Leave Clean up

Finally!! All of our leaves from our trees have fallen down.  Now, the final step to clean them up before the snow hits.  The kids were such good helpers to get the last part of the leaves up from the ground.  Carter liked blowing the leaves to make a pile and then sucking them up.  He did a great job!  I had to take a picture of this nice act of service he did to help out.     

Hard worker!  That bags gets heavy when it is full of leaves.

Family Night at the Jazz Game

Matt scored some VERY cheap tickets to a Jazz game so he invited some friends of ours (The Dalton's and the Call's) to the game.  The seats were up at the very top of the upper bowl.  Even though the we were way at the top it was nice to have space to spread out and chat during the game.  The Jazz were losing by 10 points the entire game until last quarter when they caught up.  It was a close game at the end, but the Jazz prevailed and won! Yay!! The crowd was so loud and it made the game super fun!  We even scored some neat metal lunch boxes. 

Thanksgiving in Idaho

Our little family traveled to Idaho to spend Thanksgiving with our families.  We really excited to finally spend a holiday with Mike and Laura's family since it has been 4 years since our 2 families have been together to celebrate.  Matt's parents bought a Turducken for our meat to feast on.  It was very interesting how they are all stuffed together.  It was very tasty!  It took us some time to prepare the meal with all the sides for everyone, then to sit down and eat for 20 minutes and then it was time to clean up.   Then Laura and I dove into the newspaper ads to check out the big deals.  We headed out Thanksgiving night to some tradition shopping and enjoy those holiday deals! We had a fun time together!  But, poor Carter was not enjoying himself.  Matt did not want me to know that Carter had been really sick with vomiting, wheezing, and a headache back at his parents house while I was out.  I came back to all of the vomit cleaned up (thanks Tom) and Carter not looking great. He was able to get some rest and feel better the next day. 

 On Friday we visited with my mom and got to spend some time with her. (Thanks for all the fun gifts) 


Then, on Saturday we headed to my dad's house to visit with Corey on our way home to Utah.

We were very thankful that we had great driving conditions and that Carter got to feeling better and that we could spend some time with family even if it was for a short time.

 

New Pet...

Ashlynn saved up her money to get her own pet.  She wanted to get this cute dwarf hamster.  These hamsters are very small and don't get any bigger than she is now.  She is just a very funny ball of soft fur that likes to explore.  The best thing about her is that the kids put her in the roller ball when they put her on the floor and she just rolls around exploring.  It it like a toy rolling around the floor.  It is very cute to watch. 

And of course Ashlynn had to get the pink palace (cage) for her new little pet.  It goes well with her room.  She is just so gitty over her new little pet.

Snow before Thanksgiving??

It snowed all day on Friday (11/9) but it was too warm for it to stay around and then we woke up on Saturday to a winter wonderland.  It had snowed 12 inches in about 8 hours.  The kids couldn't wait to get out and play in it.  We even pulled out the sleds and tubes to hit the sledding hill.  It was great!

The nice thing about this snow storm is that we didn't have to shovel the driveway and walkways because it was again very warm so the sun was clearing the roadways for us.  It is nice that you can play in the white stuff and not freeze your toes off in the process.

Carter Video

I wanted to share this video of Carter.  He has been working really hard the last 3 months on doing a back handspring and he can do it.  Yay!!  He scares me everytime he does one.  I think he is going to land on his head or neck wrong, but he does it so nicely. 

This video was a few weeks ago and he is now doing them without very much support from his coach.  I just love his determination!

 

Halloween

We are sad that our one of our families favorite holiday is over, but we have many more to look forward to.  On Halloween we headed out to our neighborhood trunk or treat and got to mingled with people that live around us.  There were lots of fun costumes..so FUN!  Then we ventured out to the rest of neighborhood and the boys were loving the scary houses with characters roaming around yards and jumping out and scaring people.  There was even a person chasing kids with chain saws.  (I find it interesting that this is one day of year that we will allow our kids to go up to scary houses, and chase around a chain saw man.  That is what makes this holiday so fun.  Everything you teach your kids about strangers and scary people just goes out the door.)  

Ashlynn on the other hand just kept on wanting to go home because of all the scary masks everywhere, but she made it all around the neighborhood with out bolting away and just hung on tight to my hand.  I thought it was funny that she would stay by me until she saw who opened the door to the trick or treaters and then decide if that person was safe to get candy from.  She was not about to except candy from anyone in a mask. 

 

Matt was back at home scaring people with his lightning show on the house and the talking head inside the house.  He has been working on these projects for a few months just for the BIG night.  He was happy to put them in action for the trick or treaters. 

 

We had a awesome night with friends and glad that everyone made it home safely.  Until next year...