Week Eight: Pumpkins and other fun

One of my fun plans for this time without Brandon was to take the kids to Logan.  I've been planning on this trip since even before Brandon left.  Of course I ended up picking the day it snowed to go visit.  

When we left Bountiful it wasn't snowing, but we hit a storm as we headed North.  I was worried about how the snow would effect our plans.  But, thankfully it stopped snowing as we drove and so we were able to go to our first stop at the pumpkin walk in North Logan. 

 The girls loved seeing all the pumpkins.

 Me and Hillary liked looking at all the scenes that people created with pumpkins. This is a Candyland scene.

 This is a scene of a snowball fight. We figured it was pretty appropriate.

  After walking around we retreated to the car to get warm and have lunch.  These car-lunches are getting pretty interesting.

 Then we went to visit my friend Katie.  Katie and I worked together back before we had kids.  Now we have 5 kids between us.  We had fun talking about how we are adjusting to being Stay-at-home moms.

After Katie's we went to visit our friend Laurie and her granddaughter Mikayla.  Mikayla is only a week older than the twins.  The girls loved playing with all of her toys.  

 Next on our jam packed day of visiting we stopped by my cousin Madison's dorm at USU.  It's so funny how some things about college haven't changed.  The girls went nuts and jumped all over Madison's couch.

I liked seeing the New Ag Building.  Brandon graduated from the college of Ag so I'm happy to see they have a nice building. 

 And then we took the traditional alumni picture with the A.  If the weather was nicer and/or the kids were older I would have put them on the A.  But this is the most I felt comfortable doing.

 After Madison's I drove around the town and showed Hillary all the apartments I lived in.  She was a good sport to listen to all my reminiscing.   

Then we stopped by my old work.  I worked there for 2 1/2 years.  I left over two years ago when Brandon graduated.  But sometimes I forget that I quit.  I'd still work there if I lived in Logan and didn't have 3 babies.  I like going back there and seeing how much the company has grown.  When I started there the whole company took up the 3rd floor of an office building.  Now the billing department (my department) takes up the 3rd floor. (I probably said "This is all billing?!?" 20 times.) The other departments have spread to other floors and even another building.  

After looking around at the place I spent 40 hours a week ate I went out to dinner with one of my co-workers.  Melissa and I were kind of exiled together in the corner for several months.  We became very good friends during that time.  

Derrick had a fun time sitting at the table with all of us.  

 After dinner we headed home.  I was so tired.  The girls had fallen asleep on the way home so I put them in bed, put Hillary in charge of Derrick, and went to bed myself at 9:00.

The next day was kind of a let down after all the fun the day before.  I was feeling kind of low and run down.  That's when Brandon's letter showed up.  It was the letter where he called me Supermom.  Reading that letter cheered me right up and encouraged me to keep going.  I love that Brandon can make my day even from the other side of the country.

When the girls woke up from their nap I got out my box of fall leaves and started decorating.  I ended up doing this cool ceiling.  The girls LOVE it.  They point to it and say, "ball, leeeeve, seeling." (By the way, I came up with this all by myself.  No Pintrest needed.)

Thursday I took my kids to my Aunt Cheryl's.  She gave me time to myself, and, after running a few errands, I honestly just went home and cleaned my house for an hour.  It was nice to walk into a clean house when I came home with the kids.

Hillary was back at my house on Friday and she helped me take the kids to Storytime at the library.  It was combined with the pre-schoolers which meant the stories did not hold the girls attention AT ALL.  But we weren't really there for the stories anyway.  We were there for the costume parade.  Here is a little pre-view of what the kids are being for Halloween.

 On Saturday my friend Erin came over to visit.  She made us a yummy dinner and then stayed up crafting with me after the kids went to bed.

 I can't really remember what day this happened, but Derrick's high chair moved off the counter at some point during the week.  His legs are now long enough to reach the counter and I was worried he'd tip himself over.  So now he is VERY happy to sit by his sisters and try to steal their food.  (He has a 80% success rate.)

 The girls love to include Derrick in whatever they are doing.  For example, they wanted him to sit in a box along with them. 

 Sunday, we had a good day at church and then went for a long walk in the evening.  We ended up at the construction site on Redwood Rd and 1500 South.  The girls liked seeing the tractors.

 We stopped at a field and had a little photo shoot.

 Today my mom came and watched the kids while I slept (for real) and showered.  I also went to the store.  I brought home cookies as a treat for the kids. 

 Derrick went nuts for the cookie.

 Tonight we carved our pumpkin.

 We invited our neighbors Melody, Alex, and Caleb over to carve with us.  It was really fun to do it with them.  Having them over kept me from dwelling on the fact that Brandon isn't here to celebrate Halloween with us.