September

 For Labor day we had 21 members of my extended family come over for breakfast and an Amazing Race scavenger hunt.  Super fun!!  I hope to make it an annual tradition.

The teams had to find street signs, dig in the sand for a clue, find family names on headstones at the cemetery, compete in a blindfolded race across a playground, and then make their way to a park and find me so they could check in and not be eliminated.  Then we all added a service to provide for one another as the prizes.  Looking forward to doing this again.  I love having a home large enough to host family parties.

Emma and her dad, these two are as close as a father and daughter could ever be.

At the park after the race with my darling sister Sara and her two boys.  

 After the breakfast and race we all went to the Logan pool for our last swim of the year.  Sara and I just happened to show up in the same swimsuit.

 One night we had some family over for home made sushi rolls.  Let me just say, it was fun when we first learned how to make them.  Now, we're pretty played on it.  They're a lot of work and not nearly as yummy as the professionals.  So, this was our last sushi party, but it was delicious and fun introducing the food to the family.  Everyone was pretty good sports about trying them too :)

I finally pulled it together and had my family take some photos.  It's been a year and a half since our last photo, so this was long over due.  I'm saving my favorite photo for our Christmas card.

My Aunt Lee took them, so a big thank you to her.  Afterwards we checked out the fish at second dam.  There was a casualty, of course, as Lydia fell on her face.  She recovered with a smile when I told  her she was a sweet girl for giving the ground a hug.

 This was a month FULL of color.  I'm so glad I had so many chances to get out and hike, bike and explore in Logan Canyon.  Below is a hike I did with my aunt Lee.  GOR-GE-OUS!!

Then I did the same hike with my parents and my sister. It was so nice spending an afternoon with just my parents and sister.  It was like the good old days when just Sara and I lived at home.  We had great conversation and then washed the whole day down with lunch at the Crepery.

Just some random photos now.  Here's Bundy with his helicopter.  This really is fun for the whole family, and it takes a surprising amount of skill to fly this thing.

Ky- this photo is for you.  Here's Lydia catching and squashing a spider.  She's my good little bug and spider catcher.  I love that!!

 We celebrated our ten year anniversary this month.  It's been quite the ride for us and we've seen and been through a lot in our years together.  My favorite quote to sum up the last ten years is one I found on pinterest.  "The couples who are "meant to be" are the ones who go through everything that is meant to tear them apart and come out even stronger than they were before."  I'm so thankful for my husband and the daughters I have because of him. 

For our anniversary we farmed our girls out (a big thank you to my mom and Lee) and went to Ogden for the night.  We saw a movie at the Junction and then met up with the Tippings for dinner and great conversation and Zuppas.  Afterwards we headed up to Liberty and stayed at this darling little cottage.  We had a great time driving and reminiscing about our early years.  We had lunch at Eats the next day and then got home to our girls and let them go out to eat with us so they could celebrate our marriage as well.  Such a fun anniversary. 

Ry took the girls on an adventure up Logan Canyon and found them a snake.  Both girls wanted to keep it as pet, but we're not pet people, especially not for a snake!!

One day we took the girls to Mack Park and let them bring their toys to play by the creek while we had a picnic and read our books.  I can't say enough how much I love having kids who are the same gender and play so well together. 

We finally made our way up to Tony Grove.  We've heard about this place for years and I'm so glad we paused from our to-do list to get up here.  We went with the Jensens for a picnic and a beautiful hike around the lake.  I can't imagine a more beautiful season up here.  

Gymboree has the BEST bubbles....they take forever to pop!  This entertained the girls all morning.

We're getting settled into our neighborhood and have enjoyed getting to know our ward and neighbors.  There are some darling little kids who live across the street and it's fun having the kids come and go from one another's homes.  Just in case you were wondering, Lydia likes these neighbors and has fun with the kids, I don't know why she looks so upset.  Silly girl.

September was a great close to our summer, loaded with fun and beautiful colors, possibly my favorite September I've had in a long time.  We are loving our life here in Cache Valley.

Home Sweet Home

 We have recently moved to Hyde Park while we transition into our life here in Cache Valley.

This home has 

3249 sq. feet

6 bedrooms

2 1/2 baths

2 family rooms

1 extra large bonus room

1 garden shed

2 car garage
work benches

3 fireplaces

 This is the front family room.

The before and after of the kitchen are unreal.  I'll have to post the photos sometime when I get them from my mom.

 I'm so happy I finally found a little home for my violin I played when I was just a wee lass.

 I LOVE the natural light of this home.  We rarely have to turn the lights on.  Soooo helpful.

I have this table a little crammed into the corner because we are coming and going from the backyard so often.  However, this dining room is a great size for when we entertain and extend our table out to accommodate a large group.

This is the covered patio off the dining room.  We back a canal and a large field, sooooo lovely having privacy!

This is perhaps my favorite room of the house.  This is the play room/office.  The girls play in here for hours and I can sit at the computer and do my work.  It's a win/win for the whole family.  

Lydia's Room.

 I saw this on pinterest, so helpful.  You put a pool noodle under their fitted sheet and it serves as a bed rail.  Way better than having those large, bulky rails up.

 If you're renting, these banners are a great way to add color to a room without having to paint.

Emma's room.  This is the one wall in the house that we did paint.  And let me tell you, it was a doozy!!!  Glad it's over, and also I love how it turned out.

I took a tip from pinterest and painted Emma's fan pink.  We are fan people and it's nice not to have to hide it away every morning.  I redid Emma's old dresser with new paint and new fabric to the side of it.  The Eiffel tower is Emma's night light, I found those rose lights at Cannon Beach, they're my favorite!  Both the girls are funny, after all the work I go through on their rooms (and they really do love them and are so appreciative about it) their favorite thing is their light switch plates, go figure.

This is the girl's bathroom.....

 ....that connects to our bathroom.  We thought we would hate this at first, but it's actually QUITE nice.

 our bathroom

 Our bedroom

Another pinterest inspired project.   Except I used fabric and starch and pinterest suggest paper and modge podge.  I love how this turned out :)

Our bedroom has a sliding glass door that leads out to this deck and the backyard.

 My favorite part of this yard....the hammock and a good book!!

That cement square is a basket ball court, which we have transformed into an art studio specializing in sidewalk chalk drawings.

If you go downstairs we have our laundry room that leads to the garage

An extra family room that we don't use, as well as an extra bedroom that we use for storage.

This spare room is used to store all of our coats (we have quite the collection) and is also where Ryan gets some peace and quiet to do his homework.

Our guest bedroom has ZERO windows.  So if ever you want to sleep in, this is the place to do it.  Also this is my favorite room to nap in :)

The guest bathroom

Well, that's it.  Hopefully we will be here for a while.  I counted, and it's not pretty, but since Lydia was born (3 years ago) we have called 9, yes......N-I-N-E different places home.  Yeah.  We're hoping for some stability, but we'll just take it one day at a time.  We're so happy to be here and I just need to give a shout out to my parents (especially my mom) for making it happen.