The 5 minute visit

We went. We froze. We remembered. We headed up to SLC to redeem our Aquarium passes and while we were up there we decided to use our restaurant.com credit ($3 a gift card for $25 gift card, sure!) and then head to Temple Square. Rose, my sister, took a break during her finals to come to the Thai restaurant with us (Pad Thai was amazing!) and then we went to Temple Square to show the kids the lights. Oh....my....coldness! We were unprepared for how cold it was. No gloves or hats. Cecily was shaking she was so cold. It was terribly terribly cold. So we parked far away. We walked to reflecting pool. Looked at the nativity. Took 3 pictures and left. That was it. I hope the children remember what they saw because it's a beautiful thing. The nativity at Temple Square is magnificent and magical. The lights are stunning and it was a pleasure to go, even for 5 minutes.

Thanksgiving

We went out to Colorado for Thanksgiving. We decided to surprise his family and arrive early. So we left at 5pm after Tyler's class got out  (more like 5:45, Hannah standard time) and got there at 1:15 am. Yikes! But the kids traveled great. We only stopped once for gas and it was worth it to be there for one extra day.

The whole week was filled with laughter, shopping, gaming, swimming and of course, eating.

 The ambush for the return of Steph and Papa from their trip to Wisconsin (they brought us some nice Venison too. Yum!)

Carson turned 3! And guess what cake he requested? A car wash cake. No kidding. Jana is such a good mom and obliged this request. I would have suggested my child come up with an easier cake to make! And look how creative she was! That's coconut on the giant marshmallows and fruit roll-up flaps complete with a rice krispie treat car and cookie wheels.

 The kids playing at the piano. They also enjoyed swimming and visiting the Colorado Winder Farms (haha, actually the Spencer's home) to pick up the daily carton of chicken eggs, visit the cat Cookie and tried not to break any limbs on their zip line. Forget about chuck-e-cheese, when you have such a sweet backyard!

 The guys decided to make a trip to the local thrift store and buy some ugly outfits to surprise us all.

 Giving Thanks

I made some rosemary place settings, waaay too much cornbread stuffing (which we ate for the next week),and Tyler made 5 gourmet pumpkin (custard) pies. Then of course, we had the good stuff.

 Tyler and I being matchy matchy. Oh, and as a side note...I've noticed people eying my belly, friends even, and I know what they're thinking. And you're wrong! It's just fat!

 Samuel obsessing over cousin Nathan's ipad game, plants vs zombies (I think?)

A shameless plug!

Okay, so I realize I haven't posted in like....nearly a month. But I have more so on my other blog. I've been busy! Or maybe my priorities all mixed up?
Well, this priority is not really mixed up....trying to save money so I can send you all (well, some of you perhaps) cute Christmas cards. And to save myself even more money I just have to blog about my latest projects!
I used Shutterfly because a friend of mine got to host a Shutterfly party, balloons and all. (it was free for her) and for going we went home with a bunch of free stuff too. I got 20 deluxe Christmas cards, a free 8x8 book and then for sharing it I received free shipping plus a 7x9 photo book. Sweet! So now to save even more money to get even more deluxe Christmas cards to send out to you fun friends, I have to blog about it. There, I said, shameless plug. But seriously though, I LOVE Shutterfly. 

I've used them for several projects in the past including photo cards last year, photo books and calendars! Love them!

5x7 Folded Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Twilight Woods Giveaway

Hi! I am hosting a giveaway on my other blog. Check it out here to see how to enter. Adding entries ends on Monday night at midnight (November 14th). Just click on the image and it'll take you there. Good luck!

Halloween 2011

Halloween has come and gone already! Halloween!?! Wow, the time is flying....eek!

Honestly, I've been thinking about costumes since....January or February? I had decided we were doing a theme (which we've never really done before, last year it was a loosely Asian theme). The theme was to be Wizard of Oz. Why? Because a) Cecily had to be the lion because that was her size costume and the other two already wore it. Tradition.  And b) because what little girl doesn't want to be Dorothy? Well, apparently more than I thought, including my own. Jocelyn didn't think Dorothy was pretty enough, even with the ruby slippers. What? Samuel was billed to play the tin man, me the wicked witch and Tyler, the scarecrow.

