Back at the beginning of November, I took a trip back to Cleveland.
All. By. Myself!!!!
It was so great.
I got to see so many of my wonderful friends, eat some good food, have a lot of much-needed
girl time (and alone time, reading time and sleeping time),
did some photo sessions and met the newest, sweetest boy, Johnny.
It was a quick thurs-mon trip, but my friends were so kind to drop
everything they were doing to play with me. And Matt was even more kind to hold down
the fort while I was gone (and a big thank you to my sisters for helping with my kids while Matt was at work). AND he wins big time, because he also had the house SPARKLING
(no joke-we're talking bathrooms scrubbed, all the bedding washed, etc)
when I returned. He really is Mr. Wonderful. :)
Thank you to everyone who made my trip amazing!
Somehow these were forgotten...but from Halloween..,
Devin wanted to be the Blue Power Ranger for so long.
And then of course, when it came down to the times we were suppose to wear our costumes,
he refused and had to make up his own. That boy!!
The Halloween Parade at school. :)
And trick-or-treating was dreamy! I can't remember a better Halloween.
It was in the 70's. No coats, rain or snow boots, or umbrellas. The fall
leaves were crunching beneath our feet. Every house welcomed us (which
meant we only had to go around the block), and it was in our neighborhood!
In Cleveland we always had to drive to a good neighborhood.
I could get used to this Utah weather...mmmm hmmm.
Matt wanted a pic in front of his childhood home,
Back to Nov. We were so happy to attend Matt's cousin Julia's
beautiful wedding! He's always been close to several of his cousin's
so it was fun to be here for it. It was an adorable reception!
Congrats Julia and Jermey!
Now that I've moved back it's been fun to get together with my friends I grew up with.
Two live near me (for now anyway), one in Bountiful, one in AZ and one in CA.
This night we got together to celebrate Andrea's birthday and Dani's baby bump!
I'm thankful for good friends!
And...the leaves...
No words.
Except for the fact that my awesome family (and some neighbors) came to our rescue!
One Sat morning Matt ran to the hospital to round and I sent out a mass text to
my family practically begging for anyone to come and help with our leaves that morning, before
a rain storm. And sure enough we had SO Many people show up and stay for several hours!
And I don't even know how many
neighbors were in our front yard, but it got done while we were hauling in the back.
We took about 3 huge loads on the trailer to the dump and made two HUGE compost piles in the back. These leaves are something else....I don't know how the Clarks do it every year.
They must be superhuman or something.
Thanksgiving Point
Luke and Matt went on a little day date to a BYU game.
It was pretty freezing cold, but they got nachos and hot cocoa and had fun!
Sarah's birthday dinner!
We love Sarah!
Thanksgiving pie prep.
Hanging lights with Sarah.
My first time hanging lights!
This fall/winter has been insanely warm. I've been loving it, but I know
it's not good. We do need moisture in the dessert here!
But seriously, jumping on the tramp without jackets in December?
Angry notes from our children...
More warm park days...
The ELF.
This year we got an Elf on the Shelf.
We named him Andy.
The first night Devin screamed and cried because he was terrified of him.
So, Andy is not allowed up stairs.
Since then, Andy has won Devin over. They're tight now. :)
The first night he came he brought them hot cocoa.
And most of the time he's rather lame, and is just in a new hiding spot when he comes
back each night...but on occasion he does some super silly things too.
Getting our Christmas tree with Sarah
(I do have a husband still...he is just always working...babies, babies, babies)
Look it was the last batch of leaves! And I found this funny photo on my phone Luke apparently
took of me blowing leaves. Notice a munchkin on my back? Yeah...that was sorta painful.
And remember how we're building a house?!
Well they F.I.N.A.L.L.Y started!!
Scream it from the rooftops people!
My cute Devin. He loves preschool.
Almost every day that he goes he says "just give me a hug and kiss here and I'll walk myself in."
If I walk with him, he makes me stand at the top of the stairs and he walks all the way to the bottom.
Once he's on the last step he turns around and blows me a kiss.
He's so funny.
Hey look! It's our dad!
Santa at Matt's work party.
And more HOUSE!
Silly Andy zip-lining through the house.
I went to Luke's school to read a Christmas book, do a craft and treat with the class.
We took our munchkins to The Festival of Lights.
It was magical! They loved it!
For THREE DAYS.
I watched my sister's FOUR kids.
You heard me, three days.
3 of which, are about the same age as my 3 boys.
So that breaks down to:
An 11 yr old.
6 yr old twins
4-5 yr old twins (pretty much)
18 mo old twins
I know. I rock.
The photo above was seriously taken at 7am on the first morning.
Whew!
And what were we thinking...Sarah and I decided to make LOADS of treats
for neighbors and friends.
Still...not sure what I was thinking, but we decorated gingerbread houses
the first night.
Then one morning Andy brought breakfast from the North Pole!
Powdered donuts and hot cocoa
(don't worry I made them all eat a fruit and egg too)
And thank goodness the weather was warm enough that they could play outside too!
That is a lot of boys (and we were missing a bigger boy and one girl)!
But they had so much fun and I only lost a little hair. ;)
It was fun...yeah fun.
Devin passed out on my mom's floor.
All Aboard!!!
Andy the Elf brought us tickets to the Polar Express this year!
We had such a fun time.
The boys looooved it so much! They are all at such fun ages, it was definitely worth the $.
I highly recommend it!
Dev with Santa at his school. He had a hard time telling him what he wanted.
And JimBob. I introduced him to piggyback rides and now he is constantly on me like a
monkey! If it's not my back it's my leg. Funny boy!
Duck crossing on our way to school.
Silly Andy
Our HOUSE!
It's finally looking like an actual house! Yay!
These were taken a few days ago and this framing part has been going
so quickly, so I am dying to see how it looks now! Unfortunately, we're living 20+
minutes away so I rarely get to drive by. But we are bursting
with excitement!! We're scheduled to be in the house the end of Feb...we'll see!
