November 2017

I can't believe it's almost the end of 2017...crazy!

Jaron was chosen to be student of the month in November.  He got his picture up on the board at school, got a certificate and a bunch of coupons to various restaurants around town.  Jaron is super good in school and for being young compared to other kids he is ahead of a lot of kids in his class in writing and knowing his letters and sounds.  He often does the same homework his sisters are doing and keeps up just fine.  I was worried I might want to hold him back but he is more than ready for Kindergarten next year.  I'm not biased or anything but seriously, he's so stinkin cute how could he not be student of the month just solely on how cute he is.  Even his speech teacher thinks he's adorable.  I know that's not why you are not student of the month but I just wanted to throw that in there.


We took the kids to a BYU basketball game one night.  We had total nosebleed seats but it was fun.  The kids were mostly excited to eat the cougar tail doughnuts, sing the fight song and see how many treats they could get.  Jaron was interested in the game a little but the girls could've cared less.  Next time I'll spend money on better seats and just take Jaron.  :)


We're working on learning to make beds...Siena not so much. And a realistic note, this happens maybe once in 30 days of the month.



We had to throw Jaron's ant farm away when all the ants died this month.  Jaron was sad and wanted one last picture so he could remember all the paths the ants made.


Shane's cousin jenny got married and it was fun taking the kids to see her as she's always been so nice and coming over to babysit for us.  We can't wait to get to know her new husband better and they've already offered to both come over and babysit now!


A cute picture of how Jaron watches Paw Patrol anytime I turn it on...he lines all his Paw Patrol stuffed animals up to watch it with him.  I have to pause the show while he goes and gathers them all up.


One Monday while the girls were at school, we went to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point with some friends.  I am always impressed how many dinosaurs they have found bones of and re-constructed.  Jaron wasn't as impressed but did love playing with the sand and water and digging for bones.  It was a fun morning.


At the last minute I was asked to help with Jaron's Thanksgiving feast at school.  It was fun to see him all dressed up and totally entertaining watching what preschoolers will and won't eat.  One boy literally ate all by maybe 3 pickles from an entire jar.  Good times.



We had a movie and popcorn night and invited a few friends over to join.  It was a fun night and so easy to have friends over and watch a movie.  However, I was shocked that we went through 7 bags of popcorn!  We watched Home on the Range and had a good time.


We had an enjoyable Thanksgiving weekend.  Thanksgiving day we went to my parents.  Shane wasn't feeling well so he came just as we were eating and then left immediately after.  It was a fun day and I didn't take one picture.

That Saturday after Thanksgiving we were having such warm weather that I convinced Shane to go to Temple Square and see the lights.  Apparently all of Utah had the same idea...it was super crowded.  Just finding a parking spot was quite the feat.  However, I loved being outside and not being so freezing cold.  The lights were so pretty and we had a good night.  We even took the time to walk around by the Church office building and see the nativities from all around the world.  Shane however has already put a note in his phone for next year that reads 'don't let Sheri talk you into going to Temple Square on Thanksgiving weekend.'  To me though it was totally worth the crowds to not be freezing cold.

Family Pictures

We got family pictures done in November.  We were in need of an updated family picture.  We made an appt. at Camera Shy since I waited too long to get the pretty fall colors outside earlier that month.  They turned out pretty cute, although it will be nice when all 3 of my kids will just look and the camera and smile normally.  The photographer had to make them laugh to get a real smile but then it made some pictures a little awkward.  But I was still happy how they turned out.

Let's go Idaho

For fall break this year we took a trip up to Eagle Idaho to see The Pace's new house.  I had never been to the Boise area so it was a fun trip to see what it's like up there and of course to see Brigitte.

On the way up we stopped at Shoshone Falls.  It was so pretty and the falls are so big.  I've heard they are even more spectacular in the spring as they were at their low when we went.


When we got to The Pace's, the kids settled right in.  They all get along so well and have fun playing with each other.  The girls slept in their playroom on blow up mattresses and had fun rotating each night so everyone got a chance to sleep in the middle.  Jaron slept in Tagg's room and had fun being cute little roommates.




We went swimming one morning at the YMCA, which for some reason seemed to overwhelm the lifeguards as we had 6 kids swimming in literally about 6 inches of water.  insert eye roll...pretty comical though.


We decided to go drive by the new Meridian temple.  The open house wasn't opening until the next day and we didn't have tickets so we were just going to walk around.  When we got there the parking attendant told us to go to the chapel and they would let us through the tour since they were doing VIP tours that day.  We weren't dressed but he said it didn't matter.  It was so great, there was no line and we got a tour guide that would briefly explain each room.  It wasn't crowded and so when we got to the Celestial room it was so silent.  I loved it.  What a neat experience and I always love the chance to take my kids inside a temple when I can.


