Ouren Updates Fall 2014

It's been a while since I've done an update, so I thought it was about time. Here's the latest on the Utah Ouren Clan.

Caleb: Caleb is enjoying the 5th grade. He's growing like a weed and his head already hits the top of his Mom's shoulders. It won't be long before he passes me completely in the height area, I'm afraid. He is loving playing football again and his team is currently looking to make the playoffs this year (only one win away!). He's enjoying being the big brother and has started asking for more chores at home and becoming a great helper around the house and occasionally with watching his siblings for very short periods of time. His biggest loves are still the NY Giants, doing math,  playing Xbox and Legos.  He's looking forward to his 11th birthday coming up next month.

Zaden: Zaden is doing great in the first grade. This year has been off to a much more positive start than last year. His behavior at school has improved a ton and he's a lot happier to be there. His reading is really starting to take off and he's enjoying learning about science. Mainly animal science seems to have hit a sweet-spot for him. He's a big tease in the house and is always the first one to agree to play girly things with his sister when she's lonely. He's got a very sweet heart when it comes to her, even if he doesn't always show it. His favorite things are Batman, playing superhero dress up and he's starting to take on a liking to the Dallas Cowboys like his mom (Hooray!).  He's looking most forward to starting swimming lessons back up in the next few weeks.

Zaric: First grade for Zaric is also off to a more positive start. We've got more things in place to help him and his teachers are saying he's moving along and improving his pace. His speech teacher is especially fond of his recent progress with her. His reading skills are finally starting to develop and like his big brother, he seems to have a liking toward math. He's very social and will talk to pretty much anyone these days. He's my little daredevil and likes to try new things. Lately he's even been trying new foods and liking them, which has been hard for him in the past. He's still my early riser and my morning cuddler, which as a Mom I secretly love. His favorite things are Spiderman, playing with his brothers and he's starting to take a liking to playing football with the kids at the park during Caleb's games and practices. He's also very excited to be starting swimming lessons back up.

Faith- Faith is 3 and every bit the little diva I always thought she would be. She enjoys shopping and everything girly. Babies, princesses and all things pink and purple are her go- to's. She's started to demand that she dresses herself and does most everything herself most of the time. She's even started offering opinions on her mom's clothes. She loves having little friends that she plays with during football practices and games, I'm unsure what we'll do when they are over. She also loves animals and visiting the real babies in our extended family. She's still jealous that the boys get to go to school and she doesn't yet, so we've had to recently purchase her a backpack to take to the babysitter's house  along with her lunchbox she got for her birthday.  She talks like a pro and is starting to have real conversations with us. She's recently asked us if she can start taking dancing lessons, so we'll be looking into those after the holiday craziness is over.  It's so fun to watch her grow and see the differences in raising boys and girls.

Mike: Mike is still working hard in his company and helping them to expand and grow. They've recently partnered with a 4th state and will completely acquire it in the long run which will most likely mean more travel and more personnel for him over the next few years. He finally got the time to get one game of golf in this year which he enjoyed and, as always, is extremely helpful with the kids and managing our busy lives. I'm very proud of the husband, father and man that he is and I love growing and changing with him as life continually changes for us.

Me: I'm still working part-time for SLCC. I'm currently dividing my time between the Taylorsville and the Jordan campuses and am loving the dichotomy between the two offices.  One is mellow and one is busy. It's a perfect balance within any given week. I still have Fridays off which provide for some time to run errands or do housework or just hang out with Faith while we wait for the boys to get out of school and we love it. Otherwise I'm mostly busy playing taxi and running kids around town to various sports and activities. I've  been trying to find more time to read and relax a bit which isn't always an easy thing for me since I like to keep moving, but it's also been nice at the same time. The thing I'm most looking forward to is the Dallas Cowboys game in December that Mike agreed to take me to as a quick little couple get-away. I'm seriously so excited!    

That's it in a nutshell. More fun coming up in the next few weeks.

Fall Break Fun

I can't believe Fall break has come already! Where is this year going?  We took advantage of the beautiful weather and took care of some Fall/Halloween activities. Luckily Dad elected to take a little time off to come play with us as well. We went to the nearby corn maze on Thursday afternoon. We were able to go through in order and find all of the markers.  We got there early enough that we pretty much had the maze to ourselves.They had a good time running through the corn and taking silly pictures.  Then we went to Caleb's favorite pizza place (Pizza Pie Cafe) for a little dinner and dessert and rushed home to watch the new X-Men movie Dad picked up for us.  It was a fun afternoon/evening.

