Fun filled weekend

Busy, busy, busy! I love this time of the year. Planning Thanksgiving menus, shopping for Christmas, raking leaves, watching vampires . . . the fun never ends!
Yes, of course, I went to the midnight showing of Twilight, and me-oh-my did we have fun?!?! We started out at my Aunt Page's house with an attempt at t-shirt making, didn't go so well. That's okay, we still had fun getting pumped for the movie. Then we all headed to Red Robin for food and treats. The restaurant was a hoot! It looked like women had taken over the world! My brother was one of the few who dared be out among us. Anyways, over to the theater and wow, that was the best people watching I've done in a while. The District put on this enormous PROM Extravaganza and so many were dressed to kill, literally! Once in the theater I cracked open an energy soda, whoops big mistake. I was sort-of feeling sluggish and thought it would help, but for someone who never has caffeine - I think I might as well have been on SPEED! I can't remember much because I was bouncing. I vaguely remember howling as it began? I thought it was a very entertaining movie, aside from a few cheesy things. I officially apologize to Amanda and Heidi, who had to sit next to me during the movie. I can't believe they are still talking to me! I think the only person even close to my enthusiasm was my cousin, Amelia.

V is for Vampire!On Friday, Cory finished his Surgical Rotation (which he loved! He got a ton of OR time and is a pro at suturing now!) in Logan and finally came home. The girls are ecstatic and so am I! We went out with friends and took in some naked homo sapiens at Body Worlds 3.

On Saturday we celebrated my Grandma's birthday and went to a craft fair and lunch. It was . . . interesting, but I definitely got some great crafting ideas and will be very busy for the next 6 months re-creating them all. We won't even mention the "football game" because I don't even think you can call it that?
Sunday, the Young Women in my ward put on an awesome program; I accompanied them for the musical numbers. The girls did so great, and there were many wet eyes in the audience. I love seeing the Youth of the Church sing!
Up next, Cory starts Cardiology and the girls and I are getting ready to go up to Logan for T-day!

How many pictures can one family need?!?!

Apparently a lot! I am addicted to having pictures taken. I love documenting each day with a picture or two ... or forty?! We'd had an appointment for months to have our picture taken on Conference weekend. It was going to be a beautiful outdoor fall shoot, with our talented photographer-cousin, Marianne. Torrential rain put a damper on that, so we opted for a few shots inside which turned into two crazy toddlers, two tired parents, two over-worked photographers and ton of GREAT pictures. Here's a few; the rest are in a slide show in the sidebar.
P.S. Saddest news ever! Jesse and DeAnna broke up! Boo-hoo!
T

Reflections of Christ

This weekend, Cory came down to visit! Hooray! We all miss him tremendously and it was so nice to do lots of fun things together. We got almost all our Christmas shopping done, took Em to Madagascar 2 (way fun!) and went to an art exhibit, Reflections of Christ, at the JSM building. I can't even tell you how beautiful and touching these pieces were.
Around Easter they put a pageant on at the Mesa Temple, Jesus the Christ. We had the chance to go once during our time in AZ. Anyways, I believe that they put this Reflections of Christ together to publicize the pageant. People loved the art so much, it's now touring. You can check it out here. We love the video, probably because it's put to one our favorite songs.
We went to the top of the building and got a couple family shots. It's so fun to think that this is where are Family began, and here we are today!

Frightmares

Tessa won the race on this amazing Giant Rooster.Emory wanted a "stallion".

They were so cute in these boats! I have the best video of Em drivin' and Tess ringin' the bell. Watch out when these two can legally drive, they're a mean team!
Back before Halloween we made the trip to good ole Lagoon for Frightmares. I remember back when I was a kid, feeling bad for my mom that she had to take the little kids on all the dumb baby rides. What was I thinking!?!?! I loved this year more than any other time I've been to an amusement park! Watching these girls go on rides and taking them om some of the "medium" ones was such a treat! Both of them loved everything they went on and had a great time dancing to music and just spending quality time with Mom and Dad.Unfortunately, I was convinced to let my mom and dad take the girls home so Cory and I could stay and ride with my brothers and sisters. Yuck! I used to LOVE rides, but I think once you have a baby something happens to the scare-yourself-till-you-scream-or-wet-yourself need. I felt the effects of the rides for days!
Me, Amanda, and Adam. (Can you tell we're related?)This is before Cory gained all the weight!

