New picture

This post is so I can show mom where I put the picture she let me take. I've known this picture my whole life. It's nostalgic but I didn't appreciate it until recently.

Marta's new baby is SO CUTE!

We LOVED Marta's new little baby girl. Ava. Her first child. She is just 3 weeks old I think. I got to bottle feed her and I loved it! Sweet, sweet, sweet. The kids really loved her and wanted to hold her and Laci followed her around.

Awards ceremony for PTA Relfections Art Contest

I would've labeled this post, "Brigham's Major Award", but it would be unfair to Laci who recieved a certificate of participation. Brigham won 1st place in his age division for visual arts. He won a trophy which was no doubt one of the most exciting moments of his life thus far. Brigham had just told me the night before that he wanted to win a trophy so bad. He had no idea it would happen the next day. He's just had this child-like obsession with wanting to win something. It stems from the fact that Nephi often comes home from races with all sorts of awards including trophies and it's made Brigham for some victory in something....anything. The picture above is my favorite. It shows Brigham after he recieved the award and he can hardly contain himself. It was so fun to see him that excited.
Brigham's artwork goes to the next level for judging now. Eventually we'll know how that goes I guess.
Laci is on the front row wearing the polka dots. She won a certificate of participation. Laci could almost not have cared less. I pretty much had to force her to enter the contest in the first place and she was not jealous AT ALL when he placed higher. They are so different. :) I was proud and excited for just the same though.

Trick or Treat!

Ready to head out....
Regarding the costumes: I didn't want to fork out the money to buy expensive costumes. Also, the kids have dress ups at home so I had an idea. I told the kids weeks ago that they had the option to wear stuff that they had around the house already and I would pay them $4 each. They thought it was the greatest thing I'd said in a long time. So I pay them $4 bucks, but I'm saving at least $30 bucks! Genius, heh?! P.s. if you can't tell, Brigham was a ninja and Laci was a fairy!
Brigham sorting all of his candy afterwards. Check out the amount of candybars!! When I was a kid we were lucky to get 2 or 3 minis and now it's all they get! He even recieved two full size. Who in their right mind would buy a case of full size candy bars to hand out to strangers?

Before and After bathroom remodel

This is my master bath" before the remodel. It's a really cramped space with original tiled countertop and badly (my fault) re-glazed (originally baby blue) sink. The original (1969) tiled shower is a cave. The grout was really stained when we moved in. I previously regrouted over the top to give it a fresh look and the new grout is beginning to peel off. The pergo floor has gaps in the boards allowing water to seep through and the shower threshold has gaps in the grout that had let water seep through for who knows how long.......

The old tired sink.

Redone!!! It's still a small bathroom of course but we had the shower wall taken out so now it's a nice big shower with a more open feel. I shopped for very contemporary tile and I really like this. The pictures really don't do the bathroom justice. The porcelain shower tiles have almost a grass like pattern. Very zen I suppose. The floor tiles are called "Urban steel" and they have a bit of a metallic feel and sheen. Very cool. I purposely bought a vanity that wasn't as deep to give a little more floor space and we got a taller toilet. It goes out into the space more than I'd hoped but there's no way to take away the fact that it is simply a small bathroom. I think this is a real improvement over the old. I can see in the picture that the tile still needs to be wiped down more and I'll be sealing the grout in the next couple days.

Magic on a Saturday afternoon

Laci refusing to come down for a while. She was nervous! I convinced her to come sit and we would go stand away as soon as it got scary.

The magician in the guillotuine. I seriously wonder how dangerous this really was. It felt pretty lame when it was all said and done, but Brigham and Laci bought the danger of it.

Just a few people gathered at the Ogden ampitheater downtown to see the magician do a few tricks. More people did come as the show started. This was a real low key performance. The magician was celebrating Houdinis birthday and I guess all magicians in their national organization are supposed to perform an escape that day to honor the memory of Houdini. Nephi was gone at a race so this was a fun little distraction.

Laci's Halloween party

(The photo comments are publishing all wierd so for whatever reason they're all stacked at the end of the photos)

This litte girl, Lexi has this obsession with wrestling Brigham to the ground. Luckily he likes a good wrestle because she was relentless!

Oh....so cute! I had made Halloween cupcakes for Brigham's party then froze some for Laci's party the week after but when I tried them they were gross...did not freeze well. So off to the store for treats. The kids are clearly easy to please. They all thought push pops were awesome. Some of them were seeing them for the first time. I thought EVERY kid knew what a push pop was.




The girls doing their crafts. They painted unicorns and rainbows. How fitting, huh? This little girl in the front is only 3 years old. Her older sister is Laci's friend and feels sad that she gets left out of things, so we invite her along to anything. So cute!

This party was another success! I'm not going to lie. I patted myself on the back after pulling off two Halloween parties for my kids. I hope they remember that I really try.

Brigham's Halloween Party

Lots of Wild fun.
Afterwards my kids said they'd had a good time and I think all the friends went home happy so it was a success!































Our crafts. The kids painted monster figures and made "smores" Frankensteins and Draculas. The boys were so funny. They literally entertained themselves spontaneously. As they painted they took turns standing in front of everyone and retold their favorite Halloween story. Really, they were giving us blow by blow accounts of their favorite cartoons! Hilarious!