Fall Colors

We ran into my brother Andy & his family on our trip to the mountains. We had a fun time wading in the river and the kids played lots. Then poor Andy got his flip flop stuck in this little marshy area and couldn't find it so he had to go barefoot for a bit. But it was too funny! We all had a good laugh especially when the other fell off and he just said "I'm leaving them here". It was a beautiful and fun day.

At Bridal Veil Falls where we got married....oo how sweet...

The four of us posing at one of the trail heads on Mt.Timponogos. It started raining a bit at this point. Not for too long though. Still they wanted to keep their swim suits on.

Time for lunch and a campfire. The kids loved the fire and just kept making us crazy by poking it with sticks that would light up. They were running around the forest with torches, ugh! Now, my brother Andy loved fire too much so this could be a hereditary thing, haha. I'm sure most kids are intrigued by it.

Nice Colors...

Cousin Haylee and Allison love to go on adventures. They are at such an adorable age and they really enjoyed each other which makes me so happy.

Jorma and Ethan found a fun little trail. And were plenty muddy in the end! But kids just love mud so it's all good.

The gang swimming in the river, or trying to at least.

This is of us at the park for a "Hog Wild" Harley festival. Cool bikes and good music. Jorma is so funny - he took a pen and notebook pad with him so he could keep track of how fast the fastest cycle could go. 180 MPH were his findings. What a nut!

Allison's Wonderland

Allison got a new bed finally. She's been using Jorma's bottom bunk mattress on the floor since we moved so this is a nice change. It's gonna be fun making the room all cute now. We're thinking a hanging canopy sounds cool!

Brother likes it too! Now if Alli would sleep in it all night and not come in bed with mom we would all be thrilled. She's such a cuddle bug though. It's hard for her to make it through the night alone still, my sweet babe.

Beautiful fall flowers in Grandma's yard.

Allison and Grandma loving each other.

Some pretty pink bulbs that just sprung up in our yard. Lots more seem to be coming up too. We love flowers. Who doesn't?!

DAY AT THE ZOO WITH MY LITTLE MONKEYS

We've been trying to get to the zoo all summer and we finally made it. Yae!! We love our local zoo and it was such an amazingly beautiful day. I love the wild cats so much. This guy is so neat and was just posing away for us.

Allison loves elephants as you can tell. She ran straight for this guy. What a nut!

We loved this guy, the albino alligator. Very freaky!

Well we had a really good time hanging out at the zoo for the day. The giraffes are so amazing too! They are my favorite. Jorma loved the train ride around the park. On one part of the ride a huge buffalo was just roaming free in one area that the little train goes through and he came so close to us that it kinda scared me for a minute. My heart jumped as I remembered the rangers' warnings at Yellowstone that buffalo are mean and fast. We were ok but it was one to remember. The kids loved it so that's all that matters.

JOJO CAN MOW!

We always knew Jorma would be a great mower. He's loved all things loud & male since the day he was born! So we're teaching him to put that energy to good use. He doesn't love it but at least he has practice.

My cute fall/Halloween decorations on my mantle.

I just thought this was the cutest thing ever! Allison was just like a little Nightingale singing in her bird house. She loves the tree house and sings and dances around all the time up there. It makes me crazy to the point that I can't look in fear that she may fall. It's pretty sturdy up there but still, it's high up there!

Yes, we've already begun the Halloween season at home. We've decorated everywhere and have our costumes all lined up. We love this time of year and Halloween is the climax of it all!!

This looks weird but it' s my fav breakfast in the summer/fall with our garden veggies. It's fried zucchini (best dipped in Italian breadcrumbs & egg) and scrambled eggs with soy sauce mixed in them. A little ranch dressing on the side for the zuchs, of course,and it's so tasty. Allison and I gobble it up in the mornings when I'm feeling motivated and hungry! Yumo! Try it someday, you'll like it.

Lovely Septemeber Weekend

We went to The Heritage Festival in Pleasant Grove this weekend and the kids had a ball with various activities and yummy food. Good job Josh! Our friends cater these events so that was fun seeing them. Jorma is sawing logs with Jay in this pic. Then he got to burn in the brand of his choice, a bear paw. Very cute. I started doing it with him but Jay had to finish cuz I got tired and Allison was ready to go do other stuff.

Allison playing toss the beanbags.

My blurred vision at the end of the day. No, not really. Just more of Jay's funky art.

We celebrated my niece Mary's 10th birthday and Grandma Mac's too at the MacGillvray house in Lehi. Here are two cute mermaids having fun at the party, Becca and Allison. It was a nice night. I can't believe Mary is 10. It seems like yesterday I was holding her little newborn self with tons of black hair! Time sure flies. The men watched football of course and political comedy shows. We were all happy BYU stomped UCLA! All but Jay, his allegiance is to any Cali team. And Jorma had a good football game with Grandma and Granpa watching too! We obviously love football season. Go Raiders haha....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!!

We had a fun day with Grandma Mac celebrating her 63rd birthingday. We took her some pickled eggs we won at the auction. Nice and fresh and yummy and spicy. And you can see she loves her grand kids sooo much and loves making wonderful costumes. This is my little mermaid. Grandma did so good on all of these beautiful creations. She's made 5 so far for all the girls, each one a little different. It's SO fun. We wish it was Halloween every day! We are ready for our fav holiday!

