HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Love, the Fairy, the Dinosaur, the Bride, and Snow White

Halloween Festivities

Wednesday night we carved pumpkins



Thursday we went to Night Eyes at the Blank Park Zoo

Friday we watched Halloween Movies



Saturday we went to our Ward Party, did a little Trunk-or-Treating, had dinner,


came home went Trick-or-Treating (in the Des Moines area you go on the 30th and it is called Beggar's Night) and then enjoyed the candy.

grandpa and grandma's visit

Please don't read all of this. It is more of just a journal entry, so don't waste your time. Just enjoy the pictures. AND for those of your reading this before Jason edits this, I apologize.

My parents came to visit us this last week. They flew in on Wednesday, October 13th until Sunday, October 17th. We did a lot of fun things and of course my kids LOVED spending time with their grandparents, we don't get to see them often so we take advantage of every moment they are here.

Wednesday: we had lunch, walked to pick Savannah up at school, then played at the playground, came home and played, until dinner and then went to Chili's. My dad also had to fix the bathroom sink before they could use it. Good thing my dad is handy.Grandpa and grandma could not come to visit with out bring our kids favorite books.

Taking turns going to sleep with grandma's Ipod is another highlight.

Thursday: I took Austin for his 9 month doctor appointment, while my parents watched the girls it was so nice just to take one kid and be there in peace. I had Savannah stay home from school and we all went shopping for awhile and played outside, finally my parents came when the weather was nice (besides graduation but that was just a whirlwind of stuff and a fast trip)

Friday: my parents went and had school lunch with Savannah then I went and helped at Savannah's Fall Party at school (I took advantage of spending time in the classroom while I had help at home, it was a lot of fun. Savannah always asks when I am going to come help at her school.)

Then right after we picked Savannah up from school we went to the Center Grove Apple Orchard out in Cambridge. We had a great time. There was hardly anyone there and so we just did what we wanted when we wanted. We feed the goats, rode the peddle tractors, played in the 3 little pig houses, swam in the corn pool, slid down the big slide, jumped on the air pillow, and of course picked apples (which were delicious). Jason didn't come with us he wasn't feeling good after work so he just met us later for dinner and ice cream at DQ.

the Corn Pool.

the big air pillow

Big slide...we couldn't get the girls to stop going down.

Saturday we woke up early for Savannah's soccer game, which she played really well. Then we headed to the Downtown Farmers Market in Des Moines.

After we drove out to the Howell's Pumpkin patch to get some pumpkins (we will not be doing that again it has gone to commercial for us).

it is a tradition for us to take this picture

looking for the perfect pumpkin...see side pictures for results.

That night my parents watched the kids (had pizza, made cookies and went to Dollar Tree) while Jason and I went out on a date (Thai food at Thai Flavors, that Jason couldn't even taste because he was sick and then walk around Wal-Mart and TJ Maxx)...Now that's what I call a date

Sunday we went to church, had lunch and for course took last minute pictures and then headed to the airport.

We had a great time with ganma and ganpa/papa. WE LOVE YOU! Thanks for coming to see us.

another benefit from having family come is they can take a family picture...I know some of you have been wondering if I was ever going to change the picture on the top of our blog so there you go.

College Football

One of our favorite times of the year is Fall when college football starts.

9/11/10

(shirt and football from Grandpa and Grandma Gardner)

10/8/10

(shirt from my Aunt and Uncle, Annie and Joel)

Our house is a little divided between BYU and Utah but we come together for the Iowa Hawkeyes and we have a great time with a little competition.

Jason went to the UTAH vs Iowa State football game, October 9th, with Steve Morris and Steve's brother. It was just up in Ames about 20 minutes North of us. They had a great time. Utah won by a lot so that made it even better but Jason said the fans were really nice even though they lost by so much.

things I hear when I go out in public

"are those all yours?"


"wow you are busy?"



"are they twins?"





my answers



"yep, they are."



"Yes I am."



"No, but almost."

our mornings

Just want to remember what we look like every morning walking Savannah to school at 7:30am.

(Some times all of us are ready, hair and all, and some times it is just me and Savannah who are ready, while the rest are still in their jammies drinking their juice/bottle on the way.)

