h.p. mania

Totally did the H.P. premier at 12:00 last night. So much fun and so worth it!

This year our friend Allison made us shirts for the premier! Yes, I convinced some other people to wear them with me!

The front had the sign for the Deathly Hollows:

And the back had a quote:

"And now, Harry, let us step out into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure"
-Albus Dumbledore

Remember how much I love Harry Potter? The excitement on opening night is contagious. Sorry about my face in this picture...I get a little excited about Harry Potter...

 super sweet wristbands to wait in line!

I even convinced Drew to join us..

 See you again in June, Harry Potter!

hello again

Busy busy busy. That's how things have been around here! So in attempt to not get completely overwhelmed, here is what we have been up to:

1) So You Think You're Crafty. If you aren't familiar with this, it is a craft competition and Kirst and I are competing in together for kojodesigns. Every week they give us a theme and we have to come up with something that is voted on anonymously, then the person with the least number of votes is kicked off. So far we have made it through 7 weeks (including our audition week.) Only 4 more left, if we make it to the end.  I can't show you my latest craft because it hasn't been voted on yet, but it has been a crazy.couple.weeks. By far the coolest craft I made yet was the baby buggy:

2) Meeting my nephew! A friend's dad is a pilot for southwest airlines and he gave me a buddy pass so I got to go meet Easton! It was a fabulous sibling vacation and I loved getting to just hold babies and cook and run errands without my kids to worry about. Drew is awesome for watching the girls so I could go.
While there, I got to take some pics of sweet easton:

I also got a little session with adj, tricia and stetson:

AND got to hang out with the little miss piper jane:

3. Invites! I have been working on TONS of invites lately. These are all parties I am helping with- so lots of partying will be happening soon too! Here are a couple of my favs:

Well, now you are all caught up on the goings on around here...like I said we are busy. Luckily things are just about the slow down in time for the craziness of the holidays and then a new baby. :)

once upon a halloween...

Oh how I love Halloween! Not in a creepy, make-lots-of-body-part-food kind of way, but in a I-love-costume-parties kind of way! You must remember the H-party last year? This year we had a storybook halloween party.

Here's the invite:

 Our friends were (again) SUPER creative! Here are some of the costumes. Popeye and Olive Oil won the "Best Costume" award.

 I did a terrible job of taking pictures of the decor...but here are a few of the food. We had a lot more, but again, I did a terrible job!

And finally some pics of our family. We dressed as the Berenstain Bears. I love that Drew always goes along with my shenanigans. ;)

Monster Evie

Keadryn was so excited when she found these googly eyes, she ran over to me and shouted at my belly "now you can see us Evie!" She made me lay down to put them on there so that baby Evie could see. So cute!

pumpkins!

The other night we had a wonderful time at our local arborretum's annual pumpkin walk! There were 1,500 pumpkins that people had carved and donated with which the volunteers lit and lined the path that runs through the arborretum:

 Kead said her favorite was "the spiders" (there were lots of spiders) and Sayla said her favorite was "PUNKINS" I guess that means all of them. :) My favorite were the little pumpkin lanterns hung in all the trees:

...and speaking of pumpkins- here's a funny one of my little pumpkins. Yes, Keadryn is licking Sayla. Such a big sister.

Easton is here!

My sweet sweet nephew arrived on October 21st! Pray for him as he tries to get over an infection and establish his breathing. And pray for my sister as she just wants to hold her little guy and get to take him home!

I can't wait to hold this little peanut! Isn't Easton such a little sweetie with his black hair? Love it!

sayla's "cheese" face

I don't know why all kids go through this, but the "cheese" smile is funny! It looks so painful.

 a couple things:
1) sorry this picture is so over-exposed...still figuring out the new camera's settings.
2) for keadryn's "cheese" face look at this post.
3) I am so thankful to have a blog for these things. I would never have printed these pictures and they would have gotten lost in the 10 million photos in my files. It is so fun to be reminded of the everyday things. Go look through your old blog posts- its so fun!

a fun night out

One of our dear friends, Andy Hedges, is a great musician and cowboy poet. Do you remember this link to him reciting a poem? He's awesome, you should buy his new CD! Well, you should buy all his CDs...and listen to the poem. He really is great.

