Halloween 2010!

!! Warning lots of pictures but they are worth checking out!!!

This year was a really fun Halloween. First Kennadee got to carve pumpkins in her class and I was able to go help. Since I was up to my elbows in pumpkin goop I wasn't able to take pictures but it was really fun!
 For her school costume parade they said the rules were their costume had to be a character from a book. I found that out Tuesday of this week and had already bought her costume which was not a storybook character so last minute I made a long braid out of yarn and put her in one of her dress up dresses and she went as Rapunzel! She was soo cute!! I wish I would have thought of that before I bought her Halloween costume because it would have saved me 20 bucks!

On Saturday we went to Russell's School Halloween Carnival with his Mom and niece Adrianna. It was fun they had a bounce house and a little train and some fun games. 

Kennadee and I all ready for Halloween! 

 

Russell got a Spiderweb painted on his face.

Kennadee on the train ride.

 Adrianna on the train ride.

 After the carnival we went to the Manor Ghost Town to look around. This place was so cool!! Kennadee loved looking at all the scary stuff! We will definitely be going there again! I got some really fun pictures there. Check 'em out!

After we were done at the Ghost Town we went to our Ward Trunk-or-Treat party. It was really fun they had a Chili cook off and games and a cupcake walk and trick or treating it was really fun!!

 

Fall Decorating

Here are some pictures of my Fall decorations this year. I was in a store in Utah and they had a fall themed Christmas tree so I thought what a great idea! And it gives us an excuse to get the Christmas tree out in October! Does that make us weird? Oh well!! 

Here are some pictures of my Fall decorations this year. I was in a store in Utah and they had a fall themed Christmas tree so I thought what a great idea! And it gives us an excuse to get the Christmas tree out in October! Does that make us weird? Oh well!!

School Time

Well the time has come for my sweet little girl to enter the world of Education. All summer I have been prepping her about proper school etiquette (obey the teacher, be quiet when asked, be nice to others, don't make fun of people's names or what they look like, etc.)
Monday she will be going to school and I have discovered that I am not ready for this momentous occasion. I am soooo worried about how she will do. Things like: Will she be happy, will she be a bully, will she get picked on, will she be a fast learner like her daddy or struggle immensely like me, will she be a good student and not give her teacher any trouble, will she do okay having to wake up early in the morning, and so on and so on and so on!!! I am just not ready for this. I am going to miss her so much and I just don't know what I will do with myself. I am going to try to get a lot of household projects done that need to be done but how long will that take really? I am so nervous and having major anxiety!!! If anyone has any tips on how to ease my anxieties and help her if she has any please let me know!!

Summer Vacation (Part Two)

     After our fun times in Idaho we headed down to Utah to visit my side of the family and some of our friends. We first went to our friends The Burtons. We had yummy corn on the cob and open faced cheese and tomato sandwiches and the Mary had to go to work so we spent time with Kelly and got the kids to bed. When Mary got home she brought with her some delicious Italian food from the restaurant she works at. It was great! We spent the night there and then headed to Orem to meet my Dad and Aileen for Lunch.

     We had lunch with them at our traditional place, Sizzler! I really wish they had a Sizzler here in Texas!! After lunch we went shopping to get stuff for the family reunion we were having that night. We headed to my Aunt & Uncles house for the reunion but they weren't home yet so we decided to head to Iceberg drive in for shakes. We ordered the "mini" size and they were like 20 oz. cups with a good 4 inches more of ice cream on top! So much for mini!! We did our best to eat them but they got the best of us and we had to throw them away. We headed back to the house and visited with Aunt Peggy and Uncle Bryan as they prepared for the reunion and visited with Grandma and Grandpa as well. Slowly people started showing up and it was a great turn out!! It was so fun to see everyone. For some of them it had been 4 years since I had seen them. It was a bast to visit. My cousin Laura's husband Ben put all of our old family videos and slides onto DVD so we got to watch some of those. Wow what a blast from the past! It was so fun. After the reunion we headed to my cousin Laura's to spend the night. We put the kids to bed and sat in the family room to talk and we could hear Kennadee and Evan chit chatting away in the room. It was after midnight and we were a bit concerned for how tired they would be but we couldn't get after them for doing the same thing we did when we were little! We had a blast visiting with them and then headed for bed. 

