Fall Fun in October

In October my sister and I made a trip up to Idaho to visit my sister Kim. My mom also came over for a while, here she is with Kaleb (4 mos) and Porter (11 mos):

The cousins having a picnic in the nice summer like weather

Lining up to do the airplane with Aunt Liesl

We put rag curls in the girls' hair after bathtime

Here's Abbie and Leah the next day (the kids sleep in them and then you take the rags out and you get the best bouncy curls!)

Abbie and Leah are also in ballet with a few of their cousins, they love it!

Porter loves this Johnny jump-up that we borrowed from Kim

A week or so after the Idaho trip it snowed for the first time. Abbie and Leah were so excited to play in it they put on their snow gear and went out right after breakfast. Here they are showing me their snowballs (before throwing them at me!)

The snowman they made, they were so excited and loved finding rocks, sticks, gloves, and a hat to decorate him with.

The next day we went to a farm for a preschool field trip. Here is Leah on one of the tractors.

Doing the hay maze with her cousins

Looking for the perfect pumpkin

Leah and two of her cousins with the pumpkins they got to bring home

Abbie's kindergarten class had a Halloween party that I helped out with. The kids played a game where they took turns wrapping up each other in toilet paper and making mummys. Aren't they cute?

Leah being a princess witch (just before going out trick-or-treating)

Porter not so sure about this trick-or-treating thing

My adorable princesses and the frog on Halloween night!

That's a first!

We've had a lot of changes in our family lately with moving and starting over somewhere new. Along with that, a lot of firsts have happened too. Here's Abbie on her first day of kindergarten:

She also lost her first tooth a few weeks after school started!

The tooth fairy also made another visit to see Porter. He got his first two teeth within a week or two of Abbie losing hers!

Leah started preschool with her cousins


Abbie and Leah both started ballet
Again with their cousins!

Porter thinking about crawling (just thinking, though, not moving yet)I got a new haircut

Our first family picture in our new home
We have also had a lot of visitors in the past few months. My mom was the first to use the guest rooom and the kids loving seeing Grandma again!

Abbie had her 6th birthday! She wanted a My Little Pony cake but I didn't want to fork over the big bucks so I made our own rainbow cake and she loved it!

She got a bunch of My Little Pony stuff so she was happy!

As you can see here

Leah was just happy to wear a hat, eat cake, and get Abbie's hand-me-down toys!

She also loved wearing Abbie's birthday crown and jewelry, we'll be using it again for her 4th birthday next month!

We also made a visit to Temple Square for the first time since moving to Utah. Abbie and Leah loved looking at the huge "castle" (temple) and seeing the brides getting their pictures taken.

Pretty gardens and girls

The whole family by the reflection pool

An awesome picture I took just as we were leaving I loved it so much I changed it to sepia and printed it off in 11x14 to frame. It looks like something you'd find in Deseret Book, right?
Well, as you can tell we've been busy. Thanks for stopping by and hopefully it won't take me three months to update again!

Our new house

Now that we've been here for a couple months, I had to show before and after pictures of the house. Here's our house today with the fall colors and leaves falling off the trees.

The backyard before we moved in

The awesome built-in swing set that the kids love

Living room

Dining area

Basement

Jared and my sister who looked at the house with us back in July

Now the after pictures! It's taken me two months and a lot of shopping, borrowing from sisters, and rearranging to get everything decorated and to make it feel like home. I love it now!

The new and improved living room

Dining area

Kitchen

I love that I can see the living room from the kitchen while I'm cleaning or cooking and also that I can see out the front windows and back door from the kitchen too, to keep an eye on the kids and for any visitors.

Porter's room

The girls' room

Kid's bathroom

Master bedroom (and bathroom, we finally have our own!)

Basement/library corner

Storage room

Guest room

And guest bathroom

Other half of the basement (and what it normally looks like)

My still-left-to-unpack craft room. It's the last room to unpack because it's not necessary to survival (according to most people, fellow crafters would beg to differ) but I'm excited for the day when it's finally ready to use. It's next on my to-do list after finally updating my blog!

Hope you enjoyed the tour of our house. Come visit anytime!