All Things Halloween

I'm finally getting around to posting all our Halloween fun. Life has been busy. I meant to make each of these events their own post, but we'll just jumble them all together.

We went on our 2nd annual witch hunt. My kids had such a fun time doing this last year, we thought we'd try it again. They had a blast and the weather was great, hence the shorts!:)

My cute friend/neighbor Mandy hosted cookie decorating at her house. She is one brave woman. Lots of kids plus icing made for a big mess. It was really fun. We frosted the cookies, then delivered them to our new neighbors. We are so blessed to have such fun neighbors.

We went to the ward Trunk or Treat. I have never seen so many people at a church function. We had yummy chili for dinner, watched the kids as they did a costume parade, then of course we had to get candy! It was freezing that night, the kids only lasted for about 10 minutes before we headed home. I don't think we're climatized yet!:)

The boys were able to be in a costume parade at their school. This is the first time they had been able to do this. At their school in Las Vegas, they celebrated Nevada Day instead of Halloween. It was such a treat for me to see them. They were so excited. I only wish Jason could have been there. As we were headed out the door on our way to the school, Owen threw up. Jason volunteered to stay home with him. Owen was fine the rest of the day, but I hope Jason can come next year.

Halloween the weather was actually really nice. We went door to door with a bunch of our neighbors then came home for pizza and the Utah game. Spencer was Harry Potter, Luke was Darth Vader, Trevor was Superman and Owen was a bear. We had such a great October and LOVE the fall in Utah.

I Heart Las Vegas

Jason and I were able to go to Las Vegas recently. We were excited to become real Las Vegas tourists again! I'm sad to report, we aren't very good tourists. We only took a few pictures even though I had my camera with me at all times. We went out to dinner with old friends. It was so good to see my old buddies. I miss you girls already. I am totally serious about that girls trip to SLC, start planning!:)
We also went by our old house and saw our old neighbors.


Our main reason for heading south was to catch the Utah/UNLV game. We had horrible seats and it was a blowout, but it was such a nice night we stayed for the whole game.
We stayed at the Trump hotel, it was seriously one of the most pimped out hotels I've ever been in. There was even a TV built into the mirror in the bathroom.
We walked the strip and had frozen hot chocolate from Serendipitys, a must try for anyone in Vegas.
We also were able to eat at Jason's favorite restaurant in town, Thai Jasmine. He has been looking for a good Thai place in Utah ever since we moved here. He hasn't found anything that compares. He was in heaven!:)
We ended our trip with a free breakfast from the MGM Grand. Our old neighbor is a Pitt Boss there and he totally hooked us up. Thanks again George!
We had so much fun and look forward to our next trip.

Cafe Rio Anyone?

Jason and I will be coming to Las Vegas next weekend. We will be eating at the Cafe Rio on Decatur and 215, next to Costco on Friday the 16th around 5:30. We would love to see all our old buddies, we miss you all and hope you can make it!:)

Girls Trip-San Fransisco

A while back my mother-in-law advised me that we would be going on our annual girls only trip to San Fransisco. I was beyond excited! I had never been there and was ready for a fun, new adventure and that's exactly what I got. My mother-in-law, two sister-in-laws, one of my sister-in-laws friends and I were kids free for four fantastic days.

This is at the Fisherman's Wharf. This place was totally crazy! There was all kinds of fresh seafood just being cooked out on the street. It's too bad that I'm not a seafood lover!

With my mother and sister-in-laws. We decided it would be super fun to take a sailboat ride in San Fransisco Bay. I was all on board and ready for my hour and a half boat ride. It was great at first, but about 20 minutes in I got seasick, it was horrible and there was no turning back. I felt so bad, because everyone else was in heaven. All I have to say is I'm definitely a land lover!:)

I got this picture of the Golden Gate Bridge on my sailboat ride. The weather was perfect.

Me with my sister-in-laws Jenny and Chellie outside Alcatraz Prison. We did a tour of the prison. This was the highlight of the trip for me. It's amazing they built the prison on a rock, and even more amazing that there were some escapes.

Me inside one of the prison cells at Alcatraz. It's crazy how small they are inside.

If you look closely, that's me standing in front of the "painted ladies" houses. I like to call them the "Full House" houses!:)

We saw this restaurant featured on Man vs. Food while we were still in the planning phases of this trip. We decided that we MUST eat there. Little did we know that it was in the hood and we totally should have been packing heat. It was totally worth it though. The food was amazing and cheap.

