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.

Most of Sept.

LONG POST!  Sorry I haven't posted in a few weeks!

9/9: My SIL, Stephanie, is in town and stayed the night at our house with her two boys Monday night. After the twins' dance class Tuesday morning, we all went to the Museum of Natural Curiosity at Thanksgiving Point and had a great time. There was one whole section that we hadn't been to before and I was amazed at all the cool stuff in the Kidopolis part! We brought lunch and went outside and ate on the picnic tables out by the parking lot. It was getting pretty chilly and it started to barely sprinkle, so we ate quickly and went back in to play. It was such a fun day!
{There are lots of photos, even after I narrowed it down a lot, so I made a slideshow.  Please let me know if you can't view it!}

9/12: Jared and I took the girls to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point:

 

 A snack on the wagon ride:

 

 Avery feeding Banjo--they remembered his name from last time!:

 

 Crying for blankie on the pony ride--she was ready to go by this point!:

 

Jared went up to his hometown to do some work on our property up there later that day, after going to Farm Country. The twins and I left the next morning (9/13) and drove up there and the girls had so much fun playing with cousins--my SIL, Steph, was still in town and another SIL came and stayed there, as well. Jared and I went to his 20th year high school reunion that night while the girls stayed and played with the four cousins there, plus Grandma and Aunt Laura (Steph had her 10th year reunion that night, as well). After breakfast the next morning, Jared left on a trip and I let the girls play a little more with their cousins, then we came home and vegged the rest of the day. I got home just in time to see the Saints lose their game in the last few seconds. Bummer! Didn't help my mood from being so exhausted, ha ha. The girls slept in the car the whole way home, so they didn't take a nap but I put them to bed really early last night, ha ha!

 

Playing with cousins at Grandma's house while Jared and I went to the reunion:

 

9/15: I'm exhausted! I just can't seem to get a good night's sleep the past few nights, even more so than usual. The girls made it hard from Thurs. to Sat. night, then my cat did last night. It all started Thursday night when Makenna got into my bed at some point, then fell off the bed and bawled at around 3:30, waking Avery up, who then came in my bed and tossed and turn like she always does, then she had to get up and pee. Fri. night wasn't much better and Sat. night was eve...n worse. We stayed at my MIL's house and Avery woke up around 2am crying because her leg hurt (that's pretty normal for her because she walks on her toes a lot); Jared ended up sleeping on the floor with Makenna and he put Avery in bed with me but she literally tossed and turned (more like flung herself all over the bed and back) for over 3 hours, then the girls got up a couple of hours after that. I was dragging all day and had to drink a Mountain Dew and sing my heart out on my hour-long drive home.

Last night, after going to bed at a decent time so I'd get a good night's rest, my cat puked all over a pillow on my bed and all over my nightstand at 3am! She must have just eaten (canned cat food, blech!) and the smell was awful! I didn't realize just how bad it was until I turned on the light, then I realized that I really needed to get up and clean it all up, since I didn't want it to stay on my nightstand all night. So I was up for 30 min. cleaning it all up and rinsing a pillow case, blanket, and some clothes that were on the floor--I even had to move the nightstand to get the splatters behind it. Dragging again today. I just want a good night's rest!

9/15: Anyone have a kid who walked on his/her toes a lot when they were little? Avery is still doing it quite a bit. The dr. had told me a while back not to worry about it, that she will probably outgrow it by the age of 5. However, she gets knots in her calves and leg and foot cramps, which wake her up at night sometimes. Of course, my research online brings up everything from what my dr. said to kids having to get surgery done, etc. Ack!
Avery just seems to be in pain a lot, poor thing. She is always asking me to massage her leg and foot.. We correct her any time we see her walking on her toes but I'm not sure we always notice and I'm positive that she doesn't even know she's doing it. She walks normally anytime we remind her to. Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this and how it turned out.

9/16: Got up this morning, showered and washed my hair and dried it, got myself and the girls ready, rushed out the door for dance class and... the car wouldn't start. Crap! The girls had left one of their doors open just a bit after getting home on Sunday. After calling Jared, I hooked up his battery charger to it and it is now charged enough to start so I guess we'll just go to the museum to play for a while today.

We went to the Museum of Natural Curiosity first, then the Dinosaur Museum:

 

 

 

 

 

9/16: Well, I would have let the girls play longer at the dinosaur museum but Makenna had a little accident. Nothing like dealing with poo-poo panties in a public restroom (while gagging the whole time) and making your kid go commando on the ride home. I don't think she's ever had that kind of accident, so she must have been having a lot of fun digging for fossils and didn't realize she needed to go until it was too late.
It was a fun day while it lasted. Now, hopefully, they'll stay awake during Frozen, since they skipped their nap, so I can put them to bed early!

9/16: The girls asked me for bananas and they both promised me they'd each eat a whole banana. Makenna just came and asked me for another snack so I asked her if she finished the banana. She said, "Yes. But don't go look, OK?" Bwahaha! Little devil!

