Carving Pumpkins

My kids especially love Family Night the week of Halloween when we carve our pumpkins. It's always so fun to see what they will create. Cole's still not sure about the gunck inside the pumpkin (remember he has serious gag issues) but he was loving the carving part. I absolutely love this time of year. Happy Halloween!

I'm all shook up!

Elvis has left the building! Seriously a little freaky how much he really does looks like Elvis!

So last night our good friends the Ence's had a 50's theme Halloween Party. So when we started thinking of the many 50's options - Nick as Elvis was a no brainer, (even the lady at the costume shop said he would be a great Elvis.), but it wasn't until Nick was actually dressed in his costume that I was a little star struck by my Elvis look alike. We had so much fun at the party and Nick even won the prize for best costume. Sooo...we have decided that we're heading to Vegas so Nick can pursue his life dream to be an Elvis impersonator - NOT!! But, wouldn't that be something to write about!

The Best of Both Worlds

Hannah Montana/Miley Cyris - she was fabulous!
The Jonas Brothers - S00000 Cute!
We had awesome seats for the concert - Section 1 row 20!
Cheese!
After the concert we got a few photos in front of Miley's tour bus! We had blast!

Last night I took the girls to the Hannah Montana Best of Both Worlds Concert. - We had so much fun! The Jonas Brothers opened for Hannah Montana and they were awesome. The best part for me was seeing the pure joy in the girls faces as they experienced their first concert. They were yelling, cheering and dancing their little hearts out. It was such a fun GNO (Girls Night Out). Yes, I learned that last night from the song. I could never figure out what she was saying before...now I know and I love it! Every girl needs a GNO every once in a while!

Witches Night Out

We Love Witches!
We had so much fun going to Witches Night Out on Friday Night. The girls looked darling. We shopped, ate, and acted like witches. What could be better than that? Thanks for the fun night!

Terrific Tuesday

My fabulous Enrichment Board -Thanks girls for a "terrific" night and for all your hard work these last few weeks. Our crafts were darling holiday boards, growth charts, card boxes, and a beautiful dried floral arrangement! It was lots and lots of fun, but I'm glad it's over....now it's time to plan the Christmas Dinner & Program. Whew!!

One crazy, crazy day!

Safety First! Everyone Double Buckle - oh and duck if you see a Police Officer!
Whew..we made it ! Now lets have some fun!
The kids getting cozy with the SCARRRY witches!

So let me start by saying this was one crazy day! Crazier than my normal Crazy...so here it goes! I had to take my car in, again, to have the transmission checked! AGHH! It's a really gross place and I didn't want to wait there for 2 hours, so as Tiff, Julie and I were deciding what we should do for our last off track day- we decided Tiff would follow me to the yucky transmission place and then we would head to Gardner Village (1/2 mile away). Sounds like a great plan! Well, lets just say nothing ever goes according to plan. When I got to Tiff's her car wouldn't start. Now, I'm no mechanic, but how hard is it to jump a car, I've done it once or twice. I'm sure anyone watching us trying to jump her car got a good laugh. It was a really tight fit in her garage with our big cars so I had climb through the window - duke's of hazard style - to start my car (the whole time we're hopin' and prayin' were not going to blow up). Cole of course thought it was totally cool! So Tiff's car still won't start, and thankfully Julie hadn't left yet, so we called her and asked her to follow us to the transmission place and then we'd all pile into Julie's car . (10 people in her 7 seater - really safe, Nice!)

We get to Gardner Village safely and head to order lunch at the bakery. It's packed and every mom with children off track had our same idea. 20 minutes and $20 dollars each later we finally get our lunch. The place is packed, standing room only, Cole and Braxton are wrestling on the floor, kids are running all over, and old men keep cutting in line. I'm getting a little anxious by now and needing to get the heck out of there. Finally we manage to get our food and herd everyone to an outside table where we again cram all 10 of us on a little picnic table (are we having fun yet?) Everyone starts to eat, whew we made it, or so we thought. Cole has a terrible gag reflex and is a super picky eater, so when he see's Braxtons PB&J with the Jelly oozing out, he starts gagging (at the sight of jelly). I quickly turn him around just in time for him to throw up all over the ground at least 3 times (PB and Cheetos is a disgusting mix.) Everyone is staring and I'm laughing so hard because my kid is a little freaky with his gagging abilities- mind you this happens weekly. All the kids are running around about to step in the barf- so I round up as many napkins as I can and start scooping up barf - AGHH!

We survive lunch and decide to walk around and see the witches. The kids are running everywhere, the boys are playing tackle football, and we're trying to keep track of everyone -it's chaos! Cole and Braxton both get put in time out for hurting the bigger boys (Tiff, what are we going to do with these two?), Dawson is hiding behind a bench pooping, and Cambria is having a blast being the only girl - Priceless! Anyway, long story short - it was one crazy day, but in the end lots of laughs, a little barf, a little poop, a lot of anxiety, and a few time-outs. All and all a good day!

Home, Home on the Range!

We headed to Lander, WY to visit Nick's family for the weekend. Cole loves riding the horses with Gram'pa. He is quite the little cowboy! Giddy Up!

What a cute Cowboy - the hat and coat were Nick's when he was a little boy. I guess some things never go out of style!

We love Fall!

Where's Cambria? - the kids were almost completely covered in the fall leaves.

We had family pictures (Yes, I know again) with Nick's whole family (quite the task) anyway, the photographer took us to the neatest spot with more leaves than I have ever seen. I would hate to have to rake that yard. The kids had a blast playing in the leaves, and enjoyed a little break from the misery of more family pictures! I promised them this would be it until Christmas (I think...wink, wink, and fingers crossed)!

