A couple months back I went around and took some close-up shots of some of the plants and flowers in Sarah’s parents’ yard. There’s quite a variety to shoot, and I came up with this collage of my favorites.
I also came across this spider web catching the sunlight and couldn’t resist taking some shots of it too. 
I took this picture a while ago back in Ohio. It’s not from their backyard, but I thought it seemed to go with the theme.
Leah, Halle, and Emily – 3 years old. I hope these three will always be the best of friends.
We had so much fun in Saratoga for the Halloween weekend. We really packed it all in. When you’re going to party, party hard, right? We arrived at around 11 pm Friday night. We chatted until about 1 am and then went to bed knowing we had a full day ahead of us. Saturday started with a trip to the mall. I only had about an hour before I had to leave for my hair appointment, but we were on the search for winter dresses for the girls (a gift from my Mom). We found the perfect dress at Nordstrom. I can’t wait for the girls to wear them! Anyway, I left Dan, the girls, and my mom at the mall to do a few more errands, while I went and got a much needed haircut. It’s still long . . . . I wanted to keep the length, it just needed to be cleaned up and more layers added in. I love it.
We all met back at my parents’ house for Grant’s 1st birthday party! I love 1st birthdays. It’s always so fun to watch them dig into their cake for the first time. Here are a few pictures I took off Steph’s blog. These are all 8 of the grandkids. My 3, Steph’s 3, and Jeff’s 2. They have so much fun together! 
Grant – 1 year, James – 7 months, Ryan – almost 3 months. One more little boy will be joining this group in January!! We can’t wait:) 
Brigham and Stephanie outdid themselves by making a Cafe Rio feast!! It was so good. I could seriously go for a plate of that right now. 
From one party to the next . . . . after Grant’s party was over, we threw the kids’ Halloween costumes on and went to the Saratoga Ward Halloween party, which I already blogged about. We went home, ate candy, got the kids ready for bed, and changed our clothes.
And THEN, we did this:
Those pictures were taken with Dan’s iPhone . . . . not bad, eh? Anyway, I’m so glad we squeezed this game in!! It was a really fun game. I love going to Sharks games, and this time I got to go with the guys I love most: my husband, Dad, and 2 brothers:) Thanks to my Mom and Katherine for watching our kids for us so we could go!! So, I brought our Vancouver 2010 cow bell with me to have at the game, and after ringing it when the Sharks scored in the first 45 seconds of the game, the usher told me to put it away. What? No cow bells allowed at hockey games? Since when? So that was kind of lame. So I had to resort to yelling, “Ducks Suck!” with the rest of the crowd. Oh well. The Sharks and Ducks have a bit of a rivalry, so it was actually a pretty exciting game with lots of fights. haha . . . . as if that’s what makes it exciting. And all ticket holders get free pizza at Round Table if the Sharks score 4 or more goals . . . . Sharks won 5-2. Go Sharks! And you better believe I rang my cow bell on the way out.
On Sunday, we had a relaxing morning, went to church in the afternoon, attempted to take some family pictures after church but they didn’t turn out so we’ll have to redo them, and then got ready for a fun family night of Halloween activities. My mom made Halloween shaped pasta from Harry & David’s and made a few different kinds of sauces to go with it. Salad, garlic bread, veggies and dip, and Halloween cupcakes rounded out our Halloween feast. We ate in the dining room to lit Halloween candles. It was fun. Dan and I brought with us some of the games we played at our Halloween FHE, so we did Halloween Bingo, the adults did our Halloween Trivia Quiz, and Dan took all the kids on a Witch Hunt again. The kids didn’t even feel bad about not trick-or-treating . . . . they loved handing out candy to the trick-or-treaters that came to the door. We were noticing that no one was really saying “Trick-or-Treat!” when we opened the door . . . . some kids were saying, “Happy Halloween,” and some weren’t saying anything at all. So, we decided the next time the doorbell rang that we would all gather by the door, and when we opened it we would all yell, “Trick-or-Treat!” from inside. Just to be dumb I guess. We’re like that sometimes. So, the doorbell rings, and we have tons of people gather around, and my dad opens the door, and we all scream, “Trick-or-Treat!!!” and then we look down and it’s just one little boy in a green Luigi costume standing there all by himself. so sad. My Dad tells him to pick out lots of candy, and then he says to the little boy’s Dad who was kind of standing back aways, “Sorry if we scared your kid . . . .” to which the little boy replied, “They didn’t scare me, Dad.” Well, that’s good to know. Anyway, it was a really great night, and we ended it by watching one of my family’s all time favorite classic movie – The Ghost and Mr. Chicken. hahaha . . . . it’s awesome. Perfect for Halloween. And it was fun introducing it to Annie and Scotty who watched it for the first time.
Ok, so onto Monday! Monday was Annie’s 6th birthday. It was perfect that Dan had the day off, so we could stay in Saratoga for the day and spend it there with everyone. Annie spent most of the day doing one of her absolute favorite things: swimming in Grandma’s pool. Then Monday evening we had a little family party for her. We ordered pizza, using our Sharks tickets for discounts at Round Table. I got her a cake at Nothing Bundt Cakes . . . . and Oh. My. Gosh. It is now my new favorite dessert. My family had been telling me about these cakes for awhile now, but I was never around when they got one. I always say that I like pie better than cake, but now I can’t say that anymore. This cake is sooooo delicious. The rumor is that my sister and cousins drove all the way to Sandy from Provo just to get a sample. I’d probably do the same. Seriously. It’s that good. But I won’t have to, because I just checked on their website and they have a store in Reno! Best news today. Anyway, back to the party. So the cake was good. She also got spoiled by lots of fun presents from everyone.
Well, we had a great weekend. Oh, and did I forget to mention that we also watched the Giants play in the World Series every night this weekend? They had a game Saturday night, Sunday night, and Monday night, finally closing it out on Monday night. It was a total party weekend. We finally left Monday night at around 8 pm, the kids all crashed, and we had a nice quiet drive home, pulling into our garage at exactly midnight. The end.
I can’t believe this little girl is already 6 years old! She is looking so grown up to me lately. Especially now that she has lost a tooth . . . . you can see it on the bottom in that first picture. She lost it on Thursday, October 28th, just 4 days before she turned 6. It came out while she was eating breakfast and she brought it over to show me all calm, and then she started to cry. And then she was happy about it. It was like she needed to get a good cry out, and then she was okay with it. I totally understand that . . . . Anyway, I think it makes her look a little older. Annie is such a good girl. She always does what she is asked to do, like if I ask her to go get me a diaper for James, she’ll immediately run upstairs and grab a few. She helps me out around the house – she’ll make her bed in the morning without being asked, and she always asks me if she can do the dishes. Really. She is such a sweet big sister to Leah and James, and rarely does she get into trouble. She really is the perfect first child, and I am just so blessed to have her. She is loving kindergarten now, and excelling in her classroom. Her teacher had only the best of things to say about her in her parent-teacher conference, which of course is always nice to hear as a parent. She is loving learning how to read and is getting better each day. She is still really into drawing and coloring and doing anything that involves crafts. She loves to swim and ride her bike, both of which she learned how to do this past summer. She also taught herself how to tie her shoes a few weeks ago . . . . “Hey Mom, look. I can tie my own shoes.” Oh, ok, great. That was easy.
Happy Birthday, Annie!!! We love you so much. Thanks for being you.
