our weekend!

Another visit to the Gilbert area.. I love to go, but hate that I never have enought time to get everything done! I would love to have enough time to catch up (go to lunch) with each of my friends there, go shopping to all the stores I can't go to here (which is about every store), and eat at all the places we miss! ... but we still had a good time!

FRIDAY... we went to the temple. Our good friends the Farnsworth's watched our kids. Wayne and I were doing sealings. (we haven't done them forever!) It was such a wonderful experience. I love being in that Holy place and looking at my sweet husband and remembering that day 8 yrs. ago when we were married! What a happy day. I couldn't help but keep smiling at him and thinking "I'm a lucky girl!!" I was so thankful we made time for the temple.

After the temple we went to the Basha High school ft. ball game where SUMMER Farnsworth was cheering. Years ago, my awesome sister made my girls outfits to match Summer's. Everytime they wear it to one of her games.. they get a lot of attention! Look how cute they are!!

My girls have wanted to be cheerleaders ever since we started going to Summer's games. It was way before Maci came along. The two cheer outfits used to be for Haylee and Hanna.. now Haylee is way to big!

Me and Summer Lou.. She's so sweet and like a little sister to me.. and big sister to my girls!

NEXT.. we rushed over to the end of Wayne's nephews game. Wayne loves to be at his games. JD is so cute and such a great kid! He really impresses me and I hope one day I can have a boy as great as him!

I love how all the kids are looking up to JD!

SATURDAY.... Layton "fall/halloween" party! There was not a weekend before Halloween that it worked for us to get together.. so we had our annual party last weekend at David and Joanna's house. It is always fun, but I thought this year was especially great!

We had a bouncer....

Lots of sweet girls!

A GREAT dinner.. food is always good with the Laytons!

My girls LOVE to get re-acquainted with cousins!

Then.. we split in to groups and went to different booths (ran by the women).. this was the HUMAN TARGET SHOOTING boothHot Potato (I mean pumpkin)

FACE PAINTING... by me and Amber

Kessa and Maci.. so cute! (they are 4 months apart!)

Always basketball!

Who is the great artist you ask??? :)

The highlight of the night! CHUB RABBIT! This has been a tradition since Wayne was a boy.. His grandma made up this character, and he comes to every Halloween party with treats out of his garden.. This was the first year my kids weren't afraid of him!

I don't have many picture of the boy cousins... but here are a lot of cute girlies!

NEXT.. we roasted marshmellows and made smores!

A perfect way to end the great night!

Other great pics....

All the men in the family! Sorry girls, but my hubby has got to be the cutest! :) ( The Layton men all make fun to me because of the way I always brag about Wayne!)

All the women! I am so lucky to have married in to such an awesome family. I can honestly say all of these girls are my great friends! I love to get together and catch up and learn from them.. They are all amazing moms!

LAST... Sleepover ast Grandma's and Pop's... Our family, and Brad and Amber's family are the only one's who live out of town. We boths stayed at Mom and Pop's and our girls had so much fun sleeping together! We have a lot of fun memories with Brad and Amber and Annie when we all lived in the townhomes. It is fun for our girls to get to know eachother again!!

Halloween FuN!!

Presenting our very own....

Cheerleader..... Hannah Montana...... and Ballerina Maci and her favorite cousin/friend.... Addy

School Parade

Haylee originally picked this witch costume.. she wore it in the school parade, and then changed her mind for the evening carnival... She looked cute in both costumes!

School Carnival

All the Palmer cousins that live in town...

Fish pond...

Petting the cute baby goats

TRICK OR TREAT!

We only trick or treated to one house (they got enough candy at the carnival).. The girls loved showing off their costumes to Steven and Kami!

MURDER MYSTERY PARTY!!!

I know.. hillarious! We were invited to a murder mystery party and of course I said yes... WELL Wayne was not excited at all. This is SO far out of his comfort zone. It was a scene based off of the show "the OFFICE". Neither of us were character from the show, just visiting for the work party. Here were our character decriptions:

Katy: handbag saleswoman, attractive clothes, tight skirt, boots, fancy hair, very vain! (thanks so my friend Sharlie for helping me get all decked out!)

Milton: Nerdy, speaks under your breath, always looking down, unsure of yourself, very skittish

Luckily no one else knew your role, and their wasn't a script, so we just played it by ear. Wayne was a great sport and it was a lot of fun! Neither of us were made for acting. But it was a great group and fun storyline! Here is our group...

A "Spook"latular FHE!!!!

We had such a fun Haloween FHE on Monday! My mom is out of town (fishing with her brothers) ... so we had my dad, Travis, Steven, Kami over to join the party! Haylee gave a sweet lesson! She is painfully shy in front of anyone! but did a great job! Then......