  The next day we met back up with my Dad and Aileen and did some shopping and wandering around. We went to Deseret Industries Thrift Store and got a bunch of Christmas and Fall decorations and some decor items for the house too. All for 35 bucks!! I love that place!! It was fun to visit with them. 

   That night we met up with my friends Miriam, LeRoyne, & Elaine and their families at Leatherby's We had dinner and ice cream and visited for a bit and then we headed down to Riverton to meet my Mom & Pete at Aunt Cindy & Uncle Jim's house. 

    The next day we went down to Salt Lake to walk around Temple Square and meet my brother David's girlfriend Sarah. We also went to Coachmen's for lunch. It was so tasty!! I love that place!! 

    In Utah when the 4th of July falls on a Sunday they will either celebrate it on the Saturday before or the Monday after so we went to the Riverton Days festival to celebrate on Saturday.

Kennadee got to ride a pony ride which she was dying to do and then got scared when it came time but she got used to it after a minute and had a great time.

Kennadee on the pony ^

Grandpa Pete was stretching out and Kennadee and Grey decided they wanted to stretch too! It was so cute!! ^

Aunt J brought bubbles for the kids to play with ^

     

     At the festival there were games and booths (sorry no pics) so we walked around and did those and then Russell was too tired to do anymore so we went back to the house to rest. The kids played outside and enjoyed the nice Utah weather. 

Kennadee and Law on the playground at Aunt Cindy's^

My cute preggers sister Jessica ^

(isn't she the cutest pregnant lady??)

After Russell rested for a bit He, Cole, Jessica & David decided to play a game of H.O.R.S.E

It was fun to watch them.

Grandpa Mote ^ ( I love that guy!!)

My little bro. David and his crazy Viking Beard (or a start of one at least!)

Jessica's cute little boy Grey! I finally got to meet him for the first time since he was born after we moved to Texas!

Kennadee with her Nannies & Granpa Pete ^

That night we had a BBQ and visited and then watched the fireworks when it got dark. 

     The next day we headed down to Richfield to my Mom & Pete's house so we could celebrate the 4th down there on Monday. On the actual 4th (Sun.) we sat around and visited and ate and then went outside to see all the illegal fireworks that were going on in my Mom's neighborhood Russell was so excited because the 4th of July is not complete with out illegal fireworks! LOL!!

     Monday morning Kennadee went to run the 2010 Liberty 1 Mile Kids Run. For Richfield's 4th of July celebration. She didn't want to run the race once we got there so her Daddy and Grandpa Pete coaxed her into it by picking her up and going. They ended up cutting across one of the streets and just to get back because she was throwing a fit. She went across the finish line though and she came in 4th in her age group but of course that was because they cut across the road! LOL!! 

     After her run Grandpa Pete ran his. I don't remember what place he came in at. I think he was first in his age group but I don't remember. 

That night we roasted marshmallows and enjoyed the beautiful weather of Richfield!

Richfield had an awesome fireworks display! I usually take pictures but I end up missing seeing them with my own eyes so I decided I would just enjoy the fireworks instead.

The next day we packed up and headed for New Mexico for our half way stop since we were now driving two cars home. We stayed the night in a Motel 6 (ewww!) and then headed for home!

It was a great vacation!! Thanks everyone for making time to spend time with us it was so fun!!

