Halloween in Phoenix

Over Halloween we went to Phoenix to visit some friends. Can I just say going back there made us homesick? I have always felt that Phoenix is my home & going to visit is bitter-sweet! We had a fantastic time & have to give much thanks to Karl & Chantae for putting up with us & our sometimes inappropriate behavior for the few days we were there!

Nothing says friends like bath time! Will Charlie & Marley despise us when they are older & we have bootie pictures of them together in the bathtub? But me oh my, they were cute in the tub!

So we carved some pumpkins just before Halloween. Karl had an Elders Quorum emergency but did not allow it to cut (no pun intended ha ha) in to his pumpkin carving time. Looks like Kevin & I take our pumpkin carving pretty darn seriously! Look at that concentration...that steady hand movement...

Attempts to take pictures of the pumpkins in the dark...I said attempts!

Miss Charlie & Miss Marley LOVED to sit in this chair together. As you look through these pictures, you will notice Marley RARELY smiles for the camera, and of course, Charlie always does because she's a complete gem!

Awwhhh!! We miss Phoenix so VERY, VERY, VERY much! We drove by our old house & it induced fits of depression! Maybe we can move back someday!!!!

We had a list of several places to eat from "Diners, Drive-ins, & Dives" & only managed to hit two of them. I must say they were fantastic! Over Easy had these insanely wonderful Banana Walnut French Toast (& a super friendly owner, who chatted with us about the show). Joe's Farm Grill had the best seared Ahi tuna sandwich I have ever eaten!

Miss Marley wore her Dorothy outfit again...check out those kicks! Lovely red slippers!

Oink! Oink! Miss Charlie was the cutest pig ever! Oh my heavens was she adorable!!

The most precious family in Phoenix, Chantae, Karl, & Charlie!! We were lucky enough to go to TWO, that's right, I said, TWO, ward Halloween parties! YE-AH!

Miss Marley loved the candy...she wasn't too sure about the lady hiding behind the cauldron, but with a bit of encouragement, she took the bait & snagged some candy!

Hey if you don't have a costume, duct tape seems like a good alternative...seriously? Will this kid die because he can't sweat? How does this come off with out taking pieces of skin with it?

Two little Missy's with sacks full of candy!

Ouch! Charlie really wanted to sit in her shopping cart so we ended up putting a blanket in there to give her some padding!

Whoa! It's sugar rush time! This is right after the Halloween shindig & this is what a sugar high looks like in a couple of cute little girls! Nuts!

Oh my stars! These have to be the cutest PJs ever! When you turn off the lights, the little skeleton bones glow. An attempt to take a picture of it turned out WORSE than the pumpkins!

Here we are with our wonderful friend Eileen. We managed to meet up with her for brunch & were sad that we didn't get to spend more time with her!

We also got a chance to meet up with my good friend Suzy! She has the cutest little "grandbaby" ever! And Kevin was so totally impressed with her son, Jake! Kevin used to take him to scouts when we lived in Phoenix. Jake's huge & a fantastic football player! It's so crazy what a difference 3 years makes! But he's still a fantastic kid! It was LOVELY to see them & we definitely miss them!

So I had to get pictures of of Marley on this awesome bike. It doesn't have pedals, which helps children learn to balance on the bike, so then they can go right to riding a bike without training wheels! I had to throw in that picture of Charlie with the hat on! Just adorable!

Cooke Family Halloween

For the Cooke Family Halloween party we followed more of the Wizard of Oz theme & Kevin even matched this time! Grandma Ruth actually painted her face green & Papa Jerry perspired in the Cowardly Lion outfit. Kevin wore the most uncomfortable outfit of all! The Scarecrow outfit had all this stiff straw which greatly limited his movement! He couldn't even sit down! We had such a great time. Grandma Ruth had a few cute little games & Halloween treat bags for the kids, as well delicious soup, treats, & potables!

Ackroyd Halloween Party

I had my family over for a little Halloween get together & I asked Kevin to get some pictures & I got head shots! But we had a fabulous time & I appreciate everyone coming up to hang out!