Well, after Jocelyn announced she didn't want to be Dorothy, Samuel realized he didn't really want to be the tin man. It wasn't cool enough. So, after we told him he couldn't go trick-or-treating if he didn't dress up, I decided to revise my vision a bit to a modern Wizard of Oz. Dorothy with a tutu and apron and Samuel could be a bit more like a robot. And I would be the sassy witch without the green face. So, we were happy with that until my Aunt Mary offered to let Samuel wear my cousin's costume from last year, a clone star wars dude (Captain Fordo, to be more specific). So I weighed my options.....borrow a hand-me-down costume or make a costume from scratch and have a son be sort of happy wearing it. I chose the easy route. So that's what it was, for a day. The theme changed to movie-theme characters. We borrowed the costume the day of two parties...and though he looked really cool and my aunt rocked at coming up with this handmade costume, it didn't fit Samuel well enough and I was worried he would break it during his class party. So he wore it for one day.

On Sunday night, the night before Halloween, I decided to change his costume, once again, and made him a mummy costume (which we had discussed as an aption days before as well). It was super easy to make just took a couple of hours. Now, are you ready for the costume changes for Joc? I know, right? I'm so crazy!! It's only Halloween already!?! But costumes...are costumes. You get to pretend you are someone else. It's like being on the stage or in front of a camera. It's so fun!!

So for Joc.....I borrowed my cousin Micaela's Dorothy costume that her daughter wore last year. But after browsing Pinterest a bit, I saw this cute tutu/apron rendition and thought that might be a nice twist. But first it started with the ruby slippers. I followed a tutorial I found (again on Pinterest) for repurposign shoes. I mod podged red glitter onto some old/ratty shoes Jocelyn wasn't wearing anymore. It only took me about an hour but....that's about as long as the glitter lasted before it all peeled off. Dang. So much for trying to save money (luckily, I already had the materials on hand and it didn't' cost me anything but time) and paid $12 for the Target version. I made the tutu the night before the parade and when Jocelyn woke up at about midnight for her usual nightly waking (she just wanders out of  bed, half asleep, and announces she has to pee or something of that nature) I tried on this borrowed dress with the tutu and it looked...dumb. So the next morning, I quickly made up an apron out of this ugly calico skirt that was the main inspiration in the first place, right before the Law school parade. Then on Saturday, for the other 2 parties, she wore the borrowed gown, and on Halloween day she wore the handmade one again.

Musical costumes!!!Oh, the drama behind the scenes!

 

Law School Parade and trick-or-treating in the carrels. 

Jocleyn is standing behind me, behind Cecily. Joc wasn't brave enough to walk in front :(

This is from a little party we hosted.

 

 

 

For the party my Aunt Allie and Uncle Roger host each year we brought this puking pumpkin. Again, I got the idea from Pinterest. 

 

 Pancake cat breakfast and for dinner we had mummy dogs.

This first group is from the annual Law School parade/and trick-of-treating.

Samuel's school parade:

Trick-or-Treating

Cecily is not pictured because...she didn't go. Call me cruel but she woke up grumpy and refused to eat her dinner and I knew if she went trick-or-treating she'd eat candy the whole way through. I know, but it's Halloween! Well, if she hadn't already gathered candy at the law party, I would have let her go...maybe.
We went out for 1 1/2 hours! We went around our ward boundaries. Our neighbors had a little haunted house in their carport....which freaked my kids out. They didn't admit that until the end of the night. At first, Jocelyn wanted to go through again but by the time we passed it to go home, she insisted she was done and they both confessed they were too scared. It was a bit scarey...luckily they didn't wake up with nightmares. And there was one suspicious neighbor who was waring an ugly mask....who gave out unwrapped candy and had a camera and video-camera. Creepy. No wonder Jocelyn didn't want to take candy from him. But I made her just to be polite. I should have listened to her. Otherwise, they had a great time and between the two trick-or-treating events they gathered 5 lbs of candy! I gave them the choice.....sell their candy to a local dentist office or keep it. If they sold it we'd keep a bowl full for treats and then they'd get to use their money to buy a toy. Luckily, they chose the toy! We took it to the dentist and it was 5 lbs. So $5 later they each had a toy and their candy is going off to soldiers overseas! And I hope that made them feel good. And now we don't have to have sugar wars until Easter....because we won't have as much around.

