October was a busy and fun month for us. We went to Disneyland, then had a few days to get things together for the twins' 4th birthday bash, during which I also went to a fun reunion, dinner, and football game celebrating being inducted into the BYU Hall of Fame, and then a few days later came Halloween. During October I also worked on making these felt masks for the party. We decided to do a woodland animal forest themed party and it was probably my favorite party to come up with because everything was just so cute:) Missing from this picture were the owls, the hedgehog, the bunny, and the skunk. I'm mad I didn't get a pic of all the masks 'cause they took way too much time to make.
Also in preparation, we were going to decorate with jars of acorns and stuff, but during our many walks to hunt for acorns, the kids found tons of these buckeyes, which were prettier.
Easily the favorite gift for EVERYONE....these Magformers. The twins have to stand in line to play with their own gift because Rivs or CD are always playing with the too.
We'd had some terrible weather early in October, so I was trying to figure out how to turn the inside of our house into a forest, and then we lucked out and it was absolutely perfect fall weather!! We started the party with stamping our names on paper bags to collect things in throughout the party. Then Rivers let everyone choose an animal mask and we headed to the backyard to do a scavenger hunt. I made papers with pictures of a buckeye, a wood pencil, a bird, a rock, a leaf, etc. and the kids searched the yard and collected their goods. I got twig pencils and wooden whistles shaped like birds to hide and let them take home.
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| Then everyone crowded into the teepee and Rivers the moose read them stories about forest animals. Everyone was so attentive and quiet! |
Next up, painting birdhouses underneath the birch tree that was a magical bright yellow color. Again, the kids focused WAY more than I thought they would on this activity and they were silent and painting for 20 minutes before I had to speed things along to finish before parents came. Lito commented it was the quietest birthday party he'd ever been too. I may have subconsciously planned it that way :)
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| We took a break for food and had forest eats like nuts and berries, caterpillar grape skewers with chocolate chip eyes, toadstool cupcakes (and some pumpkin cupcakes with vanilla, cinnamon cream cheese frosting for the adults)... |
and of course a huge thing of chocolate milk.
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| I also made these little acorn things by putting a mini vanilla wafer or mini nutter butter on top of a chocolate kiss with frosting and then a mini chocolate chip on top of the cookie. |
Then some of the kids dug for treasure in the spaghetti "swamp" and found chocolate gold coins, while others dug in a wheel barrow full of dirt that we had put lots of worms in. One of the twins' favorite activities is to dig for worms while I am working in the yard. They collect whole colonies, so we had to work it into the party.
Words can't express how grateful I am for my miracle twins and I feel it even more strongly when we celebrate their birthdays and I reflect on the amazing and scary events that took place to bring them into this world.
Reagan is a kind-hearted, sweet, boss. She really is such a sweetheart, but at the same time everyone in the family knows she's the boss. She has a perfectionist, stubborn side and is super nerdy... in a cute way. She has crazy attention to detail, that leaves me dumbfounded at times and LOVES it when her room, or the van, or anything is all clean! She loves animals and they love her. She gets excited when she writes her name or her letters "perfect". And even though she is girly, loves pink and pretty things, her favorite thing to do is have official wrestling matches with her brothers. She makes sure they shake hands and bow to each other before wrestling. She has amazingly long, twiggy legs that still make her look like a baby colt sometimes, but when she gets those legs going, she is fast! She loves to race and ride her bike and be scratched anywhere! She likes her arms scratched, her hands scratched, her legs, her back, anywhere and doesn't want you to stop. She also LOVES cuddling and making puppy sounds that involuntarily escape her lips every time she cuddles. She sleeps in every day and loves hugging and laughing with Dreyton (to the point where it is very distracting in public places). They are so lucky to have each other.
The word I immediately think of to describe this character is "witty". He comes up with the funniest little come-backs to everything we say and they are immediate, so he doesn't have time to think them up. That's the opposite of me. He has the cutest little voice with an accent that came from who knows where, so his witty little comments sound even funnier. He learns "quickly" the kindergarten sight words along with CD and still feels like a little monkey or baby bear when you hold him. I LOVE how he always wakes up happy and huggy in the mornings and is usually always in a cheerful mood. This kid can also catch anything you throw at him and is extremely tough (he has to be with CD wrestling him every day). You know if Dre is crying that he is actually hurt. If he falls down or runs into something he usually jumps up saying "I'm ok" "that didn't hurt". Every single night as I'm tucking him in, he says "I'm hungry", which is really annoying, but I fall for because he's my little guy and I want him to grow and I can't stand the thought of him being hungry, so he gets a bedtime snack. He is SO thoughtful with Reagan - always getting her things, telling her not to worry, sharing his stuff (even when she takes advantage of his niceness). He really loves her and doesn't want to do anything without her.
There was something about the golden leaves, perfect weather, and quietness of the party that made it feel like a magical fairy realm. I was waiting for little garden gnomes to come walking around the corner.
This same week, I had the honor of being inducted with the BYU cross-country team into the BYU Hall of Fame. We won the national championship 1997, 1999, 2001, and 2003, which has never been done by any team in the country before or since, so it was a pretty big deal. Here I am with the 1997 team at the banquet. It really was so fun to see everyone and listen to the details of each year that we won. Some of the wins were quite spectacular. I think it was in 2001 that even if you didn't score our first two runners, and counted instead our 6th and 7th runners, we still would have won. That is amazing. Other times it came down to two points. Too bad Whitney couldn't make it.
With Kara and Marty.
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| They also gave all of us tickets for us and our families to go to the BYU vs. Boise St. football game where we were honored at half time. |
The kids thought it was pretty cool to get to go on the field at half-time.