9 months

Austin turned 9 months on Sunday, time sure does fly it seems like yesterday was January and I was in the hospital. He is such a happy little boy and we love having him in our family

Here are a few things about him:

he can pull himself up on the bottom step and the fireplace and stand there,

he jabbers more and more and mostly says "dada" but it doesn't mean dad (Jason wishes),

he has been growling for the last few months,

he is starting to crawl (for the last couple months he has been rolling everywhere to get what he wants, the he moved to getting up on is feet with his head on the floor and them pushing his head across the floor, poor kid always had a red forehead, then for the last week a little army crawl but for the last few days he has been getting on his knees and today even moved without putting his head down for support, so it won't be long before he is everywhere...not something I have been looking forward too.)

if you hold his hands he would stand there all day.

he loves to go on walks

he smiles all the time

he is starting to get shy around other people but just for a minute.

he loves to take baths and cries when he has to get out.

he loves balls and trucks (the other day I had a ball and a doll and he went straight for the ball)

he loves to eat and feed himself (I don't do baby food anymore)

He weighs about 21 lbs and almost 29 inches

He has had 3 hair cuts (well maybe 2 the first one I tried to cut with scissors had a hard time and he ended up with steps so the next day I buzzed it. Then a few weeks later I guess I didn't buzz it well enough and he had a big section of long hair right on the crown of his head so I buzzed it again this time all over really good. So now I think I finally have it down, I'm just not going to tell Jason when I do it because he will say it looks bad no matter what, he thinks I should pay someone.)

He has 6 teeth.

He loves to watch his sisters play and his sisters can't get enough of him.

We love to give him hugs and kisses (even if he doesn't like it all the time, usually after 5 minutes of being mauled, he starts getting annoyed).

smart girls

okay so I have to brag about my 2 and 3 year old. Today they got a puzzle out and started to do it while I was cleanning the kitchen a little while later they said, "mom come and see what we did"...they had done the 24 piece puzzle all by themselves with no help or guidance.

Grandpa and Brenda

Last Sunday, September 26th, we had a great surprise, my grandpa and Brenda (grandpa's wife) stopped in to see us for a couple hours, they were driving to Baltimore, MD and seeing sights on the way... we got lucky and ended up being one of the sights.

We had Sunday dinner, did the puzzles they brought for my kids, talked, had cake and took pictures. It was a quick visit but a very nice one and we enjoyed seeing them again. I feel bad they missed Jason by about an hour, he was working nights and had to be to work by 5:00pm.

My grandpa always takes a picture like this with the babies. He loves it!

After they left my kids kept saying ,"that was so fun to see grandpa and grandma", (they kept calling Brenda grandma, hope she didn't mind, but in their minds if there is a grandpa, there is a grandma). Yes, it was very fun to see them again. Thanks for stopping to see us. We Love You!

one more down, one more to go

NOTE: this might be a little to much information for some of you.

About 3 weeks ago I decided to buy Olivia her special big girl underware and get rid of the diapers, she has been walking up dry for months so I thought maybe we should try it. We went to the store, she chose "Tinkerbell" underware and we took of the diaper. The first day she did good for the first day she only peed twice in her underware and pooped in the toilet so I took that as a good sign...Well I was wrong, the next was horrible not once did she go on the toilet in fact right after I would ask her if she needed to go to the bathroom she would come back 2 minutes later wet and then she pooped which made me even more upset. I was so mad, I couldn't even take it. I debated whether to quit but once you start you aren't supposed to stop, but was she really ready, does she really know when she has to go, and cleaning up pee off my new carpet wasn't really something I wanted to do all day long. Jason told me to stop, that maybe she really couldn't feel it and that she really wasn't ready....So I stopped. The next morning I put a diaper back on her and let her go.

Then a week later she told me she need to go to the bathroom on the toilet and she went, so I let her put a "pull up" on, I wasn't sure how serious she was (maybe she just wanted some M&M, part of the bribery to get her to go potty on the toilet) and I still didn't want to clean up pee all day long. Well it has been a couple of weeks with only 2-3 pee accidents and 2 poop accident (which happened to be today, one she woke up with and the other was at Wal-Mart, I think she had a sick belly).

Today I decided she we would try "big girl underware" again, she was so excited. Then I took her to the store to pick out a "special present" for being a "big girl" and going potty on the toilet all the time.

She choose a baby...

she loves baby dolls and we have a ton but it is worth it if I don't have to have two sizes of diapers any more.

Good Job Olivia! for being our big girl and going potty on the toilet...

now you can stop growing.

PS I don't take credit for potty training her, I am going to give that credit to her in deciding to be a big girl.