A Haunting We Will Go...

Emily has been so excited for Halloween so we started the festivities off on Thursday. Emily and I attended story time at the library where we read scary stories and sang songs. Then we made a spider sucker.
Then we found out that Emily won Harmon’s coloring contest! So we stopped by to claim her prize.

The Masterpiece

Then later that night we celebrated by decorating cookies. I had spent a big chunk of the day baking and trying to keep Emily’s fingers out of the cookie dough (she’s as bad as Jeff) and Emily spent the day singing and watching her princess movies. She was so excited about the whole thing she kept telling anyone we saw that she was going to decorate cookies after her nap. Knowing my daughter (and any 2 year old for that matter), I persuaded her to eat dinner first before she gorged on all the decorating goodies. Then when it was finally time to decorate her cookies, Emily plopped down in her chair and started eating the bowl of chocolate chips. Daddy helped her decorate a few and then Papa Newman took over. Emily had fun spilling sprinkles all over, giving every cookie eyes, noses and mouths, and eating everything she possibly could.

She then spent the next hour burning off all the sugar. She put Papa to bed (which he was only too willing to do) and then kept waking him up and saying it was a sunny day and time to eat breakfast. And all I can say is thank heavens for grandmas! Since Jeff and I were more than ready to follow my dad’s lead, Mama Newman jumped and hopped all around the house with Emily - literally.

Friday we got all dolled up and went to visit Mama Newman. Emily played with the cats while I toured the construction zone (my parents are remodeling the master bedroom) and then we were off to visit daddy’s work where Jeff was anxiously awaiting our arrival.

After visiting a few coworkers and patients (and fitting in a game of ladder golf), we completely stuffed ourselves on the lunch and goodies Jeff's work provided. Then it was off to bed for Emily… well, it was supposed to be. Our little fairy decided she didn’t need a nap on Halloween and spent an hour and a half saying she needed to go potty and playing with her toys instead. Finally I decided it was too late to put her down and started to get her dressed to go out again. She then threw a fit saying she wanted to take a nap. (ahh! Gotta love 2 year olds!) After I explained that we were going to Mama & Papa Holbrook’s and then trick or treating the tears completely dried up and she was more than ready to go.

After our visit with Jeff’s family we got ready to head over to our ward’s Trunk or Treat. The primary was in charge of it so I spent the night running around getting breadsticks and refilling punchbowls. Emily spent most of the night trying to find me, so Jeff spent his chasing Emily. After dinner & a parade with all the kids, we went outside for the main event. We had some great car decorating this year and a really good turn out. I don't ever recall a Halloween where I didn't wear a coat. But besides a few minutes of light sprinkling Emily was fine in tights and a jacket. It was so nice!!

"Trick or Treat!!"

Our car with the flash...

...and without

(lights never look as good on camera)

Yet again we left with more candy than we came with and we also had a daughter that was VERY ready for bed (and we weren’t far behind).

Do Re Mi

Emily LOVES to sing. She loves primary songs and sings those all the time. You can also find her just singing about what she's doing or thinking about. The other day she was singing about popcorn and blocks.

Is It A Sign...

...that I take too many pictures when I'm walking out the door to Costco and Emily starts throwing a fit because I didn't grab the camera?

#42 & Chocolate

Last week we went to my younger brother's football game. Emily & Jackson absolutely loved it. They climbed around on the bleachers having a blast chasing each other and scaring all the adults that they might fall. Lucy loved watching them run around and I'm not sure what we ended up watching more - the kids or the game.

Matthew played really well and he had several awesome tackles. And they won the game too (I at least paid that much attention).

We are so grateful for Jeff's job - one, we're loving being done with school, and two it's just such a great company. They had an anniversary party the other night for employees, family, and past patients to come and mingle and have some dinner. They had quite the spread - roast, chicken, salmon, shrimp, several different veggies and potatoes. And of course Emily's favorite - a chocolate fountain.

"Unlimited"

We had Special Olympics again this weekend. We spent two days up on campus helping out with the swimming, bocce, and basketball events. This was our fifth time being on the organizing committee and we finally caught some of the aquatics this time around. Emily was really good and loved being up there. And everyone of course loved her too. She would come up in the morning and "help" and then go to go to mama and papa Holbrook's for a nap and some playtime.



Thursday night we had opening ceremonies at the Huntsman Center. Emily got to meet Coach Whittingham and Miss Utah, Kayla Barclay. After the ceremony we went back up to the Institute for a dance. Emily had a blast dancing with daddy and munching on cookies. She had so many treats and was so full of sugar by the end of the games. I think we all need to go on a no sugar diet for a few weeks to recover.

Friday Emily got to ride the train that she had seen going up and down South Campus Drive all weekend. She also visited Olympic Town and went fishing in the fishing pond, ate some popcorn and cotton candy, and drove around with mommy & daddy on the golf carts.
Then after lunch and before cleaning up, Emily decided it was time to dance. As we were walking across the lawn she stopped following us, walked back up to the sidewalk and just started dancing. After she got her fill she caught back up to us and we continued on our way.

