A Wicked Trip to the City

While my mom was here, Josh offered to watch the kids while we took a little trip into the city. Who could say no to that! Our first stop was the 9 story Macy's store that has a Cheesecake Factory on the top floor. We both got the herb crusted salmon with lemon sauce. Yum, yum, yum!

We finished the night by going to see Wicked. Amazing. It was just as good as the first time I saw it. I don't know what my mom did to score this, but the two seats in front of her never got taken. So she had a perfect view of the stage the whole night. But the people who sat next to us were not so lucky. They had two people in front of them wearing top hats during the entire play. Bummer for them, but luckily it wasn't us!

Pumpkin Drawing

You might be wondering what is "pumpkin drawing". In short, we decided to opt out of carving our pumpkins and decided to draw on them instead. Ava is quite the little artist and didn't care one bit. She was very careful with each and every stroke. She made sure to cover every inch of her pumpkin. She paid special attention to the stem.

Ava was quite proud of the horse she drew on her pumpkin (hint: it's the red spot right in the center of the pumpkin). Don't feel bad, she had to tell me where it was too.

Reid even got in on the fun too. I helped him hold the marker. Which is a lot harder than it looks. Especially when he was trying with all his might to get that marker into his mouth!

Reid is quite proud of his first pumpkin!

Here is Ava and her finished pumpkin.

Halloween '09

This past week my wonderful mother decided to fly down for Halloween. More to come on that visit in a future post. But I wanted to make sure I posted pics of Halloween before it got much later. Hope you're sitting down because you won't be able to take your eyes off of the computer screen for awhile. Ava and Reid are just that cute!


Lucky for us, Reid was able to fit in the same costume that Ava wore her first Halloween. That costume was the best $2 I spent (thanks ebay!).


Any guesses on who Ava dressed up as?


Maybe these "slippers" will give it away.


My little princess told me that for Halloween she wanted to be a blue princess so she could dance and twirl. Sidenote, Ava thinks if she puts her fingers in her ears and screams "I can't hear you!", that she doesn't have to do what you ask.


What a little lady we have. It's kinda hard to see in the picture, but she's trying to walk up the stairs.


I don't know where this came from, but Ava laid down and told me to take a picture.


Here is a picture of my beautiful mother and the gang.


Gosh, could I open my mouth any wider?


That's better.


On Friday we attended our ward's Halloween party. We couldn't believe it, but our chili won the golden ladle. Five years ago our chili won at our BYU married ward (it's the exact same recipe), but I figured it was because in college no one knows how to cook. We're trying to find the perfect place to display our award.


The next night we went downtown to go trick or treating. The weather was perfect. Notice that we are not wearing jackets or long sleeves for that matter.


Ava sure loved having Grandma take her around trick or treating. I think Grandma enjoyed it just as much!

It took 4 months

We've finally unpacked every single box from our move! It might have something to do with my mother coming to visit today. Just maybe. Okay it did.

Glowing Jack O'Lanterns

We were sitting around the house this past weekend and Josh looks around and asks, "So, have you finished putting up all the Halloween decorations yet?" I had. I must admit, that since we moved into this bigger apartment that our decorations looked pretty pathetic. So I was on a mission to find a cute, but cheap Halloween decoration. I was so excited when I found this craft here and here, that we ran to the store that night to get the few supplies I didn't have.


So cute right?! They hardly cost anything to make. Sidenote, if you can't find orange tissue paper you can always use orange napkins. A few of the pumpkins I used napkins and I bet you can't even tell the difference.

I must admit, they look just okay when they aren't lit.


Once you light them they change from "cute" to "oh my goodness, I must make some right this instant!"


My favorite is this little guy.


Now you could put actual candles inside to light them up, but I would recommend getting some flameless tea lights like the one pictured below. I got mine from Costco and L-O-V-E them. They turn one with a flip of a switch, don't make the glass scorching hot, are mess free, and the best part is that they actually flicker like a real candle would.


So if you are looking for a cheap but awesome Halloween decoration, I totally recommend making these. They are so easy, that even those who are craft challenged would have a positive outcome.

Pumpkin Patch

Who can resist taking the kiddies to the pumpkin patch? Not us, that's for sure! We decided to head out to the same pumpkin patch that we took Ava to last year.


Here's Ava trying to navigate her way threw the maze.





A favorite of Ava's was getting to play in the enormous sandbox filled with corn.


A favorite of mine was getting to ride on the cow train.


This ride might look tame, but just glance at Ava's face and her death grip on "Lillian". The driver takes you on a trail that goes through the corn maze. And they've carved some major hills for this little caravan to go over.


I seriously wanted to go on it again, but Ava would not have it. But of course, once we got her back to the car, she told Josh she wanted to go on the train again.


Reidy didn't get to participate in all of the activities, but he sure enjoyed getting to people watch :)

Utah 2009: Day 7

Here is the last day of our week long trip to Utah. We kept the last day more low-key. We made sure to have plenty of time to play with play dough. Ava could of stayed at the table all day if we let her.


We made sure to fit in one more walk. The views of the mountains are just gorgeous. Everytime we would go for a drive, Ava would excitedly point out all the mountains and then exclaim, "We've got to go through it!" (taken from one of her favorite books, Going on a Bear Hunt)


Reid loves going on walks. I love getting to put his beanie on. He's just too cute!


We had a good time one our vacation. Thanks John and Shelby for a wonderful time! We can't wait till our next trip.

Utah 2009: Day 6

On Monday the weather cooled way down, which made it the perfect day to take advantage of Kangaroo Zoo. Which is an indoor bouncing place. Ava was in love the moment we walked inside.


My heart skips a beat everytime I look at this picture. This little girl has no fear! She had no problem climbing up. But don't worry, everytime she climbed up one of these enormously steep stairs I was standing right behind her...just in case.


If you are ever in the Utah area you have to take your kids here. Ava just loved it.

(If you cannot view the video go to our website)

On our way out she told us that she was tired and she needed to take a nap. It was only noon. Music to any Mom's ears!