October started out loving on some cute grand babies as much as possible. All three of them! We have been blessed to have had a lot of time with all three kiddos this month. It has been grand!
I had my orthopedic appointment early in the month and my arm looks great! Good bone growth and alignment. That was nice to hear. I don't come back for another three months. Woohoo! I will still continue with PT twice a week. I am good with that. I like Henry my physical therapist. He is great and makes PT fun while still pushing, challenging, and *torturing* me. He did another assessment of my arm...measurements and strength tests. I've improved quite a bit which was so nice to hear!
General Conference came and went. No new apostle or first presidency was announced. It will come after conference. Dallin H. Oaks presided at conference as the President of the Quorum of the Twelve and called it an Apostolic Interregnum. Interesting. It was sad not to hear and see President Nelson. I am curious what kind of president/prophet Oaks will be. I hope he will keep the positive changes coming. An interesting side note is that my mom knew both President Nelson and President Oaks professionally and liked both of them. Kind of cool. When President Nelson became the president of the church and called Oaks to be one of his counselors my mom was excited about that and told me that she knew them and that both of them were "really great guys." I love that she called President Nelson "Russ Nelson."
There were some good talks. I particularly loved Elder Uchtdorf's talk about spiritual gift and people who feel like they don't have any (that's me) and Elder Gong's talk about "No one sits alone." Elder Holland singing a few lines from Amazing Grace brought me to tears. I love him and he didn't look well. I loved the talk by Elder Peter M. Johnson who talked about his experience in the church as a black man who struggled with the priesthood ban. I really appreciated him addressing that topic. Something cool about Elder Peter M. Johnson was that his son served a mission with Kameron. They were the two Elder Johnsons! No new temples were announced which was kind of weird but President Nelson announced 200 new temples and we need to get those built. Our family chat was going on during conference with the kids commenting and adding insights. I love it! I decorated for Halloween in between sessions and Bryn and Tyler washed and cleaned all of our cars and prepped the boat for storage. Productive and spiritual. LOL.
Erin did the cutest photo session with Ailey and Luke to announce their pregnancy. She is awesome! Here are a few pictures:
All of the Utah kids are coming up in two weeks to meet the babies. It will be fun to have everyone here! Kameron got a great new job! He got hired at Fidelity Investments. He is super excited and will get to work part-time from home and part-time downtown SLC. This job will work much better with his school schedule and home life. I am super excited for him! Unfortunately he also got some bad news. They need to find a new place to live. His landlord also works at Fidelity and he and his landlord can't live at the same address according to some bylaws of the company even though Kameron and Erin are renting their basement apartment. I guess there are special laws for financial companies. That was terrible. Their landlords really tried everything with the city of Eagle Mountain to get their basement apartment listed as its own address or to add a 1/2 to the address but to no avail. The job offer is too good to pass up so they started looking for a new place to live which was a real bummer. They really liked their landlord, ward, area, and apartment.
Bryn and I convinced Reilly to leave the house and the kiddos for an hour one Saturday to go and get mani/pedis with us.
Bryn had Homecoming. This year she went with friends and had a fun time! All the girls got ready together.
Bryn and her bestie Micah
They went to dinner at PF Chang's and to the dance. Bryn said she danced more than she ever has at a school dance and had a great time! She looked GORGEOUS!
The babies continue to do well. Both are good eaters and regained their birth weights. They are starting to plump up a bit. We can't get enough of them! There is nothing better than an armful of babies. It is heaven!
I was laughing so hard when I found these out in storage... anatomically correct boy and girl twin dolls. My mom gave them to the girls when they were little and they loved playing with them. What did Mom know?! LOL. Coincidence?!
When I was a little girl I always wanted to have twins...a boy and a girl...and name them Ashley and Anthony. Ha ha! I was forever writing about it in my 3rd grade diary. Too funny.
Bryn had her Fall Orchestra Concert. She played beautifully! It is always fun to listen to her perform.
On our way to her concert, Tyler and I went into
Trader Joe's and ran into one of my cousins. He lives in
Rexburg and happened to be in
Spokane with friends to go to a concert. That was quite an unexpected surprise. This is a cousin who has been somewhat estranged from Kirk and me for years. Anyway...this cousin was super friendly and loving. Hugs all around and expressions of love exchanged. Yay for positive interactions with extended family.
One Saturday night Tyler and I had the pleasure of being chaperones at a
Tri-Stake Dance. That was a new experience for us! Bryn did NOT attend. She was out on a date with her new guy. I was also in charge of a giant three ward combined youth activity. A huge night game of
Fugitive at the park. Tyler came along and helped me lug more gallons of chocolate milk and boxes of Krispy Kreme donuts than you could imagine. The game was a hit!
Fugative with Micah and Bryn.
A new First Presidency was announced:
President Dallin H. Oaks, First Counselor Henry B. Eyring, and Second Counselor D. Todd Christofferson. Interesting! I like it.
All month I was crazy busy with YW activities, meetings, and trainings. I went to girls softball games, supervised a pack check for a backpacking trip (thankfully I did not have to go on said backpacking trip), planned a YW Awards Night, and went to the temple with the youth.
It's fun to be able to go with Bryn.
