Tuesday, November 11, 2008

We're going HOME!!!

We're going home to Idaho in just three more days!! Caleb's last final will be over on Friday and then he gets two weeks off for Thanksgiving. Technically you're not supposed to travel when you're 34 weeks pregnant, but I don't CARE! I want to go home!

I get to see my little sis whom I haven't seen in a year! Plus I get to go shopping with my sister-in-laws, and get spoiled by my wonderful parents and in-laws! We are so lucky to have so many family members (on both sides) living in Idaho Falls.

I keep telling Caysja, pretty soon we get to see three of your grandmas--the "kitty grandma" (my parents have three cats), the "train grandma"(her great-grandma has this amazing model train set in her basement), and the "motorcycle grandma" (Caleb's mom doesn't have her own motorcycle, but that's what that family of 6 boys is all about so that's what we call her (and grandpas, we're excited to see you too)! Anyway, yesterday we got in the car to run some errands and Caysja was like, " I go Grandma's house--three grandmas right now!" and I had to break the sad news to her that we still have a few more days here in AZ before we can go. Well, she must really be thinking about it a lot because that's all she could talk about this morning at breakfast. Luckily we have three birthday parties to go to this week to keep us busy. Can't wait to see you all soon!

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Catching up...

So, I'm a little behind on my blogging lately...these posts really should have come BEFORE the Halloween one, I'm just slow getting them on here...

We are loving the weather! AZ really has the BEST Fall/Winters. (And it's so fun to dress my little girl in something other than her swimsuit finally!)

One day after I took out the laundry from the dryer, Caysja decided to see if she could fit.

Love that cheesy grin!
About a month ago, one of my very best friends from college came to visit her sister in Mesa and we were able to get together with another friend of ours and hang out for a few hours. We went to Cafe Rio for lunch (love that place!) and walked around the Mesa temple.


Caysja fell in love with my friend Jodi and wouldn't leave her alone!
Jodi, Katie, Me
These are some pics from Caleb's B-day (which was obviously a while ago, but I thought I'd post them anyway). Caysja thought the wrapping paper made a good hat.
Our "cards" for Daddy. Do you like Caysja's artwork? As you can see, she went all out!
And his presents...what else does a guy need in AZ besides more shorts??!
I made Caleb a yummy ice cream cake. Caysja LOVES to blow out candles and sing the "happy birthday song". She was practicing all day long!
I also made him dinner "by candlelight" (ribs, funeral potatoes, salad, and a fruit smoothie). Thanks Alissa, for watching Caysja for us!

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Halloween F-U-N!!!

Okay, get ready for a super long post, 'cause we did so many fun things this year for Halloween...

Our Halloween started last Wednesday with our ward's Trunk-or-Treat. I love this event every year and our ward always goes all out! Here we are, ready to go after doing the "princess hair-do".

(THE hair do. Have I mentioned how much I love having a little girl??)

Caysja with her good friends, Ian and Miah.

The "princess girls"--Halle, Kate, and Caysja

Doing the "cake walk" with Daddy
Posing by the "scary ghost" (as you can see, she didn't like this too well..."no want to, no want to")

We carved our pumpkin the next day. She was so excited to light it up, she went and got a little birthday candle for it! That really made me laugh.
She is still really into her baby, and she had to show it all the parts of the pumpkin, inside and out.
On Friday morning, we had a little Halloween party at the park for moms and kids. After eating yummy food, the kids decorated pumpkins with markers, paint, glitter, stickers, etc.
The "decorating/planning committee" for the party--Joanna, me, and Alissa. Thanks for all your help girls! It turned out great (even if we did only have ONE orange balloon!)
The yummy food table...(notice the beautiful pumpkin flower pots that Joanna made...very creative).
Since I didn't want Caysja's costume to get all dirty at the park, she wore her fairy costume from last year. Here she is with her friend (and "fellow fairy"), LeiLani.
Midwestern University always does such fun things for the holidays. At 3pm we headed over there to go trick-or-treating to all the professor's offices. Caysja got really into it and it was so cute to hear her say "trick-or-treat" and "thank you". She got a TON of candy! It was also fun to walk around Daddy's school with him.
They had a little carnival inside the cafeteria where we did another cake walk, fishing for prizes, bean bag toss, decorating cookies, balloons, crafts, and more. Outside though was the REAL fun! They had an awesome blow-up slide and "room" to jump in. Caysja was a little scared at first, but she warmed right up to it when her friend LeiLani went with her. I must say she liked it this year a lot better than last year. What a difference a year makes!

And the fun doesn't end there...after the festivities at MWU, we went over the Jensen's in our ward for a delicious dinner and then we went trick-or-treating with them. They invited several other families and their kids and we had a blast! Here are Caysja and Miah being silly.
The delicious dinner! THANKS Diane! Everything was sooo good.
The kids LOVED this part of the night! Homemade rootbeer--a.k.a. "witches' brew". It doesn't get much better than that...(gotta love dry ice).
Family pic right before going trick-or-treating.
Our little princess doing her thing. At one point in the night we came to a house with a "spook alley" in a garage. Well, all the other kids were going right in, so along went Caysja before either Caleb or I could go with her. Caleb went right in after her, but never did find her! She came out a few minutes later and said "again"? I was so proud of her--she wasn't scared a bit! So then we went in again (together) only this time, the strobe lights blinded her and she bumped right into the garage wall on her way out--poor thing!
Diane was so kind to plan some fun games for the kids after trick-or-treating when we went back to their house. This game was to see who could wrap their friend as a "mummy" the fastest! Miah was the one that got wrapped, but then Caysja wanted to do it SO bad, Diane was sweet enough to wrap her as well. She held VERY still.
Our little "mummy"
And now I'm sure you're thinking, "what in the world does this next picture have to do with Halloween?" Well, this is my attempt at catching up on a post that should have been done a LONG time ago! A couple weeks ago was our ward's Super Saturday that I was in charge of and these are the cute, fun crafts I was able to do. Thanks to all my great friends who taught classes that day for me!

This is a puzzle block of 6 pictures. You can turn them to form each new picture. I did all wedding/engagement pics. Thanks, Natalie! I love it. (Unfortunately my camera's flash made the picture look kind of faded or something...)
My friend Sara taught this cute class on holiday blocks. You could choose "BOO" or "JOY" or both. Now I wish I would have made both...Thanks again for teaching it, Sara!
I was able to do one more class on little girl's hair bows, but there was so much going on that day I still haven't finished them. (That's why it's taken me so long to post about this event. BUT, I WILL get them done!) And thanks Abbie, for teaching that class for me! Whew--I have to admit I'm glad that day's over!

We hope you all had a wonderful Halloween 2008! Can't wait for next year...