Happy Halloween

We've never had the problem of finding costumes that were too hot for Halloween. I was surprised, however, to see some kids still wearing the thick monster/animal type costumes and wondered how they weren't sweating to death. Even in the evenings, my girls were fine in shorts.

Halloween is pretty wild here! People go ALL OUT with decorating. I tried to take some pictures, but the camera we had doesn't do well at night so they didn't turn out. My friend went through 1,000 pieces of candy and ran out! We weren't on the main trick-or-treating route so no one came to our house. We donated our candy to a friend on the route. I wasn't even going to have the girls go out, but then we saw how intense some people are about it and did take them to let them see what it was all about. It was pretty amazing. Kids waited in lines at some homes for candy-there were SO many kids!

Costume 1. For the party at school, the kids were supposed to dress as a character from a book. Whitney wanted Fern from Charlotte's Web. Couldn't complain about a few braids, a plastic spider and a stuffed pig (all of which we already had). Kenna really wanted to be Word Girl. I tried to convince her to be Fancy Nancy (for the sake of ease) to which she reluctantly agreed. But she really did want to be Word Girl. So I stayed up much into the night making her costume. It was all worth it in the morning when she put it on and ran through the house saying, "Word Up!" Her costume was made complete with a Captain Huggy Face-who also had a uniform, thanks to Mike.

Costume 3. (Didn't take a picture of Whitney's #2-she wanted to be a gymnast for our ward trunk-or-treat.) On Halloween night, Whitney decided to be a fairy.

Hard to get a good picture of all three-but at least they are all smiling!

Our little Cheerleader. This was Whitney's costume when she was 2! (Bryn is barely 1.)
LOVE the chubby legs!

Here are Whitney and Kenna in their costumes-only a few years ago!

This is a friend of Mike's that he met on his mission in Honduras. Walt was stationed there with the Air Force. He was on the island for an Air Force convention and stopped in for dinner the night of the ward party. It is fun to keep in touch with old friends.

New Hiding Spot

Bryn loves to hide in our corner kitchen cabinet. She's the perfect size too!

Looking For Directions

These pictures must have been taken by one of the girls. I found them when I downloaded the camera and I thought they were funny.

"Let's see . . . now how does this bell thing work?"

"Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to . . . "

"What?! Are you crazy?!"

Sister Bergstrom

This is my fabulous college professor from Ricks College. Sister Bergstrom taught Interpersonal Communications to not only me, but Melinda, Jason, and Lynette, too (all in different semesters). It was a phenomenal class with so many life/communication skills learned. Of the college classes I have taken, many I can't even remember the teachers' names. But not this class. I remember several specific lessons she taught and even most of my classmates.

Bergstrom was here last week and was the devotional speaker. She was amazing as usual! Here is the link if you'd like to watch it http://devotional.byuh.edu/node/361. I think that she could talk about dirt and entertain and teach me. After devotional, Mike and I went to her luncheon and it was great too! She and her husband are such wonderful people! Then Wednesday morning she came over and we went on a walk to the temple and visited for a few hours. It was so good to hang out with her.

We both got a little emotional at some point in our conversation-one thing she told me was that she met our family at a great time for her. Her oldest three kids are the same ages of Melinda, Lynette and I. She said that because of some of the challenges she saw the four of us struggling with, she was able to see things in her kids and was able to help them. That was something I didn't know. It reminded me how Heavenly Father puts people into our lives for a reason. He loves us and knows what and who we need to help us along our path. And sometimes, the people who help us needed us too.

The view from above the temple-one of my favorite places in Laie. It is above Laie so you can see the ocean too. It is beautiful, quiet and peaceful.

The view with the temple in the background.

Mickey Mouse Daddy Style

Our friend, Jill, loves Mickey Mouse. Mike made these pancakes for the girls and I couldn't let them be eaten before we got a picture for Jill! Not the best pictures because they were taken with my phone, but she was impressed.

Home Again

We had a wonderful trip. We've learned a few things for our next trip, but we made a lot of fun memories! I can't forget to mention Daddy's make-up story on the way up to Montana about an ogre with green skin and sausage fingers. The girls request it with some frequency still. We were all laughing at his funny voices for the characters. He is a wonderful Daddy! Thank you to everyone who helped make our trip fabulous! We love and miss you all!

Riding in Style
It was actually a lot easier for me this way rather than trying to hold her and pull the suitcase-and she thought it was fun too. I think suitcases will start being made with a seat belt option! :)

Bryn got a little fussy on the plane ride home. Whitney wanted to try to hold her. I was doubtful, but they looked out the window together for awhile and then Bryn fell asleep in her arms. Whitney LOVED it that she put her to sleep. She has a gift with young children, and loves to help them. She's going to be an awesome babysitter! That will be a beautiful day! I'm sure I'll be her top employer!

Utah

For the last couple of days of our trip, we stayed with our good friends, Mike and Marci. It was great to catch up with them. I can't believe how their boys have grown! They lived across the street from us in Idaho-they were great neighbors! Some nights we'd put the kids to bed and monitor over to their house to play games, watch a movie, or visit. It was a SAD day when they moved to Utah! As always it was great to see them! Maybe we can be neighbors again someday.

