale Town, then out to lunch at Applebee's, and we got home just after Halie got home from school, then we all had a blast in Wayne's pool and hot tub. That night, we all went out to eat at a Hibachi Grill--my first time--and it was really good! Makenna did NOT like the big flames the chef made, though, ha ha. We followed dinner with ice cream at Cold Stone.

They loved seeing all the squirrels running around there almost as much as they did playing on all the fun stuff!

We had a great, fun dinner at a hibachi grill, then went and got ice cream at Cold Stone. It was my (and the twins') first time at a hibachi grill. Avery loved the mushroom soup while Makenna ate all of my salad with ginger dressing and we loved our steak and shrimp. Makenna DID NOT like the big flames the chef created, though! She leapt out of her chair and clung onto me. Avery, however, was mesmerized by his cooking. 

eating my salad with ginger dressing 

Holly, Aunt Lanie, Uncle Wayne, and Grandma Rose

Halie and my parents

Avery trying to catch a broccoli in her mouth that the chef threw to her 

NOT a fane of the big flames!

10/22: We used Wayne's Tahoe and drove up to Yosemite with my parents and Halie. We stopped for pizza just before getting to Yosemite, then spent as much time as we could in the park before it got dark. The day was very long and the 2-mile hike, especially the way back uphill, with two 4yos wiped me (and them) out! Yosemite is so beautiful, though! I'd love to come back and see more of it. I don't think the twins will want to go on another hike any time soon, though, ha ha! My dad and I were practically dragging them on the way back and my dad carried Avery for a few minutes. At one point, she said, "If Daddy were here, he'd carry me!" We had gas station sandwiches and snack in the car on the way home and got home really late.

Almost to Yosemite!

Aaaaw!

Playing with Paw-paw in the visitor center

This deer just happily ate as we passed by just 15 yards away

As usual, she gathered many leaves and pine needles

2 mile round trip hike to the Tuolumne Grove of Giant Sequoias

10/23: We just relaxed and enjoyed the beautiful morning on Wayne's patio and the kids played pool with Wayne and Paw-paw. That afternoon, the twins and I went shopping with Maw-maw and ate lunch at a little diner. That night, we all went out to eat at Texas Roadhouse. Jared was able to drive up from where he was working to have dinner with us and hang out at Wayne's afterward until the kids went to bed.

10/24: We drove to Napa Valley and toured the Castello di Amorosa, where we also had a wine tasting (grape juice for us, though, ha ha). It was evening by the time we got home. I went swimming with all of the kids, then watched the recorded LSU football game with Wayne and my dad.

In the Great Hall:

 In the Courtyard:

 Grape juice tasting:

 Swimming that evening in Wayne's hot tub:

10/25: Somewhere in NV on the way home:

 It only took us 13 hours to drive home. :)

10/26: Avery: "Look, Mommy, I'm decorated for Halloween!" Then, Makenna came in decorated, too. And they helped Whiskers snuggle up with the new stuffed animals we bought on our way home from CA. Makenna fell in love with a little leopard at my uncle's house--she carried it around and slept with it while we were there. We happened to see the exact same leopard in a gas station in Wendover on our way home, so we had to get it.

10/26: Monday night, the night before my parents left to head back to Louisiana, we went with Kiki and her two youngest to the Lindon Elementary Fall Festival. I wasn't aware that all the kids were dressing up, so the twins didn't wear their costumes but they had fun. They got to play carnival games, eat pizza, chips, soda, cookies, and candy, and see some of their favorite characters. Makenna was to shy to go up to any of the characters and take pictures with them, though.

Fishing for prizes

Wyatt and Carma

coffin digging for prizes

cakewalk

Jello eating contest

Donut on a string game

Photo op with characters--only Avery and Carma would go up and take pictures with them:

 I told Elsa and Ana that Avery had a twin and they wanted to go and meet her, so the left the stage to go see Makenna but she was too shy to take photos with them:

Cookie decorating:

10/29: Joy school Halloween party:

10/30: Lehi City Halloween Party

Story-telling

Makenna wouldn't get in the picture because she didn't want to get that close to the witch

Avery wasn't thrilled about being so close to the predator

Makenna didn't want any part of it!

The traditional sloppy joes, chips, and soda meal 

10/31, morning: Trick-or-treating at the Living Planet Aquarium

She was having fun on the rope bridge until she got to the part where a giant spider and skeleton were hanging off the side, ha ha! 

Halloween Night: Jared went trick-or-treating with the twins, Laura, his mom, and a niece and nephew while I stayed home to hand out treats to all the cute little ghouls.

Pre-trick-or-treating photos:

Trick-or-treating:

Today, 11/4, the four of us went to the Lehi Legacy pool and swam for a couple of hours:

Swimming makes us hungry! So we stopped and ate at Scaddy's on the way home from the pool. We took the girls over to the dinosaur in the parking lot for a photo op. Swimming also makes us tired. The girls readily went down for a nap as soon as we got home. :)

 I love spending time with my family!