Autumn Time

 

   I had a busy autumn this year! During the priesthood session of conference, I went with my mom to see Stephanie Nielson, the author of Heaven is Here. I recommend that book, it's a good one! She was in a plane crash & burned over 80% of her body. She doesn't let that stop her from having a full and happy life. She's a great example to me!

 

 

One of the main points of her book is to remember that we are so much more than what we look like! It's what's inside that counts!

 

 

I volunteered at the Ivy Girl Academy. Jessie Clarke Funk is the founder of it and as you probably already know, an LDS singer. I love her music! I had fun helping out with an all day self-esteem workshop for teenage girls. They had guest speakers, a 4 course meal, makeovers, a photo shoot, a self-defense class, and so much more. It was really good and a lot of fun!

 

 

I dyed my hair darker again!

 

Jake & I carved pumpkins for Halloween! I did the ghost one on the right, Jake did the big one, & we both did the other one.

 



 

Jacob & cute little Dawson in his pumpkin outfit on Halloween!

 



Jake holding Dawson for his first time! He's sound asleep & keeping Jake warm.

 

Ethen with his favorite stuffed dog, Risky, watching a cartoon.



 

 

More Halloween pics! Jacob was little red riding hood, Jennica was a pumkin, & I was just wearing orange.

 

Grandma holding Dawson as he's sleeping.

 

Dawson finding his thumb!

 

 

Jake & Dawson~ I like this pic

 

 

So cute! He found his tiny thumb.

 

 

Love his smile!

 

 

Dawson was a tiger for Halloween & brought his outfit to Ethen's birthday party!

Birthdays!!

I'm behind on my blog posting! Yup, I've got some catching up to do... So both Ethen and I celebrated our birthdays in the month of October! I turned 29 on the 9th & Ethen turned 7 on the 26th.

I went paragliding with Jake in the morning which was awesome (we already paid for it from a Groupon deal so it actually wasn't for my birthday but since we both had the day off from work, we decided to go)! We ate at The Roof for dinner (I didn't realize how expensive it is). However, since it was my birthday, it was a good excuse to go and splurge! I love the view of the temple and the piano playing in the background. The rolls and desserts were the best! Then, when we got home, Jake threw me a surprise birthday party! My family and friends were there. I've never had a surprise birthday party before! Jake made me a cake (his first time ever) and he did a good job considering it overflowed in the oven!

 

 

Getting ready to fly!

 

Take off!

I'm up!



 

 Here's Jake!



 

 

The Roof!

 

I think these are cool pics!

 

 

Ethen had a dinosaur party this year. Last year it was a dragon party.

 

Ethen's 6th Birthday (last year)

I made him a dragon cake (closer look)!

 

He had his friends over and my family came. We played pin the tail on the dinosaur (Jake drew the dinosaur), had a dinosaur stomp, had a dinosaur egg hunt, played "Dino, dino, roar!" (in place of "Duck, duck, goose!"), and pass the dinosaur (instead of hot potato). This was Ethen's second party (he had one at his mom's house too). He's a little spoiled to say the least! He's a good kid. We had fun! I enjoyed making his cake and decorating his room.     

 

Ethen's 7th Birthday Party

 

Dinosaur cake!

 

 Pin the Tail on the Dinosaur!

 

 Dinosaur Stomp

 

Make a Wish!

 

 

My cake was a hit!

 

Happy Birthday Banner in Ethen's room

 

 

 

Pine Valley Reunion

     We had a good time down in Pine Valley at Rose & Jim's cabin. It is such a beautiful and peaceful place. Rose & Jim let us ride their nice comfy bikes and I liked that a lot. Jake & I went on a little paved trail that went by a reservoir. We did that trail twice on two different days. We played lawn games (cube, bocce, horseshoes), card games of course (rage, scum, rook), visited, were well fed, watched some movies, had FHE, and just enjoyed each others' company. It was good to have Kevin, Lisa, Rachel, & Emily with us. We went to sacrament meeting at the oldest church still in use. Rex gave a great lesson later on his book about the Second Coming. Rose did an excellent job on family home evening. She had us all do an obstacle course and tied it into her lesson. We all face different challenges in life but the goal is to make it back to our Father in Heaven. We are here to help each other. Rose & Jim gave us each a copy of "A Family of Faith". They worked hard on it putting it together! I love all the stories we each contributed. What a treasure!  

