October Newsletter & Slideshow

Enjoy!

FAMILY:  On October 5, we headed up North for some fun with family & friends. See this post for more details :) On the 13^th, we headed to New Harmony for the apple festival! We enjoyed eating Navajo Tacos, playing on the bounce house, visiting the booths, and (of course!) getting some yummy apples & apple cider. Grandma Tew & Donna stopped by on their way to St. George & we showed them our home & gave them some of the yummy cider. It was good to see them! On the 18^th, the Hamiltons stopped by to see us on their way up north. We met at Discovery Park & ate lunch and enjoyed the beautiful morning. That evening we had a baby shower at our home hosted by Jen Strand. Heather Johnson, Elise Dixon, Lisa Anderson, & Diane Bealer came – and Kim & DeeAnn drove from Richfield to come, too. It was a lot of fun. Good food & wonderful gifts. Thank you!! On the 20^th, Jason took the girls swimming at the Aquatic Center while Heidi took pictures J They had a great time. That night we had dinner @ the Bealers & enjoyed our good friends. The 21^st we used the pumpkins & felt kits that Grandma Devenish brought us & had fun decorating pumpkins. The morning of the 22^nd, Jason took the girls fishing at the lake at the hills. McKinley caught 6 fish! The 23^rd-26^th was red ribbon week at South Elementary, so the girls had fun with backwards day, crazy hair day, PJ day, and crazy sock day. They also had some fun activities & assemblies that week! The 26^th was Kezia’s birthday – Happy #3 Kezi-boo! On the morning of the 27^th, we went to the Livestock Festival Parade on main street. We saw lots of trailers, horses, trucks, and sheep! It was a lot of fun. Afterwards, we headed over to the East Elementary Halloween Carnival that our friend Jen was in charge of. The girls were in their costumes & had fun going on the bounce houses, eating popcorn & cotton candy, playing games, and getting a balloon animal. McKinley also had fun seeing her teacher Mrs. Jones & a few classmates from last year. On the 29^th, for FHE, we carved our pumpkins. Kezia’s was a kitten, McKinley’s was Frankenstein & Ireland’s was just a really scary face! Halloween was on Wednesday this year & the girls got to go to a party at the church where they had a dinner, some goodies, dancing, and fun. Then, it was off to go trick-or-treating with daddy, who wasn’t feeling very good L We sure had a LOT of trick-or-treaters this year! We bought 6 bags of candy & it was all gone before 8pm! The girls got lots of candy, too. It was a warm year for trick-or-treating!

 JASON: Jason was able to work in SLC when we were there at the beginning of the month, so thankfully he didn’t have to take time  off. He enjoyed meeting some people up there & even did an impromptu training for them. He enjoyed his time fishing with Joseph & catching those catfish J He also had fun on the 27^th when he went with Adam Bealer to the SUU game. He said it was a lot of fun & a really close game. Jason was so good to spend time with the girls this month - especially since Heidi wasn't feeling up to a lot. He took them fishing & swimming and made a robot with McKinley. Jason was sick for some of the month. A couple days he had a really bad sinus headache & then at the end of the month he caught a really bad strain of strep throat. He had fever, chills, vomiting & a really sore throat. He was able to get to the doctor & get a shot & was feeling better within a couple days, thankfully.

 HEIDI: Heidi could not be happier that October is done & is looking forward to having this baby in November! Everything is 10x  harder to do with a huge belly, numb hands, aching hips & minimal sleep. She is thankful for the 2 baby showers that were given for her & the new little one. The wonderful gifts included a car seat, a nursery set, handmade blankets, adorable clothes, a diaper bag, diapers, wipes, and everything in-between. We are so blessed to have such giving, amazing family & friends! Heidi has worked this month to get the nursery ready, wash the clothes, get the hospital bag ready, etc. She’s feeling pretty ready to get this baby boy here! She’s thankful for the distractions this month, including all the activities up north & things going on around Cedar. She also read part of Redeemed (before she left it at the Potts) Breaking Night & is almost done with Goose Girl. She also enjoyed a night with the Relief Society making a wreath & eating yummy food.

McKINLEY:

-Mom met with Mrs. Robb for parent-teacher conferences this week & McKinley is doing great! She had lots of fun books that she made to take home & show us.

