Reasons Why I Haven't Been Blogging in a Little While

So I haven't been able to blog at all for a while. A minute ago I just scanned all of your blogs and read through all of the titles. I have a TON of posts to catch up on, but believe me, I really do enjoy reading all of your posts and if time allows, I will attempt to catch up. If not, I will just pick up where I left off and hope you all can forgive.

What, you may ask, is keeping me busy and away from one of my favorite hobbies? Here are a few reasons....



Reason #1
A few weeks ago, on a Tuesday night, Ben and I were able to go to this...


We love Warren Miller movies! It was a great date, and I admit, those movies are really cool. We both got free ski passes, and you better believe, I will be hittin' the slopes this winter, at least once. Ben and the kids plan on going on a weekly basis. Both kids now have their own helmets and Mary will soon have her own skis. Ben surprised me the other day and came home with a pair of skis for me. Fun for everyone!


Reason #2
The following Friday was the Halloween Carnival at Mary's school. I remember being in grade school, and counting down the days for the school carnival. It was a major highlight in my life for sure.
This carnival proved to be just as awesome. The kids LOVED it! They got to wear their costumes, and they got all sorts of treats, prizes, cotton candy, shaped balloons, etc. They had an absolute blast! I loved re-living the excited feeling creeping up in me from my childhood.

Reason #3
The following evening, Ben and I went to an Adult-only-Halloween-Party. We made a few plates of these for our dessert contribution.

They were a major hit, and incredibly yummy.
I also made the famous pumpkin muffins with cream cheese frosting.


SSSOOOOOO incredibly yummy.
The party was great! It was a costume party. People went all out, and it made it a ton of fun.


I wasn't wearing my taped glasses in the picture, and it didn't get my pants pulled up to my ribs and my shirt tucked in either, or my lopsided ponytails and blue eyeshadow, but you get the idea. Ben looked awesome! He was wearing high water sweats with his ensemble. We make some pretty neato nerds. William got to join the party with some of his other infant friends. He was wearing a Popeye onsie. So cute.


Gotta love Trudi. She lives right next door. Her kids are Mary and Sam's best friends. I have gotten to know Trudi very well and she is so cool!

Mitzi and Chris. The hosts of the party. They live right across the street. They are a lot of fun.

These freaky vampires (The Dressens) even had the crazy contacts that made their pupils all weird.



Tammy Wood was a great Indian, complete with her baby on her back. Her husband is the Bishop and was gone on a camp out with the young men. Otherwise, they were going to be Peter Pan and Wendy. They live across the street as well.


I loved the army guys! (a.k.a. the Schmidt's) They made the entire house smell like spray paint.

Buddah and his lovely wife were a big hit. The guy inside the Buddah costume is hilarious in person, so he really hammed it up.


I will let the rest of the costumes speak for themselves. Let's just say that almost everyone acted the part of the costume that night and it was so hilarious.

Vanessa Peck made a great Star Treck character, even though I think she looked more like a character from Lord of the Rings. She lives down two houses and has become a good friend.

We played some very fun games, and laughed and laughed and laughed. We got to know people a little better and just enjoy a night out with the adults. It was so fun.

Reason #4
The next Monday we woke up to a skiff of this...

Pretty crazy huh! It is all melted now and the fall weather is back, but it was fun while it lasted, and the mountains look gorgeous.
The day was full of grocery shopping, working out, school for Mary, and an awesome F.H.E. in Salt Lake City showing the kids the pictures of the life of Christ from Birth to Resurrection. It was all really neat, aside from Mary throwing up all over the bathroom floor during our little outing. Poor kid! She spent the last 1/2 of the picture showing, lying on my lap, looking a little green, and asking questions about the pictures. She is all better now. Few! The Church History Museum is full of teaching opportunities. It is so cool to live so close to things like this. It is nice to have help teaching the kids about the gospel. The life size pictures were really neat and held the kids attention.

Reason #5
Preschool was at our house this week. So on Tuesday we talked about shapes, colors and the number 6. We also made stuff like this


and this.




Reason #6
My awesome, wonderful, kind, loving, hard workin', family lovin', good lookin', snow lovin', laugh makin', and incredibly awesome eternal mate turned 29 on Wednesday.

The weather Gods decided to give Ben a wonderful Birthday gift, and we woke up to three inches of this...




We love our daddy and husband, so we showered him with all sorts of fun stuff. He opened presents throught the day. We also had these delivered to him at work.


It was the biggest most unique balloon boquet I have ever seen! Love it!


When he got home, we presented him with this...



No, it is not a giant super hero sword fight.
It is the ultimate, chocolate, cream cheese, powdered sugar, grahm cracker, coconut, snow ski Birthday Cake!!!





Spider man was wearing "Spyder" skis. In fact, all of the people were wearing popular ski brand skis. hehehe


This dude was going off a jump, this one is probably Ben.



Ski lodge next to an ice skating rink. Mr. Penguin likes to hang out here.


Ben, Me, Mary, Sam and Batman uh, I mean William, on the sled behind daddy. Off to the ski hill!


At the last minute I remembered to add the number candles. That's right, Ben's LAST year in his 20's.



No, it's not dandruff, its snow. (powdered sugar)


Ninja Skier!

Happy Birthday Ben. Love you so much!

Reason #7
Thursday was the pre-school Halloween party, at our house.
We did things like this...