We had a great weekend and we're grateful we were able to volunteer for the games again. We've made a lot of friends over the years and have had some great experiences. We've said we were done the last three years and we just keep coming back for more. Now that we're officially done with school I should say that this was our last year and we've retired. But I don't want to eat my words yet again, so we'll just say we'll see what next year will bring.

Xander William Lloyd

Sunday our good friends blessed their little boy. I remembered my camera this time around and was able to snap a couple pictures of Emily and baby Xander. She's such a cute little mommy and just loved seeing all the new babies. Congrats again Tyler and Marli!

Newman Land

Sunday we also had dinner at my parents. Emily always enjoys getting together with her cousins, but Sunday everyone seemed to have more fun than usual. When we got there Sara insisted on laying on the couch and "reading" the paper - just like papa Newman.
Jackson & Emily had lots of fun dancing with mama Newman's Frankenstien and Halloween music.

Mama Newman got some Halloween projects for the grandkids to work on. They all loved it and her kitchen was a mess afterwards. I kept getting little foam pieces stuck to the bottom of my foot and there was glitter everywhere. The projects were cute though and everyone had fun. Thanks mom!

While the bigger kids spent more time with the detail of their projects, Emily and Sara played in the living room with mama and papa. They played the piano and sang and for some reason Emily had them all lay down on the floor together too.
Then today I had my annual lunch at Gardner Village with my mom and sisters. We all enjoyed the much needed time away from kids, school, and life.Why is it that everything is so much funnier when you're with your sisters? Thanks girls. I needed a good laugh.

"Meet Me at the Pumpkin Patch"

Every year we go to one of my dad’s friend’s pumpkin patches. Last year we got the whole family out there and were able to snap some great family pics, but this year we went during the day and only my mom, Jenny and I were able to attend. Which meant it was just Emily and Sara. They had a blast though and we got some great pumpkins. I love going to Lyle’s pumpkin patch every year and I’m glad it’s become a tradition.

Jenn and I have the cutest little girls. They just love playing together and we wish so much that we lived closer. (But considering the next girl cousin close in age to Emily lives in VA, I guess Kaysville really isn’t that far away).

A big thanks to Lyle for helping make my front porch so festive! (Hopefully one of these years I can get a cute wood crate or maybe even a real hay bale).

Caught Red Handed

Emily knows she's not supposed to play with mom and dad's cell phones. So what does she do when she's overcome with the temptation? Hide.

Ctrl, Alt, Delete

So I thought it was tough making a post when you’re busy. Trying to make a post when you’re busy and your computer also dies doesn’t work out so well either. It’s been crappy timing with loosing the desktop – not only don’t I have access to my pictures, but all my documents that I’ve put together in the last month or two. So that includes all the Christmas ideas and info that I’d gathered, all of my numbers and info for weddings (which I of course would have two of this week), my scrapbooking software and pages in progress, and any other little thing that I might normally not need right now but since I can’t get it, I do.

Besides our computer dilemma we have done a few things in the last little bit. Jeff had a Thursday night Varsity Football game instead of Friday last week, so Emily and I killed some time “going to the movies.” In other words, we went to my parent’s house and watched one - which is just as good since they have a big screen and even better becuase they have a pause button. And did I mention it was FREE? We’ve been cooped up all week (future post about why coming soon) and we needed to get out and do something different. So even though nobody was home, Emily was thrilled to watch “Ariel” and have some popcorn. And she loved it when Matthew got home from football and came and joined us.


Since Jeff didn’t have a game on Friday we were finally able to visit our friends Tyler & Marli and their new little baby. Emily was excited to see Hayden but not near as excited as Hayden was to have Emily over. However, all Emily wanted to do at first was hold the baby. With the newness of a baby having worn off for Hayden already I think he was a bit bummed about that. But Emily soon got her fill and was off playing cars and chasing Hayden around. Congrats Ty & Marli. Xander is adorable and so sweet and cuddly. (Oh, and I of course forgot my camera so no pics of Xander and Emily. Hopefully next time.)

Conference this weekend was great and I really enjoyed watching it. I’d been looking forward to it for quite some time. As expected I wasn’t able to give it my full attention, but Emily did fairly well. She played with her blocks, cars, books, babies and everything she’s not supposed to like the phone and the kitchen sink. She did enjoy the singing though and sang along with most of the songs.

Jeff’s brother, Stan, also came into town for work so we got to go to see him the other night. We went to see "Forever Strong" (since Jeff and Stan both played Highland Rugby) and then had dinner. Emily was really excited to see him, but of course disappointed that Melanie wasn’t with him (and she kept asking for Heather and Ella too. Sorry Brad). Emily kept us all entertained and then some through dinner. It’s too bad Jeff’s brothers don’t live closer. Although we’re glad Stan gets to do the company recruiting back home and we get to see him more than twice a year.