Birthday Party

Thursday was Gracie' 2nd birthday. It was a crazy day! But it ended well because we had a little Halloween-themed birthday party for her that night. We had a lot of kids come over in their costumes and played some little games and ate cake!

This is Mark, Sarah and Boyce Turpin. Boyce was a lion.

This is Nicole, Ashlyn, and Afton Callahan "carving"pumpins. Ashlyn was Batgirl and Afton was Thomas the Train.
Lindsay and Erika were trying to help Ashley and Cambree design their pumpkins, too.

Here are some of the boys that made it to the party -

Brandon with Gage Thornton, Austin and Matt.

Here is my dad and my cousin, the fairy princess, Rachelle. Here is Lindsay, my aunt Marcie, and my Mom.And this is my friend, Tawnya with her son, the fireman, Griffin. Ashley and Cambree eating cookies.We had an unfortuneate mishap with the cake. It was actually cupcakes in the shape of a ghost, but it got dropped, so it didn't quite look like that when it got home :( But it still tasted delicious!

Thanks to everyone who came! We had a lot of fun and Gracie was definitely spoiled when it came to presents!

This is the birthday girl herself - all decked out in her bat costume.

Gracie has been such a blessing in my life! She's incredibly sweet and funny. Listening to her sing along with Jason Mraz, Ben Folds, and Death Cab for Cutie is awesome! There's nothing that makes her happier than singing! She has just learned how to say "I love you," which is music to my ears! She's obedient and loving. And she makes my life better everyday! I LOVE YOU, GRACIE!

Cookies and Carvings

Every Halloween my family has a pumpkin carving contest. This year Lindsay, Brandon and Erika couldn't make it. We missed them though! This is a pictures of Andrea working on her masterpiece -- which turned out to be Sarah Palin!
This sad little pumpkin is Austin's "finished" project. He didn't quite scoop out all the insides or anything, but it still looked alright!

This is my finished pumpkin. I didn't get a completed picture of Matt's pumpkin alone just because it took him so long!And this is my brother, Matt's, completed pumpkin. It's simple but looks really cool lit up!

Here's how cool some of our pumpkin looked - Austin's, Andrea's, Matt E.'s and mine.

And this is the only picture of got of mine and Matt's pumpkins. Matt worked hard on his and it looks awesome!

The next day my sweet Mom invited me and the girls over to make and decorate Halloween sugar cookies! It was their first time, and they were really excited!

Ashley was very good at it because it's exactly like stamping - which she loves to do with me!


And here is our finished product! It was so much fun! The girls REALLY wanted to eat them!

Party Time!

The annual Maughan party was a blast AGAIN! There were a lot of different costumes - we had snowmen, polygamists, cop and robber, batman and cat girl, a family of ladybugs, old people, Poison Ivy and The Joker -- and many many more.

Here is Andrea and Austin.

This is some of the girls that came.

We tried to break open an pinata and this was Andrea's first time hitting one!

Here's the entire group! I know it's hard to see, but you can get the main idea.


Too bad I didn't get a picture of just Matt and me.
I was a mummy and he was a vampire. Just so ya know :)

Gardner Village

We took the girls to Gardner Village. We had a lot of fun! The best part was the petting zoo and the pony ride! They talked about it for days!

A Fall Hike

It was a gorgeous Saturday today! We decided to hike up to Timpanogos Caves today with Ashley and Gracie.
They did so good on the trail! It's about 1 1/2 miles each way, and a 1/2 mile in the cave and Ashley walked about 90% of the time while Gracie was held about 90% of the time. (We had a Snuggly for her.)
This is us in front of the cave entrance. Ashley was so excited to go into a real cave! She told me later that she wants her birthday party to be in the cave!

This is while we were touring through the cave. Ashley and Gracie both learned a new word from another man on the cave and kept saying, "This cave is AWESOME!"

Car Seat Cover and New Beds

A couple weeks ago our good friends who lived downstairs moved :( And although we miss them, we're very excited about the new bunk beds we got from them!

Ashley and Gracie love having the new beds from the McKees! It's kind of weird putting all our baby stuff away - our crib and high chair are no longer in our house! I guess we don't have any more babies in our house anymore!

Mary McKee is an amazing seamstress! Just before she moved away she helped me make this baby car seat cover for one of my friends who had a baby boy recently.


It was so fun to learn! They make great gifts! Thanks so much Mary for everything!!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

My Mom's birthday is tomorrow, but we celebrated a little early this week. On Monday my family went to dinner at Olive Garden. We had so much fun! Thank goodness Andrea was there to snap pictures of some of our favorite moments!

My Mom is an amazing woman. She's an awesome example of hard work, selflessness, and love. She always supports us in whatever we do and encourages us to be better. She makes an effort to include everyone. We love her so much and wouldn't know what to do without her! Happy Birthday, Mom!

Hangin' with the Turpins

Our friends Mark and Sarah Turpin watched Ashley and Gracie for me while I went to my Best-e-Grandma's funeral last week. The girls had so much fun there and some really great pictures were taken with them and Boyce!







Ashley keeps asking me, "Should we go to Mark and Sarah's tomorrow?"