October 2014

We love October!

The month started with a Fall Fesst at Lilli's school, or as she liked to call it, the "fall festible". Bounce houses/ slides, games, cotton candy, sno cones, video games, face painting, balloon animals, and yummy food trucks. The Holloway's joined us & aside from he lines being WAY too long, we had a fun time.

Lilli has been sad for a long time that we wouldn't be able to go to "the far away halloween place" ( the Farmstead in Boise) for months, and was over the moon when we surprised her with Lehi's version: Cornbelly's. It's about 4 times as big and elaborate, and it was lots of fun. Lilli's favorite parts were the giant corn box, bouncy pillow, and super big slide ( that was my favorite too!).

During Lilli's fall break, Lilli and I a trip to Gardner's Village in West Jordan with the Holloway's for their  " Wee Witches" attraction. It was WAY busy, and a little insane. We waited in line for the bouncy pillow for over 30 minutes, I lost Lilli ( She was in the hay bale maze), and it was HOT. It was however, super cute & Lilli had a blast, and I (think) Dylan had fun as well, so I guess it was all worth it!

Also during the break, Lilli and I made a witch pumpkin. It was knd of hard keeping her busy and entertained for 4 whole days, but I think I did ok!

I recruited Nicole, Dylan, and Neko once again for. Free halloween party in Draper. It was pretty simple, but again the kids had fun, and I enjoyed spending some time with my sister!

We finished the month off with a night of pumpkin carving, caramel apples, and Hocus Pocus. I always forget how much work pumpkin carving is, but it's also pretty fun!

I had to work on Halloween, so Cason and Lilli went trick or treating with some of Cason's co workers. I hear lilli was pretty whiny, and when I picked them up, it was pretty obvious that she was not feeling well. Poor girl had a bad cold, but she didn't let it get her down too much. Work was lame. Everyone kept saying it was the busiest day of the year, and it was a little nutty, but things settled down about 30 minutes into my shift, and I only ended up working a couple of hours. I did make about $40 though, which is pretty dang good for 2 hours of work! It also made it so we were able to go to Cason's parents house after trick or treating. We hung out for a little while, and then went home, exhausted.

With only 1 car, lilli and I had to drive Cason to work 4 days a week at 4 a.m. It. Was. Rough. ( and still is)The good news, is lilli has afternoon kindergarten, so we could come home and sleep! I also volunteered each day in Lil's class as "folder mom" which includes taking attendance, checking homework, and putting new homework in to each student's folder that they take home each day. It was a super easy job, and it was really fun seeing Lilli at school and getting to know some of her classmates. She is learning so much, and absolutely loves being in kindergarten!

September 2014

We had Lilli's birthday party on the first of September. Dylan, Nicole, clay, Owen, and Ashley came to play pokemon themed games, and eat lots of treats. Unfortunately, the reeds had to leave, but Cason's family and my brother Ryan joined us for pizza, cake, gifts, and a piñata. We had so much fun!

Lilli continued to love school, and I started volunteering for her class. It's fun to be in there with her every so often and be able to get to know her teacher and classmates. Lilli seems to be adapting really well!

My parent's came up for BYU's first home game on the 11th.  I wanted Lilli to experience a cougar football game at least once in her life, so she and I went with. Football games are loooong, but lilli had fun just about the whole time. It went like this: first quarter, whining for her cougar tail (donut), second quarter, happy and finishing her donut, 3rd quarter: SUPER hyper, 4th quarter: soooo tired. The game wasn't super exciting, but we won! When we finally got home at 12:30am, Cason had accidentally locked us out so i spent about 20 minutes calling his phone, pounding on the door and windows, all while lilli was screaming about how tired and scared she was. I'm sure our neighbors loved us!!

Cason had his 28th birthday on the 14th. We went to his parents house for a birthday dinner for him and his dad, and the day after, we celebrated in the traditional way:  prime rib & ice cream cake.

We celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary on the 19th. We hadn't planned on doing anything, but at the last minute Cason decided that we should at least go to dinner. I assumed it would be something casual, but as soon as he got home from work, he looked at me and said "uhm, you might want to dress up a little bit", which was funny, because the exact thing happened on the night he proposed! We went to Pago, a fancy little restaurant downtown. Cason loved it, bu it was a little too adventurous/ weird for me. It was fun to go somewhere nice though, and experience some new food (even though I didn't like it much).

On the 30th, I got a frantic call from Cason at 5:30 am, saying that the car had stopped and that he was on the side of Bangerter Highway. Lilli and I picked him up, drove him the rest of the way to work, went home, called a mechanic, and went back to sleep. Later in the day, we were told that the motor had died and would be WAY too much to fix. We kind of knew what the mechanic was going to say, but it was still sad. Having 2 cars was a huge blessing for us, and going back to one is going to be really difficult. Not to mention, that I graduated high school with that car, drove my roommates around in college, drove to my honeymoon, brought my baby home from the hospital in it, and made 3 big moves with it.

August 2014

Lilli and I went to The Chilren's Museum of Natural Curiosity at Thanksgiving Point with the Holloway's. It was pretty nice, and Lilli had tons of fun! I don't really think adults should have to pay admission, because there isn't really anything for us to do other than watch our kids.

