[..gYm cLaSs..]

I recently signed Tatum up for a little gymnastics class. I figured throughout the winter this will be a nice chance to get out and play with other kids. So far Tatum has gone to 3 classes and totally LOVES it! After his 1st class we got in the car and he said "that was fun Mom!" That alone made it worth every penny!


His favorite part are the rings. At first he needed Miss Heather to help him, but now he can conquer them on his own! They are working hard every week to get ready for a Christmas program in December. Its so cute to see a bunch of 2 year olds walking on beams and trying to do cartwheels. I feel like such a soccer mom already :)

[..better late than never..]

I just LOVE Halloween! It is such a fun holiday for me. I love the pumpkins, the treats, and the costumes! This year we went with a Toy Story theme. This is Tatum's favorite movie right now and everything must be BUZZ LIGHTYEAR...including his costume! Here is Tatum in his signature pouty face...


Tatum told Eric to be Woody and for me to be Jesse. I thought Bo-Peep was a little better suited. So here we are in all our glory. The one family shot I had didn't turn out and Eric refused to put his costume back on so this is the best we have...


This year we debated whether or not to do a Halloween party. We got a few inquiries from our old neighbors and decided to give it a go. We had a great turn out with close to 40 people including children, which was WAY more than we expected! We had everything homemade...taco soup, root beer, cookies, cupcakes and doughnuts! It was a blast. Thanks everyone for coming, we really enjoyed seeing everyone again!

Everyday I seriously love my neighborhood more and more. Halloween is so much fun here. Everyone is out trick-or-treating and my friend a few houses down does a haunted house in her garage, Tatum went through and didn't even flinch! Another neighbor gives out hot chocolate and homemade doughnuts...it was so good, we kept going back for seconds and thirds:) Tatum was able to go through our whole ward and totally scored on the candy! We came home to check out his loot and he was dancing just looking at it. Ever since he has been asking to go knock doors and get doughnuts and candy!

The [Main] Floor

I am finally getting around to posting some pictures of our house. We have been working so hard to get the main floor up to par. We had to hire some help to patch up all of the walls (and I mean ALL of the walls!), we painted almost ALL of the walls (by ourselves!!), we got the carpets cleaned, and we had to buy a few pieces of furniture to fill this house.

First are the before pics...
{View from the entry: Stairs to the right, living room to the left, office in the glass doors, down the hallway opens up to family room, dinning and kitchen.}

{There were a number of holes just like this one. This was a fist hole... you could see the knuckle marks and all!}

{The fireplace. They ripped the plasma TV right out of the wall.}

{The kitchen. It was in pretty good shape...}



{...except for this minor hole...}

{And my favorite part of the house...the pantry!}


Here are the after pics:
{The Living Room}

{We got remnant pieces of carpet and made runners in the hallways}

{The Office}

{The Family Room. Everything in this room is new...TV, couch and rug.}

{My Sister helped me make these pillows. I showed her a picture out of Potterybarn and she made them. She also made my kitchen curtain!}

{The Mudroom/Roxy's room}

{The Kitchen}

We haven't hardly touched the upstairs yet, but when I get that up to par I will be sure to post some pics!

[..The Yard..]

When we first bought our house there was an $1800 lien on the property because the back yard had never been landscaped. The house is 3 years old and the previous tenants never finished the yard. So we made a deal with the HOA and said we will have it done by the end of August if you drop the fees. They accepted! Well August came and went a lot faster than we expected so they said we could extend our deadline until the end of September. Well we finally finished the yard...for the most part! We planted 11 trees and seeded the whole yard with grass. It probably wont be until Spring when we can use our grass, but at least its done!

Here is what the yard looked like before. Such a mess! The original owners put all of these pavers in the yard but did a terrible job. We pulled all of them out and found a small cement patio underneath!


My Father-in-law owns an excavating company so we had all sorts of tractors and dump trucks to use. Tatum loved having tractors at his house everyday. He was in Heaven.


I can't believe how much bigger our yard feels now. We don't have a very big lot, our house sits on about .16th of an acre. We are glad to have a yard, coming from a townhome, but are also glad to have a small one after realizing how much work it takes.

This tree is my favorite. It is a Bird Cherry tree which will have beautiful blossoms in the Spring. Every time I walk by my front door I look out the window and see this tree. I love it!

[..When the cat's away..]

...the mice will play! I went outside for 10 minutes and came back to see this...


Mean Aunt Elan put Tatum's hair in pigtails! I came inside and Tatum was screaming because he didn't want to look like a girl. Then we crack out the camera and he starts smiling...did I train him right or what??

[..I {heart} fall..]

I seriously can not believe that it is fall already! I do not love the fact that summer is over and that it is all of the sudden super cold! I do not love that we have already turned our heater on and that we live by our fireplace! And lastly I do not love that on the last day of September it totally snowed at my house!!! However, I do love the scenery, the smells and the decor that come with fall! Fall is the best time of the year because it lets me know that the holidays are just around the corner!

Today I took Tatum up the canyon to enjoy the beautiful scenery and the nice weather. I got a few good shots of the fall colors before Tatum wanted to go home.

[..aLL gRowN uP..]

My little baby boy is finally becoming a big boy! This little man is almost all the way potty trained!! We still have some work to do, but for the most part Tatum stays in his undies ALL.DAY.LONG. One day about 2 weeks ago he watched cousin Noah go on the potty and he knew from that second on he wanted to go on the potty like a big boy.


Its crazy how well he has caught on...he can get on the potty, do his business, flushes and then gets his little stool and washes his hands all by himself. Its so stinkin' cute to me but at the same time its totally scary how grown up he is.

Tatum we are so proud of you, good work little man!