Friday, November 4, 2011

I don't usually post pictures of myself, but I had a request to see my new hair color. I'm not terribly photogenic. That being said, I'm not looking for compliments. It's just a statement of fact and I'm OK with that. There's nothing wrong with being better looking in person than in pictures. :) It's actually why Quin is in the picture. Despite the fact that his shirt is dirty, he needs a haircut, and his face had some unknown substance on it, he is still pretty cute and I figure people will want to look at him instead of me...
I've never had hair this dark. I think I like it. Andrew had a bit of an adjustment after it was done. He usually doesn't care what I do to my hair, but will admit that he likes it blonde, if he has his say (which, when it comes to my hair, he rarely does). He attributes it to the fact that I was a legitimate blonde when he met me. As I've gotten older and with every passing pregnancy, my hair gets darker and darker. It's just too much work to keep it blonde anymore.
My kids thought it was a little weird at first, until I pointed out that it looked more like Callie now and that made her happy. It also made Leah angry. She has asked me to dye it back to normal and has also asked me to dye hers the same dark color so we can look more alike again. Silly girls. My sister-in-law told me that it makes me look more like my sisters, who all have darker hair. Go figure.
Anyway, here it is. It will probably stay this way for awhile.... probably. :)

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Kolob Reservoir

A couple weekends ago we went up to Kolob Reservoir with Michelle, Steve and the cousins. We missed the fall colors by a good two weeks and it was COLD! OK, it felt cold to us, which probably meant it was normal for most people in the fall. The drive up was great. It takes you around the backside of Zion National Park and actually through the park at one point. It was really beautiful. We found a place to stop, had lunch, and threw lots of rocks into the water. Quinten would have been happy to do that the whole time we were there.

Munchkin got to come along. He went in the water (that had to be absolutely freezing) and then looked like a drowned rat and tracked mud all over the blankets. :) Poor dog.

I've discovered recently that I take a lot of pictures of Quinten and find myself wondering if I focus on him more than the girls because he is the youngest or because he is the only boy... either way, it really is unintentional. He's just so cute.

This is all the girls: Breanna, Amber, Leah, Alexa and Callie.

Derrick is the only boy who opted to have a picture with the girls. He's such a good sport. I sometimes wonder if it's because he doesn't have little sisters of his own, so he doesn't mind all of our crazy girls as much. Well, I appreciate him no matter what.


For the most part, the boys were cold (poor babies) and sat in the van while they ate. After they were done, they went hunting for rocks to throw in the water. Big rocks. That made large splashes. I gave them instructions to make sure my kids weren't anywhere near when they threw them in.

I took this picture just to show how bad it looked when we got up there. No good color. Just brown. Blah.

We walked up a hill above the Reservoir and it happened to be about 10 degrees warmer than it was below, not to mention the wind was almost non-exsistent. And Quinten found every patch of mud he could and walked in it. Lovely. We also saw some guys coming back to their cabin from hunting a big buck. It was huge and laying dead in the back of their truck. Both the boys and the girls found that to be pretty cool.


After we ate, we drove back down into the park and stopped at a trailhead to hike a little bit. Quin, of course, fell asleep on the way down, so Andrew stayed in the car with him while the rest of us hiked. The boys ended up giving piggy back rides to the girls for quite a ways. My girls love having the big boys around. I guess we just don't have enough of that at our house. My girls think they are cool and follow them around and try really hard to tease and annoy them. Luckily, the boys are good sports about it and are really so nice to the girls. We ended up turning around before we got to our destination just becaue we were afraid the girls wouldn't be able to make it the whole way back.

Stopping for a break... actually, I think we were stopping so Amber could catch up to everyone else. She was a little miffed at being in the back. Austin was playing wheelbarrow with Munchkin.

We left after we got back to the parking lot and headed home. Quinten woke up while we were getting the girls in the car, but soon fell asleep and slept the whole way home. Leah used the "bathroom" before we left. It was really a glorified porta-potty. She told me that it cooled her butt off with the air coming up from the hole. She seemed to think this was a good thing. Oh, Leah. The things she says. This is a shot coming back down the switchbacks. I made Andrew pull over just so I could take a picture.


This was also taken on our way back down to the highway. This picture doesn't really do the color of the fields justice with the red rock in the background. It was a beautiful yellow and looked amazing. Our kids were quiet on the way home- I think we sucessfully wore everyone out and that made me happy. :) Quinten, on the other hand, was wide awake when we got home and stayed awake for way too long before he fell asleep for the night. I guess a nap until 5 in the evening will do that to a two year old.

