Trip to Phoenix

Nov 1-7 --
My sister Rachel, moved to Phoenix a couple weeks after we moved to Heber. And had a baby in September. They blessed him in November.  I was able to take the boys and go visit her for a few days before everyone else showed up for the weekend for the blessing. It was great, I'm so glad we were able to do that. And luckily, Lexie came with me. If she couldn't get work off, I was just going to go by myself. I have NO idea what I was thinking. There is no way I would've made it without her.

The trip down felt never-ending. There was TONS of rain Provo and the canyon and by the time we were getting to spanish fork there was sleet. So we had to drive slower with all the contraction, semi's, standing water, and sleet. Max got carsick twice :( no coloring for him in the car. We ended up stopping in Page, AZ for a sit down lunch because we needed the break and fast food sounded nasty. We finally got to warm AZ around 9:30p. It took us 12 hours and I believe it should've only taken 10 hrs.

Tues, Wednesday, Thursday, we just played, shopped, ate, and slept in.

Side note: On Wednesday morning, while I was at the park with the boys, I got a call from the Clerk for the Stake President saying they wanted to meet with Jon and I that night. I called back and said I was in Phoenix, but that Jon was home. And we wouldn't both be home until the following Wednesday evening, since Jon was meeting us in Phoenix over the weekend then heading to Vegas for a conference for a few days. They said they would just meet with Jon then.... Meanwhile, Lex, Rach, Me and the 3 little boys headed to the Mall. We had been there about 2 hours when I got a call from Jon, saying that I was on speaker phone with the Stake President.  And was asked if I would support my husband in his new calling of being the 2nd Counselor in the Bishopric. Shock. I didn't know what to say. I was exhausted and uncomfortable for walking the mall for 2 hours and the boys were restless and running all over the store and Max was crying for my attention. I tried to be there on the phone call but it was hard. And of course I would support him. It took me awhile longer than I expected to get used to the idea. And there is no doubt we've been blessed because of it. 

My grandparents got into town on Friday and we bought food for the weekend and moved over to a vacation house 2 mins from Rachel's apartment. It was a pretty nice place. I picked up Jon from the airport that evening and then my parents and brothers got in later that night.

I made sure we'd be equipped with toys and activities for the boys (the car was packed with luggage, scooters, swim stuff, books, coloring, etc. On trips I always want to feel prepared)

We headed to Macy's on Saturday to get Jon a couple new suits, they were 50% off! The mall had this cool, 2 story carousel that the boys were very excited to ride on.

Also got to see the chikfila cow

Lex and Max

The little boys. Zac and Max had fun playing with Jeremy's brother's little boy too. It sure made things more fun to have another little boy around.

Blessing Day, the Kolb side of the fam.

 Cousins! A first on my side of the family-finally :)

There was also a pool at the vacation house. Unfortunately, the weekend wasn't as warm as the weekdays were. But the boys still had a good time playing.

I enjoyed getting some sun poolside.

Watching the game and hanging out

Pizza Night in the kitchen. It was really fun to be able to see Ray and Lori too. They just happened to be in town that weekend.

Halloween

Oct 31 --

This year, Zac really wanted to be a ghost. I knew ahead of time that making a costume for either of the boys was not doable this year. So I headed to the Halloween superstore that comes every September.  They didn't have ANY ghost costumes for smaller kids. And I went weeks before Halloween. I ended up getting a costume for a 10 year old. I had to taylor it on the bottom, the cuffs and under the arms. And honestly it was ugly...soo, I was looking online and a bunch of people got a nice effect with adding tulle. So I ended up doing a bit of work on his costume. I doubled/quadrupled panels of tulle in 6 sections around the ghost gown thingy, and after sewing them on around the neck hole, I cut each panel into strips so it would have a more flowy feel. I think it turned out MUCH better. Zac loved it. 

I also made him a white fleece beanie to wear on Halloween night, since typically its really cold here in Utah. But it was uncharacteristically warm... (much like today Jan. 4, in which its over 50 degrees outside, and the only snow to be found is in the higher mountains.)

Zac being spooky-haha

I was very grateful to find a Handy Manny costume at the store that Max was excited to wear. It was too long, so I hemmed up the legs a bit for him too. I love Max's expression here too.

(That day was also Zac's Halloween party at school and I was in charge of it. I sure over did it :P I dressed up as the Wicked Witch of the East-you know, the one the house fell on?) Wearing heels all afternoon walking up and down a long asphalt hill carrying heavy bags while my tights slid around in my heels was really uncomfortable.)

On another side note: While I was eating lunch right before I had to be at Zac's school for the party, Jon called me up to give me some great news. He had gotten a promotion!!! He was now the Director of Interactive Marketing. WAHOO!! Turn on the water works. It was great news. And something we'd been hoping for someday, but didn't expect to happen anytime soon. So exciting for us!

We went trick or treating around 6p, after a yummy white chili dinner. We walked around for about an hour. There weren't many houses "open". Maybe half were answering the door. Lame. Another weird thing was people would have their lights on, but still not come to the door. Very confusing. Next year, I would like to go somewhere else to trick or treat.

We also ended up having TONS of candy to give this year. (I forgot the trunk or treat candy at home so ended up buying some at the dollar store..but then was late and didn't get to hand it out :( There's pregnancy for you!)  We gave all the cheap stuff away first...but didn't even get to give out the good stuff. We also left a sign on the door that said take a handful! But still lots of candy left.

