Happy Halloween

This year I was SO SO SOOOO excited my parents came out the week of Halloween so we were able to do all of the fun Halloween things with them!

We went to the apple orchard at Carter Mountain so we could see all the leaves and ate at Michie Tavern which is a little log cabin restaurant that has an awesome view of the mountain

We took Beck to feed the ducks at the park

We took a day trip to Gettysburg. Me and Dane watched the Gettysburg movie a couple months ago so I was really excited to go again and see where everything took place.

Beck helping Dane carve pumpkins

Hollywood cemetery

My dad rocked the afro (but wouldn't wear it to the ward party, shame on you) and I LOVE my mom's witch's costume...she had a fun idea to use the same costume every year but add to it every year, so imagine how great it's going to be 5 years from now!

These pictures were all taken before the ward party...when Beck woke up from his nap we were all already dressed for the party and he didn't quite know what to think about our transformation, the poor thing was so confused, this is the look that was on his face 90% of the night

Yikes Dane definitely was one SCARY witch!! My favorite part was when he came downstairs after he was all dressed up and asked my mom if his chest was too perky...or maybe that he wore my bra so that his stuffing wouldn't fall out...or maybe it was after we got home when he took off his tutu in the kitchen and lounged around the house in his tights in front of all of us...once again YIKES!!!

Dane showing off his nice legs

Dane and Beck both LOVE my friend Emily's darling little girl Claire

Beck and one of his best buds Jack right before Trick-or-Treating...there is nothing cuter than watching these two run around the neighborhood together in their little costumes. It didn't take long for their sugar high to kick in and it was very entertaining.

Beck had no problem at all figuring out how the whole Trick-or-Treating thing works. I just hope he realizes that it only happens once a year...I'm worried that now everytime I knock on someones door he's going to say "Trick-or-Treat" when they open it. My favorite was at the ward party when some of the girls gave him an extra piece of candy and told him that it was for his mom since they knew that me and him would battle for the candy when we got home.

Me and my girls - how cute are they!?

The Ugly Duckling Party

Me and Sara guarding the treat table before the party

Every thursday night all of the girls in the ward get together for "scraps" we don't scrapbook we just get together to talk all night it's awesome! A while ago Sara had a brilliant idea to do a themed scraps and called the it the "ugly ducking party" everybody that came had to bring the most hideous picture of themselves that they could find from the ugliest stage of their life and then Sara put them all in a slideshow, it was SO FUNNY. Everybody's pictures were of course from middle school or junior high - the ugliest years of pretty much everyone's life - and we played a game where we had to guess who everyone was during the slideshow which I thought would be simple but it wasn't! There were some miraculous transformations haha. Before the party I called my mom and dad to have them send me an "ugly duckling" picture and they said they couldn't choose just one so they sent several...should I be offended? Just kidding

Love This Little Man

There is nothing I would rather do than spend my days with this little guy

Boys Weekend

While I was in New York I got quite a kick out of calling home to see what Dane and Beck were up to while I was gone. After this weekend Dane wins dad-0f-the-year in my book. Let me just give you a play by play of what when on.

Friday night all of our husband's that we left behind took the kids to Mcdonalds, Dane and Beck didn't get to stay and play for long because Dane didn't realize that you need to bring a diaper bag EVERYWHERE you go when you have a kid in diapers. He thought they would tough it out and just keep playing but pretty soon he didn't just need a clean diaper but also a clean change of clothes for Beck. Sorry gross I know.

Saturday all of the husbands took the kids to the pool together and then that night they all got together for a BBQ and this is the best part....a sleepover! The pool and BBQ went just fine as far as I know but by 2:00 a.m. they changed their minds about having a sleepover and decided it might not be a good idea and packed up all the kids and headed home.

Sunday at church Dane substituted for me in nursery. I heard from one of my friends who had to go in and sit with her son that it was pretty entertaining to watch Dane lead singing time for ten little 2-year-olds.

Monday there was a ward Labor day picnic and Dane was in charge of games so he went out and bought a bunch of prizes for the winners and then made a homemade slingshot and filled up dozens of waterballoons for his games. I got home Monday night and came home to a completely spotless home and on top of that Dane sat and intently listened to me talk nonstop about my trip for like 2 hours!!

What a guy!

