Park City & Princesses

Greg's firm had a retreat in Park City, and when he sent us pictures of his room I decided to take the kids and crash his 1 night of freedom. Sof was pretty excited to stay in a hotel for the first time.

Checking out the view. We stayed on the 5th floor. 

I love her chub!

"'laxin' by the pool"

Not the greatest picture, but she was running so fast down the halls.

Greg won this awesome drumstick headband

Hilarious! She hated the life vest.

I can't remember if this was taken before or after we woke up, but Claire was the only one who slept good that night. 

Cute hair! And she did her makeup. Does one eyebrow look different than the other?

Cutie!

She always has her little fist up by her face. I love it!

 Sofi's cousin was having a princess party and she was so excited to dress up as a princess! She insisted on wearing this cape as well, and became known as "Super Sofi."

Getting her nails painted

and hair done

She knows she's beautiful

She has started to discover hanging toys. I love her alert little eyes!

Surviving church. Greg is thrilled for the entertainment.

Starting to smile!

Glamping

We had a fun, impromptu weekend of 'Glamping' in our new house. At about 4:11 am Saturday morning (yes I was awake), our power mysteriously went out. At first I thought it was just our house, but when I looked outside and saw it was pitch black, it was obvious it affected our whole neighborhood. The cause? A drunk driver getting off the 200 North exit of I-15 in Kaysville nailed a power pole, knocking 8 down total. It wiped out power to nearly the entire city.

Luckily we have a cute little wood burning stove in our kitchen and made good  use of it the last 36 hours. In fact, it kept the upstairs warmer than when the furnace actually works. It was a balmy 74-76. Greg was overheating, and I was in heaven.

We actually had a lot of fun not having any power. No, we didn't have a furnace or any way to cook our food, not to mention our fridge couldn't keep the food cold, but that wasn't anything a wood stove, camp chef or cooler couldn't fix. It was like camping in the comforts of our own home, thus we were Glamping.

Sof had a ball helping light the fire and playing outside while we made our meals on the camp chef. She was awesome and has already requested we go back to "Bryce Canyon." Funny how she remembers  that place, but it was a pretty awesome camping trip.

As long as we kept the doors open at night, we all slept pretty comfortably.

We noticed quite a few of our neighbors had generators. I found out that the previous bishop counseled the ward to get generators hooked up to their houses if they had the means to do so. Those people who followed the counsel of the bishop were sitting pretty through the power outage. And, because it only affected Kaysville, and we live so close to the Fruit Heights border, our neighbors 5 houses up and through the block had power. Oh well, I bet they didn't have as much fun as us this weekend.

We were asked to speak in church this weekend, so while we all napped, Greg went to his dad's to finish his talk, leaving us 3 girls home to nap. It was glorious.

Naps with this girl are the best!

Sof loved the lanterns and flashlights

To pass the time, Greg and I played a roaring game of Phase 10 Saturday night. It was actually a lot of fun. I was exhausted enough to let Greg win :).

Power was restored this morning (Sunday) at around 10:00 am, which means our ward who meets at 1:00 pm was the only ward to hold church today. Greg and I were asked to speak, and were told by many people that they enjoyed our talks. And, Sof was thrilled to be able to sit next to her Grandpa Spjute during sacrament meeting. It also means that it was Claire's first time to church. She slept the whole time, it was marvelous.

I learned at church that a lot of people weren't as comfortable as we had been. Greg overheard an older lady at church say that when she woke up this morning, her house was 57 degrees. Yikes!

Greg is Sofi's best friend. When he was up on the stand today, she was so sad thinking he was going to stay there. I love their sweet little relationship.

Super cute in this dress! It's the same one Sofi wore to her first day of church. 

Cedar Temple Open House

We escaped to Cedar this weekend to go through the much-anticipated Cedar City Temple. It was beautiful!

We left Thursday afternoon after Greg got home from work, and I am proud to say that Claire, my little angel babe, slept in her car seat the entire time. I was so happy that we didn't have to relive the nightmare of Sofi screaming the entire time when she was 3 weeks old for her first trip to Cedar. Horizons are looking much brighter, as far as road trips are concerned.

Thursday happened to be my nephew's birthday, so we crashed his party in Minersville to go celebrate with him. Greg was thrilled to take a detour through Beaver county :).

