It's November Already?!

October was a whirlwind and we didn't really even do anything.  We were just all sick most of the month.  It was awful.  I missed a lot of school and so did Kayzee.  Thankfully Memphis hasn't missed any and he was only sick on the weekends.  Thankfully Danny was able to go to work every day.  What a crazy month!

The first weekend in October Danny's family came up to visit.  Danny's sister who is a junior in high school made it to state tennis and the tournament was in Salt Lake.  She WON!!!!  She is amazing and we are all so proud of her.  It was also conference weekend so we enjoyed some sessions together.  It was Danny's dad's birthday and his sister's Jennie's birthday so we had a little party too!

The second weekend in October we had a family date to Trafalga in Lehi.  We got there right when they opened so there wasn't really anyone else there so we did everything a bunch of times without waiting in any lines.  Memphis and Kayzee loved it they still talk about it.

Bumper Boats-We got soaked...or should I say I got soaked by Danny.

 Airplane ride

 Go-Karts

 Miniature Golf

 Frog Hopper

 Mini-bowling

 Ship ride

 Lighthouse ride...Kayzee had to watch first

 Then she finally got on

Our dishwasher died and we had to go buy a new one because we all hate doing dishes at our house.  The best part???  We paid cash.  So nice to have the money for things instead of using a credit card and going into debt.

Memphis had his first parent teacher conference.  He is doing so well.  He struggled at first with following directions and being quiet and sitting still (he is definitely a boy!) but he is doing so much better.  He is also reading, writing, and is excelling at math.  We are so proud of him!

The 3rd weekend in October was our Fall break and we spent it sick!  We all had fevers and sore throats.  I got bronchitis which lasted for 2 weeks!  It was awful.  Not a fun fall break.

Something funny Kayzee said...
Danny picks up the kids from school on Fridays because he gets done with work at noon.  They were driving home and the windows in the car were down.  There was a smoke smell in the air.  Kayzee said, "Daddy, is that smoke?"  "Yes"  "Is Mommy cooking something?"  HAHAHAHA.  I am a distracted mom and I burn dinner a lot.  Thanks Kayzee:)

I now have Memphis in PE every Monday.  It is so much fun!  He is just full of so much energy so it is good for him.  I told him to pretend that I am just his teacher and not his mommy.  He is doing really well.  He also told me which girl he likes and a girl in his class told me she loves Memphis.  Oh dear...

Memphis made this for me!  He said, "Mommy, this is for you because I always love you!"  Melts my heart every time I see it.

The fourth weekend in October I got to go with my friend to Witch Fest!  So much fun eating dinner at Zupas and shopping and seeing everyone dressed up as witches.  What a fun night.

The fourth weekend we all ended up sick again.  Luckily it hits us on the weekends so we don't miss school but we have missed a lot of church.

Update on Kayzee's finger.  Last month she smashed her finger really bad in a bathroom door at her preschool.  It started out like this...

 All bruised up...

And just recently the nail fell off!  So sad.  The nail underneath is growing in weird so hopefully over time it will return to normal.

Halloween weekend was crazy!  Thursday at school Kayzee got to go trick-or-treating to some of the high school classrooms!  That night Memphis and Kayzee went to a Halloween party at their friend's house.  They had so much fun.  Friday the kids got all dressed up for Halloween at school.  Kayzee got to go trick-or-treating at school again.  Memphis had fun at school and I got to see him in our school's Halloween parade!

Memphis the minion!

 Kayzee the witch...AGAIN!  This is the 3rd year she has worn this same costume.  Luckily it has fit all these years.  I tried to get her to be Cinderella with her light up dress but she wanted to be a witch just like me.

My team of witches at school...Art, Music, PE, Computers-watching the parade.

 Memphis during the parade!

 Danny was so excited to pick up Memphis at noon and take him golfing.  They had the day all planned out and Memphis was excited too.  I was going to pick up Kayzee when I got done with school and have a girl's day out.  That did not go as planned.  Danny and Memphis were getting into the golf cart when Kayzee's school called.  She had a fever of 102!  Seriously???  Another fever.  Kayzee was so sick that she couldn't go trick-or-treating.  WORST HALLOWEEN EVER!  She cried all night because she was so sad.  We missed our ward Halloween party and Danny just took Memphis around our neighborhood to a few houses while I stayed home and cuddled with Kayzee watching Halloween shows.  We also made homemade Halloween Pumpkin pizzas.  They were delicious.  Danny is amazing!

