Idaho Trip

A couple of weeks ago, the kids and I made a trip up to Rexburg Idaho to visit Jenna and her family.  A 4 hour road trip was very worth coming!  Our kids just love getting together.  It's already too cold to do anything outside but we enjoyed playing inside.

Painting together

 matchy-matchy 

Cade wanted to build a tower with ourselves so this is as close as we got!

While exploring BYU-I campus we ran into our good friend from back home, Ammon. We grew up with him and our families are close.  That was a fun surprise! Ammon took us all around campus and is an awesome wealth of knowledge.

These girlies were so cute together.

No way were we going to get one picture with everyone smiling.  Not sure where we got 4 blondies from. 

Besides me bringing over the stomach flu to Jenna's kids, this trip was so great! So glad they moved close to us. For now anyway. 

BYU Homecoming

I know this was a few weeks ago but I still wanted to document this fun weekend.  I love being involved with things that are going on at BYU so homecoming was a must!  First we went on a date to the BYU spectacular show with my sister Kayla and her boyfriend Josh.  It was an awesome show, I had a great date and we got some yummy dessert afterwards.
Next on Saturday morning I ran the Cougar Run.  I know a 5K isn't that impressive but I have been consistently running and training these last few months trying to improve my speed and distance and was really excited to run this race.

It was so motivating to have Matthew and my kids there watching me at the finish line.  I ended up coming in third place in my age group!   Next goal: 10K.

We also stayed for the BYU parade which was right after the race.  My kids loved seeing the fire trucks, bands, and the candy being thrown at them.  I was most excited to see Kayla dancing with the BYU Ballroom Team.

 While we were in Provo we decided to go into the canyon to check out all the pretty fall leaves.  We rode up the ski lift at Sundance Resort and just enjoyed the nice fall weather.  So many trees were bright red and yellow.  It was so pretty!

The kids loved being up so high while riding the lift and you could tell we were from AZ.  We were the only ones all bundled up. We are not used to cold weather yet!

Halloween 2013

 This is the best looking medical staff I have ever seen!

I loved their costumes this year.  Austin got that doctor costume for his birthday this summer and once he opened it I knew what we were doing for Halloween this year.  I made Kensley's nurse costume from a old men's blue dress shirt.  I have been wanting to do a re-purposing project on a button-up shirt for awhile now so this was the perfect opportunity. What made it more perfect was the face that the only thing I had to purchase was the pattern for the dress. Everything else I made from supplies I had on hand.  :)

We had such a great Halloween and had several festivities this week.  On Tuesday night the youth in our ward did a little carnival for all the kids.   They played games, ate treats, and loved seeing everyone dressed up.  Matthew didn't get home until we were leaving for the carnival but ended up staying home since his residency application was due this week.

Thursday night we got all dressed up again and went trick or treating in our neighborhood.  We taught Kensley how to say trick-or-treat and she caught on pretty quick.  It's so cute hearing her say it in her little girly voice.  She wanted to hold on to every piece of candy in her hand. She thought that if it went in her bag she would never see it again. Austin knew how this worked and was awesome at knocking and being polite.   Matthew missed it all.  He got home about a half hour after we finished trick-or-treating.   

 This was the sunset as we started trick-or-treating. 

Then Friday night we had a Halloween party at my grandparents, the Allens. They put on a great party every year for the several grandkids that are living here or going to school here.  They have put on these parties ever since my freshman year of college.  They always have an amazing dinner, some festive games and then cookie decorating.  The cookie decorating gets intense.  We all take it very seriously.  It is a competition with winners.  

This is our medical crew.  Looks like I am in good hands and will be well taken care of :)

Cookie decorating with my sister Ciera and her husband Adam.  I put Kensley in jammies before letting her loose with frosting.

I'm so sad I didn't get a picture of all the cookies from our contest! Matthew's Frankenstein cookie won grand prize with Josh's pirate ship coming in second.

 My sister Kayla and her boyfriend Josh

Then Saturday night we went to a Halloween party for all the residents at Matthew's hospital.  Matthew isn't really a resident yet but he has been there for a couple months and knows everyone so we were invited anyway.  By this time, Kensley did not want to put her dress on again but we got ready again and it turned out to be really fun.  I literally didn't know anyone there but it was fun to meet the residents Matthew works with daily.  

What a fun and festive week! Can't believe it's November already.