Update: August-October

Worst blogger award goes to me.

Life caught up to me and it was like a smack to the face and I haven't been able to catch my breath since! Okay, not literally.. but you kind of get what I'm saying.

The last post I wrote was the end of July and now it is OCTOBER so yeah, I NEED TO CATCH UP. So that is what I'm going to do here. I'll explain a few things we have been up to here and there and then I'll post some pics from my phone-- mainly for myself-- because let's be real here.. this is my journal.

Here'goes:

AUGUST.

Portrait of my neighbor Brent Nielsen who passed away and his grandson Bridger.

The Nielsen family asked me to sketch this for them. It took many months of prayer and pondering so I could figure out exactly how it should be. I think it turned out absolutely perfect!
You can read more about the experience here.

Preschool started up again for the year. This is a panorama of my classroom.

This is my preschool team. Cara and Laura. They're so fun to work with! Also in the bottom right are my new friends Saya and Angela. Love them!

St. George has some great sunsets. The panorama made the bus look like a train, ha!

Just a couple pics of some of the projects we have done around our little apartment.

We took a trip up north to spend some time with our good friend Bo and his family. We played games, had a delicious BBQ, and went boating the next day.

Bo also taught Kambry and I how to drive his boat. It was a good time!

My friend Lindsey and I got our hair done by my cousin Jaclyn during her instructional class for cosmetology. She is an instructor at Taylor Andrews and she is amazing!

Drew went with my family to the derby in Richfield! It was his first time ever to a derby and he loved it.

Drew started his third semester at Dixie! We went out to breakfast to keep the tradition going. He's such a cutie!

Oh two WAFFLE LOVE photos right in a row! Guess you could say I love that place.

We spent a weekend in Cedar and got to help out at Drew's father's YSA ward bbq. Also, it rained heaps in St. George and looked like it was flooding down below our apartment. It was neat.

Oh this book is amazing. My cousin Dana wrote it and its a compilation of thoughts and words and songs unsung. All by her. It's beautiful and you can get it here.

I applied for a full time position and Dixie and made it to the second interview!! It was so amazing. It was truly such an incredible experience. I learned so much but unfortunately I didn't get the position. However, my sweet mom and family are the best and sent me a little care package full of "sunshine!" They're the best!!! And Drew got me beautiful flowers and left me cute notes around our house. It made me so happy! 

We drove Kambry down to Las Vegas to send her to Hawaii for a while. It was so hard saying goodbye to her!!

But luckily, she arrived safe and sound :)

SEPTEMBER.

We have spent most of our weekends in either Richfield or Cedar. Above is a picture of Drew with his brother Mark and dad putting cupboards in their garage.

One weekend while in Richfield, my family went on a walk while talking to Kambry on speaker phone ha ha! It was pretty funny.

Also in the middle of all our traveling we purchased our first vehicle! We absolutely love it!

My friend Candace got married so we spent the day celebrating her. It was great to see some friends that I haven't seen in a while! It was really good to all be together.

We also got to attend a country concert with my family while in Richfield. We got to watch Konner play football and we ate pancakes with fresh rasberries straight from our garden! Also, Kambry sent us a sweet post card from Hawaii!

Here are some snapshots of Kam's adventure in Hawaii.

We are SO blessed to have a cabin in one of the most beautiful places.. Fishlake! We enjoyed the colors of the changing leaves, some nice rain showers, and a fresh cool breeze. It definitely felt like fall up there.

I stayed in Richfield while Drew drove back to St. George Sunday night. The next day was my cousin Mara's birthday and so we celebrated that with some of the family. A couple day's later I went hunting with my dad while Drew was home going to school and working. I will write about my hunting trip in a different post :)

And at the end of September we got to pick up Kambry from Hawaii! We had missed her so much. My family came down and stayed with us in our little apartment. It was so wonderful to be all together again! 

OCTOBER

So far this month has been busy as well. We watched general conference in Cedar with Drew's parents, the next weekend I went to a baby shower in Cedar and brought Kambry down to St. George with us. She spent the whole week with us! It was a lot of fun to have her here. She came to preschool with me one day, we went shopping, we went out to dinner, we went long boarding to the temple, played guitar and ukulele, and watched New Girl all week. It was fantastic! We loved having her here with us!

We drove her back to Richfield last weekend, attended a baby shower, and went on a double date to the pumpkin patch, then to Hoovers for dinner, and then back to our home to paint our pumpkins.

As you can see I had way too much fun painting a sloth.

I love being home in Richfield with my family.

I love this month and this time of year.

And I am so happy.

Love,

Kate

Where the deer and the antelope play...

This year my dad and I had muzzleloader deer tags. I took off an entire week of work to go hunting with him! It was so nice to be with him in the mountains.

We stayed at our cabin. We woke up every morning sometime after 5am and were out the door by 6am. We drove four wheelers and by the time the sun came up we began to hike. It was not as cold as I thought it would be so that was a plus! It was pretty chill though before the sun came up. And then once we started hiking of course it got pretty hot!

We hunted every morning for about 4-5 hours and then eventually made it back to the cabin for lunch, naps, and snacks. We left the cabin again around 5pm to hunt for the evening and got back about 9pm, ate dinner, had a cinnamon roll and chocolate milk for dessert, and then went to bed. Repeat!

We had some fun experiences every time we went out hunting and we loved being out in the beautiful fall colored mountains. It was majestic! We saw lots of neat animals such as elk, coyotes, rabbits, and deer. We found some sheds that I got to bring home, and I even came home with a big blister on my toe from hiking so much.

One morning as we were hiking along some trees, my dad stopped me for a moment to give me a "science lesson." I call it that because he seems to know almost everything about the mountains and animals, etc. That is one of the perks of being with him! It is fun to ask him questions and to learn about the environment and the animals. Anyways, we were stopped for a rest and he asked me, "do you know why there are piles of broken pine cones here and there on some of these rocks?" The piles were big enough to notice, but it didn't really phase me I guess. He said the squirrels pick the pine cones completely apart to get the pine nuts! I looked around and noticed a lot of piles everywhere! It was really neat! But a second later I heard a noise, looked over, and a buck was prancing away from us. I quickly whispered, "DAD!" He got right down on one knee and took a shot. I was shocked! It made my heart beat so fast! It was very exciting ha ha but funny because the second before it happened my dad was sharing that cute "science lesson" with me, ha ha.

Well, although we didn't get a deer together, the time spent together was so worth it. I love bonding with my dad and sharing this enjoyable little hobby with him!

However, get this-- We came home from hunting late Friday night with no deer. My dad ended up going up again early Monday morning with my sister Kambry. As I was talking to my mom on my way to preschool that morning, she mentioned that she had dreamed that they got one! Well after we hung up, I received a picture of my dad's deer! HA! He had shot one. It was crazy. I was super happy for him and especially happy that Kam was with him too. Kambry must be one lucky charm!

I will forever hold memories like hunting with my dad, four wheeler rides, science lessons, and long dreadful hikes in my heart and mind forever!

Love,

Kate

I am the artist.

I have been able to paint a lot more lately and I have loved every second of it! I've been able to work on a lot of projects and I am hopeful that the projects will keep coming.

I feel really happy doing art and I can't imagine myself not doing it.

I was blessed with this talent and I feel like I can use it to help and strengthen others, and/or just make other people happy.

I am an artist, and I love it.

Love,

Kate