Fall and Halloween

Here's a post with a bunch of pictures. They're out of order. Just imagine them in the right order, if you know it.
Bought pumpkins at a pumpkin patch, which was fun. Very fall-ish. We didn't quite get around to carving them before Halloween though. Maybe this next week we will, just for the experience.

Check out what I did with Hannah's hair!

At the Raymond Halloween party.

"Belle" won the cake walk. Well, the lady just called the number she was standing on after she went around a few times. haha

My dad and his neon hair.

My cousin Dan's boy was Bam-bam, so we had to get a pic of him and Pebbles together.

Here's our family. Mark is a bar code, and I am a jellyfish.

My happy little Pebbles girl.

Natalie went as Belle. I even let her wear make up and I curled her hair. She even had a yellow ribbon, like Belle.

It was great fun! Now Mark and I have so much yummy candy to eat! haha. And I guess I'll let Natalie have a couple of peices too. She actually was brave enough this year to say, "Trick-or-treat" and "thank you" to the people at their houses! Amazing.

TTFN.

My girls are adorable

See for yourself:

My walls

I am possibly going to buy this wall graphic or one similar for my dining room wall. I'm so excited. Just waiting on a reply from Etsy seller Elephannie to make sure she can make it the size I want it.



I got sick this week. It was not fun. Thanks to a priesthood blessing, my fever, chills, and general queasiness/yucky feeling disappeared almost as fast as it came on. I have been left with a headache and weakness for the past two days. My wonderful husband has helped out so much by putting Natalie to bed, making dinner, sweeping and mopping, doing dishes and laundry, and even let me sleep for three hours this morning while he took the girls to the park and fed them lunch. He missed two days of school and sacrificed his time he could have been working on his giant paper due this semester. I just love him so much and appreciate all he did for me this week!



My BFF from my growing up years Tiffany is getting married! This is a little late, but still, I want to let you all know. She is marrying Brian Knox who is a really awesome guy. I'm just thrilled for her. I took their engagement pics as practice for me and sometime soon I'll post them on my photography blog.



I have reconnected with a long lost friend from my past. We were friends in college and FHE sisters. She helped me get a summer job once at her place of employment, which was a much needed blessing. We lost touch, but found each other recently in the mother's room at church! She is in another ward that meets in our building. Turns out she married Mark's mom's cousin's son (did you follow that?) so now we are related. It also happens that we have had kids around the same time, so we are dealing with all the same parenting challenges that come with the territory of raising small kids. She and I have almost everything in common, right down to having babies naturally using the Hypnobirthing method. We even wore the same color shirt to the park once. Anyway I am just so thrilled to have a "bosom friend" (like Anne of Green Gables) again. Our husbands chuckle when we tell them the latest thing we have found we have in common.



Hannah is getting her molars. We have become friends again with trusty ol' Tylenol. So now at least I know there's a reason behind her waking up at night. Speaking of, she is crying for me for the second time already tonight.

TTFN!

Natalie-isms

"I have to read my scriptures cuz I have to learn about life and Jesus."

"Mommy, you're a good mommy." (my favorite)

After talking about Jesus dying on the cross: "Mommy I have an idea. When I'm bigger and bigger and bigger we can go to the temple and save Him. So He won't die." I assured her that he became alive again a few days later. :-)

I wish I could record everything she says!

Happenings and Photography

This post is a little out of order but basically we are back in the blogging world. Here is what we've been doing:

Playing at the mall play area.

Hannah sleeping. Since I put her down awake and go get her when she's awake I never really see her sleeping. This time I had to wake her up for something and I thought she was so cute!

Same situation. She never falls asleep anywhere but her bed and occasionally the car seat. This is how I found Natalie after putting Hannah down one day.

She learned how to use a cup! And she sits at the big table with us now.

Happy Hannah.

Mad Hannah!

She loves to put eye shadow on her cheek. I don't know where she got this idea.

Some of my photos I took and edited over conference weekend:

Mark actually took this one.

Another Mark shot.

Hannah likes to practice walking with help.

The brooklyn babe

Natalie

And more recent happenings:

I painted my walls yellow...

and green. I love the brightness and cheerfulness and just wait till the window treatments are up.

Played in the rain. Gasp, I know. Rain. It was so fun.

We made cake pops.

We had a potty party for the girls. Brooklyn has mastered potty training, and Natalie is half way there. She goes #1 and #2 on her little toilet, but has yet to use a big toilet. She never has accidents anymore though! :-)

Read on for more posts below!

I'm back

I apologize for the lack of posts recently on our family blog. I've been busy with the move and redecorating and haven't found the time to blog about our summer, so I haven't wanted to blog about stuff we've been up to because I didn't want to forget about our vacations! Whew. So here they are. Enjoy.

Snowflake

Here are some pics from our trip to Snowflake for the 24th of July (pioneer day) celebration this year. My MIL and I went up early with the girls and Mark joined us on Friday night after he came home from his trip to Utah to take some summer law classes.

Father/daughter race. Mike and Melanie and girls along with Katie and Ryan were there this year too. Here's Mike and Brooklyn running with Mark and Natalie.

Mother/daughter race. Doesn't it look like we are going fast? :-)

Natalie was so happy Brooklyn was there this year.

One of the things about being a baby during Snowflake events is no naps when ya need 'em. Hannah caught a few zzz's before the loud parade started.

My sisters and BIL: Ryan, Katie, and Melanie. They look like twins in this pic, haha.

The parade watchers.

B and N eating ice cream at the ice cream parlor.

Natalie loved putting this hat on me and Mark, back and forth. It allowed us to have an actual conversation for once!

Lots to do at G&G Hatch's house. She climbed this tree with help. It won't be long before she's climbing it on her own!

Hannah played on a blanket outside in the yard most of the time. It was great.

Me and Natalie on a hammock.

Natalie eating a popsicle with the big kids.

By far the favorite attraction of Grandma and Grandpa's house-- "the fort." Mark played here growing up with his cousins all the time. Now the younger kids get to enjoy it.

Wiped out. We had several tantrums but thankfully Grandma Simonson helped so much by calming her down and helping her fall asleep several times.

We played with glow necklaces and sparklers one night. Natalie had no interest in the sparklers, but loved the glowing stuff. It was a fun trip!!