i definitely qualify for the worst blogger ever award! i have lots to blog about but, you know, life happens. maybe i will get to it this week. until then, a few pictures from halloween (which was windy, rainy and cold).

a pink poodle and a pirate

once there was a snowman...

...and 4 hours later he melted and was gone.

six month old beauty

mallory kate

age 6 months

height: 26 3/4 in. (% 85th)

weight: 16 lb. 9 oz. (% 63rd)

eyes: dark blue

hair: strawberry blonde

personality: sweet, happy, social

milestones: rolling over, sitting without support, crawling, eating from a spoon, drinking from a sippy cup, sleeping through the night (usually)

loves: smiling at people or at nothing at all, laughing at her brother, books, jumping in the jumper thing, crawling, baths, chewing on anything she get to her mouth - especially paper or plastic

dislikes: when her brother tries to sit on her and being alone

cougar kickoff

cougar kickoff this year was especially exciting because it was katie's first kickoff as a byu cheerleader!

the kids had a great time. mally's favorite part was aunt katie's pom-poms. jace's favorite part was the track that he ran around and around and around and around on. (his last time around he fell right before the finish line from pure exhaustion and then he asked if he could go again!)

*can you tell which side of her head she sleeps on. the pigtails are only good until after her nap.

birthday + family

friday was my birthday. i wouldn't normally write about my birthday but it was a really great one...

*jared took the afternoon off work so i could go have lunch with my mom and spend the afternoon shopping with her at the gateway. (probably my favorite birthday present - so nice to get away for the afternoon).

*we had a party that night with lots of family that we don't get to see very often. it was kind of a happy birthday to me, happy birthday to tae, and a farewell to a wonderful summer of family fun.

cara and nate (jared's cousin and her husband) were in salt lake on their way to baltimore
amber left the next day for hawaii and her family will be leaving for good on monday
chris (jared's mom) was headed home the next morning
jason and tae were here for the day, driving from portland to alabama
grandma copley left wednesday to go back to alabama
devin, katie, jon, aubrey, carrie, dan and hunter all start school in the next two weeks

a few pictures that amber took of the party:

family photos

jared's cousin, amber, took some family photos for us on monday. we got some good ones even though it was a challenge to get mallory and jace to both look at the camera and it was impossible to get them to smile at the same time. here are a couple. thanks amber!

"you are the promise i knew god would keep,
you are the gift that makes my life complete.
and you'll never know how much i love you,
but i'll keep on telling you my whole life through.
now i believe in miracles and you're the reason why."

- reba mcentire

pigtails

today, mallory is sporting some pigtails. we think they are pretty cute.

camping

pictures from our first camping trip of the summer - jared's company camp out. it was mid-june. perfect during the day and freezing at night. mally and i were not brave enough to stay for the cold nights so we came home to sleep in our nice warm beds.

we had a lot of fun. all of our food was cooked for us. there were lots of friends for jace to play with. we hiked to stewart falls and played a little volleyball.

we are now preparing for two back-to-back camping trips coming up. we bought this bed for mally in hopes that she will sleep well so we can all enjoy the trip. can't wait to see all our family!

because...

because i haven't blogged in a very long time
because i am putting off cleaning my house
because i finally loaded my pictures onto my computer
and because i think my kids are cute

jace - 3 yrs 9 mos


mally - 4 1/2 mos