Halloween!

It's been awhile since I posted, but not too much has been going on. Lots of routine stuff, like work, school, homework, dinner, laundry, bed, repeat. A few weeks ago the leaves started falling, and the kids were so excited. We spent one afternoon raking and playing the leaves. We didn't actually get pictures of jumping in the pile, because Daniel distracted me by falling into a deep root hole in our yard. It curved after 2-3 feet under and I couldn't see how far it went, but he was lucky that his arms kept him from going underground! In any case, Mike has a hole to fill this weekend.

Anyway, I did get a few pictures of these cute kiddos enjoying the beautiful fall day. Emma, of course, is always willing to give a big smile. She is so fun!

I've had a really hard time getting Matthew to look at the camera lately. This is him shouting (in an irritated voice), "I LOVE FALL!" Because that's what I told him to say. Maybe not the best choice for a picture-taking phrase. Oh well. At least I got him to look at the camera, right? The picture cracks me up.

Daniel, trying to bring in his last canine tooth. Isn't he adorable??

And yes, they actually did a good amount of raking. We had a deep pile when they were done. Even Daniel and his upside-down rake added leaves to the pile. It was a fun day! Here's hoping the cold front goes away soon so we can get back out there and finish the job.

The Friday before Halloween the missionaries came for dinner. We haven't gotten to know this particular set of Elders very well, so Mike decided he would make a dinner they couldn't resist: bacon meatloaf. They loved it and Mike now has a couple of new bacon groupies. We had fun talking and they build a bookshelf for us. It's always nice to have the missionaries over!

We kicked off Halloween week by finishing the kids costumes. Emma wanted to be a black cat, because we have a black kitten living outside on our deck. He came to live under the deck during the summer when he was tiny, and we decided to adopt him. Emma told me she wanted to be the cat's mother for Halloween so he would like her better. They are now great friends, and he finally has a name- Bill Peet.

Matthew decided (after much deliberation) to be a robot. Mike spent a few hours designing the costume and putting it together, and then he had me decorate it. Tuesday night we went to the Anderson Museum with another family from our ward, and the workers asked us to enter Matthew in their costume contest. It took awhile because there were about 25 kids to get through, but I'm glad we stayed because Matthew took 1st place. He was so excited! We had to laugh because it really wasn't that great of a costume. The expectation levels must be going down. But Matthew loved it, and the look on his face was priceless when he won the ribbon. And that's all that matters.

Some of the pieces had fallen off by the time he went trick or treating, so I included what it originally looked like. Mike wired some battery powered lights to the gumball machine on top so he blinked. It looked pretty funny after dark.

Daniel was a cowboy because I had leftovers that would work. Haha. He was just happy to be along for the ride. It probably won't sink in for another year or two, but he had fun being one of the kids.

Sadly I didn't get a picture of them all together. They're dressing up again tonight for our ward's Fall Festival, so maybe I can get a good shot then. Hope everyone had a great Halloween and is enjoying the fall weather!

Happy Labor Day!

Hooray for a holiday! Matthew and Emma have been up all morning practicing headstands on the wall. Sorry in advance about the underwear pictures, it seems like every time a post a picture of Matthew he's only half-dressed. We'll work on that.... :D

The kids have apparently been enjoying this so much lately, that yesterday in the middle of sacrament meeting, Mike looked over at Matthew and he was doing a perfect headstand on the bench at church. The lady behind us got nervous when he started to fall and reached over to catch his legs. Memories, right?? Good thing we have a sense of humor.

And just in case you forgot which school we support, Emma wanted to remind you where our loyalties lie....

Happy Labor Day!

First Day of School!

Today was the first day of school for both Emma and Matthew. Emma is in 1st Grade, and Matthew is in a half-day morning preschool that runs every day. They were so excited this morning!

Emma enjoyed her first day, and had fun seeing her friends again. She came home eager to do homework and talking all about her new teacher, Mrs. Loftis. She's eager to go back tomorrow and I know it is going to be a great year for her!

Matthew rode to school with Daddy this morning on his way to work. Daddy met his teachers, Ms. Lewis and Ms. Funderburke. It is so cute to hear Matthew say their names (Woo-is and Fun-duh-buhg). Matthew loved their class, and his only complaint was that they wouldn't "let me play on the jumpy thing, they said I had to play on the blue or red or yellow things. I don't like that!"

Utah Trip 2012

In July, we went home for a visit. We were so busy it was overwhelming! But we did a lot of fun things. For some reason, we didn't take many pictures of our activities, but I'll include what we have and add more if anyone has pictures they took that they want to send me!

Our first two days consisted of barbecues with family, and just catching up with our parents and siblings. We spent time talking, playing with the kids and letting Daniel get to know everyone. He was a little nervous, but it was good for him to get out of his comfort zone a little! We also spent some time shopping for things only available in Utah. 

Saturday was the hike for which we had planned and waited excitedly! We both miss the mountains, and I love to hike and miss it a lot. It's just not the same in SC. So we took off with Nathan, Holly and Steve and went up the Squaw Peak trail.

