Catch up time :)

 Chris Family Halloween Party - Zac was unable to join Aspen, Colten and I due to needing to take care of some work things but we had fun. Colten and Aspen made Grandma's day by dressing up, Colten in his cheerleader outfit and Aspen made a cute Dorothy from Wizard of Oz. Oaklee was dressed as a witch and Raven was a cute unicorn fairy (I think that is what it was called). Grandpa was dressed as a Bronco fan with a paper bag over his head because the Broncos are doing horrible this year. Darcee and her family were there also but didn't have any costumes on. We had a good dinner, although I didn't eat much. Then Grandma had some fun games for the kids to play like pin the nose on the pumpkin and Who Ate Frank (a kid favorite). Then the kids went trick or treating around the room. Grandma spoiled everyone with a bag of licorice so you had better believe that I joined in on the trick or treating. And yes, Grandma gave me a bag :). After trick or treating, it was time to head out but not before stopping at a house in the neighborhood. they had the entire front yard had a pirate ship, then they had a walk through of haunted pirates and skeletons. It was pretty cool. Annika and Channing were at their mom's that weekend so they weren't able to join us. 

Again, the next week was pretty low key. Aspen was busy with her theater tech class. It was the week of the play so she was busy at dress rehearsals and the performances that we hardly saw her. Colten was busy with football and getting ready for their final game of the season. 

That Thursday and Friday were my fall break and I didn't do much but read. Actually I did go with Zac to work on Thursday to provide him with the motivation needed. Friday and Saturday I spent a lot of time reading. What can I say? Seven book series are pretty intriguing. Zac laughed at me when I finished a book in one day. On Friday, I did introduce Annika and Channing to Top Gun: Maverick :) They said they enjoyed it.

Zac has been enjoying the laser that he bought. Spending many of nights trying to test out new things. He has gotten some pretty cool designs on some knives and doing some water bottles.

Saturday was Colten's final season game down in Mesquite versus Crimson Cliffs. Zac had decided that he wasn't going to go to this game to spend some quality time with Annika and Channing. So, because of the lateness of the game, I asked if Colten and I could catch a ride with one of his teammates. I dressed warmly because I remember last year and pacing the field to stay warm. The one thing I didn't count on was rain, which it did for most of the first half of the game. Natalie, luckily, had a beach umbrella out in the truck and her husband went to grab it so we didn't get totally soaked. Some parents happened to have canopies that they put up for the boys to stay out of the weather. But the wind was blowing hard so after it stopped raining but continued to blow, the canopies came down.

The game was all sorts of emotions. The Tigers went up 14-0 but gave up a touchdown right before the half. Then CC scored again in the 3rd so it was all tied. It was a defense battled until the end of the game. I have never experienced overtime in the league but apparently each team gets the ball at the 10 yard line and tries to score in 4 downs. Crimson got the ball first but Hurricane defense held them. Then it was up to the offense to do their job (which they hadn't done since the 1st quarter). But Gunner the qb was able to run in for a touchdown and win it for the Tigers. Hurricane had already locked up number 1 seed in their division thanks to beating Snow Canyon but still wanted to go 3-0.

Sunday was spent watching the Broncos since Brett Rypien would be playing instead of Russell Wilson against the Jets (and Zach Wilson). I was hoping for a better game but no such luck. The defense did awesome but our offense can't seem to score. So, we have decided on new teams to root for this year since Broncos and Raiders are doing horribly.

At Monday's practice for Colten, they watched film and had a pizza party. They were supposed to watch clips from Remember the Titans but the movie wasn't working. Hopefully the boys were able to relax and focus their attention on improving for the playoff game. 

On Tuesday, my group of young women did Fear Factor. The leaders picked 5 games to challenge the girls and almost everyone participated. We had one girl who refused to eat the "cat food" (which was really spam and gravy). It was fun to see the girls raise to the challenges and hopefully conquer a few fears.

On Wednesday, Zac and I took Annika and Channing to the high school music's Halloween Carnival that Aspen was participating in. Hollee and her family joined us as well. Colten joined us after his football practice was over. The weather wasn't cooperating totally as it was a little windy and chilly. But everyone had a good time. Annika also was able to sing with her choir class.