Lump in my throat....I have a 7 year old!

So......I have a seven year old. A 7 year old! One more year before he is baptized. Wow.
It's been a wonderfully challenging 7 plus 9 months. Samuel has taught me more then I would have ever imagined I could in 7 years. Much much more. The little person that came into our lives has been such a blessing. When he was small, he was so easy. He slept well. He was very personable, always smiling. He was always a picky eater, that hasn't changed. And then hit 4 years old and became a bit more challenging. Then he entered pre-school and we realized he was attracted to trouble, at times. Then he entered public schools and he had more behavioral challenges. Now he is in 1st grade, and although he was off to a rough start, he's grown up a lot in this last month.  Tyler and I hadn't realized how impressionable these children are. They learn so quickly, both good and bad. And when we, as parents, are forgetting or slacking, particularity in the spiritual department, things get rough. I am not sure if it was due to prayer, fasting, consequences, or just my attitude, but he's turning around. I'm turning around. This child, who is still so young, has taught me much about faith, trust and love, and it's been particularly magnified in the last month.

I love this boy. He's so smart and loving. He is still my baby, my first, my guinea pig, my only son. What would I do without him? What would Jocelyn do without him? What would Tyler do without him? Or his papa's and grandma's? And Cecily? We wouldn't be loving and learning as much, that's what.

 He loves his things.

 He loves his friends.

More Lego party details on Bonne Nouvelle, coming to you all week!

Summer Fun Catch up

Here are just a few more activities we did this summer!

Bird Feeders

Trafalga with cousins

  


Walk to the Temple





 And stopped and smelled the roses...



Painted rocks

 

This is the Place Heritage Park

Stewart Falls

My freshman roommate, Katherine, called me up while I was trying to keep the kids out of the lily pads at one of our trips to the Thanksgiving Point Gardens. She was coming to Utah for BYU Education Week. The timing worked out this year so that I could for the first time ever. And it was amazing!! I went to the evening classes (about 20 hours of lecture) and I was soooo edified. I had a renewed desire to be more organized, a better mother and a more Christlike being. It was amazing and I recommend it to anyone who can go!



She was able to stay with me for a couple of nights and she suggested we take the kids on a little hike. She suggested Stewart Falls in Sundance. I'd never hiked to it before and was a little hesitant with the children. But Tyler was home (school hadn't started yet) and was able to stay while Cecily napped. So it was Samuel, Jocelyn, Kat and I. The weather was perfect. The hike was short (about 2 miles in total) and we all had a blast. It's beautiful!! On our way down we saw this lovely, of many, cabins. I read this gals blog from time to time (who is amazingly talented....check out her lovely studio. To die for.) and she blogged about vacationing at this family cabin. If we hadn't been trespassing in this private area, I wouldn't have seen it. Eek.


I did learn a few things too on this hike. As we were looking for the starting point of the hike we had to go up and down a lot of hilly roads. Finally, we stopped and asked a family who was just finishing up. It was then I noticed my breaks were awfully smelly. So we stopped and asked another male person how to prevent this (because I never took driver's Ed and this was not common knowledge to me) and he suggested we drive in a lower gear. Ah! No more break damage.

Then I also learned that peeing over a log is not very....how shall I say? Hygenic? For Jocelyn, not me. Luckily, there was a nice little stream with fresh clean water that worked for both toilet paper and laundry services :)

Apparently my two oldest don't' know how to smile for the camera.