Wonderful 3-day Weekend!

Miracles of miracles, we had a 3 day weekend that was work and school free for Ryan! Yay! We took full advantage of it! It was also General Conference weekend where all of the prophet, the 12 apostles, and other LDS church leaders speak to the worldwide church. It only happens twice a year and is something I always look forward to. They hold a 2 hour morning and afternoon session on both Saturday and Sunday. Conference was amazing, motivating, uplifting, and encouraging. I don't have any pictures of us watching Conference, but you can find the wonderful talks here:

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2012/10?lang=eng

I love to listen to them while doing dishes, folding laundry, or picking up the house. If you haven't heard them, they are well worth your time. Pick a topic that interests you, they are all great :)

Between, before, after, ect. we managed to squeeze all this in!

Whenever Marlee is crying Casen tries to make her happy by getting her pink blankie, paci, and letting her barrow his doggy. She loves his doggy and can often be found in this position afterwards :) Case is such a good big brother... most of the time

 

 Friday night we went on a long awaited double date with Nate and Jessica Nye. We grabbed dinner at our favorite Thai place, Panna Thai. It was great just to chat... the boys enjoyed having the BYU game on nearby :)

Afterwards we played mini golf. It was the smallest 18 hole course I have ever seen! But we still had a lot of fun!

We lost track of score, but pretty sure this cute couple beat us!

As you see here, she is #1 :)  Jess got a hole in one on this hard hole. It was a proud moment, I insisted on a picture.

Saturday morning we headed out to the Renaissance Festival. I had never been to one and thought it sounded fun... the kids had a good time but let's just say I'd be just fine if I never went to another one :)

Stuck in a bird cage with some crazy character behind us. Sure glad he didn't lock that door!

                                                                      Cowboy Casen

                           Brinley didn't want to go at first but after seeing Casen it was a must.

Marlee was dying to ride the horse. I tried to let her pet them, but she just screamed and insisted on getting on the horse :)

The part we all had been waiting for, the tournament of the knights!  I think the kids really enjoyed his part. Kind of cool that they actually compete... shattering this spear things and all :)

Saturday night during the Priesthood session (just for the men), we met Jess, Ashley, and Michelle at a park. The kids had a great time playing in the sprinklers!

Cute Casen! It was pretty cold after wards! Jansen said he was so cold he wanted to walk through a fire :)

                                                  Love this cute girl, messy face and all :)

Marlee and Casen decided to have breakfast in the playhouse Sunday. Marlee so wants to be a big kid :)

Sunday afternoon after the last session of conference we took the kids on a little bike ride. We went to this little park on the trail and had a great time playing around!

He insisted on doing this over and over, and loved every second :)

Monday morning we got up and went hiking just out of Red Rock Canyon at Calico Basin. Marlee didn't last in the back pack very long so before we knew it we were off the trail and climbing up the rock mountain with all 3 kids... with Brinley leading the way ofcourse :)

                                                                        Climber #1

                                                                      Climber #2

                                                                        Climber #3

Must be in Vegas with the lovely "decorating" on the beautiful rock behind them!

Brinley wanted to go HIGH, so I went up with her while Ryan waited with the other kiddos.

She loves to pose and ask us to take pictures... I may or may not have done the same thing when I was her age :)

Monday afternoon Brinley was supposed to go to dance with her friend Daphne from 4-5... but we all decided to ditch and had a playdate at the Flores' house instead. Marlee loved this horse! When you bounce up and down it makes the horse move. She loved making it go on her own, so cute!

Dancing with the Stars!

Monday October 1st I got to go to Dancing with the Stars with my friends Casie Jolley and Jess Whipple. Casie got us a sweet hook-up... she is friends with/ sold a house for Maks' personal trainer. He was able to get us passes to the show and access to back stage, where all the cast's trailers were. The show was lots of fun, but not at all what it looks like on TV! They make it look like it's it a beautiful theater, but really it is all just part of a set! We did get to be on TV, but just real quick, you might be able to spot our bright colors :) It was so fun to meet all the people. For the most part they were all very friendly... I especially loved Melissa and Shawn. Gilles and Kirstie were both so funny and friendly. It was fun to talk to them as real people and not just tv stars and kinda get a feel for what they were like. It was also neat to see what they do after the show and what it is really like. They were so nice and willing to take photos which was fun for us! The professional dancers are so amazing at what they do. It was a really neat experience to meet such a fun group of celebrities and something I probably won't get the chance to do again!