The loot

Since it was a school night, we let the boys watch Halloween Thomas the Train episodes while the sugar wore off.

This is what I consumed within 5 mins of walking in the door. Hey, I deserved it! It was a long day. Matter of fact, after sitting down for 15 mins, I could hardly walk when I got up. Jon was worried for a bit. My hips were killing and I couldn't stand up straight.

Carving Pumpkins

Sometime during the last half of Oct--

We carved pumpkins in two sessions. With the boys, or rather Zac in school and dad busy with work. We weren't able to find enough time to do the whole thing on one night and our Saturdays were full too.

The first night they drew what they wanted on their pumpkins and poked holes along the lines. Jon and I decided not to carve pumpkins for ourselves as it takes a lot of time to help the boys. And lets face it, its a huge hassle to carve pumpkins. I did want to paint some pokadotted and decorate some in other ways, but I just didn't have the motivation to make it happen. Hopefully, next year.

The next day, we did the emptying and the carving.

Haha, it was great! The boys were totally grossed out-it was hilarious!!

It was taking so long so after a few handfuls Jon and I helped them finish.

Max would NOT, put his hand in so Jon had to help him.

Haha

I love this-haha

Their finished pumpkins. It was fun to have them design their own this year. Zac had a bit of trouble deciding and understanding he had full creative license to do whatever he wanted. After a bit of explaining and time he got it and started to write words on the pumpkin too.

Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point

Oct 8--
We got together with our friends the Nordhoff's for JCW's and then headed over to Cornbelly's. We'd never been before. But it was great! There is so much to do and the boys had a great time. I would like to go again next year, but perhaps earlier in the day.

There were huge wooden tractors that the boys liked to play on

Great wagons to pull the kids around the area in

A mountain of hay bails with all different slides coming down

This was a little "haunted" train ride through a corn maze. The kids loved it.

Max burned his mouth on the cocoa. I told him it was hot and handed it to him so he could warm his hands.

The fairy princess area

These little bouncing horses were cool. If I hadn't been pregnant, it would have been a lot of fun playing with these. (I could barely zip my regular winter coat up all the way.) Zac and Liv had a great time racing these around the hay.

Randoms

Oct 2--
The boys doing their General Conference activity packets

Middle of Octoberish--

Making caramel apple bites. I've wanted to do this for year and I finally made it happen. It was really easy. But the caramel kind of sucked. It didn't stay on the apples very well and after the caramel dipped apples were in the fridge overnight the caramel thinned out and came off the apples too. Next time we'll just have to make our own.

Halloween Crafts/Decor-- sometime during September I went to the craft store and got sooo excited for Halloween and I bought a bunch of supplies to make this chandelier and the wreath, but it took me about a month to finally find the motivation to actually do them. This chandelier is inspired by this butterfly one: http://suaviloquy.blogspot.com/2010/05/first-birthday.html Since I have no girls, I thought I need a different theme, and the bats seem to go quite well. There weren't instructions so I had to guess, I didn't do the hoops the right sizes. It wasn't until after I made it, that I realized there was a bigger difference in the size of the hoops. There are some other flaws that kind of bug me, but I won't point them out here. I don't love it as much as I thought I would. But I do like it. I used my friends crickut for all the bats. 

I also saw a Halloween wreath on a Michaels email. It was whimsical and I wanted to make one similar. Generally, it takes a lot of time for me to go to the craft store and just buy random things that I hope will come together for a wreath, but so far its worked pretty well. The sign in the middle, was something I bought some years ago with the intent to paint each letter differently and put it on a door knob or something during October, but that never happened. It worked perfect for this wreath. I painted everything with regular colors and then I did a few more layers with a glitter paint. It took a whole lot for me to sit down and do this one, but it came together pretty quick. Lexie had come up unexpectedly one Sunday afternoon and I had her help me on this, otherwise all the supplies would still be sitting in bags in my craft room.

Oct 29-
Some friends went on an overnighter and we watched their kids. The boys loved having their friend sleepover. It took a bit to get them to quiet down and fall asleep. But over all the boys were well behaved. Jon reading them a story before bed.

Fall Soccer for Zac

Last half of Sept--
Zac was one of the best players on his team last fall. He's been doing great staying with the ball and learning to shoot into the middle of the net. We also figured out that he has exercise induced asthma. He always seemed a bit sluggish when it came to running down the whole field and after doing so, while he breathed he would lift his shoulders with each breath. That along with getting coughing fits while wrestling and playing with Jon, I decided to get it checked out. The doctor gave us 2 different inhalers. We had them for 2 days before the next game. There was a HUGE difference! Zac had so much stamina, and was able to breathe and run the field very easily. He scored FIVE goals; the most he's ever gotten! I'm so glad we figured it out. And it will help so much with his ski season too.

Zac is number 40 and is in the light gray shorts.

Making the shot-the goal is between the red flags.

Max's First Day of Preschool

Sept 9 --
I forgot to take pictures of Max before school, like with Zac. So I snapped a couple with my phone on the way to school.

I love this one with him squinting because the sun was in his eyes. His school is only a couple blocks away, when the weather was nice it was so enjoyable to walk to and from school with him. It was a good time to talk too.

Fun backpack

So when we got home I took pictures like Zac, and I just loved all of these. They show his personality so well.

Max showing me his school work