Jeff and Kylie drove here just for the Halloween weekend! We love having them here so much and miss them tons already! They are lots of fun and lots of help!
This is the second year they have been here for Halloween and I hope the tradition continues because I can't picture Halloween without them!
Monday morning was a sad morning since they left. The little girls stood at the door waving. We all miss them tons! Good thing they will be back soon! Last night Ammon slept with a ball Jeff won and left here for the kids. Tonight Ariana slept with it because it reminds her of Jeffy!
Thanks for coming Jeffy and Kylie! We love you!!
Hope everyone had a great Halloween! We had a blast, got lots of candy and made lots of memories!
Tori was a little devil girl!
Ariana was a nice baby tiger!. My Mom made this costume like 30 years ago! I love when my kids wear it! She loved getting candy.
Marci did an amazing job on her make-up!
Britain was a pretty fairy!
Michelle did a fantastic job on her make-up!
Kalixta was a scary ghost! Marci changed a regular dress into a scary one! Michelle did her make-up too! She looked amazing!
Ammon was a skeleton WITH a cape! The cape is very important!
Halloween was a gorgeous day! Sunny and warm!
Zoe was Miss Piggy! She loved her costume and she looked good too!
Recognize the dress Donna?!
Nik choose to help Adam in the garage and then he went to a party. He is a little bummed today that he doesn't have any candy, but yesterday he had a lot of fun!
Jordan and Michelle looked amazing as this famous couple! A few kids even wanted their autographs!
Jeff and Kylie drove up from CA just for the weekend! We love having them here! They looked great as Mario and Luigi!
We had a little graveyard in the front! This is Marcus The Carcass!
Adam put this awesome ghost together with a skeleton head, cheese cloth, metal hanger and black light!
The front of our house! Spookyyyy!
We carved pumpkin tonight. We had a house full and had so much fun! I love watching all the kids!
Happy Halloween!!!
Zoe loves to take pictures and video's. Anytime something is cute or funny she is there to capture it. I am so glad she got this!
Ammon participated in his first pack night for Cub Scouts tonight. And he earned his Bobcat.
The tradition in our pack on a cub scout's first pack meeting, is to "brand" them a member of troop 1526. The cub master puts a tarp on the ground, puts on gloves and goggles. The whole time telling the scout how much it hurts. (The boys had already told Ammon how much this "hurts"!) Ammon was looking scared the whole time. He really had no idea what was going to happen. The cub master "branded" Ammon!
Ammon's brand, 1526 in chalk!
The theme of tonight pack meeting was safari. Ammon's den did a fun skit. Did I mention I am the leader of his den? Well, I am and I love it! I have a great group of boys! For the skit the boys all made paper bag masks! Ammon is the monkey in the back!
After everything they had a man from an animal rescue place bring real animals! Real, unusual animals! The kids all loved it and I thought is was pretty cool. He told us lots about the animals and then let the kids touch them! He brought a tortoise!
A badger type animal. This things teeth were big!! He loved eating the peanuts Ammon fed him.
He also had an albino hedgehog and a breaded dragon lizard!
It was quite amazing! I wish I had taken all the kids!
We love crazy hair day in this house. Ammon plans all month for it. He was so mad that school pictures were the day before crazy hair day because he had to get a hair cut! He felt his hair was too short to be crazy enough, but we worked it out! He loved his hair!
Zoe didn't have any ideas so she asked Nik. This is my version of what he came up with!
It worked and she totally loved it!
Britain and Kalixta wanted their hair like Zoe's. Britain's hair is soooo thick the braids wouldn't hold up so once again Nik came to the rescue with an idea!
I
It worked! SO much so that Kalixta wanted it too!
My kids DEFINITELY had the coolest, craziest hair in school!
But how could I forgot Ariana! I can't! She had to have crazy hair too!
Last Tuesday all the girls were playing in their room when Ari started crying. I was making dinner so I just waited for her to come to me. Nik brings her up freaking out a little about how she really hurt herself. Well, she gave herself one heck of a shiner! The story is that she was running with a balloon, she tripped and hit her eye on Zoe's bed. Everyone tells me the same story, including Ari so it must be true!
