Look Who Lost Another Tooth!

Miss Chloe's second tooth came out last Saturday. Hooray!

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Pumpkin Walk 2011

Thank goodness for school field trips or we just wouldn't make it to the Pumpkin Walk...ever.  I kept Cannon home from school yesterday so he and I could accompany Brigham's class on their walk to the Walk.  Har. 
It was an absolutely gorgeous Fall day - perfect for walking the mile or so from the school to the park.  Cannon's short little legs weren't as able to keep up with the bigger kids as I thought, so I ended up carrying him most of the way there and back.  Add his weight to the weight of my camera bag and you get a sweaty mama!  But since I haven't had any time (except for the time I spend sleeping in till 6:30...) to exercise lately, I'll take whatever I can get.  Okay, seriously, I seem to make every single post about me somehow, don't I?  Annoying.

Anyway, BRIGHAM got to go on a super fun field trip to the Pumpkin Walk and we tagged along.  Here are some of our favorites:

Notice it's the Aggies vs. Cowboys game...the one Stanton and I got to go to and the Aggies WON!  Fun.

This Calvin and Hobbes one was so cute.  and I loved the quotes all around.

I thought these Bambi characters were so cleverly done.  And darned cute.

The Wizard of Oz.  Isn't that tornado so fun?  And I love the tin man.

Flinn Ryder and Rapunzel.  I bet this one looked amazing at night.  Lily really like this one a lot.

You know Briggy was loving this Angry Birds display.  Isn't it clever and adorable??!

We always love the witches, but it was a special treat to have Miss Shelby greet us!

These were my three personal favorite displays:

Isn't Eeyore adorable??

Despicable Me!  Those minions are so darn clever and I love that they included the hilariously tragic Box of Shame.  My kids are sick of this movie, which makes me so sad because I totally love it.  Maybe seeing it here will make them want to watch it again?  I hope so.

And finally, one of my favorite displays from any year of Pumpkin Walk:

A Christmas Story!!!  Isn't it awesome??!!  The painting was fantastic and they picked some of the most iconic scenes to represent the movie.  It was just plain awesome.

If you're friends from out of town, may I extend an invitation to you for next year?!  We'll provide the hot chocolate afterward (and the displays all lit up at night are so cool) and you'll have a great new family tradition.
I sure love this little (big) Cache Valley tradition. 

Various Items

I never mentioned on here, but back in August (in fact, the day that school started), I had laser surgery done on my eyes.  The above picture is of the dilation on my left eye -- they had to dilate it to get the laser to track.  I thought it was freaky and also I was on Valium, so I can't be held accountable for the photos I took.
The surgery was great, simple, quick, and awesome.  My vision was near perfect the very same day and now I'm 20/15 in both eyes.  I seriously think about what a miracle it is every single day.

Our awesome friends, Michael and Mandy W, invited us to an Aggie game a few weeks back.  It was a great night out and we loved being with them.  They moved into our neighborhood not too long ago and we have become fast friends (as have our same age children).  Love that.  This game was a super fun one, too, because the Aggies won!  And they had fantastic seats.  Bonus.
We went to Angie's afterward and had fancy apple cider (seriously, they brought us hot water and a powder packet...and charged us 2 bucks for it!  ha) and a late dinner.  Great night out.  And I got to wear the hat Jamie gave me for my birthday.  Super awesome!

This boy fills me up with overwhelming love every single day.  He is hilarious, precocious, wild, snuggly, and pretty much perfect.

I spent an afternoon chopping veggies for a really delicious quinoa salad.  In the process, I discovered why God gave us fingernails.  Don't worry, it didn't hurt....just super weird looking.

I went on a field trip with Brigham not too long ago -- on my way back, Cannon wanted to climb on the spider.  I took a picture of him, then noticed out of the corner of my eye a cute little girl playing four square and pretty much taking it to the boys she was playing with.  That's my Chloe in the grey shirt.

The day before UEA break, the girls waited right up until the last second to leave for school because that same Miss Chloe was busy drawing a picture of "Spike."  As is usually the case, when I sat down to watch, everyone else needed to be within 2 square feet of me.

Behold, her inspiration:  Brigham, aka Spike.  We don't usually do his hair like this, but he wanted it spiked up, so that's what he got.  Chloe has been a prolific author and illustrator lately.  Her school journal is full of stories, she writes on any piece of paper she can get her hands on, and she rarely gets one finished.  The joy is in the journey!  She is getting pretty darn good at character development, conflict, etc.  She is even starting to reconsider her 3 year dream of being a chef when she grows up -- we might just have an author our hands!

And finally, guess whose hair is getting long enough to put in pigtails???!!!  YAY!!!  We've enjoyed Lily's short hair, but are both really excited for it to grow out again.  Darn she looks adorable in those piggies!


And there you have it!

G Barb

Grandma Barbara had a rough day (those aren't uncommon, but this was a particularly bad one) on the Thursday before I left (I think??).  Stanton took Cannon over to see her with Judy.  I don't know many details, but I do know that Cannon leaves a trail of sunshine wherever he goes, so I'm sure Grandma was at least a bit better after they left.