We were just talking about the old Saved by the Bell stars and what they are up to while driving to Cali, and then when we got to the mall we saw Mario Lopez! So funny. We were in the perfect place to be on the show they were recording, but had to hurry off to get ready to go!

                                                                       Derek Hough

              Gilles Marini, he was hilarious and so friendly. Totally loving attention from the fans.

                                                                        Valentine

                                                                        Kelly Monaco

Chelsea Hightower and Tony Dovoloni. Chelsea was cute, Casie knew her cousins from Vegas who were also at the show.  She was fun to talk to and Tony was so nice.

                                                                    Emmitt Smith

Melissa Rycroft! I think she is just adorable. I loved her on The Bachelor. She is so sweet, loved meeting her :)

Shawn Johnson, it was fun to meet her. I remember watching her in the Olympics and thinking she was amazing. I always wanted to be an olympic gymnast when I was a little girl :)

                                                                      Apolo Ohno

Peta Murgatroyd... she is dating Maksim and apparently they got in a fight before the show, they both were happier after :)

Kirstie Alley and Maks. Maks was like a different person after the show then before. You could tell some of them were more up tight before show time. I've never been a fan of Kirstie Alley, but she was way nicer than expected.

The rest of September!

September flew by! I just don't know where the times goes anymore!

Ryan took the kids out to ice-cream to celebrate Brinley getting 100% on another spelling test. She gets a treat everytime she gets 100%... the kids and I have started looking forward to Fridays :)

Ryan sent me this picture of Marlee while I was at TOFW. I couldn't stop laughing.  The caption said "Just pounded my second plate of pasta" :)

Does this look anything like the child in the previous picture? :)

I do a little play group with a couple friends, the kids get together once a week to do a couple crafts and activities and then have play time. We just rotate houses. Casen made this awesome porcupine at Dawn's house, he loved it :)

The Thursday before TOFW Ryan and I had a fun little date night. We got to go to the temple and then head to see Wicked. I had never seen it before and had heard a lot of good things about it. It was a great show, I loved the humor. It was a good night!

Casen went early with Ryan to help direct cars at Stake Conference (where all the LDS churches in our area meet every 6 months). He sure was a cute little helper! He loves any chance he gets to go with hi Daddy!

Working out at home usually just doesn't work for us... we just get so much "help".  Here is Ryan trying to sneak in a workout :)  Brinley and Casen can actually follow along pretty well.

Can't help but feel joy when I look down and see this sweetheart holding my hand. I don't know what I would do without this little angel.

I finally got to go volunteer in Brinley's class, I wish I could go more often! It was fun to see their morning routine and eat lunch with Brinley after. Here she is with Ella Chippers one of her friends in the class. Brinley was at the science station and they were having fun balancing different cut-outs.

Marlee meeting Mariah's puppy for the first time. She loves dogs and always gets so excited, but had been doing a really good job not over doing it lately :)

Good morning beautiful!

Ryan got to go to Brazil for just over a week. He had a great time, wish he would of brought the camera though! The kids were very excited about the soccer "futbol" jerseys he brought home for them. He forgot to get Marlee one and so I handed him this little shirt I had just bought for her. She seriously couldn't have been happier! She posed, and danced, and kept saying "Thank you", "Fow-er" and "Oooo". I was so glad she was happy with her shirt despite it not being a jersey.

Here she is playing cars in her new shirt from Daddy :)

Brinley's school had spirit week and one of the days was a Sports day, so Brinley wanted to wear her new soccer jersey from Brazil.

When it was Casen and I's time to host the play date we did a popcorn day. We sang popcorn popping, popped fresh popcorn, and made home-made caramel popcorn balls.

The kids also made their own apricot trees with popcorn blossoms. I loved Casens colorful tree! I think it's the most time I have ever seen him spend on coloring something. Good job little buddy! 

 

The last Saturday of September we went to the Farmers Market at Tivoli Village. It was so fun! I LOVE the buildings there, the booths were all great, and the kids had fun playing at the playground and getting Sasa Pops. I definitely want to go back!

Brinley lost her first tooth! Yay! She had been wanting to loose a tooth forever, especially since all of her friends have started loosing teeth. She is always saying how she has lots of loose teeth :) Well the day finally came, the night before I left to Cali (I would have been so sad if I missed it). After working on getting that tooth out all night, she finally got it right as I started blow drying her hair. She was so excited! She wrote a note to the tooth fairy and asked to keep her tooth, she was very excited to find her tooth, money, and a not from the tooth fairy the next morning :)