October and November 2014

In October, we went on some BEAUTIFUL Fall drives to see the amazing colorful leaves in the mountains.  Fall drives in the mountains, during the peak of the season, are one of my very favorite things! I love the cool, crisp, mountain air, and the beautiful, vibrantly colored leaves!

For Halloween, the girls dressed up as their princess look-a-likes, Belle and Snow White (Jenna's idea).  They looked so cute!  We had fun at the annual Willardson Halloween party as well as the church chili cook off.  We all went Trick or treating around the neighborhood as well.  Then we went home and had our annual Halloween movie night, this year we watched the new Muppets movie (no scary movies for us)!

In November, we had Jenna's 5th birthday party on her actual birthday, which fell on a Saturday.  Jenna wanted a princess party.  She also really wanted a pinata!  We played fancy freeze tag, practiced walking with books on our heads, had a fashion show, and hit the pinata.  After her party, Grandma Hughes took her to lunch at Chick-fil-a!  The next day, we had a family birthday celebration at our house and met Wendy and Darian's new puppy, Drews.

For Thanksgiving, we drove to Morgan Hill and spent time at the Bedell's house with the Bedells, Merkleys and Sara. We went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, rock climbing, Gilroy Gardens (a really fun theme park for young kids), and just hung out and played with cousins.  It was a lot of fun!  The drive there took 16 hours because of car trouble!  The girls were AMAZING the whole time.  We made it back in 13 hours, whcih actually was a more difficult drive.  Jenna said she was going to stay awake all night if we didn't stop at a hotel. And surprisingly, she stayed awake all the way til midnight! Silly girl. The girls and I had a secret photo session with Collette to take pictures for a birthday gift for Daddy.  Jenna and Ivy picked out the frame they wanted to give him all by themselves.  It was very sweet!
We had an eventful and fun autumn season!

Princess dress cupcakes

Lunch with GrandmaOpening presents with family

Blowing out the candles

                                                                Lots of princesses!

Making Mac'n Cheese in a leotard :)

Costco. They love each other :)

The girls darling birthday gift for Daddy! It sits in his office for him to adore while he is working. :)

Ivy being held next to a picture of an otter named Ivy at the aquarium.  We all decided Ivy is like an otter.  Wild and spunky and cute as can be!

Jenna and Jake                                           Jenna and Jack

Our thankful tree! We made this for FHE in November and added leaves with things were thankful for almost daily. :)  Jenna really liked this activity.

Rock climbing with Daddy!

Sweetie pie

Silly, cute face                                     Crazy hair!

Beautiful colors!

Pretty princesses

Cousin days! We trade off having all of the cousins over for a while Saturday so the mom's and dad's can get things done.  It's so much fun!

We decorated our door this year to be festive. Cute eh?

Tea parties! Jenna bought a tea set with her own money and has had a lot of tea parties with her friends! :)

September 2014 - Random

September was a really fun month for us.  Ivy started doing more things at 15 months, Andrew went on a business trip and the girls and I had some fun girl time, the girls started reading and playing together more, we went on a little family hike to a waterfall and saw some of the leaves getting ready for Autumn, Andrew participated in the Tough Mudder race with some of his siblings, and we went on a fun trip to City of Rocks. It was a great month!

Ivy's first time eating Oreos. She loved them!

 Grotto waterfall in Payson canyon

Jenna balancing on the bridge

Family Pic

Andrew's 2nd Tough Mudder. They had a lot of fun!

Riding a train at the library

Jenna bought her own tea set that she saved her own money for!

Girl's night out

Silly sisters

Giving Daddy loves and kisses

I found them like this in their room one day. This is when Ivy really started to show interest in books.  Now they read together in Ivy's crib after they wake up in the morning pretty often. It's so cute!

Jenna holding Ivy's hand in the car. They love each other.

This is how Ivy folded her arms for prayer

their room reading together one day(August)

This one is from July but was too cute not to share

September 2014- City of Rocks

We went on a rock climbing/camping trip to the City of Rocks in Idaho with the Asprey family. Levi Asprey and Andrew have been friends since they were kids.  Levi and his dad were the people who helped Andrew realize his love for rock climbing.  Our families get a long well and we had a lot of fun!  Jenna wasn't a huge fan of climbing with a rope and a harness but Andrew helped her and she did a great job!  She did however, love to climb the rocks without the gear.  She loves to scramble! Our campsite had a lot of flat rocks for the kids to climb and a fun little cave that they enjoyed playing in.  Jenna was so happy, energetic and confident! It was fun to see her enjoying her surroundings so much.  And as you can see below, Ivy had a blast too! It was so beautiful and we had a lot of fun! We would like to make it a new tradition.

This is one of my very favorite pictures of Andrew ever! He is such an awesome Daddy! :)