Two Things

These are a couple of quotes that hang on the walls of Grandma Rose's care center.  I love them both...don't want to forget them.

Sisters Park City Weekend - 2011, Day 3

 Oh my goodness, my heart is filling with joy looking at those 3.  How I love them.

Day 3 started with another sleep in and NOT another run.  Haha.  We enjoyed bagels and yogurt again and spent half the morning talking (so pretty much a repeat of Days 1 & 2).  Oh, and we also snapped our now annual shot in front of the gorgeous fall mountains of Park City.  Yes, there are a lot of posed mom and sister pictures in these recaps.  There are only so many other shots you can take when you spend your time talking and shopping!!  And as I look at these now, I think I might have over edited them late last night.  Darn tired eyes.  Hmmmm, well, I'm not going to take the time to fix them...we're cute enough.  :)

We headed back to the outlets for some more shopping.  We helped Mom find some more treasures at Coldwater Creek and found a few more of our own. 
It ended being after 3:00 by the time we finished up and headed to the bagel shop for one more yummy sandwich before heading home. 
We got to Tremonton by around 6:00 where Stanton met me with the kiddos.  It was fantastic being back with them, but what a wonderful weekend away with my mom and sisters.  I love them so much.

Sisters Park City Weekend - 2011, Day 2

Our morning started off with sleeping in -- love that.  We ate bagels, yogurt, and fruit then headed out for a run.  Oh my heck...Park City hills are pretty much murder.  Egads....
So, we finished our run and went back in to shower and get ready.  And now the fun part....Walmart!!!  Haha.  Yeah, we spent a large chunk of our trip at the Walmarts.  But see, it was a perfect chance to do some Christmas shopping.  And Christmas shop we did.  It was so fun because we were together. 
After Walmart, we got a sandwich at our favorite bagel shop and then headed to the Outlets.  Our plan was to shop for a bit and then head out on a hike (the same one from my previous girls' weekend).  Well, shopping won.  We ended up shopping right up until the outlets closed!  It was a blast and our feet were crazy tired by the time we finished.  I was super happy with the cardigans & pretty tanks I found at Ann Taylor and awesome winter shoe/boots at Bass.  The best part, though, was helping Mom find some fun things at Dress Barn.  Darn she's cute.

The middle picture is from the dressing room of Dress Barn - she ended up getting that outfit, as evidenced by the awesome modeling photos flanking that one.  Mom was cracking me up-  she was doing some serious arm waving and prancing.  Hahaha!!

We also got some fun sister pictures.  We all happened to be wearing variations on the red/black/grey theme and in our own personal style.  I absolutely love these pictures because they seriously capture our totally different/perfectly complimentary relationship.

 

After that crazy long day shopping, we stopped by Panda Express for some dinner, brought it home, dived into our jammies, and chowed down.  I couldn't keep my eyes open for another second and fell asleep on the rock hard floor at 10:15.  I didn't wake up again until 3:39 AM when I noticed my hip boring into the floor, ignored my dragon breath from not brushing after Panda, and crawled onto the couch.  It was like high school all over again!  

I have to throw in this wonderful picture, too.  Our dear, dear mother who has loved us, encouraged us in our unique interests, and been a wonderful example of faith and testimony every moment of every day.  We are so lucky to have her.

Sisters Park City Weekend - 2011, Day 1

Ah....what a wonderful weekend spent with 3 of the people I love most in the world.

Our weekend started on Thursday afternoon when we met in Tremonton to visit Grandma Rose in the care center.  Grandpa and Nancy were both there, so we were able to enjoy a bit of time visiting with each other.

Grandma is really struggling right now.  She is going downhill very quickly and just roller coasters through highs and lows, temper tantrums and moments of lucidity.  It is so hard on everyone in the family, particularly her children, and especially dear Grandpa.  He is hard of hearing and she is mumbling constantly -- she gets so angry with him when he can't hear or understand her.  Most of what she is saying isn't really understandable anyway, but she still recognizes him as her best friend and she gets so angry that he doesn't understand her and agree or disagree.  It has been so sad to see him ache as he watches his sweetheart fade away.  He is so faithful to her, though -- he loves her, shows her affection, and just tries to make do with what they have right now.  I don't think anyone ever expected that this is how Grandma would end up -- she's had so many other health problems that we just thought her heart or her trach or something else would end up giving out.  Who knew it would be her mind?  It's been tragic.  We love her so much.

It was neat to be able to visit her and grandpa with my sisters and mom (and Stanton and the kids -- what a lovely time).

I said goodbye to my dear ones and got in the car with Mom, Lori, and Cindy and we headed to Park City.

