Mommy and Daddy

My mom and dad came to visit last week. We had a great time with them. My brother Scott is buying a house and they came to help clean the house and get them packed up. The house has great potential and they got an amazing deal on it, but as you can see it needs new carpet, paint and LOTS of cleaning.

John was scraping ceilings...

We spent many hours just cleaning the kitchen! It was sick. I think they had food fights or something... food all over the walls.

After a few days of working, we did have some fun.

My dad was addicted to the Wii... it was so funny.

As you can see in the picture,

he and Mitchell are bowling.

Mom loved the warmer weather and spent time outside reading a book.

Scott and Jenn came over Sunday and it was Afton's 8 month b-day, so they took some pictures.

My mom LOVES the fountains at the Belagio... so of course she made a trip down there!

I Love my mom and dad and love it when they visit!!

Home...

There is always something wonderful about returning home after you have been away. I love my family and love my house... it is HOME. I had a interesting string of thoughts about "home" while I was at church on Sunday. I was sitting in my old ward looking around at familiar faces and was feeling a little homesick for my old home... then I was sitting in Relief Society singing the opening hymn and it took me to Camp Stimson, sitting in the amphitheater with all of my YW and all of my friends in Vegas and I got this overwhelming feeling of peace. It was a little reminder that home is where my family is and Vegas is home. I LOVE our ward and stake and all the friends that have come into my life here! Isn't life wonderful! It takes us so many places and we get to have amazing experiences and friends all along the way!

Girls weekend...

I am up in Spokane hanging with great friends. Last night was my friend Megan's 13th annual Christmas card party. I have been to about 10 of them and look forward to it every year. What could be more fun than staying up late talking, eating, laughing, catching up and crafting with wonderful friends?

Michelle, Jenna and Christine working hard...

Mindy and Michelle relaxing... (Mindy came from utah)

Lots of yummy food to eat...

Whitney, Cory, Stacy and I

Heather, Stacy and Heidi

Sheryl & I

Megan, Mindy and Kerry

I feel so blessed that everywhere I have lived, I have always been able to make good friends. And I love that we have moved around a bit so I have lots of great friends! When I think of the different cities we have lived in, I don't always think of the house we had, but the friends that I had when I lived there. As I sat at the party last night and looked at all of these ladies, I thought about how they had all been a part of my life when we lived there for 7 years. One was a counselor when I was yw's president, several of us did "joy school" with our little boys, one was my boss and great friend, 3 of us were pregnant at the same time, one made applesauce and canned peaches with me, one swapped baby-sitting all the time, one was very sick when she was pregnant and I remember cleaning her house and I hardly knew her at the time, one had the most beautiful voice and touched my heart with her talent, one hosted our going away party, one had us over for Christmas dinner, one is married to a guy who served a mission with my brother John and so much more! All of them will always have a special spot in my heart. I often talk about missing the beauty of the northwest, but it's the people that I miss the most... so glad I got to spend a few days with these great ladies.

Sweet 16

How could this cute little baby be 16?? I'm not sure how it happened so fast, but it is true... he turned 16 yesterday. Mitchell has been such a wonderful son. He was a great baby and a mischievous toddler, a fun little boy and a now he is a great teenager! We love our Mitchell! I scanned a few pictures of him to share with you... they each show a characteristic of him that we LOVE!

SO HANDSOME! His blessing day...

LOVING: Cute big sister and baby boy!

ALL BOY! Like I said, he was a mischievous little boy! He loved getting into things! I had to get a lock for my fridge... he would go in the kitchen and dump things on the floor! like eggs... (you got to love pictures like this where the background tells so many stories... an unmade bed... 80's wallpaper, a wreath that i made out of dried roses, our very first computer we bought, it was a color mac classic! We saved up for that for a long time! Look how small the screen is... pictures tell a lot of stories!)

FASHION: He has always been our fashion boy... he used to wear khakis and collared shirts everyday in elementary school. I don't think he wore jeans and t-shirts till a couple years ago!

DETERMINED! He spent hours spear fishing in Hawaii! He was determined

to catch a fish and he did!

ATHLETIC AND CHARMING! He is great at sports and the girls love him.

He is the only boy his age in our ward, so his best friends are the girls... (i picked him up from school yesterday and he had a cake, cupcakes, a balloon and a crown that different girls had given him)

TALENTED: He is very musically talented! He loves his guitars and plays them so well! Hopefully someday he will sing again... he used to sing as a little boy... but now he is too shy... Once in a while I stand outside his room and listen to him sing to his guitar... he's great. I probably shouldn't write that or he will stop doing it...

He wanted to go to Chili's for his b-day dinner! It was yummy.

We Love that cake, it was gone in seconds!

Happy birthday Mitchell!! We love you so much!! Thanks for being such a good boy!

Halloween Activities

In case you are wondering, I never put up any Halloween decorations and think this is the first year in my life that i didn't carve a pumpkin... I feel a little guilty about that one. John says that is like having Christmas without a Christmas tree! In spite of the lack of pre-halloween spirit, we did have a fun dressing up and trick or treating...

