October Fun

I accidently put the videos first so here you go:

Shizzie has come leaps and bounds since we started doing the training classes with her.  She can now fetch, drop, sit, come, and walk on a leash. Halleluja.  If only we could get her to stop jumping up on us. She's a ball of energy and we love her.

At Zac's party. It'll all make sense after you read through the pictures below.

October has been such an awesome fun month from start to finish.  Here we are at the top of the month.  We love living so close to BYU and being able to participate in fun events like BYU Homecoming! Anne ran in the kids Cougar Run in the 200 meters.  She had a blast and still talks about racing "like Mama".  We just wish it had been a tad warmer, at 8am in the morning it was barely 40 degrees outside so we were all bundled. 

 Rachel sporting her cute BYU gear.

 After the run was the blue pancake breakfast while we waited for the parade to come by.  The pancakes were actually kind of gross but Anne liked them.

 We believe this parade is farrrrr better than the 4th of July one.  It's much more kid-friendly with candy, interactive people, and music.  Anne's favorite part by far was seeing the "siwens" (sirens).  Since we live near a main road we hear them all the time and she always talks about them, so when she heard them in the parade she was estatic to see what the noise actually comes from.

Rachel having her first candy.  She's a fan.

 We love these cute matching pj's from Grandma Thatcher!

 My hair stylist.

 They both asked to climb in there.

 I love this picture.  Totally Rachel.

 Tired girl.

 I know this is silly, but she has such a cute crying face I had to take a picture.  Cute little button nose.

 Trying to get them to take a picture together.  This is as good as it got.

 Her new friend Geoffrey. (And that's Shizzie in the background.)

 While we were taking a walk Anne stops and does this.  We ask her "What are you doing?" She says, "I stretching, like Mama stretch." So cute.

 Shizzie has gotten over her distaste for water.  We took her to the duck pond and she dove right in.  She didn't want the ducks, just wanted to play in the water.

 In the middle of October (the 16th to be exact) we celebrated Zac's birthday! I had been planning a surprise party for him for months and we alllllmost made it.  A friend accidently spoiled the surprise the night before the party, but it was still fun.  We had a bbq and flag football at the park.   Thank you buddies for helping me put everything together and thanks everybody that was able to come and show Zac how much he is loved.

 Rachel and her buddy Logan.

 A brownie covered in peanut butter with chocolate frosting.  Zac's favorite. Thanks Alexis, for helping make it look so cute!

 The kids loved playing with the water spigut.  Sorry parents.

 Anne wanted to play too.

 I think Anne is more excited for our birthdays than we are.  Nice wrapping huh? ;)

 Dancing with the girls.  They sure love their Daddy :)

 A preview of next month's fun.

 Another tired girl.

 Anne said she was mowing with her mower "like Daddy".

 Anne is obsessed with my shoes.  I swear she walks in these high heels better than I do.

 On one of our many sick days we had fun decorating Anne's "treasure box" as she called it.  Thanks for such a fun present Maija!

 And for the end of the month.

The girls had fun with the pumpkin (you'll see in the video).  Here Anne's supervising Daddy's handywork.

 Rachel wanted to put these on.

 I thought Aunt Michelle would like to see that the hat she made me while I was in college is still well-loved.  Anne insists on wearing it when we go out and I think it is pretty darn cute.

 And now for the Halloween fun.  Last night we had our ward's Trunk-or Treat party and we were so excited to wear our costumes.  We decided to go with a Whinnie the Pooh theme this year since that's the girls' favorite movie.  I went to DI at the beginning of the month when they had a ton of cool costumes available and these happen to be the ones that I found in each of everyone's sizes.  They're kind of our alter-egos which is great.

 And believe it or not, it was Zac's idea for him being Piglet. So awesome.

 That night was also my Halloween Fun Run in American Fork, my last race of the season.  I wanted to see how fast I could run a 5k after training for 10k's all summer.  I was pretty bummed and thought I wouldn't be able to run cause two days before I had the stomach flue and couldn't train well.  But I decided to go ahead and just run it anyways for fun.  The race was a blast.  I loved running in the dark in my Whinnie the Pooh costume and hearing kids cheer "Look Mom there's Whinnie the Pooh! Go Whinnie the Pooh!" I ended up beating my last race time by 5 minutes and got first place in my age group.  Cool way to end the running season.

 Just Rachel and Dad went to Church today since Anne still has a runny nose and this is how he dressed her.  Adorable.

 While they were at Church I was tidying up the kitchen and Anne really wanted to sweep the floor.  She does such a good job at this, very thourough.  Even moves the chairs out of the way and shakes the rugs.  My big helper.  After this we made caramel, chocolate, candy bar apples mmmmm.

