Spooky Halloween Weather!

This Halloween we had a great time dressing up...the kids each picked their own costumes...Spencer was very excited to be a monkey (so appropriate, don't you think?), Audree wanted to be a beautiful fairy with wings, Rylee (I am sure you couldn't guess...) wanted to be a witch and Karlee wanted to be Cinderella (the Cinderella wedding dress was on sale, so that's what we went with and she was very excited about wearing Mommy's veil). Jake and I decided to go with a Nacho Libre theme...and Jake's mustache was probably my favorite thing about the whole night!




About 30 seconds after we took these pictures (literally!) a crazy, tornado-like, hail storm came tearing through the city! We had to wait awhile to start the trick-or-treating. Jake took the kids out in the van for the first little while until the storm calmed down, then they finished trick-or-treating in the traditional manner...freezing cold walking! They all enjoyed a fresh batch of hot cocoa when they arrived back home!


I think it's pretty cool that here in good old Utah when Halloween falls on a Sunday...everyone just automatically celebrates (including trick-or-treating) on Saturday. It was great not to feel like we had to choose between keeping the Sabbath and celebrating! Even thought the weather would have been a LOT better, everyone just did the Saturday thing, no questions asked, I love it!

What is Bubba up to??

Spencer is my favorite age right now...3 years old! I think they are SO funny and sweet at this age! This morning he ran into our bedroom excitedly yelling, "It's my birthday!"...here's the story. A few months ago he asked when his birthday was and I told him it would be when there was snow. Last night we got our first dusting of snow and this morning the lawn was covered. He woke up, saw snow outside, and figured out it was his birthday. He was pretty bummed when we told him it wasn't his birthday...although, we're thinking maybe we should just celebrate his birthday at the first snowfall every year since his Dec. 18th birthday is such a bummer. Hmmm..I'll have to let you know about that!


Yesterday Spencer drew his first self-portrait. He was very proud of himself! He came in to show it to me and with tons of enthusiasm explained,"Here is my eyes, this is my bellybutton, and these are some rocks!" pointing to the circles within the circle. I couldn't help but be very excited for him and give him a huge hug! I simply love this guy!


OH, Rylee actually did this self-portrait first (the one that inspired Spencer's). She is so funny too...my favorite thing she said this week was..."Hey Mom, the mountains look like a pile of muddy buddies". Muddy Buddies are those chex cereal treats you make with chocolate and peanut butter and then coat with powdered sugar...the mountains were dusted with snow that day. Only my Rylee would make that observation...food is such an important part of her life...especially food covered in powdered sugar!

Pumpkin Patch!

It's a family tradition to head out to the local pumpkin patch and pick out our pumpkins every year...the kids watch the pumpkins grow all summer (as we drive down the road) and get really excited when the patch opens up! We have been SO busy lately, but found an evening to head out between dinner and cheer class. The kids love to pick pumpkins, but they also love the hay piles, maze and corn kernal pit. It's beginning to feel like Fall around here!

Ahhh...Ahhhh....Ahhhh (said in your best Tarzan impersonation!)

So, we just got back from a fabulously relaxing weekend in St. George! The kids had a fall break on Thursday and Friday...so we headed out Wednesday night with a big surprise. We didn't tell the kids where we were going, but we had tickets to see "Tarzan" at the Tuachan theater. The kids were so excited when they figured it out and we had amazing seats for the performance. It was the best production we have seen down there yet...really, the show was so entertaining (lots of flying around and monkeys!)...the kids were enthralled the entire show! After the show we met up with Sam and Holly and their kids who happend to have tickets to the very same show!! The kids loved meeting all of the performers afterwards!




While we were down there we did a LOT of swimming (hooray for warm weather!) and bit of shopping (mostly because Jake forgot his work clothes hanging up by the door back at home...so he needed clothes to work in!) and too much eating! Before we headed home Sam and Holly invited us to go to a "rock climbing park" with them in town. We had never been there before and thought it sounded fun...and it was! The kids had a blast climbing and exploring and besides twisting my ankle we all had a great time(actually the ankle didn't even start to hurt until after we left...so we all had a great time while we were there!)



Then we were so hot and sweaty that we had to go for one last swim before heading home! As we were about to head out of town we realized our car was over-heating...so a quick stop at a car repair place (just a bit of water in the radiator did the trick) and we were off to home! What a great little escape...just what we needed!

Welcome Jimmy!

Well, Swimmy (our goldfish) has been a member of the family for about 5 months now and we felt that he deserved a better home than the mason jar he has been living in. So, we went out and found a proper bowl...and while we were at it...we found him a friend. "Jimmy" had a sweet red mohawk and we couldn't resist him. We were afraid Swimmy might not appreciate sharing his new home...but the 2 of them seem to have hit it off and all is well. So, Swimmy and Jimmy continue to entertain us and are the perfect pets for this allergy-prone family!