Busy Bee

Fall Field Trip

Emma and I had our first "field trip." I hope to have a fun field trip quarterly that will be a full day or two of seasonal activities. This was our first and I had so much fun with Emma and love how excited and appreciative she is about everything we do. Our first stop was Firehouse Pizza for lunch. I loved having lunch with just her and asking her questions and giving her my undivided attention, instead of just trying to keep her quiet. Firehouse is a must on Tuesdays because kids eat free :) Gotta love that!


Our next stop was to my favorite store ever, Dear Lizzie. It's in Alpine and it has jewelery, a clothing boutique, fancy sweets, and the cutest home decor. I have yet to buy anything from there but I'm just happy to walk around and soak up it's magic.

If I were to ever buy anything from this store, which it's incredibly overpriced so I doubt I ever will, I would want to buy this glittery chandelier, this is what I call a real treasure (as far as home decor goes)

Emma had been such a good girl all day, considering she never had a nap, and so I thought I would spoil her with an ice-cream sundae. Ice-cream and sugar is something this girl doesn't see much of. The funny part is that we didn't even finish half of it....fine by me!

Next we were off to Corn Belly's, her most favorite place ever. These pictures are inside the Lizard's body. It is rather scary, but that's the fun of taking your little toddler in there.

Corn Belly's could entertain kids all day! Sadly, a little goes a long way with me, so we only stayed 2 hours.

After Corn Bellys we cruised down to Provo for me to complete one of my goals for the year and spend the night with my Aunt Yevon. She made us a yummy dinner and we stayed up late talking. It went just as I had hoped and I'm sooo glad I went. It's definitely something I need to do more often.

Von treated us to breakfast at Kneader's Bakery for some yummy french toast . It was so good and just hit the spot. Afterwards we went to see Rick at the courthouse. That was sooo interesting to me. I think everyone should get a chance to see Rick in action, it's quite entertaining to take a step out of the bubble that most of us live in.

After my morning with Yevon I went to Gardner Village to meet up with Tracy and her girls Emmy and Ally. They have so much fun together and it's great to have kids that get along so well. We saw the witches and let the big girls have a pony ride as well.

Allyson was so good to just sit in her stroller and watch the big girls have all the fun.

I can't think of anything that would have made these past two days more fun. This little girl of mine is pretty much the luckiest girl I know.

This is a very RARE occasion when Emma just chills out and falls asleep in the car, but who can blame her after 2 of the best days of her life :) Nothing is sweeter to me than a sleeping child.

Witches Night Out

Witches Night out this year was so much fun! I went with the same girls as last year. This is Staci Jensen and I and below is my sister Sara and Tiffany Jensen. The tip to having a good time is go in a small group, no more than 5. Go on Saturday night, the crowds are still insane but much better than Friday. Also, you should get there at 5:30, scope some things out and get your dinner reservations in. We just had so much fun and the four of us get along great!

We had the yummiest dinner at Archibald's. Our tradition is to order a plate of fried green tomatoes and fried avocado and enjoy every bite without feeling guilty.

Here's Tiffany with some of our favorite Christmas decorations.

Staci picking out the cutest ever place settings for the Holidays.

Out on the dance floor

Ogden Nature Center

Yesterday we had a little family activity at the Ogden Nature Center. We've never been before and it's included free with our Dinosaur Park Membership so we thought we would check it out. Emma loved the little owl and was also very fascinated with the dead mouse it had just eaten.

The trails were fantastic! We pretty much had the whole 152 acres to ourselves. We saw a lot of birds and dozens of deer.

There were so many fun places to explore and I'm already planning a fun party here for sometime next year.

This was what I would consider a perfect day. The weather was just right, and the colors were beautiful! Emma and I had so much fun playing in the leaves.

They had this cool little "mouse hole" that Emma loved....until she hit her head coming out of it, shown here in the second picture. I just LOVE spending time with my little family.

Witches Night Out

For anyone who has never been to Witches Night Out you must make it happen this year!! This picture is of me and my friend Staci from last year when we went. Seriously, aside from vacations that was the funnest night all year. The deals and sales are amazing, the restaurant Archibald's is sooo yummy (but it has a 3 hour wait that night so put your name in) and the chance to step out of character is such a nice change.

Here is Gardner Village's description of the evening...

WITCHES’ NIGHT OUT!Oct 24, 2008 Thru Oct 25, 2008 Witches love any excuse to have fun and throw a party. Ladies...join your fellow sister witches for this evening out. An event just for ladies 18 years and older! Plan now to wear your most elaborate hat or costume, Gardner Village will be filled with enchanting witches from 6 pm to 10 pm both nights. Enter the drawing for one of five, $100 Gardner Village shopping sprees and other fun prizes at 10 pm nightly. Also enjoy an emcee, dancing, music, food booths and more. Stop to have your fortune told, enjoy spellbinding activities in our shops, and join the Witches Parade at 8 pm nightly. Leave the children with the sitter and grab your witchy friends for this spellbinding ladies night out.

It is just so fun! Make it happen!

The LONGEST BEST day ever....for Emma

On Saturday we had a party at my parent's house. We started in the morning at 9:00 by helping them prepare their property for winter. I worked for 2 hours and can't believe how very little I got done. I can't believe they used to do all of this by themselves!!


After working my mom made us a very yummy lunch. These "mummy dogs" are a great hit with adults and kids for the Halloween season.


After lunch we enjoyed one of our favorite traditions that my mom calls "Door Prizes." The kids go around to every different door on the property and trick or treat. They went to the garage door, front door, back door, playhouse door, barn door, guesthouse door, bunk house door, and the fort entry. After making the loop twice their little goodie bags were filled to the brim.

Emma is soooo lucky to have so many cousins and second cousins that she gets to see on a regular basis.




We went straight from my parents to Lily and Jack Stower's birthday party. We just love Holly and Cody's families and are always so flattered when we get invited to come to their events. Holly did a great job on having fun Halloween games and Halloween treats, I wish I would have got better pictures.

She had a doughnut eating contest for all the dads and Ryan got pretty into it. His doughnut was covered in grass at one point but he just kept on going.




Next it was on to the Treehouse Museum for their Enchanted Woods event. They have costumed storybook tellers throughout the museum who share tales and treats for the kids. We went with the Malmbergs and although Emma and Addi were a bit young, they still had fun dressing up and getting out.


At the very end they see a large costumed dragon re-enact a storybook tale on stage. The girls were quite mesmerized. Ryan and I have a phrase we use often, we like to summarize the day's activities by saying "This was a good day to be Emma."

Wednesday Traditions

For most of the Fall we have made a really fun family night every Wednesday. We take Emma to gymnastics and then afterwards we go down to 25th street and take her to their park there, which is my favorite play structure, and Ryan and I order 2 for 1 tacos at the little taco stands and we have dinner there. Then we play tag and hide and seek with Emma and usually have the park all to ourselves. I think this will be the activity I miss the most when the rain and snow comes.