Halloween & Beyond

Let's begin with the Haloween Party at the church...the Shirley Girls dressed up like bugs. I was hoping Bryan would dress up as a bug catcher, but no luck. I think this is the 1st year since we've been married that he didn't dress up.

Tori was a butterfly, Laeni was a ladybug, and I was the queen bee :)
We won an award for our costumes. Before the party I remembered to add a little face paint to the girls , but of course I forgot on the night of Halloween.

Our final pumpkins. The photos below are of our busy helpers with the work - the icky work!

The night of Halloween, right before Trick-or-treating.

Tori got into it this year, Bryan said she started running from house to house and he and Laeni couldn't catch up! After they came in from trick-or-treating, the girls kept practicing by hiding in the pantry until the other knocked and said "trick-or-treat" then they'd switch. Once I knocked and said those magic words and Tori came back with some candy for me :)

The next day was my b-day and Bryan & the girls pampered me with homemade blueberry muffins for breakfast, take-out Thai food for dinner and a homemade Bryan cake for dessert. It really meant a lot to me to have a homemade birthday cake - birthdays have always been a big thing for me and my mom used to ALWAYS make our birthday cakes, even after my mission, so this was a little "taste" of home.

Bryan even made a very special frosting under the colored frosting because he wanted it to be different and special. What a guy!

For my b-day, Bry got me a gift certificate to a craft store and so I bought our turkey decoration (fun for the girls) and the "give thanks" blocks, but decided the girls and I could make our own pumpkins pretty easily/quickly. Bry cut the wood down for us so we could run to the store and get some raffia...here are the girls at work painting their pumpkins and below is the picture of the final product (s).

Yesterday we celebrated Laeni's birthday with a doll party for her and a couple of friends who live across the street. Their cousin also came, so that was fun. Grandma Shirley, Tese, Jess (and her friend Daniel) and Sierra also came, along with Breann and Kylee.

The party started by coloring a picture of a doll. Here are the little girls coloring away!

Then we played pin the ball on the doll - with the lovely Bryan as Mr. Blindfold Man.
Here are the final results.

Next, we ate birthday cake and ice cream. Here is Laeni's "doll cake"...

and Laeni getting ready to blow out her candles - she needed a lot of help, and a new shirt by the time the candles were finally out. At one point, I thought she was going to eat the flame!

Finally, we decorated doll cookies - each girl received a big doll and little doll to decorate, a bag of their own icing, and a goodie plate...even the big kids had fun.
Tori mostly enjoyed the frosting - out of the bag, but also look at her cookies piled high with frosting!
Before the party, I had made skirts, shirts and braided hair for the big dolls to wear, if the kids wanted to decorate them like that. I was so suprised at how much time even the little ones stayed focused on the activity - I think they really liked having their own plate of treats and bag of icing. Thanks to Grandma Shirley, Breann & Kylee for helping the little girls with the decorating!

As you can see, Laeni REALLY enjoyed the candy off of her plate. All she does now is try to scrape all of the frosting off of her cookie with her fingernail :)

I guess in all the excitement, I forgot to get Laeni's picture with all of her presents. She received a big girl bed from us (which we decided not to put up yet since Bry was going on a trip), a doll bed and clothes for her doll, a couple new dolls, a pillow pet (lady bug), new jammies, potato head, new panties (so we can potty train her), snow pants, mittens, bed skirt, shirt, crayons and coloring book, and a LOT of attention.

Happy 2nd Birthday Lanei Loo. You are such a fireball - full of life and excitement and spunk! We sure love you little one.

We measured Laeni on the measuring wall the day of her party and she is almost 2 inches taller than Tori was when Tori was 2! Watch out world - here she comes!

Rest in Peace

From the 1st day Bryan brought Trigger Dox Sama home, he knew Trigger would be a hunting dog for sure. Bry brought him up in the mountains that first day and he flushed the birds! Bryan was already in love. These two would remain the "mountain men" together until about a year ago when Trigger took a tumble down the mountainside while hunting chuckers. Little did we know then that Trigger had other heath issues that contributed to the fall, but this week we learned that Trigger had liver damage that was messing him up mentally - causing confusion and paranoia. This was not the Trigger we were used to. When Bry took him to the vet, Trigger didn't growl, bark, or even try and bite anyone - definately not our Trigger dog.

The poor thing continued to decline in health since Monday. It got so bad that he couldn't even stand up anymore. Grandpa Shirley was going to come over today to take him to the vet so we could put him out of his misery (Bry left on a trip today). True to his stubborn nature, he didn't make it to the vet - he died in Dennis's arms. Dennis burried him up in the moutnains near his favorite hunting spot.


He was a good 'ol dog. We yelled at him all the time to quit barking, quit digging, etc. etc. but we really did love him. He was a part of our family - the ornery part! He has been good to us - always so excited to see us in the backyard, always good to the girls! He came with us everytime we went up in the mountains. He even hiked many of the highest peaks with Bryan. Here is our very first family picture.

He was always at home in nature.

He came on Tori's first camping trip of course...and many other excursions.

I took this photo this morning with the girls after we went out to say our "good-byes." Trigger couldn't even lift his poor head. We're sure gonna miss you Trigger dog, you crazy thing!

Oh how I love the fall....

We get to watch General Conference: Here are the girls gathering their supplies to help them with reverence (worked occasionally).

Here are the Shirley Girls on "the rock" near Paula's cabin. Going to the cabin for Oct. conference has been a tradition for years. I'll be honest, it was a lot more quiet and reflective as a single girl!

