I'm a Mean Old Witch

Yes, I know it is still September and I did not mean for this to happen before October came around, but we get into the Holidays at our house and are a little anxious. I guess it turns out that our daughter got those genes from us because she is the one that got it all going this time. It all started when we got the play dough out to play with. She wanted to play with black and she wanted me to play with orange. First she asked for help to cut out a pumpkin with one of the cookie cutters (which is actually an apple cookie cutter). Then she said she was making a witch and wanted some help. So of course I could not resist. I started teaching her this song. She caught on about the third time and could sing it all the way through by herself. If you notice, she is a little distracted doing the actions of the song with the play dough witch, so she needed little promptings from me. She is my music child. I am told that she knows all the songs at Nursery and sings the loudest. This does not surprise me because I know she LOVES IT at home and has been that way sense she went into Nursery in Cedar City at 16 months (I was one of the Nursery Leaders).
So here we are in September making Halloween characters and singing Halloween songs. What the heck! Here is a preview of Kaven's costume while we are at it!Let's get the holidays rolling. Once you start it is just too hard to stop! :) Happy Halloween Everyone! :D

Block Party

Last weekend our housing held a block party. Kind of a back to school party for all us University Students! It was a very fun party (that didn't cost us a thing) and to top it off we won one of the prizes. We got tickets to This is the Place Heritage Park Little Haunts Fest! Don't worry I am sure there will another post on that when it happens! :) We had a great time.....
at the bounce houses,
(That as what Emery was most excited about, but when we got there she was too scared to go in. She ended up just watching it most the time fascinated).
eating cotton candy,

fishing for treasure at the fish pond,

(which she won a pretty necklace)
eating ice-cream,

(we actually had popcorn and then pizza for lunch but I was a little embarrased to post more pictures of junk food. :)
shooting off rockets that we made,

and just hanging out,

Baby Zuri

There is a new baby Elephant at the zoo. Her name is Zuri and she is ADORABLE! We sat and watched her most of the time we were there and I could have watched her longer. She is all over the place, wants to touch and experience EVERYTHING! She was even sitting on big balls and stuff.
Emery had even more fun at the zoo this time. Right when we got there she and Hannah had their maps and she was doing her 'I'm so cool' swagger walk. Or 'I own this place' walk. I think it is because she had just been there before and she knew what to expect this time.
We had so much fun again. Thanks for taking us Shannon!

TINA'S HERE!!!

Hip Hip Hooray! Tina is in Utah right now and we were lucky enough to see her and Nathan! We had so much fun with them and the Leeflangs. It was SO GOOD to get back together again even though we missed some of our other friends that we lived in Cedar City with. We loved it in Cedar City and made great friends that will last a life time.
We had Homemade Costa Vida for dinner and Worms and Dirt for dessert. The kids sure thought it was crazy! Nathan had a hard time dipping in and eating until he found the worms and Emery went to town eating it until she found a gummy worm and then was DONE!
.
Thanks for fitting us in your Utah trip Tina and Nathan. We had a great time with you.

To Build or Not to Build?

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!BUILD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is the type of question I ask myself on a regular occasion with my 2 year old. "Is it worth the work and time to do it and then clean it up when she is done?" As you see I say YES to this one.

Emery and I had a great time building her a "Castle" the other day. She has been reading books, watching movies, making food in it, off and on for the last few days. The only problem is, I did not consider that she would want me in it with her ALL THE TIME! Don't get me wrong. I love spending time with her and I find any excuse to find fun active things to do with her, but when the dishes and laundry are piling up and the house is getting messy, it is time to come back into reality and get to work. So the Castle had to come down today. I thought I would pay tribute to it by putting a post of it. Good-bye Castle. We had lots of fun but don't worry I am sure there will be more castles and huts in the future, especially when Kaven gets a little bigger so Emery will have someone to play with inside.

Feed the Birds

I was actually thinking of the song from Mary Poppins when I wrote this title, so now I have the song in my head. It is a part of the movie that I ALWAYS fast forward through like Cheer up Charlie on Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. So don't ask me how I know the song if I always fast forwarded through it. :)
Anyway....
I am actually writing about our visit to Sugar house Park with the Leeflangs a few days ago. They have a really fun park there that the kids had a blast going to some super long slides and running down big hills. But after the park we went to feed the ducks on the pond. I have been wanting to do this with Emery sense we moved here but just need a little nudge from the Leeflangs to get us going. So I wanted to post some pictures of us feeding the ducks. The funny thing is I don't think there is a single duck in any of the pictures. They are there I promise, and there were quite a few of them but right when I snapped the pictures they must of been swimming right behind our bodies. Just Kidding, I just found one out of like the 10 I took.

