Ballerina

One Tuesday in Early November I pulled up into our driveway from picking Haylie up from preschool. I got out of the car and looked across the yard and saw a small black cat walking up the neighbor's driveway. The minute it saw us it came right over. Of course, Haylie, being the animal lover that she is began petting it. The cat was frantically weaving in and out of our legs and going for the kids hands. I am not what you would call an animal lover but this one looked so pitiful I reached down and pet it, and felt how skinny it was. It hung around the rest of the day and when Dave came home for lunch and saw how skinny it was we decided to feed it (or her as we found out later.) Haylie spent the rest of that day outside with this poor little cat. We figured we had made ourselves a pet by feeding her but were still kind of hoping that she would go back home. As it got dark the cat was nowhere to be found but was on the porch first thing the next morning. She has been here ever since. Haylie named her Ballerina and the kids and Dave built a little cat box for her to sleep in and get out of the cold. She is a very sweet little cat, and puts up with all of Haylie's affections. She isn't allowed inside so she is a pretty low maintenance pet. She was certainly unexpected but it has sure made Haylie happy to have a pet besides a fish.

Only the newer looking plywood is the cat box. A few people who looked at this picture thought the whole thing was the box. We did not build her a mansion. The other part is a table that was there when we moved in.

She is a pretty young cat and is very playful. She got up on the seat to play with the tassles on the handlebars.

Haylie's 5th Birthday

Haylie turned 5 on December 1st. She chose to have zoo animal themed party with a few of her friends. Last year for her party I planned a bunch of party games and then was stressed out the entire time trying to get everyone to play them when they really just wanted to play in the toy room. I learned my lesson and kept it very simple this year; shortened the time, had one or two activities besides the present opening and cake, and every went great. One of gifts she got from us was a trip to Build-a-Bear Workshop. It was her first visit and she loved it! She ended up with a dog and named it Isabelle.
When the kids were babies I seemed to post more often about some of the milestones they have reached and what they like to do. I haven't done as good at doing that now that they are older but thought a birthday post was the perfect time to do it. Haylie continues to be a big girl, she always has been bigger than most kids her age. She is about as far from dainty as you can get. She doesn't care for dolls or princesses or barbies and hates wearing anything in her hair. She wishes people who make toys would realize that not all little girls like Disney Princesses. She is extremely curious about the world around her and asks about everything and expects a real answer, if I try to say I don't know then she will say, "well why do you think..." Haylie absolutely loves animals. I haven't posted about it yet but in November we had a stray kitten (not a tiny kitten but not full grown yet) adopt our family. We can't have pets in our apartment and Dave is somewhat allergic to cats so she is an outdoor cat. Haylie spends hours outside with Ballerina (Haylie chose the name) even if it is freezing. I will go out to check on her and see her holding the cat and telling her about how she came to be our pet. She has such a big heart! She is usually very patient with Zander and for her age is pretty good atthinking about others' feelings. I love this little girl so much!! Before she was born I imagined what kind of kid she would be and she is nothing like I imagined. I sure am glad though. The reality is much better! Happy Birthday Haylie! I love you with all my heart!

Haylie at Build-a-Bear with her dog Isabelle.

The monkey cupcakes

coloring animal masks

Opening Presents

Trying out the her new scooter.

Thanksgiving

Ok, I know this is the wrong holiday to post about on the day after Christmas but I am still playing catch up here. We spent this year's Thanksgiving at my parents house in Brigham City which is always a fantastic place to spend a holiday. All of my siblings except for Melanie and her family were there. It still made for a large crowd...16 people. That wasn't just for the dinner. We all stayed there together from Wednesday through Saturday. Luckily my parents house is like a bed and breakfast. It even has themed rooms to stay in! It is so much fun to get together! I am feeling extra sentimental about it because we just spent Christmas here in Price without any extended family and I felt a little lonely and wished we lived somewhere where family could come visit and not have to sleep out where Santa leaves his loot. Anyway, back to Thanksgiving. We spent the time playing games, talking, and inhaling goodies as fast as Grandma could whip them out. Our kids have a pass to The Treehouse Museum in Odgen which is an awesome place to take kids of any age if you get the chance. We took the opportunity to go on Friday and take my niece Afton while Ryan and Arika attended the temple (the Museum is right across the street from it). Everyone had a great time even Afton, who usually isn't too happy about being without her mom and dad. That night we had our traditional December 1st party. Don't look at your calendar--this was not on December 1st. Each year my Mom likes to give each of us a gift before Christmas, it used to be something Christmas-y that you could use throughout the season although it seem to have strayed from that a bit. The kids can always count on a chocolate advent calendar though. So she gives the gifts on December 1st or over Thanksgiving since most of us are usually together. We were planning on staying until Sunday but, as always, weather dictates our traveling and it decided that we would be going home on Saturday to avoid a possible storm. We did stop in Salt Lake at Build-a-bear Workshop for Haylie's birthday which is an actual reason to celebrate December 1st. More about that in Haylie's birthday post.


Rylan, Camden and Haylie ready for a feast.

L to R Zander, Arika, Ethan and Tayson

Darin--super excited for some mashed potatoes!


Haylie and Zander driving the fire truck in the Tree House Museum.

