McKay and Makenna's "Fall Festibal"

So, I have little party planner's at my house. McKay and Makenna are always wanting to host a party or a 'festibal', as they call it. I am a mean mom and have not let them bless the lives of others with their knack for throwing parties.

I usually tell them,

"No".

Or, "We're not going to be home that day."

Or, "Maybe someday."

I know; I am a horrible mother.

My kids want to plan a party, invite others into our home, and have fun. Why was I resisting? I guess I was worried about how much I'd have to be involved. Or if I wasn't involved, with the 'party' be a total bust?

Kids don't worry about these things. They just know it will all turn out.

So, I finally said yes, with the condition that I was to be minimally involved.

They planned this party all by themselves.

Here is the "Welcome" sign on our porch.

It says, "Fall Carnivl"

Were: McKay and Makenna house

Time: 5:30

Costume!!

BOO!

Here they are with their first invited guest, Paige.

Kenna as Sleeping Beauty and Paige as a "Senorita"

Connor and Asher as nerds......didn't have to stretch too far, did they? :)

All the invited guests

The following pictures are decorations all made by McKay and Makenna:

One of the activities they did is to have each kid make fall place mats to take home. Here are some samples:

Do you see the orange juice (Tang) in the yellow cup in the top center of this picture? The kids wanted to make it as close to red as orange can get with food coloring. I stopped them before the drink started to taste more like the coloring than Tang.

Here is the 'Arts and Crafts' table.

This picture above and the one below are of the kids putting their hands in a bowl of 'eye-balls'. It's actually grapes that have had the skin peeled off them. (See, I did help a little. I'm not all that bad!) Before I could get the camera out, the kids had blind-folded their guests and made them feel the grapes and guess what they were. They were totally grossed out! But they loved feeling them after they already knew what they really were.

Finishing the activity off with a little bouncing on the tramp. Who could ask for anything more?

The guests left after about 1 hour with their place mats and a pumpkin-decorated cupcake. Everyone was happy and it was actually fun.

I may just let them do it again!

I love my kids.

More Fall Fun and a Carnival!

I just love the colors our yard gives us every year. We are so blessed that the Wallace's took such good care of this place and we can reap the benefits. Here in Saratoga Springs, we had glorious October!

Tiggs enjoying this nice, beautiful fall.

Tiggs only likes me when Brett is gone. When he's back she's all his. She totally plays favorites and I try not to take it personal.

I just had to post this picture. I had to cut up a few onions for a recipe and my friend lent me these onion goggles. They are amazing!!! I never even knew there was such a thing. These goggles have a barrier that keeps the fumes from the onions out of your eyes! My nose was running, my throat was burning, but not tears or running mascara! I am sold! So, cool!!! If you're interested, click here.

The school put on a carnival for the kids. It was very well done! There were lots of fun activities for the kids and they had a great time. Here is Connor in front of his class' pumpkin carving. (The pumpkin is inside the box).

McKay participated in a donut-eating contest. Don't ask how it went....you can probably guess. Remember, the kid has no teeth!

Face painting for all!

A great time was had by all!

Fall Fun and a Few Scaries

What a fabulous time of year this is. I love the Fall. It is just breathtaking to see the colors and the beauty of God's creations on this earth. Here are some pictures from a trip up Provo Canyon.

Over UEA weekend we were able to go with some dear friends to Midway. Brett even got to be home that weekend! It was wonderful and relaxing....just what we both needed.

We had fabulous weather, so we took some time to go miniature golfing with the kids. McKay was the only one who played by the real rules. All the other kids got too impatient with it.

Early that morning, I went on a run up there and it was some beautiful scenery. I love running in this kind of weather and the winter the most.

We took the kids and some cute friends to the Halloween store for fun. They had a blast trying on all those masks. I tried to not think too hard about all the germs on those masks from other kids doing the same thing.

We also made a stop at the Utah WInter Olympic museum up in Park City. It was so cool! It was fun to relive those memories and remember how awesome it was to have the Olympics in our state. The kids really enjoyed it, too. And, it was FREE! Always good.

Like how Makenna's ponytail is hanging out?

McKay

I just had to post this so it can be saved forever.

The other night McKay said,

"Mom, I'm so glad you're my mom........especially because you're so cute."

Love that boy!

Biking With the Girls

We went up Provo Canyon today.

It was BREATH TAKING!

We had never been up here before, but we decided to try something new. The colors were amazing. The pictures do not do it justice.

I am really lucky. I love to bike. I have 5 or 6 girlfriends in my neighborhood who bike also. You know that my dad bikes, too. It's fun to be out together.

We had a guy take our picture right by bridal veil falls and I asked him about the trail. He said it was about 3 more miles, and then he told us about a steep road that was a little residential road, but just beautiful and worth the ride.

Of course, we had to do it.

It was about a 4 mile climb. Hard, hard, hard. But so worth it!

Got me to thinking about life. About eating right. About exercising. It's hard. SOOO hard sometimes. But, SOOOO worth it! I don't think I'll ever say, "Man that eating right thing was too hard. I don't think I'll do that again." Or, "Man exercising is not worth it." It is so worth it. Eating right is worth every bite I DON'T take!" :o)

Me and my girl friends with Bridal Veil in the back ground

Me trying to get a shot of us all.

Don't you just love this time of year?!!!

Introducing.......

Caroline Joleen Bell

Congratulations to my brother, Matt and his wife Raquel.

Isn't she just adorable???????

The kids are all in heaven having a new baby around.

Especially this one. Makenna loves Caroline. In fact, the other day she asked Brett, "Dad, will you dare me to do a snow angel in my swim suit and the reward could be to go visit Caroline?" Isn't that hilarious?

*sigh*

We love her.

Mutations??? I promise, we use no chemicals!

This was picked from the garden just yesterday:

Makenna said, "It looks like a giant squid!!!!!"

We ate it anyway.