Snow Storm!

We just weathered a wonderful snow storm! And I hear that is not the last one we will have this week...

This is when the snow started falling Saturday night.

This is what we woke up to on Sunday morning!

1 + feet of snow

The boys had a blast!

They thought it was Christmas!

While mom and dad cut the the fallen branches and hauled them off to the side.

Check out our pile of branches!

We cleared enough snow out of the drive to try and back out around the fallen branches to get to church. We came home after sacrament meeting, however, and got to work on the trees. I cleared snow away so we could have a place to pile the branches while Ryan tried unsuccessfully to buy a chain saw (3 tries and none of them would start!) He came home with a hand saw made especially for branches, and the two of us (we had another hand saw already) cut and hauled all afternoon until the road, driveway, and sidewalks were usable again! I'm a little sore today. But we are grateful that it was only trees, and that nothing happened to the house, fences, or cars!

October

October was full of visits with uncles, fabulous weather, and Halloween in the air! I spent a lot of the month working on Halloween costumes in my spare time. We started October with a visit from Tommy and his lovely fiance, Carly! It was great getting to know her a little better and getting to see Tommy again so soon after his mission! It was over Conference Weekend, and Tommy and Carly had already had plans for watching it, so we kept up our family tradition and listened to conference on the radio while we drove through a scenic mountain pass. There were beautiful fall colors, a surprising number of people out, and some great views. We stopped at one spot overlooking the Kinnecott Copper Mine. There was even a small hike that the boys took by themselves while Mom and Dad showed Jory around the vista point. Ryan even fit in a geocache, go figure! We finished off the weekend with celebrating my niece, Haylee's, seventeenth birthday!

Kennecott Copper Mine

Fall Colors

Renton and Eli at the top of their hike.
Happy Birthday Haylee
Tommy

SNOW?!?!?!

I put up a birthday bulletin board at the school, and this one was enough fun, I thought I'd post it! The kids loved that it was Harry Potter.

The following weekend I ran in the Wasatch Women's 6K race. I know a 6K isn't much, but it was a huge accomplishment for me, and I'm excited that I was able to do it!

Merry and Dori after the race.

We had some great visits with Uncle Jake as well. Most memorable was when we went shooting with him. Freezing cold fun. Ryan and Jake were great, I actually hit the clay pigeon once! But we had a great time with him.

Showing off costumes early.

Shooting with Jake.

Halloween! Jory's newest discovery! Who would imagine that people just give you candy, and then Mom actually lets you eat as much as you want? Jory was in heaven. Jory went as a ghost, Eli as Peter Pan, and Renton as Obi Wan Kenobi. There was a party at church with a soup dinner and trick or treating class room to class room. Then, a costume parade at the school, and finally trick or treating around the neighborhood. The kids had a great time!

Trick or Treat!

Peter Pan

Little Ghost

Obi Wan Kenobi

Carving Jack-o-lanterns.

Boo!

Happy Halloween!

September

Geocahing in Rose Canyon

September brought a lot of change. For the first time we have 2 boys in school. They both enjoy it, and that is as it should be. We also, for the first time, had a schedule that was ridiculously busy! (and I know it will only get busier from here on out!) Our weeks were mostly full of school and soccer with me also doing mutual as I'm still the Young Women's Secretary. Jory had reached an age of being more nuisance during the activities that I went to than quiet and cute baby with mom, so he had to of necessity start staying home with Daddy. They may not seem like much, and normally it isn't, but our Jorman has been something else. He would go into panic attacks when not with mom, I am not exaggerating. So, while he has been my constant companion, we have been working on slowly getting him OK with not mom. Its been a long road, but he was finally able to be OK with Daddy after a while. That was an enormous triumph! We also had him go into nursery at church! It wasn't exactly what he wanted, but with the triumph during mutual nights, he started taking to nursery and he does pretty well in there now! So... that led to trying out a babysitter that isn't a family member that he knows very well... and triumph again! Ryan and I are dating again! Jory even slept through the night for a few weeks, too. Huzzah! That last part didn't last, but I'll take what I can get. Ryan's work continues to go well. My brother Tommy got engaged, and we were very excited for him! I also undertook the herculean task of rearranging the upstairs' bedrooms. In July, I forgot to say before, I had painted the boys room. They wanted to all share a room, so right before we left on vacation in August we got a bunk bed for Renton and Eli, and upon return moved Jory's crib into their room. Now I wanted to take over the larger of the other 2 bedrooms as my sewing room and move the guest room into the smaller of the 2 rooms as Jory wasn't going to be in there anymore. Well, there was some touch up painting that needed to be done, and we don't have the exact color paint, so I ended up repainting the upstairs rooms while I was at it. I did most of this during nap time so as not to have distractions, and it took me all month! In between all of these things we tried to go out as a family and enjoy the last of the fine weather we were having. I didn't take many pictures in September, but I do have some of two outings... a geocache trip and at the end of the month we went to a corn maze.

Renton sporting his City of Renton treasures that he got from our acquaintance from the pier.

At the Corn Maze

Made it to the end!

