October was a fun month! I got to attend the HypnoBirthing Conclave (conference) and meet Mickey Mongan for the first time. They asked me to sing an opening number, too! I sang “Ordinary Miracles” by Barbara Streisand. I guess I did okay, but I messed up the words a bit. People were so sweet and complimented me on my singing, and one lady even asked me if I had any CDs she could buy! Haha! Anyway, I drove down with one other Utah practitioner and left Nathan with the kids. They had some fun while I was gone:

Hiking Payson mountain, or as Kaisa call it, "the mountain with p on it."

Driving up to Squaw Peak to see the city lights.

And what October blog post would be complete without Halloween pictures?

Dilbert costume

Nathan was Dilbert. We worked on the costume together and it took us a couple of hours. We used mostly felt, foam, and spray adhesive. I did a little stitching on the nose. We found the tutorial here. It was a big hit at the office! He couldn’t really see with it on, though.

Fireman, Darth Vader, and Mermaid

Everett was a fireman. Grandma got him the jacket, I borrowed the hat from a friend, and the pants came from his drawer. Everett was Darth Vader. The suit is from a costume I scored for $5–it is the death star storm trooper. It has a different mask, so when Everett said he wanted to be Vader, I just ordered the mast from Amazon for $5. The cape is actually from his Batman birthday party. Kaisa said she wanted to be a mermaid and I pondered sewing her a costume. Then I saw this one at Costco for $18 and couldn’t say no.

Cat Woman

I threw this Cat Woman costume together at the last minute. Black shirt, leggings, and belt from my closet and a mask cut out of felt. Found the mask pattern online here. Total spent on my costume: $0. Total spent on the kids costumes: $30. Total spent on Nathan’s costume: $40. I win!

Trying to trick-or-treat with Harrison was a nightmare. He wanted to walk, but when I would put him down, he would just take off running. Also, he wouldn’t put the candy in the bucket. He wanted me to open every piece so he could eat it. When I would put it in his bucket, he would scream. Needless to say, that didn’t last long. I took him back to Nathan and went trick-or-treating with just Kaisa and Everett.

Paisley the Fairy

My sister also came trick-or-treating with us and brought her cute little girl, Paisley. She was such a cute fairy!

There were two exciting events that happened in September: my sister Bonnie got married, and Everett started preschool! We traveled to Arizona on Labor Day weekend for the wedding. It was SWELTERING but we endured it and were so glad to be there in the temple with Tom and Bonnie! It was a long road for them and they deserved the wonderful weekend they had. Tender mercy: despite getting a slow start and having battery troubles on the way down, we made it to the temple just in time for Bonnie’s endowment session. Yay! Here are a few pictures from the weekend:

She had a "Vintage" theme, and the decorator did an AMAZING job. Everything looked so perfect!

LOVED this birdcage! I helped make some of the pinwheels. She had bottled soda with paper straws in her wedding colors.

Each table was unique, but it all tied together well. This was another one of my favorite centerpieces.

Great little photo area. I meant to get a pic with Nathan here, but never did. :(

The cake!

This ice cream bar was TO. DIE. FOR. The cute guys in paper hats and bow ties were the perfect touch.

SISTERS!

Bride and Groom

I think this is my favorite pic of the night...

So happy for Bonnie and Tom! They make such a cute couple. Yay for temple marriage!

Everett started preschool the week after we got home. He had been attended a couple of little classes with Kaisa over the summer, but this was his first “official” day of preschool. He was really excited and it was an easy transition since he already knew all of the teachers. He is attending at Kids on the Move with many of the same teachers Kaisa had, including Miss Brittanie and Mr. Matt.

In front of his classroom!

The rest of September was pretty chill. It was a month of figuring out my new normal with my life revolving around school schedules. I feel like I am constantly dropping kids off and picking them up from school, but it’s actually been great. I like having a more structured morning routine. I have two whole hours on Tuesday and Thursday with only one kid, so I run most of my errands during that time. I exercise at the gym most mornings, too. Then we come home, have lunch, and Harrison takes a nap while the other two get their jobs done and play. I usually work a little in the afternoon. I’m realizing that the next 20+ years of my life are going to be spent working around my kids’ school schedules. It’s pretty crazy, but good.

