Last night we thought we would carve pumpkins for our family home evening activity. We did carve pumpkins, but by we I mean Jeff and I. Kyrsten has been sick so she went to bed right after the first picture below. Hayley was so excited to help us and but as soon as we got the tops off the pumpkins she saw and smelled the insides and refused to be near the pumpkins. She wouldn't even touch the seeds or sit and watch or really come into the kitchen since she could smell them. She is crazy! So not much longer she went to bed and left Jeff and I to finish the carvings. We enjoyed our pumpkin carving time together but hope next year our kids will join us.

Hayley holding Kyrsten down to get a picture

I joking told Jeff to use his small electric saw to carve the top off. He thought it was a good idea and did it. It took him about 1 minute while I went the traditional way and took about 10 minutes- I am a slow carver!

This is Jeff's pumpkin he made for the city carnival. His office is doing a tooth toss booth. I thought it turned out pretty good.

Here are our finished products! Jeff's is the one with all the teeth:)

Box=Fun

I finally unpacked this box from my room. It only took me what, 5 months. Anyway, every time we have an empty box the girls must play in it. I was thinking for Christmas I should just dig out all our moving boxes from the garage and make a big fort in the living room. It won't happen but fun idea. There were a couple days last week (the days these were taken on) the girls were actually playing together really well. It was so nice. Now they are back to screaming at each other and wanting attention from me. It was nice while it lasted. I hope there will be more days like this.

Happy Anniversary!

Jeff and I celebrated our 6th Anniversary this weekend (October 26th). We actually got to get away for the whole night. We haven't been able to do that for an anniversary since before we had kids. Being away from family for 4 years stopped that. My sweet mom watched our girls for us. The girls LOVE going to her house and we LOVED getting the break so it works out perfect. I am not sure how much sleep my mom actually got ( we don't have the best sleepers) but we are thankful she watched them. So on Friday Jeff and I went to the temple, went out to eat, and stayed at a hotel in Chandler. We even watched a movie (the newest Harry Potter) at the hotel. I don't know the last time we got to see a somewhat recent movie together. I guess it is not really recent, but the point is we got to watch a movie in peace with no kids screaming (nightmares/terrors) or having to turn volume down so we wouldn't wake anyone up. We even got to sleep in the next morning which hasn't happened in years! So it was a wonderful anniversary. I have a wonderful husband who I am extremely thankful for. Jeff is so helpful around the house and with the girls. He makes me laugh everyday and always makes me feel loved. I look forward to the many years ahead! Sorry no pics. We forgot our camera and we are bad at asking people to take them of us anyway. So you can imagine our smiling faces :)

Disneyland

Well, I have to apologize for the pictures. After viewing them I realized we really did not take that many pictures, and we did not take any real good ones. We only took one family shot which the people at Disneyland took so I don't even have a copy of it yet. So I will have to scan that one in when we get it. The pathetic thing is we were with our friends the second day, so we could have had someone take our picture and we did not get a picture with our friends. We are pathetic! Well, I will focus on taking family shots next time and actually taking pics at the photo opp places, like the entrance at Disneyland! Anyway, we had a fun two days. The first day we went to Disneyland. It was pretty crowded and cold that day. Hayley was scared on a lot of the rides and too shy/scared to take a pic or get near any of the characters. She did love listening to a story by a princess and decorating her own crown. The princess place they have there is pretty cute. We told Hayley should would be able to pick one thing to buy while we were there and she picked face painting, oh and a lollipop. She sat very still while getting her face painted. When I was taking her picture afterwards I was asking her to smile and I got the shot of her pulling her shirt down. I have no idea what that is supposed to be. So I had to ask for a pretty smile. Hayley would not let us take the paint off that night so she wore it half on the next day. When we went to California Adventure Land the next day, the weather was perfect and it was not too crowded. They have some cute stuff over there for kids. Talking with Crush the sea turtle was a neat show. I don't know how they do it, but it is cool. Hayley also loved the playhouse Disney show. In the afternoon we met up with some of our good friends, the Yosts and some of their family and spent the rest of the day at the park with them. It was a blast! Thanks for hanging out with us Yost Family! Wish I had pictures of us all there. Let's see, that is about it. Kyrsten did decent. She mainly watched from the sides and waved at Hayley or got drug along on the ride. She was a good trooper. I think Hayley had a great time even though she was scared of a lot of stuff or "shy" as she would say. We enjoyed getting to go on a family trip! It will probably be a while before we go back to Disneyland but we look forward to the next family adventure.

Balboa Beach

We just got back from a short family vacation. We first went to Newport/Balboa beach for a day. The weather was perfect. We walked around, played on the beach, took a ferry ride, and rode on the carousel. Balboa beach is a beautiful area. The ferry took us to Balboa Island which had the most amazing beach houses I have seen. That would be the life! Some of the houses were decorated for Halloween and boy do they decorate (see slide show). Basically the whole island was filled with amazing houses and a few shops and restaurants. The girls loved playing in the sand. I forgot beach toys so we used spoons and cups. Good improvising I thought! Hayley was of course scared of the water since the waves were loud when they crashed. Anything remotely loud scares her. I finally got her to at least walk down and get her feet wet. Kyrsten on the other hand was not scared at all and went right down. She of course had to eat the sand but she was happy so what can you do? The beach had a nice little playground for them to play on too. It was perfect day! (Disneyland pics to come)

We thought she was napping!

Jeff and I were watching conference this weekend (our church has conferences twice a year that are broadcast on tv from Salt Lake) and Kyrsten was taking a nap and Hayley went to her room and was pretty quiet. We thought she probably fell asleep until we heard a few noises and out she came looking like this. It made us laugh so we took some shots which she then starting posing for like it was a model shoot. Sometimes we think this kid should be in magazines or on TV with her humor. She cracks us up!

Pretty in Polka Dots

The following are some pictures of Hayley looking pretty and ready for church. Our church starts at 8:30am, so most Sundays it is a struggle to get everyone up and ready, especially Hayley. Usually she screams about her outfit not fitting right or not being the one she wants and she doesn't want to eat breakfast or let me come her hair. It is usually one big battle which ends with us all stressed before we even walk out the door. This particular Sunday Hayley was quite pleasant. She picked out her outfit and stuck with her first choice. She didn't complain about anything being to tight or not comfy. She even got her shoes on and let me brush and curl her hair and even wanted a headband. We were actually all ready and happy about 10 minutes early. It was wonderful. Since Hayley was being so nice and looked so pretty I had to take some pictures to capture the moment, in case it doesn't happen again for a while.

Ready to Go!

Holding Dad's scriptures

Pretty in polka dots!

The results are in...

I saw this in a few friends blogs and had to try it out. I am not totally convinced but it was fun to see what it would say. I thought Kiki would be a perfect mix and Hayley on Jeff's side by like 100%. Anyway, looks like Kyrsten is more Jeff by a whole 8%. Love the percentages they give you. Enjoy!

A perfect mix

I totally thought it would lean way to Jeff's side. Maybe Hayley has some of me after all. I still think she looks all Mitchell!