McCall Fun

Drew's sister and husbands family (follow that?:) own a cabin in McCall. We were invited up to spend the weekend with them and his side of the family. It was SO beautiful and the cabin was AMAZING and huge. It was so much fun and our kids had the best time. Makenzie even went snowmobiling and loved it. Drew and I got to drive a lot too because his mom was gracious enough to offer to watch our kids a bunch. I forget how beautiful this world is sometimes until I get a weekend like this:)

Drew and his awesome hat... totally hate the hat and I think that is why he wears it:)

All on one sled is the only way to go:)

Snowmobiling fun!!!

Banning Clan:) most anyways
Being Silly

Nana, Papa and the Grandkids

Catch up Time:)

Ok, here are a bunch of pics to catch you all up. I feel like I need to do this so I can get it all done before Christmas so I don't get TOTALLY behind:) Enjoy! ( I warn you these are in a totally random order:))

This is how Mason does corn at our house:)

A while back Makenzie's dearest friend Elle and her got to get their hair cut and nails done together. I adore her mom, so it was fun to do together. They were so stinkin cute!

Mason got to come too....although, he wasn't sure about it all. Too girly:)



Pumpkin carving time:) It was fun this year. Makenzie was really into it (except touching the inside:) Mason was 50/50, he wasn't so sure, but we all had fun.

Here begins the meltdown. We told her she had to help scoop it out if she wanted to do pumpkins. Witness the scene:)

Halloween

Drew and I were in charge of our Trunk or Treat for the last time this year. We were released about a month ago. I actually loved having Halloween on a Sunday because the kids were able to go trick or treating on Saturday and then we had Sunday we had our family over for a little Halloween party.
It was so great to play with everyone and have a great dinner. The kids had great costumes on. What a great weekend!

Silly pic my sister took of me....LOL

Here are some yummy treats I made:)

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

So it was Makenzie's first school field trip a week or so ago and it was SO much fun! I was so excited for it all week you would have thought it was MY field trip! Drew was so good to me and took some time off work so that he could keep Mason so I could just go and have a good time with my little girl.

The weather ended up being PERFECT and all the kids had such a great time. Here are some pics from the day!

Her pumpkin she found. I was a mean mom and told her that she had to carry it back, so she got one her size:) All part of the experience I tell her!

Nothing says I love you like a squished uncomfortable face:)


One of her dearest buddies, Allyson (the teachers daughter), was out of school that day, so she got to come along and help.

This is Elle. She is THE dearest buddy:) Lucky for me, her mom is my dearest buddy too. They are so cute together!

Hay bale maze. They went through this like a million times - until a running boy took both Makenzie and Elle out. Dang aggressive boys!:)

Playing in the tires

First 5K!

So I ran my first 5K with my dear friend Arianne who supported me and got me out of bed in the mornings to run. It was really such a great experience, hard, but fun. Here are some pics of that. FYI - I am under NO illusions that these pics look good...but I am too dang proud of them to not post. I know 5K isn't that long, but it was for me. I think I might be a 5K girl for life.:)
(Also, the headbands were a joke. They said HOT WOMAN. Ari and I wore them to get a good laugh:))

Conference

Makenzie and her new scriptures

This session of Conference was especially amazing for me. For one thing, I was actually looking forward to it. With two young kids that it is pretty hard to be excited about trying to get them to sit still for those long talks.
I am taking a new parenting class that has been an answer to MANY prayers of mine and helped me in so many ways. She gave us some ideas about how to make conference weekend something special and exciting for your kids. She said to go all about and be as excited as we are with Christmas. At first I was like, yeah right! So I tried my best. The few days before I got a conference pack together for Makenzie along with a bunch of treats (some healthy, some not:)), a new CTR ring, a new book of Mormon with a new scripture case (pink of course), a little puzzle and some new crayons. All this cost me less than 10 bucks! All week see kept talking about how excited she was about conference and to hear the prophet talk. It was really awesome to see! It was something I hadn't experienced before. So that morning, ever Drew got into and made us an AMAZING breakfast. Mason took two naps those days... one during each conference:) No, it wasn't perfect, but it was darn close. I was so touched by the spirit through this experience. When our prophet said goodbye to us that last talk on Sunday, I had tears in my eyes because I truly didn't want it to be over. That was a first for me too! I have always loved conference, but it hasn't always been easy for me to sit through 8 hours of it:).
My little family is truly blessed by our Savior and we are very grateful. We move ahead with all the guidance given to us with hopeful hearts.

This is the AMAZING breakfast Drew made..YUMMY!

Fun times in the morning waiting for breakfast

More good times:)