Busy!

We have been so so so busy the past week and a half! Phew! Luckily now that Halloween is over things should slow down at least for a bit.

The kids and I went to the Red Barn with Grandma and Grandpa one warm afternoon.



We enjoyed a few more pedal tractor rides...



And many more rides down the slide...



Played in the sand...



And picked out a few more pumpkins...



It was fun to take Grandma and Grandpa to our favorite pumpkin patch!



We went to our ward's temple night. We spent the day fasting for a family in a ward who just found out the mom has stomach cancer. We also went thinking about another family in our ward going through a hard time. I was able to stay awake for the whole session which is a huge accomplishment for me. (The new film is much better when seen in its entirety.) I left feeling incredibly grateful for all of our blessings - especially for our knowledge and testimony of the Plan of Salvation.

On Friday I went to the Pinners Conference up at the Sandy Expo Center with Mariah (and Charlotte). We took a few classes from the Wood Connection and I took a class from Fit2Fat2Fit while Mariah went to a photography class. I love this textured Christmas sign we made in one of the Wood Connection classes, but the Fit2Fat2Fit was my favorite class. His diet is way over the top, but I will probably read his book because I find the mental and emotional side of what he learned from his Fit2Fat2Fit journey totally interesting.



Friday evening we played Boise State. For the tailgate I made Pumpkin Snickerdoodles - they were so so good and easy to make! (Thanks for introducing me to them Megan!)

We let Corbyn go into the stadium to watch the 1st quarter with Rog. He got to see a touchdown and had a great time.



Grandma, Peyton, and I found a spot where we could see the scoreboard and hung out outside the stadium.



Then we sent the kids home with Grandma and I went to the rest of the game. It was a good one. We picked up our 6th win of the season beating them 37-20 and secured a bowl game.

Saturday morning I had our Primary Program practice and then headed back to the Pinners Conference for a few more classes - Wood Connection, Photoshop, and Desserts with a few of the sisters from Six Sisters Stuff.

Rog's parents were in town for his Aunt and Uncle Aagard's mission farewell. While I was at the conference they went to the pumpkin walk at Central Utah Gardens in Orem.



This picture totally cracks me up. The kids do not look happy, but I was told they had a good time.



I met them for dinner at Zupas.

After we put the kids to bed we went on a little date to Trafalga in Lehi for a friend in our ward's birthday. We played Laser Tag - something I hadn't done since I was a sophomore in high school and had no desire to go again. The first game we played reminded me exactly why I felt that way, but I improved by leaps and bounds the second game and now could probably be persuaded to play again! It was fun to hang out with a few couples in our ward without kids!

Sunday night we had our 5th annual ghoulish feast. (More on this in another post coming soon.)



We had a great start to this week with Peyton pulling my decorative table down on herself - breaking a few plates and one of my wood crafts.



And giving herself a nice cut on her forehead. (Just a surface cut - it didn't even bleed. But it does look pretty bad.)



It was also my week to host Joy School, Peyton had her 18 month checkup, and of course Halloween! So more to come, but that's our last week and a half in a nutshell!

Fall Break

BYU doesn't have a fall break (or a spring break for that matter), so we were excited at the prospect of a whole week off in the middle of the semester. We thought about going somewhere. We really wanted to go to a National Park, but they were all closed thanks to the government shutdown. Finally we decided to just stay home and have a combination staycation/project week.

The kids loved having dad home to build towers and play hide-and-seek with them. (And I loved having someone to entertain the kids while I got ready for the day!)

 

We fit in lots of fun things.

Monday night we went to the Red Barn with the Petrosinos and the Woods for FHE.



We enjoyed all our favorite activities from past years - the slide...



and the maze...



New this year was tractors to pedal around.



Corbyn searched and searched until he found the perfect pumpkin.



It was a chilly, beautiful night - perfect for enjoying friends and a pumpkin patch!



One afternoon we took the kids to see Planes. It was a cute show.

Another afternoon we went to the duck pond at BYU. The ducks were CRAZY! As soon as we got out the food, they swarmed us. I had to hold Peyton most of the time, so she didn't get eaten alive.



After feeding the ducks, we climbed the stairs and walked around campus for a bit.



Grandma and Grandpa treated us to breakfast at Kneaders and dinner at Pizza Pie Cafe.



On Saturday we watched BYU play Houston. It was a close, high-scoring game. Luckily we pulled out a win, final score 47-46.



Rog got to enjoy a couple games of golf with my dad.

We also worked on a few projects. I ran about a million errands one afternoon kid free. Rog did some maintenance on Meg. We cleaned the garage.

I finally got curtains put up in our bedroom and downstairs. (We've only lived here 3 1/2 years!) I bought them way back in June, but they needed to be hemmed. And I made a tiny set of curtains from the bottoms for the little window in our bedroom.



