Happy Halloween

I decided to throw a little Halloween play date for Jaston and some friends. We decorated cupcakes, made paper pumpkins, did a pumpkin bean bag toss, colored pictures and played :). It was a fun get together for the kids and nice to catch up with friends. Here are some pics from the party.

Alex, Ashlyn and Jaston making cupcakes

Drew playing with the bean bag toss

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Caitlyn posing for the camera

Sweet Gracie

Jackson, Sam, and Mathew

 Skylee didn't want to miss out on the fun either so she joined in after school

 

 Jeff's costume- a monster carrying him in a box

My Skylee Witch

Trunk or Treat Time!

 Brielle wasn't amused with the bee costume and the cold

Skylee's First Grade Picture

Here's my smart little First Grader from Mrs. Berg's class

Vegas Baby!

For my mother-in-law's fall break we were going to head to Sea World but the drive sounded too daunting so we decided to meet up in Vegas and have some fun there with the kids instead. It turned out to be such a fun trip. We stayed at the Golden Nugget which has an amazing pool that you get to swim with the sharks. The kids were too little for the awesome slide that goes through the fish tank but us adults went and it was pretty cool. We went for three days and packed in a ton of fun stuff- we went to the top of the Stratosphere, of course went shopping, did the Freemont Experience, went to the Cheesecake Factory, Visited the Bellagio and Caesar's Palace, and played at the hotel and in the hotel pool. Here are some fun pics of our trip.

Skylee was my little fish. As long as she had floaties on she was in heaven!

Grateful

I have been reminded often lately how I have been slipping into not seeing the positive in things. I realized this morning I haven't been good at all lately in telling my kids how wonderful I think they are. I get caught up in nagging all the little things that go wrong and focusing on the spilt milk and whining children. 
    Oh my goodness I have SO SO much to be grateful for and I'm going to take a minute and list those wonderful things I have. As a reminder to myself of how much I have and also to acknowledge my Father in Heaven's hand in all the wonderful things in my life. I am so blessed and have so much!

• I have to start out with my amazing husband. He is so good to me. I have never felt so unconditionally loved by anyone. I know I could never do anything that would make Jeff stop loving me. That is an incredible comfort. He is such a hard worker. He has been such a rock to me on my emotional rollercoasters. He has taught me to chill out, to have some fun, to laugh, to not take life so seriously. I love him so very much and am so so grateful he's mine forever!
• Of course my kiddos are next- Skylee is six and a smarty pants. I'm so grateful school comes easy to her and she adores it. She is an amazing helper when it comes to Brielle. Brielle is six months now and Skylee still can't wait to hold her and feed her and help me in any way. She is a great big sister. I rely on her a lot. Jaston is three and a handful but a sweetie. He is very sensitive to other people's feelings. He accidentally breaks things and spills things often but is quick to say "I'm so so sorry!" and he says it with all his sweet little heart. Brielle is just the sweetest thing this side of heaven. I seriously can not get enough of her precious smile. I am completely smitten with this little one. She has me wrapped around her finger. She is FINALLY sleeping through the night which is something to be on it's own bullet. It's amazing to feel rested when I wake up in the morning!
• I am so blessed to have an amazing support system. I have an amazing extended family. You can't get any better than my parents, sisters, brother in laws, nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins, in-laws. I'm talking THE best family a person could ask for. I could not be more grateful or ask for anything else in my family. 
• I have the gospel and all of my brothers and sisters from it. I can't believe what an incredible support the church brings to my life. My whole life would be completely different if I wasn't a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It has helped me develop a relationship with my Savior, Jesus Christ. I have come to learn to rely on my Heavenly Father; to dedicate my life to Him. I have learned he can support me through all of my struggles. I have learned that this is not the end. We can live with Them again and we will see our family and friends again on the other side. I know that if we make the right choices here we can live in eternal joy with our family forever. I know where I can turn to find peace and I know my purpose here. I don't think there is anything more important than that. 
• Along with the gospel is the temple. I am so grateful for the peace I have found there and the answers that have come to me when I have been in that amazing escape from the world. 
• I am so grateful for a home to live in, vehicles to drive, never wondering where my next meal is going to come from, hot water, electricity, internet, clothes, shoes, a dishwasher, refrigerator, washer, dryer, beds, toilets, my body. 

As you and I can see I have a lot to be grateful for. I know the list could go on and on. I don't think it's fair to our Heavenly Father for me to be down about life when I have so so so much to be grateful for. Life is good! We all have so much in our lives. I am committing right now to being better at focusing on all the blessings I have rather than the bad that is out there. There is too much good to ignore it. So that's my rant for the day ;) If you made it to the end of this LONG post- go thank Heavenly Father for your blessings, I am headed that way now. 

Post Catch-up

      So apparently having three children has really caught up to me. I've heard that third can make a huge difference but seriously I feel I accomplish nothing in a day other than keep us all alive :) Needless to say I have been slacking in the blog world lately. SO here is a quick catch up of a few events. (Ya, not totally caught up since this past weekend we had more fun- to come later- maybe in six more months ;) 

       ANYWAY- to start off our sweet baby doll turned six months old on the thirteenth of this month. A whole half a year old! I took her six month pics and there were too many cute ones to just choose one so I chose nine! She is so full of personality right now. It is so fun!  

      She went and got her shots today (So not fun for mom or baby!) and she is measuring:

                 WEIGHT- 13 lbs 9 oz    (6th %)

                  HEIGHT- 25 1/4 inches ( 18th %)

                  HEAD- 42.5 cm (53%)

 For conference weekend we went down to St. George for the marathon and spent fun time with both sets of grandparents. This is a fun activity my mom put together for the kids to do. She is such a fun Grandma!

 Jeff ran his third marathon and did great! He finished in 3 hours 35 min and 34 seconds. Which is his personal best by 25 minutes. Diane, Greg, Skylee, Jaston, and myself went and cheered him at the finish life. They had this awesome technology this year where I got text-updates as it went along. We were all super proud of Daddy!

The night before the marathon they did a Kids Fun Run. Our kids were pretty tired but still had fun. We bought Jaston new running shoes that day and then forgot them in the car (which was parked 500 miles away or something like that) so we had him run in his flip flops which meant we had to stop several times to re-adjust. I ran with them- it was seriously chaotic but still turned out to be way fun. The kids got a water bottle for participating. 

Reuniting with my Camera

So since Brielle has been born I think I have been in survival mode. No time for any extras. Just the past few weeks I have really been missing taking pictures and editing them. So I pulled out the camera, youtubed a few videos learning a few new things about my Lightroom editing program and started playing around. Here are some of the pics I've done in the past few days. The baby boy at the park is my friend Melissa's adorable baby.