November

November went by way too fast. Only a few tidbits to mention in this post... Thanksgiving was awesome. In fact, we had two of them. We did my family's Thanksgiving the weekend before actual Turkey Day so that my little brother could be there.... more on that later. Then we had Trevor's family's feast on Thanksgiving day. Usually we have both dinners in two days, but this time, having them a week apart was really nice. We had just enough time to finish off the first leftovers and then we got to start fresh with another round. Glorious, really. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures. Not sure what I was thinking. But trust me, we stuffed ourselves silly on all sorts of good stuff. And pie. Don't forget the pie.

Going back..... My little brother Josh got his mission call to Salvador, Brazil. He was to report to the Brazil MTC on November 21st (the day before Thanksgiving). Therefore, we feasted on the 17th so he could be there. Afterwards, we found out his VISA hadn't come yet, and so he was going to have to report to the Provo MTC on the 28th. He was so bummed. But everything went well. It was actually nice though because instead of dropping him off at the airport, I got to ride with him and my parents to the MTC and say my goodbyes there. He's going to be a great missionary. I'm going to miss my baby brother.

 

The past 2 months...

So I'll start where I left off last time, I suppose. I just can't keep up with blogging. I don't know how people do it. We finished out August without too much more excitement. On the way home from Kaydance's birthday in Cache Valley, we stopped to see my Grandma Dodson who lives in an assisted living center in Holladay. She was so excited to see the kids. Kaydance was so tired. She fell asleep and drooled all over herself and then....well, you get the picture.

 In September, I started doing joy school with a few other moms. Kaydance absolutely loves it and is always excited to go. She loves having it at our house, and Nolan likes it too. I made some finger paint once and let the kids go to town.

 Kaydance also started dance and tumbling in September. She does so good at the tumbling. She's always been really into doing "tricks" and somersaults and what not. She thrives in there. Dance, however, is a different story. You know how there is always the one kid who just does whatever they want when the other kids are trying to do the dance? Well, Kaydance is that girl. I try not to let it stress me out too much and just encourage her to do her best. She still loves it and is learning a little.

 I took this picture randomly one morning after Nolan woke up. It's hard to see, but if you look closely, you can see he has "old man hair." I can't get enough of it. He always pulls/twirls his hair when he is eating and when he is falling asleep. It pretty much always looks like this when he wakes up. Even more so now that he has more hair than when I took this picture.

 One of Nolan's favorite games to play is pull (fill in the blank) off/out of (fill in the blank). Movies, diapers, books, blenders, you name it. Fortunately, we've only had one mishap with all of his shenanigans. Unfortunately, it was the blender.

In mid-September, we learned that the Grand County Credit Union was having a big event where you could get a car for .99% interest. We had been talking about getting another car in the next few years, and thought we'd go check it out. I'm glad we did, cause we ended up buying this.

Yes, we are mini van owners. And no, we are not ashamed. We love this van. It is so much nicer than my car, which we traded in. No buyer's remorse here! 

 In October, we celebrated Trevor's 27th birthday. He wanted to go out to the sand dunes and have a barbeque and just enjoy the beautiful weather before it got too cold. We had so much fun, and the kids loved playing in the sand. Trevor's parents and younger brother came with us too. They found this huge log and decided to have a caber toss tournament. I'm pretty sure Trevor won. I made this bouquet for Trevor out of socks... pretty creative huh? Thank you pinterest!

We've been trying to build a retaining wall in our back yard for quite some time now, and we finally were able to finish it. Thank you to Trevor's dad and brother, McLain. We couldn't have done it without them.

 

Here's the kids playing "party" while the boys worked outside.

 Halloween came up way too fast. Trevor and I went as Cleopatra and slave, Kaydance was Juliet the Gnome (from Gnomeo and Juliet) and Nolan was a soccer player. The kids loved my wig and begged to wear it around constantly.

 I thought I had gotten some good pictures of the kids in their costumes with good smiles, but apparently I was mistaken.The first two aren't so bad, but the last two of the kids just make me laugh. Instead of carving pumpkins this year, we decided to paint them. I'm so glad we did. It was so much easier. Trevor gets the award for the best.

 A few days before Halloween, Trevor's brothers and their families went out to the Old City Park to play the frisbee golf course. It was lot of fun. We'll definitely be doing it again soon.

 I know this post is a little random, but I just went through the pictures I have taken and tried to update you on the big stuff. Hope you enjoyed.

5 years, 3 years, and 6 months

Trevor and I celebrated our five year anniversary on June 30th. It's been a wonderful 1/2 decade with lots of fun, trials, laughs, and love. We went to Vegas this year with a plan to jump off of this. 855 feet of free fall to the Las Vegas strip. 

We were stoked to do it; that was the whole reason we decided to go to Vegas this year. We called in advance to make sure there wasn't a weight limit. They said the most you could weigh was 275 lbs. That's exactly what Trevor weighs. We went ahead and made our reservations, and Trevor didn't eat for almost 2 days before we were supposed to jump- just to make sure he wouldn't be over weight. The night before we were going to make the jump, we decided to go watch some other people do it and check things out and make sure we were all ready to go for the morning. They had the "official scale" and I told Trevor to weigh in and make sure he'd be able to go. 275 exactly fully clothed. We were so excited that he'd made it, and then the lady looked over and said "Oh, you have to weigh 275 with all of your equipment and harness on, and that weighs 10 pounds." We were so mad that we made a huge fuss about it.We probably wouldn't have gone if we would have known we could only weigh 265 lbs. Luckily, we hadn't paid yet, so we weren't out any money. We consoled ourselves by going back to our room and ordering room service at 1:30 am.

 We used the money we would've spent on the jump to go see Jabawokeez. It was pretty good. But the Cirque de Soleil Mystere show was absolutely AWESOME! That was our favorite part of the trip. We went on the rides at the top of the stratosphere, rode the New York New York roller coaster, went to M&M world, saw the Bellagio fountain show, and just relaxed. Overall, it was a wonderful little getaway celebration. Our plan is to get really skinny so we can go back and jump off the Stratosphere one day....we'll see.

 In other news, Nolan started eating baby food. He loves it and eats like a champ. He looks so tiny in this picture compared to how big he is now. He turned 6 months yesterday. He can roll over, sit up, and drum roll please.......yes, he can even crawl. It's the cutest thing.

He got pretty good at Downward Dog before learning to crawl.

Little stinkbug

Kaydance is growing up too fast. We decided to go to Cache Valley to celebrate her birthday so she could play with all her cousins; something that she doesn't get to do very often, but LOVES. She had such a fun time, and we had a blast, as well.

 I love that I caught the expressions on her face. I think the presents she was most excited about getting were bubbles and gummi bears.

 I got a coupon in the mail from Shutterfly for a free book and decided to use it to make a book for Kaydance. It turned out pretty good, I guess. She really likes it and loves to show it off to all her Grandmas. These last two pictures are just ones we took on a Sunday afternoon when her hair was so cute. She let me put it in sponge curlers on Saturday night after her bath and it turned out so darling!

 

I love my family!!