Surprise!!!

After a couple months of planning the moment my family had been waiting for finally arrived my mom turned 50 and we pulled off a surprise party without a hitch. Kim was the master mind that started this idea and then it continued to grow and included all of us. I spent hours on the phone planning with my sisters and thought about it all the time. Well all of the time and hard work payed off my mom had no idea. So here is how it all went down. Thurs night our little family headed south to cedar city to nic & ky's where we would do most of the baking on friday before heading for St. George to pick up Kim. We made pumpkin bars, cake bits, carmel apple cheesecake, dark forest cherry cupcakes, and gave carmel apples for party favors it was awesome to say the least.

My dad made plans to take my mom to a fancy dinner so once they left we arrived and began to setup then the waiting began we could hardly stand it. About 7pm people started to arrive and then we all waited in anticipation. About 8pm they arrived and we had a hard time getting everyone to be quiet but just as mom and dad came around the corner we yelled "happy birthday!" Its hard to describe my moms face but as it slowly sunk in she looked around at the multiple people standing in her kitchen her face lit up initially when she saw Hallie and I standing in the front of the crowd. She then took Hallie and continued to greet everyone while the shock wore off.


We ate, visited, and watch a short video about my mom's life. It was fantastic and couldn't have been any better. The best part was we got to spend the rest of the weekend with the whole family. Hallie and Maddie were best of friends following each other everywhere Maddie even did some bum changing.

Saturday morning we all went to Maddie's volleyball game. She did a great job and is learning a lot very quickly(I think her hope is to be just like Nic). It never gets old watching Hallie interact with my parents and siblings. She sat most of the game on my mom's lap with her blanket and puppy which her holding still for that long it pretty unusual these days but I know they both enjoyed it.


Then once we got home and settled came the cool stuff. My mom has a talent at finding awesome deals on just about anything you could ask for especially since Hallie was born below is an awesome little tent that is perfect to set up and have sleep overs in the front room. It was so funny we would tell Hallie to lay down so she would then she would say all done and pop up and laugh at herself. We also got a bunch of fisher price little people sets that we will be wrapping for christmas.


Matt and I were talking on the way home about how we didn't think Hallie had ever laughed so much in such a short time frame. That was just moments before there was a loud noise and a variety of lights lit up on the dash board after that matt lost most of the control of the steering but was able to get us off the freeway. Nic & Ky got a trailor and came to tow us as well as found a mechanic at 6pm on a sunday to look at it and fed us. The car is to busted up so with lots of help and phone calls we had it towed back to st george so my sister kim let us borrow her car so we could get matt back to work today. Everyone took turns calling to check on us to make sure we were awake and safe driving on the slick snowy roads. We finally got home about 1AM. The more important thing is were all safe and cars will fix. Words can't describe how much fun we had and can't wait for Christmas when we will go again for even longer.

Dipping and making a MESS!

Hallie has started where she likes to dip things in this video its chips and salsa but she like to dip just about anything.

Hallie has also been feeding herself for quite some time which can often make a mess(good thing kids wash easily)Tis weekend she had chili which was especially messy but she enjoyed every bit. I love it.

A package from Grandma!!

My mom is so wonderful and thinks of Hallie I would guess almost every minute of everyday for all the cool things she finds her. This time she mailed them. It was addressed to Hallie so I told Hallie she had got some mail and handed her the package she was so excited probably more about the package at this point. I cut open the end and let her open it the rest of the way she 1st looked in to see and pulled out a book(she loves books) then set the package to the side.

After a little prompting she went back to the package and dumped out 2 hats.

My mom makes the cutes hats so I was really excited. Then Hallie went back to reading her book. Silly girl. Thanks mom for always thinking of us and Hallie.

Our Halloween

Sorry this has taken a few extra days to get posted I have had good intentions but there will always be something else to work on. Our Halloween was much busier than I had anticipated..we enjoyed all of it. Friday we were invited by some great friends to a Halloween party. They had a chili cookoff, played games, gave prizes for pumpkins and costumes. Matt and Jim were the judges for the cookoff and they took it quite literally and did a great job. Were so lucky to have wonderful friends hang out with and make memories. Thanks Packards!

After the party we came home to make some treats for my young women. I love to make treats but unfortunately I also love to eat them so its always fun to have someone to make treats for. As a side note I am loving my new calling. I am getting to know each of the girls and appriciate each of their talents. It only gets better every week.

Saturday was the ward trunk or treat. The weather was anything but good but looked like it would hold out. We got there and set up our trunk I took Hallie around the parking lot and Matt passed out candy. Hallie was everything from excited to scared by the various costumes there but she did like getting treats. Just as we finished circling the parking lot it started to pour. We jumped in the car and headed for home...not to exciting and pretty short lived. Hallie loved her glow in the dark wand that Grandma Sheryl bought her..she mostly chewed on it.


When we got home we let Hallie dig through her candy she would pull all of it out a piece at a time and then place it all back in her container she did this probably 2-3 times before she decided to taste one. Then we gave her a couple tootsie rolls..needless to say she loved them.


Sunday we got together and had dinner with the Bennetts and Browers we got all the kids back in their costumes to take pics, Hallie was less than cooperative but we got a few good ones.




Happy Hallieween!!!