Believe it!!

I knew no one would believe that I really dressed up this year for Halloween,(espicially my family) if I didn't take a picture to prove it. Here it is, proof!!

Happy Halloween

Halloween was great this year, as you can see we had 2 witches (sometimes 3) at our house. I decided a couple of months back I would make my girls Halloween costume this year. I think making Halloween costumes is alot of work. Especially if you are me, someone who needs to go overboard on everything. (I just noticed we don't have any pictures of the cute brooms we also made to match.) After the costumes were all done Matayia said "mom, I don't think I am a very scary witch" I said "no, I would say you are a funky witch!"

Trick or Treating went well, no crying, no whining, no begging to go back to the house. Just 2 little witches (and a stray transformer) pounding the streets gathering candy. When we were almost finished Matayia was remembering some of her favorite houses (especially what they gave her) She said "I like the Waite's house they gave us microwave popcorn, they are so nice!" to which Kaitlyn replied "I think every house is so nice, because they all gave us treats!!" Every time Kaitlyn got a piece of candy she proudly showed Greg and I, telling us exactly what she got as she put it in her bag. Let the candy eating begin, we got alot of it.

Pumpkin Fun

Greg doesn't love carving pumpkins, when I told him we were going to pick out pumpkins for FHE he said "do we have to??" I told him if he could convince the girls to forgo the carving I would happily go with it. As you imagine he couldn't convince them. So Greg cut off the tops handed Kaitlyn her tools and told her to dig in. She then decided this pumpkin thing wasn't that cool.



She whined and complained and Greg cleaned out her pumpkin. On the other hand Matayia cleaned out her pumpkin herself this year, and even tried to convince Kaitlyn that it was fun.



Matayia even carved her pumpkin all by herself this year also. After Greg cleaned his pumpkin and Kaitlyns I tried to convince him to clean out mine also, but once again, like every year he shot me down. Though carving has not always been my favorite I think it is kinda growing on me!!

Crazy hair day

I think Matayia and I have talked about and planned for this day since she started kindergarten. Somehow we always forgot or missed it. While Greg and I were in Europe last spring they had the last crazy hair day and Matayia insisted to her grandma (who was watching her) that she better wait for her mom to do it. The day has finally come... CRAZY HAIR DAY!!!! We started out by parting her hair into many ponytails and them twisting them all into small buns.

We then put flowers in the front ones.




But what suprised us the most was, how CRAZY it looked when we took all the buns out that night.



This being our first official Crazy Hair day we can't wait for many more!! (we have so many ideas!)

What I love about you!!

Last time we were in Logan we were lucky enough to be there at the same time as Stacey and her family. Though her family brings a little craziness with them they always bring alot of fun. This visit was no exception. The kids played, they played, and played and when we were ready to leave, of coarse Matayia could not find one of the many trinkets she was planning on taking home. Of coarse the tears started to flow and everyone started to look for the lost truck. Without any hesitation Josh piped in "she can have mine!" he walked over to Matayia with her tears flowing and handed her his truck telling her she could have it. No one asked him to give up his truck, no one expected him to give up his truck, he saw that his friend was sad and he wanted to make things better. This is what I love about Josh, not that he gives my kids his toys, but that he genuinely cares for others. This is not the first time Josh has done something like this and I am sure this will not be the last. I often watch Josh from the background, he truly is so sweet, he thinks of others before himself and accepts everyone for who they are. I watch how sweet he is to his little sisters, how accepting he is of some, maybe younger more abnoxious cousins and how he would do anything of Matayia.
I notice you Josh, I notice your many great talents. I love you Josh. I often wish I could be more like you, so willing to give to others who are feeling sad. I think of what a great friend you are, what a great brother you are, what a great boyfriend you will be, and someday what a exceptional father you will become. I look forward to the day you become a missionary because at the young age of just 8 you truly know what it means to "try to be like Jesus" Thanks Josh for just being you. We love you.

