What a busy Fall we have had. It's been fun and busy. Here are a lot of GRAPE great pictures of our happenings! :)
We started off October with a trip to the Phoenix Zoo.
The Zoo was hosting a party, where the kids got to try out toys. The kids naturally loved the cars they got to drive around.
 |
| (All zoo pictures are from my camera phone-not great quality, sorry) |
We went to celebrate our good friends birthday, Mckenna and Mano Burton. It was at their grandpa's ranch. The kids rode a horse and had a great time with their friends. Deep down I think there is a county girl in me, I loved the land, trees and all the kids running around the ranch!
 |
| (all of these pictures are from my phone camera--not great quality) |
I headed up to Utah, AGAIN, this time to kick the nightmare renters out of our home in Centerville. It was a trip I did NOT want to make and do...but we ended up having a great time with family doing FALLISH things.
(phone camera...sorry)
I drove again with my lonesome and the 3 kiddos and our heavenly sent DVD players. :)
We made it in time for my mother's amazing Sunday dinner and to sing happy birthday to my sister Jami.
The next day we headed up to my Grandparents home in Layton and picked all their grapes to can grape juice and jam.
 |
| The kids had a blast pickin' |
 |
| There is an ART to picking grapes, so my fabulous Gramps showed us how. :) |
 |
| Mace enjoying the cooler weather. |
 |
| We picked a couple wheel barrels full. |
 |
The littlest grape pickers taking a break and enjoying their newest cousin, baby Mackay.
Macy, Maggie, Jayci, Kaiden and Mackay. |
 |
| Kaiden holding new baby cousin Mackay. |
 |
| Maggie, Jayci and Kaid holding baby Mackay. |
 |
| Macy. |
 |
| Maggie and baby Mackay. |
 |
| My girls. |
 |
| My sister Kelli had her sweet baby the end of September. They named him Mackay Ushio (pronounced MACK-EE). He is the sweetest little guy. We sure love him. |
 |
Macy loves baby Mack. She had a natural instinct to 'pet' him. :)
~~~~~
For family night we headed to our favorite pumpkin patch in Taylorsville. |
 |
| Maggs |
 |
| Linc. (Nephew) |
 |
| Ronny-BO (Nephew) |
 |
| Tag. (Nephew) |
 |
| We wanted to get all the grand kids on the truck for a picture, Macy wouldn't have it! :) |
 |
| All the Craven grand babies except for Macy and Mack. Kaiden, Lincoln, Tag, Jayci, Maggie and Bo. |
 |
| They are all such great friends! |
 |
| ... |
 |
| I love all their faces.... |
 |
| She didn't like it one bit! I just wanted one picture of the 3 of them! :) |
 |
| Our sweet kaid. |
 |
| Maggs. |
 |
| Her typical face... |
 |
| Playing with grandpa in the corn maze... |
 |
My sister Jami, James and Linc.
~~~~~~
The GRAPE process. It took a loooooog time! But so worth it. I am so glad I learned how to can. We also canned pears! I think we ended up juicing 68 ish bottles of grape juice and made like 1000 (it felt like) jars of grape jelly! :) By the end of the week I didn't want to see a grape ever again! |
 |
| Juicing... |
 |
Macy entertaining herself while we griped graped! |
 |
| Pureeing the grapes for the jam. |
More grapes, are you sick of seeing grapes too?! :)
 |
Me and my Mama Graping.
~~~~~~
We took a break from all the graping and went to Cornbelly's. It was a lot of fun and the kids were begging for me to move them back to Utah after such a festive fall night. |
 |
| Macy. |
 |
| I love this girl! |
 |
| Kaid and Maggs |
 |
| Love the snow capped mountains (as long as it stays way up there...) |
 |
| Jami, Scott, me |
 |
| I was so nervous jumping.....I did after all just have ankle surgery only 12 weeks earlier. |
 |
| it was a lot of fun! |
The kids played and played...
 |
| Grandpa, Lincoln, Tag and Maggie. |
 |
| Grandpa is so funny....sometimes only he thinks so. :) |
 |
| Uncle Scotty-Do is lots of fun. |
 |
| Grandma had to KISS A NASTY PIG! |
 |
| Kaiden got called up too for pig racing. His pig didn't win. |
 |
| Tractor rides. Scott, Kaid, Maggie, Tag, Mitch and Jayci. |
 |
| Grandma and Grandpa. |
 |
| Kaiden shot pumpkins from a gun. He LOVED that! |
 |
Corn!
~~~~~~~~~~
|
It's tradition to go to Gardner Village. We took the kids and found the witches, had lunch and of course shopped!
 |
| Kaiden is an ANGRY BIRD fan. |
 |
| Lincoln. |
 |
| baby Mack. |
 |
| Kaiden got his face painted... |
 |
| Jami and Mace |
 |
| Maggie. |
 |
| My beautiful sisters, Kelli and Jami and Macy. |
~~~~~~~~~~
We played outside in grandma's awesome back yard. Macy is in love with swinging and soft green grass.