Girls' Weekend

In November I got to leave the kids at home with Dave and head to Salt Lake for a girls' weekend with my mom, Melanie, Alyson, and Arika. (my sisters and sister-in-law). We had so much fun together! On Friday evening we went the the Desert Star Dinner Theater and saw Collin Raye in concert. There were probably less than 200 people in the theater so it was pretty up close and personal. We stayed at Little America in downtown Salt Lake and then on Saturday my mom surprised us with Disney on Ice tickets. It was so neat. I think we might have been the only adults there without kids. It was fun though. We then did some shopping and ate at the Cheesecake Factory with Darin (my brother). On Sunday morning we went to Music and the Spoken Word. It was a Veteran's Day edition of it, and really fantastic. I have never been in the Tabernacle when something was going on so it was especially neat. I am so grateful for the wonderful women in my family. I am thankful that we all get along and can have so much fun together. Can't wait till next time, girls! Love ya!

Halloween

I know it is almost Christmas and I am just now posting about Halloween. I am slowly getting caught up and I need all these posts on my blog so I can make another blog book and have them in it. Our Halloween celebration seemed to last for weeks with various carnivals and activities and then we didn't do anything on the actual day of Halloween. First, the weekend before Halloween, we went to the Spooktacular in downtown Price. There were games to play, a costume contest, and a chance to ride on the famous little blue train. We alway chuckle when we see it because this thing is at every event in this area; the fair, International Days, the Spooktacular, you name it, I don't know how many pictures we have of the kids riding this thing. I don't think I have ever included any on the blog though so here we go.

Instead of carving pumpkins this year we decided to take the easy way out and get Mr. Potato Head style facial features to stick in our pumpkins. It was a lot less mess and they lasted a lot longer which was good since we went to Boise to visit for several days right before Halloween.

My nephew Camden got baptized on October 30 and we were very excited for a good reason to go to Boise to spend time with friends and family and visit our old stomping grounds. We got there on Thursday afternoon and took the kids to Linder Farms. It is a farm in the Boise area that during the fall has a pumpkin patch, corn maze, petting zoo, concessions, and a hayride just to list a few things. We didn't take the kids in the corn maze but they had a blast at the petting zoo and on the hayride. They also went in the little hay bale maze they had set up and LOVED the "corn box" (a sandbox style box filled with corn kernels instead of sand).

The hayride must have frightened Haylie.

"Dr. Doolittle"

Zander wasn't that impressed.

Corn Angels!

As for the rest of our visit in Boise, Dave spent most of his time with friends mountain bike riding and hanging out at two different Halloween parties in his awesome Bob Ross costume (bummed we didn't get a picture). I got to go out to dinner with Kristi, Laura, Alynn, and Jenn on Thursday night. The kids and I spent Friday hanging out with Alyson and her kids. We went to a really fun place called Bounce, basically a room filled with bounce houses and other inflatables. It was a great example of the kind of day I miss about living in Boise--hanging out with my sister at a fun place for the kids. Alyson and I even raced each other in the obstacle course! On Saturday I got to meet up with one of my old coworkers Monica for lunch and then went to Camden's baptism. Since he was baptized in our old stake there were quite a few people at the baptism that I knew and was excited to see. Alyson and I took the kids out trick or treating that night to a few of her neighbors. We traveled home on Sunday and were all Halloween-ed out so we didn't go out trick or treating. In fact we didn't even get any trick or treaters. I guess that is what you get when you live in Utah. We had a fantastic time...too much fun to waste time taking many pictures...oh well.

Moab

My parents and brother Darin decided to visit Moab this October and Haylie and I went along with them. We are only two hours away from Moab so they came down and stayed overnight with us and then we got up the next morning and drove to Moab. We decided that Zander wouldn't really enjoy the trip so Dave decided to stay home with him and have a boys weekend. As it turned out, Dave got sick and didn't get to do much of what he had planned for he and Zander to do. Haylie turned out to be quite the adventurer. She hiked around anywhere we would let her and declared that she was "made for hiking". We visited Arches National Park on the first day, and then had dinner at the Bar M Chuckwagon. Haylie out ate everyone and then had fun listening to the cowboys (and one cowgirl) sing. One of the most exciting parts of the trip for Haylie was staying in a hotel. She had been wanting to stay in one for quite a while. It was the first time she had stayed in one when since she was a baby. Unfortunately, the pool was down for repairs, but everything else certainly lived up to her expectations. After the night in the hotel we did some shopping for souvenirs and then drove to Dead Horse State Park to check out more scenery. Several movies have been filmed at this location and we even passed another one in the works on our visit there. It didn't look like it was too big of a production. That afternoon we headed back to Price and Mom, Dad, and Darin headed back home too.

Haylie and Grandpa

She thought it was fun to find little seats for herself.

I think this was called Double Arches

Pausing for a rest on the climb.

Look out at Dead Horse State Park.

Grammy Patti's Birthday

Dave's parents came down for a visit in September. They had trouble with their truck on the way here and ended up having to leave their truck here to get a new engine and take Dave's truck back to Wyoming. The good news was that they came back down to pick up their truck and give Dave's truck back on the same weekend as Grammy Patti's birthday! We gave her a surprise party although I don't think it was a very big surprise by the time my helpers finished with the set up. It was lots of fun and the kids always love a party!.