Why October Is Our Favorite Month!

OCTOBER

Here are a few reasons why October is our favorite month

1. FALL - Fall is our favorite season. We love the warm days and cool nights, the changing leaves, wearing sweaters and sweatshirts, jumping into cold sheets, the first snow making the base for fresh powder days to come, and football season. We do love the "falling" leaves, but living in Sugarhouse we get way too many of those. Anyone want to come rake leaves??

2. HALLOWEEN - Halloween is my moms favorite holiday - so she has made me love it even more. When I was younger she used to make all of our costumes, trick or treat bags, and she would even paint Halloween sweatshirts for us. I remember mine had a green monster on it. It was by far my favorite sweatshirt ever! My parents also LOVED to carve pumpkins. Some years they would buy up to 30 pumpkins - big and small - and we would carve them all. Then they would decorate their front lawn on Halloween with the pumpkins. The neighborhood loved it! They still do a lot of pumpkins now, but not as many because no one is home to help carve them. One other thing that I loved when I was young was when my mom would get butcher paper and draw Linus in the pumpkin patch (from the Snoopy halloween show). My parents have 4 big windows on the front of their house and she would display Linus in the pumpkin patch on the four windows. It was so great!! Last but not least I really love pumpkins! Last year Jake and I found the BEST pumpkin ever - it was the "butt" pumpkin (see picture below). On Halloween we put shorts on it - so hilarious!

3. Our Anniversary - Jake and I are coming up on 4 years this month! I can hardly believe it.

4. Post Season Baseball - Lets be honest, the regular season gets a little long and besides a Yankees vs Red Sox game, the post season is the best of all! I really look forward to this!!

5. Utah Jazz Basketball - their first game is October 30 vs Golden State!

I CAN'T WAIT!

The "butt" pumpkin! I laugh everytime I see it!

The ZOO!

Last week I went to the Hoogle Zoo with Muranda and Ashton, Lauren and Braxton, and Katie, Ezra and Luke. It was so much fun. This was the third time that I have been this year, but the weather last week was PERFECT. Although Walker slept most of the time, I am sure he enjoyed it and visiting the Giraffes!! (there my fave!) The Zebras (aka referees) were going crazy when we were there!! It was also "feeding time" so it was fun to see a lot of the animals out getting fed. It is always fun to get out and enjoy a nice fall day with some friends. OH YEAH - and they have the white alligator there - pretty freaky!

The Zebras going crazyAshton excited to go to the Zoo

Braxton and Ezra looking at the elephants

Happy Birthday to you...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE BEANO!

Monday night we went over to my little sister's house to celebrate Boston's birthday. He turned 2 years old. She got a pinata for the kids to hit and Boston had a blast with it. After there wasn't any progress in denting the basketball pinata Morgan started hitting it and Boston was sad - he didn't want there to be a hole in the ball. It was so funny - he was so concerned with the ball. He could have cared less that there was a bunch of candy all over the grass. Later we had root beer floats and Boston opened his presents. Walker gave him a "mini hoover" vacuum - that really works. He loved it! He loves to help Morgan clean and he follows her around while she sweeps and vacuums. Morgan and Marc gave him a really cute "mini dirt devil" broom and a REALLY CUTE bike that is just his size! He had the biggest smile on his face when Morgan brough it out. I think when he saw the helmet and pads he was like - "what is this?" My mom and dad gave him a scooter that he was trying to ride like a bike. We finally showed him how you stand on it, not sit!:) He also got a bubble machine, a potty training toilet, books, and a big blow up toy that has balls in it to play with. It turned out so great!! He is the cutest thing ever! His smile is so contagious and everytime you see him you just want to give him the biggest hug! He has been through a lot and he is just the best little kid ever!

Boston hiting the pinata! It was so funny!!

Here he is on his new bike!!

He finally learned how to get on the scooter!!

Walker's First Cabela's Trip!