Thursday was Annika's birthday and due to her mom working nights, we were able to spend the evening with her. She had cheer as normal, went to see her mom for a minute and came home to the requested Beligan Waffles. Then we headed out to Valley Academy's Spooktacular. It was soooo cold. Channing decided not to dance with her class because 1. she (and parents) didn't know what they were wearing and 2. her partner wasn't going to be there. So, she got to sit in the cold and bundle up in blankets with us. Annika did her song again but my view was blocked by someone standing to video. Due to the cold, people were leaving as soon as their students were done but Annika and Channing wanted to see the Sanderson Sisters and do Thriller. So, because Zac and I love them we stayed and braved the cold. We did try to get hot chocolate at the Hurricane Maverick, but they were out. So, we went to the La Verkin Maverick and they only had Pumpkin Spice which the kids got and loved. But I did tell the cashier that the regular hot chocolate was out and he said "Thanks for telling me I'll go replace it". Zac didn't want to wait for him to change it. I was still cold and actually was cold all night. I had socks, sheet and two blankets plus a hoodie and I was still cold. 

Also on Thursday night, there was some space launch, I think in Arizona, that brought an awesome sky in Southern Utah. We just saw the cool moon at Valley but a friend captured awesome pictures of what the sky looked like.

We weren't able to celebrate Annika's birthday on her birthday due to school and her activities but since there was no school on Friday, we were able to do some celebrating then. Annika chose to go to Costa Vida for lunch (yum) then we headed to Wal-Mart to get presents. I had ordered her a tablet case on Thursday so I was able to walk around with her while everyone else did their shopping. While Annika and I were walking around, we found a Baby Yoda pajama onesie so naturally I picked that up. Then Annika found a Baby Yoda mini backpack that she really liked. She said "then you and I can be twins with the matching backpacks". I never said yes to getting it but she carried it around the store all the way to check-out. I said "are we getting that" and she said "yes". I said "you are lucky it's your birthday".

We stopped at Dairy Queen for Annika to pick out an ice cream cake. While we were waiting, Zac started talking with someone eating and then introduced them to me. It was the owner of Dairy Queen and his wife, Zac's step-sister. Fun to finally have a face to go with her name.

We went to the house and did presents. Annika was able to guess just about every single present. Then we had cake. Channing had been saying her stomach hurt since lunch (which she didn't really eat but claimed she had a big breakfast), ran into the bathroom and threw up. So, she showered and went to bed. I headed to St. George to drop Aspen off at Audra's for their annual Halloween sleep over. I stopped by my parents for a little bit to chat with my mom and Hollee.

I think I am all caught up now lol :)

Sorry another 2 week update

 And I am not sure I will get everything so I'll do the I can.

Aspen had a choir concert on Wednesday. It was homecoming week at the high school so the choir teacher had to move the time up to allow people to participate in the powder puff game. We picked the wrong side of the auditorium to see Aspen but we were able to watch her backside. The concert was for both middle and high school so there were a lot of parents attending.

After the concert, we headed over to Taco Bell for dinner before going to the high school for the powder puff game. I picked Colten up early from practice as he was assigned to write on the powder puff game. I thought the game started at 7 but it really didn't start until 7:30 so he could have stayed. The game was fun with the seniors dominating the juniors. It was especially fun to see the football players dress up as the cheerleaders.

The next day I had my visit with Dr. Sanderson. Everything looks good and I'll continue on the Ocrevus drug. On my way up to Cedar, I got a call from Hollee asking if I could take her girls and meet up with mom. Her mother-in-law had something wrong with her heart and her and Jonah needed to head north as soon as possible. I couldn't take the girls right then due to me driving to Cedar but she was able to drop them off at a neighbor's until I got home. I decided that I wanted Oaklee to go to school the following day so they spent the night with us. We watched Thursday night football and got pizza. It was fun having them there but they like to be entertained a lot. I got them bathed and ready for bed. For the most part they stayed in bed but Oaklee was having problems with the dark. I just turned on the bedroom light and she fell right to sleep. She only woke me up once at night asking if the power was out and then Raven fell out of the bottom bunk. The girls were up after that. I got Oaklee off to school and Raven was pretty good while I was sending out progress reports to my classes. Got Oaklee from school and then Grandma and Grandpa were there to take them to their house for the rest of their weekend. I was glad I was able to help Hollee and Jonah out.

