He's official

Reid is now 18 months old and is legally allowed to attend nursery.


If you can believe it, Reid loved every minute of nursery. He didn't cry at all and loved getting to play with all the other kids. It might have a little to do with the fact that he's been attending nursery ever since the beginning of July, and ummm, it could also help that both of his parents are his nursery teachers, and his sister is also in nursery. It's sure going to be quite the adjustment for this little guy whenever we move out of this ward. But since I am his teacher I can honestly say he did awesome :)

Happy Halloween!

Halloween had a little attitude this year. Around 3pm the rain came and just didn't stop untill 5-ish. Seeing a break in the rain we got the kids ready and started taking them around the neighborhood. We had only gone to a few houses when the rain came back in full force accompanied by wind, thunder and lighting. Boo! After returning home and feeling pretty bummed, we decided to have a little dinner. Shortly after, the clouds parted and it was perfect outside. The rain was gone and the temp was just right (for Utah), so we gathered the kids and went for round two. Here are the kids all dressed and ready to go.


Here's our very own Tinkerbell.


Ava was over the moon excited to get to wear her costume. Here she is showing Reid the awesomeness of her costume. Can you believe I found those wings at the Dollar Tree for just a buck. They match perfectly! I couldn't of made wings cheaper than that!



Arg, here's our wee little pirate.


Can you believe I got this costume for only $3.49 off Ebay. Might I add the tags were still on it and it had never been worn. For reals! I did end up sewing his pirate hat. Which I'd like to thank my little pirate for wearing it the entire night.


{knock, knock}


{ahhhh! Someone's coming}


{trick or treat} or {treeeeee!} as Reid like to say.


We had multiple people mention just how much Ava made their entire Halloween. Check out the video to see why. Here we are going trick or treating to our next door neighbors. Love them. They are just the sweetest. The password is Halloween.

Ava seriously jumped up and down at almost every house we went to. A few of the neighbors even asked Ava to spread a little pixie dust with her wand and she happily obliged. We absolutely had a blast getting to take the kids around this year. They both really got into the whole thing. It only took going to a few houses before Reid had the whole treat or treating process down. He would knock, yell "TREEEE!" (treat), pause for 10 to 15 seconds while he searched for the perfect treat, pick it out of the basket all by himself and them place it in his bag. Adorable.

The kiddies with all of their loot.


Happy Halloween!

Presenting Ava's Preschool Class

A few days before Halloween Ava's Preschool class had a little Halloween Program. Little 3 year olds dressed in their Halloween costumes singing songs. I'm so there. Check it out, the password is: program.

Woohoo! That's my baby girl!


Ava and her wonderful teacher Miss Rebecca.


On a sad note, this past Thursday was Ava's last day attending her Preschool class. Way back in July we put an offer on a short sale. Doesn't that seem like ages ago? After months and months of waiting, we were finally going to close on Thursday afternoon. 2 hours before closing we get a call from our lender telling us that the title company found a huge tax lein that was just put on the house. Meaning, we weren't going to close that day. Actually we aren't going to be closing until they are able to clear the lein off the title, which could take a few weeks. That was not something we were too excited to hear. I had already told Ava's preschool we were moving, they had filled her spot, we had people on both sides of the move all ready to help us move, most of our things were packed, and we had deliveries scheduled. Luckily our landlord didn't put us out on the streets. Thanks John and Shelby! Which I have no idea how other people would of dealt with this situation if they had already given 30 days notice to their landlord. So right now we are in limbo. Most of our things are all packed and we are just waiting for word that everything is good to go. Looks like I'll be homeschooling Ava for the next few weeks until we move. Hopefully the next post I do on the house will be about us closing. But we've had some many ups and downs throughout this process, that Josh and I aren't holding our breath until we actually have the keys in our hands.

Add "snow" to Reid's vocabulary list

Thank goodness he only needed to use it up until lunch. After that it melted away and hasn't been seen since. But look at their cute little faces. It was a nice surprise for them to wake up to.

What is going on outside?

Crap. It's snow.


I might not be ready for it to get colder, but I can't wait for the kids to wake up in the morning!

2 little pumpkins

After picking up our pumpkins from a local fruit produce stand (love them!) it was pumpkin carving time. For the past few years we have played it safe and only allowed Ava to color on her pumpkin. But this year we decided to pull up our britches and bring out the knives (more like the barbie sized sword). Below is Team Reidy.


As you can tell, Reid didn't quite know what to do at first.


Much better little buddy.


Here is Team Ava. Ava was totally disgusted by the pumpkin innards at first, but then she totally dove right in and wanted to help.


This year we let Ava design her own pumpkin face. I personally think she did an awesome job.


The finished products. Reid was still a little confused about what was going on!


Any guesses on who was the inspiration behind Reid's pumpkin? Look no further than Reid himself. Notice how the pumpkin only has 5 teeth; same as Reid. And yes Kassie, Reid does only have 5 pearly whites. Ava and myself were the same way.


Well there you go. Hope everyone else has a great time getting to carve their pumpkins. Here's a little tip that made the whole experience go a whole lot smoother. I picked up a plastic tablecloth from the dollar store this year. After everyone is done with their master pieces you just gather the whole thing up and throw it in the trash. Nothing easier than that! Oh, and who else uses those battery operated candles inside their pumpkins? Aren't they great?!

Just another visit to the farm

Wait a second, something seems a little different. The people at Thanksgiving Point decided to deck the farm out for the Halloween. I especially enjoyed getting to read the gravestones in what used to be the garden.



