Happy Halloween

Tawna came home this weekend and so we had a marathon Halloween weekend. On Friday, we met at my mom's house for dinner and pumpkin carving. We didn't have any pumpkins to carve, so Tawna, Keith, Chloe and I ran to the store to get some. However, after trying two stores with no luck, we went down to Thanksgiving Point.

Since it was the day before Halloween, they were trying to get rid of their pumpkins. They were selling all of their pumpkins for only one dollar! We got six huge pumpkins for only six bucks...it was awesome. We had a good time carving them and Chloe even helped out.

The finished products...our's is on the right.

Everyone carving pumpkins.

Chloe and Daddy carving the pumpkin.

On Saturday, we stopped off at the Searle's for a little while and then headed to my parents house for trick-or-treating. Chloe figured out the whole process by the second house. She had a great time and loved putting treats in her pumpkin candy basket.

Our little ladybug.

Mommy and Chloe.

For dinner, we made some spooky foods: mummy dogs, witch fingers, eyeball tacos, monster brains, etc. It was kind of crazy trying to cook and get everything else done at the same time, but it was fun. We were all pooped out by the end of the evening.

Keith, Chloe, Tawna, Dad, Koby, Kelly, Amber and Kadence.

Kadence and Chloe trick-or-treating.

It was so fun to have Tawna here this weekend and we are all looking forward to her coming home for Christmas.

Sticker Face

Chloe LOVES stickers and she loves to put them all over herself or whoever is closest to her. She will also tell you where she is going to put them. For example, she will say "Mommy, cheek," or "Daddy, neck." Then she puts the sticker there. It's pretty cute. Stickers are such a lifesaver for church, football games or just about anytime. I love 'em. Here is Chloe's latest victim...

The Best Way To Wake Up

When you think about getting woken up by a baby in the morning what do you picture? Probably a crying baby, right? Well, I get to be woken up every morning by Chloe sweetly saying "Mommy," or sometimes "Daddy." It is such a pleasant way to wake up every morning. Then, when I go in to get her, she is just standing there quietly waiting for me to pick her up. After I do, she asks for her baby, blanket and pacifier--however, the other morning all she wanted was her "mumpkin." That girl just loves pumpkins.

This other picture is from Chloe the other night. She wanted to sleep in Mom and Dad's bed and since she wasn't feeling well, she got to...something we try to make a rare occurrence. It was just too sweet of a picture with her snuggling her baby not to post. She is getting so big, it is hard to believe.

Pumpkinland

Ever since pumpkins have started showing up in stores, Chloe has been in love with them. She points them out everywhere we go and has wanted one of her own. So this weekend we took Chloe to a little pumpkin patch called Pumpkinland. It is a smaller pumpkin patch, but it has a corn maze, bouncy blow-up toy, animals, a playground, and of course... pumpkins.

Chloe found a mini pumpkin when we first arrived and carried it around with her the entire time. Needless to say, we bought her that pumpkin. We had a great time there and then afterwards went to my grandparents house to watch a BYU football game. We have been to a couple of games this season and have watched the rest of them. So now whenever Chloe sees a football player or a cougar she chants "Rah, rah, rah- cougars". Yep, we're teacing her all the important stuff while she is young.

Weekend Jeep Trips

The past few weekends we have been trying to squeeze in a couple of last Jeep trips before it snows and the trails are closed for the season. We have found some new trails up American Fork canyon and have gone on two of them with the Cummings and Searles. They're not anything like Moab, but it has been fun doing them as a family.

One of the trails we recently did ends at a lake called Forest Lake. It, however, was not much of a lake and more like a forest swamp! Needless to say, the kids had fun throwing rocks into the water and we enjoyed a nice picnic lunch.