Well, he plays fairly frequently at a local wine and tapas bar, but it's not really the kind of place where you bring sippy cups and goldfish, so we haven't heard him play in a long time. The other night he was playing and we decided to get a babysitter and finally go to a concert! It was a blast. He was playing with another musician, Mike Beck, and the night was filled with great music, great food, and great friends!

and they even had non-alcoholic sangria for the preggos!  (there were two of us in our group)

Can you tell I am LOVING my new lens and camera? These were all taken in a low lit indoor venue at night...with no flash. Yes, it is awesome having a camera with an ISO of 6400!

and then all of a sudden...

...there's a baby bump! We were at the park today when I realized, I actually look pregnant. Don't you feel like the awkward stage of not looking pregnant lasts a little too long? I much prefer looking pregnant to looking like I ate an extra 40 doughnuts for breakfast.

Drew was taking a couple pictures and I am sure he made a smart remark (hence the smirk)...but it ended up being my favorite. :)

an afternoon drive

My husband really really loves me. I am sure you know (because I have said it 9000 times on this blog) that this is my favorite season. So Drew, knowing I won't get a "fall" in the Middle East, took a couple days off work and we piggybacked a trip to Farmington (my hometown) onto our Balloon Fiesta trip so that I could get a taste of fall. We had a wonderful stay in Farmington with some long-time family friends and it was so great to catch up! We haven't been back there since we had kids and it was fun to see friends and show the girls a little bit of where I grew up! (And yes, we drove by the house I grew up in and I cried...)

Another bonus is that Farmington is only a short drive from Durango, my favorite little mountain town (besides B.V. of course). We went in search of some fall colors and the drive did not disappoint. The aspens were the brightest shades of yellow mixed with some oranges and the greens of the pines. SO pretty! We even got to get out on some little dirt road and hike around a bit with jackets on! Glorious.

balloon fiesta 2010

We loved the balloon fiesta so much last year that we decided to go again this year! It was a completely different experience this year because we decided not to go to the balloon glow (which meant an hour of extra sleep, but also much MUCH longer lines) and because it was already 67 degrees at 5:00, making it much less stressful for the girls (but, I'll be honest, a little sad for me).
We had a little hiccup where it looked like we weren't going to be able to get on a bus at the park-and- ride (due to way more people than they expected) but at the last minute a heroic bus driver decided to break the rules  and drive us to the park and we had a wonderful time!

My favorite, of course, was getting to play with my new camera! It is A.MAZ.ING. I just kept smiling and giggling and wandering off to find more balloons to photograph. Seriously, go to the balloon fiesta (or I am sure there are other festivals...I have only ever been to this one) it is such a fun thing to do! And now, enjoy copious amounts of balloon pictures. :)

and, like last year- the girls were exhausted from the early wake time. :) 

a grateful heart.

Did you know I am a selfish brat? It's true. Do you want proof? A couple weeks ago a speaker at perspectives encouraged all of us to make list of things God has blessed us with and ways to share them with others, so I sat down to write my list and ended up with a couple generic blessings and a four page rant on all the things I am discontent with in life. Nice, huh? In a nutshell- I was just feeling purposeless, dreading my everyday tasks and not enjoying being around my girls all the time. So instead of thinking of ways to bless others (since I had such an awesome attitude) I decided to pray: Make me grateful for the life I have and give me joy in our everyday life.

I have slowly been noticing a difference, even while doing mundane things like laundry (my nemisis) and picking up puzzle pieces for the 9000th time in a day. Then, when Kead got sick and had to stay home from KDO all last week, I was shocked  because instead of being bitter at her for taking away my precious "me" time I was so grateful and LOVED getting to spend the extra time alone with her. Thanks, God for answering prayer!

So, even though I will have to constantly be praying for a grateful heart, and even though I know I will (probably too soon) need to be asking for forgiveness at being discontent, I am so thankful right now for our life, and for this season with our precious girls.