My kids, they are my favorite

Nothing super special to share today.  Just a few pictures from Instagram.

They are buddies, riding buddies.

 This smart boy clipped his sister into her carseat.  I didn't ask or anything, he just did it. 

 Got a sweet Spiderman costume on sale after halloween.  Why wait to play with it, he loves being Spidy.

 Melted my heart to see this project on the door to Reed's classroom.  Other kids wrote "I'm thankful for Volcano's" or "I'm thankful for lego's". My kid picked me.  Oh man, it makes all that I do worth it.  Every. Single. Thing.

So the big news this week is that Nora got her first haircut.  It was only the bangs and barely even that, but still, it was a big day.  For me anyway.  Here is before.

 And during.  Not super excited about it, but she did good.  My baby is growing up!

That's all for now.  Nighty night.

A Rough Week

This past week has been a bit of a rough one.  Our friends had a tough weekend because James's mom was diagnosed with cancer and put into a long term living facility as the outlook was grim.  We made dinner for them on Sunday night, though I could tell that they were having a rough time of it. 

Monday brought complete craziness at the office, where I was preparing for an event that we hosted for the Outdoor Industry Women's Coalition of which I am the regional coordinator.  Because it was my company that was hosting it, I had double duty.  Many more people were registering than we hoped and we were concerned about space and food for everyone.  I spent a lot of the day preparing for that along with my normal job duties.

Tuesday, we came in to learn that one of our high managers had been let go.  It was a particular brutal environment as we all respected her and would miss her.  Lots of tears were shed.  Then I had to finish preparing and host this event of which I was no longer very excited to do.  Luckily, the event turned out great and everything worked out.  Before the event was to start, the daycare called to tell me that Nora had a fever and had to be picked up immediately (luckily, Fogg was already on his way).  What a very taxing day both emotionally and physically.  

I headed home to two kids that were still not asleep, probably because they both didn't feel very well.  At 5am the next day, Reed woke us up by throwing up.  Yay!  So I stayed home on Wednesday with both the kids trying to get as much work done as possible to catch up for Monday and Tuesday in which I didn't get much done either.  Luckily, the kids seemed to rebound from the sickness quickly and they were on the road to recovery.  Fogg called in the morning because he had discovered that our credit card number had been stolen and there were some charges that were not ours.  Ugh.  Wednesday night, I got a text from Michelle to tell me that James's mom had taken a turn for the worse and our weekend plans might be changed.  Side note: the weekend plans were to head to Park City for the evening on Friday, have dinner and spend the night.  We coined it "treat yo'self weekend" where we could all relax and recharge and have fun together.

Thursday morning I dropped the kids off at Nana's early so I could head to work and get some things done so I could leave early to take the kids trick or treating and have some friends over.  I almost hit a deer on the way!  I got as much done as I could at work and got a text from Nana at 11am that she thought Reed broke his toe!  Oh my, I couldn't take much more!  Luckily, it was alright and he is fine.  I got what I needed to done at work and packed up my desk because we were moving back to our Park City office which was just renovated.  I got a text from Michelle that James's mom had passed at noon.  Holy cow, how shocking and terrible.  My heart just breaks for my friends.  That pretty much consumed the rest of my thoughts for the day and though the stuff that had happened up that point were stressful and annoying, it put things in perspective for me.  Also, needless to say, we needed to reschedule our weekend plans.  

The evening ended fine with some quick trick or treating at the park and friends over for some soup and the kids playing.  I still took today off as planned to spend some alone time at home, organizing, cleaning, getting a few things done, writing this blog post.  I was able to reschedule our weekend plans and get things in order for that.  It's not the weekend getaway I was expecting, but friends are much more important than that.

So here are some pictures of the week to cheer us up from this downer of a post!

The other morning, Reed was up early and had put his stuffed animals to sleep in a sleep over.  Then he put stickers on their hands. He slept the next night right in the middle of all his friends.

I saw this beautiful tree and thought it was so cool how it faded from green to red.

 Took the kids to Target, Nora didn't feel like coming to me, so she threw herself on the floor and waited for me to come pick her up.  I took her picture instead.

 This is Snowbasin on Saturday morning, a beautiful day!