To make the weekend better we went and bought a new TV.  Our other one officially died.  Again we were able to pay with cash.  And crazy...while grocery and food prices are going up...the price of tv's is going down.  We were able to buy a much bigger TV for the same price we bought a much smaller TV 5 years ago.  AWESOME!  Coming out of the store there was a huge windstorm.  The wind was so strong it knocked me over and I was holding Kayzee's hand so it pulled her down with me.  Kayzee got all scraped up.  She is just not having a good life right now.  Luckily it didn't knock over Danny who was pushing our new TV on a cart.  I didn't notice that my phone had fallen out of my pocket.  We were driving away when I noticed.  I couldn't find it in the parking lot so I went inside.  Someone was so nice and had turned it in to the lost and found.  Maybe they turned it in because the screen had shattered when I fell.  Luckily I had a special glass screen put over the screen on my phone when I bought the phone.  That had shattered and not the real screen underneath.  We drove over to Verizon and it was only a $30 fix instead of $150.  BONUS...the internet and computers were down because of the storm so they couldn't charge me so it was FREE!  Whew...what a day!

Sunday Danny went to a memorial/funeral for one of his co-workers who just passed away from cancer.  He was so glad he could go.  I took the kids to church so they could practice for the primary program next week.  They both would not say their parts into the microphone.  Little stinkers!  We have been practicing so hopefully they will for the program.  We will see.

Is it really November already?

September Trips

We planned a lot of fun weekends in September and went on some weekend trips.

CAMPING INSIDE AND OUT
This was more of a stay at home trip for me and Kayzee but Danny and Memphis went camping up American Fork Canyon.  It was our ward's father and sons campout.  Memphis had so much fun going tent camping with daddy.  Kayzee and I had a girl's night and we went shopping, stopped by swig for a cookie, slushy, and some swinging:)  We also painted our nails while we watched Frozen and then had our own little sleepover.  Kayzee was so excited to sleep in my bed with me.  What a fun weekend!

CANYON PASS

Because Danny went up American Fork Canyon to go camping he bought a pass so we could go up as a family later.  We decided to go camping and have a picnic.  The weather was PERFECT and the canyon was beautiful!  I love living in Utah with all this beautiful land so close.  I definitely miss my California Ocean but these Utah Mountains are totally worth living by.

BEAR LAKE
My kids are still so mad at me for going to Bear Lake without them but I got to go to Bear Lake for a girl's weekend at our Ideal Beach Condo!  I wasn't going to go but then decided to go and I am so glad I did.  I totally needed a kid-free relaxing weekend.  My mom and her sisters try to plan a weekend somewhere together and they are so nice and invite their daughters:)  I have been very lucky to have extended family that I have grown up with.  It's nice living close to them now too.  My cousins are crazy and hilarious and I love our girl's weekend!  We had fun walking on the beach, biking, crafting, go-karting, eating, and laughing.  The weather was PERFECT this weekend too:)

 Me and my mommy

 Sisters

 Cousins

CABIN WEEKEND
Danny's extended family has a cabin up in the Uinta's by the Utah Wyoming border.  It's only a couple hours away and the drive is BEAUTIFUL especially now with the changing leaves for fall.  Wow, I am really loving living in Utah and I never thought I would say that.

We invited our neighbors who have become really great friends and we had so much fun.  The weather was crazy but we made the most of it.  Next time we will just have to go up earlier to miss the rain and snow.  YES, SNOW in September!

We wanted to go up early Friday morning but the husbands needed to work at least a 1/2 day and Memphis did not want to miss school.  He LOVES kindergarten.  We wanted to leave as soon as they all got home so I decided to get a sub and miss work.  It was a nice day off.  I took Memphis and Kayzee to my school in the morning for picture day (hopefully they turn out good) and we dropped off Memphis at his classroom and then Kayzee and I went grocery shopping for all the food we needed at the cabin.  Then I went home and packed.  We went and picked up Memphis and then we had lunch and waited for everyone to be ready and off we went.  The weather was perfect on Friday.  Temperature in the 70s and sunny.

 Lots of Cows...they like to run across the road which is scary.  We also saw a lot of deer, a couple of sheep in the road, and a family of moose (pictures below).

