ALVA LIFE

We have had a full day of fun activities. We went to a pumpkin farm this morning and rode the "pumpkin express", a really fun old fashioned train and played among all the pumpkins and activities. Then this evening our neighborhood had the "monster mile" where all the kids went trick or treating to disney characters. It was really cute to see how much fun Katelynn had and poor brennon just layed down in the stroller like he was so not into it. Oh well, maybe next year. We also dressed Sierra up as a princess and took her.


These were kids from our ward we met up with. It was fun seeing all their costumes!

So we took on the long awaited tradition of carving pumpkins. After pulling out all the gunk and cooking the seeds (a must according to Matt) we realized there wasn't much for Katelynn to do, so we had her color on the other one. In the end we had a great time and even Brennon got to watch. Katelynn is so excited for Halloween and all the fun parties start this weekend.

Hey girls, I just want to say you are the greatest! I never knew how hard it was to find such close girl friends. It just isn't the same without you guys and I'm struggling not having close girl friends here. And I miss girls night out like crazy! Thanks for being great friends.

Brennon said his first word "Ma ma" yesterday and I was soooo excited. Matt was there to witness it so he couldn't deny it. Katelynn said Da da first, so I guess we are even. He is also starting to do sign language. He started signing milk when he wants a bottle. It is so fun!

I FINALLY got my Odyssey back after three long weeks of waiting. But it looks like new and it was so fun to drive it again. I'm not sure I'll let Matt drive it for a while.

So being home for two weeks without my Van inspired me to do a project. I found two beautiful furniture pieces at a yard sale (both for $80, my find of the year) and decided to refinish them for Katelynn's room. I also put up window treatments and rearranged everything. At breakfast this morning she randomly said "Mommy, thanks for fixing my room", it was really cute!

Katelynn loves helping me in the kitchen. We have fun making things together. The other night we decided to make crepes and after putting everything in the blender, I let her turn it on forgetting to put the lid on. Well, you can see what happened next..... It was actually pretty funny and katelynn got this really scared look on her face and said "Sorry Mommy, sorry, sorry". I thought it was too cute to get mad :)

Brennon had his first haircut the other day and it was quite the experience. He screamed the whole time and was scared of the clippers. He is our sensitive one. But in the end, he looked a lot more clean cut. What a cutie!

Monitoring my post.... whatever. The Los Angeles air was referring to all of the exhaust from the Jet Skis after they started and sped off toward the course.

As with the accident, yes, it was a bad day indeed. But Cherise will be getting the scrapes on the van fixed from when she backed into our other car a few months ago ;) (She prefers the 2 for one route, while when I do it, I go the distance.) Oh, and they will even fix the scratched on the other car too. I guess it's good to look on the bright side of things.


And.... we just received news that we closed on our home :o)

But more is yet to come for us whose lives always seem to have yet another new adventure around the corner.... stay tuned. Oh, and don't believe a word she says!

So Matt and I have had quite the week. Last week I found a great deal on tickets to Vegas, so I decided to head to Vegas while Matt was going out of town to Miami for work. That was the beginning of a crazy whirlwind of a week that still hasn't ended.

Have I told you all how much I love my Honda Odyssey? Let's just say it was the nicest car I have ever owned and I am completely in love with it. So Matt, on the way to the airport got in what he called a "fender bender" (look at the picture, not quite!) and crunched my beautiful minivan. He had to have it towed to a shop and it caused over $9,000 worth of damage. Thank goodness for insurance! That was supposed to be our ride home from the airport and of course my car for the week, so I am stuck at home with no vehicle. Oh, and when I got home, the battery on the car was dead. Now I am very grateful for modern transportation!

Did I say how much I love my Odyssey??? I couldn't even go look at it, I made Matt go take pictures.

To add to our accident we were supposed to close on our home in IL last friday and we were running around crazy trying to get everything worked out since I was in Vegas, Matt was in Miami, and the closing was in IL. We finally got everything signed and then we waited all day friday to hear it had closed. We were so excited to FINALLY sell it. Well, of all the bad luck, it found us again. The people who were buying from us had the last name Ali and when the money went through the federal reserve to be sent to us, it got flagged as a name that could possibly be associated with terrorists. So apparently they have to go through a background check now. It is now Wednesday and we still haven't closed. Our realtor says it's nothing to worry about, but we are still waiting....

Going to Vegas was actually the best part of the week, but it was crazy traveling by myself with two kids and adjusting to the 2 hour time difference. This was the only picture we could get of the four cousins. Brennon was trying to suck on Tanner's head and Kayla was screaming as usual, poor thing.

Melissa's twins hate the car seats. I felt so bad because my two lived in their car seats. I had to get a picture of them crying together. They are still adorable when crying.

P.S. - I guess I'll have to monitor Matt's posts from now on. Everyone says they were so confused by it. No, we didn't go to LA, it was a mix up. Anyway, I love him for trying.