festive fall family fun

It has ALMOST felt like fall lately with temperatures 

only in the 70s and low 80s, and with Halloween

aproaching, here's what we've done.

 

For FHE Monday night we made these for dinner.

Hotdog mummies. Lainee absolutely loved them. 

 

 

Then we made these for dessert.

This is without a doubt one of the BEST things about fall.

Our caramel apples were deLISH!

 

Then today, with the weather being so nice (aka not hot),

we went with some friends to the zoo.

It was definitely not a very big one like we all kind of expected,

but these three girlies had a blast.

 

Lainee petting a wallaby.

 

This is a Lynx.

 

Riding a pretend elephant (since this zoo obviously didn't have a real one).

 

It's so much more fun when Dad gets to come with us to do fun stuff!

 

Lainee and her friends Emma and Sophie playing on

a cute little bridge between animals.

 

They let you go inside this cage with some goats,

and Lainee threw caution to the wind to run around with

these dirty guys.

There was a sign on the fence that said

"goats may head butt" (or something)

and I was super nervous about them chewing on her hood

and choking her out or something (I doubt that's very likely)

but she was fine except for some dirty hands and feet.

 

After the zoo, we went to eat at the buffet in the Rio.

I decided that no matter what the buffet is, or how much people

pay to eat at one, buffet food is just not THAT good.

 

 

Tonight we went and got some pumpkins and brought them home to paint.

... Bet you can't guess which one of us painted each of them!

 

Anyway, we're trying to make it seem like it's autumn time

and sometimes I think it might be working!

More Fun Times

Just another picture post to give the gist of what we've been up to.

 

Good news! A month or so ago, Lainee decided she was done

with diapers once and for all, so even though she has been

daytime potty trained for a long while, she's been wearing undies to bed!

Anyway one night I went in and was going to wake her up to go potty,

and had to take a picture first because I loved the position she was sleeping in.

 

Lainee thinks it's cool to sleep in a sleeping bag

so one night we decided to ALL sleep on the air matress

in the living room.

Memories... uncomfortable ones, but memories.

 

We brought these old chairs down with us that my mom

was getting rid of, and have been planning to recover and repaint them,

and finally did!

 

I think our swimming season may be coming to an end.

Even though it's still 85 and 90 degrees, all the public pools

and splash pads close sometime in September. Lame.

Our pool is still open but lately the water in it is FREEZING

for some reason!

 

Lainee and I attended a birthday party for Honor,

the little neighbor girl who lives upstairs.

She turned 3 and had a princess party!

 

with lots of friends from the ward...

 

and a castle pinata!

 

One week for play date, it was at Dayna and Harrison's house

and we frosted and decorated Halloween sugar cookies!

Lainee did a great job of sticking candy bones ALL over

her cookies.

 

Lainee got to go to a Halloween costume party just for kids!

Some of the moms in our ward put it on at one of their houses

and it was super cute and fun!

(This is Lainee with the doughnut that she attempted to eat

while it was hanging from a string).

 

Our friends Scott and Janel put on a totally fun halloween party too.

We were Alice in Wonderland characters.

Garen won the "best adult costume" award!

 

All the ladies.

 

All the guys.

 

Garen is out of school between semesters right now

so he's been able to spend alot of time with us girls!

 

This weekend we did some shopping for fall clothes,

saw the mermaid aquarium at Bass Pro Shop,

and hung out at Ceasar's Palace for a bit to look

at the cool ceilings and eat some delicious gelato.

 

This week, we are going to the pumpkin patch/carnival down the road for FHE,

the zoo tomorrow, maybe a movie,

who knows what other fun things,

 

and then heading to WA again for

my brother Jordan and his wife Ariel's

wedding reception!

 

They got married in Raleigh, NC this weekend

and unfortunately we couldn't get all the way over there

but I heard it was fantastic and I can't wait to see them!

 

laughs

The other night Lainee and I were out in the living room

painting fingernails and toenails.

Lainee found a toothpick in the nail stuff and

started poking "Daddy's new couch."

 

She kept ignoring me when I asked her to stop

(plus I had wet nails so I didn't want to try to grab it from her)

and she kept saying...

 

LAINEE: I'm just using dis to get the spider outta da couch.

 

(huh? There was no spider.)

 

I sent her in the office to talk to her dad about it.

 

 

GAREN: Lainee, what is wrong?? Why would you stab the couch?

 

LAINEE: Becaauuuse... I want a woopin'

 

(yes, she does know what a woopin' is.)

 

GAREN: You do?

 

LAINEE: Yeah, so I was poking da couch with dis.

 

GAREN: Well that's not nice. Do you want me to poke you with

the toothpick?

 

LAINEE: No, I'm gonna poke YOU with da toothpick Dad.

 

GAREN: No. You're not.

 

LAINEE: Yes. I am.

 

GAREN: No you're not. Go give that toothpick to Mom.

 

LAINEE: No. Dad you go tell her I'm poking da new couch.

 

GAREN: Don't poke the couch anymore.

It's on my mind

Soo, sometimes I do really awesome, and sometimes I have a really hard time keeping up with these three little things...

1) loading and unloading dishes
2) folding and putting away laundry
3) cleaning the master bathroom

BUT, I have this amazing husband who has been keeping his mouth shut about it.

Like I said, sometimes I go for a while and I do really great, but it used to be that when I was slacking for a day or two, it was a reason for an argument.

Lately though, Garen has been so patient and at least tries to appreciate all the things I DO get done. Sometimes he laughs and makes fun of me, and sometimes he's frustrated if he can't find underwear in the morning, but mostly he just doesn't say anything.

The kind of cool thing about this is that it makes me feel a little more guilty when I don't do it, so then I do it! ...and when there's a day that I just can't do it, I'm not afraid to go home and hear what he has to say about it.

The other cool thing is that since he's been soo good about not criticizing my faults, it makes it much easier for me not to criticize his (and we definitely both have them).

Man, what an awesome guy.

What I Miss Most

FOUR SEASONS

It has been six long years since I have lived

in a place where you get three full months of

each wonderful type of weather.

 

 

Rexburg= 9 months of icey windshields and lots of snow.

Henderson= 9 months of sunshiny hot weather.

 

I need some snow and a sledding trip for Christmas,

some tulips and rain for Easter,

a sunburn and a Bomb Pop for Independence Day,

and a hoodie in a pile of leaves for Halloween.

 

Is that too much to ask?