Halloween Sneek Peek

Our family usually dresses up as a theme for Halloween...

2009 Star Wars
2008 Ninja Turtles (and lady bug and bug catcher)
2007 Road and Road Worker (also a skeleton and ghost and a random octopus)
2006 Pirates

And usually the theme revolves around some kind of obsession of our childrens.

Here's your clue...(The sweet kiss is not a clue, just an added bonus)

Any ideas? (No cheating if you already know) This is a tricky one to guess by just these costumes.

Say It. Mean It. Show It. I Love You.

From Elder Holland's stirring testimony of the Book of Mormon and Elder Hale's sweet testimony of the Savior, I came out of General Conference weekend feeling completely uplifted!

But it was Elder Bednar's words that left me the most inspired to do better and to be better as a person, parent and spouse.

So much that I commissioned my friend, Delilas, to make me some vinyl wall art..."Say it. Mean it. Show it." And "I Love You" underneath. Now to decide where in my house I would want to display it...

And I made a digital scrapbook layout...
And now I can constantly "show" my children how much I love them...It's a little banged up and a little worn out looking, but I love it and I love who it reminds me to be. And I'm finally putting my stamping tools to use!!

Exciting!

I didn't think anything could get more exciting than this day, today...

A preschool field trip with cows, corn, and kids!!! Exciting!
But this just might top it...30 minutes and counting!!

Wordless Wednesday Memories

Wordless Wednesday

These are the facts...

We said our goodbyes to Rob.

We hopped in the car to get to church early to set up the Primary room.

I wasn't paying attention, reached to grab something and ran into the curb.

Crunch, crunch, crunch.

Turned around, asked a friend to bring half of my kids to church.

Rob put a spare tire on the van (minutes before heading to the airport). He ROCKS!!

Made it to church on time to set up.

Sunday started off crappy and didn't really get much better. Sigh...BUT...

Saturday was awesome! Spent the morning shopping and eating with Denise. Spent the afternoon at the Car Show with my family. And rocked the night away with the Beatty's. Couldn't have asked for a better day!

Dancing and jumping around at the Harris Pavilion.

Eating cupcakes from the new bakery, Oh So Sweet Treats. Yummy!

Old Town Manassas Car Show

Super Wall-E and his sidekick Super Anna.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Happy Sunday

We hope your Sunday is going better than ours.

I'm such a copycat!

So I "know" this gal who crafts up a storm. Her name is Katie of The Polka Dot Pig. And she made the most adorable "Literate Pumpkins". I just had to make them, too!

They were so easy and fun to create. Best news, too...I went to the used book store and they had a FREE bin of books outside the front door. I bought a few new spools of ribbon (because I can never have enough ribbon) and here you go...
Aren't they so cute? Let me know if you give this little project a try!

This is AWEKOME!

I know Evan's speech problems are nothing to laugh about, but I just can't help but to love how he expresses his excitement...

"Evan, did you like school today?"

"It was wicked awekome, Mom!"

(Can you tell he's excited to go??!!)

Makes my heart melt every time.

Holy Smokes! Who is this kid? And where has my baby gone?

Color Choices

Several months ago, I scrubbed the urine infested main level bathroom of our home and a few minutes later (seriously, only a few minutes) it was a nasty mess again. So, I banned the boys from ever using that bathroom. And to keep my anger at bay, I went out and bought the ruffle and pink toile line of bathroom towels from Target. That would show them!!

A few days ago, I bought some paint to finally get that bathroom in girly-girl shape! I had threatened the boys with pink paint, but went with a boring, simple "natural linen".

However, someone else had grander plans! And I came home to this...
Which has now turned into a bathroom/laundry room overhaul. I'm not going to complain because it needed to be done. And it's going to look great!

Now the color is hard to see here, but I was going for a sage green in the laundry room. But ended up with a sea foamy green...

Which is exactly what happened when I painted the dining room...
In real life, the two colors are just about as identical as colors can get. Good thing I like the color because I'm not a re-painter.

Sunshine on a cloudy day

These Two

After doing the "happy dance" as the bus pulled away this morning, I headed back towards the house to see my other two hooligans playing on the driveway...

Goodness...I'm going to miss having these two around...
No more "happy dance" for me because the other two keep me on my toes constantly!! After the bus pulled away, Evan and Anna piled in the car so we could pick up Tyler's inhaler. Evan was so excited that he could be a big boy and sit in the way back of the van (because Tyler and Jared weren't there). At the pharmacy drive-thru window, I picked up the prescription, signed and payed for it and pulled away. As I turned the corner and pulled up to a light, I heard a large thump in the back of the van. First thought was that someone rear-ended me, but when I looked back, I saw that Evan was not in his seat. Instead, I saw him hiding in the trunk of the van! The little monkey snuck back there while I was at the drive-thru! I had a mild heart attack (in case you didn't know...I'm carseat anal), flipped out, demanded that he move up to his normal seat in the van and buckled him up.