We also went and saw My Little Pony, ate at McDonalds and then one afternoon stopped at an indoor playground area where the kids loved climbing around.


We went to church and before we knew it our weekend was over.  We had so much fun and can't wait to spend another weekend up there sometime.

October 2017

We finally got our backyard landscaped.  We had such a hard time finding a landscaper, they were all so busy.  When we finally found one our neighbor's house foundation was having issues and they had to use our side yard to put all their dirt while they fixed the foundation.  We didn't mind at first and then when it lasted all summer we started getting a little more bugged.  We finally got it all worked out and our landscaping is in.  We poured a bigger cement pad outside our basement door and put in a rock wall to retain the big dirt hill and we are excited to be able to use it next summer.  We carved a little path into the scrub oak and the kids are excited to use their little secret hideout down by the little stream that flows through our backyard.


Brigitte came to town for her fall break and we met up at the Provo rec center. aka my kids new favorite place to swim. They have a big waterslide they can go down and instead of emptying into a pool where it freaks them out they land on a big chute that they can just stand up and walk out of so it's perfect and they had a great time (Well I couldn't convince Aria to go but hopefully next time.)  But Jaron, Siena, Tagg and Holland loved it.


Jaron got an ant farm for his birthday but we had to wait until the weather cooled down before they would ship us the ants.  We finally got them and it's been fun watching them dig their tunnels and moving around.


Aunt Margene came to town in October and so one afternoon we went on a drive up American Fork canyon to see the fall colors.  It was so pretty and we hiked around Cascade springs for a while.



Our annual trip to Gardner Village to see the witches, ride the horses and eat a treat.  Always a fun day.



Crazy hair day at school.  Aria was all for it and Siena was much more hesitant but went along after she saw how Aria's hair turned out.  I was glad they decided to do it and thought it was brave of them as they weren't sure how many people would do it and come to find out a lot of their friends didn't participate.  Jaron didn't even have school that day but was insistent I still colored his hair!


Annual trip to the pumpkin patch.  We love this pumpkin patch and have so much fun sitting on the tractors, going through the maze, getting a hayride all for free and then their pumpkins are seriously so cheap.  Fun times as always.


Nighttime shenanigans.


The kids had the best nursery and primary teacher in Draper.  This is Terri Burton.  She randomly called me and asked if she could come visit the kids.  She showed up wearing this dog mask that was so funny.  She brought treats from Nothing bundt cakes and we just love her.  She has always taken such a great interest in our kids and genuinely loves all her primary kids.  Always going above and beyond.


Jaron was so excited when Abbey had an assignment to bring a preschooler to her class one day and create a little preschool class.  Jaron felt so special and had a great time going to middle school.  Abbey was so cute holding his hand as I dropped him off.  They played games and made little spider crafts and she even made sure Jaron made one for Siena and Aria.


Our annual trip up the Snowbird tram.  We love this tradition and always have a fun time seeing the beautiful views.


We introduced kindness jars to our kids a little while ago.  Anytime someone saw them doing something kind they would give that person a bean in their jar.  You weren't allowed to ask for a bean or put a bean in your own jar.  If you were found being unkind then someone would take a bean out.  It took a while but everyone finally filled their jars.  Each person got to go on a date with Mom or Dad and then we went on a family date and saw My Little Pony movie.  Jaron went to Chick-fil-a for ice cream and a cookie.  Shane took Siena to Carls Jr for cookies and ice cream and I took Aria to Cabela's and then to get a Slurpee.  They all had so much fun and it's always fun to spend some fun time one on one with each of them.


Halloween 2017.  We had a Sunday dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's where all the cousins dressed up so we could see each others costumes.


We attempted carving pumpkins with stencils for the first time with what the kids were dressing up as...Pikachu, Charmander (Aria was Charizard but close enough) and Squirtle.  Pikachu turned out the best but the others were cute as well, just harder to tell what they were.  Siena still has a total fear of the inside of a pumpkin.  She has been like this every year.  She starts gagging whenever we pull the top off the pumpkin and is almost in tears if we make her use a spoon to get any of the guts out.  The next day we also let them paint a pumpkin as well which they had a lot of fun with.


All dressed up ready to go!  They were so excited to be Pokemon this year and yes they are still obsessed with Pokemon in general.


School parade.  It was so fun to see them marching along in their costumes and they had a great time!