 

The Vaughan Clan

 

I got home from church first and the first thing I did was change into shorts & didn't know we were taking pictures! I almost changed back into my skirt but decided to not worry about it. Spencer & Christian did the same thing.

Ethen had a blast in the Bounce House!

 



He wore himself out as you can see!

 



 

It was pretty cool to see cows that looked just like oreos!

 

 

Jake & the Oreo Cows

 

Summertime

    So unfortunately I didn't take any pictures up at the Brighton cabin get together. I need to work on that (taking more pics). Jennica & Brad were here! They requested to spend some time at the Flamm family cabin. In fact, if you have access to their blog, you can see pictures there! We had fun! My mom planned a mini olympics (since the olympics were going on at the time, she decided to make up our own) to do together as a family. That's typical of my mom to think of something creative like that. She's awesome! We made up our own countries with accompanying flags, had a "high jump" using donuts strung on a tree (harder than it looks), the "throwing shot put" using rocks outside, the "javelin throw" using straws (I won for the girls & Jesse overall), volleyball/tennis using fly swatters & a balloon (Jake won), and ping-pong around the world (Brad won). It was a blast! My favorite was the ping-pong. For lunch we had tastes from different countries like Mexican tacquitos, Chinese egg rolls, & Italian salad (went with the theme); for dinner, we had American hamburgers. I also made little s'more cup bites (from Pinterest). I enjoyed watching the summer olympics in London this year on TV. I like the gymnastics, diving, and swimming.
     We only stayed for 2 nights and a day because Jake's parents were in town. We went to church with them down at Susan's in American Fork & then spent the day with them. It was good to see them again.  I made some more s'more cup bites & they were gone in a hurry! Susan helped me get started indexing on Family Search Indexing. I was hooked! However, I haven't done it since but am planning on it. There was a Howlett reunion in July that was a lot of fun. Jake's parents stayed with us for a few nights. They traveled all over the west visiting family and stopped in Utah twice! They just got released from their mission in Garden City, Kansas (the Colorado Springs mission). That was their third mission! They served in Germany & the Gilbert Islands also. They treated us to dinner a couple times which was very nice of them.
     Jenn & I went out to lunch one day at Kneaders (my favorite place for lunch) during the week they were here. She's never been there before & she liked it! While we were at lunch, Jake & Brad were at lunch at Quizno's. We then went to check out "Market Square" (now called NPS) in Salt Lake. It's a big store! My mom's told us about it and all the good deals so we wanted to go. I got some nice white Calvin Klein shorts for like $12 & they're my new favorite thing to wear! Jake & Brad ended up playing rock band. Fun stuff!     
     This post just keeps getting longer & longer! I feel like I'm finally getting more into this blog thing & I like it! I do need to take more pics though. Pictures would make it better! This summer's been awesome! We've used our Pass of all Passes a lot (mostly to 7 Peaks!). We also went to the Bee's baseball game & the Utah Blaze. We actually already got another pass for next year because we liked it so much!

Nephew Dawson

     I'm a new aunt on my side of the family! Little baby Dawson was born on August 6, 2010 & he's such a cutie. He belongs to Jesse & Annie. I love him so much! I've seen him 3 times now & can't get enough of him! I need to get some more pictures of him! We had the Vaughan Baby Shower at my house. We played some fun games & it was a good turn out!

Vaughan Baby Shower

Me & Dawson



 

He had to be on oxygen at first.

Such a sweetheart!

Dream Your Dream

     Ethen & I got to be in the Children's Pioneer Parade. Our stake did a float called "Dream Your Dream" & they won first place! I helped play the piano in primary to a song with the same title of "Dream Your Dream". Some of the lyrics go like this: "If I can dream it, I can do it, just watch me & you'll see... if you help me along the way, it's easy as can be. I'll be a vet, I'll be a mom, I'll own a flower store... I'll be a pilot in the sky..." We practiced it for a few weeks to sing in the parade. It was fun! Here's a couple pics:

Temple Family Pictures



Smile Ethen!

That's better but without the temple.



Ethen's Kindergarten Graduation

Jake, my mom and I went up to Brigham City to see Ethen's Kindergarten graduation program. The songs were cute! Here's a few pics:

Being Silly

Up on Stage with his classmates

Making Faces

Mountain View Elementary School



Ethen & his teacher, Mrs. Moss