Riverwoods Pumpkin Parade

Trick-or-treating at Riverwoods was a popular activity on Friday night. My mom, dad and aunt Pat met us there and it was fun hanging out with them!

The minis make good minions, walking all over the place. It was so hard to get a clear picture of them together because they kept going separate ways and they were always moving. One guy walked up and asked if he could take a picture of them. I said good luck!

Most of the stores were out of candy and the lines for the games were long so a carousel ride made up for it.

Kaden's costume came with a mask but it is itchy and hard to see in it. Kaden couldn't wear it at the ward trunk-or-treat the night before so I painted his face and then decided to paint it for the Riverwoods too. I think I'll paint it on Halloween too because it is so much easier than taking the mask on and off.

Sienna was a fan of the carousel all along.

Tag was arching his bag to get off until it started. Then he loved it.

Chores

Seven is a great age. James learned how to mow the lawn over the summer. Saturday he learned how to vacuum. Lynnlee and Kaden are good at scrubbing toilets, washing walls and baseboards. I used to try and get the chores done during the week so we could just play on Saturday. It is hard to find time for my kids to do chores during the week so now I get why Saturday mornings works best for chores. We were busy all last Saturday morning cleaning the house. It is so nice having help!

Tenth Anniversary

Marshall took good care of me for our anniversary. We celebrated ten years and for ten days leading up to the day he surprised me with a small gift and card. On our anniversary he gave me roses and they were beautiful! I felt so loved. It's been a stressful few months and even when it feels like nothing is going right, at least I feel loved. I'm glad I have him by my side to get through all of our trials.

Hawaii would have been my first choice for celebrating but since that didn't happen, going out to lunch was a close second. We went to a delicious new restaurant called Chi-Ku and it is now one of my favorite restaurants. The minis doubled and Kaden made a great fifth wheel. We had a good time.

It's fun to see where we are ten years later. We have checked off the list having kids and owning a house. Now I need to come up with a new check list for the next ten years.
Marshall made dinner on Sunday and took care of things while I cuddled on the couch. I love Sienna's photo bomb in the picture below.

Fall Break '15

I wish I could blog on the spot because I would have much more to say. My thoughts and feelings are all so fresh in the moment and then I forget a week or two later when I sit down to blog.

Fall break was suppose to be a trip to Legoland in California. There was a good deal on tickets and when I asked Marshall about purchasing it we both decided to wait and didn't feel quite right about it. With all of the trouble we have been going through with our renter in Bountiful we now know why.

Thursday we went to Cornbellys (pictures will be in a future post all about our month at Cornbellys). Friday morning I ended up at the pool with all of my kids. We were planning on meeting up with family but it didn't work out last minute for the others. I never ever would have thought I could handle all five by myself but it went surprisingly well. James is independent. Lynnlee and Kaden are independent with life jackets on. Taggart clung to me and Sienna stayed close. It is much easier since they can walk and keep their head above water in the shallow areas.
We sent off Marshall and James that afternoon. I took this picture while they were loading up.

We went to Thanksgiving Point Scarecrow Festival after they left. It was beautiful weather. The scarecrows were really fun to see and in there was a good variety. It is a contest that anyone can enter so maybe we will enter next year.

We are Star Wars obsessed along with James and the rest of Utah. We had to get pictures of these.

We liked this witch and her crazy long eye lashes like Yzma on Emperor's New Groove.

Looks like I could use some practice taking selfies :)

Kaden and Lynnlee were really good the whole time. There were a few bounce houses they got to play in. The minis were happy in the stroller as long as we were moving or they had a snack.

On Saturday we went to my parent's house. Even though leaves are annoying to clean up, I wish we had bigger trees at my house. We just barely planted trees so it will be a few years. We raked the leaves into a big pile and then Lynnlee and Kaden jumped in.

We had fun hanging out all day. Ali came with Katelyn and the kids played. Ali and my mom made a really yummy minestrone. My mom made cannoli. Yum!

Marshall and James got home Saturday night. They didn't shoot a deer but still had a great time.

Weekly Minis

The minis are in the stage where it's extremely difficult to get a good picture of both of them looking at the camera. I remember going through this with my other kids and it was tricky. It is even more tricky with two babies. Pretty much one will look and the other won't and vice versa. So then I have to include two pictures for each situation.

