Room Mom Halloween Party

 This year, I volunteered to be Karmindy's Room mom for her kindergarten class. It has been so fun to not only volunteer and help out with centers every other week but it has been very fun to plan her class parties. I have really enjoyed it and Karmindy has enjoyed having me come into her class room to help out. On the day of Karmindy's party I had several fun centers for the kids to rotate around too. The kids played boo bowling where they rolled a Styrofoam pumpkin into paper towels dressed up like ghosts, the kids made spiders out of paper plates, ate donuts and apple juice, read a spooky Halloween Story and colored cute coloring pages. The kids had such a fun time and seemed to enjoy all the centers that I had planned. I love being a room mom and hope to be Kaleb's room mom next year!

Halloween Dance Party

Karmindy has truly enjoyed taking dance this year. She has been going on Tuesday mornings before kindergarten. She does tap for 30 minutes and ballet for 30 minutes. It has been so fun to watch her improve since signing her up for dance in September. For their class on the Tuesday before Halloween, Karmindy's teacher, Mrs. Charlee Mascaro had the girls dress up for dance class. Karmindy was so excited to dress up in her cute little witch costume and show it off to her teacher and classmates.Karmindy has also been so lucky to have her friend Madison Jackman in her ballet class. The two are inseparable.

Boy Scout Choir

For the past year and a half, I have had the opportunity to serve in the Stake Primary Presidency as the Secretary in My Stake. I have truly loved this calling and it has been so enjoyable to be able to visit the Primaries in our Stake and get to know the leaders and the children. I have had a lot of neat experiences with this calling and have enjoyed working with Sister Toni Ipson, Sister Marie McDougal, Danielle Christianson and Steve Thomas(high counselor over us). During one of our meetings, we were notified that the General Primary Presidency had chosen our Stake to participate in the 100th Year Celebration of Scouting in the Church. Since Our Stake had been chosen this meant a few of the Boy Scouts in our Stake could be chosen to participate in the special choir during the 100th Celebration Program. I was excited about this; especially since Kaleb had just turned 8, so he could possibly have the opportunity to participate in this once in a life-time event! There are 8 wards in our Stake and each ward could only choose 4 boys. The 1st Presidency only wanted the "cream of the crop" chosen to participate. Kaleb ended up being one of the lucky ones chosen from our ward. 

Kaleb had 6 practices that he had to attend to be able to sing in the Choir, the night of the program. It was such a neat experience for him. I was able to go and sign the boys in our Stake in when they arrived at the practices so I was able to listen to the Choir leader on several occasions teach the boys about our Country's History. He taught the boys the National Anthem and the stories behind it. The spirit was very strong in the room and I hope Kaleb will never forget this opportunity and experience. Kaleb practiced so hard for his performance at the Conference center.

Kaleb got to participate in the choir with one of his best friends, Anthony Nixon and his Brother Brandon.

On the night of the performance, Mark and I were able to go to the Conference center and watch the special program. It was such a neat experience to be able to see Pres. Monson, Pres. Uchdorf and Pres. Eyring come into the conference center before the program. You could have heard a pin drop, and everyone stood when they walked into the room and were escorted to their seats. They sat 2 sections over from us so I had a direct view of them and it was fun to watch them during the performance.

Kaleb came out and performed with over 100 boys scouts and sang the National Anthem. They were also able to participate in other parts of the program. The program was very spiritual and the spirit was in attendance. There were some great experience shared about the importance of the Boy Scout Program. Pres. Monson was given an award for getting the church involved in the program and his support with encouraging Boy Scouts into the church and the importance of Boy Scouts in boys lives. I didn't realize how much Pres. Monson had done to get the boy scout program started in the church. It was such a special evening.

I hope Kaleb will remember this night for years to come. I also hope he will be able to remember that he got to sing for the President of the Church and also listen to his testimony of Scouting and our Savior Jesus Christ. We are proud of you Kaleb and the special young man that you are becoming!

Feeding the Ducks....