Friday night brought Hurricane football. And this game was homecoming against Cottonwood Heights from Salt Lake. I guess there is a team worse than Hurricane and Hurricane was able to pull out the win. Aspen went and stood with the student section. Colten watched a little of the game with us before heading out to play with his friends. Annika and Channing were off playing somewhere. That left Zac and I to enjoy the game.

Saturday was a long day waiting for the evening to come. I don't remember exactly what we did during the day. I think the littles went to play with JoJo. That evening Hurricane was playing Pine View at Hurricane. Turned into a horrible game when PV scored a TD on the first punt. Hurricane definitely didn't play as a team and I think they lost 34-8. Colten played really good, tackling when guys got to the secondary, pushing them out of bounds, etc. It was hard to watch them lose that badly especially after they beat Snow Canyon the week before. But they'll have 2 weeks to get ready to take on Crimson Cliffs again so hopefully their mind gets into the right place.

The next week was pretty low key. Aspen and Colten were finishing up their 1st quarter classes at their schools. Annika and Channing spent their time cleaning their room. And this week was fall break for WCSD so the kids were out of school Thursday, Friday and Monday. Colten has been working a little with Zac to help him move some cars. But on Saturday he did make the choice to go to Las Vegas with some of his friends to go to a haunted house or two.  Aspen spent a good amount of time getting caught up on her UTVA classes, working and going for walks.

Friday afternoon I decided that my allergies had turned into a full cold. I slept 3 total hours Friday night and spent pretty much all day Saturday in bed watching Charmed or the Tennessee vs Alabama game. Man was that game so exciting. I watched the first half and Tennessee seemed to be on track to win the game. But then I took an hour nap and woke up to the 3rd quarter of Alabama having made a come back. I watched until Tennessee threw an interception at which I decided "well they have played good but they'll probably do better if I don't watch". So I watched an episode of Charmed before looking at the score. Tennessee and Alabama was tied! I turned on the game with 1:51 left in the game, tied 49-49 and Alabama was trying to get into better field goal range. But Tennessee held them and Bama tried a 50 yard field goal and missed. That left :21 seconds on the clock and Tennessee was able to get into field goal range in two throws. They kicked it with :02 seconds left and won the game! First time in 16 years that Tennessee has beat Alabama. The crowd rushed the field and then fans tore down the goal posts. Needless to say it was fun to see the celebration. After the game, I went to the store with Zac to get more medicine and went to the shop with him to finish up something.

I slept much better last night but decided to stay home from church to keep the germs to myself lol. Until this afternoon when we will go to my parents for the Halloween party.

Wow...the past two weeks have been crazy busy

 So, Aspen decided to participate in the Miss La Verkin pageant. She and I spent that week going to the different workshops learning how pageants work. We were kind of in a rush for her talent and didn't really make progress until Thursday :(. And I learned that Aspen doesn't memorize as well as I do lol. But on Saturday she went out there and did her best. On the dance, she was smiling and having fun. The mic squeaked on her talent so that kind of threw her off (and the powerpoint) but she made it through. Zac escorted her out for her poise and claims he was so nervous. She did well on her walk as well. But when it came time for royalty, she didn't make it. There were 4 girls from the 4th ward that participated and none of them made it. But Aspen had fun and said she will do it again next year. We will definitely get started on her talent now.

Aspen was surrounded by lots of family who came to support her. Colten wasn't able to make it due to playing a game later that night. But Grandma & Grandpa Chris, Grandpa and Sheila Higgins, Darcee, Kayleeya and her immediate family were all there. Her friend Kailee was her backstage mom that helped her with the changes. Kayleeya came over early to do her make-up and man, did she look beautiful. Haylee Condie, from our ward, helped us with her hair as well as giving her pointers on her walk and talent. Hollee wasn't feeling well and didn't make it but her girls and Jonah saved the day by bringing flowers (cause I totally didn't know to bring them).

After the pageant, everyone but Jonah, made the long drive over to Hurricane High School to watch the Hurricane Tigers take on Canyon View Falcons. Colten had spent a couple of days at the physical therapist that week to try and help his shoulder. He played the entire game but didn't get much action his way. Tigers won 30-12. Again, we loved having the family support at his game.

