Halloween!!

Oh, I love halloween, and dread it at the same time. I have to find costumes that are warm, yet cute...thank you Old Navy! Then I have to help Kyleigh get candy and then spend the next few weeks fighting her on how much she can have. This year, we did some trick or treating, but spent most of the night driving to the houses of friends and family. Which created a new problem, Cooper can't be buckled into his car seat with his costume on! So at every stop we would have to get him out, get him redressed, and then go visit for 10 min. and then get him undressed and back in his seat to drive to the next location. Just to repeat the process. It was cold, and crazy, and he didn't like being messed with everytime. It was fun to see the kids all dressed up, and then to see their excitement. Cooper didn't get it, I think we did give him one treat though. Kyleigh however, was so excited! She kept getting a little out of control, and we would have to warn her to behave. She loved getting candy! We had to tell her to only take one piece at each house, she would just keep taking candy till they finally moved the bowl. We trick or treated in our old ward in Lorin and Renee's neighborhood, and so we would start talking to other adults and not notice what Ky was doing. At some houses she probably took like 3-4 pieces of candy before we realized what she was doing and made her stop. She is so sweet, and she shared her candy with Brandon, Cooper, and I. She even handed out some of her own candy to the trick or treaters who came to our house. Well, here are the pics from tonight! Aren't they the most adorable Ladybug and Dragon you ever saw?! Cooper had a halloween outfit that we got some pictures of him in before we got him in his costume.

Gardner Village

So, it is the day before halloween and I wanted to take the kids to Gardner Village (Thanks Tiff for your post which reminded me to go). We invited a few friends, but only Amanda Gibbs could come! We are so glad she did because we had so much fun! Well, I love Gardner Village; at halloween they decorate it with witches everywhere. Some of the witches are alive, but most are decorations. There are witches playing baseball, some are flying through the air, some are sitting on the benches next to you. It is so fun! Kyleigh likes the pony ride, and pouted and threw a fit until I finally fufilled my promise to take her. Then we ate at Achibalds and I had the biggest piece of carrot cake that I took home. So this piece of carrot cake was as big as the to-go container, from one side to the other and the frosting it the top when it was closed! It was sooooo good! ok, I have to stop because I am making myself hungry! It is our tradition to go for halloween-I think this is the 3rd year that we have gone. Anyways, it is especially fun for halloween...here are some pictures of our day....

Something interesting is that Gardner Village is part of Brandon's heritage. Brandon's great great great grandpa was Archibald Gardner. The restaurant is named after Archibald, and it was his mill. It is an old mill, that has been converted by the new owners into a bunch of specialty shops. The shops are historic homes from the salt lake valley that they have moved to the mill, and now have a new purpose. A lot of the homes have plaques saying where they are from and often who owned them. I could spend days there reading about the houses and of course shopping!

Another interesting side note, is that Archibald's brother was the first mayor of St. George!

Funny stories from the kids this weekend...

So, Cooper is crawling, but now I know I was praying for a curse... Because now he is so hard to keep track of. Also, he is the human vaccumn.. or garbage disposal-which every you find appropriate. He will eat anything off the floor. He even started to eat his own poop the other day. GROSS! He spit it out, and made this face like man that was nasty! And no, I wasn't neglecting him, I had changed him less than 30 min. prior to the poop incident. I thought maybe Kyleigh had tracked dog poop in from the yard, but I checked her shoes. So the next logical step was to check Coops...sure enough the forth stinky diaper of the day almost turned into a snack! Sick! Oh, kids...man they keep you on your toes!

Then tonight Kyleigh is in bed and keeps calling for Brandon. After probably the 4th time going in there he tells her that he isn't coming back in, and that if he has to, she is going to be in trouble. So, she looks at him and says 'thats ok, I'll call for mom now.' That little girl is too smart, and too cute! She can make you want to pull your hair out, smile, and kiss her all at the same time! I swear she is older than 4, she amazes me sometimes.

Today she was also talking to Abby (her cousin) at Abby's b-day party and Kyleigh says "Abby why are you mad?" Abby says "I am not mad!" Then Kyleigh says "Then why are your eyebrows pointing down?" (you know like a scowl" Abby didn't respond for a second and then asked Kyleigh why she was mad. Without missing a beat Kyleigh says "Because I keep looking at you everyday"

I couldn't help but laugh it, was so funny to hear them talk like that...
Well, I guess we will see what this week brings! Wish us luck!

Cooper is FINALLY crawling!

Hurray!!! Cooper finally did it! No more scooting backwards on his belly, no more sitting then reaching on belly then sitting again in order to get across the room! He finally crawled! Well, he crawled 3 other times, but it didn't really get him anywhere. Then today, I set him down in front of the t.v. (i know, i know..I shouldn't put him in front of the t.v.) I was on the computer trying to get tickets to a Rockies World Series game...its a gift to my dad from all his kids. Anyways, so I needed to buy some time. Well, I hear Kyleigh calling Cooper, so I turn around and Cooper had crawled across the family room, down the hall and into the guest bedroom! Well, I am so glad he finally did it, but now I have to go get baby gates and truly baby proof the house. I will try to get it on camera, but I don't have any memory space left at the moment. He is so cute, and you can tell he is so happy to be able to get to what he wants to. I think it is pretty funny that the first time he really crawled, he crawled across the house!
I guess all he needed was a little more time with Jimmy to learn how. We were with family all weekend, and so he got tired of not being able to get to things. Jimmy got around and got to toys faster than Cooper, so I guess it was all the motivation that Cooper needed!

Kyleigh's Birthday Oct.14th, 2007

Kyleigh is four!

We had a blast at Kyleigh's party! She had all her cousins from the Gardner side over, and her friend Kellen who we used to live next door to. The kids painted princess or king crowns, and we had a princess pinata, cake and ice cream. It was a little cold outside, but the party turned out great and we had a blast! Kyleigh was so excited, and loved all her presents. She kept wanting to have another birthday.

Kyleigh and her 'boyfriend' Kellen. They are so funny together! Do you like how mom couldn't find the candles so she had to have matches! Way to go mom!

Kyleigh and her FP3 Player- we can't stop her from listening to her music. She wants to listen all the time! We have gone through 2 sets of batteries!

The kids painting their princess and king crowns, they did so good, & no one got the paint on their clothes!

Kyleigh's polly pockets! She loves it, but Cooper loves it too, so Ky is learning to share!

Pinata time!! They had such a blast! Kyleigh is sure giving it all she's got! And Kellen did such a great job too. All the kids had a turn and poor Snow White didn't make it very long!

Everyone after the pinata! Tons of candy!

I am glad I got to send them all home after all that candy!

Rainy days and Mondays.....

So, here I am...finally blogging. I will try and keep it updated.

Lets see....today it is very blah outside. It has been raining/snowing all day long. I usually love rainy days, but today it isn't so pleasant; it is just making me want to curl up with a good book and drink hot chocolate. All of which is not very condusive to getting things done around the house. I did make homemake Vegetable beef soup...it was good, and helped us warm up. Then I thought about a picture I took of Kyleigh this summer. She couldn't wait for it to snow so she could go skiing..

She had to wear her snow boots everywhere. I just didn't care enough to fight with her over it; I warned her it would be hot, and that she couldn't take them off anywhere and that she had to wear them in the stores. She still wanted to wear them, and who am I to say no? I figure if thats the worse combo she ever wears I will consider myself lucky. She does look pretty cute though, and only complained that her feet were hot once. Now is the perfect day for those boots and she wants to wear her pretty sandals. Oh, life with a little girl! At least she doesn't change her clothes every hour....yet!