Just Not the Same

Labor Day Weekend is ALWAYS set aside for the infamous Day Family Reunion. It is the highlight of Tim's year (maybe even over Christmas!!) So we headed up the Canyon once again for the fun festivities and Camping.
This year was a little different though. The older generation that usually runs it
decided they were too old and tired to do it, so a younger generation decided they would take over. They did an excellent job but did not get the support from everyone. There was a lot of complaining about someone forgetting the BINGO, there were no group meals this year and so forth. Also there was not a very good turnout maybe because of these things. Emery had a little bit of a hard time too because she did not fit in very well with the other kids, maybe it is because they didn't know her very well or were just used to playing with each other, without her being there. (Thanks for being sweet to her Hannah).
BUT...
we made the best of it,
Emery had fun trying to escape into the wilderness by herself, and playing with Brady and Grandma Paula. Tim set up an awesome Tent to share with Brady. They put a tarp over a tent with blow up rafts on the side. They said it was the best they have ever slept camping. He also went boating/fishing with Brady, and played all day in the volleyball tournament. Kaven was VERY good even with his lack of sleep. He enjoyed tasting a pine cone and watching all the action. I had a great time visiting with everyone and was so appreciative of all of Paulas help with my kids. I really enjoyed her company this year.
Tim and I talked about it and decided that it was not the lack of people, the forgotten BINGO, the lack of group meals that made it not as great but it was
********JUST NOT THE SAME********
without Brett, Jennie, Sadie and Trace!!!! We missed you guys SO much. We missed Bretts strong fun presence and his funny comments. We missed Jennies laugh and fun conversations. We missed Sadie and Emery running around chasing each other giggling and squealing like little girls and following each other everywhere they go. And we missed looking at and talking to cute Trace. We know you are where you are suppose to be and are doing great at it but it doesn't mean we don't miss you when you are not here. Keep up the good work guys, we look forward to the next time we get to see you.
(I took this picture from Jennie's blog)

What makes a House a Home?

Well a few people have been asking me to see our new home we are living in so I thought I would share a little bit especially sense I have been working on it some. But for journal purposes I thought I would write about what it is like here.
We live in student housing and LOVE it. I never thought I would say that or EVER live in student housing but it is so great. Here are some reasons why I love it...
1.The people here are all so friendly and have very young families like us and at least one of the spouses has to be going to school. So we are all in or similar situations. I can go out my front door at almost any time and have a friend out there for Emery and I. If not someone will usually come out soon.
2. There is a playground and picnic/BBQ area right out our front door that is surrounded by three buildings (our houses) and a circular cement walkway for kids to ride bikes ect. So it is safe, no cars and Emery LOVES it.
3. There are so many activities that I can participate in. Mom's club, court activities, Village activities, and of course all the church activities on top of it. Not to mention all the great deals they give us to go to places like Raging Waters, Lagoon ect.
4. All utilities(high speed Internet, cable, phone, power, water ect.) are included in the Rent, which is VERY good by the way because they just charge us cost and are not making anything off us.
5. We can have a garden for $6.00 (total) if we want and do not have to pay for water (utilities included). We moved in a little too late for that this year but next year I am so on it.
6. We are close to campus so Tim doesn't have to waste all his time traveling to and from school cause he is gone and busy enough as it is.
7. There is classified adds for this place so it is like a yard sale ever two weeks for me rain or shine. Boy, have we ever taken advantage of that, with getting rid of so much stuff with the moves!!! As you may know I LOVE yard sales.

8. It is pretty safe with the security and it is fenced in. All the cars park on the outsides with the homes, walkways, HUGE grass field to play soccor or whatever on the inside. There is even a GIANT hill to slip'n'slide or sled down. It is nice not having to worry so much about Emery running into the street all the time.
9. It has community centers you can rent/use for free (great for family get togethers or baby blessings) Plus it is a FREE pre-school during the weekdays if I want to put Emery in when she's older.
10. The home itself is VERY old but has lots of personality with it's cinder block walls, asphalt and gym carpet type flooring and HUGE windows that go all along the front and back of our home. Sense we are renting we can not do anything permanent to it but they do not mind if you get creative with it and they even let us paint. It makes me so excited because I have a HUGE creative bug in me and I tell Tim it is like my blank canvas. Here's some pictures of my current project on the Kitchen (I have more plans yet like a blue wall, dishwasher and more cupboards with counter tops).
Now as many of you may know, living here has been a down grade for us, moving from a very nice three bed, two bath, two car garage, fenced in yard place to a three bedroom 1 bath very old place. BUT we do NOT feel any different living here! We are just as happy if not more in some ways and LOVE our life. Why you may ask? Well it is because it is not the granite counter tops (or counter tops in the bathroom at all for that matter), or the custom molding, the extra garage but living with the people you love in clean, safe, Christ centered environment. Yes someday we will probably have some of those things in our future home because they are nice and make things more comfortable but it does not change our attitude or the way we view life now. Plus it gives us something to dream and work for. Our future is bright and big, yet our present is just as bright for we have so much to love and be grateful for.

Stay posted: More pictures and projects of our home to come (just give me some time).

Pills and Bills...

...the story of our life these next few years. :) So I am pleased to introduce the new P1 student(1st year pharmacy student) of our family.
Tim received his white coat last weekend. This is the beginning of another great adventure in our life. It is now seeming a little bit more real after the ceremony.
This is his signature at the bottom of the oath he made. The person handing him the pen to sign said that he need to work on his signiture because it was too neat. Ha Ha.
As you can tell we are very excited for this new adventure.
Tim's parents and brother came and we enjoyed their company. It is always fun when family and friends come to see us.
Good luck sweet heart! I am so proud of you! We have worked so hard to make it where we are and I am tickled to see the results of our labors and BLESSINGS, for I know we would not be here if it were not for the help of others and especially our Heavenly Father. Now we just need to stick it through and enjoy the ride. Pills and Bills here we come!!!!