Friday, we were off to our favorite pumpkin patch in Farmington. It's a bit of a drive considering all of the patches we have nearby, but we feel like it's worth it every year. This year there was a group of giant pumpkins. Mike usually picks the biggest he can find. He had a hard time deciding this year though, with all these options. It was like Pumpkin Heaven.

He chose one though as did the rest of us. The twins pretty much picked the first ones they could lift themselves, Caleb picked a more green colored one, I picked a very tall and slim one and Faithy fancied herself a white one.

We stayed for a bit and took some more silly pics and played in the hay maze. 

Then it was off to lunch. And what better to eat after a pumpkin patch visit than square pumpkin meals at Arctic Circle? 

Halloween in just 14 more days!

Grandma's Halloween Party

While Mike and I were busy playing and relaxing in Vegas, the kids got to spend some quality time with the grandparents. They went elk hunting and camping on the mountain and Grandma Nette threw her annual Halloween party while they were in town to enjoy it.  Mike and I were sad to miss it but thankfully Aunt Tracey posted a few pics for us. Looks and sounds like a good time was had by all.

Vegas Retreat

Last week I was invited to Mike's Corporate Board Retreat in Las Vegas for 3 days. The first couple of days, he was in meetings a lot of the time and I got some time on my own when the spouse activities hit a glitch. It turned out great though, I got to go for some walks at the beautiful hotel on Lake Las Vegas, got to read a book cover to cover without interruptions,  and got to sit by the lake and relax while soaking up some Vegas sun.  Here's a couple pics I took while walking around the hotel grounds.

 On Friday he got a break in the afternoon and wanted to get me away from the hotel, so we chose to go do a little shopping at one of the outlet Malls. It was a fun little outing. Then we got to get dressed up and go on a group activity to see the show "Marriage Can be Murder" in downtown Vegas. It was a good/fun show and we all had a lot of laughs. Afterwards, there was some time left before the shuttles picked us back up. We got to go hang out on Fremont Street and have some drinks and do a little dancing. Ok I danced, Mike stood. But I did get to cut a rug with Mike's boss (the VP) so the dancing worked out to be a blast in the end.  The pics of me and his boss didn't turn out but here's a cute one of Mike and I on Fremont that his co-worker took for us.

On Saturday Mike was done early in the morning and we didn't fly out until late in the evening, so it worked out perfectly that we got to have some time (just the 2 of us) to play some more. We hit up some spots on the strip. First we hit up High Roller to take in the view from the top. It was fun to do once. I'm sure it's better at night, but since we didn't have that option, we enjoyed the daytime view.

Next, I took Mike to try out Hash House A Go Go for a late lunch. I had been there once before, but he hadn't. We got there at a good time and had a minimal wait, so it was great timing. He and I both enjoyed our ginormous lunches.

Then it was time for a quick walk over to the Venetian to find Carlo's (Cake's Boss's) newest bakery he opened there. We found it and stood in line for a bit then snagged some goodies for later at home (since we were both too stuffed still from lunch to enjoy it right then). 

I had mentioned to Mike in all of my times to Vegas, I've still never been to the iconic Vegas sign and taken the required pics in front of it. So of course he took me to do just that.

Then it was time to finally get in and lose some money on some slots. That took all of 15 minutes! We also did a little shopping in the top of Mandalay Bay and enjoyed some time relaxing with some Pepsi's before heading back to the airport.

It turned out to be a nice relaxing and fun weekend overall. I'm glad I decided to go along.

Sofia the First Princess Party

This year Faith asked and begged and talked about (for several months) having a Sofia the first birthday party. I happily obliged of course. Purple and princesses. How can you go wrong?
We had fun making and buying some decorations.

We had a little luncheon and had cute names for all the food. Here's the spread and her eating lunch with her Papa.

And I ordered a small cake to go along with the beautiful cupcake dress cake my brother in law put together for us.

We had some fun painting faces

And being sung to and blowing out the candles (thanks to Wyatt for his help with that).

And opening presents.

But the star of the day was the last surprise mom and dad had up their sleeve. A pink princess bounce house in our yard!

We gathered up her goodies for a pic. I think she had a great haul

Overall I think we had a pretty happy little princess on our hands.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl! Thanks for the last 3 wonderful years. Can't wait to see the little girl you are turning into emerge.