Never a dull moment!

Tyler and Jared will be home in 3 hours!

Get a clue!

Me, I need to get a clue!



It takes this...
Anna changing her own diaper for me to realize that she is ready to be potty trained.

Potty School begins once the boys are all in school. I'm envisioning this going way smoother and quicker then with the boy's training because Anna is such a "do it myself" kind of girl!



But I'm not going to get my hopes up!

Parents of the Year 2009

I think this has just cinched the deal...we ROCK as parents and completely deserve this honor!

And I bet you can't guess which child of ours took a nasty fall into burning coals...

Notice the trend

I'm just saying.

She's a trouble maker in disguise!!

11 years later...

...we happened to be in Provo, UT, just finishing up a very delicious dinner at Los Hermanos when we realized that we were standing next to the very light pole that Rob and I took our engagement pictures at...

October 1998

And look at us now...

August 2009

It was so much fun taking these pics and, I will admit, slightly sentimental. You can read the sappy details here...

(You have to click on the image to be able to read it.)

Facing our fears. Day 8.

As Tyler (and my other children, too) gets older, I see him venturing out and trying new things, being brave as he attempts these new feats.

And I don't want my 9 1/2 year old making me look like a wimp, now do I? So, I tag along. (Truthfully, my silly self fears that some thing is going to happen to him. And it's not going to happen while he's alone. I know. I'm a crazy, paranoid mother.)

And look where it got me!Completely scary for only one split second as I told the guy to just push me out the front gate. The rest was...let's say...AWESOME!

But this...not so fun. Seeing my baby hanging over the earth with merely a few straps and a wire.


Our day at Snowbird was full of adventure. From zip lines to the alpine slide, it was all a blast!

The boys really enjoyed the trampolines. The perfect opportunity to practice their back flipping skills...
Or just jumping and looking cute as can be skills...
And here is our nutty Jared. The back flip king!And who knew...King of the Rodeo, too!Is it really a wonder why this child has had so many injuries?


The highlight for most every one with us was the aerial tram ride up to 11,000 feet. Too bad our camera ran out of battery (doesn't someone have pics on their camera...Jacob? Susanne?).

Oh well, you're not missing out on much...We'll leave it at that!

Thunder storms cut our visit at the top short (DARN!), so we headed back down the very steep mountain just in time to be pelted with a rain storm.

So our day was cut short, but we have memories to last us a life time!

It's a Cecret, Day 7

By day 7, I was sick of hiking, but Rob had one more hike in him (making up for his sick day, I guess). So, Rob and his brother Jacob took the boys for a 2 mile round trip hike to Cecret Lake. We're guessing that over the entire course of the trip Tyler, Jared and Evan each hiked about 8 miles...if only I could have their energy!

Very pretty views. Makes me almost wish I was there!

Day 6 ROCKS!!

Besides spending time with family, our trip to Bryce Canyon was the highlight of our summer vacation. And to think, we almost decided not to go!! The trip to Bryce added a few extra hours of driving that day, but it was 100% worth it. Bryce Canyon is definitely a must see for anyone who visits Utah.

Because of all our small children and my sister who'd caught The Lyme's and a husband recuperating from The Strep, we chose to do one hike. The Navajo hike is about 1.5 miles and it takes you to the bottom of the canyon and then back up. I stress the "back up" part because for some of those little legs hiking with us, it wasn't the easiest thing, but they all did it without complaint. And they loved every minute of it!!

We took so many photos and it was too hard to pick just a few photos for the blog. If you feel so inclined, you can view them all...


Visiting National Parks has now become our family's number one choice for vacations. We're already scheming up plans for the Grand Canyon, Arches, Canyonlands, Goblin Valley, Yosemite, and even Denali one day!! Because of Evan's height restrictions, amusement parks will not always be a fair choice for entertainment, but National Parks can be enjoyed by all of us and it's a whole ton easier on the wallet!

5

Today, Rob played hooky! He came down with a bad case of strep throat. So, we left him behind and had some good ole' fun without him!! My brother-in-law, Kevin's parents (Russ and Kay) were so kind to share their beautiful and unique home with us while were in Southern Utah. Russ took us on a nearby hike to search for petroglyphs (rock engravings). The boys were in heaven and were able to do a little bit of learning along the way! We were bummed that Rob missed out on this adventure, but the show must go on!

After the hike, we had some lunch at the coolest restaurant, Pirate Island. The food was reasonably priced and the place was very entertaining. The rest of the day was spent swimming and the boys were in heaven once again. So was I because the view at their pool wasn't too bad to look at. Gorgeous red cliffs.

Really, this was a great day and by the end, Rob was finally perking up...Just in time because the next and last day of our Southern Utah adventure was our best yet!