Arizona Trip

Ryan and I spent last week in Mesa, Arizona for my younger brother Grant's wedding. My entire family was there. We loved meeting Grant's wife, Annette, and her family. It was nice to see all of my family members together in one place, even if it was only for a short time!

Grant got married in the Mesa Temple. Ryan and I were able to fly out (2 hours on a plane versus 24 hours in the car.) We were able to leave the kids behind with our really great family and friends. What a nice getaway for Ryan and me!

Grant and Annette leaving together to take off on their honeymoon to Hawaii.

We took a little side trip in our rental car up to Sedona to see the beautiful rock formations. What a great adventure we had together!

Halloween Weekend

Halloween was great fun for everyone but Chase. He was just as sick as he could be and didn't get to go trick or treating. Nana and Papa came by for a visit. Papa helped us to transform our master bathroom from pink to beige.

Nana did Alison's scary vampire makeup!

We loved having little Cooper the dinosaur come trick or treating with Alison the vampire and Evan also known as Dash!

This is the group that hit the streets in search of candy! (Would someone please tell us who to look at?) We were so glad that Erin and Dino Cooper could be with us! Our neighborhood was very busy with lots of trick or treaters. Nana and Papa stayed behind with Chase and passed out all of our candy. We ran out!

Harvest Time Traditions

We took the kids to a fundraiser/carnival this past weekend.


They loved riding inside the pumpkin ferris wheel.

Each of them chose their own pumpkins.

We carved them up together.

I love these spooky creations!

My Super Hero Boys

Ready for a lesson on flying? These boys are ready to teach you all the tricks!


Make sure you're wearing your protective gear: big brother's ankle guards and shin guards, slightly large.


Hand placement is very important!

First Day of School

I love this time of year of new beginnings. We had a great, fun filled summer with family visits, camping trips, boat rides, swimming, and just hanging out together. Starting school has been a change for all of us, but what a fun and exciting adventure. There is just something magical about the first day of school! Chase is in 1st grade, Alison is in 4th grade, and Evan is 2, still home with me. Ali and Chase insisted that Evan wear his backpack, too, for the pictures.

Family Campout & Alison's Performance

The last week of July was the hottest week on record in our hometown, but we had planned 9 months ago to go on a big camping trip over to the coast with our good friends the Greenhalgh family. It was 30-40 degrees cooler over there! Also, it was our first experience with yurt camping and we loved it! We all brought our bikes and daily explored the campsite roadways and trails to the jetty and the beach. We also did some crabbing using our friend Jason's boat and pulled in 6 "keepers". Yummy! Ryan's parents joined us that night for dinner and we basically ate and ate for days! Ryan pulled a trailer behind our van so that we would have room to bring a full sized refrigerator, a microwave, a toaster, an outdoor barbeque, and lots of shelving for our own little food pantry. Now that's my kind of camping!


Look at the joy on this little girl's face. Alison participated in a huge hula show where she performed 4 different dances. Lane and Erin came to watch, also. We so appreciate the support of our family!

Our Newly Painted House & Sophie the Kitten

John, this post is for you!

One of the big projects that Ryan and I wanted to complete this year was the painting of our house. Here is the finished product. Ryan had help from his brother, Lane, his Dad, and some good friends. It was a huge job! But we are happy with the results!

Ryan found a deal on a piece of front door glass and cut our steel door open to build a frame and install the glass into our existing front door. He is an amazing craftsman and really enjoys the challenge of a new project. Here he is holding the piece of steel that he cut out of the door.

This is the door with the frame in place before we painted the frame and door handle

This is the new paint color, new light fixture, and painted out door handle.

From the inside looking out. It brings in so much more light that everytime I walked by it, my mind told me the front door was open!

A friend of ours had rescued this cute little kitten, tamed her, and litter box trained her. We have adopted her. Alison named her Sophie. She's really sweet and lets the kids handle her without much protest. It has been so much fun to add a cat back into our midst! Since Evan is officially potty trained, I felt ready for the added resposibility.

Evan loves having someone smaller than he is around our house.