So on Saturday morning while Kenna was eating her breakfast, she wheeled around in her chair to look at me, held her piece of bacon up in the air and shouted, "Hey mom! I made a Lamanite!"

Here is said Lamanite:

Not sure if I should consider this a parenting success or not....

Perhaps she should have been a Lamanite for Halloween.

Instead, she opted for the fairy princess she was last year. With whiskers and kitty ears, of course. What fairy princess is seen without them? And of course her little sister needed some whiskers too. After all, only the best ladybugs have whiskers. This year party-pooper mom decided we were going to dig through the dress-up bin to find our Halloween costumes, and we pretty much just did a repeat of last year. But these little spooks sure looked cute!



Lest we forget the cutest pumpkin in the patch, here is our little Ty man.


Let the fun begin!


The sugarfest started with a round of trunk-or-treating at the church which, many thanks to the cold, wind, and rain, was held in the cultural hall. But no matter, as long as the treats keep coming life is good! Later on the wind died down, and Kenna was determined to hit the neighborhood as well, so we headed around the block to top it all off. A giant diabetic nightmare. Now I get to be the treat referee. Those silly girls have organized and reorganized their treats a million times. I remember doing the same thing when I was a little girl, it's so fun to see their excitement.

Oh, we can't forget the pumkin carve. What is better than carving pumpkins in your jammies? Hmm, I guess the only thing that tops it off is carving pumpkins in your mismatched jammies!



Another Halloween goes down for the record books.

Now, on to Thanksgiving!

CHAMPS!

Some people mumble under their breath about their in-laws, but I am so blessed to have married into a darn good family! Check out these champs:

These handsome young fellows did us proud on Wednesday at the state cross-country meet. On the left we have Benson, coming in strong as the number 2 runner for Mountain Crest. Next to him in the middle is Daniel, number 1 runner for the team and 9th overall! On the right is their next door neighbor, Addison. We had so much fun watching them run. It was my first time at a state cross-country meet and I loved all the chaos as people ran back and forth to cheer on the runners as they passed by on different spots of the trail. Way to go Uncle Bens and Uncle Dan the man! We're so proud of you!

Hmmm, they must have a really awesome big brother. Well, actually I guess I have to say older brother. Jacob is quickly getting passed up on height. Don't worry Jacob, I love every square inch of you!

Oh, and Daniel and Benson: I guess it's alright that you run for Mountain Crest and not Sky View. *sigh* I guess we can't have it all....

:)

Resemblance

Top picture is Ty. Bottom picture is Allie. I think they're related.

Update

Hi there, this is Ty. My mom didn't put the best picture of me sittin' in my Bumbo chair, so now you can get a better look at just how handsome I am. Aaaah, life is good. Sorry ladies, you'll have to wait another 21 years til' I'm off my mission.

FIRSTS

I love the fall. I certainly can't believe it's here already, but I love it. Hopefully we can enjoy the cool for a while before the cold comes in to kick it out. So, we've recently had a couple of our "firsts" that signal summer has gone for the year.

-Last night we had our first chili for the fall. Which of course was accompanied by cinnamon rolls. With caramel frosting. Delish. We've had rain (a LOT of rain) this week and so it was a perfect night to stay in from the cold and have a nice hot dinner. Yea, some wives beg for nice weather, I actually beg for the cold and wet. It's just the only time I can actually get my husband in the house before 9 or 10 at night!

-We started our first fire of the year this afternoon. Many thanks to the fact that our furnace won't start. Nice. It fired up just fine about a month ago when it was nice and hot outside, go figure. I HATE paying for repair men to come! Perhaps it will just magically fix itself. I'll keep you posted on that one.

-And here is my little Ty trying out his Bumbo chair for the first time. How does one baby get so darn cute? His mama must be really good-lookin!

MATH

This:



Plus this:



Equals this:


The girls are always wanting to use scissors and for the longest time I haven't let them. Well, the other day at Wal-Mart they had some little kid scissors for a buck, so I thought "Why not?" After all, they can start using scissors to cut small things and do some fun little projects, right? WRONG. Yea, I suddenly remembered why I haven't let them use scissors. Kenna can be trusted, but obviously her little sister can't. Fortunately she is a master barber and I really can't tell where on her head the hair came from. Which is crazy because I found plenty of it on the floor and sticking to her clothes. Whoever coined the phrase "terrible two's" was terribly wrong. It's the terrible THREES and it seems to magically begin as soon as the third birthday celebrations have ended. My oh my we are in for quite a year with Miss Allie. There are days when she is definitely more spice than she is sugar.

Yes my girls really are quite sweet. Of course for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. So, for every ounce of sweetness one little girl can contain, she has an equal amount of spice to really liven it up.

Our little Spice Girls:


Complete with a little art project we did where MOM did the cutting.

'Tis a Blessing

Now really, there never was a cuter little boy. Ever.

Yep, that's my little Ty guy all decked out in his white tuxedo. Many many thanks to Jacob's Aunt LaDean for being so generous to make Ty his little blessing outfit. His blessing day was absolutely perfect. Jacob did a beautiful job with the blessing and the afternoon was spent enjoying our wonderful family and eating some really good food. I'm still craving the homemade ice cream. And the girls are craving all the attention they got from grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. It was so awesome to have extra hands! Jacob and I even got to squeeze in a trip to the temple. Time alone with Jacob is almost non-existent, we loved the time together.

Is it any wonder this little guy is so handsome? Just look at his darn good-lookin' daddy!

My sumo son is now weighing in at 13 pounds. He is definitely not hurting for anything to eat, that's for sure! I can't believe how much he has changed. It's amazing what a difference 2 months makes in a baby. Our neighbors had a cute little baby girl just 4 weeks after us. She weighed 2 pounds lighter than Ty did when he was born, and has stayed just little petite. He has definitely got her beat. This is just so darn hilarious. Maybe because it looks like he's beating on her.

I've decided after having 3 babies that I really like the 2-month mark. It seems to be the point where we've gotten used to our "norm" and routine of having a new one in the home, and the newborn fog seems to have lifted. Life has definitely been kicked up a notch, but blessings keep pouring in along with the trials.

Some more random pics from our great weekend:

My Grandparents with Ty. So special. I absolutely love and adore my grandparents.



A 4-generation with dad, Grandpa Clark, and Great-Grandpa Floyd. This baby has come into quite an extraordinary family, I have to say.



Just in case you're wondering, I kiss these cheeks ALL. DAY. LONG.


And just for the record, his daddy's pretty fun to kiss too.