A Kelly Halloween

Sorry for the hyper posting of every event lately, but I'm trying to keep Dave part of the action while he's 2,000 miles away!

It was time for the annual Halloween dinner at the Kelly's on Sunday. We had a great time and appreciate all of their preparation for such a fun night and good food!

Romey and our little honey bee.

spooky dinner

Stay tuned for more Halloween pics!

the after party

As much fun as we had at witches' night out on Friday, the night was still not over for us party girls. I forgot that my friends were having a get together at Katy's new house, so Anna and I headed from Gardner Village across town to see some of our favorite people. I can't always make it when my friends get together in the day, so I didn't want to miss out on the fun while I had the chance. It was already past Anna's bedtime, but as soon as she saw her boyfriends Will and Max, she was ready to party again. Plus Katy has pretty cool toys too. I know I always say this whenever I get together with my friends, but I always think how lucky I am to have them whenever I leave from a get together. We have so much fun together and I am so grateful they put up with me. They are all great examples and I hope to be like them when I grow up! Sorry, no pics - too busy chatting.

Witches' Night Out

Anna was lucky enough to get invited to her cousin Romey's annual "Witches Night Out" party at Gardner Village. It's so cute how much those two love each other and they're 7 years apart! The criteria for the event was for Anna to dress like a witch, so I tried my Target best, and ended up with a newborn witches' hat (a little snug!) and a "Hocus Pocus" T-shirt. And they coordinated great with her black skirt and tights and her silver shoes. But I don't think Anna liked it very much...

Anna, not very happy about being a witch

After I sang her favorite song to her (Little Bunny Foo Foo) she cheered up and we were on our way. (after one small stroller wheel casualty. ugh. I'm an idiot and almost ran over my whole stroller as I was backing out the driveway. Thank goodness for replacement parts!)

The first event was a witch manicure at the salon. I wasn't sure if Anna would go for it, but it turns out that she's ALL girl, because once the lady started painting her nails, Anna was mesmerized and didn't even squirm too much. Anna chose a sparkly orange color for her nails. Yes, I know it sounds a little ridiculous that my 10-month got a manicure, but it was all in the spirit of girly-ness and Halloween!

Anna's first manicure (well actually, just nail painting)

And here we both are with our lovely new witches nails

Now that our nails were done, we were ready for the ultimate witch event, the witches' wagon ride. I had never done this before and it was so cute. Our charming witch guide took us around the village in a little horse wagon along with her toad and jack-o-lanterns. She told us some spooky jokes and rhymes and was a lot of fun. She gave all of the kids her jack-o-lantern lights and Anna wouldn't let go of hers. She thought the witch was so fascinating and loved watching all of her animated expressions.

And we ended the evening with a stop at the candy store and a quick stroll around for witch hunting. We only found a few because we were getting hungry and chilly. Thank you Romey and Sue for a fun witches' night out!

I spy...

two more new teeth coming in for Anna. Total tooth count now is 7!

Warning for Bumbos!

Be Careful With Bumbo

I saw this on the news this morning and just wanted to pass it along because I know these Bumbo seats are a popular item these days. When Anna started arching her back trying to get out of hers, that's when I decided to retire the Bumbo. They really are great little chairs, but just be careful once they get old enough to squirm out of them. Just wanted to warn you!

Tres Cousins

Our Colorado cousins were in town last weekend! (Morgan's family) It was so fun to see them and the sweet boys. Here are 3 of the 4 Boyack babies for the traditional Gaylynne portrait session. Anna, Matthew, and Caroline. We missed you baby Nate! Anna is so lucky to have such fun cousins her age in both my family and Dave's (but they're far away!). We hope to see you soon Nora Jayne and Alli!

Scarecrows, Horses, and Caroline, Oh my!

Last week my mom was lucky enough to get to watch Caroline for a couple of days while Ryan and Darcie were enjoying some time in paradise. We decided to take Anna and Caroline out to Wheeler farm to check out the animals together. Well, as you can see from the pictures, they were really excited to be there.



There was a tractor down the road and we could not get either of them to take their eyes off of it! No matter how many songs we sang, or silly faces we pulled, or how many times we jumped up and down. I'm sure we looked like 2 looney's trying to get this picture.


Checking out the horses. Decided not to get them out for this. I didn't want Anna touching them since some kids in my ward got e-coli from the petting zoo at the fair. Scary huh?!

The best part of the day was while we were on our way back to the cars and the girls were strolling side by side. They kept leaning forward to look at one another and then they reached out to hold hands. Cute huh? I didn't get a picture, but I'm sure my mom did. I'm bet they just wanted to grab each other and not really hold hands, but it sure looked cute. It will be so fun to watch these to girls grow up together! Whenever I show Anna a picture of Caroline she gets so excited and wants to hold it. We wish our other cousins were closer to play together too!

Poser

A couple of Sunday's ago I got the camera out to take a picture of Anna, and she knew just what to do! Check out her poses...

Gone to Carolina

Dave left today to go to North Carolina for a rotation at Wakeforest for a whole month! Boy are we going to miss him! It's funny because he's gone a lot of the time with school already, but knowing that he's so far away for so long makes it harder for some reason. It already feels boring without him here. This is a great opportunity for him though, and I know it will be a great experience and he'll learn a lot from it. I just wish we could be there with him! I'm glad that we're private now, so that I can actually talk about this. I would be a little worried telling the whole world wide web that I'll be home alone. Just in case there are any creepies reading this somehow, we have an alarm and you'll totally get busted if you try and kidnap our baby! (OK, sorry for the paranoia spout) And warning to any blog readers out there...I am going to try and post a lot while he's gone to keep him up to date our on boring lives, so there may be lots of pointless info and pictures for the next month! So don't say I didn't warn you!