It was early evening by the time we got to our condo (my aunt Nancy manages the Skier's Lodge in PC and was so generous to give us a unit for only the cleaning fee -- wow!).  We got settled and then headed to the supermarket for breakfast foods and ice cream and licorice and some food storage and a movie.  Food storage, you ask?  Why, yes, food storage.  You can't pass up $.99 peanut butter can you?!  After our grocery outing, we ate at a little Mexican restaurant called El Chubasco.  Oooh, so yummy!!!  They had this awesome salsa bar that had 10 or more different salsas from mild to HOT. It was great!  And Cindy ordered the most gigantic taco salad ever.  Hilarious!  I honestly don't know where she put it, because once she ate the whole thing, she looked as skinny as she always does.  Stinker.

The laughs were just getting started.  We went home and watched Soul Surfer, ate licorice and ice cream, and enjoyed time spent together without little ones interrupting our conversations every few seconds.

Days 2 & 3 to come.

To my dear Grandma and Grandpa Rose

Humming, working, giving, baking, cooking, laughing, hugging, testifying, cleaning, gardening, loving.

I sat down to write this note to you, Grandma, and these were the first words that came to mind to describe you.  I don’t ever remember a time with you where you weren’t working and humming.  I think of all those precious moments standing at the kitchen sink with hot water burning my hands while you asked me about school and the activities I was involved in.  You always cared.  You were always interested.

I have the most vivid memories of you in the post office sorting mail and giving Bill and I the junk mail (how kind of you to keep it out of everyone’s mailboxes!).  We especially loved the music company mail that had the stickers and stamps inside.  You were so generous and seemed to love to have us play by you.

Grandma, your name equals family to me.  You have always cared about my children -- your great-grandchildren.  When they put on the many pairs of pajamas they’ve received from you, they frequently comment that “these are from Great Grandma Rose.”  They know you love them and they, even as young as they are, know how lucky they are to have a great grandma who knows and loves them as much as you do.

You are also synonymous with the Gospel.  Your faith has never waivered.  I remember when we first learned of our Brigham’s heart defect and the way it would change our lives for a time – I spoke to you on the phone and you were full of compassion.  You mourned with me and shared your testimony.  I felt of your love, not only for me and my dear boy, but also for Jesus Christ.  That love was much of what carried us through the difficulties we faced during those years.

Your love of the Gospel has carried me, inspired me, made me better.  I love you, dear Grandma Rose. 

Love, Julie

________________________________________________________________

Laughing, dancing, giving advice, knowing everyone, loving, riding horses, teaching, testifying, proud.

Grandpa Rose, these are the first words in my mind as I think of you today.  I have always known you were proud of me and that has kept me out of trouble at times! 

Everywhere I have lived, from Utah to Idaho to Ohio to New York, there has been someone (often more than one!) who has known you and respected you.  You have always been willing to serve and share your knowledge with others.

You care so deeply about your family.  I have always felt your love for us and especially for Grandma.  It is so inspiring to me. 

A few months ago, you called me when we were on a trip with some friends.  We talked for a while about Grandma, about my children, and life in general.  I hung up the phone and my friends asked who it was that had called.  I said it was you, my grandpa.  They were shocked!  They told me that they couldn’t remember the last time they had spoken to their grandparents.  They were also amazed that it was YOU who called ME.  It gave me a moment to reflect on how unique you are.  You don’t forget our birthdays, you call and check up on us, you care and you show it.  I am starting to realize, as I get older, that that is very unique in this world.  I am so thankful to be your granddaughter.  My love and respect for you grow deeper as I get older.  I hope to show my own children and grandchildren the kind of love you have shown me.

Your love of the church and the gospel has had a direct influence on my own testimony.  I know it was heart breaking for my dad when he couldn’t baptize me due to his hip replacement.  I am so thankful that you were worthy and willing to baptize me when my father couldn’t.  I have always felt special because of that.  Thank you.

I love you, sweet Grandpa.  You are fun.  You are kind.  You are full of faith.  You love your family.  You love Grandma.  That example is worth more than all the riches in the world.  You have forged a legacy of faith in our family and we are all better for it.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I love you,
Julie (Jugie)

 

It's UEA

And this is how Chloe would like to spend her break:

She didn't quite get her wish, but we did do a few fun things before I left on my Park City weekend with my sisters and mom.

First, we had Carmel Apple Waffles (I just sort of made it up -- I used the whole wheat banana waffle recipe I posted a couple of weeks ago, but topped it with homemade carmel sauce - leftover from another day, chopped apples, and pecans). They were yummy and so filling.

After breakfast, which was very late in the day, Chloe asked if she could give me a makeover. We settled on painting nails. I did hers first, then she did mine.

We spent the rest of Thursday getting the house clean and in order, playing with friends, and heading over to Tremonton to visit Grandma Rose and meet the sisters.  I missed the Friday and Saturday of UEA break, but it was sure fun to have the kids home with me on Thursday.

Adventures in Picture Taking

My sisters asked me to snap some pictures of their families with my fancy pants camera.  I was too nervous to take it off auto for fear that I'd ruin their annual family photo...but I'm happy with auto and editing - I think these turned out alright!  Helps that the families are good looking, don't you think?!