This is an hour or so after it happened.
There is a little cut near her eye and under that is a rug burn type cut.
This is the next day! She is opening her eye and still smiling! Poor baby!!
Day Three all the pretty colors showed up! She looked at herself in the mirror and said, "Hey, my eye is purple!" Then started laughing!
Day five the scab came off and the green and yellow colors showed up.
Today she is looking much better and it is not very noticeable. The first couple days when people asked her what happen she would tell them she was "running through her bed!" I thought that was a good description. Now she tells people she was "running, fell and bonked it on Zoe's bed."
Adam asked her one day if she got into a fight and she nodded. He then asked if she won and she shook her head no with the saddest expression on her face. It was so cute!
She has been a trooper! She is my tough girl!
Adam went shooting this morning with the young men. I am a little jealous I didn't get to go! He had a great time!
While looking around blogs and website for Tori's cake I found the cutest Halloween craft on Our Best Bites. Our family loves Halloween and I can't get enough decorations. This craft looked easy so after we went to the pumpkin patch everyone came to the house and we made Mason Jar Lanterns! Check them out!
Aren't they so so so cute??!! I love them!! They usually sit on my window sill and are lit by the sun.
Zoe moved them around to get these creative pictures!
They weren't as easy as I thought\hoped they would be. Each kid had to have the help of an adult. Thank goodness I had lots of help!!
Here they are all lit up! Awesome right?!
I love taking the kids to the pumpkin patch. Every year is a new adventure! Our family rule for pumpkin picking is: you have to pick up your own pumpkin and carry to the picture spot! This way you can only get a huge pumpkin if you can pick it up.
Tori is the exception to that rule, but she still tried to pick it up!
Zoe's pumpkin was just right!
Ammon wanted a BIG pumpkin. This is as big as he could get. He struggled to get it all the way across the patch, but he did it!
Britain struggled with her pumpkin too. She dropped it a few times, but made it in the end!
Kalixta's perfect pumpkin!
The whole gang!
Our family!
We had to get tons of cute pictures of everybody enjoying life!
Ammon got stuck coming out of the hay!
And Zoe got stuck going in!
We had a blast! I can't wait for craving time!!
Marci and Kenny always have the birthday kid spend the night at their house and then they do something fun with them the next day. Since Tori is too young to spend the night they decided to take her to get her pictures taken for her birthday! Marci and I went last week. Tori never smiled her big, beautiful, see all my teeth smile but there was tons of cute pictures!
This is the one we picked!
But it was a hard hard choice. Here are more good ones!
Not the best pictures but it's the memory! Right Denise?!
Thanks again Kenny and Marci! You guys are always thinking!!
My sweet little Tori turns one today! Oh where has the year gone?! It is amazing to watch her grow and change. I took her to the doctor today. She got seven shots!! (The kids all said I was so mean to take her to the doctor on her birthday!) She is right around the 50% for her height, weight and head so she is just PERFECT!!
In her blessing Adam gave her when she was one month old he said she would be a joy to our family now and throughout her life. So far that is so true. She smiles and laughs quickly. She often laughs when everyone else does like she understands the joke. When she is sad and cries she is comforted easily. The kids all love her to pieces and enjoy making her laugh and teaching her stuff. She picks things up so quickly. Marie has taught her in a week how to "give five" in preparation for my Dad coming next month. She is my little angel who can always make me laugh!
We celebrated her birthday Sunday with the family here. We had lots of fun! I made her the most delicious lemon cake I found on My Kitchen Cafe! I love that blog! She got her own little cupcake!
Marci blew up some balloons for her party! She loves to play with balloons. It is just hard to get a picture because she doesn't sit still! This one turned out cute with Ari and Britain.
The kids all had fun giving her presents and cheering as she opened them. I pulled the most paper off but she sure enjoyed ripping it!
Modeling the new hair barrette she got!