You can't go to San Fransisco and not ride the trolley cars. The driver of the trolley told us they change the brakes on these babies every 4 days! I believe it, that town is made of hills.

We visited China Town. All I can say is WOW. I could have spent all day here, so fun.

While in China Town we were able to see how fortune cookies are made, it was actually really neat. The shop owner charged us 50 cents to take a picture, so I figured I better post it!:)

This was truly an unforgettable trip! I had so much fun with these crazy girls. Thanks so much to my wonderful mother-in-law Anna for making this trip possible.

Owen's BIG bed

We finally put Owen in his big boy bed. This has been something we have been waiting to do for a long time. Owen was such a great crib sleeper that we weren't in too much of a hurry. We wanted to put him in a bed shortly after we moved in our house, but thought he might be too traumatized after just moving. Then we had the bed, but were waiting for someone with a truck to help us get the mattress. Finally the stars aligned and he was able to move into his bed. We were so nervous that he would finally feel like he had freedom and keep getting out of his bed. We were wrong, he has done amazingly well. We just lay him down and he goes to sleep, even for nap times. He is such a fun little boy and we just love him to pieces!

Finally, it's football season!

We are LOVING living in Utah and can finally have season tickets to the University of Utah. This was at the season opener against Utah State. We had such a fun time. I hope this season is as exciting as last year was!

The boys have been begging us to buy this red hair gel each time we go for haircuts. Jason finally caved in and here are the results. It looked really good in Spencer's hair because it's so light. Luke's hair looked almost purple, but he didn't mind, he was just ready for some football!:) Go Utes!

First day of school...on the second day

Last week, the day before school started, we thought it would be fun to take the boys out to lunch. They decided they wanted to eat at Red Robin. Jason met us and we had a lot of fun. By 3:00 that afternoon, everyone but me was sick-not fun! We wondered at first if we had gotten food poisoning, but we had all eaten different things. Everyone was sick all through the night. I just kept praying that I wouldn't get it or I don't know what we would have done. Spencer and Luke missed their first day of school, it was really sad! Thankfully everyone was feeling better by the next day, and I never got it! I have a Superman-like immune system!:)

Spencer and Luke were excited to start at their third school in one year-yikes! Spencer is in 5th grade, I had my first check yes or no boyfriend in 5th grade! Can he really be that old? Luke is in 3rd grade and has already made a new best friend Fabio!:)

Trevor actually made it to his first day. In Utah, the Kindergartners start a week after the rest of the school. It was hard to let my little guy go, and yes Sheri I did cry!:) He was so excited to go to the big school, but now he is being kind of a pill for his teacher. Hopefully he starts shaping up soon, or Jason told him that he will have to enter the workforce and get a job!:)

One Busy Summer

I have been a horrible blogger lately. This post is my attempt to catch up on all our fun summer happenings.

Some of our neighbors put on a fantastic block party for the 4th of July. They had a huge pot luck meal, a cookie baking contest where I surprisingly won best tasting cookie, and of course plenty of fireworks. We had just recently moved into the neighborhood and were able to meet so many of our fun new neighbors.

Owen and I waiting for the fireworks display.

We made many trips to one of the local parks.

We went to the zoo. We bought annual passes so we could go as often as we liked. We went with friends (sorry Jaime, I didn't take one picture of our kids together), and sometimes just the kids and I went.

Many of you may not know, but Luke is a HUGE fan of puzzles. He is amazing at them and can do puzzles with lots of pieces. He lost a tooth and decided to buy a new puzzle with his tooth fairy money. I was so excited that he picked a Las Vegas puzzle. It kind of made us all homesick as we looked at the Las Vegas strip, which is so familiar to us. This was a 750 piece puzzle and he pretty much completed it himself in an afternoon.

The other puzzle that he completed this summer is one that Jason's mom has at her house. It is a 700 piece puzzle. Each time we go to grandma's house he takes this puzzle out and tries to finish before it is time to go home. Usually there is never enough time. It just happens that we were kicked out of our house for the weekend, so that our entire house could be repainted (long story), and he was able to finish the puzzle. He was so happy.

We went to the parade on Pioneer Day.

