Halloween

I always loved Halloween as a kid.  I loved that my dad always dressed up with us and took us door to door.  I loved our family tradition of making and decorating sugar cookies and carving pumpkins.  I've tried to carry on some of those traditions in our own family, and I hope for our boys that Halloween is something they look back on one day with fond memories.  

Now, as a parent, I find the day to be very chaotic and busy, but we still have fun. 

We grew our pumpkins in our garden this year.  Some years, we have success, other years, not so much.  We had two nice size ones this year, and one that grew giant!  Tyler claimed the huge one, and Chad did not even argue because at the time, it was still green and the others were already turned.  Of course, it turned by Halloween, but everyone seemed to remain happy their his choice of pumpkin.  

We mostly let the boys design their own Jack-O-Lantern's.  They clean them our and draw on the faces, and Dave and I do the carving. 

They were pretty proud of their finished result. 

Here are our three skeletons.  This year, I had wanted to make a skeleton shirt for Dave and I, and Tyler had already decided to be a skeleton.  Chad and Greyson wanted to be Woody (from Toy Story), but I never could get Greyson to put the Woody costume on.  So, I knew he would happily wear his skeleton pajamas, and all we had to do was convince Chad that we should ALL be a family of skeletons.  We found Chad's shirt and just used fabric paints to add bones to his arms and legs. Here is our finished outfits.  Nothing creative, as I have seen this all over blogs, but I still thought it was cute. 

And one last picture, of Chad sorting his candies.  This is one of my favorite memories as a kid.  When I finished trick-or-treating, I loved to dump my bag and sort my candies.  It was so fun to see Chad and Tyler do it on their own this year, and even Greyson followed suit with a little help. 

Hope you had a wonderful Halloween as well.  Our baby should be here in just one week!  Happy Day! 

Driggs

Before Dave and I were even married, he and his family had a tradition of heading up to Driggs, Idaho each fall to stay in a family friend's cabin.  It is unbelievably beautiful up there this time of year, with the leaves changing color and fall settling in.  I had the chance of going just once, before the cabin became unavailable.  It has been 7 years since then, and we have been long overdue for a visit there.  Dave's parents came across a great deal for a set of cabins there, and so, we headed up for a long awaited, relaxing weekend.  I didn't even take any great pictures of our cabins, but I have plenty of pictures of my boys enjoying the surrounding wilderness.  With their cousins, they created a fort, which I admit, was pretty cool.  They put so much into it that they were pretty sad to leave it when it was time to go. 

 This was a table inside the fort. 

 Here's a view of the majority of the fort. 

 And the little pathway leading to it. 

 This might be the one picture of the inside of the cabin.  Greyson was cold that morning before we left and so he spend a few minutes inside playing the i pad.  We enjoyed a beautiful hike while were there, a game of glow in the dark bowling on our balcony, a campfire complete with smores (that was Tyler's favorite!) and lots of great cousin time.

 This was the view as we headed out of Driggs toward home.  What a beautiful place!!!

And one last pict. I had to put in-we took family pictures while were up there, and Dave was so kind to snap a few shots of me while I was behind the camera.  While I typically hate being in pictures, especially when I am pregnant, but I always feel I should at least try to document how gigantic my belly got, so here it is.  As it has since been two weeks since these pictures were taken, I'm sure it has grown several inches as I now have just under 3 weeks to go.  That feels frighteningly close, and yet SO far away. 

Summer Wrap Up

To me, it feels like summer ended months ago, but I so wanted to post about our last summer trip with my family to Bear Lake.  We started this tradition several years ago, and it has become the trip my boys look forward to most each year.  We all stay at the KOA in Garden City Utah, which is arguably not real camping, but it is such a nice facility.  It's like camping in your backyard, with showers, flush toilets, a swimming pool and lots and lots of activities for the kids.  That's what I love most!  I love that my boys can head over to the playground or the jumping pillow and just play.  We take our bikes and ride through the city.  We did hit the beach on two days.  The lake was very high again this year and so the North beach was the only place with any real beach, and my boys had a BLAST! 

 They sure love playing in the water with Grandpa.  It's such a great beach because the boys can walk out for what seems like miles and still, the water comes just to their knees or chest.  I loved watching Greyson as he toddled out into the water, "Deeper!  Deeper!"  He sure enjoyed his sense of independence in that water. 

My boys played their hearts out in the sand.  The second day we went, a few cousins joined us and they brought much cooler toys than we had the day before.  It's amazing what having a boat to drive in the water can to for your fun! 

 Greyson, of course, was right in there with everyone else.  He just wants to be big and play with the big boys. 

 Tyler built quite the sand pile and had a lot of fun burying things in it.  It was just so enjoyable and many memories were made.  I know my boys are already looking forward to this trip next year. 

On the way home, we stopped in Soda Springs, Idaho at a park for a quick lunch.  We stop at this park each year on the way home, and I have a picture of my boys and Dave on this dino each year.  First, just Dave and Chad, then Tyler joined the ranks, and now w have filled the dinosaurs back to capacity.  Not sure where our newest little addition will go in the picture next year.  Here's to summer! 

Valentine's Day & 100th Day of School

I will be the first to admit that I am not a Valentine's Day guru.  It's not that I don't like Valentine's day, but I think it is silly that so many people save their affection for this day only.  Why do we need a holiday to tell our loved ones that we love them?  And why do we have to spend money in order to show our love?  None the less, I try to make this day special for my kiddos and my hubby. 

