My Get-Away

This past week, I was able to go and visit my sister Megan and her cute little family. She just had her second child on the 10th of October. So, I took Bella and flew out to see them. My mom was also there, helping out. It was so fun to see Megan and her husband, Steve again. It had been about a year since I had seen them last. They have a little boy named Colin who is 2 1/2 and they just had a little girl, named Cora. They are both adorable little kids and I was so glad to be able to get to know them better.

Here is sweet baby Cora:

She really liked sucking on her thumb. Too bad it covered her face!

And this is cute Colin:

We didn't do a lot while I was there. Just being able to hang out and talk and work on some sewing projects was heaven for me, though. We did go to a pumpkin patch one day, and we went out to eat a few times.

Megan, Cora (under the blanket), Colin and Steve at the pumpkin patch

Colin loved the little maze...




My mom and Megan

Colin found a cute little pumpkin, just the right size.

So many pumpkins...

Me and Bella on the hay ride

Sweet baby Bella

Megan also took us to a really neat Halloween store that has a lot of the department 56 villages that my mom and sisters and I like to collect. I bought a fun piece to go with my carnival. It's called Swinging Ghoulies. It's so cute!!

We also looked through all of Megan's old photo albums which was fun to reminisce about. Steve was great--he made us Indian food for dinner one night, and he also made us a pumpkin pie--it was really good!

I don't think he wanted his picture taken, but I think the smirk is great!

We watched some good movies, too. We watched a really old version of Rebecca, a book by Daphne du Maurier. It had Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine in it. There's supposed to be another version of the movie, but I have only seen this one. It's pretty good. The book is great, too.
We also watched Jane Eyre. I love this movie, but still haven't read the book. It's on my list of books to read. The best version of this movie is the one with Toby Stephens. I love him as Mr. Rochester.

Last of all, we watched a movie that my mom recommended. It was called the Great Debators with Denzel Washington. It was a good movie, too.

Here are a few other pictures:

Megan, Steve and Cora

Megan and snuggly Cora



Megan, Cora, me and Bella

Me and Cora

My mom

Bella and Cora--6 months apart. Two cuties.

I just wanted to thank all those people who watched my kids while I was gone. It was so nice to know that my kids were being taken care of by good people that I knew I could trust. Thank you for your help!

And thanks to Garrett for watching the girls all week on top of working and scouts, etc. Thanks for supporting me and understanding my need to "get away"!

And, last of all, thanks to Steve and Megs for letting me crash at your place!! It was fun!

Mine and Terri's 1st Annual Halloween Party

So, my friend Terri and I decided to throw a Halloween party, because we both love Halloween and, let's be honest...who doesn't love a good party? So, I hosted it and she spread the word. We pretty much invited the whole ward and we got a really good turnout. By the way, this party was a great motivator for me to get my Halloween stuff out! So, thanks for the motivation Terri! Here are some pictures of all the great, fun, creative people that came: (I hope I got everyone that came--sorry if I didn't)

Derek and Charlyn Ames

Beth and Randy Brown

Rockelle and Sean Dixon

Jaycine and Colin Heintz

Gabe and Dave Jensen

Megan Schneider and Julie Olsen (both of their husbands were working, so they came together)

Clint and Gayle Michael

Kate and Mike Nelson

Alice and Mark Newbury

Aaron and Terri Nissinen

Leslie and Brian Podwys

Shanell and Jed Proctor

Terra and David Sharp

Sydette and Brian Squire

Garrett and Mindy

Quite the spread...(it was all delicious by the way--thanks for sharing, everyone!)

Playing games--all cramped in my living room!

This first video is of the girls eating donuts off the string...The next one is the boys. Notice in particular how Colin swallows his donut whole, while Aaron--true to his "character" pulls the donut off with his hands and then eats it--Classic!

It's Autumn Time

The first weekend in October, almost two weeks ago I guess...we decided to go to the pumpkin patch. It was Garrett's idea. At that time, I was not even thinking about anything "fallish" or "Halloweeny". I'm not sure why...usually I'm ready for fall and Halloween in mid-september. But this weekend really did put me in the mood for autumn.

After watching the morning session of general conference, we got our jackets and rain boots on because it was threatening to rain on and off. We went to the same pumpkin patch that we have been to every year for eight years. We keep saying that we need to go somewhere new since there are so many patches here. But, we went to Lakeview farms where we can ride the train and ride the boat and see the shark and dragon pop out of the water. It's classic! The bonus part was that the kettle corn people were there, so we got two big bags of kettle corn! A definite favorite with the McKibbens.

We used to ride the train out to the pumpkin patch first and ride the boat back, but since my kids are scared very easily, they don't like the first tunnel of the train ride because it's decorated with scary masks and gruesome things. So, now we ride the boat first and take the train back because the second tunnel is decorated with harvest things like pumpkins and scarecrows. Lydia still doesn't believe me that it's not scary--she always covers her eyes when we go through it. Oh well.

We got out to the patch and found four big pumpkins pretty quickly. I guess when you go early enough in the season, it's not overpicked. We made sure and got a picture of Bella on a pumpkin--we've done that with all the kids when they were babies. Gotta stick with tradition! During the train ride back, we got rained on, but then it cleared up and turned out to be a beautiful fall day. What fun! Now I remember why fall is my favorite season!

Here are some pictures:


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On the boat ride, waiting for the shark!

Bella having a good time

The traditional pumpkin sitting pose.

The hay maze

Getting wet!

The "not scary" tunnel