Last Game

Soccer season ended a few days before Halloween.  Audrey really enjoyed soccer this year, and Phoenix was fine with it.  Both kids improved thoughout the season, but only time will tell if I have a soccer star on my hands.  It is a fun activity for the kids, and as a parent, I really enjoy watching the games.  

Phoenix was on the same team as his best friend, Ace.  

He was so excited about his medal, he ran up to every random person he saw to show them.  It was adorable!

I think Audrey's favorite thing about soccer is sitting on the blanket and talking with her friends.  This girl is social!  

 Au Revior soccer!  Until the spring...

the Fair!

I feel like it has been a few years since we hit up the state fair...but we made sure to go this year.  We ate food, looked at (smelly) animals, and rode on a few rides, and left about $100 poorer, and a few lbs heavier.  

This girl loves corn dogs.  Hot dogs are OK, but corn dogs are where it is at.  Travis got disgusting hamburger, and me and Phoenix ate some fries.  I always have to get a deep fried Milky Way, and we shared that...greasy food makes me sick, so I have to be sparing.  

We let the kids choose 3 rides to go on.  Audrey was too scared to go on "the roller coaster" so I took one for the team and rode with Phoenix (I was secretly glad that I could go on it).

For 2 out of the 3 rides the kids chose to go down a slide.  A SLIDE?!?!?  You know, the things that literally EVERY playground has...for FREE!  To each their own....

This was Audrey's choice, and she loved it!  I have overheard her telling almost everyone that she comes in contact with about this ride!  

The fair was fun, but I decided that I really only care about going on rides...so next year, we may leave the kiddos behind (a slide aint no ride!). 

the RED concert

I am a BIG T-Swift fan!  I pretty much love all of her songs, she is truly talented, and she has amazing style.  We went to her Speak Now concert, and it was so awesome that I knew I needed to go again.  I made plans to go with my friend, April, and what seems like forever ago, I bought our tickets.  It was a very stressful morning.  I was on ticket master the second that it opened up for us to buy tickets, but I could not get anything!!  I eventually had to try other options, including different cities.  Eventually I found us some upgraded tickets that came with $100 worth of merchandise.  I wasn't thrilled about pay the extra dough, but I was relieved that I could get the tickets.  It turned out to be an awesome "mistake" because our seats were amazing!!  It is the first concert that I went to that I could watch the singer in person, and not on a huge screen!  Next time I will definitely splurge again!  

I know, I know, my pictures are...rough, but I still love looking at them!  How refreshing is it to have a young 20 something female artist who does not resort to nudity and vulgar dancing to sell her stuff (cough cough)?  Taylor is truly classy.  Every song was amazing, and she did a cute do-op version of 'You Belong With Me'.  I was not necessarily looking forward to Trouble, because I heard it on the radio about 1,000 times, but it was probably my favorite song of the night!  There was a hauntingly beautiful violin solo in the beginning, and the haunted tone continued on throughout the whole song.  It was AWESOME!!  I am totally going to buy the concert DVD!  I cannot wait until her next concert!!!

The Wedding Day!

Michelle and Kevin got married in the Palmyra temple, which is where me and Jess got married also.  The ceremony was short and sweet, and perfect.  

As soon as Michelle walked out Phoenix ran up to her and pretended to be a dog (sometimes he spends more time as a dog than as a boy), it was so cute!!

I saw Phoenix going to pick a flower on the temple grounds and I told him to stop.  Then he said "I wanted to pick it for you Mommy!" so then of course I let him (it's justified, right?), and he gave it to Leah.  He picked a few flowers for me later on.  Sweet boy.

Oh how I love my sisters!

My brother Ben couldn't make it to the wedding.  Phoenix kept asking "where is uncle Ben?" 

At one point I couldn't find Phoenix, and then after searching for him all around the temple, we found him with Sam.  What a good uncle!

How hilarious is this picture??

Audrey has been in 3 bouquet tossings.  She has got the flowers every time.  The girl has a gift.  

Michelle looked so beautiful, and I really like her new husband.  I am hoping to visit her in the next 6 months!  We had such a fun trip.  Michelle is moving to Canada, and Joanna will be in Japan for the next year and a half on a mission for our church.  I am tearing up just typing these words.  I love my sisters so much, and I really miss them.

Pumpkin Farm in NY

I wanted to take the kids to the pumpkin farm in NY.  It was much different than our pumpkin farm, but after the kids realized that and adjusted, they had a great time.

Who knew that mini donkeys existed???  SO cute!

One of the things that they do is make pumpkin people, they had tons of different scenes like this.  I was drooling over all of the vintage furniture that I saw.

Joanna is the shortest sister, coming in at 5'2"...I still call her baby Jo.  

4 little monkeys jumping on the bed, one fell off and broke his head...

The kids could pay money for a measly portion of goat food and then put it in a can and pull it up to the goats.  They had so much fun doing it!!

The bees were bad, Leah has a severe fear of bees and lost her boyfriend's cider slushy when running away from a bee.  There was this random cup of cider that had bees floating (dead).

Leah and her boyfriend Patrick.

When asked how the pumpkin farm was, I responded that it was funner when I was in second grade...and it was.   

New York

My little sister Michelle got married on October 12th, me and the kids went up a week early.  I told the kids that we were going to drive them up but then we pulled up to the airport and surprised them with a plane ride there!  It was hard keeping it a secret.  The kids were awesome and I will totally look into flying up to NY again in the future.  It is a long drive to do by myself with 2 crazy kids.  

Here are a few random shots from the week:

I did Michelle's hair and makeup (she did the curls), when Michelle came out of her room Audrey said "You look like Rachel!"  

I was so excited to try her dress on, but nervous that I might do some damage to it!  It took me like 5 minutes to get one of the sleeves down (it was a series of very tiny and gentle pulls), but I didn't panic.  

Me and my sisters went to Tony's  (our favorite restuarant) for a girls night out.  We also got our nails done (Audrey did too!).  This was my first time getting the shellac nail polish, and I LOVE it!  My nails still look pretty good 2 weeks later!  Audrey was resistant to getting her nails done, but as her nails were drying she looked over to me and said "This is awesomer than I thought!".  I might have a nail buddy.

The kids spent a good portion of their days playing Mario on the Wii.  Some of the adults joined in occasionally.