Halloween Carnival

The youth group at church put together a Halloween Carnival, which gave us a good excuse to dress Marley up as Dorothy. Her Grandma Ruth found these adorable shoes that looked just like Ruby Slippers & matched her outfit perfectly. We tried to do the Wizard of Oz theme & I dressed up as a witch (there was no way I painting myself green...it would have been smeared everywhere by the end of the night) and Kevin, well, I guess he could have been a motorcycle version of the Cowardly Lion...

Josh & Maren's cute little boy, Mack, was Max from Where the Wild Things Are. He looked so cute & Maren did a fantastic job converting his one-piece outfit into a costume!!

Dress Up

Lately, almost every morning, Marley wants to pick out what she's wearing that day. It varies from pants to no pants & from my clothes to her clothes, but almost always includes shoes & socks. It always makes me laugh on what she decides that she's going to put on!

So in the first photo she decided on some Halloween socks, her white shoes, & blue jacket...pants are optional here. Then she wanted her skirt, but needed to finish it off with some stylin' pants underneath it!

In these photos, only Mickey Mouse crocs & socks required! (But apparently, a smile isn't!)

Then she found one of my work-out shirts, which she tried at first to put on feet first through the neck!

Then she tried to put it on over her head but didn't really like that either!

She also tried to put her feet through the sleeves &, finally, after she tried & tried to put it on, I helped her put it on the right way, which of course, she loved!

Spiders Alive!!!!

We had just finished hanging up a giant cobweb & spider decorations outside the other day as Marley was pushing her new trike around. I look down at Marley's feet & get a big shock! I thought Kevin was trying to play a joke on me by putting a spider next to Marley's feet, but instantly I realized this was no joke! I quickly grabbed Marley (thankfully, Marley didn't step on the spider or have the spider jump on her!) This is what we found:
A Aphonopelma Iodius or a TARANTULA!

I ran inside the house to grab the camera & a quarter (we used the end of the broom handle to get the quarter close to the spider...there was NO WAY we were going to get close to that thing!) Kevin trapped it in a container & showed it to our neighbor (who's lived here for 40 years). Our neighbor said he had never seen a spider like that before. We thought it might be someone's pet that had wandered away. Apparently, these types of spiders are found in Nevada, Utah, & California...who knew? And their bite is supposed to be like a bee sting! Yikes! Kevin let it go...a few blocks from our house!

Taylor & Jaycee

My good friend, Kellie, wanted me to make a tutu for her daughter, Taylor. I really wanted to see how it looked so we decided to go to Thanksgiving Point & get some pictures of her wearing it & some cute pictures of Jaycee with her guitar. Plus, this wonderfully talented supervisor of mine, Mary, knit this adorable little jacket for Marley & I wanted pictures of her in that. I still cannot get over the quality of Mary's knitting...the jacket is BEAUTIFUL! I found that taking pictures of kids that actually listen & can sit still makes photography so much more fun & relaxing! Taylor & Jaycee cooperated beautifully! It was such a good experience!

Marley, per usual, is NOT cooperating with me to take pictures! So, of course, these photos, which are mediocre at best, are the best ones I got. But you can see how cute that little blue knit jacket is!


I like the pictures of Taylor & Jaycee together.



The only time Marley cooperated was with Taylor & Jaycee...so I really like the ones of them together. Marley is actually smiling & looking at the camera! I really like the one of Taylor & Jaycee looking at each other!



Taylor loves the camera & the camera loves her. She took some great photos!


I love that Jaycee brought the guitar on her own accord. I think Kellie was skeptical about having it in the pictures, but I thought it turned out nicely!



I love the sepia colored on where Taylor's sitting in the chair sideways, but I cut off her face when I made the collage! Dang it!


These action ones are awesome! I love, love, love Jaycee's rocker poses!

