Christmas Card

Here is a copy of this year's Christmas card. I made it in photoshop with some digital scrapbooking paper I bought online. Merry Christmas everyone!

Halloween

Halloween was fun this year. We got the kids halloween donuts from Krispy Kreme for breakfast. Then we made worms in a cup with chocolate and orange dyed vanilla pudding layers. In the afternoon we let them watch The Nightmare Before Christmas while we carved pumpkins. The church had a trunk or treat and dinner activity at 4:00 and it was really nice not to have to cook dinner on halloween. Afterwards we took them to a couple of other houses around the neighborhood and then came home and relaxed. They are happy with their candy stashes and I enjoyed the walk. It wasn't too cold this year so that was another blessing. Jacob was King Peter from the Chronicles of Narnia, Samuel was Spiderman, and Katie was a fairy.

Halloween Parade

Jacob's school has a halloween parade every year so the students can show off their halloween costumes and celebrate. Parents can come and sit on benches set up in the cafeteria and all the kids walk through the benches and show off. Afterwards they head back to their classroom and each class has a halloween party. No one has to participate but I think it's a cute idea and it was fun to watch all the cute little shy kindergartners and all the confident 6th graders.

Halloween Fairy

I decided to take on a challenge and sew Katie's halloween costume this year. I got a pattern for the fairies from the new Tinkerbell movies and made it up pink to show her personality. I made it a size too big so she can wear it again next year. This is how it turned out.

Pumpkin Walk

The weekend before Halloween came and hubby was out of town at a Physics Conference so I grabbed a friend whose hubby was also gone for the weekend and we went to the pumpkin walk together to stay busy. The theme of this year was advertising and there was an m&m pumpkin hidden in each scene. Each year I just love to see the creativity of these scenes. I've never seen anything like the pumpkin walk anywhere else I've ever been and it is so unique and cool. Afterward we got Aggie Icecream and then headed home to await the return of the menfolk.

Craigos

A couple of weeks ago we were riding down university parkway in the car and saw that Provo is getting a craigo' pizza. Could it be the same one from Rexburg? Then they put out new signs a couple of days later saying it was the same owners from the Rexburg one and they were going to call it "Pizza Pie Cafe" which is supposed to be like Craigo's on steriods. They are opening today and I might have to go down there and check it out. I missed those lovely sour dough cheesey breadsticks from my college days at BYU-ID. So gooooooood!

Conference Weekend

I've been a slacker about posting because I was wanting pictures to go with it but have been too busy to take them! So hopefully they will come later. I had a fun conference weekend two weeks ago. We had my sister up. We went to the BYU vs U of U Women's Soccer game. BYU won in a really close and exciting game. I also won a t-shirt from one of the sponsers that is blue and says "I root for BYU and whoever is playing is Utah"- he, he, he. Can you tell what fans we are? I also went to ladies night at Deseret Book and got to meet the lovely Heather Beers who played Charly in Charly. She signed a copy of her newest movie for me. It was fun.

Jacob's 6th Birthday

We celebrated Jacob's 6th birthday two weekends ago. We took him out to a new place in town called Pirate Island Pizza- it's a theme restaurant kind of like Chuck E Cheese but less corny. He got sung to by a band of pirates and got to eat a 24" pizza. For talking pirate talk to the waitress he got a free drink and a free icecream for his birthday. I think he had a good time, though he kept telling us he just didn't feel 6. Then we went up to campus for pictures by his request. I haven't had much of a chance to edit them much, but here are some of my favorites. I love how I was able to get some goods ones of him smiling but also some that showed personality.

Handsome Boy

I got a minor tantrum from Sam today. See, Monday is the BIG laundry day. That is because I change all the linens, towels, etc on Monday and do 3-4 loads of laundry out of them. I do more laundry through out the week but nothing like Monday. I think my boys have been on a throw everything in the laundry instead of put it away kick and so today rolls around and despite the fact that I've done 7 or 8 loads of laundry this last week Sam has no "handsome shirts" for school. What is a handsome shirt? It's either a button up, polo, or graphic tee. It can have no holes in it at all. Every since school started Sam has been obsessed with looking handsome for school. "Do I look handsome today mommy? I'm wearing a handsome shirt and handsome pants?" I never expected that from my four year old little boy- especially since he could care a less the rest of the time. I am pretty sure it's a good thing he wants to look good for school though.

