Time Out for Morris Women

Last weekend, I got together with my mom, sisters, and sister-in-law (we missed you Liz!) for a “Time Out for Morris Women.” Three years ago, we went to Deseret Book’s TOFW and decided the next year to do our own version, so this was the third time we’ve gotten together. My mom and Stacey drove from Oregon Tuesday night so I got to spend a couple days with my mom while Stacey visited her family. We mostly did some shopping (some for Christmas gifts and some just for us :) and just hung out. Bennett loved having his grandma around and wanted to go with her wherever she went, and he wanted her to get him in and out of the car, etc. I was glad my mom at least took a few pictures because I didn’t think to. Stacey brought Kallie and Ethan down to my house for a little while on Friday, so the 2nd picture is Ethan and Ryan together.

Friday afternoon, we picked Camille up after she finished teaching for the day, then picked Jessica up at the airport and drove up to my Grandma’s house in Idaho Falls. I brought Ryan with me, but Bennett got to stay and have a fun weekend with Nate going to a BYU basketball game, getting his hair cut, going to lots of church meetings on Sunday, and just hanging out.

We had a great time together at Grandma’s.  We were worried about snow on the drive up there, and while it was a pain because it was snowing and we couldn’t see super well, it only stuck to the roads in one small section so we survived the drive. It was coooold up there! But we were inside most of the time so it wasn’t too bad. For our spiritual enlightenment this year, we each read a section of the new Relief Society book and shared what we had read.  There were some really good insights and it was fun to share them with each other. We also did quite a bit of crafting this year, which took up a lot of our day.  We made some fun toddler bags with activities for our little kids, which included lacing cards, pipe cleaner beading, a felt board, shape matching puzzles, popsicle stick puzzles, key matching, and number wheels. Bennett has already played with each of them and seems to really like them. We had each chosen one or two to bring the materials and do the prep work for, and we assembled and finished the projects there. We also made a Mayflower boat for a centerpiece for our Thanksgiving tables.  It was a bit of a project, but it seemed to pass quickly with all of us working together. My aunt and cousins stopped by for a while during the Mayflower-making process and kept commenting that they were just going to put a turkey on their Thanksgiving table. Good point :) They turned out pretty well though.  The kids (Kallie and Ethan, and Ryan) were all really good while we worked and enjoyed just hanging out and playing with all the fun toys in Grandma’s playroom. Grandma showed us all how to piece together a quilt, and showed us some good tips for making it easier and more efficient. It’s amazing to look through her quilt book and see all the quilts she and Grandpa, and for a long time, her sister and brother-in-law, made together!

    

Working on our kid kits, and Jess reading a story to Kallie

   

For some reason my pictures of the quilting lesson won’t upload…but here we are working on our Mayflowers, and one of Kallie and Ethan keeping themselves occupied reading books on the stairs.

and group shots after church on Sunday

Thanks for such a fun weekend! It was great to spend time all together, and my grandma was a great hostess and took good care of us. I love being able to have fun together and to learn from each other!

Halloween Festivities

A few days before Halloween, we went up to Gardner Village to see the witches. Bennett fell asleep on the drive, so he wasn’t as excited about them as I thought he would be, but he still had fun.

  

The Saturday before Halloween, Nate was out of town, so I decorated our trunk and took the kids to our ward’s trunk or treat. After going around and getting candy in his bag, Bennett raided the leftovers in our give-away-candy bucket – apparently he didn’t think he had enough. It was also funny to watch him pick out candy – any time there was a bowl of little candy bars, if they let him pick which one he wanted, he always picked out the Reese’s because they are orange (he doesn’t like chocolate and is “peanut intolerant”, so Nate and I have lots of Reese’s to eat).

    

And the final celebration – trick or treating on Halloween. We decided to go up to our old neighborhood because we figured it would be more fun for Nate and I since we know most of the people, and Bennett would get candy either way. It was fun to see people – between the houses we went to and seeing other people trick-or-treating, we were able to see a lot of our friends and neighbors. After spending hours making the boys’ costumes, I was glad you could at least tell what they were (although the mitt was a little questionable – that one was hard!). There were things I would do differently if I were to make them again, but I’m guessing I won’t have to make them again :)

 

Lee Farms in Portland – Pumpkin Patch Part IV

One of the days we were in Portland, we went to the Lee Farms pumpkin patch and used a groupon my mom had bought. The boys had fun looking at the animals, playing in the bounce house, driving the tractor, and going down the fun slides.

       

Landon; Bennett; Nate, Ryan & Bennett; and Jess & James going down the big slide. And the kids looking at the animals. Bennett was looking at the baby chicks and turned around and this huge dog was walking straight towards him – he was so scared! I would have been too – that dog was gigantic.

 

James petting the baby chicks, the boys on the hay bales and pumpkins, and driving the tractor.

The boys spent a long time in the bounce house and didn’t want to get out. By the time we finally convinced them to try something else, Bennett was sweaty because he had been running / jumping around so much. There was hardly anyone there when we went, so it was fun to have the place mostly to ourselves.