 I've made homemade applesauce a few times in the past week, it smells so good around the house and it's pretty yummy too!

 Just one night in the bathtub, these crazy kids.

 Halloween!  Nora was an ice cream cone with a cherry on top.  Reed was Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story.  They were so darn cute!

 Doing trick or treating at the park.  Lego man giving them candy. 

 Some friends came over to have soup (my mom's tradition growing up). We have Lucy the chicken, Ethan the tiger, Ava the ladybug, Reed and Nora.  Later Jane the fairy and Ben the cowboy showed up but didn't get a pic of them.

 I hope these two become good friends.  This is really the first time that Nora and Lucy have really played together, it was really cute!

 At home today cleaning.  I came downstairs to find London actually sitting on the couch.

That's all for now. Please keep James and Michelle and their families in prayer as they grieve.

Nora Turns Two!!

Last weekend, Nora turned two years old!  Again, another year flies by, she has really grown and developed so much in the past six months.  She is funny, feisty and crazy.  She says so many words now, putting together 3, 4, 5 word sentences.  She loves doing what her brother does but also loves to not do what he does.  She loves her babies and her brothers cars.  She has an infectious laugh too.  And this girl, she LOVES hummus, like a lot.  Maybe even more than her hot dogs and applesauce.

Nana and Papa Branch were going to be out of town for Nora's birthday celebrations so we caught up over some dinner Thursday night.  

 She got some new socks (much needed)

 Papa made her a new hat with the bag

 They also got her a stroller for her baby dolls.  She loves it!

Saturday morning (the day before her birthday), I went up to Park City and did a 5K with some of my work friends.  I am part of an internal group called the Women's Leadership Coalition and we supported a group of 20 girls who were running the Pink Series 5K for breast cancer awareness.  I helped get these awesome shirts from Marmot that we are all wearing.  It was a crisp morning but by the time we started running, it was a beautiful day!  Some of the girls ran wearing goat costumes, so funny!

The whole group above, just the merchandising girls below.

 Emma (middle), Kelley (left) and me were 1, 2, 3!

 I ran my best miles times yet!  And a 5K feels sooo short after two 10K's in a row.  It was over before I even got into a stride!

I left Park City and picked up the in-laws at the airport and headed to Black Island Farms for Nora's party.  When we got there, we were all shocked on how incredibly busy it was there!  Next year we are going in the morning!

Grandma and Nora at her party!

 Reed and Nora rode the cow train

 Papa and Grandma get lost with Nora in the corn maze.

 After the farm, we attempted to ride the tractor out to the field to pick pumpkins but the line was literally like an hour and a half long.  We waited for 30 minutes in the line and bailed.  We did pick out some pumpkins from the piles they already had - good enough!

Then we headed to dinner with a few friends and called it a night.  In the morning it was Nora's actual 2nd birthday!

 Opening a snow white dress up outfit from Lala!

 This bag was full of an outfit and two pairs of PJ's from grandma and papa.  She would pull one out and throw it to the side and go for another.  I think she was digging for the toys at the bottom but there were none, and she moved on!

 Reed helped her open his gift from him, a coffee pot, cappuccino maker and toaster play set!

 Lala got her a Minnie bigger than herself!

 We let the kids play a little and then off to church.  After church, we headed down to Snowbird to ride the tram. It was snowing at the top - like hard!

I got Nora a new little car, she LOVED it.  I gave it to her after dinner and the kids played in it every waking second after!  So much so that she refused to open any more gifts.  Each time I would show her one and she would say "no!".

 At Snowbird and balloon guy made her this special birthday hat that she wore for her birthday song and cupcake!

The day before at her party, she refused to blow out the candle.  This time blew out the candle before we even started singing and we had to relight it!

So a very happy birthday to my little baby girl.  I can't believe we have already reached the part of life where it is no longer measured in months, only years.  She is an independent girl already, very sure of what she wants and when she wants it.  She has a sweet side too, lots of kisses, hugs and "i love you's" already.  She pretty much always has crazy hair (which drive me nuts!), a dirty shirt and probably no pants on, but she sure is having fun.  She is very smart and already sort of athletic.  I cannot wait to see what kind of person she grows up to be.  To our baby princess, we love you lots!