Halloween

We went trick-or-treating last night! This was Bennett's first time because he was so little last year.  It was an adventure, I'll tell you that! He loved to run between the houses, but if I tried to redirect him toward a house, he would scream and cry.  He would say "trick or treat" so cute! And then he would say "danks" (thanks). 

It took me about half way to realize that the reason he was crying so much was because he had this giant bucket of candy and he couldn't eat any of it! So we fixed that problem right away and gave him a piece of chocolate :)  Here's our cute little monkey:

Practicing saying "trick or treat"

He did NOT want to sit still... but we needed a group picture, right? :)

Enjoying the beginning of a long night.. haha

Cute little monkey...

He tripped and fell with his bucket...

All the other kiddos helped him put it back in his bucket... sweet!

Fixing the problem...

Sorting through our candy (aka putting what we don't want back in the bowl for other trick or treaters :D )

Me discovering that Krista had "Frooties" in her bowl. WHAT?? I drove around to 4 different stores looking for them! I have looked online for weeks to possibly ship them to my house because they are my FAVORITE candy of all time. Sigh... I'm going to wait til I go to Utah. Macey's grocery store sells them there. Why can't ACME be like Macey's?

My two cute monkeys :D

Happy Halloween everyone!

Fall Time

We've been having a pretty good fall here in Philadelphia.  Bryan has been doing great in school {working his behind off, but it's paying off!}. Bennett is growing like a weed and talking like a two-year old.  And me? I'm starting to feel much better.  

When I was pregnant with Bennett, I was in my last semester at BYU and so I was forced to stay busy and preoccupied.  But I was pretty sick with him until about 20 weeks.  As much as I LOVE being home with Bennett all day, it definitely makes this pregnancy seem to go by much slower.  I know some would say the opposite, because having a toddler keeps them busy.  But really, I feel like I've been sick and pregnant FOREVER! But this time around I'm starting to feel the nausea wear off a little earlier. YAY! I'm almost 16 weeks and I am able to keep most food down and eat most meals.  But I really do love being pregnant.  It is so much fun to feel that baby move in there.  Yes! I've already felt my baby moving for about a week and a half... I guess it's an active one :) 

Fall here is much different than in Utah.  Heavens, they already have had snow there! It seems like fall here just takes its sweet time... and thats ok with me. I love this season. The colors, the smells, the weather, the clothes, I love it! 

Bryan had been asking me for a while to make a batch of cookies for his lunches.  I FINALLY felt good enough and so I solicited the help of munchkin. He LOVED it. He especially loved eating the chocolate chips :) See his little stash on the counter behind him? 

This is what he would do when I told him to say "cheese" He would lean over the chair like that! Silly boy...

"Umm... yum, yum!"

Mama's little helper

High fives!

We carved pumpkins last night.  I don't know why we procrastinated this tradition, but we did. We could've done it while we were waiting out the hurricane, but we just kinda vegged out then :) This was Bennett's first REAL time carving pumpkins because he didn't really get into it much last year.  He is so funny! He's kind of OCD and doesn't like his hands to be dirty so he didn't really touch any of the slime.  

He was so intent on what Bryan was doing. I know, I know, this isn't the best place for him to be with a knife so close, but Bry insisted he was fine... 

Joining in on the action, and he LOVED it :)

Playing with our finished pumpkin.  So fun!

love/hate

So I have a love/hate relationship with blogging...can I tell you about it?

I think blogs are wonderful things for connecting, sharing our thoughts and day to day activities, keeping a journal, posting pictures, etc. I love reading other people's blogs and seeing how put together they are and how perfect their lives are... wait, did I just say that? 

Let me just say. No one is perfect.

No matter how much their blog makes it seem. 

I am not a creative and spunky writer. I feel like I can't blog because I have nothing creative or funny to say.  But that's ok, right? I am documenting my life as it really is. This is me, and if I'm too boring, then skip over the words and look at the pictures. haha!

I feel like I have to blog in order to keep up with the other women in the blogosphere who have millions of children and sew all of their children's clothes and make gourmet meals for their family every night and who craft everything in their home and who always have a picture perfect house and look like a model. Of course, NO ONE IS ACTUALLY LIKE THIS.  This is just my imagination creating horrible awful unrealities! I admire those women who can do it all... I really do! But I, for one, am definitely not one of them.  

So this is me, setting aside unnecessary feelings of jealousy and appreciating what I have and what I can do. I have lots of talents and THE cutest baby on earth.  But I also have lots of imperfections and struggle with many things! 

But I am a person too. With my laundry that needs to be done, my bathroom that needs to be cleaned, my floor that needs to vacuumed, my sewing projects that need to be finished, my bedroom that needs to be picked up, my make-up that needs to be done, I am a person just like you.  I KNOW that all those darling women who seem to be perfect have obstacles like this too.  They just aren't voiced. And thats okay.  But don't be alarmed or bothered if I tell you the REAL parts of my life.  Because this is me!

Here's to new beginnings for me. I really like my blog! Because it allows me a place to tell about my life. 

Oh and I haven't said this on here yet.  I'm PREGNANT! Which is probably where all this emotional ranting is coming from... :D Due April 20th. 

Love this boy... And he has my knees... poor thing :)

Our last few days...

Well we really are down to the count.  Only 5 more full days here in Utah! Until we leave for California, that is... 