Fall Break

Maytayia had a couple of days off in Oct for fall break. We decided that we should spend the break in Logan. (it is always so boring at home) We (me and the girls) drove to Logan on Wednesday after Matayia finished school. We got to Logan just in time for dinner. After dinner we decided to go over to Tenley's house for a visit. I just love that Tenley lives behind my mom. Matayia and Kaitlyn love Tenleys kids. Carter and Matayia are the same age, with Tate in the middle and then Kaitlyn and Reese are the same age. Often times when we go to Grandma's house the girls beg to go to Carters house to play. Kaitlyn needs a cute little girl friend like Reese to play with more often.

Thursday we spent the day with Melissa and Easton. We did a little shopping (of coarse)went to Jamba and made witch hats. Kaitlyn found a new best buddy in Easton. They haven't always got along that well, but things have changed. They were so cute together.



Thursday night we went to the Rec center where Grandpa was reffing a volleyball game. Matayia and Kaitlyn think going to Grandpa's games is the coolest. They don't care what kind of game is going on they don't even really care about the game they just love to run around the track above the courts.

We were glad to hear that Jacie and Seth were out of school on Friday an that we could spend the day together with them. Val and I worked on some sewing project while the kids played. We just love Seth, Jacie and Bryn and always have so much fun with them no matter what we do.



Friday was Trevors birthday. And of coarse the kids wouldn't let the day pass without a party.



Saturday the boys went to the game. So the girls busted out the pink BB gun. We shot left over party balloons in the back yard. It was a big hit, Jake said he didn't even care that the gun was pink.




All and all we had a great fall break. Both of my kids shed tears as i drug them out the door to go home. (they were also a little sleep deprived) Thanks everyone for the fun weekend. i know we bring alot of noise and craziness, but we sure love being together as a family!!

Current Projects

While visiting my mom, I came with a bag full of projects to get done. What I learned was I brought way too much stuff. I love to be in the sewing room with my mom but when I come with too much stuff it becomes a chore not a pleasure. Sorry mom, I will bring one project at a time for now on.

But I did come home with some great loot...

We made shirts (I say we because, OK my mom did most of the work)

We made Skirts...

And we made coordinating outfits...

Our Halloween Costumes are still to come!!!

This would be the reason

This would be the reason I insist on picking out my children's clothes!!!

Some how she escaped from the trailer that morning!!

Hiking, Biking and other fun stuff

While in Zions we enjoyed such great weather. The days were in the mid 70's and well i guess it got cold at night but who really cares when you are in a trailer. The good good weather allowed us to really enjoy Zions. We hiked to Weeping rock, always a short favorite hike for the kids.



From the Weeping rock trail head we decided to head up the hidden canyon trail. Greg and I had done this trail before, I remembered it getting a little hairy at the end but wasn't too clear on the details. So we started up the trail with 7 little kids under the age of 7. I am sure we were a sight. Everyone we passed told our kids what great hikers they were and this really seemed to fuel their fire. After a few stops a few snacks



and lots of determination to hike to the end, we rounded the corner to see this.



And this is where we stopped. If you look closely you can see the chains on the side of the rock to hold onto. So maybe this wasn't the best kids for kids under 5. We stopped and had a few more snacks while Matayia begged to go on. I was shocked, in previous years we had to push Matayia to hike and now she didn't want to stop. i looked at Greg and said "this is what you have always wanted, a child that actually wants to hike, take her further" So while the rest of us waited right there Greg, Matayia, Willie and Kazzy went on. ( if you look real close in the previous pic you can see Greg and Matayia, Greg has a Navy shirt and Matayia a white one)

We also took our bikes and had a good time riding them. Zions has a great paved trail to ride on. Greg pulled the buggy with Kaitlyn in it, while Matayia rode her bike. The men decided to put their bikes on the bus and take the bus to the top of the canyon and ride back down



When they got back they said it wasn't that great, they expected it to be all downhill and fast and it was not. But of coarse it was a pretty ride.

