Halloween Season

What a busy Halloween week. Grandma Barbara made the girls costumes, as she does every year. Maddy is a Fairy and Kennedy is a bunny. Both very well made costumes. The tutu part of Maddy's costume is huge, and what a chore it was lugging it around to so many parties. Kennedy was not to fond of her costume, whenever she saw it she would cry, but the little bunny tail was so dang cute. The craziness all began last Friday one week before Halloween. Maddy's friends across the street, Nicholas and Aurora invited Maddy to their Halloween party. She had a lot of fun, and it was the first party she went to without mom or dad. Trever and I took advantage of our time and played couple games of Monopoly. I kicked his butt, but he would say otherwise. Saturday we were off to an early start, walking door to door for my mom. It was nice to see how many of my friends came out to support my mom, I really do have great friends. Then the parties began. The first was at Vicky's. When we were on our way there Maddy was starting to fall asleep so Trever told her he would make her a bet, if she fell asleep she had to pay him a dollar if she stayed awake he would pay her a dollar. Maddy agreed to the bet, and it was on. About 15 minutes later Maddy says "dad guess why I'm not going to fall asleep", why Maddy, "because I don't have a dollar" it was as if she had been pondering this for 15 minutes... hmm I don't have a dollar to pay if I do fall asleep. Trever and I were laughing for a long time over that one. Our next destination was Kylies party. She turned 9. We had to cut out early to make it to Tyler and Sara's party, so Sara could parade her cute nieces to her friends. Barbara and BJ took the girls from their so they could have a sleep over. Sunday Trever was up at 3am to go Goose Hunting, and I was up just a few hours later to get the girls so we could make it to another party. This was Trever's family party at the West Valley accord center. Then on Tuesday was Maddy's dance Halloween party, then Thursday was her preschool party. Today is the last of Halloween, its been a fun week but so busy. Tonight is bitter sweet, Maddy is so excited to go trick or treating but Trever had to work he was pretty bummed to not be able to go with her. We are going trick or treating with Gavin, Kylie and Christian. Its odd that its so light still since we havent had day light savings yet. But even odder is how warm it is, it was 73 degrees today. I was worried about Maddy's costume and her getting cold. But nope, its perfect weather Im not even sure its cold enough to wear a hoodie
Oh yeah, Kennedy is rolling over. She made it just shy of 6 months! And holding her bottle by herself.

Eddie P. Mayne Kearns Senior Center

This morning my father was honored once again. The Kearns Senior Center was redidacated as the Eddie P. Mayne Kearns Senior Center. Several years ago my father felt the seniors on the west side deserved a place they could come together and spend time with one another. He did what he did best, and got the funding to build the Kearns Senior Center. With his passing, it only seemed fitting to name the center after my father. My mother gave a very heartfelt speech expressing her graditude for everybodys support over the last year. It is very unfortunate my grandfather couldnt be there, as he spent alot of time and effort helping my father get the center built. My grandmother was in attendance, so proud of her son.

First Cookie

Everyone should remember their first cookie! She made a mess, but really enjoyed her cookie.

La Caille

Friday night my mother treated Trever, Paul, Jana, and I do a great dinner at La Caille for our anniverserys. It's one of those places you always hear about but have never been. Well I finally got to go. It is such a beautiful place, the atmosphere is fantastic. The food was tasty, the service was great. Overall a fun experience everyone needs to have at least once. It was worth staying married to Trever for 8 years just to get the experience of La Caille. Love you babe, and Thank you mom!
Oh, by the way the flavored coffee they offer you at the end is $16 for a wine glass full. I was shocked, although I guess I shouldnt have been! Even though it tasted horrible, its the best cup of coffee I have ever had mom!

Duck Hunting

Trever took Maddy on her first duck hunting trip. They went out to Farmington bay. Trever and his friend Ryan shot 4 ducks. Maddy was pretty amazed when Bones went running into the water and then brought the duck to her. She kept yelling "Daddy what is going on, where is Bones going". On the way home Trever asked her if she was going to eat the duck, she said "No, I don't eat ducks Ill stick to peanut butter and jelly". I think the part she liked the best was getting to share donuts with Bones. They got her to hold all the ducks, she wasnt sure about holding a dead duck at first but after a few she got excited to get to hold them. My dad would be so proud!

Little of Everything

Kennedy will not roll over, she is almost 6 months old and just wont do it. It is kinda nice not having to be as alert once your child starts rolling over, but wow she is going to be the only 6 month old not rolling over. Maybe she is just going to skip rolling over. The doctor says since all her other motor skills are fine, and she can sit up on her own there is nothing to be worried about. Comforting.. I guess. Maybe its just hard to roll 18 pounds of cuteness. She is so full of smiles, today I had her and Maddy in the tub and she giggled at Maddy for a good 10 minutes straight. Cant help but be happy when a baby laughs. She is still a very happy baby, if she cries its for a reasonable reason and usually its she is hungry. She will play for hours by herself if I let her.
Maddy is doing well too. So talkative and social, she is not shy and will talk to anybody. Its nice to see the confidence she has in herself, but its a bit scary when she will talk to anybody out in public. Couple months before she turned 2 she came to me and said "I don't want to wear a diaper anymore", and that was the end of diapers for her. Within a day or two she was potty trained, I was a bit scared not sure if I was ready to have to run to the bathroom every time she needed to go. But I figured if she is ready, lets go. Just like that, she came to me couple weeks ago and said "mom lets do my reading cards", so that began her reading. We started the program my mom uses with her first graders (pictured). She is doing very well, she has most all 3-4 letter words down, as long as they don't have any long vowels or funky tricks. She really enjoys trying to read everything. Its hard to explain to her why she is having a hard time reading "St. Maarten" on my sweatshirt, sweetie little words first. As a ritual, we read 3 books before bed and as a joke I pointed to the word balloon and said what is that word, I'll be damned she sounded it out and yelled "balloon", I was a very proud mama. It looks like at only 3 years old, she is taking after her uncle Tyler and will be reading novels at 5.
The boys are doing great. Bones got to go duck hunting today, I really wondered if he still had it in him but he did great and had fun. Brody is still a nut case, just the way we like him.