A few days before halloween, John and I went to a really fun murder mystery party. John was told to dress up like a ware-wolf and I was a grim reaper. We went all out on the costumes and had a great time. It was a bit of a challenge getting the hair off of John's face... I didn't read the instructions for the adhesive very well, it said, "remover not included." oops...

We took advantage of the 4 day weekend (Nevada day and teacher inservice day) and headed up to Provo. We picked up Ashley and headed to my sisters house for dinner and games.

Can you guess what Mitchell was acting out in charades??

Cindy made delicious caramel apples!

On Saturday we drove up to Todd's house so Tanner could go trick or treating with the kids... he had fun chillin on the guitar...

Ashley and baby Justin

The Westra's and Tanner all ready to party! Dallin blended in with Tanner... oops.

On Sunday we went up to Temple Square to entertain Todd's kids while he and Sharolyn went to a special meeting for Salt Lake temple workers. President Uchdorf spoke to them! Pretty lucky. We had a good time looking around with the kids. Grandma and Grandpa were so cute... they need to go on another mission there!

Todd's girls LOVE Mitchell. they would walk around holding his hands! Then Mitchell had his backpack with all of his halloween candy in it!! He couldn't say no to them...

One of my dad's beautiful pictures of the temple!

We got to go in Ashley's room during visiting hours on Sunday. it was good for the boys to see where she was... Ashley treated us to a few meals while we were there. She had $100 on her dining plus meal plan that she needed to use. (you loose it if you go over $100) We got it down to $18! We ate good!

It was great to spend the weekend with family! We love them all! Especially this cute girl! We will see her in a few weeks for Thanksgiving!

Halloween Scrooge??

Is there such a thing as the Halloween Scrooge?? I feel like one this year and I can't figure out why?? I don't have any decorations up and I have no desire to get them up. Well, maybe a little desire. I have a few excuses running in my head as to why I haven't gotten them out...

1. They are stored under my stairs and it is quite an ordeal to get them out. If I attempt this task, then I would have to open the closet door and take everything out to get to the secret passage under the stairs and it is a HUGE mess in there. I would take a picture to prove it, but then you would judge me a a really messy person. There are full backpacks from the end of school last year in there... just to give one example of what is hiding in that closet. So, until I have few hours to organize it right, I don't feel like going in there.

2. I am trying really hard to eat good. I have been going back to Weight Watchers and I have lost 8 pounds since summer... but I have a LONG way to go and the thought of Halloween makes me hungry and probably adds 5 pounds just thinking of the yummy candy! I LOVE HALLOWEEN CANDY. The thought of trick or treating gets me excited and takes me back to my childhood when we would go out the door the minute dinner was done and we wouldn't come back until we hit the whole neighborhood. I lived in a big neighborhood! When we got home, I would sort my candy and count how many Reeses i got and give my parents all the Almond Joys and Mounds bars. I could write a whole post on my thought process of eating what candy first and how much I enjoy each kind of candy, but i will spare you and one of these days I am going to make a candy scrapbook with all my crazy reasons why I love certain candies. So, back to my original point of not decorating, I am worried that if I have Halloween decorations up, i just might stop at Target and buy halloween candy to put around the house and then I will be in trouble... so, out of sight, out of mind is working right now.

3. We aren't even going to be home for Halloween, so why decorate. We are headed to Utah for Nevada Day.

So, until I get a burst of energy or some will power to stay away from candy in my house, I just might leave it all in the closet.

Little visitors...

We watched 3 of the cutest kids last week! John's sister Edie dropped off her 3 kids on Wednesday and picked them up on Sunday. It was a bit of an adjustment getting used to diapers, nap time, car seats, high chairs, baby food, bottles, gates, watching the movie Cars 100 times and sippy cups all over again... but we enjoyed it! The kids were SO GOOD! They slept through the night and took great naps... what more can you ask for??

I took them to 2 of Mitchell's soccer games... I know it was brave of me. The first one was at Clark and I had Tanner and Grandma to help... so things went really smooth. The second one was WAY out at Desert Oasis and I managed that one alone! We had a movie for the car and lots of snacks and drinks. The boys loved watching the ball go back and forth and I taught Carter how to say "Go Bonanza!" (we won both games!)

Cienna and Caden watching the game.

( I had to call Edie to have her tell me how to shut that huge stroller... I felt stupid!)

Tanner and Carter getting a snack...

Carter and I... Grandma Barnes in the background... (She was at Edie's, so she came up to Vegas and she flew home on Thursday from here.)

Cienna in a sea of toys.. but notice that she has the remote!

On Friday morning we joined the young moms in the

ward at the park... I am sure that they see me as an old lady, but I still feel

like I am their age... It was fun to hang with them!

Our secret to an early bedtime was wearing them out on the trampoline! They loved it!

Cienna wasn't scared at all! She crawled all over and didn't mind when the boys

ran into her or bounced her over!

It was great to get to know our cute little niece and nephews better and give Edie a little break. (her husband is up in Wyoming working...) I will miss them this week! They kept me busy that's for sure. I will miss Cienna cuddling with me when she wakes up and I will miss Caden trying to say new words... he loved calling Mitchell's name! and I will miss Carter playing with his little train set! We love you guys!!