Fall, Conference, and Birthday Fun

We love the Fall! We've been working on our Fall bucket list. We went to the canyon in Ogden to see the fall leaves, but they were still green. They are probably beautiful now so we need to go back before it gets to late. We've had fun buying pumpkins and trying on our costumes. 

We went to Black Island Farms with my brother, also known as Uncle Kenzie. Susie loves to hang out with him, they get along pretty great. Black Island Farms has some fun activities for kids and we had a blast! Mackenzie carried Clark in the carrier the whole time, it was so nice!

I always see great ideas online about ways to involve the kids with conference and make it memorable so I finally did one this time! Each apostle has his own bag with a treat, snack or activity in it. Some of the things we did we already had like prophet matching but we had some new activities like coloring ties and conference bingo. The kids had a fun time trying to match up the speaker with his picture on the bag. I had to finally give them Elder Hales, because he is so much younger in his picture, they didn't recognize him. His talks are always my favorite. We all enjoyed conference, even Clarky listened ;)

Dad had a birthday. The big 3-0. The kids and I tried to plan 30 surprises for him to celebrate. Some of them were pretty low-key! Others were a lot of fun. My favorite surprise was having his family come for dinner and cheesecake on his birthday. I asked each of them to write down a memory for him to read and they sent me some great memories. I think it was Paul's favorite gift. His brother Michael sent a lot, I might have teared up a little reading them, of course Paul didn't have this problem! His brother Jonathon even sent me about 30 pictures of Paul when he was little that Paul had never seen before. We printed them off and hung them up. I'm so grateful for all of Paul's family! Here is Susie helping me make rolls for birthday dinner. She loves to help in the kitchen! 

Here are a few of the pictures Jon sent. I think this first one looks so much like Braden! Wow!

Another one of his birthday surprises was a hiking trip to Zions. We really wanted to hike the Narrows from the top down (it's a 17 mile hike, almost exclusively in the water), but alas we didn't get drawn for the permit. So we hiked Angels Landing and up the Narrows a few miles. It was gorgeous and a really nice chance to spend time together. Olivia and my mom babysat for us. 

This is a ton of pictures! I should probably journal on here more often and put more details of funny things the kids do and say.. aye. Trying!! 

Here's What We've Been Up To

The biggest development in the last few weeks is....

Braden is now potty trained! 

Hurray!

He wasn't showing any signs that he was ready so I wasn't sure if I should even try. Whenever I asked him if he wanted to try sitting on the potty he would scream and yell "No!" But he is 3 now so I decided to give it a try anyway and he did so well! We went to the dollar store and bought lots of prizes and he had it down in about a week. It's been great. And I think he looks pretty cute in his buzz lightyear underwear.

Paul built some shelves for the garage. It looks much more organized now. He has been figuring out a lot of things being a new home owner. It can be stressful, but fun too. The shelves were fun anyway! 

We got to see some family in Payson for the DeHart reunion. I love whenever we get to spend time with family. I love how much Paul and the kids love it too. Family is good for the soul.

Susie started a little tumbling class at the community center once a week. She is really loving it! I think its been great for her, nice and low key, but also teaching her some good things. 

Oh these two! So cute! Clark loves Susie. She can always make him smile. And Susie loves to hold Clark. She is very helpful with him. She will sit and entertain him when I'm making dinner, etc. I think they look so much a like. Susie has grown up so much lately. She told me she "likes" a boy in her class. She said "today he looked at me twice mom!" So it's getting pretty serious haha! She told me when she gets bigger she wants to "marry Dad, or maybe JP." I told her they were already taken so she would need to find someone else. She is working on reading everyday and learning her sight words. She loves to come home and tell us all she learned that day. 

I got to do another sprint triathlon in Sand Hollow Lake. My friend Vonessa from Flagstaff met me there and that was fun. It's always more fun to do races with a friend! 

Braden looks forward to preschool playgroup every week. He wishes it was more often. I think maybe just for the treasure box though! We have class on Mondays. I really love having a little teaching outlet and spending that time with Braden. He is doing a great job working on letters. Today Paul took him to the Halloween costume store and he loved it so much he said "I want to take Hazel here!" (Hazel is a girl in his class). 

Clark is 8 months old this week. He has two little teeth. He loves  to eat baby food and graham crackers but isn't too excited about trying any thing else. Most of the time when I give him a new food he dislikes the texture and spits it out. He gets pretty excited about eating time though. He goes to bed around 7 and wakes up around 6. He takes 2 naps a day. He is learning to squirm his way around the floor to get to what he wants. He can sit on his own for a little while before falling over. He gets about 7,000 kisses a day. We love this little baby! 

We had a fun day yesterda. Paul and I try to take the kids out for a one on one date once a month. I took Susie this month and she wanted to go bowling. That kid loves bowling. We had a fun time together. Later that night for FHE, we went to Jensen Park and fished for a little while. We caught a little fish and Susie was so excited to reel it in!