Bragging Rights!

So I know I'm their mother and of course I think they are the cutest kids in the world, but seriously, they really are so dang cute! Finally, after 2 rescheduled appointments (because of very unpleasant weather) we were able to have our family pictures taken. This is one of my favorites of the kids. I can't wait to see them all. Dang- those kids are so stinkin adorable.

Tag...You're it!

My friend Jill tagged me today - I wasn't quite sure what that meant, so Jill, thanks for the email clarifying what to do. So here's how it works... I answer the 10 questions she tagged me with and then tag four people. The four people I tag then respond on their blog by answering the same 10 questions, then they tag 4 people. It's going to be fun. Here are the questions:

1. Q -Best thing you cooked last week.
A - Yummy Chicken and Beef Enchilada's and Christine's fabulous Mississippi Mud Cake - so good!

2. Q - If money, time and babysitting were no object, where would you go and with who.
A - I would go to Scotland with my cute husband.

3. Q - When was the last time you cried.
A - 2 weeks ago at Christine's baptism. It was truly a wonderful experience.

4. Q- 5 things you were doing this month 10 years ago.
A - We were getting ready to close on our home. We moved in on Halloween night 1997;living with my parents while waiting to get into our home; trying to sew McKayla's Fairy Halloween costume, working part-time at Hall Kinion, and taking care of my grandma Elaine who had ALzheimers.

5. Q- 5 things on your to do list today.
A - I thought a soccer game (long story); Clean, Clean , Clean; Go to the grocery store and get yummy food for our conference brunch tomorrow; buy hats, gloves, scarves, etc.. for the kids, and get everyone ready for our family pictures if the weather clears up!

6. Q- 5 favorite snacks
A- Chocolate Carmel Apples, Chocolate covered pretzels, Salt & Vinegar Potato Chips, strawberries, and trail mix!

7. Q - 5 Bad Habits
A- the occasional swearing , falling asleep during prayers, pealing my fingernails when I'm nervous, staying up way too late watching my favorite shows, driving while talking on my cell phone.

8. Q- 5 favorite foods
A - I love mexican - cheesy chicken enchilada's; a yummy salad with walnuts, feta, bacon, and a vinegrette; homemade bread with homemade strawberry jam, Training Table cheese fries with dipping sauce, and a really good bowl of brocolli cheese soup or clam chowder.

9. Q- 5 Places I've been
A- Hawaii - my favorite is Maui, Mexico (Ixtapa and Cancun), Grand Caymans, Roatan Bay Islands (on a cruise - absolutely remote and beautiful), Belize, and 49 of the 50 states (someday I'll make it to Alaska).

10. Q- 5 Favorite Memories
A -My Wedding Day in SL Temple surrounded by most of our family and friends, the birth of my 3 precious children, the once a year coveted vacations with Nick, all the fun trips with the kids, moving into our home!

4 People I'm tagging: Tiffany, Natallee, Ali, Tenille

Wife of the Year? or maybe just plain crazy!

Okay - for all of you who know my sweet darling husband - you know he loves, loves, loves football, TV, and the occasional X-Box marathon. Well, I wanted to surprise Nick for his 38th birthday (wow that's old). Originally I had tickets on hold for the BYU vs. San Diego State game in San Diego - I thougt it would be fun for the both of us to have a little get away - however, Nick is the project manager for his company, a retail Co., so October though December is a really crazy time. So that idea was out, darnit. After a few other ideas, I finally decided to cave and surprise him with Halo 3. He loves Halo and I pretty much hate it -but this is about Nick and what he loves.....so I ran down to Best Buy the morning Halo 3 was released and grabbed one of the last copies available. As I'm heading to the check out, quite proud of myself, I noticed that it said Halo 3 for X Box 360, well we have a 4 year old X-box, so I ran over to the Best Buy guy and said I need the Halo 3 for regular X-box, he laughed at me and said they don't make Halo 3 for X-box only for X-box 360 - I proceeded to say that I hate X-box, and was left in a little prediciment. What to do - the saleman sensing my frustration started talking to me about how much better the graphics are for X-box 360, blah, blah, blah - don't care, but I really wanted to surprise him. As I left Best Buy $500 later, I decided that I was indeed a candidate for Wife of the Year, always sacrificing!

I was so excited to finally surprise him for his birthday. I quickly got Cole out of the car, swore him to secrecy, and because we were runing late for pre-school I left the bright yellow Best Buy bag on the fender of the car. I ran inside, fed Cole a quick PB&J, and ran upstairs to grab him a sweatshirt, and as I was walking down the stairs I heard Cole talking to someone - to my surprise it was Nick home for lunch. Now, my sweet husband has been home for lunch all of 3 times in the last 3 months, no joke, so of all the days to come home (yes, the Best Buy bag is still on the fender - Aghh). He gave me a little smile, and I froze for a second trying to remember where I had left the bag. I calmly asked him if had seen anything - to which he replied "you mean the bag with Halo 3, an X-box 360, and a wireless controller that was left on the fender". Now we have to remember a Best Buy Bag to a male is like a Nordstrom bag to a female - so of course he looked, I couldn't even be mad - so my fabulous surprise ruined, not to mention my last weekend before Halo 3 became a part of our home. He was thrilled and quite surprised that I would buy him something I pretty much detested. So the jury is still out...wife of the year or just plain crazy - you be the judge!