Summer Vacation (Part One)

This is the first summer since we moved to Texas that we have been able to have a real Family Vacation. I met Russell in Dallas on his way home from camping out with the Scouts in Arkansas on the 19th. From there we drove straight through (31 hours) to Idaho. We went up the Colorado way just to see what it was like. It was a beautiful drive through Colorado. The weather was cool and crisp we drove through the night so we didn't get to see as much of the mountains as we would have liked but it was still really beautiful. About 5 in the morning when we had just reached the top of the Mountain we had been driving up Kennadee woke up sick from all the winding roads and altitude. After cleaning her up and getting her some Dramamine we were back on the road. It knocked her out for 8 hours we couldn't even get her to wake up to try and go potty or anything!        
      Once we reached Idaho it was pretty late in the afternoon. We ate a nice Father's Day dinner with Russell's brother Dan and his wife Heather and their son Matthew and we went and visited Russell's Aunt Ada and played Texas Hold 'em over there.
      The next day we got up and got packed and ready to go camping at Anderson (My very favorite place to camp) visited with more family and went to bed so we could get up early to go camping.
      We arrived at Anderson and got the camp all set up and enjoyed spending time out side in nature. Russell's brother John and his wife Jessica and their kids met us up there. We had a great time. Swimming in the Hot Springs, exploring nature, eating tasty foods, talking, chasing kids around and sleeping in the cold Idaho night.
Here are some pictures from the trip to Anderson:

Matthew ^

Kennadee ^

Matthew ^        and        Kyler ^ 

Kyler ^

John^ and Gage ^

(left to right) Matthew, Kyler, Kennadee, Gage, John

Gagers ^

Kennadee enjoying a just her size chair

(left to right) Dan, Kaylee, Gage, Kennadee, Heather

Kennadee

Beautiful Kaylee Bug

The rest of our Idaho trip consisted of tons of dinners, lunches, & visits with all of our friends, and family members in Twin Falls. We headed up to Nampa to see Russell's brother Sam and his family and his brother Joe we went to a park and the men played ultimate frisbee while the kids played and then we went to Sam and Dee's for dinner and we played the Wii and visited. It was a blast! It was so good to see our family and it was really fun to see our cute Nieces and Nephews and see how much they have grown and changed in the last two years!! We hope to make this an annual trip!

On a side note: While we were in Twin Falls we bought a mini van! It's a 2004 Honda Odyssey we got a great deal on it!! We love it!!! Here is what it looks like:

Stay tuned for Summer Vacation (part two).............

Main Floor Painting

Before we left on vacation we decided it was time to paint the main floor of our house. It was originally painted with flat paint which is virtually unwashable and so the walls had been getting black marks and looking horrible. We have been talking back and forth and looking at swatches forever and could never come to an agreement on the colors we wanted to paint it. We knew we wanted to do the two-tone with chair rail we just didn't know which colors to use. Finally we found two swatches that we both could agree on and here is the results!

Before:

After:

Here is a video to show the whole downstairs

(please excuse the TV in the background)

Biopsy Results

Well as some of you know Russell has been diagnosed with Graves Disease (hyperthyroidism). He was diagnosed because he has a racing pulse, has lost 35 pounds in the last few months without even trying, he has been tired, nauseous, dizzy, and a bunch of other things. The treatment for this disease is to take a pill of radioactive iodine which in turn goes in and kills the thyroid and then he would have to be on medication for the rest of his life. Well when he went in to the radiologist to get scanned to see if he was a candidate for this procedure they found a nodule and told him that they could not do the radiation until he had a biopsy to make sure it wasn't cancerous. We went in for the biopsy and the Dr. said that there was less than a 5% chance that it would be cancerous. That was last Friday and she said she would get back to us Monday or Tuesday to let us know what the results were. Well this morning (Thurs.) She called to let me know that they discovered something that they weren't expecting.....Cancer. She said that he has Papillary Carcinoma which is the most common of the Thyroid Cancers and has been researched to find that people who get it between age 20-40 have a less than 1% mortality rate so it is the best one to have. I am still seriously worried. So for now we have to wait until the medication he is on regulates he Thyroid and then he will have surgery to remove the Thyroid and the nodules and then after the surgery he will be having radioactive iodine treatments to make sure to kill any remaining cancer cells.
Please keep him in your prayers!