We carved pumpkins...
the girls weren't so sure about getting the goo out, but they like the carving...

our pumpkin.. Haylee picked the castle!

Travis drew this scorpion by hand! He's amazing!

Steven and Kami's pumpkin.. Nice pose Max! (that's his middle name.. that's all I call him!)
My cute dad.. poor guy wasn't feeling so hot! Our next event...

We "booed" some families around town... (now the word is out for those of you that we did that are reading our blog!)

the girls didn't like the idea of knocking and running..

but after a couple of tries (if max and kami held them).. they loved it!

and to end the night perfectly....

Apples dipped in carmel and white chocolate!!

I love the holidays!! Happy Halloween!

Hay Hay

Haylee 1st grade picture

Haylee has been printing her name on her assignments at school as "Hay Hay"... She's so cute! Well my cute hubby is off to Mesa for a continuing education class.. so what else would I be doing besides blogging! (I hate when he is gone!) I have been meaning to write my feeling about my sweet Haylee. I remember when she was my first and only child. We had so much fun together, just the two of us. We were like best friends. I still love being with her and we still always talk, but those are sweet memories! I am so thankful to have Haylee in our family! I love her beautful hair and cute freckles! Our family wouldn't be the same without her. She is such a big help with her sisters. She is learning so fast and is so much like Wayne (no wonder I love her so much!) There have been a couple things lately that have happened with her that I want to remember...

The other day Hay came home from school and our routine was pretty normal coming back from the bus stop:

Me: "How was your day"

Hay: "Good"

Me: "Who did you play with" (a question I ask about every day"

Hay: Anna, Taylor, Kenon (I had her the first two names but not the 3rd)

Me: "Is Kenon a boy or girl"

Hay: "A boy"

Me: (curious) "What did you guys do?"

Hay: "Just walked around and played on the swings... Kenon is a boy in my class. His mom came in to class and told us he learned to read when he was little, but he can't talk very well. He is different, so I wanted to play with him!"

Ok.. I about cried! I was so proud. I know that might now seem like a big deal to anyone else, but I thought it was awesome! One thing I definately want to teach my kids is to be nice to EVERYONE and treat them all nice! It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks of you, as long as you are doing what's right!

Our other experience was a little different. It was right before bedtime, Hay had just finished brushing her teeth. She came in to talk to me and said:

Hay: "Mom, someone at school said I don't brush me teeth good enough"

Me: (trying not to be mad) "what? who said that? why?"

Hay: ____ (I won't write her name)

She tries to tell me more and then starts SOBBING!! I couldn't stand it! I just held her in my arms and got teary eyed and waited until she could talk. She has a cavity in middle of her two front teeth, so I thought maybe that was why they said something. So again I asked...

Me: "why did they say that?"

Hay: "because of my silver teeth. She said if her mom told her that if she doesn't brush good enough she will have to get these" (Haylee has been proud of her silver teeth up until this point. He dentist calls them her princess teeth)

I told Haylee that she is beautiful no matter what anyone else says and that her silver teeth are so cute! I tried to make her understand it doesn't matter what other people think. Again this might not seem like a big deal, but it was my first experience with some one making fun on my girl! My heart hurt in a whole new spot! I hated to see her so upset and heartbroken. I was so glad she would come talk to me. I told her to tell the girl if they ever say anything again to tell them that her mom would bust them up! (I know not the best idea, but that's what I felt like!) She felt better once we talked and hasn't had any problems since, but wow.. I am in for a wakeup call when I have 3 teenage girls!! I love them all and I'm lucky to be their mom!!

GRahAm COuNty FaIr!!

Who doesn't love a small town fair! It is the big thing in town here! Thatcher schools are even let out of Friday for "fair day"! I love it! It is always fun to have Haylee home from school! We started the morning off with the parade with our Palmer cousins. Then Wayne got off work early and came with us to ride some rides. The girls loved being there!.... (so do I) and Wayne is a great sport! Each of the girls rode a couple rides with either Wayne or I. Then Wayne is always so nice to let me go on a couple "big kid" rides! Since he doesn't love them, I found a couple people to go with me. My little brother Travis rode one ride with me and then I rode with Camille Daley Haymore on the other one! They were both so fun. I was screaming the whole time about how I hated it.. then when it was over I wanted to go again! I can't handle crazy spinning rides since I have had babies, but these two were so fun! The girls probably think their mom is crazy, but we had a great time!! After the rides, we went over to see the animals. The girls loved seeing all the birds their uncle Travis put in! He put their name on a pigeon and it got a blue ribbon! After the fair, we went to eat with my mom at La Casita!! YUM! Then my mom is the awesomest lady.. she took our kids to her house and let them have a sleep over since I had a garage sell early in the morning with my sister in laws and Wayne would be at work! She's the best! It was a WONDERFUL weekend!!