I will be so happy when campaign 2008 is over. I'm so sick of watching Presidential/Vice Presidential debates, sifting through all the articles and having to find out what is true or a blanat lie. What a dirty election year, of course mostly on Mccain/Palin side but Obama/Biden haven't been angels either.
It will be nice to have my mother back, we haven't been to lunch in months, our Friday tradition. I know she will win, her heart belongs to this community and voters see that. Its been an exhausting couple of months, but well worth it I love having the competitive spirit, specially when somebody is messing with my mom. We haven't really had to campaign since my dad first ran in 1994 or was it 95? So it has been fun.
But most of all, I will just die if McCain/Palin win. I may very seriously consider moving to Canada, I still have some of their currency from when I was there 15 years ago. Think my couple dollars will get me started??
Well, I'm off to clean some baseboards. I know I know, this is what my life has become and really I love it. OK that was cheesy, but really I hate dirty baseboards specially when I see Kennedy trying to lick them. Must wash...
And lets not forget my wonderful husband Trever. Who has been hunting all day, and will continue to hunt all weekend, I mean all month. But the few moments in between he does what I need him to do. I had him dusting fans and behind TV's today! Love you babe!

Bad Week

What a horrible week this has been. It started out with me having to work 40 hours, yes 40 hours. I have not had to work 40 hours since before Maddy was born. Then Trever finds out his grandmother is going back East to visit some family and is unlikely to come home, as her health is failing. He takes the girls down to Elmo to spend some time with her before she takes off. So, I'm left home alone with no family. I was actually thinking I was going to get some good sleep, nope the opposite. I could not sleep, and to make it worse the dogs were freaking out that the girls were gone. Brody kept running from room to room, finally about 3 am I had to go sit in each of their rooms with him and explain they would be home in a few days and they were fine. STEVE at his finest. Trever and the girls made it home after a nice visit with Grandma Betty, Grandma Vi, and Grandma Elmo. I started to feel a little better when I had my family home. But I was back to work before I knew it (remember the 40 hour thing), and wanting nothing more then to be home with my family. Then I find out my grandfather passed away. He was in alot of pain, so it was time. But it still hurts, my heart is sad. He was a wonderful man, that lived the most amazing life. He wrote an autobiography and I cant wait to read it. Its going to be a hard couple of days, it seems like I'm living 10 months ago all over again. Keep strong, that's what we have to do.
On a lighter note, the Treehouse museum was amazing. We are going back soon to do the normal admission, what we did last week was a special thing they do for Halloween. It was really cute, they do it every Friday during October. The kids start out trying to help find 5 dragons and along the way they run into characters such has Little Miss Muffet, Cinderella, Alice and the rabbit, Knights etc. eventually they find the main dragon and have to learn the magic word to make him a nice dragon. Very cute program, and the kids had to walk from place to place so they didn't get antsy and stayed interested. Before all this, Maddy went to the Dentist, I had debated on going to regular vs. petatric dentist. Im happy I decided to go with the petatric, they made it a great experience. She has no cavities and everything looks great. However her adult teeth do have the crown edges like mine do, it was pretty neat seeing her adult teeth from the X-rays. And Maddy thought it was cool that she got to put "stickers" in her mouth and bite down on them and hold really still while the lady took a picute. She still says "that was so silly, putting stickers in my mouth"
Today we went up to the park by Mountain Dell golf course up East Canyon. So pretty, not everything is changing colors yet but it was still gorgeous. Maddy was excited to get to hang with her old daycare friends from Vicky's. Kennedy thinks she needs to eat again, how else is she going to make it to 18 pounds :)

Pancreatic Pirates

Friday night Maddy danced at half time at the Granger High football game. It was a very cute dance; she did a great job for a 3 year old! Most importantly she had fun doing it. Saturday morning, we were off to an early start. We were at the “This is the Place” monument by 8:30 am for the Diabetes walk. Our team, lead by my friend Angela were the Pancreatic Pirates. We all wore patches, including Kennedy. It was very crowded, so other then being herded like cattle it was a nice walk for a good cause. Then it was off to the Zoo, first stop the train of course. After an exhausting trip around the zoo, we were off to the Utes game. As you can see in the picture, Maddy is a die hard Ute fan! It was a very long eventful day.

This Friday we are going to the Tree house in Ogden, they are doing a Halloween party. Maddy is very excited, and I have wanted to get up there to check it out. I have good things about it.