Trunk or Treating at Church

AH!! Its HALLOWEEN!!!
Aren't I the cutest scarecrow you have ever seen?!
I know my parents think I am!
Look at my Mom and NiNi, they think they are so cool!
Me and my 'loot'. I decided I only need a few pieces of candy to make me happy! I also learned that if you stand in front of the car after the person gives me candy they will think I'm funny and give me more. Very efficient.

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Family Birthday Dinner this weekend Kate looked cute in her seasonal clothes. So here she is crawling up and down the stairs and going in and outside at Aunt Susan's house.

Pumpkin Carving

Our Lovely friends invited us over last week for a pumpkin carving party. It was super fun! Kate however was NOT a fan of the pumpkin guts.

This was the ONLY time we got her to touch the guts, and she would run away from it after that experience. Jon tried to force her to touch it, trick her to touch it, and beg her to do it. She would not budge!

Even NiNi tried to convince her to play in the pumpkin. She even turned her down, which almost never happens!

So Jon got stuck carving all the pumpkins while I went inside to decorate cookies with Kate.
All of the kids had a blast with the cookies!

Even the Men had a great time with the cookies!

Thanks for the awesome party Mallory!

Dear BYU Football,

As you know, for my birthday weekend Jon and I came to watch you play TCU in the Dallas Cowboys stadium.

The stadium was super cool, so I guess I should at least thank you for that. But, seriously, back to business. Last year we made the 6 hr drive up to watch you get embarrassed by TCU. We thought that if we gave you another chance you would do better! The scoreboard said that you did, but I was so disappointed by your inability to play football! Aren't you guys called football players?? I guess the problem was the jumbotron...or whatever they call the gigantic tv in that stadium. I confess, I too had trouble avoiding that thing! It draws you in like a bug to a light.

That is all I can think of that gives any excuse for the way you played that game. I was seriously embarrassed to be wearing blue walking back to our car. Not a good feeling!

There were some good things about the game though:

--The nachos!

--The old guy in front who, bless his heart, stood up and got the fans to cheer for every first down BYU managed to squeak out. He was just precious!

--The little kids/dad sitting next to me. The Dad shouted about everything, and the kids would copy what he said, but only what they remembered. So it came out sounding really funny, and just made the Dad look like a bigger dork for yelling.

--This same Dad getting his car keys out during the 3rd quarter and violently shaking them for what felt like the entire quarter. His son even asked "dad why are you doing that?" At one point the noise stopped and I looked over only to find he was just switching hands.

--The Ref's made a few bad calls (DON'T be the team who blames it on that BYU. You boys didn't play the game like you know how, either way. Yes a few of those calls impacted the score, but you could have changed the score too if you had showed up to play!) ANYWAY, after this bad call, the BYU fans of course BOOed. But, they kept right on Booing at every dead ball that quarter! This of course sent me into a fit of hysteria. I seriously couldn't stop laughing! That combined with key-jingler made my night!

--In the 4th quarter someone down front stood up and held up a sign for the BYU fans to see that read "PUT JIMMER IN!". I thought that was good advice!

So BYU football, in conclusion, please get your act together. I would like to be able to root for you without doing the walk of shame!

Sincerely,

Sarah

Proof that I am OLD!

Today I turn 25. 25! That is a quarter of a century! I don't know why, but this birthday makes me realize that I really am getting old. I have an ALMOST 2 year old! I am getting really close to 30! I am not sure why this comes as a shock to me, but it does! And to further prove my point, last night I spent the evening DEEP CLEANING! And I thought it was blog worthy! (doesn't that just SCREAM boring old lady!?) Anyway, since it can't be stopped, here is my blog about being old and boring!

Our kitchen has these ugly light colored tiles that I hate. Why you would put this light of a color in your kitchen is beyond me. But I found some heavy duty tile cleaner to try and bring the tiles back to their original color. And mostly I was happy with the results. I will probably do this same thing next month too to help it be even brighter....but here is the photo evidence:
Before:
After:

It looks a bit better! I still dislike the tiles, but it feels a little less dirty to me now!

Funny Cousins

This past week Brooke came to hang out with us again. The girls had a great itme playing together! Kate thinks Brooke is SO cool, and tries to do everything she does. It made for an easy afternoon for me! They entertained eachother nicely! We are so lucky to have family living here with us!

Who needs personal space?

"Hey mom! I saw you run to the bathroom for a sec, so I thought I'd pull up a chair!"

Some days she seriously blocks me in and cries when I try to leave the bathroom. Why oh why can't a mom use the bathroom in peace!?

Getting so big!

My daughter thinks she is SO big. She refuses to let you help her eat. But she is pretty good at doing it on her own! Even something tricky like yogurt.

She also is starting to repeat most everything you tell her! She loves to pick up these letter cookie cutters I have (why she must play with those when we have 2 other alphabet TOYS intended for her use I will never understand. I guess part of the fun is annoying mom!) and her favorite letters are R and D and E. She says R like a pirate, and I love it! This picture below is from the first time she attempted to say marshmallow. It sounded more like shmammmallooo. The best part is that she clearly thinks she has said the word correctly.
She has also started acting more like she is 2.....temper tantrums in public. Oh the joys of having a screaming child while trying to seat them in the cart at the grocery store. PLEASE tell me there are other people out there who have fought with their kids like this too! I feel like everyone at the store thinks I am a failure of a mom as they sneer at me and walk past. I promise, I am not raising a brat....its just a stage...RIGHT?!?!

In other news, our new plan for our future is to turn Kate into a pro golfer. Jon and I STINK at golf, but we figure if we start early she has a shot at scholarships! So far she pulls out her clubs and putts in the living room daily. She is pretty good--until she starts riding the clubs around like a broom.

Conference Weekend

In our church we have two weekends a year that we call General Conference. It is like a Mormon holiday! We get to spend two days listening to the Prophet and Apostles give messages about the gospel, and how we can better ourselves. I always enjoy conference because it leaves me feeling refreshed and ready to make changes in my life so I can become closer to our Lord. This weekend was no exception. A few of the things I learned was to better use my time. I need to watch Tangled less and do more productive activities! Also, I need to just to be determined to be happy! The Lord has given me so much, I need to do better at being happy every day. I also am going to strive to improve my personal prayers. I pray multiple times every day, but I want to make my prayers more meaningful. I am so grateful for the church in my life and all of the teachings it gives me! I really have no idea who I would be without it. Because of my church I have my husband, daughter, and entire family with my FOREVER! That is the biggest blessing I can ever hope for! If you want to check out General Conference you can go to www.lds.org and read, watch, or listen to it for free!

Also on Saturday morning, my Sister in law Susan asked me to do a 5K walk with her for breast cancer awareness. It was BEAUTIFUL weather and good company! We did the walk in 55 minutes, and it felt great! Hope everyone else had a great a weekend as me!

Totally random off topic news: I counted my t-shirts in my closet today and found that I have 24 that I wear ALL the time (this doesn't include the ones I don't wear often). I literally wear a t-shirt every day...I hear Jeff Foxworthy telling me "Here's your sign". Maybe I should invest in a wardrobe....