Haircuts

The girls got the hair cut today. After school we picked up Ryan and headed to Stephanie's house for cuts. Ryan went first and got a super cute "short" cut. She's been loving her long hair lately, so we only cut it to her shoulders, but WOW, there was a LOT of hair on the floor!Peyton finally got her first haircut. Stephanie happily cut the mullet off! We only had to bribe her with a sucker. She looks so stinkin cute, we'll just have to start doing a pony on the top instead of the back now!!

Family Time

Since Troy had a dentist appointment yesterday, he decided to take the day off to spend some time with us girls. I dropped Ryan off at preschool and then Troy and I went to run a few errands. When we went back to pick Ryan up, she was so thrilled that her Daddy was there. We then surprised her and headed off to the movies to see Madagascar 2. The first Madagascar was Ryan's favorite movie from about 18 months to 2 years old. Her 2nd birthday party was even Madagascar themed! We enjoyed a healthy and delicious lunch of movie popcorn and candy. The movie was hilarious. There was plenty of comedy for the parents, especially for those who work at Boeing. After the movie we headed home and put a very grumpy Peyton down for a nap. We all headed outside to rake leaves! Our deck and yard were completely covered and we got most of it cleaned up. After all our work in the yard, we headed into the hot tub for some relaxation. The girls love "swimming"! Then we had a quick dinner and threw the kids in bed early. We then got to relax and completely veg out in front of the TV. It was such a fun day to just spend some quality time together as a family!!

Sally, the Adventure Cat

Sally has returned!
Friday night after Troy got home from work, he went in the backyard and started poking around the wetland. He then went walking down the street along the wetland calling for Sally. He heard some meowing and went to investigate, but couldn't get to it. He came home and got me and asked me if I'd recognize Sally's meow. I said I would try and we left the girls in front of cartoons to investigate. I kept calling for Sally as we neared the place Troy thought she might be and the sound was coming from up above. We were shining flashlights in the trees and Troy caught her eyes in the light. The crazy cat was about 35 feet up in a tree. Now the question was what in the world we were going to do to get her down. Our neighbor, Will, said the fire department doesn't come out anymore. He had a 26 foot ladder that we decided to give a try. We met some other neighbors, Kent & Jolene and their kids, and they very graciously let us invade their backyard and were so helpful in trying to help us retrieve Sally. We tried from every angle possible, but were not successful in finding a secure way of positioning the ladder. Troy attempted to go up a ways and Sally even tried to come down, but unfortunately, it wasn't close enough. After a long time in the dark and rain, Troy was done. He told Sally she could just stay up there!! I decided to take Ryan to the fire department and see if she could "persuade" they to come help. As soon as we got in the car and pulled out of the garage, the girl from down the street came running up and said Sally was trying to climb down. We raced back to her house and sure enough, Sally had come down to the top of the ladder. With a lot of encouragement and quite the audience, Sally managed to back her way down. She was very frightened and very jumpy, but I think she was glad to be back with us. We took her home and locked her in the garage for the night. Since then she has stayed pretty close to the house. She seems to be either in the garage, on the back porch, or at Will's house. We're so happy to have Sally home, even though I'm still tempted to go back to the animal shelter for another one!!

Here Kitty, Kitty

Have you seen Sally???
We haven't seen Sally since Monday. She usually lives at the neighbors house behind us so I don't worry too much. She always comes home to eat and when it's raining she hides in the garage. That hasn't been the case this week. I got a call from my neighbor yesterday asking if I'd seen her. After returning home from running errands, I noticed her food still hadn't been touched and still no one had seen her. I even made a trip to the animal shelter. No Sally. Ryan hasn't asked or looked for her recently, so I'm trying not to draw attention to it. I realized last night I can't even put signs up for a lost cat. I haven't taken a SINGLE picture of Sally since she first came to live with us.
I AM A HORRIBLE MOTHER.
Oh well, I guess we might be in need of a new Sally.

Fall

Kennedy and Pieper came over today while Sarah went for her ultrasound. The girls had such a great time playing. The three big girls played dress-up and we all went outside. They had fun spinning in their beautiful dresses and enjoying the little bit of sunshine we had today!

Happy Halloween!

We started out our Halloween celebrations by going to the pumpkin patch a few weeks ago. The girls had so much fun running through all the pumpkins. Peyton especially liked sitting on all of them. There were so many green pumpkins and most of the pumpkins were HUGE. I guess that's thanks to all the rain this year.Our ward trunk or treat was on the 25th. We all dressed up, Ryan as Sleeping Beauty, Peyton as Minnie Mouse, Troy as a motorcycle rider and me as a flapper. We had a fun dinner and then left the girls in the very capable hands of our babysitter, Melissa, to trunk or treat while Troy and I were off to a costume/card party. We had a great time at the party, hosted by Cristie and Scott, who was dressed as a very disturbing Joker. We had such a great time playing cards and laughing all night.
Last week for FHE we carved our pumpkins. I carved Cinderella's castle and Troy did Sleeping Beauty. Ryan LOVED the pumpkins. Unfortunately we don't trust our neighbors so they were left on the back porch and no one else saw them. I went to take a picture today and one is totally rotting and moldy. AWESOME!Ryan had school on Halloween so she got to dress up and they had a party. They had games, trick or treating, and decorated cookies. She had such a great time. That night we went to our friends, Jake and Sarah, for trick or treating. The girls had so much fun and were definitely not shy about going to the houses. Pieper and Peyton happily tagged along. Peyton walked most of the time and would not let go of her bag. It was so heavy at one point that I took it to dump the candy at the stroller and boy did I get yelled at! I basically had to pry it from her hands at the end of the night to go to bed.Halloween has become so much more fun the last couple of years with our girls. They have so much fun and of course Ryan is completely into dressing up. Thanks mom for all the beautiful costumes! It means the world to us that you very willingly make their costumes. Ryan has had her costume on nonstop since Halloween. Actually, as I sit here writing this, she's in it again!!