As mentioned before-the camera was mostly dead, but I did manage to get a few more pictures of the trip.

Mike and Marci and their boys

Jason and Katy had bought a house and were moving while we were there, so it was pretty crazy, as moving always is. We were glad to be able to help. Marci and I took all the kids to the park on Friday to play while Mike, Jason, and Katy worked on unpacking the house. It was two against eight and a little crazy at times. But we had a lot of fun-especially playing freeze tag. I was grateful to be able to spend some extra time with Marci and her boys and also grateful for her help. Six kids 8 and under would have been a feat! Saturday we wanted to do something fun together before we left so we got stuff to make caramel apples-YUM! We had to eat ours on the way to the airport, but they were pretty tasty! And very nicely decorated! We are excited to come visit again now that they are settled.

Temple Square

Mike had a meeting Thursday at Church Headquarters and we were heading up north to spend time with Jason and Katy. To avoid Mike having to drive back and forth, we hung out on Temple Square for the morning until he finished. We took Kenna to the Conference Center where we had just been for Conference. The tour guide took us up close to see the podium where President Monson (and everyone else) spoke. That is an amazing building! Kenna was excited to see where we got to sit. Maybe in a year and a half we will have to be on the mainland for Conference so we can take her.

Still trying to get the perfect shot of the girls like this, I love to see Brynlee in between her two big sisters. It melts my heart! I love my girls!

Playing in the "I am a Child of God" exhibit in the Church History Building. They had a lot of fun. There are all kinds of hands-on activities for kids that my girls enjoyed.

Ode to Beautiful Hair

We had a few friends/family come see us at Jenna and Dave's house. It was very fun to catch up. I didn't look at these pictures until we'd been back home for awhile and the first thing I noticed in this picture was my hair! It never looks like that in Hawaii! First of all-it is WAY too hot to blow dry, not to mention straighten! When I do take the time to straighten it, it lasts for only an hour-at most. Then it is wavy again, which I am learning to love-still a work in progress. I LOVED fixing it on the mainland-it stayed fixed (and straight) and didn't get frizzy! It was beautiful thing. I'll just post this picture on my bathroom mirror, I guess!

Mike's cousin, Craig and his wife Lori

Colby and Cara and their adorable girls!
After two kids, were glad to see Colby finally warming up to Cara's advances. :) Remember that first New Years'?!

Szokes

First off, I must take this opportunity to say THANKS JENNA, for letting us have copies of all the pictures! Our camera was mostly dead so we didn't get many pictures from the rest of the trip. Jenna saved our bacon! (How's that for credit, Jenna?) :)

The weather was great! Cool and crisp, only needed a sweatshirt or light jacket. The girls enjoyed playing outside in the yard with Jessica and Deena.


One day Jessica got to stay home from school so we could go visit a pumpkin patch and corn maze. We had so much fun!

I love that Deena and Kenna are sharing-Cute girls! We missed Morgan!
They had several of these painted cut-outs scattered throughout the maze the girls enjoyed posing behind.

Deena had a little help from Uncle Mike on this one!

That's a seriously big pumpkin! Not quite as big as Uncle Jason's though!

Bryn looks so little between us!

The stroller wasn't really cut out for the off-roading required for the corn maze.

I love this picture of beautiful girls with beautiful mountains in the background. I wish I could say I took the picture perfectly placing the mountain when I stole Jenna's camera. But actually didn't notice the mountains until I saw the picture on the computer.

Jenna was a little friendly with Casper. :) It made us all laugh!

Goodbyes are never fun! Thanks for letting us stay with you Szokes!

Grandma and Grandpa

On our way down to Utah County, we stopped by to see Grandpa and Grandma at my cousin, Kaylene's house. It was so great to have them up at the baptism, but I didn't get to talk to them much and didn't get to say goodbye. Grandma and Grandpa stayed for church on Sunday, but left right after Sacrament Meeting. Brynlee was pretty sick so I only stayed at church long enough to see all the Desmond kids say their parts in the Primary Program and then headed to Melinda's house to let Bryn nap. I thought they were coming back to the house after church, and was so sad I didn't get to say goodbye. So I was glad we stopped for lunch with them and got a chance to visit (and say goodbye). They are so wonderful!

Catching Up with Friends

Sunday after conference we went to our friends, Cheree and Brett's house. They moved from Idaho a few months after we did and it was fun to spend some time with them! They also came up to Idaho for the baptism. The kids had a great time together! We are excited to see them in Hawaii sometime when Bailee is 7! Thanks for sending me these pictures, Cheree!

Whitney and Carter-she loves being a big sister to him and he loves her!

The happy couple-Cooper and Brynlee.
He does still have some catching up to do.

Their first squabble
It was fun to watch them play together. One time we were in the kitchen and they were on either side of two open drawers emptying them. They started playing peek-a-boo with each other through the drawers. It was SO CUTE! I wish we had taken a picture!

Bailee and Kenna

Making YUMMY pumpkin chocolate chip cookies with Cheree!

Blackmail Photos

We let the girls have a sleepover in Bailee's room. They were so silly and stayed up WAY late! It was fun to hear the laughter coming from upstairs. I did finally have to go upstairs and sit with them so they would actually go to sleep.

The girls being silly-coming up with their own poses.