They are the cutest when they play outside in the play house.

Sienna is the cutest when she caries my old Barbie suitcase around.

We played bored games last week and the minis wanted to be apart of it.

The minis love parks and I love it too because they can play independently. They had fun at this park while James was at basketball practice.

Sienna is starting to say more words. She can say mom, dad, hi and by. Now she can also say Taggart and trick-or-treat (just in time).

Halloween Cookies

We are busier this year than ever. Normally we have all of our fall traditions planned and everything else is planned around them. This year we are trying to squeeze our fall traditions in around the craziness of life. We made and decorated sugar cookies a week ago. My kids had fun rolling out the dough and using cookie cutters. Then they frosted a few. We took some to the neighbors.

Then we had a beautiful rack of cookies left over. They were sitting on the counter. The windows were open and a storm blew in and the wind was crazy. Next thing we knew the fly strip above had fallen down and landed on all the cookies. It snaked perfectly and touched every single one. It was so disappointing. We threw the fly strip away and just blankly stared at the cookies. They didn't look contaminated. With how much we all get sick it wasn't worth it and all the cookies were tossed in the trash. Good thing we like to make and decorate sugar cookies for Christmas. We will have a redo then and there will be no fly strips contaminating them.

Mini Minions

I decided I wanted the minis to be minions for Halloween. I figured it wouldn't be that hard to piece together costumes but it was harder than I thought. I found overalls at DI but then I couldn't find yellow shirts or hats. I mentioned it to my sister Ali. She was working on her next segment for Studio 5 so she offered to make hats for them. I didn't think she was serious at first but then she asked for their head measurements. I bought white onesies and dyed them. They turned out the perfect minion yellow.

I couldn't be more excited about the final result. Ali did an amazing job with their hats!!! You can find the instructions here.

Taggart was not happy for the photo-shoot or any other time during the day. (Part of the weird phase he's going through that I mentioned in a previous post)

Ali's segment on Studio 5 aired last Tuesday. The picture of the minis was in the episode. The picture also was the front of the main webpage for a few days. The minis were on a billboard right after birth and now they are on Studio 5. I think they are pretty cool kids!

Scarecrow Festival

Marshall and James went hunting Friday to Saturday. I wanted to do something fun with Lynnlee, Kaden, and the minis while they were gone. We decided to go to the scarecrow festival at Thanksgiving Point Gardens. It was so much fun. We walked around the gardens looking at different themed scarecrows. The weather was perfect, the minis were happy in the stroller and Lynnlee and Kaden loved spotting out the scarecrows.

Lynnlee with Chewbaca and BB-8. We took this pictures for James since he loves Star Wars.

The minis and Darth Vader. We also took this one for James.

Lastly we played at the amphitheater. The minis liked walking down the grass hill.

Kaden Shenanigans

Kaden is a wild card. You never know what crazy things he is going to do. He mostly gets in mischievous moods when he is tired and short on sleep. I was meeting with a Realtor last week (for out Bountiful place) and it was during lunch and he asked for a piece of bread. Most kids would eat it, right? Kaden got a straw out and started shooting bread wads (like spit wads). He has never done anything like this and of course it had to be when the Realtor was there.

Kaden's Neighborhood Preschool

Leading up to this school year I didn't know where Kaden was going to go for preschool. It seemed like everything was inconvenient and a lot of driving and loading kids in and out of the car. He is very energetic and so I wasn't sure he would even behave well at preschool. I decided I wouldn't sign him up at any of the preschools.

At the end of the summer my neighbor offered to have Kaden over for preschool at her house. She normally does daycare but she decided to have an informal preschool since a few of the kids are three-years-old. It has been a huge blessing because I don't have to drive Kaden. Lynnlee likes walking him over and picking him up.

My neighbor has been great to help the kids learn about preschool. A few weeks ago a policeman came and talked to them. Then on Thursday the ambulance and firetruck came to our cul-de-sac. The EMT/firefighters talked to the kids and let them go inside.

Since it was fall break my neighbor invited all the kids from the neighborhood to see the firetruck and ambulance. The minis walked around for a bit. They have been acting strange and crabby lately though. Taggart kept laying down in the middle of the road. It's a weird phase and I hope they go through it quickly.