Happy Than...er, I mean, Halloween!

I know, I know...it's a little late. But, here are my two angels!! Ashley wore a dress my mom sent her paired with her own pearl necklace. Bethany wore her blessing dress with my pearl necklace. The wings were wings that my mom and I picked up from St. Paul's cathedral in London a number of years ago. They were just too cute to pass up, and now we used them finally. ;)

Ashley was so excited about divvying up the candy. She went and placed a nice selection near everyone's place setting, being sure to let us know we couldn't eat it until after we ate our dinner....except for the one Bethany already was devouring.

October - Part Three

Ok, so October was only supposed to be two parts, but there are just way too many pictures for one post. Hence... Ashley (and I) started going to a little "Preschool" group rotation and they wore their Halloween costumes one day. I didn't want to send Ashley in her REAL Halloween costume (you'll see why...it has a hoop skirt), so we opted for Cinderella just for the Preschool Party. She LOVED it! Thanks to Grandma Stewart for the Cinderella dress. The pictures really don't do her justice. She was dazzling!

Rain, Rain go away, Ashley and Bethany want to play....

My big spiderweb brownie...I tried to get Ashley to win our own goodie at the cakewalk, but she didn't buy into it.

Carving the pumpkin...yes, Ashley's wearing her church dress

October - Part Two

It is defiinitely fall here...and I love all the fun colors! We've never seen our backyard in the fall before and it is beeeeeeeeautiful. Here's one of my favorite backyard shots along with some pictures of the fun we have in the front yard.

With all of these beautiful fall leaves, we just had to do something to bring the color inside. So, we collected a bunch of leaves (sadly we had to put many of them back outside...we had tons!) and then took some tips from our long lost sixth cousin thrice removed (Martha Stewart) to make our fall leaf mobile. We collected acorns from the front yard and tied them to the ends.
Later in the month we decided to do our first painting project since we moved it. Knowing what a non-daring decorator and person I am, I decided to start with a smaller room -- the dining nook. It hardly has three sides, so I figured I couldn't go too wrong. Above is the before picture and then...

Ta-dah! And yes, I invited Ashley to do that and she painted her name all by herself. I added the others and we had a great time surprising Jared when he came home for lunch, showing him that we painted our names on the wall! Ahh!!!

We also added this wall quote that is on a unique little wall of its own.

This was Jared's favorite part.

October - Part One

Life has been so busy, and so fun! Here are a few tidbits from early October.

First, Bethany was able to sport some new hairdos thanks to her growing locks.

That's right folks, her first ponytail!!!

I'm surprised how well Bethany keeps up with Ashley. One thing that helps is the set of kid chairs that we have. Bethany will drag one of those all over the house to explore, help, reorganize, play, and climb. Here were two of those instances:

(Helping with the laundry and organizing the junk drawer)

Our social butterfly Ashley was THRILLED to go to a princess-themed birthday party. Also shown is the activity she came up with on her own -- tracing only the letters that spell her name.

We had lots of fun as a family making Halloween cookies to drop off as secret "Boo" gifts to some neighbors and church members.

I made a batch of apricot syrup (about 14 jars) and have been enjoying that almost daily. YUM!

You think THIS is exciting, wait until you see October, Part Two!

No really, the rest of October really was more exciting....

Stewart Ranch '09

After the half marathon, we went to the Stewart Ranch for a week -- bonfires, late night games, yummy food, Cousins Camp, tire swing, reading by the fire, hiking, trip to BYU, behind the scenes tour of the BYU Paleontology lab, the outdoor Sundance theater...a great vacation! Thanks to Jared's mom, Debra, who had the whole week masterfully planned and organized and to Michelle for organizing Cousins Camp (complete with a banner, a songbook, a schedule, and the every-cherished Cousin Camp t-shirts) . It was SO fun! (Sorry, I'm missing some of the best pics...I really need to find that CD that has everyone else's pictures on it...these are only from my camera....)

Half-Marathon...check!

Well, I have to start catching up somewhere, so I thought I'd start here. We went to Utah at the beginning of August and my whole immediate family (except Kevin who couldn't make it...sad!) ran the Provo River Half Marathon. We were all so nervous and excited riding the freezing cold bus up to the starting point at 5:30 in the morning, but it turned out to be very rewarding for all. We all beat our finishing time predictions and made good times for our first half-marathon. There's talk of this becoming a yearly tradition. Yikes!

It was a BEAUTIFUL run through the trails, partially following the river, and going right past Bridal Veil Falls. So pretty! I ran my personal best time...ok, my only time of 2:18:08 and met my goal of running the whole way. Woo-hoo! I was most proud of my parents though. I sure hope I can still run a half-marathon when I turn 50!

Our New Life

Jared's done with his MBA! Woo-hoo! The girls and I had fun making a little display and sign for him when he arrived home from his last day of school! The first one read: Your Old not-so-much-of-a-Life.

Then we had a sign that said: Your New Life. On that table were fun decorations, projects, treats, books, games, and other things to occupy Jared's new life. :)

We also made this sign and had it hanging on the garage door when he pulled up.

Way to go, Jared!