Halloween Festivities Night #1: Boo at the Zoo

It seriously feels like we are having a Halloween Triatholon! There are so many activities going on and I really want to do them all. Last night we went to "Boo at the Zoo," tonight is our ward Halloween Carnival, and then tomorrow (in case you didn't know :-) is Halloween. The best thing is that the girl's costumes will definitely be worn more than once!

"Boo at the Zoo" was fantastic! The entire zoo was lit up with orange and green lights, there were jack-o-lanterns every couple of feet on the pathways, the cages were decorated, candy booths were all over where the girls got to practice saying 'trick or treat,' Halloween inflatables dotted the empty areas, and the children's zoo was filled with games and activities. They had a blast!Entering the zoo. They were so excited!

The decorations were great, though I think if we would have gone when it was dark they would have been even better.

Running through the inflatable haunted house.

Taylee was pretty excited when we found a black cat (she is dressed as a black cat while Bryns is a fairy witch).

Leaving the zoo. As you can see, their buckets are pretty full and they are both very happy :-)

Last Soccer Game

Here are some pictures of Taylee's last soccer game for the season. She had so much fun and really loved the sport.

We found out that Taylee can be pretty fast when she wants to be. And as she says, in soccer she is "super, super fast!"

Here is a picture as she goes in for her first goal. The game was at 10 in the morning and it was pretty chilly. Taylee insisted on wearing her gloves and hat. She looks like a cute pink fuzzball :-)
Here is her 2nd goal at the end of the game. As you can see the kids on the other team are a bit tired.One of the other kid's parents brought silly string for all the parents. The kids got so excited, but I think the parents had more fun spraying them (especially Sean---he got Taylee pretty good).

Here is our FUTURE soccer star.

Red Barn

We have had such a boring week (hence the no-blogging) that I knew I needed to do something fun today with Taylee and Brynlee. The cooler weather has left me not knowing what to do for 'extra' activities. So, if anyone has any ideas, please pass them on :-)

But here was our activity today. Thank-you Skye and Asher for joining us. It was so much fun. I have seen advertisements for a 'U-Pick Red-Barn' with a free kid's corn maze. I was not too interested in picking our own pumpkins (I'm kind of a party-pooper that way) but I wondered if corn maze would be fun and it was. I would highly recommend it for any mother in Idaho Falls looking for a fun activity for younger kids.

As you can see, the maze was not very big. It was made out of straw bales, so I could keep an eye of the kids no matter where they were. Taylee loved it. She was grinning the whole time. And she begged to go through it over and over again.

Brynlee followed Taylee through the maze the whole time. Here, they are at a dead-end, probably wondering if they should just climb over it :-)

Running into each other...literally.

Okay, okay. I did let them pick out pumpkins after all. The rule was that they had to be able to carry them.

And here is an extra pic of Bryns just cuz she is so stink'n cute. She hugged her pumpkin the entire ride home saying 'pu-kin, pu-kin.'

Soccer Star

We are so proud of Taylee! She has taken to soccer like she was made for it. She had another game Thursday night in Pocatello. And while many of her team-mates were still doing somersaults in the corner :-) she scored 3 of their 5 goals! She loves it so much and was especially happy that daddy was able to see her. Every time she made a goal, she would get a huge grin on her face and run over to us to give daddy a hi-5 and give me a big hug. She is such a cutie!!

And although her soccer goals were the definite highlight of the night, the ending to the night was pretty great too. Both girls fell asleep on the way home (heavenly, I know :-) and as Sean was taking Taylee from the car to her bedroom she started to wake up a little. She got a bit irritated when Sean explained to her that he was taking her to bed and told him,"No daddy, I need to kick a goal!"

Sean, being the nice dad that he is, set her close to the ground where she kicked the air, told him thank-you, and promptly fell back into her deep sleep.

Apparently, she loves soccer so much that now she plays it in her sleep!!! :-)

Big News

I have been debating about whether to blog about this yet but we have told enough people about it that I might as well.

I AM PREGNANT!!

Child #3 is due in our family on June 6th. I have to admit that no, it was not planned. But we are so excited to add another sweet little spirit into our family. Taylee understands a little bit about what is going on (Bryns is completely oblivious :-) and she keeps telling me that she wants a brother. We will just have to wait and see.

Funny enough, I swear that I am having twins! I already feel HUGE and I am only 7 weeks. I know it is probably just the whole 3rd-prego, no-ab resistance thing, but still, this is weird! Hopefully it is all in my mind (or twins!) because I usually don't show until after about 20 weeks.

But, again, we are so excited and can't wait for next summer!

I'm Dreaming Of A White...October?

Can you believe it is already snowing? Taylee insisted that we build a snowman (which was about 6 inches tall) and she had to make a snow angel. It was so much fun and I can't wait for more snow! I love snow until about February 1st and then I'm ready for it to be gone :-)

Salt Lake Adventure

For weeks Sean and I have talked about just getting "the heck out of Idaho." Don't worry, we still love Idaho, we just desperately needed some type of family vacation. We decided to go to Salt Lake City. We have been wanting to take the girls to Hogle Zoo and there was a pre-season game of Jazz vs. Suns.

On our way down Thursday night we stopped at Maddox Ranch House in Brigham City (if you have never been there, YOU NEED TO! It is a Kress family favorite and it is soooooo good!). While the food was fantastic, the highlight of dinner was Taylee yelling for the whole restaurant to hear, "Daddy burped in my face! Daddy burped in my face!" (which he did!). For about 30 seconds before, both Sean and I knew what she was going to say, so we were desperately shushing her and trying to distract her, but our little girl was determined. By the time she finally got it out, both Sean and I were laughing hysterically. It was a great family moment.

We took both girls to the game as a 'test-run' for the year. Sean has season tickets to the Jazz and we wanted to see how they would do. Lets just say that we only made to half-time. And the only reason we made it that far was because Brynlee had her licorice and Taylee had her rootbeer.

On Friday, we took the girls to Hogle Zoo. It was a blast, though I'm not sure who was more excited to see the animals, the girls or Sean :-) Brynlee loved the tiger (I think it is her favorite animal), and Taylee loved both the giraffes and elephants. Sean, I think, liked the tiger too. It sat in the corner of his cage and was just growling and howling (it was definitely a bit weird). Sean put Taylee on his shoulders and they 'talked' back to the tiger. I did decide that I like the zoo better in the fall. It WAS cold, but the animals were more active. The cougars were running and jumping around, the bears were all awake and moving, the rhino was right at the window looking back at us. It was great!