Happy Halloween!

Well, we have passed our first milestone without Scott here, and now move on the making it to Thanksgiving and my Mom's visit. Things went well. Abby had a costume parade in the morning at school which was a lot of fun. Her teacher dressed up as the evil stepmother on Snow White and it looked awesome, I wish I had gotten a good picture of her!

After school we hung out and got ready. Isabel was in her costume most of the day, as well as Abby. We ate dinner and waited for Scott's parents to get here, then we all went Trick or Treating. Sara got to go for the first time this year. She was shy at first, but once she realized she could get candy she was all for it! She even says trickotreeee and thank you, so that was cute. She was a little clown, Abby was a with and Isabel was a fairy\butterfly. The weather was good so it was fun. After all that our ward at church had a trunk or treat with donuts and cider so we went to that and the girls had fun running around with their friends. We got home late but I guess it's all worth it. Isabel was the first one up today, in the corner sneaking candy....shocker! j\k. I think we are planning on just hanging out today, I may brave the after halloween sales to get stuff for next year and dressup but we'll see. Both Abby and Sara's costumes were from last year. Hope everyone else had a safe and happy halloween!!

Build-A-Bear

Before Scott left, I thought it would be a good idea to make stuffed animals with his voice recorded inside them. We went to the mall and each girl picked out a toy, then Scott recorded a message for each of them and we stuffed it inside. Them they fluffed up the animals and dressed them. It was really fun. Sara was not into it, and she tried to escape out into the mall, but otherwise everyone had fun! Now when the girls miss Scott they can press the buttons and hear him say he loves them. I think it is working well. Sara still doesn't love hers. it is a rabbit which after a while we have figured out she calls "foo foo" ( as in little bunny foo foo, a favorite song around here)

The day before Scott left, Isabel's Joy school had a field trip to the pumpkin patch at Thanksgiving Point, so we took Abby out of school and went. it was fun, they have all kinds of activities, from panning for treasures and fossils, to a huge bounce pillow, and baby pig races. They had a lot of fun, but then we hurried home to be with Scott.

Blazer Rides and Fun with Scissors

If you have not heard of the infamous Blazer, it is Scott's baby. It is an old 1980 Blazer his dad and uncle had and he worked to get it all put back together so we could have a "family-friendly offroad vehicle" Our one 4-wheeler just doesn't fit any more. The girls love going on drives in it. For this one we went up in the hills looking for puddles to splash through. The big girls loved it, but Sara was not a fan. Scott is starting young teaching them to drive :)

Our big news is Isabel. She has been begging to use scissors for months and I have never let her. Last week I finally decided to let her try. She and Abby were cutting paper at the table, then Abby went downstairs. The next thing I knew Isabel came to ask me something with less hair than she had had just moments before. She said she couldn't see because her bangs were in her eyes. We have been growing the bangs for almost a year, and they were just getting long enough to go behind her ears, I was actually thinkng about getting them layered in to a cute haircut. Sigh. She did it under the table, and unfortunately cut her bangs back past her ears, so there was no choice but to cut it all off. Luckily my neighbor cuts hair in her basement and was able to help us pretty quickly. Excuse her being naked. She is usually Tarzan, about 80% of the day, so that is the reason.

Finally!

One of my main setbacks in blogging is getting everything where I want it! So I am not going to worry about that right now. Just get the update and a few cute pics out. I envy a lot of you and your blogging skillz-I am open to any pointers!

So-Abby started Kindergarten! Her teacher is Mrs. Davis and she is really sweet. She calls all the kids "friends" instead of "class" or whatever, and Abby really likes her. Abby picked her own backpack while we were in line at an insane Old Navy $7 jean sale, and I was fine with it because it doesn't have Princesses of Dora on it ( the main choices for girls these day) She goes in the morning and carpools with some neighbors, so I just pick her up at noon, along with another boy. They have been doing phoenetic spelling and it is very interesting to see, and makes you realize how complicated the English language is. She is doing great.
Abby and Isabel both did 2 weeks of swimming lessons. It was a lot of work for me since it take 25 min to get to the pool for a half hour lesson. But I wanted them to have some skills so that we could all go when Scott was gone. It is a great pool with a lot of shallow splash areas, so i think we might go. Abby really figured it out, and can swim front and back in a life jacket. She puts her head under water and everything. I am really proud of her. Isabel was a little young and decided to switch roles with Abby and be the stiff, terrified one. But she'll be fine. She also managed to swallow water and then barf in the pool, the one day Scott took them. Nice.
My Dad , stepmom, and brother came to visit from Switzerland via BC, so that was really nice. we had a lot of fun and saw a few sights here in Utah. It is good for the kids to get to see them now that they are old enough to remember them.