Sam's First Day!

Here are some pictures of Sam's first day of preschool which started this week. He was soooo excited to ride the bus for the first time. I think his eyes were as big as sand dollars as he watched the bus approach our house. My favorite quote from Sam for the day was when his teacher asked the class if any of them had ever felt scared and Sam pipes up "No!" He is probably right, he's my fearless one. I think he'll enjoy preschool and have a good year.

Time and Times Tables

I realized today that if you were to ask me what time it was I could look at my watch- which, by the way, is a face clock and is not digital- and tell you what time it was. The big hand is pointing to the 9? No problem! That means it is 45 minutes into the hour. On the other hand, if you were to ask me what 9 x 5 was it would take me a couple of minutes to come up with the answer as I went through the 5's starting with around 25 which is the last one I can remember quickly and up on four of my fingers to 45 to finally arrive at the answer I could have found on my watch instantly. Doh!

Is that a threat?

I heard this one pop out of Sam's mouth and had to try hard to save the laughter for later. He was really mad at me for not letting him watch 2 movies in a day and told me "If you don't let me watch a movie I'm never going to eat again! ...Except breakfast and lunch and dinner and snacks. After that I'll never be hungry again and starve!" I love little boys! They are so cute when they are mad. I'm happy to report that within 10 minutes of that lovely tirade he came up to me demanding popsicles for snack. I don't think he'll starve anytime soon over a movie.

New Names

A cousin of the kids is having their name changed due to some special circumstances. As we tried to explain this change to the kids they decided they wanted to change their names too. So Jacob would now like to be known as Midna, a girl character in Zelda: Twilight Princess. Sam would now like to be known as Butt....(some dirty looks from his parents)...on, Button. And Katie would like to be Yellow. I don't believe that will happen anytime soon. I have now discovered why young children don't pick their names. I suppose if everyone did it would be a societal norm to have odd names like that, but just the same I'm really glad we don't.

The Ballerina

Katie woke up yesterday and decided she was a ballerina getting ready for ballet class. I have no idea where that came from, but why not? She got her clothes and told me this was her ballerina skirt and her ballerina cougar shirt (Go BYU!). Then she wanted me to do her hair in a ballerina bun. She told me she needed me to take her to class- if only she had one- so her "teacher" could teach her some more ballet moves for the recital. So I asked my little ballerina what moves her "teacher" had been teaching her in class and she replies "She taught me this....


and this...



and this...
and this...
and this...
and this."
She cracks me up. She has such a rich imagination and I never know what she will come up with next.

Jacob's First Day

Jacob started kindergarten this last Monday. My baby is growing up! He really enjoyed it by the sound of things. He was scared to go into the school by himself so I walked him to his new classroom and helped him get settled into his desk. Once he got in there his fear seemed to leave and he was happy. He loves his new teacher and tells me how nice she is everyday when he gets home. He loves recess and snack time and a project they are working on to make a book about themselves. He also likes his school uniforms and has fun picking out which combination of things to wear. On Friday he goes to school for an extra hour and gets two hours of art, library, music, and PE time and two hours of class time. I am really proud of him. The only downside so far is picking him up from school. The school doesn't have buses (which he wouldn't have at the public school either- he would walk or be driven) so I have to drive him to and from. The first day the line took 25 minutes to get through, but I am assured it should be down to 10 minutes by next week. It is really nice having him back in school again. It's been a long summer. I forgot why I stopped going to the grocery store with the three kids until summertime hit. It wasn't so bad at the beginning of the summer but towards the end they started picking on each other and it was time for school to start.

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Jon's grandpa had his 81st birthday this month. Happy Birthday Grandpa! We love you!

Katie Turns Three

This last weekend was Katie's third birthday. We kept it simple. We took her bowling since that is what she wanted. Then we made her pink princess cake also by her request. I think she had fun and felt special. She is a huge girly girl. If you ask her what her favorite color is she will always say pink, though she may point to pink or purple as she says it. If you ask her what she wants to be when she grows up she says "a baby" why- "just because that's what I'll be". Peter Pan is her favorite movie for today (though that changes a lot).

Kris and Scott

I am quite convinced this is the best picture we've had of all four of us together in a long, long time.

Yes they got married like 3 weeks ago and I am posting this late. Congrats to my BF Kris and her new hubby Scott. I am so excited for you guys! Your wedding was beautiful.