 Grandpa Thatcher sent Anne a new rocking horse for her birthday! Thanks Grandpa! While Zac was trying to se it up the girls were testing out the equipment.

The Girls

Anne: Her favorite things right now are umbrellas and birthday parties.  These two subjects constitute most her of dialogue throughout the day.  She is either asking to use the umbrella and go outside or asking when Daddy's birthday is.  I think she had a great time at her own birthday party.  She can sing "I Am a Child of God" all on her own and can almost say her own prayers which is awesome.  She also now tells us that she loves us which is just about the best thing in the whole world.  Her little mind is amazing and she shocks me constantly with what she puts together and what she remembers.

Rachel: Is walking more and more and can't wait to run.  That's kind of the problem at the moment because now that she's upright she just wants to run and hasn't quite figured it out yet.  She doesn't mind falling and toppling and actually thinks it's fun.  A daredevil just like her Daddy.  She's also a heck of a climber who the other day at the park, climbed up the jungled gym stairs, crawled over to the slide, turned around backwards and slid down on her belly all by herself.  She's a mover.  Which makes changing diapers a chore.  Every single time without fail that girl cries and tries to get away.  She's also starting to talk more and says "Ba!" for ball, "Mo" for more, "Mama"....for me, and "Da!" for Daddy, dog, and any other animal.  

I love playing with Anne's hair.

There will lots of modeling pictures because she got new clothes for her birthday and just looks super cute in them.  So here is a beautiful yellow top and new jeans from Grandma and Grandpa Russell.

Zac and I celebrated our sixth anniversary which was wonderful.  I let Zac plan it this year and he surprised me with a wonderful dinner at Chef's Table (super fancy, beautiful, and the best soup I've ever had in my life...and I don't even like soup) followed by a stroll around the beautiful Riverwood shops (where we snuck in a few of the stores to catch glimpses of the BYU football game that was going on at the same time :) I am so very blessed to have found Zac and he is a genuinely loving husband.  He's my best friend and I love that I get to share my life with him.

Random I know, but so cute.

We have had to come up with a thousand ways to eat our vast zucchini crop, but I believe this has been the best.  Battered and fried zucchini sticks dipped in ranch. Mmmmmm. Not something we have a lot, but boy does it taste yummy.

New outfit #2.  This one is from me.  I took Anne shopping one night cause I thought it would be a fun girl's night out.  Halfway through I realized who I was and how much I hate shopping.  Anne's not a huge fan either.  I think that's why I get my kid's clothes at Costco.  There's only about six options and they all come in outfits and are not too expensive.  My kind of shopping.  (Oh and she added the skirt to this ensemble on her own).

Rachel loves to do absolutely anything that Anne is doing.

Another new outfit.  I have to say, she is the ONLY person I have ever seen that looks good in "jeggings".  I got them mostly because this girl has no bum and unless they're tight, pants fall right off of her.

She really wanted me to take a picture of her "machine".

Oh these are great.  I think she liked the Spaghetti??

One night Anne found the flashlight and remembered that nine months ago we had built a fort and used the flashlight so she asked to do it again.  Anne grabbed stories to read in it and Rachel tried to pull the sheets down.  Good fun.

This is the ONLY hat that Rachel has ever allowed on, ever.

I don't know what it is, but Anne looooooves our umbrella.  It's been pretty cold and rainy here so she's gotten good use out of it.

 We thought we should post some pictures of Shizzie since it's been a while.  She's gotten so big.  She's a  sweet dog that would not harm and fly but boy is she still a puppy.  She is really good at playing catch (except for the "drop" part of it) and will come when we call her.  She also sits and lays down when we tell her to.  But she and I will be attending obedience school at Petsmart every Saturday so I can teach her not to jump up on people and walk on the leash better.

Rachel is definitely Shizzie's biggest fan.  Rachel goes beserk whenever she sees her and wants to leap out of our arms to pet her.  Anne is still a bit cautious but also loves to pet her and play fetch with her.

Last but certainly not the least of Anne's new outfits is her "Pity purple Tangled dress" as she calls it.  My sister Jennifer and my Mom made her this gorgeous dress up dress which she asks to wear almost every day.  She loves to "pin" (spin) in it and tell us "Like pincess, awww pitty" whenever she wears it.  And yes she looks like a beautiful princess.

Our big walkin and talkin girl.

Giggles.

One night Zac taught her how to play soccer and I wrigged us up a goal out of our pack n' play so we now have another indoor hobby that will help us get through the next six months of winter.