Christmas tree

 

Candy Day

We love candy day!  Mostly because that signals the start of the Christmas season at our house!  We love working together, snacking on chocolate and seeing how much we can make in the shortest amount of time :)  It's always a full day of work but fun work and we love doing it!

 

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving in Logan this year with the Beutlers.  Almost all the siblings were there and it was so fun to be able to gather and spend time together!  It's not too often that everyone is there, so it was a fun big group to be with.  We're so grateful for this family of ours!

 

November Catch Up

A whole lot of things happened:

- Desh got Teacher's Pride - love this boy!

- Keen got braces - wohoo!

- Celebrated Robin's 50th birthday at Maddox with the family

- Rease played in the Pit Orchestra for the school play and we got to go watch!

- Desh can't get enough basketball practice in - even in church clothes

- BYU football is on a roll!

- Desh had his holiday concert at school

- Young women making sugar scrub

- Trying on ski gear in whatever we happen to have on...

- Tilly is the most loved and spoiled dog ever

- Phew! The month isn't even over yet!

 

MTC Tour

We had the chance to attend the MTC for a private tour with our young men and young women this week.  It was such an amazing night filled with the spirit and lots of great information and knowledge.  I loved that the kids got to see the way a mission works and ask questions about what goes on.  It was really really cool to do that together!

 

Josh's conference

Josh and Pete had a conference this week that they were a part of and it even included dressing up!  The theme was snow sports,  so of course they had to get official ski race outfits to wear during the day.  And Josh topped it off with a bleach blonde wig and it totally fit!  They are so funny but so awesome to be a part of something so big and fun!

 

Piano Recital

The kids all performed in their piano recital tonight and each one of them did amazing!  They've all been working really hard to learn and memorize their piece which is not easy.  But everyone did it and they all performed beautifully!  It makes a mom's heart happy when these kind of nights come around.  

 

State Marching Band

Rease's marching band year is coming to a close!  They had senior night and invited friends and family to come watch the show one last time before state.  They also took the night and honored the seniors.  They had a write-up of each of them and had them and parents out on the field as they announced them all.  It was a pretty cool night for Rease and all the kids that are graduating.

The next day they headed off to state in St. George!  It's always a really fun weekend for them to be together for a few days and perform one last time for the judges.  They did a really good job and I was so proud and a little teary sitting there listening to them for the last time.  It has been such a great run for Rease and she has become such an amazing person through all her band years.  

We loved being there as a family to support her and the team.  As they announce the awards they do it in full retreat, which means all the teams come out and line up together on the field for the awards.  It's pretty awesome to see them all out there together.  

This has been such a big part of our life the past few years and, even though it's sad to see it come to an end, we are so grateful for all the memories we have with the team!  Congrats on an amazing year!

 

Sadies

Sadies was "Sail the Seas" themed this year and Rhen and her friends all went with it!  They were all so cute dressed up as pirates or sea-folk and had a really fun time together.  We hosted the dinner at our house before the dance and then they were off to dance the night away!  Such a fun group of kids hanging out at our house for this!

 

Jr. Jazz

Desh joined a Jr. Jazz team with his friend Lewin this year.  Lewin's dad is the coach and is so great with these boys that are just learning how to play the great game of basketball.  He's positive and fun and Desh has loved being a part of this team so far!

 

October comes to an end

A round-up of the rest of the things that happened this month:

- Josh started clothes pinning is socks thanks to the idea from Papa.  It's like a flashback to my childhood!

- Color run at the elementary school

- Rease's band concert

- Piles and piles of laundry! It's never ending in our house

- We have mice...

- Stocking up the pantry thanks to a reminder from my mother

 

Halloween

 

Quick trip to La Brisa

Josh and I took a quick trip down to La Brisa to do something really exciting!  After 3.5 years of owning the house, it is finally registered, documented with the state and in our name.  It has taken a lot of work and patience to get to this point but we finally made it!  That means we can finally get a loan on the property, so we flew down for a few days to close on the loan and sign all the paperwork.  Of course it wasn't just that easy and even as we were there, it wasn't certain that it would happen.  PR has it's own time schedule and we've learned to adjust to it, but sometimes it gets frustrating!  Anyway the day came that we were to sign the documents and we had to be downtown at the office at 4:00 pm to do that.  Josh had work meetings right up to that point so we ended up renting an office space in San Juan close to the title company so we could get over there in time.  It worked out perfectly and we got there just in time to wait in the waiting room for 2 hours before they finally had everything ready for us.  Even up until the last minute we weren't sure it was going to happen!  But it all worked out and we officially have a loan on our OWN house and our OWN property!  Wohoo for us!  

We got to see some of our favs while we were there - Eudaldo and David met us for dinner one night and it was such a treat to be able to see them for a few hour. 

A successful, short trip for us!

 

Fall Break

We spent fall break at the cabin this year which was so fun and relaxing.  It ended up being just the boys and me for most of the time so we really just took it easy.  No plans, just lots of sleep and fun and a little bit of nintendo thrown in there.  