The Halloween parade/hunt for six houses, six pumpkins, six leaves, ect. (we were learning about the #6) Two kids weren't able to come, so it was a smaller group this time.

And this...

Cheese cloth ghosts in the "drying phase."

And this...

Spider Webs made from rolling a marble around in white paint blobs. Cool.

And we went on a treasure hunt to find the ingredients for our witches brew. (made from gummy body parts) Nasty.

We ended the party with pin the nose on the jack-o-lantern and ghost, ghost, goblin (duck, duck, goose)

Our house was rockin' to say the least.

Reason #8
Activity Day was on Wednesday. Because it was Ben's Birthday and my partner with this calling is getting her twins this week, we decided to call in some subs. Even though I didn't have the actual activity on Wednesday, I still made two dozen sugar cookies, called all of the girls to tell them about the change, and got toppings for the cookies, delivered the cookies to the homes of the subs and basically got it all set up. It is a great calling and I am getting to know these sweet girls. This week however, I just couldn't quite make it. Oh well, there is always next time.

Reason #9
Trick-or-treat!

Yup, we celebrated Halloween on Saturday in order to keep Sunday a little more Sunday-ish. In fact, I think everyone here did, which made it really nice.
It was pretty chilly, but the kids still had a great time. Mary was ready to go all night! The kids are now deciding if they want to trade in all of their candy (minus five of their favorites) for a toy at the store, or if they want to keep all of the candy. I am hoping for the first choice.


Sam was a "big mean spider." I thought he looked adorable and so cute, but he insists that he was very scary and ferocious!



Mary was a fairy. That is the new game she loves to play with her friends. She was going to be Nanny McPhee, but I luckily changed her mind. A fairy costume is so much easier...and cuter.


I was a mom with a witch hat and cool blinking earrings. Go me.



William was Popeye. (does anyone know who that is anymore?) I really wanted him to be Charlie Brown, because he is so white, bald and chubby, but he was a very cute Popeye as well. He was going crazy trying to get to my blinking earrings. Notice the blurry arm that was waving wildly toward my ear...and yes, at one point in the night, while I was handing out candy, he finally got it and gave it a nice hard yank!

Ben was Ben for Halloween, and he did a fabulous job. He looked great.

Tomorrow we will have our traditional "orange dinner" in order to celebrate the reall Halloween. It should be yummy and fun. I have a few tricks up my sleeve this year.

Reason #10
Aside from these things, we still have dance

Halloween costumes were worn this week in ballet

and Jazz.
We also have school, a primary talent show, teaching piano lessons, mutual-for Ben, laundry, cooking, dishes, cleaning, working out, feeding-changing-and playing with the baby, sorting through winter clothes, clothes shopping for me- Hooray, I finally lost the pregnancy weight (minus three stubborn pounds), a baby shower, carpool, keeping track of who is at whose house and when, and the list goes on.

Life is good, it is just really busy at times. And that folks, is why I haven't been blogging lately.

As It Should Be

Mary went back to school yesterday. It was a new beginning for her. A new track, a new teacher and a new class. I have prayed and prayed and prayed that this will be a good thing for her. It has been excruciating to watch my little girl suffer so much with school. I felt in my heart that I needed to make sure this change happen, and I did. The rest of it is in the Lord's hands.

The first day of this "new beginning" arrived. I pulled up to the school and we walked over to the kindergarten playground. I held Mary's timid hand. We were both nervous.

When we got to the playground, the bell was ringing. Mary ran and got into her new line, right next to her friend Ella. Ella grabbed Mary's hand as they waited for the teacher. Mary and Ella smiled at eachother and giggled out of excitement that they were in the same class now. Mary looked happy. As it should be.

A little boy standing in front of Mary in line had glasses on. He turned to Mary, and with a very excited voice said, "you have glasses too! Me and my twin brother (who is also in the class) have them. You can cut in front of me if you want to." There was no teasing Mary or making fun of her glasses. As it should be.

Then the teacher came out to get the class and bring them into the classroom. She walked over to Mary and said, "I have been waiting all week to meet you Mary! I am so excited that you choose me to be your teacher. I can't wait to have you in my class. We get to make some really fun pumpkins today. You can sit by Ella if you want to. She can show you around. Our class is going to love having you with us."
By this point, I had a lump in my throat. I was so happy. Mary was looking at her teacher with complete joy and excitement. As it should be.

Then the class walked through the door, and stepped into the classroom. There was no walking down the big scary hall, there was no teacher shushing the kids time and time again. There was no clinging on to me and begging me to walk down the big hallway. Mary just walked into the door and was right in the classroom. She was standing a little taller. As it should be.

When I picked Mary up, her teacher was holding her hand and smiling at her. Mary was beaming!!! She ran to me and the teacher gave me a thumbs up sign and mouthed the words, "She is great!" I smiled back and swallowed the lump in my throat yet again. The teacher had given me the best feedback I could have asked for that day. I could tell she will be a great teacher to work with. And Mary adores her. As it should be.

Mary hopped into the car and talked the entire way home when I asked her how school was. There was no, "school was fine," and then slumping in the seat. This time I heard all about the kids that were so nice to her, the teacher that smiles a lot and let Mary be the calendar and line leader, the fun projects she got to do, the silly riddles she learned at recess with her friends, ect. Our prayers were answered.

Mary is a happy, carefree, excited, and eager kindergartener. As it should be.