After the cabin - and all of my frustration with the girls at the cabin - I figured we all needed a little fun and for me to not be so serious ALL the time...so while the girls slept, I prepared our girls only tea party. Tori was so excited when she woke up that she had to touch and look at everything on the table.

During fall, we get to wear fall colors...

And go on hay/wagon rides to the pumpkin patch...

And try out LOTS of different pumpkins...

Until we find the perfect ones.

Actually, these aren't the ones the girls finally selected. They chose the ones in the picture below. These GIANT ones were just on display. Oh, how I love the fall!

We're Getting a Temple

In preparation for the Payson Temple, I have been trying to teach the girls about temples- and have started teaching them the song, "I love to see the temple."

This morning, with jammies still on and crazy hair, they each performed their own rendition.

I love my family and feel grateful we can be together FOREVER!

Labor Day Weekend

This photo was actually a few weeks ago - we went swimming and Tori hit her eye on the side of the slide and got a pretty nice shiner - Bryan had her pose like this - maybe we can post it on our front door with a sign that reads:

"Warning, tough girls live here"
Over Labor Day weekend, Tori had her last performances with her dance class and dancing group. Can you pick her out of the crowd below as they were lining up for the children's parade?

(hint: she's the littlest one)

While Tori's group and the other girls were performing on stage, this is how Laeni spent her time...playing in the dirt with her cousin Fisher :)
During the children's parade, Tori was WAY behind her class, but just kept looking at everyone and smiling - as you can see in the photo, there are none of her classmates even close. A couple of times I picked her up and carried her up with the rest of her group so she wouldn't be run over by the bikes right behind them. She was having a great time doing her thing.


We also needed something fun to make / eat, so we made fruit shishkabobs - hoping Tori would eat something (she hasn't been feeling well lately).

Grandma Francis made the girls their own "dancing skirts" and here they are using them...

Laeni posed like this herself...such a ham!

Tori's 1st Dance Recital

Tori had her first dance "recital" at the county fair last Thursday (on the 18th). It was so funny. It was the first time the little girls had worn masks, and so they were a little out of sorts, but that's what made it even funnier. Tori informed us later that she wanted to be the zebra, "but it broke". I am assuming that it broke at the last minute because her monkey mask wasn't on quite right.

Later that night, Bry told me he didn't think Tori is cut out to be a dancer.

"Is it because she isn't super coordinated, because she's only 3 and it will improve"

"No, it's not that"

"Is it because she was talking to the girl next to her?"

"No, that was because she was trying to help the other little girl do the motions 'cause she hadn't moved the whole dance."

"Well, then why?"

"Because she's the only girl who had her mask on crooked the entire dance. She tried to fix it, but it was still on crooked."

In Tori's defense - notice her left ear...it's folded down and the mask was probably stuck that way - all skewumpus. It was hilarious! I am trying to download the video so you can see it too, and if you listen closely, a little kid is asking their parent who the monkey is :)The monkey...Is our little Tori with a crooked mask, but great dance moves! Here she is patiently waiting for the song to begin (trying to see out of her mask).
Someone at work pointed out that she's the smallest girl on stage, but it looks like she was dancing the most - I don't know about that because I was videotaping and laughing so hard, so I didn't notice the other little kids. Excuse the video when I veer off...I was either laughing or trying to look up at Tori :)


(If the video doesn't work, I apologize. I have spent the last 2 nights - at least 6 hours- trying to download it from the video camera and then trying to save it to my computer...I am on my 2nd try at uploading it to the blog - the first try lasted about 45 minutes without results, so I'm trying it again...if you don't see a video below, it means it didn't work - sorry)

Summer Daze at the Cabin and misc. pics

We were able to spend a much needed break at the cabin for a week. It was a lot of fun, mostly just 'cause we relaxed and spent time together. We went into Yellowstone 2 days and had a lot of fun spotting animals. One day we saw a herd of bison and Tori was very excited. She even saw a baby taking a drink from his mama and thought that was cool. Laeni heard Tori talk about it, so Laeni kept saying, "drink, drink, yook, drink."

Here is a picture of part of the herd crossing the river.

We also saw a mama bear and 2 cubs VERY close to where we spotted a bear last year. Here is a picture of one of the cubs. We drove down the road a little farther and saw another bear. Then we saw a grizzly bear through the scope (a long ways a way) hanging out in a field very close to a herd of elk.
After the first day of driving, the girls started to settle down and not whine so much. They loved coming back to the cabin for a little time in the sandbox, or blowing bubbles.

We swam in Gardner River (I think that is the name). There is another river that cascades into it with HOT water - so you just need to find the right place to sit that isn't too hot or too cold.

One of the favorite things for the girls was climbing up to the loft to sleep each night. Laeni especially enjoyed being a big girl and climbing the ladder (although it scared me every time!).

Another favorite stop was the candy store in Virginia City. The girls each got to pick their own stick sucker. You would have thought it was a race to see who could finish first!

Here are a couple of other misc. photos.
The girls dressed up in their princess dresses - they taught themselves to hold them like that - I swear!

And just so you don't worry...we still bake around our house and the girls still LOVE to help. Look at Tori's tongue sticking out in concentration mode (just like a Parry).

Laeni was the first to pull the chair over. Anything in the kitchen she tries to help with.

This last weekend, we went to a storybook birthday party and the girls were able to dress up like their favorite storybook character. Tori wanted to be a witch, so we re-read "Little Witch's Big Night" before we left, and Laeni just wanted to be a ladybug - we don't have a story about a ladybug yet. This other cutie in the picture is my girlfriend's daughter who can sing The Star Spangled Banner all by herself!