Happy Halloween From My Family To Yours

Since today is Halloween, I wanted to leave you with a Happy Halloween Haunting from my family to yours. Here are a few of the "Halloweeny" activities from the month of October. Have a spooky day with your family!!!

Cadence got her face painted like a tiger at Gardner Village. Here she is in action trying to scare me!!! I was amazed at the tiger persona she took on the whole day. She growled at strangers as she passed them. I loved it (and so did they)!!!!

The tiger decided to smile for a cute picture (but only for a few seconds.)

If you are interested in hiring a great face painter for a birthday party, corporate or social event, reunion or fundraiser and are in Salt Lake or Davis counties (or sounding areas) in Utah, check My Kids' Entertainment out. Amazing face painting and glitter tatoos. Reasonable prices. Go HERE to see more.

Washing the face paint off was also a fun experiment. My daughter loved smearing the paint with water!

Cooper running around in his gorilla costume at the park!
I found this spider costume at a garage sale for $1. Cadence loves to play "Little Miss Muffet" in it. When I asked her what she wanted to be for Halloween, she replied instantly, "A spider!!!"This is the first year we have carved pumpkins. Before now, we just painted them. The kids loved using tools and were in awe when we put a candle inside of them.
Happy Halloween from our family to yours!

Cadence, The Photographer

Cadence loves the camera. Everytime I get it out, she wants to take pictures. I let her if she puts the strap around her wrist. She does it now without being reminded. She is quite the photographer and takes many abstract pictures of feet, corners, ceilings, half-faces, junk, etc. The following are a few of the better pictures she has taken recently!

A new problem is starting to develop! Cooper wants to take photos too!!! Wish the camera luck!

Little Updates

I have been so bad about updating our family blog lately. I am kicking myself for not writing more. A few days ago, I looked at pictures from last Halloween. The kids were so little. I will do better at keeping up with recording the growth of the kids and the going-ons of our family. Here are a few things that happened last month or even before that.

This summer we made a few home improvements. We got a ceiling fan for our living room. It looks and feels so nice. After five years of marriage, we got a dishwasher. And we got a new window in the kitchen. We can actually see out of it clearly and the wind doesn't come it!!!! Even though it has been months since Chris installed the dishwasher, the box is still in the house. It has been a great toy and place for the kids to hide. At least once a day, Cadence climbs in the box and yells for me to come find her. Cooper loves to point out where Cadence is. This box will stay around for many more months (if not years)!!!

There was a small windstorm and it blew down one of the big junk trees. Luckily, it was just a few feet too short to hit our neighbor's garage. One year ago, there were 3 of these trees. Now only one is left and it is weak. It broke a huge branch about 5 years ago. The kids were actually really great help cleaning it up and hauling it away. They stacked the cut up branches in the wagon to haul over to the firewood pile.

My friend, Karah, from Impact, brought her two daughters up for dinner and fun. We took the kids to the zoo. Cooper loves the monkeys and signs 'monkey' so well and hilariously.

Looking at the birds and swinging on the swings made for a very enjoyable night!!!

Last Call for Meet-The-Candidates

Just a reminder that Tuesday, Oct 27 between 7-8:30pm Mike Morrill, Tony Wegener and Steven Stokes will be at our house to answer your questions abou the upcoming election. Stop by if you can. If you can't, remember to vote for them on Nov. 3 for limited govt, personal property rights, no more fancy buildings, and for representing ALL people, not just the upperclass!

Toys Down the Stairs

I love having the toy rooms (all 3 or 4 of them) at our house upstairs. When kids come over, I send them upstairs. All too often a few toys, stuffed animals or balls find their way down the stairs. Unfortunately, Cooper has decided that one of his new favorite games to play is throw EVERYTHING down the stairs. This is one day of playing that game.

What kind of mom am I to let my kids do this? I know that I will be the one bringing up the majority of the items, but they find such joy in watching the animals do cartwheels and the babies bouncing head over heels that I just can't find it in myself to stop them:) They are only kids for a little while!!!
Actually, I do tell them that only things that are soft can bounce down the stairs, and gratefully, they follow my direction. I don't think our downstairs tennants or the stairs would enjoy a few of the hard, plastic, metal, extra large items that Cooper has attempted to drag out into the hall for launch!

Not sure why this picture is upside down, but the kids are so happy! When you come over and see toys scattered through our house, you will have a better understanding why this is so!!!