Zions in October

A couple of years ago we went to Zions national Park in October and had a great time. Since then we have thought Oct was a great time to enjoy the southern Utah heat, which is just perfect this time of year. So in the spring we asked the girls where they wanted to camp this year and we were glad when Matayia suggested visiting Zions again. So back in May we got reservations with some of our friends (Zion's fills up fast you must get reservations months in advance.) Since our last camping trip wasn't the best (labor day bust post) we were glad to try to redeem the idea of camping with one last camping trip for the year.

Greg took off Friday, and he had off Monday. Yes we love banking holidays in this house. So we were in for a long, fun, warm weekend. We left our house around 10:00 that morning and finally arrived around 4:00 that afternoon. (0f coarse we needed a stop to eat) Our sites were good, after seeing the rest of the campground, I think they were some of the best spots. They were at the back of the campground with no one camping behind us leaving us with a great view of Zions. We set up camp, cooked dinner and waited for our friends to arrive. When they got there we fed there family dinner before setting up their camp. When it was starting to get dark Greg and Willie decided they better go and pop up there trailer. Candace and Willie had borrowed their parents tent trailer. While Willie and Greg fiddled with the trailer Candace and I cleaned up and played with the kids. Soon we realized that the trailer was not up and went to see what was taking so long. To make a very long frustrating story short the trailer was not going to go up that night. Candace and I turned to the owners manual while the men were men and crawled underneath the trailer to try to locate the problem. After the owners manual was of no help, Candace and I hopped on our bikes, put on our headlamps to hopefully find someone who had the same trailer in the campground to help. We rode around in the dark aimlessly looking at all the tent trailers. finally after riding for awhile we came upon a trailer that seemed to be having the same problem as us I quickly said "hey it looks like they are having the same problem as us, let's talk to them" Candace looked at me and said "that is us" We had a little laugh (at my expense) We then turned to the bigger problem, where was the Finch family going to sleep that night. We thought about trying to all squish into our trailer that night, we thought about some people sleeping in the hammock, we thought about sleeping in the cars. They finally decided to just crawl in the trailer and make it work. I don't think they slept that well that night. 2 adults and 2 children in a unpopped up tent trailer sounds real funny now. But leave it to the finch's to make the best out of every situation. I will say we laughed and snapped a few pictures of their family exiting their trailer the next morning.



This misfortune didn't even put a damper on the trip, it seemed to give us alot to laugh about and showed us just how adaptable people can be if they need to (the ended up sleeping in the trailer like this for the full 3 nights)
The camping trip was great, the weather was wonderful, the food was good and the company was exceptional. We love the Finch family and hope they will join us on many more camping trips. ( we will bring an extra tent next time!! So will they!!)

Call me,

The blogging slacker..... I am embarrassed to admit my blogging has been slacking because I am following too many TV shows. All my favorite shows have started up again and my nights (after Matayia and Kaitlyn go to bed) are spent staying caught up. I love reality TV, and maybe and just maybe I am hooked!!! So I have turned off the TV and am trying to catch up.

Soccer season has come and gone, the season brought many different emotions from me and Greg. We have always taught Matayia to be nice, and I just don't think she knows how to be mean. We tried to tell her that in soccer it wasn't mean if you pushed (a little) but there was no convincing Matayia and her strong conscience. So we decided to take her to a professional soccer game. Hopefully this could teach her how to be aggressive. Greg bought us some tickets and he headed off to the SLC Real game.

The game actually held Matayia's the whole time, she understood the game and actually enjoyed it. (Kaitlyn was a different story) For the first time I realized that Matayia had never really watched a soccer game. Watching it helped her better understand how to play the game. The next game was a little different then her earlier games. Though she never dropped anyone to the ground (I never wanted her to do that) she became a little more aggressive. I think she understands the game a little better too. Soccer season had it's ups and downs but Matayia enjoyed it and that is all that matters!!