One day Tyler and I took a little day trip to
Smelterville. It's a horrible name for a very pretty place. The drive was so beautiful! Tyler found great winter boat storage there so we took the boat up and dropped it off. While up there we explored the cities of
Pinehurst and Smelterville. I found some great items for my booth at a little thrift store and we got lunch and some treats at
Mae's Bakery. We ended up meeting Mae herself and had a very long conversation with her. She was a character! It was nice to go on a little day trip and go up in the mountains. The fall colors were beautiful!
One Saturday Tyler and I did some volunteer work for our favorite local bookstore. We picked up several boxes of books that they were donating to little free libraries and drove around and dropped them off. We actually had so much fun doing that! It's nice to volunteer in our community.
We also did a big walk on the
Centennial Trail. We've had a really pretty fall. Tyler wanted to check out the architecture of some old buildings along the trail.
This was once an old orphanage.
This was an old bathhouse.
Mid-month all of the Utah kids drove up to meet the babies. It was so fun to see the rest of the kids as doting aunts and uncles. They will all make fantastic parents. The babies were so sweet and let us constantly hand them around.
Karson was so cute with Dwight. He loves him!
He isn't a huge fan of Beverly! LOL.
One day when everyone was here we went to Greenbluff for pumpkin donuts and to go to the pumpkin patch. Those pumpkin donuts are amazing! We ran into our friends, Andrea and Jason, and it was so fun to catch up with them and to introduce them to the twins. They are expecting their first grandchild in a few months.
Look at us with THREE grandkids!!
While everyone was here we went out to dinner several times, did a little shopping, watched some
BYU football, had a couple family dinners, and some game nights.
The twins tried on their Halloween costumes. They are two little Pea Pods. Karson tried on his too but it was at his house and he was quick. No time for a picture. He is a cute lion.
Kynlee
Karter
Ailey and Luke didn't get to stay as long as Kameron and Erin. They had to head back home pretty quick for Luke to get back to work. Kameron and Erin stayed for a few extra days since Kameron's new job wouldn't start for a bit.
Bryn, Erin, and Kameron went to
Scarywood together.
Kameron, Reilly, and Tyler went to a scary movie...
The Conjuring 4. Erin, Hunter, and I had no interest in joining them. LOL. Erin, Bryn, and I watched a non-scary Halloween movie.
Kam and Erin came to church with us! My favorite!
Kameron also had some dental work done while he was in town. I'm glad that he could get that done while he was here. One day we all went to
Coeur d' Alene and Kameron helped Tyler move some big pieces of furniture into my booth. We did some shopping in CDA and then we tried a new (to us) restaurant called
The White House. Hunter has been telling us to go there for years. It was delicious Mediterranean food. So fun!
Erin was also able to get the new sleeveless garments from our distribution center on the day they dropped. There were lines for hours to get them in Utah. She offered to get some for me and I should have taken her up on it. They've been sold out here every time I've gone. She grabbed some for Ailey too. I can't believe that we get to wear sleeveless shirts now. It's about time!!
Reilly brought the kids over a bunch while Kam and Erin were in town so that they could get in some good baby. She also brought over a new game for us to play.
Erin kindly offered to take family pictures of Reilly, Hunter, and the kids. She also offered to take some junior year pictures of Bryn. She is the sweetest! Reilly chose to have their pictures taken at
Finch Arboretum. Tyler and I came to help wrassle Karson and the babies. We took a few pictures of our own while we waited.
Reilly and Hunter's family pictures turned out really cute and so did Bryn's pictures. Erin had Tyler and I jump in and took few pictures of us too. She is such a sweetheart! Pictures to come later.
The day that Kameron and Erin left...Tyler had hand surgery. He has really bad Dupuytren's Contracture in one hand and carpal tunnel syndrome. This surgery took care of both of those issues.
Before: these two fingers are completely unable to straighten.
I got to go back with him while he was prepped for surgery, got his IV, and nerve blocker...that was pretty awful looking. His procedure was estimated to be about an hour with an hour in recovery but his procedure was so extensive, due to how bad his hand was, that it was almost two hours and then another 45 mins in recovery. The doctor said that Tyler's surgery went well and that he was able to get Tyler's fingers *essentially* straight.
He looked pretty good post-surgery. His initial cast was much larger than I thought it would be. The recovery is pretty long and involves a lot of occupational therapy. Tyler went on short-term disability while he recovered. His hand is needed to do his job.
The day after Tyler's surgery I had to set up for the Holiday Open House at Midtown Market. Bryn came with me and helped me. This is a HUGE set-up! All the Christmas goes in... I was so thankful for her help! She's such a great kid!
She also took the PSATs that day! Frozen Custard was a requirement when we were done!
Two days after Tyler's surgery it was Halloween. It was fairly subdued this year as Tyler recovered. We had a good amount of trick-or-treaters which was fun. Our neighbor across the street grew the most beautiful pumpkins and gave them all away so we didn't even have to buy a pumpkin this year. We watched Nightmare on Elm Street. How was I ever scared of that movie?? LOL. It is so cheesy!
Karsy in his lion costume! Such a cutie!
I can't believe that the twins are already one month old. Here are some pictures of them with their quilts that they got from their Great-Grandma Judie.
In some sad celebrity news...
Diane Keaton died.
That hit me hard. Whenever I watch a Diane Keaton movie where she plays a mother...she reminds me of Mom so much. Kelley and I used to go to all of the Diane Keaton movies with Mom and die laughing at how similar they were.
It's hard to believe that we are already rolling into November which looks to be a very busy month. Lots of visitors are coming to town and hopefully Tyler's hand heals quickly!