It's rare that all of us sisters can be gathered together for a birthday party, but it sure was fun.

The theme was "Paw Patrol" and Sof had a ball running around with this mask on. 

He's a good sport.

My other sister was staying at my parent's house too, so Sof was lucky enough to sleep in a queen sized bed all by herself, and it was no surprise that she loved it. She slept like a champ during naps and through the night. She's pretty much the best.

We didn't have tickets to the temple, but were lucky enough to go Friday morning without having to wait. We were told the temple was designed after the history of the area, so we could expect to see the Columbine flower (a prominent flower grown on Cedar Mountain), berries (from the local trees), and feathers (for the Paiute tribe) as the main design features. It was so fun to see the personal touches added throughout the Cedar Temple, and know that my ancestors made it possible for Cedar to one day have a temple. I come from good stock.

Walking to the temple!

Giving Jesus a high five.

It was super windy that day!

We were told by 2 sources in Northern Utah that our car needed its tie rods replaced, so we planned on having my Dad's buddy fix it for us for much cheaper. Turns out the tie rods didn't need to be replaced, so we saved some money there. Oh well. We also needed new rotors, so Greg learned a new skill from my Dad on how to tear 10 year old rusty rotors off a car. Oh boy.

The rotor changing cheerleaders.

Greg was thrilled when my Dad told him to bring down his work clothes to help him move his equipment on the mountain. The plan was to leave Saturday to come back home, but they got home late enough I decided we would stay one more night. Turns out that was a good decision, because my Grandpa Thorley stopped by, and he was able to meet Claire.

We made it back in record time Sunday to be able to spend a couple of hours home before Greg took his drugs and went to bed (he's not feeling too hot. I can hear him breathing like a dragon in the other room). But, I'm glad he went with me because it was well worth it to see Cedar's Temple. What a blessing it will be for my hometown. 

Home again. My 2 cute girls!

Halloween Festivities 2017

Having a newborn in October pretty much meant that the month flew by without us doing anything remarkable. Poor Sof. I have already promised to do better next year.

She is following in her sisters footsteps and has become so alert! I fear for our future.

We made it to our new ward's Halloween Party, and it turned out to be pretty fun. They had food and games for the kids, and a candy cannon. We left too early, but I guess they let the dads chase candy out of the cannon too. I now wish we would have stayed to see Greg do that. 

Courtesy of Greg.

She loved this cake walk. She would run around the circle counting off the numbers as she went. She was a hit, and everyone loved her, as is the trend with our cute Sofi loaf.

The candy cannon!

Greg's Dad and Kathy had their annual Witchey-poo party. I failed to get pictures because I left my camera at home, but suffice it to say that it was fun.

Decorating Haunted Houses with baby Leona (her kitty).

Chubby Claire.

Sofi refused to eat lunch and dinner October 30, so we refused to let her carve pumpkins. Let's just say that she didn't really care. She was content to sit, watch and spin circles in the kitchen. Although it was annoying, her ability to shake off the negative can be pretty inspiring.

Spinning and jumping.

She ended up eating a good breakfast Halloween day so I let her carve her pumpkin. She could've spooned guts for hours.

She loved it.

On our way to feed horses. I thought she looked so cute in her puffy dress pushing her stroller.

She ran up to this horse without any fear. I now know the heart attack my mom used to have when I would be surrounded by my Grandpa's horses when I was just tiny. 

Kisses

Running back to "give hugs." That paint may have just found its new best friend in a 2 year old. We may be giving away a lot of carrots in the near future.

This is before we went trick-or-treating. She was the cutest Belle I've ever seen. I left a bowl of candy on our front step and I'm sure the kids had a heyday when they saw the abandoned bowl.

This Grimm Reaper was out strolling the streets of Farmington. He was freaky! (just ask Sof). Greg almost hit him on his way down the hill to get donuts - he was standing in the middle of the road. That would've been a fun Halloween experience.

Sof wanting to eat her donut.

My cute girls!

Claire is exhausted!

What fun we had this Halloween Day! I thought Sofi was fun during holidays as a baby but she continues to be much more so the older she gets. It's so fun to be able to explain things to her and have her share in my excitement. I loved that she was able to choose her costume this year and was so excited to be a princess. She sure has a zest for life. Claire continues to be a bump on a log - we love her.