Marley and the Technicolored Dreamcoat

I have a pair of REALLY loud PJs that I was going to wear the other night. Marley saw me getting them out and practically begged me to let her have the PJ top and help her put it on over her clothes. She wore the top around all night even though she was drowning in it because it was so big!




I was in my bedroom the other day & I heard Marley come crying into my room from her room...low & behold she had stuck her baby carrier over her head & couldn't get it off. And, like any good parent, I got out the camera to take a picture. She actually managed to get it off on her own as I was snapping the last picture!

Recently, I found her with lotion smeared all over her face. I think she sees us putting lotion on ourselves as well as her, so she figures she's a big girl & can do it herself. She also loves to put on other people's shoes & attempt to walk around in them. Why is it so funny & cute when little kids try to do grown-up things?

Flaming Gorge

Last weekend we took a short trip to the in-law's cabin in Flaming Gorge. My sister-in-law, Tina, had Monday off for Columbus Day so we decided to take advantage since she's almost never able to come up. I really didn't get many pictures. I did, however, get a bunch of pictures of me, Tina & my sister, Alece, at the end of a little hike we took. The background in some of the pictures almost look like a backdrop, almost too surreal to be real! We started out taking some normal pictures but it got a tad goofy toward the end. We were told to bundle up really well (we actually ended up taking our coats off because we started to sweat due to the nice weather) and wear these fantastic bright-orange vests so we'd be "noticed" since it was hunting season. We mostly looked like big dorks!

See, at first, it was just some nice, sisterly, pictures....

Then it turned a tad rageful....

Then we just started to be dorks & mess around!

St. George

As I'm sure everyone else who visits, LOVES St. George like I do. I've visited many times, most of which when I was in high school & college, so I always have fond memories of the beauty & small town feel that St. George offers. Kevin & his mother, Ruth, both have birthdays toward the end of September, and to celebrate, we took a weekend trip to St. George. The weather was absolutely BEAUTIFUL (which was nice to get away from the terrible weather in Salt Lake) and we had a great time hanging out with Marley's paternal grandparents. Kevin & I also got to see "Aida" at the outdoor Tuacahn theater---the background setting of the red rock in for the theater was incredible! We made a short stop to Cove Fort, which has been wonderfully restored & has a fantastic history behind it!

Marley had a good time, mostly because we were outside & she got to play with her Grandma Ruth! And yes, the guy in the top left picture actually wore those denim shorts voluntarily!

Jerry checking his cell phone...always working & always closing!

The fort itself was extremely well built and "will stand for ages" according to our tour guide. They refurbished the insides & tried to use actual time pieces related to the time when the fort was in use. It paid off because it looked like we had stepped back in time!

Kevin & I aren't often in the pictures, and I thought about turning the blog into a book, so I figured we should get more pictures of ourselves in the blog!

Marley looooves her Grandma Ruth. If Grandma Ruth isn't the world's greatest grandmother, she is definitely in the top 3 of greatest grandmothers of all time! She spends so much time with Marley & plays all sorts of games with her. Marley just adores her!

The St. George Temple is absolutely gorgeous! The white of the temple against the red rock of St. George is stunning!

Who? Who doesn't want to wear de T-Shirt...

My sister-in-law, Tina, invited me to a 5k walk/run for juvenille diabetes. Her work was donating money to JDRF since some of the employees' children had juvenille diabetes. They had a matching T-shirt for me, but they forgot to give it to me. And, no, there wasn't a T-shirt bully & I wasn't trying to cop out & not wear a matching T-shirt to prove a point! Most everyone walked but Tina, my mom, & I decided to power through & run it! It was a fun race & I look forward to doing more in the future!

Tina's sister, Jana, my sister, Alece, me, my mother, Orimi, Miss Marley, & my sister-in-law Tina.

There is a fountain in the park across the street from my mother's house. Marley found great joy in being able to play & wade in the water! She nearly drenched her dress in the water, so we ended up taking it off & letting her play in her diaper (kind of white trash, I know!)

Marley also loves playing the piano! Just wait until she takes lessons & has to practice...she won't like it so much then!!!