On Sunday night, Aspen and I headed to Santa Clara while the rest of the family stayed home. Aspen and I got to eat some of Grandpa's waffles before heading over to the stake center to support Grandma singing in the stake patriotic program. I also recognized a few former classmates and young women's leaders in this presentation. It was very well done and happy that I could show my support to Grandma, as she has done many times for me and my kids. You had better believe that as soon as we got in the car, with Aspen driving, I turned the radio to hear what was going on in the Broncos game. We pulled up to the house with like 1 minute left in the game and there was action going on. I tried to run as fast as I could but my platform shoes limited me on how fast I could go. I heard the boys yelling and knew something good happened. I can't remember what but the Broncos ended up winning. It was a great day indeed. Unknown to me, Annika and Channing had wanted to go with Aspen and I but they were at their friend's house when we left. 

The next week Annika was staying home from school due to stomach issues and a fever. She didn't come over on Tuesday but did on Wednesday. Zac was an awesome dad and slept in her bed that night. She seemed to be feeling better the next day but still had a fever. She did clean some of her room up :).

Aspen was trying hard to get caught back up in online school since she took the week off during the pageant. Colten was busy with helping Zac at work, football practice and feeding animals. Channing grew up this week by going to the bus by herself and not crying. She also attended activity days without Annika.

Friday night was a home game for Hurricane so we headed that way. Unfortunately, Hurricane returned to their status of losing horribly. Aspen had fun standing in the student section and hanging out with Tashlee.

Saturday brought General Conference and fantasy conference. I was able to find the same sheet we used last time so the kids and I quickly filled it out. Aspen and I watched the first hour together and was joined by the boys the 2nd hour. After conference, I headed up to make Halloween cards, which are so cute. After I was done making cards, the boys and I headed to St. George for Colten's game against Snow Canyon. Coach Matua had the boys arrive an hour and 45 minutes early so Zac and I did a little window shopping. Well, on the way to Lowe's Zac saw a gun shop sign and quickly turned in. He gawked over the many guns that they had but really like one of the shotguns that was there. Sadly, he had taken all of his money out of his bank so he couldn't buy it. We did make it to Lowe's to check out the price of wood, which has gone down. And we also walked over to Jamba Juice to try their smoothies. We have tried Orange Peel and Tropical Smoothie so we wanted to try Jamba. While Jamba is a little more expensive, their smoothies have so much flavor. After Jamba, we headed back to the stadium. 

We were able to watch the Hurricane B team beat the Desert Hills Thunder 13-6. Our game started right on time and Zac and I were preparing to lose, yet again. After Hurricanes offense stalled, Snow Canyon was driving down the field. Colten had a batted down a pass that would have been a touchdown to Isaiah. But Snow Canyon did score a touchdown later on that drive. Then Hurricane got backed up on their own goal line and tried to punt but the long snapper snapped it over the punter's head resulting in a safety. After many defensives stops by both teams, on the last play of the first half, Hurricane had a trick play that went to RJ that almost went for a TD but got tackled at the last moment and time ran out. The score was 10-0 Snow Canyon at the end of the first half. 

Not sure what Coach Matua said at the half time but whatever it was, worked. Snow Canyon got the ball first but quickly turned the ball over on downs. Hurricane's offense came to life. RJ got the ball on a run and it looked like only a 4 yard run. But RJ kept his legs turning, ran over some players, and ran 60 yards to the house. After Hurricane missed the PAT, they kicked off. Snow Canyon fumbled on the kick and Hurricane got the ball in great field position. After a couple of plays, two trick plays got Hurricane in the end zone. The score is 12-10 Hurricane. It was really tense in the stands but Hurricane's defense held Snow Canyon and Hurricane ended up winning 12-10. I was shaking the last 2 minutes of the game and Zac was so nervous something would happen to blow it but the Hurricane boys did it!. Coach Matua was emotional addressing the boys but reminded them that the season is not over yet. One of the boys, Presley, decided to dump the water jug of water on Coach Matua. Matua threatened to be running laps on Monday lol. 

Again, we had extra support to cheer Colten on. Grandma and Grandpa Chris showed a little after the game began and Darcee made it at half-time. So, we invited them to come celebrate at dinner. Colten chose to go to Black Bear Diner. Alijah and Kayleeya joined us as well. We had fun reminiscing the game and enjoying good food. Aspen had to work but I sent her a text letting her know that Hurricane had beat Snow Canyon. She text back "Mom, I know that it's the 1st but it's not the first of April. You can't fool me with that". She didn't believe me until I sent her a picture of the final score lol.

Now, we are enjoying conference and can't wait to watch film of the Snow Canyon game.