Halloween

Halloween is much more fun when it falls on Friday or Saturday, but the kids still loved today just as much as they do any other Halloween. They couldn't dress up at school but they still had fun parties and got yummy treats. Ryder and I ran some errands around town today and every business was passing out candy for kids so Ryder got super spoiled! We had yummy soup for dinner, went to our ward trunk or treat, and did some trick or treating in our neighborhood. We are all ready for bed!

Carving Pumpkins

For Tenley's family night she requested that we carve pumpkins. It was fun picking out designs and Brad was sweet to do most of the carving. But Kade wanted to carve his own this year and he did end up doing most of it all by himself!

Fun Weekends with Family

We drove to Southern Idaho this weekend to spend some time with family and watch Travis' football team play in the playoffs. They won their game! It was very exciting and an impressive win! They head to the quarterfinals next week!

We enjoyed some family flag football games, yummy ice cream at Orange Leaf thanks to my sweet niece Haley, a fun couples date out to a yummy Italian restaurant, and lots of fun conversations. It was a nice getaway and the fall weather was perfect!

Pumpkins

We finally went to pick out pumpkins for the kids today. I feel bad I've slacked on this tradition this year, but better late than never! The kids love their pumpkins and hopefully we'll have time to carve them too!

Cub Scouts

Kade went to cub scouts for his first time tonight and he had a great time. Even though he had no idea what was going on he joined in with his friends and pretended like he knew what was going on. It was pretty adorable!

A Handy Husband

Brad has spent the last week building shelves in the garage to make more room. After researching it all he went to Home Depot to buy supplies and built some pretty awesome shelves! The garage looks so much more organized and big! I love it. I'm so thankful for him and what a hard worker he is!

Football Games

For Kade's last game today he got to play on the High School field! They started the game out with the National Anthem and called each of their names out on the loud speaker after which they got to run on the field and join their team. Kade felt like he was in the N.F.L. and he loved it! It was a lot of fun! They played a great team and it was a close game! After the game they had a little pizza party together at the High School. It was a fun morning.

Fall Break

The kids haven't had school these past few days due to fall break and it's been nice to have them home. It's been really nice to sleep in! With Brad home today we decided to set up the tramp but then that good ol' Great Falls wind picked up and we've been wondering if that was a good idea or not. Brad did stake it down really well so hopefully the 60 mph winds we'll be having in the next few days won't make the tramp fly away.
With all the wind we decided to try and fly our kite and that was quite the experience as well! We discovered that sometimes it can be too windy to fly a kite! We'll hopefully get used to this new climate over here sometime soon, but I'm sure our neighbors had a good laugh at us when they saw us setting up a tramp and flying a kite!

Kade's  football coach's wife is the athletic director at the Catholic High School so all of Kade's practices have been held there. When the weather is really bad they've been able to use the equipment inside which is so nice. Tonight the High School football team scrimmaged with them, and let them try on some of their equipment. Kade loved it! It was a fun experience for him and his teammates.

Football Friends

It's Kade's last week of football this week and I'm happy and sad that the season is coming to an end. It has kept our lives pretty busy, but he's made great friends and has come to love football a lot more! Tonight he played against a good friend of his that lives down the street from us. They had fun playing on the field together and the rest of the kids had fun playing off the field together.

School Pictures

Kade and Tenley brought home their school pictures today and they look so cute! I love these cute kids of mine so much. And I love that they love school so much. They are such good kids.

Movie Night

Family night was a lot of fun tonight. Brad made us his yummy popcorn and we watched new movie, Boss Baby. It was cute and funny and we all liked it.

Tenley Ann

We celebrated Tenley's 6th birthday today! She is such a sweet, amazing, special little girl. I'm so grateful that she's ours! She was excited to go to school today and share cupcakes with her class. And she really loved opening presents and having potato soup for dinner. We also went to Kade's football game and had ice cream cake for dessert.

Mutual

I got to go to mutual tonight for the first time in a very long time! I'm really excited to be in Young Womens and I can't wait to get to know all the leaders and youth. We watched the face to face broadcast tonight and it was awesome!

Chocolate Cake

My parents introduced  my kids to chocolate cake in a mug over the weekend. It's actually a pretty awesome concept! You heat up the mix in a mug for a minute and voila! you have cake. And it's yummy. My parents sent some home with us and they've wanted it every night since.

Compassion

Brad taught us a great lesson about compassion tonight and I couldn't help but think how well he and my kids show compassion to me. They are all so sweet and helpful and I feel so lucky to have them!

Grandpa Woodruff

My Grandpa's funeral was really nice. I'm so glad we were there. My favorite part was listening to a few of my cousins read a lot of the memories we all have of Grandpa. It was fun to hear the ones from my Dad and Aunts and Uncles because it's a different side of Grandpa to me. And then I loved hearing the memories of my cousins. It brought back a lot of my own. Someone mentioned the sticky notes he would leave everywhere to remind him of things. That made me laugh. I definitely remember seeing those yellow sticky notes with Grandpa's handwriting at his home and especially all over their St. George vacation home. But they were so helpful! My memory was of a time we went up in the mountains with Grandma and Grandpa in their trailer and I found their collection of place mats that they would get every place they traveled. They told me about all their travels and I was just in awe of their adventurous life. I think that's when I got the travel bug. I was always impressed by how they lived life to their fullest and enjoyed it!

It is sad to see a life end, but it was enjoyable to gather with family to remember a great man who touched all of our lives for the better. And to remember that we will all see him again.

Brad realized today that it was 4 years ago to the exact day that we were at his mom's funeral. Crazy to think about. After her wonderful service there was a terrible accident. And after my Grandpa's service today my uncle was in a car accident on the freeway on the way to the cemetery. Luckily he and his family are all OK. But we decided it is a cursed day for funerals!

We spent longer at the cemetery than we would have because we were waiting for my uncle to arrive. It was a beautiful day though. A perfect, warm, sunny, fall day so no one complained. We even got to hear more memories about Grandpa while we waited. We also walked around the cemetery a bit and found the grave of a former apostle, David B. Haight.

Then we had a yummy lunch at my parents house catered by Kneaders. So good. After relaxing a bit we went and saw my brother's new home in Draper and had fun playing there.

And after we got home, Brad, Dan, and Kade decided to go mini golfing.

It was a short trip, but so worth it. I love my family.

Utah

We drove to Utah today so we could be here for my Grandpa's funeral tomorrow. I'm so grateful and excited to be here with my family. The drive was beautiful! I love the fall and the beautiful colors painting the mountains made it that much more gorgeous.
When we pulled into town the kids begged to stop for dinner at In N' Out Burger. That is an easy request to say yes to! It was delicious. And then they wanted to stay up super late playing with Grandpa, Grandma, and Uncle Dan. I had to say no to that one. Can't win them all!