They are all the light beige Lenda curtains from IKEA. Now we have curtains on all the windows in our house! WOOT!



I also worked on painting my stripes in our downstairs bathroom. I painted the first stripe over a year ago. Hopefully it doesn't take me another year to get to the third stripe!



It was good to get a few projects done and enjoy a relaxing week with Rog home!

Last Week and Homecoming Weekend

Last week I finished my 6th book of the year - Dinner: A Love Story by Jenny Rosenstrach. Jenny talks about the evolution of family dinnertime at her house. I loved reading (and relating) to each stage. And even more, I loved hearing that someday dinner will get a lot easier. I figured it would, but it was good to hear it!!

Speaking of dinner, Peyton had a good solid week where she just had no appetite at all. I think she had some sort of a virus, but it was a weird one because she didn't really have any other symptoms at all. During that week she decided she was DONE with her booster seat. Her appetite has since returned, but her booster seat strike has continued.



I went on a crazy (and not at all ridiculous) quest for the complete set of Wizard of Oz McDonald's kid's meal toys. (Did you know you can buy kid's meal toys without the kid's meal?!) After going to five McDonald's and calling dozens more, I had all but Dorothy. She was nowhere to be found, so I used reward points to buy her on Amazon. She came today and now my collection is complete! The kids love them (even though they have never seen the Wizard of Oz) and they look pretty cute with this witch printable from the Wood Connection.



Friday afternoon we hiked the Y. Rog carried Peyton in our hiking backpack and Corbyn walked the entire way up by himself. It was definitely hard for him - he kept wanting to stop - but he did it!



He was pretty timid at first, but soon was climbing up and down the Y like it was no big deal. He made us so nervous!



Peyton was done with the carrier and would not get back in for the ride down. She walked a little of it, but mostly rode on my shoulders or insisted I carry her. Corbyn also walked part of the way down and rode the rest of the way on Rog's shoulders.



The sun was setting on our way down and it was beautiful!



Saturday morning we all ran the Cougar Run (except Peyton). Corbyn did the kid's race again. Rog ran it with him this year, but next year we are going to practice and see if we can get him to run it by himself!



I have been training hard and it paid off - I finished in 23:37 which is the closest I've come to my PR of 23:04 (set back in 2007 on the same course).



I was most excited that I placed 2nd in my age group. Last year I placed 3rd - it was fun to place again and even move up one spot!



Rog did awesome for the amount of training he's done (not very much with his long commute) - he finished in 26:29.

After the run we cleaned the church - it was a good week to sign up for because with Conference being the Sunday before, it was basically already clean.

We played Georgia Tech that night. It was such a fun game - full of action and best of all, we won! 38-20!!

We have seats with Bill, Mariah, my dad, and Jared. Every game we kind of play musical chairs. It was the first time I ended up sitting by the Jar. Love this brother of mine!!



We decided to get our yearly cougar tail donut this game rather than waiting until the last game like we usually seem to do. It was a great idea because the donut was soft and delicious. (The last game is cold and the donuts end up being kind of cold and hard.)



On Sunday Jared talked in my parents' new ward along with them as kind of a homecoming - even though he has been home for 4 months now. He gave his official homecoming talk down in St. George, but he did this one for all our family and friends who live up here.

I helped my mom put together 3 different crock pot soups to serve after - beef stew, tomato basil soup, and cream cheese chicken chili. The cream cheese chicken chili was by far the most popular, but that was ok by me (and my dad) because it meant lots of leftover tomato basil soup (our favorite).

After everyone left we had Jared watch Wreck it Ralph with Corbyn. We've been talking about it since he got home - it was about time we actually made it happen!

It was a busy, but fun Homecoming weekend! Go cougs!!

Conference Weekend

Conference weekend, oh how I love you! So many wonderful gems... I can't wait to study the talks and discover even more!

Elder Hales' talk was a perfect way to start out the conference.



And Elder Holland and President Uchtdorf really hit it out of the park. (They always do.)



images via here and here

I made this set of magnet pages for Corbyn to play with while we watched. (He liked them ok, but he liked the alphabet set I made more.)



Aside from the actual watching of conference...

On Saturday in between sessions we did a dessert exchange with a few families in our ward. I made mini pumpkin cupcakes. It was fun to see friends while we dropped them off and we ended up with a great selection of delicious treats!

While the men went off to Priesthood, my mom and I took the kids to a nearby park. (We call it the chicken park because one of the yards close to the park has a chicken coop.)



We had the Ririe Waffle Breakfast at my parent's house - nice because we didn't have to drive all the way up to Salt Lake, but we still got to see the Riries!

On Sunday in between sessions I finally got around to making this witch I got at the Wood Connection back in 2011!



It was a pretty great weekend!