 Karmindy is quite the social butterfly; especially when it comes to hanging out with the boys. I think it comes naturally to her since she has an older brother to play with and emulate. Karmindy has quite a few little "boy friends" in her classes at school, church and in our neighborhood. I am thankful that she can get a long with the boys and be rough and tumble but she also knows when to be girlie. On this particular day, Kaleb was at a Cub Choir Practice for the Century of Honor Scout Program at the Conference Center, we wished that we could've gone and watched him but only a select people were being allowed into the building during the practices. Since Kaleb was gone to his practice, Karmindy was feeling really left out, so we said she could invite a friend to go and do something. She chose her friend Keegan Smith. We picked Keegan up and took Karmindy and him to get some Chick Fil A for lunch and then headed to our favorite Herriman Park. We let Karmindy and Keegan eat, play on the playground and then lastly went over to the pond to feed the ducks some bread. Karmindy and Keegan had a great time together! I am so thankful for my kids friends!

Family Pictures

 I love getting family pictures done each year. Its so fun for me to see how much the kids have changed from year to year..We have been fortunate to have a few friends here in Northern Utah that are great photographers who are trying to break into the business of photography. This year, we had my friend Stephanie Sant take our family pictures. She did a great job and captured some darling pictures of our family. This year we headed to a park in Herriman to have our pictures taken. The park is beautiful and has a cute pond where people can fish and watch the ducks swim on the water. It has become a favorite park for our family to visit.

Witches Night Out

Witches Night Out happened again this year! This is the 4th year of hosting Witches Night out with a few of my neighborhood friends and I love to do it! This year I kept things simple and we met at my house and then took off to go and get some grub at Zuppas. It is always so fun to go into places all dressed up and see all the customers stare and ask us questions. We are quite the crew too!! I have perfected my witches cackle and its fun to get into character. After diner, we ended up splitting up and going to do different things around Gardner village. Some of us girls shopped, while a few of us went and danced to the Halloween music that was playing. We all met up later and a few of us got our fortunes told. It was such a fun night out with the girls!

Picture: Top Left to Right: Nicole Rowe, Myra Smart, Crystal Albrecht, Michelle Jackman, Ashley Waldrum, Marcie Ward and Amy Trimble.

Bottom: Natalie Bradford, Ashlee Frisbey (me) and Liza Hood.

Witches Brew Ha Ha!

I love all things Halloween and Witches and so when I saw that Gardner Village was putting on a Witches Brew Ha Ha 5k, I thought it would be fun to get a couple of friends together and sign up for the race together. Nicole Rowe, Crystal Albrecht and Liza Hood joined me. We decided we would just walk the race and it was fun. None of us are really long distance runners so it worked out well to just walk it. Plus, the four of us, along with a couple of other gals in the neighborhood had been going walking 3 times a week in the mornings so walking a 5k wasn't too difficult for us because we had already been doing it!

The 5k was such a fun event, we dressed up in our running gear and donned our witchy tu-tu's and witch hats and took off. All the participants were given light up necklaces so we could find our way on the trail. It was so fun and I hope we can do it again next year. When we finished we got a cute little finishers medal and a darling Halloween shirt. It was such a fun night with friends!

Fall-Time Fun!

I truly love the Fall! Growing up in Southern Utah we didn't have the four seasons, so when we moved to Northern Utah it was a nice surprise to be able to enjoy each of the season! Another thing that I have enjoyed is being on A Track. The kids get several breaks throughout the year from school and their first break falls in October. I truly enjoy having them home with me! I really try to make their time off count. I enjoy spoiling my kiddos while they are off track and love surprising them with New Halloween Shirts to wear and field trips to some fun venues across the valley. Our favorite places to visit each year are Gardner Village to enjoy the witch displays and also Thanksgiving Points, Corn Belly's Pumpkin Festival. 

The first day that the kids were home, I surprised them with a new Halloween Shirt. The kids loved their shirts this year. I also was able to find some Halloween Cereal to eat and they LOVED  having their own boxes of cereal that they could call their own and not have to share with each other. 

The kids love helping me decorate the house for the Holidays. This year we went all out and DECORATED the fireplace mantle. It gave our Living Room a fun and spooky atmosphere that we enjoyed all month long.

 They love visiting the PUMPKIN PATCH and picking out their pumpkins and carving them.

DECORATING SUGAR COOKIES-(Kaleb loves to decorate them and not eat them. Silly Boy!) I didn't get Kaleb in the picture because he had left to go and play at a friends house.

We were able to get a pass to CORN BELLY'S at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi. The kids and I went several times with friends (Nicole, Brandon and McKenna Rowe) and then we had Mark come with us one evening after work! The kids sure enjoy all the games, tractor rides and they even liked the Haunted House they had this year. Its so fun to take the kids places and enjoy time with them and make memories with them.