Best of Friends - Worst of Friends

These two have such a vivid love/hate relationship, and so it goes being sisters fairly close in age. They play so great together, sometimes. This is one of those precious moments when Emory was trying to protect and help her sister back when she was learning a new skill. I just love how proud Emory's face is. What I wouldn't do for these girls!?!
Here is Tessa getting into trouble as usual. She is obsessed with doing everything I'm doing. I was painting our AMAZING wood paneling and she wanted to help.Here is Emory the Imaginative. I love the awesome things she thinks of for us to do. This day we were making "monster friends" and she had to put her arm around them to show them she loved them!

Donut Falls

We did a lot of fun stuff last month, and one of those things was hiking to Donut Falls. We used to do this hike all the time when I was a teenager, and all of the sudden the people who owned the land made it private property - liability for injuries or some jazz like that. Anyway, we found out that the trail was open to the public again, and my girls have had very little exposure to REAL mountains and hiking. It was a lot of fun and Emory was a hoot. As we started hiking up she started singing, "We're hiking Mt. McKinley, we're hiking, we're hiking!" I think she got it from Little Einsteins? Tessa loves to be outside and just squealed and pointed at everything. They both wanted to get in the water, but after a touch they realized it was liquid ice - hmmmm?? Emory, of course, obsessed about dirty hands, while Tessa wanted Katie to take her out into the middle of the river. On the way down, Emory once again entertained us with the names of the animals she heard. She started off with some cute names, for little woodland creatures and then all of the sudden busts out saying, "Oh no!! Look out for Say-Bule, the Flying Sheep!" What a girl!P.S. She's feeling a 1,000,000% better!

Poor Emory!

So, I mentioned that Emory was sick last week, well . . . turns out she's REALLY sick. After an almost 2 hour bloody nose this weekend, I took her to an Urgent Care and was shocked to find out she has a severe ear infection, strep throat, and impetigo (a staph infection on her face)! She is such a trooper! I knew she was sort-of sick but she didn't even tell me her ear hurt and only said her throat had a "little ouchie". She's on a super antibiotic and got some ear drops, and has informed me that she's "on her way to recubbery" (recovery?). To bad Cory's out of town and just finished his Pediatric rotation, a lot of help he is!!! I had to run to the store with her to get her meds, and people kept staring at her. I guess it kinda looks like she has a flesh eating virus on her face? It looks way worse in person.
After I took the picture of her nose, she wanted to take a picture of me and Tess (who is luckily the orneriest baby ever at the moment - she just got her first molar and 3 more are coming fast). This is the glamor shot, I don't know any other baby that can make a face like that! Not to mention Tessa's hair, or the amaing 2-hours-of-sleep bags under my eyes!

Halloween!

Happy Birthday to Adam last week! We love us some Animal!What a day! The girls are in the mid-stages of a terrible bug and so this amazing day that we've been prepping for all month was sort-of a bummer. Emory laid around all day to try to reserve some energy for the Trick-or-Treating, she looked and felt awful. We did make some fun sugar cookies but had to quarantine Em's. This was the first year I've really taken them out door to door. It was gorgeous weather and we had fun. Tessa was totally into it and loved every minute. She just oohs and aahs at all the decorations, and loves them all - even the ones that her big sister is too afraid to go near! Here's a few picture of the big day and the little ones leading up.
Charlotte and Wilbur and PenelopeGardner Village with Grandma AudreyPainting pumpkins

Playing in the leavesEmory's Preschool ParadePrimary CarnivalAnd the BEST COSTUME goes to my brother and sister-in-law, check it out here!