Dave and I talk ahead of time and always agree on not spending a bunch of money.  I think that by talking this through ahead of time, we know what the expectations are, for ourselves and each other. That way, there are no disappointments.  I told Dave he could spend $5 on me (he bought me one gerber daisy-my favorite flower.  Perfect!)  I don't want to feel forgotten, but it doesn't take much to show your love.  I gave Dave some Rolo dynamite I saw on Pineterest-Rolos are one of his favorite candies (then again, what candy isn't Dave's favorite?)

For breakfast, I made heart-shaped waffles with pink-Orange Julius.  Sadly, Chad woke up at 6am throwing up, so he never even got to enjoy any of it.  He was so worried about missing his class party.  I emailed his teacher to check on what time they would start, and he luckily, he was keeping food down by then and was able to go. 

I remember Valentine's day as a kid being a BIG deal!  And I remember LOVING going through each of those Valentine's I'd get from all of my friends at school.  Sure enough, that was the first thing Chad did when he got home from school-go through each card.  I'm sure glad he was able to go. 

I have to do a quick write up on 100's day because my littler boys were so cute.  The schools all make a HUGE deal out of the 100th day of school, and one of the things Chad's class did was have a 100's snack.  Each child brought 100 of one item to school to share and then got to share and enjoy the snack.  Chad brought home a gallon Ziploc bag with what was left of his treat, and both Greyson and Tyler were so jealous.  Greyson promptly went to the drawer where I keep my baggies, pulled on out and said, "treat, treat." 

This is he and Tyler eating their "100's day" treat.  Once I gave Greyson his bag full of marshmallows and Nilla wafers, he went and got a book of him as a baby and sat to read it while he enjoyed his snack.  So cute! 

Snowman Party

Each year in January, we have a snowman party.  Dave's mom started the tradition several years ago, and although it evolves and changes each year, it is something we look forward to.  Although his family lives 3 hours away, we all choose a day and time and do this party "together".  This year, we have no snow.  So, we set the table with snow fleece blankets, snowman napkins and snow (angel food cake and white cotton candy and cool whip-to be eaten later). 

 I just had to include these next two pictures of Greyson.  As soon as he saw me with the camera taking pictures of our party, he started posing for me.  They were just so cute and so him. 

 Each year, we watch this (below) movie.  And this year, we added a spiritual twist, and shared a few scriptures that mention snow.  The spiritual part was a lot deeper than that, but after my last SUPER long post, I thought I'd keep this one brief. 

 Dave's mom sent up a fleece blanket for each of us to use while we watched the movie.  Greyson snuggled his the minute he saw it! 

 Watching the movie. 

And finally, we enjoyed our snow treats (all the previously mentioned items with some fruit soup on top).  Yum!  Always fun-and a nice break up of the routine.  Thanks Joan (Dave's mom) for putting it all together and inviting us to do it with you. 

4

This last week, Tyler turned 4.  It was a pretty special day and we sure enjoyed making is special and celebrating it with him.  Around here, we decorate for birthdays.  When I was talking to Tyler about it on Thursday night, Chad overheard and begged me to wait to decorate until he got home from school the next day.  This . . .

is the finished result.  Tyler stared at it all and said, "This is all for me." 

We started off Tyler's birthday with a Lowe's Build and Grow activity.  We sure love going to these, so it was extra special that there happened to be one on Tyler's birthday. 

Next, we headed to lunch. We have started a tradition that in our family, the birthday boy (or girl) gets to choose a restaurant and we all go to a birthday lunch. I had guide Tyler's choice a little this time because this month, we also celebrated my grandma's 90th birthday, and there was a family lunch planned for her and all the other January birthdays on Tyler's birthday. Since the restaurant had already been chosen, I basically spoon fed him that restaurant as an idea and sold him on it. 

Here he is with his cupcake.  I'm pretty sure he thought we were all there just for him, and he didn't even know that we also sang to 4 other people.  It worked out perfectly. 

This is my grandma Jones, my dad's mom, and my only living grandparent.
  It is pretty special to get to celebrate her 90th. 

After lunch, we headed home to finish the cake and get ready for Tyler's party.  We don't do big "parties" around here, but usually, whatever family is available comes over for cake and ice cream and a few gifts.  But, we DO do cakes around here!  I started the tradition on Chad's first birthday (although I didn't know it would become a tradition) when I made him a giraffe cake.  It was followed by several train cakes, a Lightning McQueen cake, Radiator Springs cake, Mater and the Ghostlight cake, Chick Hicks cake (ya, we had a Cars theme going for a while there) and this year, Tyler wanted an Angry Birds cake.  I get pretty excited about these cakes until about the time to put them together.  They are day long ordeals, but this year, Dave really helped to put it all together and it was nice to not be 100% in charge.  We made the birds (cake balls) on Friday night and Dave assembled the rest on Saturday.  Here are a few pictures of the process and finished product.  

This really became Dave's masterpiece and he actually had to leave the room when I cut it because he was so sad.  Tyler LOVED it, and in every picture of him with his cake, he is staring at it.  He was pretty excited! 

We did a few gifts with grandma and grandpa and cousins  

blew out some candles . . . and called it a night. 

On my children's birthdays each year, I love to look back at their baby books and reminisce about their births and the short little lives so far.  It really feels like just yesterday that this little guy joined our family. 

Tyler is so much fun!  He is such a silly little boy and he always says the funniest things.  He has the most amazing blue eyes and he still loves to be held and cuddled.  I'm so glad the Lord entrusted me with this handsome little man to love and raise.  Happy Birthday Tyler!