Cooper's Birthday

 Cooper is 3!! So our first official family function on our new patio was his birthday party. Ashely made this adorable cake. It's amazing to think Coop is three already. Time is flying by! You can tell by the cake that he really has a thing for cars. In fact he almost always has one or two in his pockets.He has such a fun little personality. We love to have him come visit. He loves playing in the yard and trailing behind as we work out there. He is talking up a storm now and is getting easier and easier to understand. We love you Cooper!

Veteran's Day/ Mendis' BDay

Nov 11 is always a special day around here. It always starts with egg on toast and grape juice for breakfast and then it's down to Mendis' parade. We had all the usual cast of characters in attendance but for the first time in memory Mendis' parents couldn't make it:

The weather was perfect this year!

The flyover is always a hit especially with the grandkids.

Dane is chillin

The boys cleaned up in the candy department. Ashley was so smart saving a bunch of it for Reeses birthday pinyata because they was so much. We had lunch and Ashley & Benjy swished pomegranates all afternoon while Mendis worked outside in the yard. For some reason that's his idea of a good time on his birthday. Tacos for dinner is always on the birthday menu too.

November Project

 The first part of our little project involved removing the dead tree in the center of the patio. I was really sad to see it die but not to see it go. I had hopes of it growing up through the top of a patio cover some day. Nope it died so Mendis chopped it up and added it to our wood pile.

 Next he filled in the hole with cement and colored it. The hard part was done and it was time to turn it over to Brian and his crew... Loved this part.

 It only took us twenty years but we finally got our patio cover up. We have really been enjoying it. We even had Thanksgiving dinner out there. I Love progress. Next will be the snack shack hopefully.

Halloween

      Ashley brought the kids out for Halloween. Benjy had to work and Mendis was out of town so it worked out to do this together in Overton. It was an early out day at work so that worked out well. We spent lots of time watching the old Halloween videos I have. Funny thing is Ashley and I enjoy them more than the kids do! After we got the kids all dressed up we hit the OPD Halloween party. The OPD kids got to trick or treat around the office. It was so cute. I enjoyed visiting with everyone and the boys loved it. Shannon and Lexie joined us so it was a real party. The kids cleaned up and could have been done except it wasn't even dark yet.

We headed to the Hinckley chapel so Alisha and Charlie could see the kids before we headed home for our traditional hot dog and chili dinner.

     Our ward didn't have a trunk or treat this year so we opted to do a few neighborhood homes. I was going to just keep the home fires burning with Dane while Ashley took the boys around the trailer park but we decided what the heck no one was coming anyway. I left a bowl of candy on the doorstep and off we went. We drove to Robbin Lane and walked the kids around. Correction Cooper ran most of the way. He was so excited. He didn't even care when he did a face plant once. They were pretty cute and had such a great time trick or treating.

  Cooper had most of his candy gone before the even pulled out of the driveway to head home that night.

Dane rockin the skeleton costume that has been handed down to each boy!

My New Favorite Author

So Alisha & Terri told me about some books I was missing out on during the fall. We actually went to see Austenland together for a girls day out and we talked books and movies all day. (So fun) They told me about Julianne Donaldson and Sarah M Eden. Both are young LDS authors who write clean regency romance novels. Besides a good Agatha Christie those are my favorite! So I bought Edenbrooke and Blackmoore and decided I had found my new favorite author...Julianne Donaldson is Amazing!!! I completely love her. Since she only has the two books I had to move on to Sarah M Eden and guess what....she is pretty darn amazing too. So ya I spent a bit more than usual (ahmmm) on amazon kindle books that month but I have to say it was money well spent. Serious if you are looking for a great read try these ladies. Blackmore is now tied with the Princess Bride as my all time favorite.

Julianne & Me

 When we went up to Utah for conference weekend I found out that Julianne Donaldson was going to be at Deseret Book for ladies night. We managed to throw Mendis in the car and Christina and I went up to meet her. It was awesome. I bought all the Edenbrooke's she had to sign and a bunch of Blackmoore too. I decided that's what everyone was getting for Christmas and birthdays this year. 

Sarah, Alisha, Me & Ashley

 After a few weeks Sarah M Eden and Julianne Donaldson were coming to Vegas for a book signing so Alisha and I drove in and met up with Ashley. We were pretty sad to find out Julianne was ill with morning sickness and unable to attend so she had given Sarah permission to sign her books for her. Of course I had a bunch more books to sign so my friends and family got the cool books signed by Sarah for Julianne. How cool is that. It was so fun to meet both these ladies and tell them how much we loved their books. The only bad part is I had to get both kindle and hard copies of their books so they could be signed. Oh well sacrifices must be made!!