Bennett has been doing lots of this:

And this:

And this:

Baby Signing Time is his favorite!


We had a Duffin cousin dinner on Sunday... the last one that we will be able to go to! Thanks Amy for putting it together.

Bennett LOVED Beckham's little backpack and was running around in circles for probably ten minutes with it on!

Here are the girls:

Such beautiful cousins!

And the boys:

We went to Seven Peaks on Monday for probably the last time.  It was overcast and so it wasn't busy at all! We still enjoyed playing in the warm water.  Bennett is just a little water bug! (He wouldn't look in any of the pictures because he was so enthralled with the water!)

He wasn't so sure about this... haha!

About 1/2 a second later he got dunked and did NOT like that!

Like mother, like son...

Then it started to POUR rain... ice cold rain! We ran to our stuff, threw everything in bags, wrapped up our little screaming babe and ran out of the park! We were kinda done after that... haha

This morning I ran over to my grandma's house to see my little sister leave for college.  She's the youngest and it is so weird to see her leave home! Jayni got back from Europe last night at around midnight, so she was there too telling her wild adventures of her travels home!

Just five more days til we head out of town! And 19 more days til  Bry leaves with the moving truck... ahh! So so so excited :D

Recent Activities

We've been having so much fun lately! I'd definitely say that we are trying to take advantage of Utah, complete with our family and friends, before we take off for four years!

We decided to take an overnight camping trip with Christina and Jeremy.  Not planning very well (and not anticipating how PACKED the canyon would be), we went up AF canyon thinking we could snag a campsite.  If you weren't at an official campsite, you weren't allowed to have a fire.  BUMMER! What is camping without a fire, lets be honest :D.  

As we pulled up to the ranger station, they asked us where we were headed and said that all the sites were full! Luckily, there is a church campground-type-thing up this canyon called Mutual Dell.  If you are going to Mutual Dell, you don't have to pay the canyon recreation fee, plus they have FREE campsites! Couldn't be better for this pinching-your-pennies couple :D We had to wait til 6 pm, but then we could go find a campsite.  Our's was called "Boogeyman Hollow"... um, k? No, it was fine! 

The ONLY downside... because we were at Mutual Dell, and they have lots of youth groups there, we weren't allowed to have a fire, even though they have designated areas.  The fire restrictions are so high right now, and youth groups don't tend to be the most responsible, so.... Good thing my mom let us borrow her little propane camp stove! 

Let me just say, Bennett was in HEAVEN.  I was trying not to be a paranoid mother, and just let him throw dirt, eat dirt, play in the dirt, etc... he LOVED it!

 We set up our tent and then grilled our hot dogs over the propane stove and just enjoyed the beautiful weather and being with our friends. 

Bennett was so quiet after we put him down in the pack-n-play, so we thought he was asleep.  We were roasting marshmallows and making delicious smores! And tell yo' mamma jokes :D  As soon as we unzipped the tent, Bennett was peaking his little head out! We climbed in bed and were trying to be quiet so he would sleep, but in the pitch black we kept hearing "Hi!".  It was so hard not to respond to that cute little voice!

Breakfast was interesting as we forgot a spatula(!), but we made due and enjoyed the not-so-pretty looking food :D.  Then we packed up so the boys could go fishing at Tibblefork resivoir.  Christina, Bennett and I sat on the beach while Jer walked around the perimeter of the lake trying to find the best spot, and Bryan paddled around in his float tube.  It was BUSY there! They didn't have much luck... But it was such a fun little trip! Thanks Pendletons :D

A few of Bennett's faces... he's got several! The bottom one is what I affectionately like to call his "whiney" face :D

On Tuesday, I got a call from my sister telling me that Lambert Park (a field in the foothills of Alpine, a few blocks from her home)was on FIRE! Oh my goodness... I was panicking... my beloved Alpine, on Fire? What?! She hadn't been ordered to evacuate, but decided that it would be a good idea to start gathering things in case it came to that point.  Then she scooped up those cute kiddos and came over to my place.  We lived in panic for a few hours as we watched the news, seeing our mountain go up in flames... 

The fire at the beginning stages...

Luckily, no homes have been burned thus far.  One barn burned, and several homes have suffered heat damage, but what a blessing! Thanks to the wonderful firefighters helping to keep homes safe. Today it rained! It helped in some ways, and didn't in others.  It wasn't enough rain to completely stop the fires, but it did dampen everything pretty good and lower the temperature a lot.  However, it made for bad visibility for the helicopters who were working to go up and down the mountain, and also provided bad footing and slippery conditions for ground crews... I still think it's a good thing!

Last night we got to go to Stadium of Fire! My family and I waited out for the really cheap tickets from Daily Deals (if you can call $26 cheap!).  We had SO MUCH FUN! It was the Beach Boys and Scotty McGreery, and it was a blast.  I didn't really know what to expect with the Beach Boys, but it ended up being so much fun.  My sisters and I were dancing and having a party! And of course the firework show was INCREDIBLE! Everything is timed to music and is just awesome.  

Tyrell, Katherine, Doug and Rick

My two cute boys :D

Scotty McGreery! He's there... I promise. 

Our little dance party! Needless to say, we had fun :D

Trying to protect Bennett's ears from the extremely loud music and fireworks.  He was super tired so he just sat there and chilled :D

Thanks for a fun evening everyone!