My three cuties!

Haylee by her prize winning pigeon!

and cute Hanna

Grandpa and Grandma with Maci

At the parade... my girls and Kemilee Maci's favorite ride
Haylee and Travis
One of my favorite rides.. the boat (cheesy smile I know!)

I think my girls were more excited about the cotton candy than any ride! Me and Camille on "cliffhanger"... so fun!

My girls and Layton going on the Farris Wheel!
Always a favorite...
Good times...

10 year reunion!!

I graduated from Thatcher High School 10 year ago! I can't believe how fast time has flown by!! Last weekend was my reunion. It was so much fun! I love any social event, but it was especially fun to get together with old friends and catch up! So many of the people I graduated with live here now. Lots of our kids go to school together. (I sound old saying that!) There were lots of people at the reunion that I get to see at ft. ball games, soccer, church events, etc, but it was fun to spend a couple of days with them and their families. I was sad because my BFF :) from Highschool, Camille Wright (Wakild), couldn't come. Her husband is in the airforce and they live in Oklahoma. We were inseperable in high school and did everything together. Most of the time when someone saw me, they saw Camille too! I really wish she could have been here! Here are some picture of our fun weekend! By the way, wayne wasn't looking forward to this event, being as social as he is! :) but he did SO great and was such a trooper! I was proud to show him off!

FRIDAY: We went to the assembly and rode in the parade on a firetruck. Then that night went to the ft. ball game and sat together. After the game we went to Jenni Bryce's family's party barn and hung out and ate and talked! It was such a great day, but I forgot my camera!!

SATURDAY: We had a lunch at the elementary school with all our families. The kids played and we all got to visit! That night we had a catered dinner from Casa (yum!) and then watched a video from our highschool days, and then visited and played rock band. Good times!
These were all the people in our class that attended the Saturday night part of our reunion! We only graduated with about 120 people, so this was a pretty good turn out!
After a catered dinner and a movie (made by a guy in our grade who now works in Hollywood on movies).. we played rock band! We had it projected onto a huge screen. I wasn't the best guitar player, but it was so fun!
Mark Farris, his wife Mandy, Andy Wright, and Erin Simmons (sorry, forgot her married name).. sucking helium out of the balloons after the party!

Standing around talking and catching up!

Tommy Nicholas has this awesome "train" and brought it to the Saturday get together at the park with our kids. It was a big hit! Even the adults got to ride!


This is my friend Karalee Lunt Malalea (i never spell it right!) We met at EA and she has been one of my closest friends. She married one of my best guy friends from high school. It was so fun to have her at the reunion with her cute baby and Aaron. They even spent the night at my house. It was an awesome weekend!

Find Joy in the Journey.. NOW

Can I just say I LOVE conference. We are so blessed! I used to hate conference as a teenager and I guess it's proof that I am maturing a little, because I seriously look forward to it now. I feel so relaxed (from sitting at home snuggling with my cute hubby and kiddos) and so uplifted by the awesome men and women who lead our church. We are learning more and more that Maci is quite the talker, and doesn't want to stop... but we were about to enjoy her little conversations and conference at the same time! I think President Monson is amazing. He is such a great speaker and my favorite talk of conference was given by him today in the morning sessions. I loved how he told us to find joy in the journey NOW... (I will be making that in vinyl to put in my house as a little reminder.) I know that my little cute girls won't stay little long and I just need to love every little moment with them. I am so lucky to be their mom and lucky to be a member of such a great church!! I loved all of conference and the RS broadcast last week! Hopefully I can remember how I feel and stick to my new goal of enjoying the journey!!

I have so much more to post about
-my 10 year reunion... so fun!
-some really proud and sad moments with Haylee
-bunko with my awesome college friends
-how Maci is getting so hillarious and thinks she really is a mom
-my projects i'm working on
-how Hanna is always writing me cute notes and playing polly pockets with me!

BUT FOR NOW.. I'm going to enjoy Layton while the girls are sleeping and we can talk with out anything else going on!

Instructions...

I have so much blogging to catch up on.. but for now, I am giving you a link to the intructions for the cute pumpkins I made. I hate to even give you this girls blog address, because her pumpkins are TONS cuter than mine. I don't know this girl personally, but I am obsessed with her blog!! Anyone who lives close, I would love to show you, or get together to make pumpkins!! I got all my material at good ol' WALMART! I won't keep you in suspence any longer... The link is: http://bloggingwithholly.blogspot.com/2008_08_01_archive.html Just scroll down until you see the pumpkins... Good luck and have fun!!