The kids had so much fun. They especially loved when the floats would throw candy. They would stand and wait at the curb then run like mad once they saw that there was candy being thrown. Spencer and Luke would just stuff it in their pockets and stay close by to see if they could get some more. Trevor was adorable and would get one piece at a time, then come bring it to Jason and I. We also went to the rodeo, but I forgot to bring my camera. It was a Blast! The kids LOVED it! Spencer said it was the best thing he'd ever seen. The rodeo will be an annual tradition for our family.

Owen ate his first cob of corn.

We went to the carnival. It cost almost as much to ride 3 rides as to spend a day at Disneyland!:)

Spencer and Trevor had to try this Indiana Jones maze. I was impressed that Trevor knew how to climb cargo nets and jump over walls. Who knew?

We went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. It was absolutely stunning inside. I wondered if Owen would do alright, but he was an angel. I think the spirit was so strong and my kids all felt the reverence in this holy place. Spencer, Luke, and Trevor's favorite thing in the temple was the eternity mirrors. I think Owen liked the cookies and water at the end!:)

The boys had sleepovers. Nearly every night this summer the boys would ask if they could have a sleepover. Either Trevor would go in and sleep with Luke, or Luke would go in Spencer and Trevor's room and stay with them. I love that my boys love each other and have so much fun together (most of the time)!

We had visitors. We really haven't had too many of our Vegas friends come to visit, so we were thrilled when we found out that two sets of friends would be coming to see us, on the same weekend. One of our dear friends, the Manuele's were able to stop in and see us while they were in town for a wedding. (How come I didn't take any pictures of you guys?) Owen LOVED their little girl Bailey who is the same age as him. The next morning when he woke up he asked "where's Baily?" We sure loved seeing you, and wish you lived closer. The next day our sweet friends Rachelle and Blake came to see us. Jason was Blake's Sunday school teacher, and they have a really cute bond. It was fun to catch up with them. We hope they come back north very soon!

We roasted marshmallows. Jason's dad has a house in beautiful Eden, Utah, if you've never been there, you must go. We went to go see an annual balloon fest, but because the weather was so bad they had to cancel the balloon launch. We still had a lot of fun, the kids were able to ride the ski lift and see an amazing view, we had a fantastic BBQ, and roasted marshmallows to make smores...so yummy! Thanks grandpa Brent and Barbara for such a great day!

A Decade

Spencer celebrated his 10th birthday on July 15th. He wanted to go see the new Harry Potter movie since it came out on his birthday. Luckily, we talked him into doing a small family party the actual day of his birthday. (The lines at the movie on opening day I'm sure would have been terrible!) On Saturday he and a few friends and cousins went to the movie. (The lines were still long!)
For his birthday dinner he decided to go to Brick Oven. It's a fun pizza place located right by BYU. I've been going there for years. I celebrated my 16th birthday there and Jason and I went there on our first date!:)

He picked a Star Wars cake again. I think this is the third time he has picked a Star Wars one.

He mainly got video games for his birthday, that is all he wanted. He also got some money and giftcards and he says that he plans to use it to buy more video games. I wonder if he likes video games!:)

Spencer we love you so much! We can't believe that you're already 10. You are such a fabulous big brother and a great example to your little brothers. Thanks for sharing the last 10 years with us, we are so lucky to be your parents.

Home Sweet Home

After many requests and much procrastinating on my part, I have finally decided to do a post on our new home. Please just keep in mind that there is not much I have done in the decorating department yet. I'm sure it won't be long till I have this house just the way I want it. This is a picture of the outside of the house. We have a decent size lot, it's about a quarter of an acre. We love our front porch, it has a beautiful view of the mountains.

The front entry.

This is the living room, it needs the most help. We had a great room with no living room in our Las Vegas home. Someday I hope to get some really cute furniture to put in here.

The Master Bedroom.

Our Master Bathroom tub and shower.

Our Master Bathroom vanity. I love the adult height vanity, you hardly even have to bend over the sink when you are washing your face or brushing your teeth. It's awesome.

The Family Room. This picture was taken from the second floor so I could get a better shot of the room. It reminds me a lot of my great room in Las Vegas. It has the same high ceilings and large view windows.

Our Fireplace. The kids are excited for Christmas this year, because we have a place to hang our stockings and Santa doesn't have to use the front door!:)

The Dining Room/Kitchen.