It was fun to get away for a little bit and great to spend time with Steve, Michelle and the kids.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Tuacahn's The Little Mermaid

I took the girls to see The Little Mermaid at Tuacahn on October 18th. It was truly out of luck that we got to go at all. I put off getting tickets this summer, thinking that it would be easier to wait until the fall when it had cooled off to take them. They had been asking for ages, mostly because Andrew and I had seen it on the first day it was out with some of his friends from work. The girls wanted their turn, of course. I was in no rush, however, to sit through it again. (Selfish, I know). It's not that I didn't like it- it's just that there have been others that I have liked better. But, it was a well-done show and I knew the girls would love it. So, the beginning of September rolled around and we found out that Andrea was coming to visit and she wanted to go with all the girl cousins to see it. Michelle and I started looking into tickets, only to find that every show was sold out till the end of the season. Popular show, huh? So we broke the bad news to the girls, who were mad at me, of course. But, what could be done?? Nothing. Then one morning the beginning of October I was taking Leah to preschool and I heard on the radio that they were opening up one more show on a Tuesday night (it played on Mon, Wed, and Fri all summer and fall) and tickets went on sale that day. As soon as I got home, I got online and bought tickets. The girls were thrilled. Quinten was mad when he learned he was staying home with Dad. Typical, I suppose. :)


We had amazing seats, seven rows back, and the girls could see everything. This picture above was after the show. Leah was too tired to stand in front of the stage for a picture. The weather was really good- cool, but not cold. As I sat and watched my girls during the show, I saw all of their different personalities come through in HOW they watched the show. Alexa sat quietly and intently watched every minute of the show without emotion or even a smile. Callie squirmed in her seat, trying to dance to the music; and several times I had to tell her to stop singing. Leah sat on my lap instead of her seat and asked me question after question after question till I was sick of answering her. It was exactly what I would have expected from each of them. How are they all so different?! The whole place was sold out, and a zoo, so we didn't stop and get any real pictures. The con to doing this on a weekday was that we had school the next day and it was after 11 o'clock by the time we got home. We had a great time, though. I'm glad I got a chance to spend time with my girls.


Next year they are doing Aladdin... we will be getting our tickets early and going in the heat of the summer.

Alexa's Piano Recital

Alexa's piano recital was a couple week back. It's always in October and the piano students all dress up. It's lots of fun. Alexa did a great job on her piano piece. She has really started to improve and sound like she knows what she is doing in the last few months! Her songs are getting harder, but she is keeping up with them. She loves to practice... sometimes a little too much. There are a few songs that are her favorites and I would be happy if she would forget them. Her teacher is my good friend, Heather. Usually I try to get a picture of Heather and Alexa together, but Quin was a crazy man and we needed to get out of the building as fast as possible or he probably would've broken something expensive. Heather is a great teacher- we love her so much!!

Halloween 2011

I'm so glad Halloween is over. It's far from my favorite holiday and it seems to last longer and longer every year. This I had to dress up kids for a piano recital, two different dance classes, the church party, the school parties (which were on Friday instead of Monday), a preschool party, and the actual Halloween night. I am done. Very, very done. Leah decided to change her mind halfway through the week long event, which I was actually glad about. She was going to be Little Red Riding Hood first. Then we went and saw the Little Mermaid at Tuacahn and she decided to be Ariel (as seen above). Then, after one day of Ariel she decided to be a witch. The witch is the easiest by far and I was glad it finally stuck.



These are the spoils from the Ward Halloween party last Tuesday night. It's the same every year and the kids love it: dinner at the park at the end of our street, carnival games put on by the Young Men and Young Women and some Trunk-or-Treating. It's so easy and I love that it is close to home.



This is before we went out on Monday night. Leah and Quinten managed to break a broomstick sometime in the last week and I refused to get the other down for her because I knew it would take the same path. And, I have no idea where her hat was. Typical Leah. She marches to the beat of a different drum....




I think Callie's costume said it was a leopard lady. She loved it, of course. It's right up her alley- pink with a little fluff.





Ahh- there's the hat. Good thing her hat covered her crazy hair. That is what I love best about this costume: I didn't have to try to tame her crazy hair into anything other than what it was. Actually, there is a great possibility that her hair never even got combed on Monday....



Alexa is... picky. If her costume wasn't just so, she wouldn't leave the house. If her hair wasn't just so, she wouldn't leave the house. If her makeup didn't look exactly how she envisioned it in her mind, she wouldn't leave the house. She is the reason I hate this holiday. OK, not the whole reason, but some of it. It's way too much work pleasing her. Next year she informed me she wants to be an archer. Really? An archer? Anyone have a bow and arrow I can borrow for next year??



Isn't he the cutest pirate you ever saw? Andrea and Mike bought his costume for him while they were in town. He wanted to to be like Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates. He has spent the last two weeks hitting his sisters with his sword. And I have spent the last two weeks taking it from him and hiding it on top of the fridge or my armoire. He actually liked trick-or-treating this year. He was worn out after one street, but he sat in the stroller and was so good after that. And he loves the fact that he has his own bag of candy to pull treats from. Leah didn't last much longer than Quin, and she sat in the stroller when she was done, as well. The other girls literally ran from house to house and we couldn't keep up with them. It was a beautiful night- the weather was perfect. It's one of the many perks of living in St. George, I guess. My sister Honor says we sometimes don't live in reality here. That kids can run around a neighborhood in short sleeves on Halloween, not to mention go door to door safely, is something that doesn't happen where they live. She is right. We live in the perfect neighborhood for Halloween. The streets are flat, the neighbors are great, the weather is good... we are very lucky to live here.