Scarecrow Festival!!

Trip to Utah!

While Kollan went to a Conference in Anaheim, I drove the boys to Utah, and we had way too much fun! We stayed with Grandma Bell which is always lots of fun- painting pumpkins, reading stories, and playing games. We also got to go to the Scarcrow Festival at Thanksgiving point (next post) with Grandma Arritt and Aunt Kelsie, plus see lots of other family and friends!! What a great time! This third picture is outside of Los Hermanos (yum!) where we went with my friends from college who I miss so much- it's a picture of Karter with Taya, who he loved to play with. The first two pictures are at Chuck-E-Cheese! We went there for lunch one day with Aunt Kelsie, and Karter had a blast! I could say that he was very spoiled this trip, but the truth is- we all were. It was great!

Tagged

5 things I was doing 10 years ago

1. I think I was a Sophomore
2. Piano Lessons
3. Drivers Ed
4. Orem High Lacrosse!
5. Lots of art classes

5 things on my to do list today

1. Laundry
2. Find a Batman Costume
3. Clean
4. Library Storytime
5. vacuum

5 snacks I enjoy

1. chips and salsa
2. chips and cheese dip
3. chips and guacamole
4. doritos and cottage cheese
5. let's just say, I like snacks involving chips

5 things I'd do if I were a millionare

1. Help those less fortunate
2. Travel
3. buy an awesome house close to family
4. Take lessons (dance, guitar, painting, etc)
5. Hire a chef!

5 places I've lived

1. Utah (orem, american fork, lindon, taylorsville)
2. Idaho (rexburg)
3. Oregon (banks, cornelius)
4. Washington (steilacoom)
5. Wyoming (cheyenne)

5 jobs I've had

1. maniquin cleaner for American Red Cross
2. KFC
3. Kinderland Day Care (best job EVER!)
4. Western Watts (surveys)
5. Target

5 people I tag

1. Katie Bell
2. Rachel Loser
3. Rachel Watson
4. Sarah Pacheco
5. Cali Hawkins

Rules: Each player answers the question themselves. At the end of the post the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and leaves them a comment letting them know that they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person that tagged you know when you’ve answered the questions on your blog.

Something good about the cold

So, as the weather starts getting colder I've felt the dread of winter approaching. Last winter was just so cold and WINDY that I didn't feel like I could ever go outside. But I've decided to try for a better attitude, and Elder Worthlin's conference talk keeps coming to mind- "Come what may and love it." It's going to be cold and it's going to be windy and there's nothing I can do to change that, so why complain right? So I decided that I'd try to post some good things about the cold every once in a while.
Today- it's hats. I just love my little guys in their cute winter hats. And they couldn't wear those cute hats if it were summer, right? Right!

So, this post is very late. Kollan and I celebrated our 6th anniversary back in August, but I figured I haven't posted anything for a while, so why not? Pictures without our kids in them are pretty rare these days. Let's face it, pictures of Karter and Ty are just more fun and much cuter. But Karter did take this picture and I thought he did a great job. It was shot right before we went out on our date (those are also pretty rare these days so I'd better document it, right?). We had a great time and I'd like to publicly say how much I love Kollan- he's the best and I feel like the luckiest girl ever!

Learning and Growing

So last Saturday I thought, Ty sure has crawling down- maybe we should lower his crib matress because it probably won't be too long before he can pull himself up to stand. Well that same day, Kollan put the mattress lower and that same day while Ty was playing in his crib with some toys, I hear him laughing and I couldn't believe my eyes. I ran down to grab my camera so that I could capture his first time pulling up to stand- he was just so excited and proud about what he could do. I guess I just wasn't expecting this so soon because Karter was just learning to crawl at 9 months, and now Ty wants to stand all the time and seems determined to walk before long. Anyway, this first picture of him sitting I included because it's just so cute, and this last picture I posted because I think it's a fun picture of the three of us laughing. I also put a picture of Karter and Ty because whenever I get ready for the day, I put Ty in his crib with toys, but it seems that Karter's his favorite entertainment- they are so funny together and Karter can always make Ty laugh. He's a great brother and I want to remember these times when he plays with Ty in the crib.

Stay this age!

I know I'm his mom, but Ty is the cutest little thing ever, and I just don't want him to grow up! I say something along the lines of, "He's just so darn cute!" atleast 10 times each day. I know that it's because he's such a good baby- constantly happy, so we get to see his cute smile and hear his adorable laugh all the time. If we start laughing, than he will too. I tried to capture a bit of his laugh on this video. Ty is almost 9 months and he loves to crawl everywhere and follow everyone. Kollan and I feel very blessed to have such great boys.

Karter starts Preschool!