Kitchen. I love having a kitchen with a lot of cupboards. I finally have a place to store my china. We will eventually put bar stools on the other side of the island.

The half bath

Laundry Room. It's so nice to have a window in here!

Our staircase heading upstairs.

Owen's room. We are hopefully getting him in his big boy bed in the next few weeks. I'll let you know how that goes.

Luke's room.

Spencer and Trevor's room.

The boys' vanity.

The boys' shower.

Stairs heading down to the basement.

We have a full unfinished basement. When it is finished there will be 2 more bedrooms, a family room, a small kitchen area and the thing I'm the most excited about, lots and lots of storage. We are so happy to be in our new place, and just LOVE it!

12 Years of Bliss

Today is our 12th anniversary. In all our years being married it has never landed on Father's Day. We decided to celebrate earlier in the week so the kids could be with Jason on Sunday.
My mom came and stayed with the kids so we could have a night out. We headed up to Salt Lake, had some lunch and did some shopping. After a short nap at the hotel we went and had dinner at Cheesecake Factory and did some more shopping. I felt like a spoiled princess! I told myself that we would sleep in, but that never happens especially in a hotel. We were up nice and early, had some breakfast then got home to be with the kids. It was nice to get away, even just for one night.

Jason sent me these beautiful roses last week for our anniversary. I don't think I've ever received two dozen roses! I'm so thankful for the past 12 years that I've had Jason in my life. He is a fantastic husband and father. He is such a gem, it's amazing that he wasn't snagged up by the time I was finally old enough to meet him. I hope that he has the best Father's Day/Anniversary ever!

Crazy Life Update

Our lives have been absolutely crazy lately and I thought I should update everyone on our happenings. We FINALLY closed on our house yesterday. We were supposed to move in two weeks ago, but the lender had other plans. To make a long story short, basically the lender questioned whether the house appraised for the purchase price. After two appraisals and many headaches, the loan was finally approved. I'm just happy it's finally done. The past few weeks have been hard because each week we thought we were moving so everything had been packed and we've been living with only a few sets of clothes and no dishes or anything. Thank you to our families for feeding us frequently, since I had no dishes to bake with. We are moving in this weekend and we are just thrilled to be in our new home!
The weather is finally beautiful here. I still haven't completely adjusted to the climate change yet, although Jason and the kids have.
Tomorrow is the kids' last day of school, and we are excited for the summer and look forward to all the fun activities that we get to enjoy.

Farewell to Grandma Great

Today my sweet Grandma, Mary Rasmussen lost her battle with cancer and was called home to her Heavenly Father. My Grandma was one of the most amazing women I've ever known. She was such a great example of service. She loved everyone and she was sure to put a smile on your face. Anyone that met her loved her instantly. I feel honored to have been her granddaughter and only hope that I can be half the woman that she was. We love you so much grandma and we will miss you!

The Happiest Place On Earth

This past week we were able to go on a fun family vacation to Disneyland. We have had annual passes and they were about to expire, so we had one last hurrah. Here are some pictures of the adventures we had.


On our way to Disneyland we stopped in at our old stomping grounds to have dinner with some of our buddies. It was so good to see all our old friends. We felt like we were home again.

Jason was able to see one of the cute kids that he taught in Sunday school.

Our kids got to see old neighborhood friends. We also saw our old house. It really made us homesick.

Waiting for the fireworks to start. I can't believe how early we had to get seats in order to secure a good spot.

The merry-go-round was Owen's favorite ride.

"F" is for Foulger. As usual we can't get a picture with everyone's eyes open.

The kids love the Monster's Inc. ride.

Owen thought he was such a big kid. He liked to walk up to each ride. I was shocked, he would wait his turn in line very patiently.

We went to Huntington Beach one afternoon. The kids were in heaven. I thought the water was freezing, but they jumped right in and played for hours. We can't wait till we can go again!

Girls Night Out

Last week I was able to get together with some of my favorite gal pals, Kasey, Kata and Natalie. All four of us once lived in Las Vegas and were in the same ward together. We have all moved to Utah except for Kata and she came into town for a visit. It was so good to see old friends. It is amazing that we hadn't all been together in such a long time, but it feels like we were never apart. I'm so glad that we were able to see each other and have a fun night out.