Ava is becoming quite the little Mommy to Reid. She gets him food when he's hungry, gives him toys when he's upset, oh, and I can't forget about getting him out of his pack n' play after he woke up from his nap. That's what a Mom would do, right? When asked how Reidy was able to get out of the crib, she happily retold the whole event. It seems that Ava heard Reid crying, went in to check on him, proceeded to climb into the pack n' play, pushed Reidy up and over the side (head first; which she quickly added that he didn't cry), once he was on the ground she gave him his blanket, favorite stuff animal (Froggy) and took out his binky and threw it back in the crib (since he is only allowed to have his binky while he is sleeping). No Reidys were hurt in the process thankfully. But we did make sure to talk about how only Mommy and Daddy can take Reid out of the crib.


Autumn is in full swing here. Just loving the yellow trees.


You know Reid is enjoying himself when he starts pointing at everything in site.


Oh wise billy goat, when will we ever get to live in a house of our very own? {Hmmm...I see it very near in your future*}




To top off the lovely outing, Ava got to ride a pony. This time she rode without me walking beside her. She's getting so brave. So proud of my little cowgirl.


*More on the house front to come in a future post!

Are sugar cookies a Halloween tradition?

Well they are in this household. Nothing like getting to decorate spooky ghosts, bats, pumpkins, and even some spiderwebs. Sure gets us in the Halloween spirit. Plus, how often do you get to use black frosting?

Reid and Ava's birthdays are less than a week apart, which means we did this exact same activity when she was Reidy's age. Here's the link to the post, in case you were curious to compare the 2. Below are my two Sous Chefs all ready to roll.

For a kid who puts EVERYTHING (no exaggeration) into his mouth, thankfully he didn't try chowing down on the cookie dough. Maybe he thought it was play dough?

But he did put this in his mouth.

Ava has really stepped up to being a little helper in the kitchen. Not only did she help make the dough (recipe found here), she was a pro at cutting out all of the cookies. It was nice not having to do it all myself. Thanks Ava bug.

While waiting for the cookies to bake I took a few pics of Reid. It helped that he was buckled into his highchair, so he had no choice but to oblige. Here's my cute brown eyed baby boy.

Here's Reid rocking 3 teeth on top and 2 on the bottom. Lack of teeth does not hamper this kid in anyway in the eating department.

This is the look that makes me putty in his wee little hands. So sweet.

After baking all of our cookies we had some major frosting to do. This year we used this recipe. Tastes good. The frosting sets up nicely so you can stack the cookies after they dry. And it taste good.

Here's Ava's step by step instructions on how to frost the perfect cookie.

No complaints here.

Here are the final products. The spider webs were so easy and look sweeet. It was Josh's idea to add a spider to the cookie and it adds a nice touch.

Sidenote: If you're thinking of swinging by for a quick visit, the cookies are almost gone.

That's one way to turn off the light

A few seconds after this picture was taken Reid decided it would be a great idea to hold onto the pot rack and rock back and forth. Bad idea buddy. Good thing his mama was there to make sure he didn't have a big fall. But now I can't trust him in the playroom all by himself. It would not have even crossed Ava's mind at this age to stand in the sink to get to the light switch. Boys.

Mandatory October post

You can't get into the Halloween spirit without a trip over to a pumpkin patch. So here is our yearly pumpkin patch post. Just a little suggestion to the people at Cornbellys, next time make sure the rocking chair isn't facing straight into the sun.

Here's the princess of the pumpkin ball.

One of Reid's favorite activities at the pumpkin patch was the sandbox filled with corn kernels. Much protesting was heard from this little boy when it was time to move on to another activity.

After seeing how much fun Reid was having getting buried in the kernels, she of course had to do the exact same thing.

It doesn't happen very often, so Reid enjoyed every minute of getting to walk around all by himself. Luckily Shelby came with us, so we had more eyes to make sure the little ones didn't get into trouble.

I placed Reid smack in the middle of the hay maze to see what he would do.

After wandering for a bit he eventually found his way out. He's one smart kid. But I was shocked that he didn't just do what Ava did (see pic after this one).

Here's our little rule breaker! It's kinda hard to tell,but she's walking on top of the hay.

The whole gang took a ride on the hayride.

Slides, slides and more slides. They could of just had only this at the pumpkin patch and Ava would of been more than pleased.

She might be small, but Ava is not afraid of a challenge or of heights.

Towards the end we decided to try out the "jumping pillows". Those things are not some wimpy little pillows you snuggle with at night. The pics below are with the kids on the toddler one, but just wait till you see the one for the bigger kids.

Reid enjoyed the pillow for maybe 30 seconds. Really wasn't his thing.

He would rather watch from the sidelines. Plus, he just couldn't resist playing with those flags.

Here is the other "pillow". Ava looks like piece of lint on that thing.

If you can't tell by the expressions of all the kids in the pic, this ride wasn't too thrilling. Maybe it was because we had too high of expectations from the other cow trains we've been on. Where are the speed bumps? The spastic weaving through the corn maze? And the crazy speed demon behind the 4 wheeler that drives so fast you've gotta hold on to make sure you don't fly right out?

Here's Ava trying to ride a tricycle. Sadly she's still too short to ride one. Anyone had any good experience using those bikes with no peddles?

One our way out Ava made a side trip over to the old firetruck.

Good thing she did because this was absolutely Reid's favorite part. He could not get enough of getting to sit in the driver's seat.

Here are the kiddos working together trying to get the firetruck moving.

There was another successful trip to the pumpkin patch. Since we are newbies to living in Utah, are there anymore suggestions of fun things to do in October?