 Memphis being silly in the car

 We unpacked and the kids had fun exploring, swinging, playing in the fort, and building a fire.  We made Navajo Tacos for dinner...YUM!  And our friends brought Mexican s'mores that we heated by the fire for dessert.  DELICIOUS!  After we put the kids to bed we watched a movie.  The cabin is well stocked with plenty of comfortable beds just wish I hadn't had an IBS-D flare that night.  Up all night sick was not fun:(

Saturday was foggy and rainy.  And by rainy I mean it rained all day.  We were going to go hiking but that didn't happen.  Our friends have chickens and they brought up a lot of eggs which made a great breakfast.  Then we decided to just brave the rain and go fishing.  By the time we finally found a lake right by the road to stop at (there are a lot but some you have to hike to) it was further up in the mountain so higher in elevation which meant colder.  The dads and one of our friends boys braved the rain and fished.  The moms and the youngest kids all hung out in the cars watching movies.  I guess rain is perfect time for fishing because they boys caught a fish with every cast.  I finally convinced them to stop because we didn't need that many fish and the kids were getting restless stuck in the car.

 We grilled up some hot dogs for lunch and we also got to have some of the yummy trout they caught.

 After lunch we played games with the kids, did some crafts, and play dough!  We also took naps, the boys watched football, and my friend and I got to visit.  I love her:)  For dinner our friends made a delicious taco soup and for dessert I made brownies.  We put the kids to bed and watched another movie.  Sometimes it's nice to just relax.

 The cabin!  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Christensen for letting us use it!

 Sunday we woke up, packed up the cars, cleaned the cabin, and left for home.  As we started driving we started seeing snow.  We thought we would be ok and kept driving.

 The farther up the mountain we got the more it snowed.

 Our friends didn't have an all wheel drive car like us and they literally couldn't keep driving in the deeper snow and got stuck.  We didn't really want to attempt driving any farther either because we still were not to the top of the mountain.  Bummer.  We had been driving for an hour already.  We all got turned around safely and had to go the long way home.  We had to drive an extra hour and a half!  But we did get to drive through Wyoming and see that beautiful part of the country.

 Here are some pictures of the family of moose we almost ran over.  

When we got home the weather was sunny and HOT!  So crazy.  Thanks for a fun weekend and joining in this adventure with us Hoge family:)

TRIP TO THE PEDIATRICIAN
Kayzee had her 4-year well-check-up.   Kayzee does not do male doctors well (too many painful experiences with her GI issues).  I told her to be brave and luckily she did not need shots.  She did so well!  The doctor was impressed by her growth and development.  He said she could pass for a kindergartener.  She is so smart and growing up way too fast.
WEIGHT: 37 lbs (70%)
HEIGHT: 42 in (80%)
I love my sweet Kayzee Lynn.  It is the greatest compliment to be told that she is very sweet and polite and one of the best behaved kids at school.  She may not always be that way at home but she really is the sweetest little girl.  LOVE LOVE LOVE her!  Her pediatrician gives out free ice cream cones for their birthday so we stopped and got one on our way home.

 Last Thursday I got a call while I was at work from Kayzee's preschool teacher.  I could hear Kayzee sobbing in the back ground.  Kayzee had got a finger stuck in a bathroom stall door.  Her poor little finger was smashed and stuck between the lock and door slider.  Not a phone call I enjoyed getting at work but they calmed her down and her finger wasn't broken so they just kept ice on it and Kayzee wanted to stay at school.  Kayzee loves school too:)  They told me should would probably lose her fingernail.  At home Kayzee would scream every time something hit her finger so we bought a finger guard on it.

 All week her entire finger was swollen and purple.  So sad.  Today, a week later, it is finally not swollen and only under her fingernail is bruised up and purple but she will not lose the fingernail...YAY!

One last thing I have to share.  I have had the busiest week with way too much to do, and I have been very stressed.  I definitely don't handle stress well.  That's why my body is so sick all the time.  I found myself stressing out because I was stressed out.  Doubling the stress?  Seriously?  Who does that?  I am just crazy I decided.  I shouldn't be stressing out either.  AHHHHH!  To add to my stress I forgot how nice I am and in the middle of the busy week with having to much to do and trying to do it all I let Danny go golfing one night.  Danny came home from golfing, handed me money and told me to go shopping for myself.  WHAT?  Shopping for myself!?!  It's been a long time and I was so excited to buy new clothes and have some time to myself.  But of course while I was gone I started stressing out that the house wasn't clean because I have been so busy doing everything I needed to do all week and we had family coming into town.  Well, when I got home the entire house was CLEAN!!!!  My dear husband Danny who never cleans the bathrooms scrubbed every inch of them.  And he had also vacuumed, swept and mopped, and all the dishes were done.  What a great husband:)  It was the best surprise and I am so thankful for his thoughtfulness.  THANK YOU DANNY I LOVE YOU!

Now time to relax and enjoy my weekend:)