Last weekend, we went on a trail to an area called Mineral Basin. As we were making our way to the trail, we noticed patches of snow in areas always shaded, but before we knew it, we were driving in five inches of snow. We weren't quite prepared for such cold weather, but luckily we had hot chocolate on hand and it helped warm us up when we got to the end of the trail. It never ceases to amaze me how Chloe can sleep through these trails. As you can see from the picture of Bob's jeep taken a few years ago on the same trail we did Saturday, this isn't just a dirt road, it's for the most part a dry mountain creek bed. I don't think I could sleep through it like she does, but it makes for a quieter trip for us. :)

Wheels on the Bus

Chloe's new favorite song is the Wheels on the Bus. She constantly goes around the house asking for "bus," meaning that she wants us to sing the song to her. I got a good video of her doing in on our camcorder but I have yet to figure out how to take it from the camcorder to the computer. So, I took this video on our digital camera and it will have to do for now. Chloe was a little spacey but it's still cute. Enjoy!

Labor Day Weekend

Well, since the end of September is creeping up on us, I figured it was about time to post about our Labor Day weekend activities. For the past few years, it has been tradition to go to Moab with Aaron's parents and his sister Heather's family. We all have big Jeeps and the guys have fun going on the hard trails and taking us girls along on the easier, shorter ones. In the evenings we usually walk the Moab strip, go to parks and just relax in the Searle's air-conditioned trailer. :)

We figured Chloe was finally old enough to go on a "real" trail ride. She somehow managed to sleep through most of it and had a fun time getting tossed around in her car seat for the rest of it.

I'm still too chicken to drive the Jeep on any of the trails, but maybe one of these years I will get up the nerve to do it. Only time will tell! I have a hard time picking out pictures to post from our trips for two reasons: first, they just don't do it any justice at all and second, I don't know what ones are from what trail (they all look the same to me), but here are a few shots of the action.

Random Pictures

So I have a bunch of random pictures that I have been meaning to post for a while but since school has started I just haven't had the time. So here you go...


This is Chloe's favorite spot in the house- the bottom step. She sits on it, lays on it, and jumps off of it. She even knows that this is where I want her to sit when I am getting things out of the oven. The other day I told her to stand back because the oven was hot. She then started to walk backwards with her hands out in front of her saying "hot, hot, hot" until she reached the stairs and sat down.


A few days ago, we were playing outside and I brought out the side walk chalk. Chloe loves to color so I knew she would enjoy it. Well, as you can see, she clearly did. She was covered in chalk from head to toe- who knew chalk could be so messy?


For those of you who have never seen Chloe in person, this picture is for you. Chloe has the cutest little curl on the back of her head. It is funny to see because she doesn't have much hair to begin with and so when she turns around there is this cute little curl. I have been meaning to get a picture of it for a while now and this is the best I got. She just wouldn't stand still for me to get one that wasn't out of focus- oh well, you get the picture.

Chloe's 18 Month Photo

Here are Chloe's 18 month photos. Aaron and I couldn't decide on which picture we liked more so we got them both. Isn't she pretty dang cute!

Camping and a surprise party!

Last weekend, we decided to take a short overnight camping trip up American Fork Canyon. We planned to go to a primitive sight that Tawna and my mom had found while hiking a few weeks back, but changed our minds and decided to find another spot in the canyon. After driving on a really rocky dirt road for about an hour we found a beautiful spot that could fit 3 small tents and it even had a stream not too far away from it. It was the first time that we had gone camping with just my family (my parents, us and Tawna and Keith...Amber couldn't make it because she was working). We had a great time and in the morning, we went exploring around the creek. We would have stayed longer, but we were throwing Tawna a surprise going away party that evening.

Around noon we rushed home and came up with an excuse to get Tawna out of the house. On our way back to Lehi, we hit major traffic and knew that everyone coming to the party would too, so we told Keith to stall in order to give everyone more time to arrive. We had around 50 people or so when all was said and done and Tawna was totally surprised!

We are going to miss you so much, Tawna, while you are away in Ohio! Be safe and know that we love you!