Conference Weekend

    This year we went up to Provo for Conference weekend. I know most people go to SLC right. Well we wanted to spend time with Christina and not in lines for sessions. We drove up Friday and met up at Brick Oven for dinner, well a late dinner since it was almost 8pm by the time we got there. Brick Oven or "Heaps" is pretty much a tradition now. In fact we have so many traditions and people that we never have time to visit we decided we really need to take a week and do all those things sometime! We did get to see Christina's new house. It is so cute. She lives in a duplex in Orem and has no room mates. She is particularly pleased about the no room mates thing. I don't blame her since she has had some strange and crazy room mate experiences over the years.
     Saturday was action packed. We wanted to listen to Conference and see the fall colors so we decided to do it together. We had breakfast at Cracker Barrel (quickly becoming yet another tradition) and drove around Springville area looking for prettiness.

      We drove by this house in Springville. This was our first apartment. We lived here in the basement for almost two years. It was a cozy little one bedroom. It was a great little place that had our bathroom outside our actual apartment across the hall and was only $125 a month. Those were the days! We drove up the canyon and noticed we were about a week late for the fall colors thanks to the storm that came through a few days before and dumped snow everywhere.

 We decided to check our luck driving the Alpine Loop. We love it up there.

 Yup...more snow damage. It was pretty though. The reception was a bit sketchy up there in the mountains but we did our best to listen to as much conference as we could.

 We walked around Cascade Springs while we were up there. It was cold but always pretty even between seasons. This was more or less the "brown" season but that's ok.

 As you can tell by all the squinting it was pretty bright out there.

     We kept on driving and decided to go all the way through to Heber City. It was such a fun drive. We showed Mendis the HGTV house Christina and I were sure we were destined to win and kept on driving. We spent some time between sessions going to Home Depot and got some stuff to winterize Christina's house for her. It was so warm and cozy in there when we finished and we even checked out the fireplace!
      I had heard that Julianne Donaldson was doing a book signing at Deseret Book that night so we threw Mendis in the car so he could listen to Priesthood and we drove up. He sat in the car and listened while we hit the ladies night at Deseret Book. What a blast that was. Yes, it was wall to wall women but there were deals to be had AND my new favorite author to meet. I bought so many of her books for Christmas and Birthday presents that I sold her out of EdenBrooke. What fun.

Julianne Donaldson and Me

That night after dinner we went to the Chocolate House to check out our first Pazookie. Once I saw the chocolate cakes I chickened out and got the cake!It was the right thing to do. We listened to more conference the next day and then had to make the drive home that evening. It sure was a fun weekend. I would love to make it a new tradition!

Rees Starts School!

Not sure where the time has gone but our oldest grandson started Kindergarten this fall! Wow

 He looks all ready to go. He has been waiting many years for this....

So apparently Cooper was pretty sure he was starting school too. He found an empty seat beside Rees and made himself at home. Too bad they don't take 2 year olds because he was all ready.

He was pretty disappointed when he found out he wasn't staying. Let's just say he had to be dragged out. Poor guy has three more years to wait for his turn. We were all hoping their house would be about done when it was time for school to start but they haven't even started yet. So hopefully at some point this school year Rees will be transferring to Grant M Bowler!!

Starlight Express

We bought a Tuacahn ticket package this summer that was so fun. It included tickets to Mary Poppins, Starlight Express and Thoroughly Modern Millie. Each production was unique and so fun. We just loved going. In August we took Jeff & Rachel to Starlight Express. We had never been before so we really didn't know anything about it. The whole thing took place on roller skates and roller blades. It was amazing. They even had three D parts which explains the funky glasses we were wearing! Of course I knew it was a musical but I didn't realize how many of the songs I would recognise. It was such a fun theater season we are thinking we just might have to do this again.

Summer Sleep Over

 I need to update here before I forget all the details of the last few months! I have some fun pictures of the boys from our sleepover. These are from when we had them a few days before school even started. Mendis got the old plane out that he used to fly with our boys. Well he got out what was left of it after sitting in the garage for about ten years or so. Rees and Cooper loved it. In fact we let them love it to death. We figured we would just throw away what was left of it when they finished having fun with it.

 They had a ball with it and it entertained them forever. They couldn't quite pump it up by themselves but they still wanted to try.

 We made necklaces out of candy and cereal. Cooper ate all his before I could finish it up and tie it around his neck! Rees enjoyed talking about it mostly and kept forgetting to keep working. It was hilarious.

We did ziplock finger painting while they were here. The idea is to put paint in the bags that are taped to the table and see what color you get when you mix them together. I was definitely more entertained by this one. I really quite enjoyed it and in fact so did every adult that saw it. The kids not so much as I would have thought. We played with the water toys and books and sand toys and you name it while they were here.