Snow Day!

Over 20 inches of snow and still coming down as I write this! It came early this year. On Wednesday, our's was the only school district that didn't cancel classes. Matt's high school got out early at 12:30 as conditions were worsening throughout the day. Middle schools got out at 1:30 and Elementary schools got out at regular times. We walked back from the kids' school to our house in the snow so they could get some snow-exercise. Howie seemed to love the snow the most and even played in the snow outside after dinner until 7:30. We got the news about Thursday's school closure in the evening and today had fun playing inside and outside, making Halloween costumes, and eating chili with chips. Now we are wondering if they will make us go to school on Friday. Here are some outdoor snow playing pictures:

Donovan and Howie playing "king of the mountain" with the snow Matt piled up shoveling the driveway.

Matt's car deep in the snow. He dug it out today just in case we have school tomorrow.

Donovan is happy about the snow day.

Even if there is no school, they can still have P.E. class outside.

BYU Homecoming

We took a quick trip to Provo last weekend, mostly to watch the BYU/TCU football game. That part was a little disappointing, but we sure enjoyed the rest of our trip.

We all dressed in BYU clothes


We watched the homecoming parade


Cameron did not learn how to walk. And frankly, he was offended that we tried to make him stand


We enjoyed the game, even though we only got to sing the fight song once


The obligatory stop to Matt's former place of employment - Gandolfo's mmmm


Temple Square. We didn't have the camera ready when Nina crossed the ropes in the Visitor's Center to try and sit on one of the original temple chairs. No arrests were made.


BYU Family Statue vs Real BYU family


Love at first sight. Side note: the year before Matt and I started dating, we used to cross each other at this exact spot every single morning at 7:55 a.m., but never once said hello. (except for the time when I did and Matt ignored me) Funny that Matt would end up being one of my brother's roommates. Meant to be?


We wanted to sign the kids up for the "Fun Run", but never ended up doing it. Apparently this was a disappointment to our kids, so we had them run our own fun run. Everyone was a winner.


We agreed to listen to one of those timeshare presentations in order to get a free 2-night hotel stay in Park City. Thanks to my parents and Jen and Ben for watching our kids!

Fishy Business

In an effort to show my love for Matt and my support for his hobby/addiction, I am doing a fishing post. Matt had last Friday off from school so he hit the road fishing. Lucky for him it was a gorgeous day. And he found more luck as he caught 10-15 fish, including his biggest brown trout ever. Although the picture would have you believe it was only 17 inches, Matt says it was 18. Apparently it's important to have that clarified. And apparently we need a more accurate tape measure...



And every time Matt comes home, the kids bombard him with questions like: "where's the fish?", "did you bring a fish home?", "can I see your fish?"



Does it surprise any of you that Nina is the only one who will actually touch the fish?

Nina took a nap today...

so that means she will have a very hard time falling asleep tonight. We have learned this unfortunate trait of Nina's the long, hard way. Tonight's events are a good example of how this works. At about 2:00 pm, Nina starts to get cranky and tired. Most of the time I am able to keep her from getting her blanket and hopping on the couch for a rest. There are days, like today, where I am working on something and I don't pay attention to where she is until it's too late. Usually I wake her up to prevent the marathon night a nap causes. I couldn't do that today and so she slept for maybe 45 minutes. Here are three of the many "incidents" that have, and will continue to occur until probably 11:00 tonight. Yeah!

1. I found her under the table eating raw cookie dough.
2. I found my purse emptied on her bed and Nina under the bed with my camera. She took the following pictures:




3. Matt found her in our bathroom with a pack of curlers in tote.

I can make a prediction about what she'll do next:
-find a tube of chapstick and scoop out the contents
-poop in her pull-up
-tell us she forgot to brush her teeth
-ask for milk
-take toothpaste and desitin under her covers, oh wait, that was last week

There are probably better ways Matt and I can help her to fall asleep, but we are choosing to watch football instead. It should be a fun night!

6 + 1 days ago

6 dads stayed home with 16 kids while 6 moms went to town. Those six moms saw the most hilarious show "Girls Only: The Secret Comedy of Women". The same six ate at 3 restaurants, stayed at one hotel, visited an undetermined amount of stores in the mall, watched a Sandra Bullock movie, and stopped by Target. Don't worry dads, they hardly spent any money. It was the best weekend! Thank you everyone and happy late birthday mom!