Fall Activites

Our family has participated in a lot of Fall events in the past two weeks. Here are some pictures of our activities.

The Pumpkin PatchAt the pumpkin patch there was a carnival and petting zoo. The girls had fun riding rides, sliding down huge blow up slides and petting the animals. Of course I made everyone pose in front of the pumpkins.

Madi is not trying to pick up this pumpkin. She is posing. Oh, she makes me laugh.
Payton would not sit on my lap. She wanted her own pumpkin to sit on. She is so stubborn! But cute, of course.

Nevadaween

We went to the Old Mormon Fort last weekend with our friends the Lemos'. We had a blast. This is a picture of Payton eating ice cream in a bag. She, I mean, I made it for her. Shaking the bag for 5 minutes was too much for Madi and Payton! We also ate soup, rootbeer and cake. Dug in the dirt. Made pioneer toys. Painted pumpkins and more.
There were all of these furs lying on a fence. Madi was so interested. The man told Madi which fur went with which animal. She was so interested that she wanted to wear the raccoon hat. I was disgusted by the whole thing because you could see the eye holes and tell exactly what the animal looked like, just no insides. Eeew. But, my daughter loved it.

School Carnival

Here are the girls playing a witch game. They loved "flying" on the brooms. It was so fun playing all the games. The girls had a blast!
What is the best part of a carnival? The treats of course. Here is Madi with cotton candy in one hand and a snow cone in the other. Yummy!

Shark Reef

Today we went with our friends, the Dougherty's, to the "Haunted" Shark Reef. The girls and I go every year. It is decorated for Halloween. The kids get candy if they have on costumes. It is a lot of fun. They ate all of the candy they got before we could even drive all the way home. Good thing their baskets are now empty. They will get to fill them all the way up trick-or-treating tonight.

Halloween Music and Dancing

For Halloween, Greg's parents sent us a package. In it there was a Halloween CD. The girls loved dancing to it. Madi calls hers the tip-toe dance :)
I hope you enjoy it like I did!

I would have made the videos longer, but I figured I was the only one who would want to watch four minutes of dancing :)

Bella and Edward

So I thought I should write and apologize. I decided two weekends ago that I was going to read Twilight again before the movie comes out this next month. I read them so fast so long ago that all of the books are smeared together. I read Twilight in a 24 hour period. But I decided that I could not just read the one. I am now in the middle of Eclipse. I will write again when I am done. My life is work, do my responsibilities as a mother, stay up late reading, sleep a little and start over again. I will download all my fun Fall pictures soon.
Sorry! Off to Bella and Edward :)

Fun in the Sun

This summer we discovered a great park. (For those of you in Vegas, it is on Pecos and Peseo Verde, right past the 215)


There are three sections to this humongous park. There are two different park areas. They are covered so the equipment doesn't get extremely hot. The third section is a water park. The girls love it.
There is lots to do and there are always kids there willing to play with the girls.

Madison is a leader. She wants everyone to follow her. Luckily today she found a man with two little boys who were willing to play tag. She named the man "the tiger" who was it. Madi and his two sons ran from the tiger. I kept my eye on them. You never know. Madi ran for an hour straight before we had to go.
Payton has now broken out of her shell and always finds a different friend then Madison. She likes to run around and scream with them!
It was a great day outside. On the thermometer in the car it said it was 87 degrees. This is why I love Vegas, great Fall and Spring weather.
Madison loved pushing Payton in the swing. Payton wanted to push Madi, but she did not want to swing so Payton pushed me instead. It was heard fitting in between that harness, but I did it.
The girls have now mastered the high stairs. Go girls! Madi climbed the rock wall with the skill of a rock climber.
Payton has been afraid of this slide all summer. She finally got rid of her fear and went down the slide. Go Payton!
Payton did not want to leave. She cried after I chased her and picked her up to go. (She was running away from me.)
I listened to her cry all the way home. She is a stubborn little girl. But I love her and Madison!

A Little bit of everything

Here are some random things that have happened this week.

Last Friday we carved these pumpkins for the girls. We put them outside Sunday on the nice cool porch.
By Friday they looked like this...


Oh, well. The heat came back and dried them out. No more carving pumpkins this year.Our friend Danita gave the girls these cute aprons this past Thursday. They hardly take them off.