One morning we got up early and hiked the Y.  It was so fun and something we haven't done for quite a few years so we figured it was time to get back to it!  

It was a quiet but restful fall break for us and sometimes that's just what we need.

 

BYU Football

Football season is here and we're so excited to get back to the BYU games!  Fox Big Noon Kickoff was in town this week and some of us early-risers got up and went to the show before the game.  We're just so excited to be back cheering on our Cougars!

 

Liev band concert

Liev had a halloween band concert tonight and they did awesome! It's so fun to hear them and see him enjoy what he's doing.

 

Homecoming

The girls were both so excited to go to Homecoming this year! Rhen got asked by the cute boy that she likes (Trevor) and was so excited for her first high school dance.  She looks so DARLING in her black dress and heels and had a really fun group that went together.  Wow I can't believe she's old enough for this!

Rease got asked by her good friend (Sig) from the marching band and loved being a part of the group she was with.  She look GORGEOUS in her skirt and top and amazing hair!  Senior year is already so fun for this girl!

 

Marching Band

The Marching Band team has done a couple of fund raisers this year and one of them was a Chi-Fil-A night.  They all went and played outside the store and a portion of the proceeds went to the team fund.  It was a really fun way to earn some money as a group!

This week all the seniors from all the teams were honored at the Homecoming football game.  It's so crazy to be at this point with one of our kids - I can't believe she's a senior!  We loved being there and seeing her out on the field with the rest of the seniors that have all worked so hard in their different sports and clubs.  Such a fun night for all those kids!

This year the Marching Band boosters made banners for all the seniors and have had them hanging on the football field fence for the season.  Such a fun idea to be able to honor the kids and what they've accomplished!

So proud of you Rease!

 

Cross country region and state

Rhen finished off her cross country season this week with region and state meets.  We hosted the team dinner the night before at our house and had a big crew of kids come and eat lots of food!

Rhen has had a really amazing season and has loved being a part of this team.  She has made lots of good friends and also some really good habits and routines.  She has found a love for running that I wasn't sure she ever would but she did!  She is so amazing at what she does!

 

Finishing off September...

Finishing off the month on a high note with the rest of these events...

- Devil dog!

- Energy drinks get me by these days...

- Our last 8 year old date - Desh handled it like a champ!

- Shopping with mom and finding some hidden treasures

- Looking hot for church

- Snow!!!

- Weirdo Keen

Mowing without even being asked!

- Football games are our fav

And what's a month without a bunch of funny stuff to get us through?

 

Marching Band

We're in full Marching Band swing over here and loving it!  It's so fun to see this show and watch these kids together.  It's senior year for a lot of them so they're taking it all in!

 

Puerto Rico with Friends

Oh my we had such a fun trip with our friends to Puerto Rico this week!  All of our very favorites were there and it could not have been any better!  We were officially celebrating Melissa's 50th birthday so that was a fun excuse to be able to get together in our best spot.  Happy birthday to Melis and thanks for helping us get together!

Camie and Andy were the only ones that hadn't been to the house yet and for some it had been a long time, so it was fun to roll up and see the house and show everyone around.  It has changed quite a bit since some of them had been so it was like seeing the place for the first time.  It looked amazing and it was just the perfect temp to be able to enjoy it all.  I love this time of year on the island.

One day we drove to Orocovis and rode the zipline in the mountains.  It was gorgeous and SOOO fun!  We haven't done that for a long time and it was fun to do it again.  We got a good rainstorm right in the middle and we had to hang out for 15 minutes or so until it cleared up.  We didn't mind the view from where we were at!

Stops at the grocery store and our fav eating spots were on the list.  Josh cooked up the traditional poached eggs on pan de agua and it didn't disappoint...

We had lots of pool time, a little bit of cleaning and pressure washing and some hanging out at the house just taking it easy.  We went to the temple and took everyone to our fav Pa-Onde-Sea!

One day we rode the ferry out to Culebra and had an amazing day on Flamenco Beach!  It was so beautiful with lots of sun and boogie boarding.  We walked up and down the beach and lost (and then found) about 5 pairs of sunglasses :)  It was a little comical watching us get hit by big wave after big wave and sunglasses popping off our heads all over the place.  Then we'd spend time looking for them.  Ha!  We finally found 3 of the 5 pairs and declared the rest lost forever.

We ate pina coladas and empanadas at the tiendas and pretended that we weren't all sunburned...

The ferry ride back was so beautiful as the sun was going down and we got to watch a storm roll through over the main island.  A stop at Acai bowls and a late night swim at home rounded out an almost perfect day!

We also got to be at church on Sunday and see all our branch members!  That's always such a treat and something we miss so much from being there.  We played lots of games, caught up with old friends and ate delicious food together.  The times sitting out on the deck chatting and laughing will never be forgotten and just what Josh and I had imagined it would be like when we were working so hard on the house.  All we want is to fill this place with people we love and this week we did that!

We got a little yard work done and changed a couple of lights and fans before we packed up the house and left it for another spell.  What an amazing trip with some pretty amazing people!