Cason started working for the US Postal Service doing data entry. It's a super intense job, but he seems to like it ok, and he makes good money. Also, I started working at
Papa Johns as a driver. I never thought that I would deliver pizzas  for a living, but here I am. It's an ok job. I get super stressed out when I get lost, and it's kind of lonely, but the hours and money are good, so I'm satisfied with it for now.

A few weeks later, on Cason's day off, he took Lilli to see the Ninja Turtle movie. Cason said it was crap, but Lilli loved it. She said her favorite past was "when the orange one went in the sewer and tooted". we then headed to Boondocks.  Lilli played her first game of mini golf, we drove bumper boats, played lots if arcade games, and lilli played in the kid zone. It was a super fun day!

The 25th was Lilli's big day. Our baby turned 5.  We told her she could do anything she wanted, and she chose donuts for breakfast, chick fil a for lunch (where she played for a very long time), and cake and ice cream later in the day.

 I though the big 5 deserved a little more excitement, so we went to all star to play "mini bowling". Lilli loved it! As soon as she rolled the ball, she started jumping and dancing around, and would leap into my arms when it hit the pins.

They also had a glow in the dark indoor mini golf course that Lilli wanted to do, so we went for it. Oh boy, did she hate it! She thought it was super scary, and just wanted out! Overall, it was a really fun day and she had a good birthday.

Lilli had her first day of kindergarten at The Summit Academy on the 28th. It's a new charter school in the area, and we're super excited that she got in! Lilli wasn't nervous at all, and I didn't even cry when I dropped her off. I was just happy to see how happy she was. She of course loved it, and loves her teacher.

On the 30th, we bought our first car together. We had been looking on line for a long time, but hadn't decided on  anything, and it seemed like we would never get it done. Luckily, our brother in law spencer works and Enterprise, and took us down to their sales lot in SLC. We didn't plan on leaving that day with a car, but it happened! We got a Chevy Sonic LT. It's a pretty cool little car, and we got a good deal on it because it used to be a rental car, and we got a family discount thanks to Spencer!

July 2014

We celebrated the Fourth of July with a big party at the Dotson's. Good food, fun people, and lots of swimming. Lilli loved playing with all of Kelli and Robert's nieces and nephews!

Afterwards, Cason had to go to work, and Lilli and I went to the Holloway's to relax a bit and then watch the fireworks. We didn't really know where to go to watch them, and we didn't end up at a great spot, and the kids were grumpy, but what can you do?  Papa johns was slow, so Cason only stayed a couple of hours, and then joined us for the rest of the show.

That weekend, Neko Ruby Holloway was blessed. My parent's, the Hankla's and my brother Ryan came for the occasion, and although it was a very short visit, it was still fun to see them. We also got to meet our new nephew. Jana and Vinnie are in the process of adopting a little boy. They are currently his foster parents, and because of this, I can't post his name, or any pictures, so I will just say that he is a sweet, happy little boy, and we're excited to have him in the family.

The rest of the month was slllllllow. Cason worked a lot, leaving lilli and I at home - but at least he was making good money!

The only fun outing we had was we went to a huge water fountain and played. It's basically like a kiddie pool, and there's always a few people there. Later, they droned it and put up a big sign saying that it was not intended for swimming, which was a bummer. Honestly, who makes a fountain that big, and fun just to look pretty?

Given that we now live in Utah, I wanted to do something to celebrate Pioneer Day. However, I couldn't convince Cason to go to SLC for the parade(shocker), and he had I work that night, so we were out of luck.  Luckily, I didn't mention the holiday to lilli, so she wasn't disappointed. Right before I put lilli to bed, I heard some fireworks go off (lilli thought I was lying to her)and I rushed her outside. It was kind of awesome. We could see about a dozen different displays throughout the valley. Some were super close, others were far away, but they were all good, legit fireworks. We watched for over an hour!

On the 26th, lilli lost her second tooth. She's on a roll! And she talks with a cute little lisp now, I'll miss it when her adult teeth grow in!

One interesting thing was that Lill was featured on the cover of The Friend magazine. Ok, not really, but seriously, it's kind of freaking just how much it looks like her!

Questions

Lilli has been asking a lot of questions lately, like "who made all of the planets" and " are dinosaurs real?" Tonight while watching fFrozen she asked why Hans and Anna couldn't get married, because I got married to her daddy. I explained that they could get married, but not yet, because they just met and didn't know each other very well. Which didn't make sense to her because "they sang the song". I told her that wasn't long enough to get to know each other, and that they had to be friends for a long time before they decided to get married. It made sense, and she was satisfied...

Until she said, " well, if you didn't marry daddy, then just me and  you could live together." So I had to tell her that she wouldn't be here if I didn't marry daddy, because she was part mommy and part daddy because we made her together and I grew her in my belly.  She said "oh! That's why I have red hair like him and why he was in baby pictures with me." She then moved on to other inquires, to which I was grateful, but I have a feeling that it's not the end of the conversation!