Besides the big departure of our man, I am feeling nervous, anxious, and excited these days. Kind of like I'm on a rollercoaster slowly going up the big hill and it's about to make the big plunge and swirl and twirl around and go upsidedown and be all over with in 15 seconds. From now on it seems like we have one event right after another and it's just going to be a whirlwind. Two days after Dave gets home from North Carolina we leave on a big trip for a week. Two days after that, we go to LA for part of the Boards that Dave is required to take. The day after we get home, it's Anna's 1st Bday! Then starts residency interview season and oh ya, Christmas and our anniversary. The week after Christmas, Dave takes the rest of the boards. From there it's Dave's bday, more interviews, Dave goes to Guatemala for 10 days, then match day, then sell our house (hopefully!), find a new place to live in a city TBD, graduation, move, start residency. Whew! See what I mean? It's going to be next summer before we know it. It's all exciting stuff, sure, but it makes me anxious at the same time. I hope I can just hold on tight and enjoy the ride. It's funny because I just realized that I was only thinking of this from my perspective, but Dave will really be the one feeling it since most of these events revolve around him. Silly me. He is so strong and always prepared though. I know he will do a great job on this rotation in Wakeforest and knock the socks off all of the schools he'll interview at. (sorry, not to turn this into a braglog, but I believe in my husband! Can you blame me?) We love you Dave and miss you and we wish you the best of luck as you start your rotation tomorrow!

Streets of Gold

Ahhh FALL! Don't you just love the crispness in the air and that certain smell that fall brings? As excited as I am for fall, I still can't quite believe it's here. I feel like I got jipped of summer. Where did it go? I haven't even gotten my spring cleaning done yet! Okay, so I'm a few seasons behind, but in my neighborhood, you can't miss the changes that come with this season. We have so many lush, full, old trees. I love it! They give us so much nice shade in the summer, and in the fall, they give us a rainbow of colors up and down our streets.

My favorite street in our neighborhood is a block or so away from our house and it's not a through street. It's a loop and it's where we have our parade on the 4th of July. They have the best trees and they always turn the brightest orangey-yellow. Since most people have kept their trees on this street, they're all so tall and they form this beautiful archway over the street. When the leaves start to fall from these trees, they cover the street and it is picturebook perfection. This is the week! Since it will probably be our last Fall in this neighborhood, I wanted to soak in the process this time. We went for a walk on Sunday and the change was just beginning.

It's perfect timing for the leaves to fall. Since it hasn't rained (yet) they're still all nice and crunchy and the neighborhood kids are all out raking and playing in the leaves.

The change happened so fast this year. By Wednesday, all of the leaves had changed and most had fallen with the wind. We had to take a walk to capture this, but it was starting to get dark.

So as I was driving past yesterday, I pulled over and snapped a quick shot before they're all gone and cleaned up. The pictures don't quite do it justice.

They're just something about fall isn't there? I love Fall Conference of my church too. It's so nice to stay inside and listen to such uplifting thoughts all weekend. I'm not sure why, but I was so emotional throughout it all this time. I got teary-eyed at almost every talk I heard. I'm so glad we have this twice a year to hear from our sweet prophet and to be inspired to try and do better. So, back to Fall. I'm loving it now, but I will be cursing it in about a month when our tree decides to shed its leaves. We have a great (huge!) tree, but its always the last to bloom in the spring, and the last to change and drop in the fall. So our leaves are usually the gross slimey ones that are no fun to clean up. We usually have about 50 + bags of leaves in front of our house by the time we're done cleaning them up. Plus this year, I'll be doing it on my own since Dave will probably be in North Carolina. Stay tuned for the post with bags and bags of leaves...Despite this, I still love Fall, putting on a cozy sweater, and lighting a pumpkin candle.

daydreaming through pages of a catalog

If money was not an object...

I would buy this for Anna to sleep in...

$47,000

And this fun armoire...

$49,000

And get her her very own cool mini door...$1,900

And isn't this the cutest playhouse? (It's nicer than our house!)

$24,000

And as I continue to daydream... I would quit my job and...

I would hire a maid

and a personal family chef

And a gardener

Actually...can I get the cute gardener from Desperate Housewives?

Hey, it's my daydream!

And I would buy a car that had an automatic unlock button on the keys...

And I would play with Anna all day long.

But back to reality. Obviously that is not our life, but it sure is fun to daydream! It's probably good though, Anna would be spoiled silly, and maybe I would become lazy with the lack of cleaning, laundry, cooking, and yard work. Hmmm. Actually, no I think I could get used to life without all of those tasks. But the reality is, we're students and we're doing our best to enjoy life as it is now. Even with the juggling of jobs and school and general busyness. Cutting coupons and saving money where we can. (although I do recognize that we have it pretty good for student life) And my goal still every day is to play with Anna as much as I can. Do you blame me? She is so fun! She is truly PRICELESS. And somehow we manage to survive without the old woman's shoe armoire or a princess coach bed.