9/20: Yesterday, I picked a pumpkin from our garden that is 14" tall, 39" around, and 22.4 lbs. It's beautiful!

9/21: The girls have started fighting naps a little bit the past week or so.  Last week, I told them they didn't have to nap but they did have to stay in their room for a bit for quiet time.  They just read books and played quietly together, the little cuties:

 And this is from 9/23:

9/23: I'm not sure what Makenna did but I just heard Avery say, "You made me the happiest Avery in the whole house!"

9/25: I saw this idea on Pinterest and thought it was hilarious (yes, I'm a little warped) so I had to make a set of zombie Siamese twins for myself. Now I need to get all of my other Halloween decorations out!

9/25: I had a dr. appt. that morning and the girls got to go play with Jason next door, then we all got our haircut at the other next-door-neighbor's, then we went shopping.

9/25: My girls are over 3 1/2 and they just got their first haircut today--they didn't really start getting hair until they were over 1 1/2). Both had actually grown out pretty evenly, I just wanted it trimmed up a tiny bit. I wasn't sure if they were gonna let Jessica cut it, because they always protested greatly any time we even mentioned it, and were saying they didn't want to do it even up until we went to the appt. Jessica bribed them with a treat and I had bribed them with... a new toy and they both did such a good job! Makenna went first and was pretty reluctant at first but she was so happy once it was done and she saw that it wasn't bad at all. She kept asking me the rest of the day if I liked her haircut (and she kept telling me my haircut looked beautiful :)). Once Avery saw that Makenna liked hers, she got right up there with no fuss at all. They both sat really still and were so good. And they loved the little bun that Jessica put on both of them. They picked out My Little Ponies as their prize. So glad, btw, to have a next-door-neighbor with a salon in her house!

Makenna before:

 

Makenna during:

 

Makenna after:

Avery before:

Avery during:

 Avery during--Jessica let each of them spray the mirror with the water bottle as she fixed their hair:

Avery after:

They picked out My Little Ponies for being such good girls during their 1st haircuts:

9/26: I took the girls to the aquarium:

 

 

Jared got home from an almost 2-week trip really that night.  We just vegged yesterday and went to church today.  We have some fun things planned in the next week.  :)

The Aquarium and a road trip for a funeral :(

9/1: Makenna just asked for a banana but they were no longer in the kitchen. Apparently, Avery did this at some point this morning. She peeled and ate just a couple of bites of 4 or 5 bananas and wrapped them up in a kitchen towel. She said it was my banana present. Uh, thanks? I'm not even sure where she had been hiding them!

9/4: A visit to the aquarium:

The rope bridge

The penguins

Touching the starfish

  

Feeling a nurse shark

Touching a stingray

 This time, we watched one of the 4D movies--The Last Reef.  They didn't like most of the 4D part--the water and air spraying at us, ha ha!  And the glasses didn't stay on the whole time.

 

 

9/5: The twins just painted their own fingernails while I was showering and Jared was napping. Amazingly, they didn't get it anywhere but on their fingers! {This was while I was trying to get ready to go for a road trip.}
 
9/5: Kiki, Amiee, Jamie, and I (Jamie just came along for the ride) left that afternoon and drove the 4 hours up to Twin Falls, ID to attend the viewing that night and the funeral the next morning (we stayed in a hotel using some of Jared's rewards points) of a dear friend's mom, Lorna Holloway.  Kiki, Amiee, Chani (Lorna's daughter), and I spent a LOT of time together when I was a senior in high school back in Louisiana.  Too bad we didn't move there until I was a senior, so I only had one year to hang out with them as much as we did before I went to college.  But I have so many awesome memories of being at the Holloway home.  Lorna was truly an amazing woman--an extremely talented artist who was loving, compassionate, fun, giving, spiritual, faithful, and so much more.  After the viewing Friday night, they invited us to go hang out at their house for a bit with all of Lorna's kids and their spouses and her husband, Chuck.  It was so much fun hanging out with them.  I love them so much!  The funeral service the next morning was beautiful.  Her sister gave a really touching and funny life sketch and a man beautifully sang "How Great Thou Art", which had just about everyone crying.  We decided to go to the grave site but weren't able to attend the luncheon, even though Chuck really wanted us to, because Amiee had to get home.  It was a nice trip, even though I wish it hadn't been for the reason it was.  Lorna is now free from all the pain and suffering, not to mention the stress, that the cancer caused for the past 7 years, but everyone who knew her will miss her dearly.  She will always be in our hearts!

Here's a pic of us four friends! :) {Me, Amiee, Chani, Kiki}

 

LSU beat Sam Houston State 56-0 last night.  Obviously, it wasn't an incredibly exciting game, and next week's game will probably be about the same.  It will be 2 weeks before we play an SEC team--that's when the season starts to get really good!  Geaux Tigers!