Halloween, Halloween, Halloween

First of all has anyone else had "posting" problems? It's taken me 2 days to get my pictures to post and for some reason I can never type anything above first picture...anyways on to our Halloween Festivities! Of course it wouldn't be halloween without a package from Grandma Bennion! The girls LOVED their Halloween movie and "neckaces"...Thanks Grandma
We also hosted a preschool party that was a lot of fun. The kids had a lunch of mummy hot dogs, chocolate covered ghost strawberries, spider crackers and bug juice...YUM!

The girls are VERY in to Horses at the moment so we thought if fitting that they be cowgirls for Halloween...I think they look pretty darn cute if I do say so myself! My favorite part of their costume was their boots...$3 and $5 on ebay!!


Then of course in true Jake fashion he carved this Awesome pumpkin of me and the girls! Seriously there is no competing with him so if you'll notice in some of the above pictures mine is the "S" pumpkin! I was just sad that it's a pumpkin that is going to rot and have to be thrown away...I'll have to convince him to do something with a little more staying power:)

Fall Photo Shoot

Daddy's girls
(don't you love how Gracie looks like she is determined to take him down!)

I love watching on the leaves change when fall comes around. I've really enjoyed fall here in Utah because there is actually a fall! In Montana it seems like it goes straight from summer into winter without much transition but here we've been enjoying the 70 degree weather, beautiful colors and most importantly No Snow! We decided it would be fun to get some pictures of the girls with "fall" in the background. Unfortunately, because it is fall it gets darker much earlier so we didn't get as many good shots as we would have liked before it got to dark and cold. Here is what we got...

This one is in our backyard...notice the grass in the background...finally Yeah!

I'm not sure what Brynlee was reacting to, but it made for a good picture!

Weekend Getaway

The view from the deck off our room. It would have been really cool except for the construction EVERYWHERE and the fact that we shared the deck with the room next door!

Some of you might remember that back in March Jake won the "March Madness Pool" at work and we decided we would use the winnings for a weekend getaway with just the two of us. Well now that it is October we finally were able to go! Jake's parents were so very kind to drive all the way down from Wyoming to watch our kids and Friday night we took off to Park City. Friday we spent most of our time listening to a lady trying to convince us buy into a timeshare (yes we are that cheap that we went to listen to the 90 presentation...but we got the hotel room for $25 a night, you can't beat that in Park City!) Anyways, after saying No to the lady about 50 times we were finally able to get on our way. By the time we got into our room it was pretty late and we hadn't had anything to eat so at about 11pm we decided to go find some food! We were both beat but decided to go just because we could, it felt like we were dating being able to just get up and go no matter what time it was and not have to worry about the kids! Saturday we spent the day shopping at the outlet mall (Awesome!) visiting Olympic Park (see picture below) going out to eat and even seeing a movie! By the end of the day we could not believe everything that we were able do...it's amazing how much you can get done when you don't have the kiddios around!

We had a fabulous time spending some one on one time with each other but by Sunday we were really missing the girls. It was great to get away but it's always great to come home too! Thanks again to Grandma and Grandpa Smith for watching the girls...they had a blast and I'm pretty sure they didn't even notice we were gone:) And Thank you Jake for a wonderful weekend, I love you forever!:)

Happy Birthday Tanner and Jenny!

We are so glad we were able to have Tanner and Jenny over for a little bit to celebrate their Birthdays with a little B-day cake.:) Their birthdays are only a few day apart so I'm sure they'll be having a combined birthday from here on out (sorry guys!) Happy Birthday!

Gracie blew out most of the candles before they had a chance to blow out any, but they were good sports blew out the last few that were left. Please ignore Gracie's "been to church, had a nap, been rollin around in the couch pillows" hair do that she's sportin'!

First Day of School...kind of

Some ladies in the neighborhood and I decided to do a little Joy School/preschool this year with our 3 and 4 year old kids. Today was the first day but it was more of an opportunity for us Moms to get together and decide what and how we wanted to do this. I wasn't sure if Gracie even knew what "school" was but when I told her about it she was super excited. She was most excited however to wear her "packpack" of course. So we went to our friends house to have "school" which was really just a play time for the kids while the Mom's planned everything out and the entire time Gracie refused to take off her "packpack" and kept coming and telling me she wanted to go to school. Then when we left and she realized we were heading home she started throwing a huge fit about how she wanted to go to school! I realized then that the only time we ever talk about going to school is when we are refering to the park at the school at the end of our street which we frequent often. So needless to say I hope Gracie isn't disappointed that school is where you go to learn and not slide down slides! I guess we'll have to wait and see!:)



Brynlee got to come too since it was just a planning day so of course she had to bring her "packpack" too! It will be interesting to see how they do without eachother...it's really the first thing that Gracie is doing that Brynlee isn't.
I had to get a shot of the back packs to show how huge they are, they are as big as them! If I'd know we would be using them for preschool I would have gotten something different but I must confess that I got them last year on clearence thinking I'd use them as 72 hour kits...well that was as far as I got with that so I figured we might as well get some use out of them!

A few random tid bits

Well I suppose it's time for a new post since I haven't posted anything for over a month now, so here a few Random things we've been up to! I guess it's been so long that I've forgotten how to post things because for some reason I cannot get the above picture to go where I want it...so I guess I'll start there! I thought some of the the RC 305 roomies might like to see some pictures from Katie's reception(sorry none of them turned out well but at least you get the idea!). Katie is one of 5 girls that made the best roommates ever! I was so glad that I was able to go her reception. She looked Fabulous, and we had a lot of fun! However, I have to say being 7 months pregnant and standing next to TINY (seriously she really is!) Katie doesn't do much for the self esteem! Oh well:)

Here is Katie dancing with her new hubby Scott, they were so cute together:)

And here she is line dancing and showing off here white cowboy boots!:)

The above picture is a little treat I did for our neighborhood block party that Jake and I were put in charge of. Yes, I said "put in charge of". See here in Utah you get assigned by the bishop to do things like throw a block party...isn't Utah great! Anyways, I thought the chocolate carmel chex party mix in paper cones turned out cute and they were a big hit at the party.

And last but not least here is a picture of the girls last Sunday when we were miraculously ready early enough to take a picture before church! It seems like we are scrambling most Sunday's especially since I was put into the primary presidency and now have to be there by 8:30 to set up chairs...so it really was a miracle that we were ready early and had to document it!

So there is a little update on what we've been up to however random it may be!

Brynlee is 2!

Our little Brynlee Mae turned 2 years old on the 10th of August. She is such a sweet little girl and we are so glad she is part of our family. We love you Brynlee!

Brynlee's latest obsession is horses so we made a "horsie" cake for her. Jake did some great "rope" work with the licorice! I wish I would have gotten a picture of him carefully cutting each piece just right, making tassels and everything!:) Of course Brynlee Loved it!Grandma Bennion sent this adorable tu tu and head band. Brynlee put in on and immediately started shakin her tushy:) It was great, thanks Grandma!

Jake's Grandma Crawford gave us this little doll crib a little while ago. It was a crib that Jake's Mom used to play with as a kid. I wish I had a before picture of it but Jake fixed it up, painted it and I made some bedding for it and it turned out really cute! I think it's so neat to be able to pass things done from on generation to the next.

Smith cousin's! It's so fun being close to family...thanks everyone for coming and for all the great gifts, we love you all!

Blowing out the Candle!