We went up Provo Canyon to a park to take some fall pictures, here is one of Sara, I will add more later, I just thought this was sweet.




Yesterday Isabel's Joy school had a field trip to the pumpkin patch at Thanksgiving point. There were a ton of different things to do. We took Abby since it was something we probably wouldn't get to with Scott leaving. Here is a little photo op, I will also add more about this later.

I am glad enough of you care about us to complain about our lack of updates. We wish you all a happy fall!

The chickens are finally starting to earn their keep!

So I thought you all would be excited to hear that our dear little ladies have finally produced little brown eggs. We don't know who, or if it was one or two of them, but they made some eggs. Scott found them today, on the ground in the coop, so we'll have to teach them where to do it, but we are excited! Now I need an egg cookbook!

Isabel has started a dance class which she loves, mostly because of the outfit, but she does pretty well. It is a Ballet\Jazz\Tumbling class with about six 3 yr olds.

Abby met with her kindergarten teacher today and will start on monday. She is so excited!

July flew by in the blink of an Eye!

For 4th of July weekend we went camping with Kim and Jane down in the mountains by Emery. It turned out to be a regular adventure getting down there with the radiator hose blowing off Scott's Blazer and all kinds of fun things. Luckily we were behind him in the van and were able to get back to town and fill it all back up. A three hour trip turned into a 5 hour marathon. The girls had a lot of fun riding the 4 wheelers and playing adventures inthe trees with some of their cousins. We did not get a lot of sleep, but that wasn't too suprising.

A neighbor of ours had a splash party and the girls had a lot of fun with that. They have a lot of friends in the neighborhood. Abby is the one jumping, and Isabel is the rainbow one hanging on the edge.

Abby got to have 2 birthdays. We had her friend party on the 19th. It was a bug birthday with a spider cake, spider cupcake decorating, decorating a bug house and then going on a bug treasure hunt. I think all the girls had a fun time. We then had Grandma and Grandpa Watson x 2 over on Monday for her actual birthday. Her favorite presents were a marble race set and a Furberry.

On a hot day we went up the South Fork of Provo Canyon for a picnic. The creek was shallow and the girls all loved playing in it. We liked it too!

The last major event for July was Scott finally getting word that he had gotten a job with the US Forest Service as a law enforcement officer. The job will be in Monticello but we will not move for more than 6 months because he has to do training, more than 3 months in Georgia and then 3 months of ride-alongs in different places around here. After he got the offer and before we had to answer, we went down to Monticello and checked it out. Scott and I went there on our honeymoon, but the B&B we stayed at is something else now. It was a long trip, but good to see the place. It was their Pioneer Days, so there was a parade and fireworks which the older girls loved, Sara not so much. She was pretty sick and miserable the whole time which made it kinda stressful for us, but it's all better now. The petroglyph pic is Newspaper rock, with thousands of years of drawings. Monticello is 50 miles south of Moab and has a lot of great outdoor stuff to do. The town is pretty tiny itself.

The rest of the time we have just been around the house, trying to take care of the crazy weeds and the chickens and not get completely scorched. We have gotten our first big squash out of the garden which is very exciting for the girls.

June Events

We have been busy this month! I thought we might be a little bored after preschool was done, but we have been trying to do a lot of fun stuff. The ever-impressive Pony Express Days happened on Scott's drill weekend, so we went to the fair Thursday night and the girls and I went to the parade by ourselves on Saturday. They loved the candy, Sara wanted to be out in the road so that was a little difficult for me, but next year she will love it! The girls loved the fair and going on a few rides. We also played grab-a-duck to win tiny "nemo" fish in different colors so they each had one.

We made an attempt at fishing at Tibble Fork resevoir. It was a friday morning, but there were quite a few people there, so we didn't stay long. The girls have their Disney Princess poles and Scott really tried to fish while I entertained Sara. The main event became throwing rocks into the water, which is always fun.

Last weekend we took some friends up to the top of Lake Mountain (the mountain behind our house) The girls always ask to go up there, but it takes a while. So we got our picnic together and drove up, we saw lots of beautiful wildflowers, and one deer. We picnicked on the top, then drove to the edge to look down on Eagle Mountain. Then we drove to the other side to look down at Utah valley. Good times.

The last major event happened yesterday....Abby learned how to ride a 2 wheeler! I have been working with her for a few weeks in the few non-scorching moments we have. I looked up a few tips on the internet and they seemed to work because she got it. Now she just needs a little practice. We are so proud of her! This will make walks a lot easier. We will move her up to a bigger bike I got at a garage sale, and give Isabel the bike with training wheels back on it, then we'll all be cruisin'