My Mom made her a warm fuzzy quilt! It is wonderful Mom! Thanks!
Blowing out her candle!
She didn't get nearly as messy as I thought she would. Maybe she doesn't like lemon!
Jordan and Michelle got her the cutest outfits. Here she is modeling one at the pumpkin patch! (More of the pumpkin patch to come later!) Thanks guys!
Her thighs in these leggings are so delicious! You just want to bite them!
Happy Birthday Tori!!
Adam and I have had so much fun playing softball with some of our family and friends. We actually came in 3rd place. We were pretty excited. Here's a few pictures. It got too cold to take the kids so they stayed home. I had to take pictures and missed quite a few people.
We can't wait for next year!
I love when fall comes because that means Halloween which means candy corn! I love candy corn! There are always bags of it in my house so when I saw this recipe I had to try it! It was a hit! I found it on a fun wed site called Your Homebased Mom. She has tons of great ideas!
Candy Corn Cookie Bark
I made this in less than 15 minutes today for my cub scouts. They loved it!
Enjoy!
14 whole Oreos, broken up. I used the Halloween ones with the orange filling but regular will work fine 1 1/2 C pretzels, broken into pieces. I used the small stick pretzels 1 lb. white chocolate, almond bark or melts found in the bulk food section 1 C candy corn brown and orange colored sprinkles Cover a large cookie sheet with wax paper. Spread broken cookies, pretzels and about 3/4 C of the candy corn onto the waxed paper. Place white chocolate in a container and microwave for 1 1/2 minutes. Stir and then microwave for another 30 seconds until melted and smooth. White chocolate melts faster and burns easier than chocolate. Drizzle the melted chocolate over the cookie mixture, spreading with spatula if needed to coat evenly. Sprinkle remaining candy corn and colored sprinkles over the chocolate while it is still wet. Do not let it harden. Place cookie tray into refrigerator until set and firm. Remove and gently break bark into small pieces. Store in air tight container.
Football is now done! Nik had his party last night. Harvey Unga was there to talk to the boys. He is an amazing running back for BYU! He will play in the NFL. He talked to the team about always playing hard whether they win or lose. He also told them to work hard and stay in school. Important things for my son to really hear!
Nik had a fun year even if they didn't win much.He played lots of different positions and scored his first touchdown. I am happy that my afternoons and evenings are more free but a little sad too. Super happy I won't be sitting out in the cold!
This is Nik's team!
Zoe has really been going crazy with my camera lately. She makes little videos and has taken a picture of every Halloween decoration in my house. She is always willing to take a picture of someone or something so when I downloaded my pictures I wasn't surprised to see these lovely pictures.
Nik's best side!
But her self portraits cracked me up! This is my silly crazy fun Zoe!
Adam's birthday cake, of course! And it was amazing!!!! Just look how excited he is to eat it!
Today is Adam's birthday! Happy happy birthday Sweetie!! He said he wanted chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, but I couldn't do just that with all the cool blogs and recipes I've found lately. I searched and searched and found, what I hoped would be the perfect cake! I found Peanut Butter Cup Cake! And it was terrific! You can try it too just click here!
Yes I know I'm terrible to be posting such a recipe like this after just posting about Biggest Loser. So sorry, but what would Thursday be without a recipe!
Adam's birthday was lots of fun. He is the best present opener. He gets so excited over each gift. Plus the kids love their Daddy and love getting him things.
This picture is priceless! Zoe was my photographer and did an amazing job!
Ammon loves loves loves gum! He thinks everyone loves it as much as he does so he always buys it for them! He was so excited to give it to Adam! He was running in place and dancing. It was so funny just to watch him!
Tori was constantly pulling on the tray trying to get the unopened and opened gifts. Just wait Tori, your turn is coming soon!
Happy Birthday Love!
This just might be my new favorite show! The Biggest Loser is on Tuesday nights on NBC. It is the best sad, feel good, motivational show! I only started watching it last week because Adam had it on. Now I will never miss it!
