Harvest Moon Hurrah and Our Latest Home Project

On Saturday, we met up with my some of my cousins and their families to go to the Spanish Fork Harvest Moon Hurrah (not kidding, that is what it is called!). It was so much fun. One thing I love about SF is all of the family friendly fun community things they do. This event is great. We love going each year and now that we have a child, it is even more fun. The kids got to make pictures with apple stamps, make bracelets and fall crowns, and have mini caramel apples among other things. They also got to ride ponies. All for free, mind you. Kenzie and I had been talking about the ponies before we left and then the while we were waiting a long time for the pony rides, Jared was getting her excited about it and she was anxious to get out of the stroller and to the ponies. Well, as you can see below, once she actually got the pony, she wasn't excited at all...more like traumatized. Who can blame her really, though. That is a big animal when you are so small.

Well, if one try wasn't good enough, we decided that maybe if she was with mom, it might go better. No way! She wouldn't let go of me. I know that it won't be long, though, until she is like every other kid and want her own pony. :) The other kids liked the pony rides much better.

We also got to go on a hay ride around town. They had kids that were playing guitar and fiddle on the ride to provide entertainment. Once again, a fun time. In this picture is my cousin Chad, his daughter Grace, and his nephew Roman. After the hay ride,we had what every event must have to be successful...good food. We filled ourselves with hot scones and honey butter and BBQ sandwhiches and then went to watch the headliner entertainment, Eclipse. All around, family fun. We had a great time with the cousins and are glad they came with us.
On another subject...So, after stocking up on food storage items and having them stack up on one little shelf and all over the floor of our cold storage, I have convinced Jared that it is time to start putting in shelves. He hauled everything out of the storage area (which was a big job in and of its self) and has been working each night this past week on our project. Here is a before picture. As of tonight, we are almost halfway there...the after picture to come. You'll notice I have called it "our" project, but it is really him who is doing all of the work while I do things like blog. :)
We have to nail boards into the cement to support the shelves and to do this, the tool requires a type of bullet and a nail. You then hit the tool with a hammer to set off the bullet so it will shoot the nail into the cement. It is just like a gun going off. Thankfully, Kenzie has been able to sleep through this, but I think the neighbors are probably wondering who is shooting what in our house. :) Only a few more days and I promise the bullets will stop!

State Fair and Other Musings

So last weekend, we had to go to the dentist in Salt Lake (Dr Steven D Smith if anyone is looking for a good dentist), so while we were down there, we decided to make a weekend of it. We met up with Becky and Brandon after the dentist on Friday and went to the State Fair. We had a great time with them! Jared had never been to the State Fair before we got married, but it has since become an annual tradition. I know it is over for this year, but here is a shout out for a pretty inexpensive great time with plenty of things for kids and adults to see and do. And, if anyone asks, the deep fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich is as good as it looks on the commercials. Becky gave it a try and gave us all a bite. Truly a delicacy. :) Thanks, Becky for letting us share!










Here a few shots---Kenzie trying on cowgirl hats, the family in the cow barn (Kenzie would have much rather been down running among the cows then in my arms for a picture!), and one at the rodeo with Becky and Brandon.










This was Jared's favorite part of the fair...as we were walking out, there was sports car with a BYU decal on the door. He couldn't pass up a picture. :)

We have also been busy picking things out of garden over the last month. It has been so much fun to go out each day and see what is ready to be picked. I can't believe how many cucumbers one plant can produce! Can I just say, cucumbers running out of our ears. If anyone who reads this wants any, let me know. Our corn was very pathetic, but when I pulled up the carrots, I was convinced I had planted mutants. The are giant, well, at least fat. They are like 2 inches in diameter but only a few inches long. Pretty funny. Here are a few shots of Kenzie with one, being helpful and bringing it to the house.













Kenzie is now 17 months old. She had her first trial run of nursery today and seemed to do just fine. Jared is getting excited to maybe actually get to sit through Priesthood, at least for a few months. Kenzie is saying more everyday and is getting to be really helpful. She has started getting her own diaper when she needs a change and loves to "help" with loading the dishes and vacuuming. She is also getting a little more picky about what she wears. A true girl!

It's Official

For anyone who hasn't heard yet, it has been confirmed and reconfirmed that we will be having...twins. Just kidding. We are having a girl. We are so excited!! It will be so great for our girls to have a sister so close in age. I know that my greatest memories growing up were with my siblings, and especially with my sister Katee is who is only 16 months older than me. Nothing like late nights playing barbies in bed, making up crazy games, reading books, and spending hours in our room doing anything but cleaning it like we were supposed to be doing. In later years, it was talking girl talk, sharing friends, and sharing dinners at college apartments. Now it is sharing crazy kid stories, great deals, and dinner ideas, and trying to make each other feel okay about all of the things we put off doing. :) I love you, Katee! I'm glad to be having another girl, so that they can have each other. And, there really is just one, thank goodness!

The other bit of official news is that the BYU Football is under way. Yes, for all of you who aren't married to a BYU football addict, this means every Saturday from now until Thanksgiving, football becomes the center of our day. If you need to talk to Jared, don't call during game time. If you need him to help you with something, plan to do it well before or well after game time. If you want us to TiVo something special for you, once again, make sure it doesn't occur during game time because, yes, even when he goes to the game, we must TiVo it to rewatch later in slow motion. The best part is that he is working to convert his 1 year old daughter to be a fan. Here is Kenz in her shirt he bought her for this season. What a fan! Game days make a good excuse for Kenz and I to have a special girls day out. This Saturday we headed to the library, the playground, JoAnns, and Wendy's where Kenzie gorged herself on French fries. We'll have to see where next Saturday takes us.

The Utah County Fair and more

Here are a few pictures of some things we have been doing the last couple of weeks.

We bought Kenzie these sunglasses at the beginning of summer, but she wouldn't ever keep them on for more than two seconds, until one night before she was going to bed, she decided she wanted to wear them around the house so we had to take a picture.
Below is a picture of Kristee and Kenzie, with our nieces Rachel, Alison, and Katie at the Utah County fair checking out Kristee's favorite part of the fair - the sheep. Kristee use to raise sheep when she was younger and had a grand champion, so we always check out the sheep first when we go to any fair. We also got to watch the cow judging in this arena, and the girls and I could never pick the winning cow, but we had fun trying. How the heck are you supposed to know if a cow has a good loin??
Here is where we let Kenzie drive a tractor by herself at the fair. I told Kristee to stand back a little out of the picture, but notice that she didn't get too far.Kristee and I went to the demolition derby at the fair and had a great time. We got to see one car get high centered on the outside barrier, and another car got completely flipped over on its top and they had to bring out the jaws of life to get her out, but the very best part of the derby was checking out the amazing hairdos and mullets. Kristee snapped this great photo below. Check out this lady's bangs. I don't think I have seen bangs like those since my sister Cathy had them in the 80's.
And finally, to end this blog, here is a video of Kenzie making one of her first baskets on the real hoop. She loves to come out and try to play basketball with me, and last week she finally got brave and strong enough to put the ball in herself.