 This is in Rock Canyon, which is right behind the Provo Temple. On the way to the hike, Steve wasn't sure where he was headed, so I told him to park on the street next to the temple and wait for me to drive by so he could follow. When I was almost there I got this text from him: "Erin, hurry up. I'm going to get struck by lightning any minute." Always so funny. Luckily I drove by before God could strike him down.

I have missed the mountains so much! We were headed right to the top of that point. Sadly, we didn't quite reach our goal, but that's okay because we made it to the branch that will be shown soon.

Steve guzzled Mt. Dew the whole way up, which is probably why we never made it to the top! 

Me 'n Steve.

Nathan and Holly!

Steve used Nathan as trash can for awhile. Nathan's a surprisingly smooth walker. It didn't fall off for about 10 minutes.

Steve! 

Nathan!

Holly!

Me!

Mike!

Steve again!

Pictures on the bridge.  

Just keep hiking....

Most of our group had run out of gas by the time we were about 2/3's of the way up, so we decided the branch would be our goal.

Steve apparently thought we were weaklings, but we made him turn around anyway.

We got a couple more shots of the canyon on the way down, and then headed over to Farr's Fresh to re-hydrate with some frozen yogurt.

Sunday we went to sacrament meeting in Midway, and headed to Mike's parents house in Holladay afterwards to meet up with Mike's siblings. We saw David and Sara and their kids, and Adrienne came with the kids, but without Chris, since he had to work. It was good to see everyone! A year makes a huge difference in the kids.

Sunday night after the kids went to bed, Mike and I snuck out of the house and headed down to Nathan and Holly's place. Ian arrived pretty soon after we did, which was a surprise to us, but turned out fun. We ended up playing Words of Wizdumb, which I could keep playing for a long time. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.

People started dropping like flies toward the end of the game, so we finished up and called it a night. It was weird to be out at night with no kids, I kind of miss it!

Monday morning we were up bright and early to head to Lagoon with Nathan and Holly, Steve, Ian and his friend, and Mike's mom. Daniel stayed home with my parents and they spent the day together getting better acquainted.

Luckily they've made waiting in line an enjoyable thing for kids, so I guess part of that ticket expense doesn't feel so bitter. Maybe.

We spent a lot of time on the bumper cars, which the kids loved! You can see Matthew behind me. We sadly didn't get any other pictures because we didn't bring our camera!!! Lesson learned- hopefully I'll be more on top of that from now on.

We had fun with Mike's mom, we haven't been able to just hang out like that for a long while. It was really laid back and good to just be able to spend that time together.

Happy kids!

The kids really enjoyed their time with Grandma Woods. They are still talking about this trip and the rides they went on with her. Thanks for coming with us!!

The good old sky ride. The kids were really nervous about this at first; we literally had to drag Emma on kicking and screaming. She finally calmed down and really enjoyed it, and even asked to go again later! 

Nathan and Steve about to go on the Samurai.

All things considered, Lagoon was good. I'm glad we went. It wasn't too hot, and the kids did well. Mike and I got to ride a few rides on our own (thanks Sue!!), which was fun to feel like we are people again instead of just parents. If that makes any sense! All in all, worth the trip.

Just a random shot of Uncle Nathan playing tic tac toe with the kids. 

During our trip we went to our favorite pizza place- Nicolitalias in Provo. A gourmet pizza place with a Boston flare. The owner is kind of nuts but makes it a fun place to be by shouting random things in a high squeaky voice over the loudspeaker. When our food was ready the whole restaurant learned that "the Italian Stallion for Mikey is ready!"

Again, not too many pictures. We were with Nathan and Holly and Steve. Fun times! Posting this makes me want to go home and eat like this every day.

The rest of the trip went quickly. Tuesday night we went went to the temple with my parents and it was supposed to be Nathan and Holly as well, but they ended up at a different temple due to a  miscommunication ... thanks to me. :D Mike's parents watched the kids for us, and we all met up for dinner at Robintino's (a high school hangout of Mike's) afterwards.

Wednesday I went shopping in Park City with my sister-in-law, Adrienne and we had a great time visiting and catching up. We spent Wednesday night with our friends Adam and Jennie Gundersen and their kids, and again, no pictures! We had a bratwurst cookout and things were going fine until we both started feeling heat sick, which later that night turned into a stomach flu that lasted all day Thursday. We cancelled everything and just tried to concentrate on feeling better for the flight.

Luckily Friday morning, we were feeling up to the flight, but it turned out that there was a torrential downpour over Atlanta, so most of the way there we got rerouted to Memphis to wait out the storm. When we finally did get back to Atlanta, we were in time to miss the last flight to Greenville for the night. Neither of us cared to spend the night in the airport or a hotel, so we ended up renting a car and driving the 2 1/2 hrs to Greenville to pick up our van. We would have just gone home, but we needed the garage door opener in the van so... we dropped the rental off and finally headed for home, rolling in at about 4:00AM Saturday morning. Poor kids!! They did so well with all of it, and they even slept in a bit on Saturday.

That was the end of our Utah trip! Getting back into a routine was tough, and I don't look forward to flying again with kids anytime soon. But we did have a great time while we were there and can't wait to see everyone again!