We took Walker for his first official trip to Cabelas on Saturday night. It is definately one place that has a lot to look at. When we got there we went through the fish tunnel and they were feeding all of the trout LIVE goldfish. It was hard to watch and pretty cool at the same time. I really felt bad for those little gold guys! As you all know, Jake LOVES to fish and be outdoors so we wanted to get Walker started early on enjoying these activities with his dad. We ate dinner there . Jake enjoyed a GREAT Elk sandwich, while I stuck to the good old ham and cheese. Although Walker slept about 99% of the time - it still was fun and we were able to capture this one picture! I also wanted to give a tribute to those goldfish that were eaten alive and my entertainment expense, so I posted a picture of one. UPDATE: p.s. we didn't get one of those brownie maker things that Kim and Tim posted on their blog. We saw them, thought about it, and then decided that Kim and Tim should have us over for it first to make sure we like it:) So, are we invited Kim? ha ha!

Walker enjoying Cabelas for the 2 minutes he was awake!

Poor little goldfish

Trimming the Tree

A couple days ago a nasty wind storm came through Salt Lake. Jake and I were watching on the news about all the huge trees that fell over. We looked down our street and saw a few branches that had fallen off the good old Sugarhouse trees but nothing soo exciting. We were glad none of our trees had been hit by mother nature. Well - the next morning we opened the blinds in our room that lead to the back yard - and it looks like we lost a few branches ourselves! We have this great Elm tree in our backyard that we LOVE. It provides so much shade to the house. But as you can see below - we lost a few major branches! At least the tree didn't fall down. O well, we wanted to get the tree trimmed anyway:)

SALE - THERE IS A SALE!

For all of you that know me - you know I can't pass up a sale! Just an FYI for anyone interested - the Old Navy baby and maternity sale started today! 25% off everything! They sure do have some cute things right now!

Family Reunion - Part 2

Antimony Utah, 209 miles from Salt Lake City

and a GREAT place for a family reunion!

This past weekend we took the journey to Antimony Utah for the Mauss side family reunion. Jake's grandma's sister and her husband own a dude ranch in Antimony. Every two years we all get together and enjoy a few days at the Rockin R Ranch. This is a full on working dude ranch complete with horses, sheep, the local "merchantile", and straight up cowboys! I think that most of us think "oh it's really that time again to go to the ranch??" but this year it was the Mauss families turn to plan all the activities and it turned out great. I forget how fun it is to get into cowboy mode!

We arrived Saturday afternoon and started out with some great activities. We played water balloon volleyball and had a water balloon toss - yes, Jake threw the balloon to me and I didn't catch it so it broke! We enjoyed snow cones, cotton candy, and a delicious choclate bar. Thanks Mare for setting that up - great idea! Later on that night we had a pingpong tournament - and I would like to say that I am VERY proud of my husband - HE WAS THE WINNER! He has mad skills when it comes to pingpong. Early Sundy morning we were woken up by a scary incident. In the main lounge of the ranch there are a bunch of couches where the entire family gathers for meetings, games, and just general conversation. This room has full valted ceilings where you can see up to the 3rd floor rooms. Hanging from the ceiling is a cool three tiered chandalier that is made out of antlers - well at 6:00 am Sunday morning - the chandiler fell! Luckily no one was in the lounge and it was cleaned up quickly! Sunday afternoon we set up crafts for the little kids. We made pinecone bird feeders and visors that they could decorate. We also set up so the families could take old fashioned pictures - they turned out great! All of us brought down some western clothing that could be worn, and we printed the pictures in sepia. This was a huge hit! I was excited because every family turned out so great! Sunday night ended with a game of Family Feud and good old fashioned singing from the cowboy himself - Burns Black.

I would say there was well over 150 people and although we didn't know too many it was still so much fun to get to talk to everyone. Some families came from as far as Alaska and Philly. It is fun to see the family grow and enjoy the company of so many great people! Jake and I are so lucky to come from such great families. We missed Josh and Becca and their family - and Jake's Grandpa Laurie but we know he was there watching down on us making sure we had a great time! Here are a few pictures to enjoy! This is a great place - you should go there!

Jake and I enjoying a snow cones! Jake in action during the pingpong tournament

Jake with his winning prize!! Nice work Jake!

Walker's first horse ride!

This is the ranch!Burns Black - it's a hard job running a ranch when you are in your 80's!