I seriously never thought this day would come, and all of a sudden it was upon me. My baby started kindergarten this fall! Incredible. She was SO excited and ran right into class. No separation anxiety here! Well, at least not from Kaisa. I had a couple tears, but overall I was excited too. She’s just growing too fast.

School: Orem Elementary. Teacher: Miss Robinson.

After our fun trip to California, we enjoyed the rest of our summer at home doing some fun things. Here are a few pics of the rest of our summer.

One day I decided to take the kids to a splash pad. They had been begging me for a long time. I got everyone dressed and went outside to find that it was raining! So…we decided to stay home and play in the rain, instead!

We also went to the Scottish Festival in Payson.

Loved this guy dressed in the traditional kilt stopping at the ATM!

We got some cream soda in this really cool bottle. Harrison kept trying to figure out how to get a drink.

Harrison loves his grandma!

Everett loved riding on grandpa's shoulders!

Kaisa had her dance recital at the end of the month. She attended classes at the Orem Fitness Center for the third summer in a row and loved it! This time, she took a ballet class.

At the end of July, grandma Wendy cam to visit! We had all kinds of fun, including a trip to Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon. Oh, and I chopped my hair off. :)

Spelunking

Gorgeous!

In August, uncle Matt (Nathan’s little brother) came home from his mission to Chile! Here are some pics from the airport:

We bought the kids some Chile flags to wave!

So excited to meet his uncle for the first time!

We made signs too!

There was quite a crowd of people waiting for missionaries that day! They were just starting down the escalator when this picture was taken.

There's Uncle Matt!!!

First hug goes to mom, of course!

Uncle Matt and Harrison meet for the first time.

So good to be home!

All in all, it was a great summer!

On July 7th we decided to go to Balboa Park and visit the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center. They had a lot of cool exhibits for the kids as well as a place called “Kid City” which is a lot like the Discovery Gateway museum in SLC. The kids loved it and we spent a lot of time there. After the museum, we headed over to a nearby park for lunch and played. We also walked around Balboa Park a bit.

That afternoon took a turn for the worse when my phone went missing. As it turns out, I had set it in the stroller and when Nathan folded the stroller and put it in the van, my phone fell onto the road. He didn’t notice it. I backed over it with the van. The guy who took our spot picked it up. We could see it on the GPS so we knew it was in his car. Nathan waited for him to come back to his car while I took the kids back into the museum. The screen was shattered, but it still worked! I had wanted to take the kids to the beach at sunset since it was our last night of vacation, but since it took so long to get my phone back, we just ran to the store to get some dinner and headed back to the hotel. Not a very exciting ending to our vacation, but I did get to take the kids swimming again. Here are some pictures from the day.

Their featured exhibit was called "Grossology" and was all about gross stuff like vomit, zits, and snot. I know, weird, right? The kids got a kick out of it, though!

Entering Kid City. Population: way too many little kids. Just kidding! It was actually not too crowded.

Playing in the ball area

Kaisa loved the computer games.

The shopping carts were a big hit.

As was the fire truck.

Harrison loved pushing the carts around, but he had a steering problem. I had to follow right behind to make sure he didn't run any other kids over!

Harrison also enjoyed this little xylophone.

Pretty cool mirror exhibit.

This exhibit had a tube that blew air and it suspended a ball in mid air. Everett LOVED this one!

This seriously freaked me out. It was an exhibit that took your picture and then aged it. The picture on the left is what I will look like at age 65. The picture on the right is what I will look like at age 65 if I don't wear sunscreen. I think I'm going to be wearing a lot of sunscreen from now on.

At the park

Kaisa found a friend with sand toys!

Cute!

Leaving San Diego. What fun we had!!