-McKinley asked one day “Mom – which one is my sweet tooth?”

-McKinley has been super-creative this month – especially on Sundays when we’re home most of the day. One Sunday, she made a flag and a container for dad to draw names to say prayers. Another Sunday, she & dad worked on a really cute, creative robot made out of the car seat box and another box. It was REALLY cute! She also wanted to make a tent in her room, so we helped put a sheet over the top of the 4-poster bed. McKinley said “We should TOTALLY put this on pinterest!”

-McKinley brought home her 1^st quarter report card. It looks awesome. Mrs. Robb put in the comments: “McKinley is a fine reader and writer, She is an exceptional student J” We’re so proud of you McKinley!!
-McKinley was so cute & wanted to help with the baby shower. She helped clean up & even made signs to hang up – pictures of mom’s big belly & pictures of her new baby brother.
-McKinley originally wanted to be the fairy godmother from Cinderella for Halloween, but mom couldn’t find a good costume, so she settled for being a wizard. She sure made a cute one! And she had fun trick-or-treating for about 3 hours on Halloween – including walking around with her friend, Brenna.

IRELAND:

 -Mom was scraping behind Ireland’s ears. Ireland asked what she was doing. Mom said “scraping the crust from behind your ears.” Ireland said “Yeah… it’s pizza crust.”
-Mom asked if one of her friends was being nice to her other friend. Ireland said “Yeah – he didn’t kill her life or anything.”
-Ireland has really mastered the monkey bars this month & has the calluses to prove it. They keep ripping & bleeding & we tell her to take a break once in a while!
-Ireland is still loving Kindergarten. Her teacher (Mrs. Ekker) says she loves having Ireland in her class.
-When we stayed with the Bensons at the beginning of the month, Ireland’s friend, Sienna, had a supergirl costume that Ireland LOVED & wanted to wear all the time, so she decided that’s what she wanted to be this year. We found the perfect one at Kid 2 Kid & she made an adorable supergirl. Mom brought treats to her class the morning of Halloween for her party. She came back from trick-or-treating after only about a half-hour. Mom asked why she was done so soon & she just said she didn’t want to eat too many candies or she’d have a tummy ache! She was mom’s helper after that – giving people candy.

KEZIA

-One night during her prayers, Kezia said “and please help our little guy to come out.”

-Kezia was a bit confused about all her early birthday parties. Mom asked her one day how old she was & she said “I’m 2, but I got 3 at grandma’s house.”

-One day Kezia said “that baby is trying to get outta your belly button!”

-When the sacrament bread came to us, Kezia said (rather loudly) “Wait! I get 2 cuz I’m 2!”

-Kezia turned 3 on the 26^th! We woke her up with a happy birthday song, but she was SO grouchy! She kept saying “It’s NOT my birthday! My birthday is at Logan’s house!” or “my birthday is at Addison’s house!” She wouldn’t let us sing and she didn’t want to push the button on the happy birthday dog & she wouldn’t “break through” her happy birthday ribbon. It took mom saying “Kezia, there are presents to open & one of them might have CANDY in it” in order for her to perk up & get up. After we kept telling her it was October 26^th & it was her REAL birthday, she finally warmed up to the idea & had fun eating her birthday pancakes, finding presents, eating her candy (that’s what she was MOST excited about J, and enjoying the day. She chose to have princess spaghetti o’s for lunch & corn dogs for dinner. Some fun gifts she got were: candy, a 3D picture viewer, Dora wondercolor book & markers, Dora outfit from Grandma Devenish, a wand & book, a gumball machine, etc. We had cake & ice cream that night. Happy #3 Kezi-boo!

-The night of her birthday, mom & dad stayed up a bit late with Kezia, telling her how special she is & how thankful we are that she has come to our family. We asked her if she knew that she came from Jesus. She said “Yeah – Jesus threw me down to you!”
-Everything that happened in the past is “last night” to Kezi – even if it happened during the day – or a month ago.

-Kezia is a tissue snob. She will NOT use toilet paper to blow her nose. She says TP is for her bum & tissues are for her nose!

-She likes to pick her clothes & not only do the pants & shirt need to match, but they both need to match her panties as well.

-Kezia was a pumpkin this year for Halloween. She matched her mamma, but WAYYY cuter! She had fun trick-or-treating & got LOTS of candy!