Payton even took a nap with hers on. She does not want to pose for me, so here she is reading.I bought this collage frame and fit all of the families pictures in it. I just did not get a 5x7 of my youngest brothers James and William. (Sorry boys) They are in the family picture, in the middle.

Halloween Pictures

Every year I get the girls picture taken in their Halloween costumes. We went yesterday. I always go to Picture People. They have no sitting fees and I can get one sheet for free and one sheet for $18. Not too bad.
Instead of the free 8x10 I opted for the cards to send to the grandparents. Oh, I love my little princesses.

A weekend of Pumpkins

This weekend we bought and carved four pumpkins. Madi and Payton are so different. Madi picked scary things. She picked a ghost and a dragon. Were as Payton picked Sleeping Beauty and a funny pumpkin face. Today I taught them a pumpkin song we sing in my classroom at school. Madi did a pretty good job with the song. Payton was stuck on one line, like she usually does when she learns a new song. They are both so cute. They love to sing. I hope you enjoy.

Conversations in the Car

Me- M
Madison- MM
Payton-P

M: Madi you need to stop telling people that mommy is having a baby. I cannot have a baby because daddy is leaving for a year.

MM: Why not mommy

M; I get sick and I can't be sick and watch you two.

MM: Mom when will you have a baby?

M: When daddy comes back.

MM: Can you please have a boy when daddy comes back?

M: I cannot decide what type of baby I have.

MM: Do I get to decide?

M: (thank goodness) No!

MM: Then who decides if we have a boy?

M: Heavenly Father

MM: But mom, Heavenly Father does not live in this world.

M: Then where does he live?

P: In the church!

MM: No he does not, he lives where he lives. He can not live in the church, no one lives there.

A smile

After I wrote the last blog I heard Greg yell, "Michelle come quick." As I ran through the house I noticed small wet footprints in the house...

even upstairs in the playroom.

Greg was ringing out the soaked stuffed animals (the reason for wet prints upstairs, the girls had to get the animals).
As I walked outside, I only noticed the wet dolls Greg was wringing out. Then I turned to the side and saw the girls were in this box filled with water. They were taking turns dipping their heads in. They were having fun. It made me laugh and smile. Just what I needed. I am thankful for the fun memories and times we can have as a family.

The News

Well, I guess it is OK to tell everyone now that the family knows. On Friday Greg was at his monthly drill and was told that his unit is being deployed to Afghanistan. He will be leaving in April and will be gone for one year. I have finished crying out all of my tears. I think. I am trying my hardest to not be depressed. I have him and the girls all together for 6 more months. I am trying to think positively. We will get through this. I trust in my Heavenly Father. We have been praying and fasting about our future. This was not in my plans, I know that there is a greater reason for all of this. I will get through this, Greg will get through this. The more I say it, the more I have faith that it will come true. I don't know what else to say, so there you have it.

Payton Singing

This has been a very trying weekend. I came home from school sick on Thursday and was on the couch all weekend. I then found out some disturbing news about the future of our family. (I will let everyone know what our future holds when it is a little bit more clear to us). So besides being on the couch all weekend, Greg being at his monthly drill, and me crying all day Saturday, our weekend was great. This weekend was General Conference. Let me say that with our news on Friday, Saturday's conference was a welcome spirit in our home. If you missed Saturday's Afternoon session, I truly recommend you go back and listen to the first speaker, Joseph B. Wirthlin. Of course trials happen to all of us, so I feel that the spirit of the message can talk to us all.

So anyway, being on the couch was a bit hard, I love to move around. I had the time to figure out how to run the video camera that is on our digital camera. Then I figured out how to download Madi's song onto the blog. Payton loved watching it on the blog, so she wanted to sing a song also. Here is her rendition of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star! Enjoy!!

Pumpkin Stencils

I found these really cool princess stencils on-line. Click on the link below to bring you to Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, the castle, the dragon and more cute stencils. I hope you can have as much fun with them as we are.

pumpkin stencils

Madison Singing

Madison is really enjoying her new class. She learned a new song that she has been singing often. I thought it is so very cute that all should enjoy it! Of course, as her mother, I enjoy it tremendously. I hope you can also!