Brinley's Baptism

On November 1 Brinley was baptized by her dad. She was so excited to get baptized and didn't stop smiling all day. Brinley had won a photo shoot from a contest on facebook from a photographer that does her dance photos. Her dad and I thought it would be fitting to have her baptism pictures taken using that photo shoot. I had seen some ideas on pinterest that I wanted to try and execute during the pictures and this picture was one of them. You have them get a picture in their baptism dress while holding a picture of them in the blessing dress. Then when they get married they can hold the picture of them in the baptism dress and their blessing dress to create the 3 white dresses. When she was done with her baptism we all met in the cultural hall to eat. This included Steve and his side of the family, Valerie and her family, my family and Mike's family. I am so glad we were all able to come together for Brinley and that there wasn't any awkwardness at all felt that day. We shared the cost of having Subway cater her baptism lunch and then asked our family to bring either chips or soda. She also received some very special gifts that day. She received a baptism towel and ctr necklace from her Aunt Shelly and Uncle Matt and their family. She received a ctr ring from her primary presidency in her dad's ward. She got a Frozen blanket from her Grandma, her nana gave her a baptism book and bracelet, and Kjersty gave her a dress to wear to church. Mike and I and her other set of parents all went in together and bought her a nice set of scriptures with her name on them and a bag to carry them in, as well as her baptism dress and shoes. I am extremely thankful for the love and support that was shown to our family and to Brinley on this special day.

The things kids say

I currently work in OB/GYN and I love it most days. I was extremely shocked to find out how much my children actually listen and pick up on. Every day we ask the kids how their day was and what they did at school. One day Kenzley came home and informed us that she had made a skeleton at school, completed with hair, eyes, six arms, and a "pagina." I have always been a believer in teaching my kids the correct names for their body parts, but never really thought about them teaching others. Kenzley really admires the provider I work for and looks up to her in a lot of ways. When I told Kenzley that we couldn't talk about our privates at school or recreate them, she then asked, "Why? You and Dr. so and so fix broken paginas all day, there isn't anything wrong with it." I continued to teach her our privates are private for a reason and that we don't talk about them at school. Here is her girl skeleton that she recreated.

Halloween 2014

This year my kids were so excited for Halloween and I must admit I was too. We started our Halloween off by "Booing" our neighbors. This is a fun family tradition we do every year and it was so much fun having the girls catch on and participate with me. We did 3 families and left the famous peanut butter fingers. We didn't hang up the sign on our door because the girls really wanted someone to boo us. Mike didn't like this idea because it meant we would need to do it again, but the girls weren't upset by needing to do 2 more families.

The weekend of October 11 we went to Black Island Farms. This is another one of our favorite Halloween traditions. The girls love going and picking out their own pumpkin and playing on the slides. This year we even attempted the corn maze and let the girls lead us through out the corn maze. On our ride to get the pumpkins the girls were wanting to sit on the back of the trailer on our way back. I think they learned their lesson about riding at the back of the trailer. On our way back the ride was very bumpy both the older too girls were holding on for dear life and barely hanging on by the time we got back and I was doing some amazing yoga moves to keep the pumpkins, Skyeley, and myself from falling off. Needless to say we won't be riding on the back again but the girls learned their lesson. It was also Brinley's weekend to bring home the class pet Moko and so we had the opportunity to take Moko with us on our adventures.

The following weekend we celebrated Mike's youngest sisters 15th birthday. We went out to eat at Ruby River and then had dessert at our house and turkey dinner the next day after our primary program.

The weekend of October 24th we decided to finally carve our pumpkins that we had picked out. I let the girls choose which pattern they wanted and we ended up with a Jack Skellington for Kenzley and an Elsa for Skyeley. Even though Mike is a grinch when it comes to any holidays, he got in on the action and helped us. After we were done carving pumpkins we painted Halloween toes so we could be festive.

The following week things got really busy for us but we enjoyed every minute of it. On Wednesday October 29 we went to Morgan to a Halloween party and we were able to take a 3 girls with us. This wasn't our year to have Brinley, but she was able to join us for most of our activities this year. On Thursday October 30 we had parent teacher conferences and learned that Brinley is struggling but improving and Kenzley is doing well and is a grade ahead of where she should be. We were proud parents and so happy with the girls and their behavior at school. That night we had another Halloween party to go to at our church. 

That Friday was Halloween and we had so much to do all day. Our day started by attending the girls' Halloween parade at the school and then both my mom and I volunteered to help in each girls' class for their Halloween party. I helped in Brinley's class and my mom helped in Kenzley's class. I did Halloween bingo again and a Halloween bean bag toss. Each child was able to choose a prize from my Halloween treasure chest if they got Bingo, and each child got some candy for playing the bean bag toss. My mom did an eyeball relay and spider ring toss in Kenzley's class and each student got to choose a prize from her Halloween treasure chest as well. After the parties were over the kids were let out of school early. Kenzley, Skyeley, and I headed to Morgan for the business trick or treat which is another family tradition we have done since the girls were little. They always get so much candy from the businesses in Morgan and most of the time we can even eat dinner along the way. This year I wanted to do another scary dinner that I had seen on pinterest. I made Frankenstein plates to eat off of, we used our same spooky glasses from last year and had some color changing candle lights on the table. We had black spaghetti noodles and sauce this year. Kenzley was skeptical that it would taste weird because it was a different color, but much to her surprise it tasted just the same and she even had seconds.

When we were done with dinner we headed out to trick or treat and we ended our fun at 9. The girls had so much candy and were so excited to start eating their treats. We had a great Halloween this year filled with so many fun festivities and family traditions. It was our weekend to have Brinley so we headed home and went to pick her up.