Fun Times With the Cousins

We had some exciting times with the cousins a few weeks ago. They came to hang out while their mom and dad went to Ohio for a residency interview. This was our second morning together. We tried to smoosh 5 kids onto 3 seats for almost every meal because everyone wanted to sit up at the bar ( I guess we are missing Max in this picture.).
I wish I had a picture of Jeff (their dad) doing the same thing with my mom's make-up back in the day. I guess the apples don't fall far from the tree as you can see. I give Kaylee all the credit on this one though. She was the little instigator in this adventure. Not only was there make up all over them and my bathroom but Gage's pooh could be found in many areas as well. In my defense, I thought they were sleeping. It was so quiet and so I didn't suspect any thing. After about an hour I went to check on them in my room and this is what I found.
In case you can't see it well in the first picture, this is Kaylee's art work on my bedroom wall. I was quite impressed with her artistic abilities and use of color in this particular piece that I couldn't help but take a picture. I will admit this was all my fault. I forgot about some non-washable markers I had left out in my room not far from her bed. Oh well, there is always the magic eraser right?

Halloween 2009

Josh as Spiderman.
Tanner as Ob-1.
Max as a ghost.
Alice as a butterfly.
Pumpkins completed by Neal and supervised for a time by Max, Tanner, and Josh.
The costumes were the easiest to come up with this year. Max is a traditionalist when it comes to Halloween and wanted to be a ghost ever since a friend of ours told him he has a really good ghost voice. He's already got the next four years planned out which I know include a vampire and a bat for two of those four. He's been working on the voice already for the vamipire.
The twins worried me for awhile since they changed their minds quite often. Even two days before, they kept switching back and forth. Luckily, for me, they decided on costumes I had on hand; Ob-1 Neal's mom made for his birthday and Spiderman was an exciting find at a garage sale this summer.
The whole trick-or-treating group. Don't you love my brother and sister-in-law's family costumes? ReAnn made them all and they turned out so cute! The were the "credible" family. My brother, as you can tell, wasn't all that excited about his costume but he was a good sport.

Staheli Family Farm

We had a great time in St. George again this year for Halloween. We decided to check out the Staheli Family Farm which included a corn maze, pumpkin patch, mini petting zoo, and lots of other fun little games for the kids. The is a picture of the boys holding up dried up corn used to soften their fall at the bottom of the homemade irrigation pipe slides.
Alice making her classic scrunchy face during the hay ride to the pumpkin patch.
A very serious family picure. Apparently, two of us didn't get the memo.
I don't know what you call these, some type of barrel ride. This was one of the highlights.
Neal looking good even though Alice doesn't look that happy.

Neal Turned 30 and The Annual Pumpkin Patch Trip

Sorry about the sad picture representing Neal's big day. It looks so weird and smoky because he had just blown out the candles. I only took two and the other one is pretty much black with a little bit of light from the candles on the pie (I guess I didn't have the flash on). FYI: Our camera broke back in August so our picture taking as been pretty dismal due to the fact that we have to resort to Max's camera to document important events. Anyway, it was a fun day. At least I hope it was for Neal. He did say I made up for Father's day (the kids and I were all sick that day) so I assume that meant he enjoyed his 30th birthday at least more then Father's day (which obviously wasn't really hard to do). We had some friends over and his two sisters for a "pie party" and spent most of the day enjoying conference.

The twins and I took our 3rd annual trip to the Pumpkin Patch at the Red Barn in Santaquin. Of course, they loved it as usual. We all picked out our own pumpkin (the only criteria being that it had to be carried without the help of mom) and then finished off the trip with an apple cider donut. Yum!

My First Half Marathon

I ran this over Labor Day weekend. It started in Gunlock and finished in Ivins. It was a lot of fun. There were quite a few hills but the scenery was awesome. I never thought I would say this but I actually enjoy running. Neal thinks it's because I get to gossip with my two friends who I trained with this last month. I beg to differ. We didn't gossip the whole time but I'm sure having great friends to run with did help the process. We all enjoyed it so much, we have decided to keep running together and in the mean time, find another race we want to train for.

Max, Our Budding Photographer

Max got a camera for his birthday and I have been meaning to post some of his work. These pictures were from a wedding a couple weeks ago. To keep him busy, I first told him to take a picture of his dad, who had fallen asleep with Alice, next I told him to take a picture of the wedding cake, then a picture of his favorite fruit on the food table, and then he decided on his own to take a picture of his grandpa. I think he did a pretty good job. I debated whether to post some of his favorites which include, random toys on the floor, close ups of Alice's face, and blurred brothers' bums. I think I will save those for a very special occasion.

Max and the Twins Start School

I cannot believe how fast my kids are growing up. Max started 1st grade almost a month ago and the twins started preschool last week. It was so strange dropping the twins off on their first day and going home. One thing I wasn't prepared for was how nostalgic I would get. The twins will always seem so little to me. I had a hard time swallowing the fact they were really old enough to go to school for a couple hours without me. I got over those feelings rather quickly and then realized how quiet it was at home. Alice and I didn't know what to do with ourselves. I kept thinking of all the things I could be doing and should be doing. The possibilities were limitless. In the end, I couldn't make up my mind. I sat on the couch contemplating for quite awhile. I think I did a few dishes, started some laundry, and watched bits and pieces of Rachael Ray; and by that time, my new found freedom was gone; I had to jump in the car to pick up my preschoolers.