August

August was one of the busiest months we have ever had! Right at the end of July we were declared healthy enough for the public, and that left me one week before we left for our trip to Washington! Plus we were going to be gone during Eli's birthday, and after nixing all birthday parties last year because I had just had a baby, I had promised the boys that this year they could both have a friend birthday party! So, as soon as we were declared well I quickly pulled together Eli's birthday party, and held it a few days before we left for Washington. Our trip to Washington was full, fun, and exciting! It was literally the only time we could go out and see Tommy, while everyone else was out there too! We got back with one week exactly before school started. One week to do any shopping and preparation, and to say goodbye to summer. Plus, soccer had started and the first game was on that Saturday! Also, I had agreed to coach Eli's soccer team as no one else was willing to do it (the coaches are picked from the parents on the team. They were so glad that I finally said yes that it didn't matter to them that I have never actually played a game of soccer in my life!) Renton and Eli both played well for their first game, and were excited to start up soccer. Then Renton had his first week of school. He really likes his teacher and his class. At our elementary school the Kindergarten starts one week after the other grades do. So, Eli had his first week of school after Renton had his. Eli is going to afternoon kindergarten, so we drop Eli off and then I go home and put Jory down for a nap, and then I have some time to get things done, or hopefully, relax. Eli loves his teacher and his class! This year I'm serving on the PTA as the birthday specialist or some title like that. It isn't a very big title, but its fun! I decorate a birthday bulletin board for the kids where each month the kids birthdays are listed, and then I put together a little happy birthday package for the faculty and deliver it on their birthdays. Its fun to be the bearer of gifts! The bulletin board that I did for August and September combined was of a giant birthday cake with all the kid's names on the candles. Jory is becoming more able and therefor follows his brothers around a lot more. I think its good that he is asleep while Eli is at school, because otherwise he would miss him a lot.

Did I do that?

Summer Rains

Praying Mantis

Renton's 1st day of School

Seeing Renton off

Eli's first day of school, he is doing his Superman pose.

Waiting in line for his teacher.

August: Road Trip!

Tommy came home from Argentina! So we piled in the car and headed out to see him. Of course there were lots of adventures there and back again and all in between. I hope I can do this exciting trip justice! And while I got a lot of pictures, I did more visiting than picture taking, so I didn't get pictures of some very exciting things, sorry, I guess the images will just have to stay locked in my heart. On our way to Washington the boys saw some wonderful mountains, enjoyed running around the rest stops, but most excitingly, we ran into Bumblebee (the transformer) at dinner!

Bumblebee!

When we pulled into my parents' place Ryan took the longest nap ever (having done most of the driving, electively) while the kids played and I visited. I got to see Tommy right away, which was fun. We had a great catch-up talk. We had cousins visiting and immediately started planning out the week! On Sunday everyone came over to celebrate Eli's birthday with him. Aunt Melanie made him a Batman cake!

Happy Birthday Eli!

That night and the next Elliott got to sleep over with the boys and they had a blast! On Monday Ryan and Tommy went to get some very special geocaches, taking them down to Oregon and to Seattle to get the first 2 of the Triad.

Mom and I took boys to the park and generally let them enjoy themselves with their cousin Elliott. I got to see my sisters in the evenings after work. On Wednesday we went to Bainbridge Island to look for sand dollars. We took a picnic and walked along the beach. When we came to a pier we noticed a couple out fishing, and were excited to find that they were fishing for crabs and had caught a starfish inadvertently. As we checked out their catches and chatted with them, they became interested in Renton's name (as he worked for the City of Renton) and they promised to send some stuff out for him from the city. Just as promised we ended up with a fabulous package of treasures from the City of Renton!

Bainbridge Island

Some fun old boats, no longer seaworthy

The Pier

The Starfish was actually eating a crab!
Heading back to Seattle on the Ferry

Seattle

Popcorn on the Ferry

That evening David and his family came to play, so we had more cousins and more fun!

On Thursday we went to Pike's Place Market, one of Ryan and my favorite places to go. We invited Tommy and his girlfriend Carlie to come. We lunched on exquisite foods, enjoyed looking through the stalls, watched them throw the fish, and came home with crab to cook up for dinner. It was a perfect day!

Pike's Place Market

We had more geocaching, more picnics, and more visiting throughout the week. On Friday, Ryan finished the Triad by going by the geocaching headquarters. On Saturday morning my sisters and I went out for breakfast and a pedicure. Those who really know me know that I rarely indulge in something so pampering as a pedicure. I felt thoroughly spoiled!
Jory discovered a wonderful friend staying at Grandmama's and Grandpa's house! He loved this dog, even if the feelings weren't mutual. Jory would chase him and try to pet him, it was adorable. I almost broke down and said we should have a dog. While I'm glad that I didn't, I know Jory would love a dog!

Saying Goodbyes

So glad that Tommy is home!

My Mom and Dad

Somehow or other we spent a lot of time with Elliott and I don't have any pictures of him (if you have any Sandie, let me know!) And my pictures of Saturday are on my phone, and I'm not savvy enough to know how to get them off!

Our treck home was fun, we took it slower and did some geocaches on the way. The boys watched lots of movies and Ryan and I plowed through Hunger Games. The boys all did pretty well with the long drive, and we all had lots of fun!

Playing hide and seek at the hotel.