So, Karter started preschool yesterday (today was day #2) and he loves it! As you can tell from picture #2, he ran inside very quickly and didn't even wait for a goodbye before he was playing with friends and talking to his teachers. I'm glad that he transitions so smoothly. I am a bit sad though that he's growing up so quickly and that this is the start of school forever! But for now it's only 2 1/2 hours, three days a week- and I can admit that that amount of time away is actually a bit nice for both of us.

Why didn't I have my video camera!!!!

Our son Karter is the cutest little comedian!! This was proven once when he got ahold of a microphone at a family reunion, but he passed the ultimate test today when he got on stage in front of at least a thousand people! I couldn't believe how great he was. We were at Frontiercade here on base, which is a family event where the whole base hangs out all day doing races, sporting events, picnic and etc. After a big talent show they announced Karter as a 4 year old comedian and he started out, "Is everybody having a great time?!!" Then proceeded to tell his 3 jokes: starting with, "If you're American in the living room, what are you in the bathroom? (European!) Why did the bannana go to the doctor? (Because he wasn't peeling so well) What do you get if you cross an elephant with a rhino? (Elephino!)" The audience was eating out of his hands!! Everyone was laughing and he got so many high fives afterward- he loved it! I think I had a bit of stage fright kneeling behind the speakers, but he seemed comfortable in from of such a large audience. So, I repeat the title of this blog- WHY DIDN'T I HAVE MY VIDEO CAMERA!

Dallas Texas!!

Even though it was WAY TOO HOT, we loved our trip to Dallas to see my brother and his family, and my sister and her family! The only thing that would have been better was if Kollan could have come. Karter, Ty and I traveled by car, bus, train and plane to see our family! We started out by driving to Denver and taking a shuttle bus to the airport where we met up with GRANDMA Bell!! We rode a train to our gate, then we all flew to Dallas where we spent the week having a blast with family. Some of our activities included: swimming, waterballoon fight, splash factory, the movie Wall-E, the "Breaking Dawn" release party at the library, driving the Hot Wheels Escalade, playing "kitchen", playing Bingo for prizes, fun games of Pictionary and Cranium, and an awesome SPAT (card game) tournament. We loved spending time with Grandma, Aunts and Uncles and cousins.

Cheyenne Frontier Days

Here's a few pics from Frontier Days, which is Cheyenne's big annual celebration featuring huge rodeos and concerts. We just enjoyed walking around, riding some rides, and exploring the Indian village (where Karter got a chance to dance with some of the Navajo dancers).

Happy Birthday Karter!

On Tuesday (15th) Karter turned 4 years old! Wow! Time really flies. I found out how easy he is to please when I asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday and he told me, "I just want a cake.... and we could go for a walk!! That would be fun!" He ended up having a friend over for the day, and then we watched Daddy play softball, ate his favorite- pizza, and had a Blues Clues cake. Then, he was spoiled with presents (thank you grandparents- he loves everything!).
Karter's such a sweet boy and Kollan and I are so grateful for him. He constantly makes me laugh. Like when a couple ladies from primary told me that they had been missing the child who was going to give the talk that day so they asked for a volunteer to give a talk. Of course Karter volunteered and went up to the little podium, where he started out, "IS EVERYONE HAVING A GREAT TIME?"
He loves to entertain whether it's telling his jokes, or singing and dancing. I'm amazed by how many songs he knows in primary or singing along to the radio. His favorite right now is Called to Serve, which he sings both verses to. I'm sure I could brag about him all day long, but I'll just end by saying that he is a great brother to Ty, a good friend, a sweet and wonderful son, and so smart and very creative. He's excited to be 4 (in fact, as I was just typing this he told me, "I'm 4 now! I'm so close to being a grown-up!).

Independence Day!

We had a great Fourth of July at Gma and Gpa Arritt's house. The day started with a great parade which both Karter and Ty really enjoyed, but I included a picture of Karter holding his ears because he did think it was very loud. We had fireworks at Gma and Gpa Maxwell's house and a picnic with lots of other family in between. Overall we had such a great vacation at the cabin and in Burley- it was sad to go home.

The Cabin at Island Park

I love summer vacation! It always goes by way too fast and makes you feel sad when it's over, but it sure was great! We drove up near Yellowstone to Island Park where we had an Arritt family reunion. We spent some time in West Yellowstone and also fed some bread to some really big fish (while some mosquitos fed on us), but we especially loved just being with family. Karter discovered he has a fun little 2nd cousin named Addie who he loved to play with, and we had our annual bean bag tournament, which Kollan's team took 3rd, and I think mine was tied for last- but who's keeping track right?

Great-grandparents

I love it when we can see family, and we are so blessed that our kids have such wonderful grandparents and great-grandparents.
Grandpa and Grandma Maxwell stopped in Cheyenne to visit during their roadtrip to Nebraska and we got to go see Grandpa and Grandma Arritt in Island Park last week. What great great-grandparents!