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One of the first things Hannah said on Saturday morning (Oct 30th) was, "When can I get in my costume?!" She was ready to get trick or treating as soon as possible! 
Hannah chose what she wanted to be, a beautiful butterfly. She invited me to be a butterfly with her. When looking through a costume catalog, I saw a cute little golfer and thought we could pull that off for Bryson. I invited Nic to be a golfer with Bry... He said he was... he was wearing what he would wear golfing, in other words, normal clothes!Our Beautiful Butterfly Hannah
She felt so beautiful and loved the face paint.Our Cute Golfer Bryson
I couldn't post just one picture. He is so cute!In the afternoon we headed to Main St. where the businesses do a little trick or treat. We did one side of the street and looking at the sky decided we had had enough and started heading back to our car. I am so glad we did. We got sprinkled on and by the time we got to the car it was down pouring. I love going to Main Street because we can trick or treat during the day when it is light and warmer out.
We then headed to my mom and dad's where we saw Ashley and Chad's cute family dressed as The Incredibles! (They looked awesome. We may have to borrow those shirts next year!?) Sadly we didn't get a picture with my parents. 
Then it was off to Granny's. She was grateful for the visit.
Next up, our ward trunk or treat party. It was outside. We didn't have coats with us... but figured we wouldn't stay too long. We got in line for some dinner... and then it started hailing! Large, hard hail! Nic had Bry. He helped get some tables with food into a garage. Meanwhile I grabbed Hannah and we ran to a covered porch. Hannah cried, "Let's get out of here!" She didn't like it one bit. She wanted to get back to Daddy, so eventually we weathered the weather and ran back to the neighbor's garage. Once we were all together we all ran to the car... So much for dinner and the ward trunk or treat! The kids were wet and cold and we just needed to go!We made a final stop to Grandma and Grandpa Roach's, who thankfully fed us some soup!
What an exciting and full Halloween!
We had a few snow flurries yesterday. Hannah excitedly asked, "Can I go play in the snow?!"So she put on boots, a coat, a scarf, a hat, her mittens
and headed out for "playing in the snow!"
Bryson went out too and lasted about 5 minutes. I asked them if they wanted some balls to play with. "Why?" asked Hannah."To throw around.""But I wanted to throw snow balls!"
I loaded pictures and started this post in September. There are lots more pictures to load... So I better finish this post, before I start another!
I can't get enough of our Bry Guy! Overall he is a super happy and lovable kid! He's got such a fun personality. He is so different from Hannah and is such a boy! He is harder than Hannah thus far, too.
6/14 Sleeping.
It took Bry awhile to catch on to the whole sleep training thing. (And by a while, I mean a good year or so.) However, this past year he has been an amazing sleeper. All that hard work did pay off. (I still have a great belief in "sleep training!")
He'll sleep almost 12 hours at night. (Usually going to bed about 8 pm and walking up about 7:30 am.) Bry takes one afternoon nap for about 2 hours (sometimes more).
9/15 Faces.
Bry has such a fun little personality. He's always making faces and doing funny voices.
You can see him here on a chair at our island. He moves chairs to wherever he wants to go, so he can get whatever he wants to get!
9/23 Changing Bunny's Diaper.
With no prompting, here he is changing "ba bee" (bunny's) diaper. I had never seen him do this and actually, haven't seen it since, but thought it was cute.
That "ba bee" is one of his favorite toys.
9/29 Chocolate Muffins.
I had some leftover chocolate muffins sitting on the counter. Bryson moved a chair around the island all the way over to where the muffins were and stretched to reach and gobbled up the muffins!
This little guy is a thinker and a climber. He finds a way to get to what he wants. Not too long ago, I had left the pantry door open... He moved a chair to the pantry, reached the Captain Crunch (which was on the 2nd highest shelf), got down with the box, sat down on the floor, opened up the box, and snacked away on handfuls of cereal!
This little guy will be 2, yes TWO, on Friday! Time has gone by so quickly!
On Tuesday (my birthday), our ward had our Young Women in Excellence. This is the night, at the end of the year that each of the young women bring a display to represent something they have worked on in Personal Progress over the past year. I am excited to report on how well it went!
Our theme for the evening was "Pattern Your Life After Personal Progress." I found the idea on an awesome website, Sugar Doodle, which I adapted a bit. I loved this theme! I loved that it was cutsie and fun, but also practical and meaningful! 
We used sewing-type things to decorate the entire room. We had sewing patterns on the walls and chalk boards, sewing machines, rotatory cutters, jars with bobbins, buttons, and thread, fabric and sewing projects through out the room.
We used ironing boards as tables for the displays, which we covered in plastic table clothes (in value colors, of course).
In our desserts we had skewers that said "Sew Yummy" or "Sew Scrumptious." (Isn't that too cute?!)
Two of our fabulous young women, Lizzie P and Samantha P, gave wonderful talks about how they have been able to and how they can pattern their life after Personal Progress. Two other fabulous young women, Necia P and Marinda J, sang a beautiful song called Everywhere I Go. The song went wonderfully with our theme for the evening and the theme for the year, Joshua 1:9.