Visiting Utah's Ocean

Back on Labor Day weekend, my sister, Natalie came down from Boise. Most of the cousins got together for a day of fun. We decided to visit Utah's ocean - AKA, The Great Salt Lake, Antelope Island. When we got there, we saw one buffalo and ooohed and aaaahed. Then we drove around the hill and saw a ton of them. There were many up closer than this, but I like these pictures. I think Cooper thought they were horses and cows!
We headed out to the ranch. I forget the name of it because it was a month and a half ago!!! There were many activities for the kids to do and lots of places to take pictures. Here Cadence is roping a...bull?

Cadence loves it when cousins are around. Here they are riding...a horse barrel?
Cooper enjoyed getting into everything and riding on this saddle! Notice he is wearing sandals. After wearing the high tops for a few days, I think he liked not stepping on rocks and pricklies. Now, he will wear shoes without a fuss!!!
We had to get a family picture of this log. So cute!

Cooper loved spending time with the horses and chickens.
I wanted to take lots of pictures of Cadence on all the antiques. She is just such a cute little girl! I would take more pictures of Cooper too except he doesn't like to look at the camera so I get lots of the side of his head:)

One of the crafts the kids participated in was making/dipping candles. Both kids thought it was so fun!!!!

After the ranch, we headed to the beach. Since we didn't know Antelope Island was the plan, we didn't bring swimsuits. That was ok. Cadence got to wear a beautiful leotard of Maddie's that she loves (and wears often now) and Cooper wore his diaper.
I must say that I was very impressed with the beach (except for the brine flies.) The sand was soft and heavenly. The water was warm and shallow for hundreds of feet. We could have ran and played in it all day.

The sand was so awesome to play in. Cooper had a blast getting dirty. So did all the cousins!

I've heard the Great Salt Lake is so salty that you can float, but because it was so shallow for so far, none of us really got to test that idea! It was great for the kids because I wasn't worried about them going in over their heads. They could lay down and still be safe from water going in their faces.
Since Chris and I didn't have our swimsuits, it was perfect for wading. See the cousins and my sisters in the background. They were still wading all the way out there!!!

After a while, Cooper had a saggy diaper:) I was tempted to just let him run around naked, but decided against it since he was the only boy and there were a few other families around us.

We told everyone to wash the sand off their bodies before we headed back to car. Cooper did just the opposite. He washed the sand on to his body. What a kid!!!

When we were done playing, the walk back to the cars was a ways. Instead of carrying Cooper with a gallon of salt water in his diaper, Chris just took it off. Isn't this a cute picture of his bum? Babies rock!!!Up by the cars were outdoor showers where we rinsed the salt and sand off our feet and bodies. That was a very welcomed treat! We really enjoyed this visit to the ocean of Utah. The beach rocked and the accommodations were very nice. I hope to come here at least once a year!!!

Elections are Coming!

Hey everyone! City elections are coming up in a couple weeks and I'm pretty passionate about this election. There are many issues which I feel strongly about which is why I am actually blogging about it. There are three candidates who I want to win and am encouraging anyone in Logan to come to a COTTAGE MEETING/MEET THE CANDIDATE NIGHTS at my home on Tuesday, October 27 from 7-8:30pm. My address is 715 E. 200 N. Anyone is invited. Come meet Mike Morrill, Tony Wegener, and Steven Stokes and make sure you vote for them in November.

We're Dating!

Since I never "dated" before I/we got married, I know the title of this post is shocking. "Dating" is such a serious word. I much preferred just to "hang out." Chris and I have started dating. He has been the instigator of this. At first, I was a little intimidated to accept his invitation, but now I am opening up to "dating." It is good for us to be away from the kids every once in a while.

We've only been on a few dates, but they have all been interesting and surprising. He won't tell me before what we are doing. Once he took me to the golfing range to hit some golf balls. I totally rock...at missing the ball. I will never be a professional golfer. It is fun, but golfing is not my best sport. Look at that form! I would cheer every time I actually hit it into the air!
Chris is pretty good at hitting the ball. He is able to hit it far and high. I wanted him to hit the little golf cart guy, but he didn't. What a man!

Recently, he took me on another memorable date. We drove to our duplex. I saw ducks in the backyard and commented about them. He said, "There's going to be a killing tonight." What!!!! Yes, for our date, Chris slaughtered two domesticated ducks.
He hit them over the head with rebar, smashing their brains. Their bodies were twitching for minutes afterwards. Then he wrung their necks, plucked their breast feathers and cut out the breast! Seriously romantic. I watched with shock! Although looking at the insides and identifying the organs were interesting, I would have preferred to feeding ducks at a pond or something.
The worst part about dating is finding someone to watch the kids on a Friday night. Paying someone costs a lot of money and I feel bad asking people to do it for free. If anyone wants to be in a date/babysit co-op, we are looking for people who will watch kids one friday night a month and get 3 Friday nights free for dating. I'm looking forward to some more fun dates!!!