Seriously...or not so serious: 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.