~~~~~~~~~~
My mom, sisters and sis-in-law headed to Witch night at Gardner Village. It was lame....it could of been really fun, and ended up being fun, but WE WERE DOWN RIGHT LAME!
We were so hungry and ornery, and to make it worst, it took over 2 hours to get our food. RIDICULOUS! We didn't sit down until well after 9 PM. We were so tired, hungry and delirious that we sat in the foyer of the restaurant not saying a word to each other....then the text messaging started....it got pretty funny...only because we were so tired, hungry and ornery. :)
The best part of the night was when I won something from a raffel....yay! I never win ANYTHING! I have to first say that my little sister Jami wins EVERYTHING, and of course she won a photo shoot package for her family with over $600. It was awesome!
 |
| stephanie, sisters jami and kelli, me |
I won a spider pin...yup...a jewelry spidery pin thingy....but hey I won...I was more excited when I thought I won twister....haha! BUT I FINALLY WON SOMETHING! It was pretty hilarious! :)
 |
waiting for dinner.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
My cute grandparents invited all the adult grand children and their spouse to dinner and games at their home. It was a lot of fun. Good time with my dear USGAL cousins.  |
~~~
At our home in Utah.
 |
| I spent a lot of time doing clean up at our home. Our home is under contract to be sold later this month. I am so grateful that this nightmare is finally over (at least the renting part of it, we are still crossing our fingers that the sale will go through so it will be completely our of our hair), its been a very long painful process! |
 |
| Kaid's old room. |
 |
| Maggie's old room. |
My parents and Scotty were so helpful in helping me get the home put back together.
~~~~~~~~~
We had this fabulous idea to head up to Park City one afternoon to go see all the beautiful fall leaves, it was a wonderful idea! My dad suggested we head to Deer Valley and take the tram to St. Regis Resort and look at the leaves there....FABULOUS IDEA....and the kids would LOVE IT!!!
 |
Maggie and Kaiden on the tram
The leaves were beautiful and the air was cool. I really miss this time of year in Utah, it was very lovely. What wasn't lovely was sitting in an elevator with everyone and having my cute son complain of a tummy ache and loose his 'Cheetos' all over the luxury white elevator carpet.
Have you ever been stuck in an elevator with a barfing person and throw up splatting all over everyones shoes? I was humiliated. He was one sick boy, we cleaned up what we could, notified the manager (I hate that we weren't paying quest....I was absolutely horrified! and Cheetos and white carpet?! Really! The whole rest of the hotel was covered in marble, but not the elevator...Really!)
Our trip to Park City ened there, we headed home and were sick for the rest of the week! :) |
~~~~~~~~~~~~
We played at the park. Had family BBQ's and enjoyed a lot of good old family time. We love being in Utah with our family.
 |
| (Phone camera...sorry) |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We had our ward Halloween Party on Oct. 26.
Kaiden was Luke Skywalker.
Maggie was a fairy. (when she wears lipstick, she wont put her lips together, she stay just.like.this!)
After the ward Halloween Party we came home and had a party for Daddy. I made a french cake (jake isn't a traditional cake guy)...it looks more like a volcano...kaid thought it was awesome! :)
 |
| the kids helped blow out the candles. |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next morning we packed up and headed to California, where we met my parents and brother Scotty for some fun in the sun, on the beach and at Disneyland. It was a wonderful vacation. We were so happy my parents came.
 |
| This picture cracks me up...I can always count on Maggie to make me laugh. |
 |
| Scotty -DO! |
 |
| We rented a bike and ALL of us got on it and rode for a good hour. It was really fun, we had some good laughs. |
 |
| Macy loves the sand. |
 |
We did awesome getting to one end, but then we had to turn around and go back.... :)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We headed to Micky Mouse Halloween Party at Disneyland. It is a Jake and Jana Samuelson Family tradition. It is so much fun. This is our second year, and we invited my parents to go--sooooo glad they came! It was a lot of fun.
~~~~~~~~
We played on the pier and got Ruby's ice cream. |
The kids played on the beach and even got in the water.
We played ball on the beach and enjoyed watching the dolphins.
 |
| A larger wave captured Maggie.... |
 |
| She wasn't very happy! |
 |
| Not one bit! |
 |
| We should of brought swim suits that day....they look like surfer beach bums. |
 |
| Kaiden spelled his name in the sand. |
It was a wonderful trip.
On Halloween, we met up with Adria and Mark and went trick-or-treating. It was low key, but a lot of fun. The kids were in heaven. (Wish I would of taken pics of Halloween!)
It was a wonderful October!