I LOOOVE New York

Labor Day weekend me and 6 of the most fun girls I know left our husbands and kids at home and headed to New York!! Sorry but this post is going to sound like a big love letter but I can't even tell you how much I love these girls and I also don't think I can explain what a total blast we had on this trip! It was everything you hope for when you take a girls trip - constant chatting, laughing, acting like 12-year-olds, eating (for me and Sara at least), telling deep dark secrets, and so much more!


One of my favorite things we did was we ate at a place called "Cafe Lalo", they filmed a scene from "You've Got Mail" there and it was just an adorable little place with awesome food and desserts. All the girls loved the fancy fresh salads and sandwiches they ordered...me and Sara loved our waffles and cinnamon whipped cream.

I think the girls would have known where to find me and Sara if we came up missing:
FAO Schwartz candy bar

Emily, Brittany, Sara, Me, Alyson, Kim, Heather

On Sunday we took the subway to church which was downtown near central park so after church we walked to the park and had a picnic next to a castle!

We did have one scary experience (in my opinion at least!). We stayed at Kim's brother's house in Queens and one night on the way home Kim accidentally had us get off the bus at the wrong gas station. I was already feeling like a big scaredy cat just cause we didn't know where we were but then we looked behind us and realized that this creepy guy that had gotten off the bus at the same time as us was following us!! So we all took off running for what seemed to me like a mile (I am a little out of shape so it was really probably only a couple blocks) and at one point while running my shoe flew off so I bent over to pick it up forgetting that Alyson was running full speed right behind me, pretty sure she almost did a front flip right over my back! But we did eventually make it home safe and sound thanks to Heather and her i-phone.

(Thanks a lot Sunoco - jk)

Another huge highlight was going to Mary Poppins on Broadway!! We all wanted to go to a broadway show while we were there but we went to a booth where they sell Broadway tickets 1/2 off but the tickets were still $75 and we are poor students!! So we were heartbroken but decided not to go, but then when we were at Times Square Brittany and Emily decided to run into the ticket office just for the heck of it and they got us all tickets for $30!!

Eating pizza on the bleachers in the middle of Times Square

We wanted a picture with all of us jumping but our photographer had some timing issues...I thought this one turned out pretty good though, I can't decide which looks cuter - all of us jumping or all of us squatting

We didn't want to stand in line for the ferry so this is as close to the Statue of Liberty as we got

I think that the only fight we got in the whole trip was during a conversation where we were trying to decide what which Disney princess everyone was. It got mostly heated between Snow-Freakin-White and Belle, I was pretty happy with being princess Jasmine after I was so sweetly informed by Alyson that I would NEVER be Tinkerbell!! But then they didn't even have a Jasmine doll in the biggest Toys-R-Us in America so I still felt ripped off.

Our sleeping arangements were awesome we all rotated between the bed, the airmattress, and the single-person-midget-sized-pull-out couch, me and Sara's friendship reached a new level after we slept on the pull-out together. There was nowhere to even take a step when all the beds were set up and there was still not enough room for all 7 of us so apparently Alyson drew the short straw because she ended up sleeping on a mat in the kitchen.

We missed our husbands and kids but I think were all still heartbroken to have to bring our trip to an end. The 6 hour car ride home didn't seem long enough we wanted to spend more time singing things like Celine Dion Songs and Total Eclipse of the Heart together at the top of our lungs. I'll just have to hold out for the 5 year plastics reunion to do it all again I guess!!!

Love ya - Ice Queen, Bibs, Pumpage, Safety, Flow, and Sunoco

Sincerely - Anna

Family of Four

We are THRILLED to announce that sometime around March 27th our family of three will become a family of four......

WE ARE HAVING A BABY!!!!

Hangin with the guys

Are these not some of the most handsome boys you've ever seen!?! Beck has some of the cutest little friends in the world and I love watching them hang out together. Parker is a full year older so Beck is still hard for him to play with but sometimes when they're playing we'll look over and they'll just be cracking up over who knows what together it's so cute. And Jack is Beck's little bodyguard (which is exactly what our little Beck needs) when we go to the pool together Jack makes sure that nobody touches Beck haha it is so funny I love it. They have a love-hate relationship, they are always so excited to see eachother and so sad when they have to leave but when they are actually together there is a lot of yelling and of course no sharing haha.