Fall Break/Sedona 2013

Before I start on fall break, I have to throw in a few pictures of a Sunday in Sept when we had a potluck with my cousin Kristy's family. They moved out here a couple years ago and we just don't see them enough!
Love these kids!
 

And the "Funny Face" picture!
 

And these girls...

Hopefully we'll stick to our plan of getting together a lot more often.

We kicked off fall break this year with our annual "Fall Breakfast". Boy do the kids LOVE this tradition. We had to put it off a couple weeks because we had things going on, but it worked out well because the day we did it, was really the first day it felt "fall"ish.
And best of all, it was Conference weekend!


It was also Campbell's birthday! So many reasons to celebrate:) Now they'll get to be "6 " together for a few months.


For Conference, we did my own version of "conference bingo" this year. I printed out small pictures at Costco of the apostles faces (they were all on a 5x7) and the kids cut them out and glued them on blank spaces. Then when the apostle spoke they had to write the main message in the space and put a candy corn there. This is Sadie's :) Love those nibbled-on candy corns!


The squares without pictures are spaces I let them pull an apostle off to add the General Authority that was speaking instead. So they all got BINGO. Softie, I know.

There was a lot of hair brushing and fixing going on and Emma and Holly worked on some puzzles...(I think this pic is Sunday)
 
Conference weekend feels like a holiday doesn't it?

For most of the rest fall break we were here enjoying non-scheduled time. Ahh- even sleeping in a little. Such a treat:)
Then on Friday Dana took the day off and we went up to Sedona for the night. Here are some pictures from our trip:


It was a little cooler up there but not too cool for swimming in the Best Western's pool!
 

Window shopping (with a few small purchases mixed in).
 


We went to a pizza place for dinner which was a big treat for everyone! (Especially me and Eli)
 
Another treat: Staying up late and watching "The Avengers".
 


The next morning Dana woke up early and went running as we all slept. He ran by a yard sale. It was an awesome find. They were selling this grill for $25!
 
We've wanted one forever and it's just been one of those things that's continually gotten pushed down lower on the priority list. Getting it here was a little more tricky but where there's a will there's a way! We also got an awesome sleeping bag for $5. Leave it to Dana to find deals wherever he goes!

It was a pretty busy day in Sedona. There were extra people there since the Grand Canyon was closed due to the government shut-down. It was a trick to find parking where we've hiked before so we tried a new area by a stream...
 
It was beautiful but we couldn't find a hike around there. So we got back in the car and thought we'd try a new section of hiking in Sedona. Pretty soon we realized why the other section is so crowded. The terrain was very different. These hikes were similar to hikes around where we live. Not quite what we were looking forward to with big trees and fall leaves. But we were there, and once we switched our expectations, it was a nice hike. And like I kept telling the kids: "Life is about learning. Next time we come here, we'll know for sure where we want to hike." But ya- we were all kinda bummed at first.




By the time we got to the end of the hike we all had better attitudes and were glad we made it to the end.
 
We made quick time back and from there, we headed back home. It was a really fun, short trip. We love Sedona! Such a great staycation place!

Holly's Pretty Pink Dress

When Holly was two I bought Emma a pink size 8 dress on Ebay. Before I could stop it from happening, Holly's little heart became quite fond of this dress. It was so big on her it would only stay on if she had clothes underneath and even then she had to hold it up so she didn't trip on it. But she loved it and pretty soon it was in the dress-up box rather than the closet. I relented because as far as I can recall Emma didn't really care for it anyway. And a little someone else put it on everyday.

As a testament to how much she liked it, I happened to take pictures of her wearing it on her 3rd and 4th birthdays. At that point I thought how cute it would be to take a picture of her wearing it every year on her birthday. I didn't really have an end date in mind but she hasn't wanted to take the traditional "pink dress" picture the past couple years (Notice how the year the 8 yr old picture is missing), and it now fits her, so I decided this was the final year.

It took me awhile to put the collage together, but it sure is cute!

Holly's Nine!

 It's strange having these kids of mine, that are still supposed to be little,

 

Think they can keep having birthdays and just get bigger and bigger.
 

Although she is not a particularly big nine. This is a new size 7/8 shirt from Old Navy I just got her. :) Hopefully it fits a little better after it's washed (and dried)!
 
She hasn't wanted a party the last couple years. She's chosen to go somewhere with our family instead. This year I saw a friend's post on FB about party ideas for her 9 yr old. Then Emma's horse lesson teacher, Stephanie, commented that she's starting to do pony parties on her small farm! I knew Holly would absolutely want a "friend" party when I told her about that! And she definitely did!

It worked out perfect because her birthday was during fall break so we planned her party on her actual birthday:).

She got to open her presents from us and "Gram" when she woke up in the morning. We got her a scooter (so she doesn't have to ride Eli's old one that "clicks" anymore)...and these boots. Which I probably would have bought anyway but it happened near her birthday so why not wrap them up!
 

She also REALLY wanted this furry vest. It came the day after her birthday. And Sadie got one too- early Christmas present :) They really are so cozy and adorable. I'm pretty sure I like them as much as the girls do.
 

Gram sent a doll dress-up chest that has a dress up outfit for her American Girl. She and Sadie have had a fun time dressing their dolls up and now we have a place for all their doll clothes!


About 9:00 am we went to Stephanie's and got ready for the guests to arrive. Dana did a great job putting
the horseshoes on my cupcakes...
  

We put up a few pink tissue paper decorations that looked tiny on this huge tree...

Pretty soon the girls arrived and we were ready for some pony-rides!

(I took pics of all the girls on the ponies which I included on their thank-you's:)

Sadie was so excited she got to participate too!
 

I think one of her favorite parts was catching up with her BFF that moved to a different school this year.
 

Next they got to brush and wash the ponies.
 

I literally think they could've done this all day.
 

Then they started braiding! They were in heaven I tell you!




The tail was a little more challenging...


But they fanegled something on there!
 

Such a cute bunch of girls! (Kinnedy, Edyenne, Holly, Adriana, Eliie, Sadie)
 

I planned a couple of little activities, but pony-rides and then washing and brushing the ponies afterward were definitely the main events. Of course we did presents and the cupcakes. She was pretty excited about her gifts as you can see:)






Last, we played a relay game with sugar cubes (an ode to the horse theme)...

Stephanie's cute helper daughter evened out our teams.

I also brought apples for the girls to feed the horses. (That's Stephanie the great in the background:)
 



And finally, time to go home. Even a ride home is a party with 5 giggling 8-9 yr old girls!

 It was seriously the BEST party we've ever done. Happy Birthday to our Holly-Doll!

The "Sub"

Like everyone, I wear a lot of "hats". Mother (first and foremost), cook (kisses accepted), driver ("carpool"- one of my favorite words), cleaning lady (making tips doing laundry- one pair of jeans at a time), chorister (you better sing along because you don't want to hear my solos), and now....Substitute Teacher!

After a couple of months gathering the necessary items I needed to become certified (and some waiting for those items to come in the mail), Wednesday I met with the district lady in charge of all subs. I turned in my paperwork. I filled out more paperwork for about half an hour. I asked her how long it would take for me to get calls from the automated system. She said she'd get me in the system that morning. By 4:15 that afternoon, I had a job later this month at the Jr. High, and a job at the high school for the next morning! I was very nervous Thursday morning but also excited to try something new. My kids were so sweet and almost as excited as I was!



Everything went great. I'm mostly hoping to be at my kids' school so they can just come to my room after school's out which is super convenient. And according to my substituting friend- they are in need of subs at our elementary school so I think it will be a great win-win. I'm excited for my new adventure!