Then we went to Mimi's Cafe for breakfast, our fav meal there. Yummy eggs Benedict and quiche. Just the girls.

Then we checked out this lovely exhibit in Sandy called the Healing Field in commemoration of 9/11 and the Ellis Island immigrants. It was very interesting. I remember watching the events of 9/11 on tv and just feeling absolute dread and sorrow. My first child was just an infant and I remember just holding him tight and crying. Then a couple months later we were heading to NYC to see my sis who just moved there. It was a sobering experience seeing the smoking grounds from the top to the empire state building. Very very sad. We were very lucky not to have lost any of our loved ones but it still was so awful!

It was a perfect and beautiful day with all of the flags waving in the cool breeze. We took a test they gave as a mock ceremony and then we were sworn in as citizens. Neat. It was a fun day with my loving mom. Love you Esther!

Hey Coach!

Jay is coaching Jorma's football team this year, yae! (That's him in the middle) We're the ones in the sage green which I picked. They gave me only 4 choices and the green was a nice change from previous years of orange, red, blue etc... We must have 2 of each so far, even purple. So Jay's doing so well being coach and putting his football skills and knowledge to good use. He's having a good time!

And he's off!! Jorma in action. My little jubjub!

Then we went up on our fav mountain Timponogos. It's a beautiful time of year with the colors just starting that change torwards fall. The kids love just digging right in.

The sweetest kids ever!!

Jorma and Allison both love the water anywhere we go so we ended the day with a dip in the Provo river. Beautiful!

This is a pic of a really cool wall painting downtown SLC. We really like it!!

POOR BEEGIRL

My sweet little Allison hurt her foot Wednesday night when she jumped off our couch and landed wrong. She was limping the whole night and the next morning so I just decided we needed an x-ray to rule out any type of fracture. And yae! no fractures of any kind just sore tissues. So they gave her this little boot to help heal faster and today she is running and playing with no pain. We are very happy needless to say. It's always harder on the parents I think when their babies are in pain. I usually just do the wait and see kinda thing but Allison is our X-ray girl, this being her 3rd visit to radiology. But better safe than sorry. So she feels much better! I'm keeping sane by reading the 4th Twilight book Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer. So good! Thank Jenn for passing it on so quickly. I've been reviewing the previous ones just to brush up and get excited. And if you're a fan and haven't heard about the controversy with Midnight Sun, the new book from Edward's view, you should go to stepheniemeyer.com and check it out. I guess the partial novel was leaked to the Internet so she just put it out there and it's very good. I hope she finishes it someday. We love to read. Jorma has been so excited to read his I Spy books from school lately. So cute. We enjoy them as a family too.

Well I have a head cold, ick! But it's getting better fast thanks to lots of garlic! Time for some sleep!

Labor Day 2008

WE HAD A VERY NICE AND RELAXING LABOR DAY WEEKEND TOGETHER. THE WEATHER WAS SUNNY AND STORMY AT THE SAME TIME. THE KIDS THOUGHT THEY NEEDED TO BE LITTLE NUTS AND DO SOMETHING WE REALLY SHOULDN’T LET THEM DO – FLOAT PLASTIC BAGS IN THE WIND STORM. WHEN JORMA WAS SMALL WE WOULD TAKE A FEW SUPERMARKET BAGS AND LET THE WIND CARRY THEM UP OR IN CIRCLES OR WHEREVER AND THEN TRY TO CATCH THEM. HE LOVED THIS. WELL MY LITTLE SILLIES WERE JUST LAUNCHING THEM UP AND AWAY INTO THE STORM. THEY WERE JUST HOOTIN AND HOLLERIN SO JAY AND I JUST GOT A KICK OUT OF BASICALLY LITTERING OUR NEIGHBORHOOD WITH BAGS. SO BAD! WHO KNOWS WHERE MOST ENDED UP BUT LOTS WERE IN OUR NEIGHBORS YARD SO WE GATHERED THEM LATER. IT WAS GOOD FUN! BUT WE PROBABLY NEED KITES INSTEAD.
ALLISON LOVES PLAYING SOCCER SO WE GOT A NEW RED BALL JUST FOR HER AND SHE’S GOOD AS YOU CAN SEE. SHE LOVES TO LOOK AT ALL THE PRETTY FLOWERS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD TOO SO WE HAD FUN AT THANKSGIVING POINT VIEWING THEIR BEAUTIFUL GARDENS. THEN WE DID SOME ART PROJECTS WITH THE KIDS IN OUR DINING ROOM AND SEE OUR NEW DECORATION - A TREE LIMB THAT BROKE OFF IN THE STORM. YES IT’S SILLY AND THE KIDS LOVE IT. JORMA MADE SOME COOL PAPER AIRPLANES AND HAD A BALL FLYING THEM OUTSIDE. ALL IN ALL IT WAS A BUSY YET ENJOYABLE WEEKEND.
JAY DID AN AMAZING NEW DRAWING THAT WOULD LOOK GREAT ON CERAMIC TILE. HE’S SO TALENTED & CREATIVE.