I also gave a talk about Patterning Our Lives After Personal Progress. I have loved working on PP lately and have such a strong testimony of the program. I'll share a summary of my talk at the end of this post.
We had closing comments by a bishopric member, Brother Porter. His remarks were perfect and very well thought out.
Lastly, we gave the girls a travel sized sewing kit (found at the dollar store) to help remind them about this evening and to make personal progress a life long goal.
(Haley J, Bentlee H, Christy M, Tracy G)
I used my sewing box as guidance for my talk, filled with scissors, needles, thread, a seam ripper, pins, and a thimble. I told them how I used this sewing kit to do projects big and small. I do simple mending jobs, like sewing up a hole in my child's blanket or favorite shirt... I also use my sewing box to do larger projects to make and give to people I love, like Hannah's bedspread, Bryson's drapes, or an apron for my mom. Like use of my sewing box, Heavenly Father is there to mend our sorrows and help fix things in life that need mending. He also uses it to show love and bring happiness. He has blessed us with many tools to guide us in life so that we can be "sew" beautiful.
I had one of the girls try to make a skirt with no tools just fabric. Then showed a skirt I had made with the same fabric... but using a pattern and tools. Personal Progress is like a pattern and tools given to us by our Heavenly Father!
One thing I love about Personal Progress is that it is personal! We can make it fit us individually, just as we can a pattern to fit our size, weight, and personally. I showed two skirts using the same pattern, but different fabrics and how different they looked. I talked about how I made 6 skirts for all the nieces for my sisters wedding, each one was a little different to fit each one individually. There was a learning curve with those skirts and the 6th was definitely better than the 1st! I was grateful for my seam ripper.
Sometimes we mess up the stitches, but we have a seam ripper to help us repair the mistake. Sometimes we may have to redo a part over and over, but we have the Savior to help us correct our mistakes... (I talked about other tools a bit too like a needle threader - there to help us with difficult tasks, like our leaders, parents, and PP. Also a thimble to help shield us from the pricks we know will happen.)
Each stitch is important. We learn line upon line, one stitch at a time; we cannot skip a step. As we complete each Personal Progress experience and project, we are one step closer to achieving our ultimate goal - developing our divine nature and returning to our Heavenly Father.
What I love most about the theme we chose for the evening, "Pattern Your Life After Personal Progress," is that is exactly what this program is all about! (Read the intro and overview in the PP book!) The whole goal of Personal Progress is to help us to build habits of reading, studying, setting goals, and bettering ourselves so that we can become more like our Savior! No matter if we are young women, YW leaders, college students, missionaries, parents, or in any other stage of our life we should be progressing personally! We all need to pattern our life after personal progress!
On Wednesday, Bry and I got to go on another field trip with Hannah. I missed a field trip last month to the pumpkin patch and felt so terrible! No I probably won't go on every single one, but I love this opportunity to spend time with both Hannah and Bryson. (Miss Tiffany, Hannah's teacher, welcomes younger siblings to come along, which I love!) I love the chance to learn with them and facilitate in that learning. I love to get to know Miss Tiffany and the kids in Hannah's class, as well as see Hannah interact with them. (Hannah, Mikah, and Alex)
And what I love the very most is that they (Hannah) love to have me there. Hannah is growing up so quickly and won't always "love" to have her mom tagging along, I'm sure. (So I'd better take advantage of it while she does!)We went to a small local airport and helicopter school. We learned the difference between propellers (on airplanes) and ruters (on helicopters); saw pictures of different kinds and learned their uses.
The kids got to sit in a small helicopter and airplane. They even got to work the controls and pretend to fly.(Hannah and Emma)
(Bryson and Judson)
And an airplane.
Hannah got to put on the headphones.
We also got to see both helicopters and airplanes flying, taking off, and landing.
What a fun field trip. (Can't wait for the next one!)
Hannah chose what she wanted to be, a beautiful butterfly. She invited me to be a butterfly with her. When looking through a costume catalog, I saw a cute little golfer and thought we could pull that off for Bryson. I invited Nic to be a golfer with Bry... He said he was... he was wearing what he would wear golfing, in other words, normal clothes!
She felt so beautiful and loved the face paint.
I couldn't post just one picture. He is so cute!
We then headed to my mom and dad's where we saw Ashley and Chad's cute family dressed as 
Then it was off to Granny's. She was grateful for the visit.
Next up, our ward trunk or treat party. It was outside. We didn't have coats with us... but figured we wouldn't stay too long. We got in line for some dinner... and then it started hailing! Large, hard hail! Nic had Bry. He helped get some tables with food into a garage. Meanwhile I grabbed Hannah and we ran to a covered porch. Hannah cried, "Let's get out of here!" She didn't like it one bit. She wanted to get back to Daddy, so eventually we weathered the weather and ran back to the neighbor's garage. Once we were all together we all ran to the car... So much for dinner and the ward trunk or treat! The kids were wet and cold and we just needed to go!
What an exciting and full Halloween!
