Halloween or Bust

I have a huge sweet tooth and thus always LOVED Halloween as a kid, so I always get so excited for Davey, anticipating what fun he'll have running around with his buddies collecting candy. Unfortunately, it was a definite bust this year... though it was probably mostly my own fault.

I extended the original dates of our trip to Michigan to maximize our time there and scheduled us to return Halloween morning. We missed both our ward and playgroup parties, which I'm sure Davey would have enjoyed, but I figured we'd catch one in MI. My parents ward didn't do anything... so we missed all the parties. At least we'd be home to trick-or-treat with our neighbor McKenzie as we'd planned. Wrong. They changed their minds and went to Dewberry Farm instead.

Davey had been feeling under the weather so when we got home we gave him a nap and had to wake him to make it out to trick-or-treat. We arranged to meet up with Lauren and Avery but Davey was sooo tired. He didn't even greet them and just couldn't keep up. I thought maybe his boots were too tight or something but after about 5 houses, he turned to me and asked, "Is this enough candy Mom? I want to go home." So, I ran to get the car and we went home. End of Halloween. Bummer.

Our little cowboy with his eyes glazed over

At least we got a half-smile here

(Charlie didn't get dressed up at all... I hadn't seen a horse outfit to go with the cowboy and didn't go to too much effort to find one since I knew he'd be sleeping anyway... Hopefully he never asks what he was for his first Hallowee. A baby?)

Yea Utah!

I just love every time I get to go back to Utah and visit. I have so many wonderful memories there from college, our early years of marriage, grad school, etc., the landscape is so beautiful and there are lots of yummy restaurants to eat at. Best of all, I'm always going to visit people I love dearly.

Five days after we got back from Michigan, Charlie and I boarded the plane again. Dave was excited for a weekend with Davey to himself and I was looking forward to a weekend with no disciplining, reasoning and trying to get a picky child to eat!

For this visit, I got to visit with all of my sisters, except my sis-in-law Kelly :(, and my parents. It was a nice treat to land in the SLC airport and be greeted by my mother and father! Shortly after, Desiree and Tommy flew in and we all caravaned down to Springville. 

The day after we arrived was just a lazy day at Harmony's hanging out and enjoying each other's company. I also took a 3 hour nap - it was heavenly! The evening ended with a meal I'd been looking forward to for a long time - Cafe Rio. Mmm....

It was fun seeing the babies together, though we had a hard time keeping Charlie from mauling Megan every chance he got.

Tommy (5 mos), Megan (1 month) and Charlie (10 mos)

Charlie and Tommy had some fun paling around together

Tommy is just a bit shorter than Charlie but weighs just as much!

I just love this picture of Des and I and our babies

but really wish Harmony & Meg were in it too!

Saturday afternoon, Harmony and I had a nice stroll down memory lane on the BYU campus. It was fun to see all the new additions and renovations, especially the JKHB and Tanner building where I spent the majority of my time there.

Harmony and Megan near the HFAC

That evening we had an early birthday dinner for Lacey at La Dolce Vita, almost my favorite Italian anywhere - good pick Laceyface!

Since we were all going to be in town, Harmony and Jared arranged to bless Megan on Sunday. It was so special to be there for it.

She looked so beautiful in her blessing gown - 

the same one of my father's that my boys were blessed in.

Our gang at the luncheon at Fred & Mary Roberts' afterward

Charlie and his Megan love

Later that evening, we celebrated Lacey's real birthday...

Happy 21st!!!

All of the babies got lots of attention and Charlie enjoyed being the oldest baby around! (No bullying from big brother for 5 full days!!)

I can't wait until our next Sisters trip!!

Megan Roberts

I am so excited to welcome Megan Roberts as the newest member of our family! She was born on October 8th, at 6 lb 5 oz and 19 in. Harmony and Jared were ecstatic to bring home their long-awaited baby girl from the hospital two days later. We are all so happy for them and know they will have more love and joy (and challenge, too :) in the years to come than they imagined! Read the beautiful story of her adoption on Harmony's blog here.

We were so lucky to be able to go meet her last weekend - it was so fun and I'll be blogging about it soon!