Pumpin carving and a family tradition

Every Halloween Ethan is uber excited about picking out and carving his pumpkin.....until the carving begins! He LOVES to draw the picture on the face of the pumpkin and watch daddy do the carving but he REFUSES to get his hands in the "pumpkin goo"...year after year it's the same thing.

Devin, in costume doesn't have ANY problem with the goo!

 Brennen did double duty this year and carved two pumpkins. The pumpkin in hand was the smallest one we had....

 ...the one on the far left is the other one he did. He was SUPER excited to carve this one because it has a lump where he created a swollen eye. Here is the line-up:

Brennen (#1) is on the far left, then Ethan, Devin and Brennen (#2....it's a mangled face, oh boy).

 Our family tradition....werewolf fingers, Frankenstein fingers, and (not shown) mummy fingers (check out this link for a picture).

Happy Halloween!

I'm going there someday!

Okay, I've already been there but went to walk around the grounds today with Ethan. We got some great pictures of the Temple & Ethan.

So, as I'm sure you can guess ANY body of water is a HUGE hit with an almost 5 year old.

Ethan got to go into the waiting area of the Temple when he announced to me with great energy that he had to go to the bathroom. This is where we ended up and he insisted on the poses.

LOVE the doors!

 I feel so blessed to have been able to be married in such a special place, it truly is the house of the Lord.

 Again, just gorgeous!

 Look at that smile!

 Holiness to the Lord, House of the Lord!

What a handsome little guy! 



Moving help

So today I am playing catch up! So much has happened since my last post. We have packed up and moved from Utah back to Oregon. We miss our Utah and Idaho friends but feel so blessed to have been able to travel on our journey back home. We have met some wonderful people along the way. Here are just a couple of pictures of Devin and Ethan helping with the move.

Pool Party

So I'm very disappointed with myself for not taking the camera...yet again. Yesterday we were invited to the RS home for dinner and a pool party. The kids had a BLAST! They swam, roasted marshmallows, bounced on the tramp, dove for marbles (for each marble found, they got a gummy bear...the kids had a lot of fun with that), ate zucchini pie (tastes like apple) with ice cream, watching movies and played in their playhouse. The boys just kept going and going in fact we didn't end up leaving until 11 p.m.

They have a daughter Brennen's age that was following Ethan around like a mother hen...it was so cute. Actually all of their girls just adored Ethan, in fact their oldest (15) just couldn't stop giggling at everything he did and Ethan just ate it up!! This family has a daughter Ari's age too and she happens to be Ari's twin. When we moved to the neighborhood Ari was mistaken for this girl many times by her own father!

Memorial Day

For Memorial Day we set out to find grandpa's grave site. Here is a picture of the headstone...isn't it beautiful! We love and miss you grandpa.

We also found Aunt April's headstone, grandpa loved her dearly and had such a hard time with the loss of his baby girl. I'm sure they are spending plenty of time together now.

I believe this is my great grandma and grandpa.
And a pic of the kids at the grave site.

Our spring break project, ice skating, a fat lip and a picture for Aunt Heather

Our Spring break project is our back yard clean up. Here is Chris working on our garden area, no we don't own a rototiller, but we have some friends who were nice enough to hook us up...Thanks!!

The boys started off dragging their feet, but really had a blast once they got into the project...there is just something about hard work that is so fulfilling.

Ethan does have a "normal" smile, but this is what you get if you ask him to smile...kinda scary, but cute none the less. Ari helped out as much as she could but had to cut out a little early for her ice skating lessons.
Brennen & Devin are participating in baseball. After practice this is what Brennen came back with.

Ethan is a police officer in this picture. I had to post it because he was so funny playing with it, as you can see he is concentrating very hard and he kept this expression as he pushed different buttons. The helmet talks like a police radio and you can control it with the handlebars.

My favorite Christmas gift!

A few months ago I caught word that Suzy was going to have a baby shower...oh how I hate living so far away at times like these. I expressed to Chris my desire to attend this shower but we decided that it would be better to postpone a trip like this until later...little did I know a Christmas gift was brewing!!! I again mentioned the idea to attend the shower but got nowhere, at least that's what I thought. Christmas morning I was presented with my flight itinerary to Portland Oregon! I was shocked I really thought that Chris had purchased lame concert tickets...I do NOT want to go to a concert and on Christmas morning I was dreading having to act surprised, come to find out I didn't have to act. Here are some photos of my trip.

At the Beach

Chris had planned everything with my friend Mary (good thing that he did 'cause I ended up surprising Suzy and Cindy...it was so fun!). Mary picked me up from the airport in the morning and then drove me out to the beach that afternoon! She is such a great friend to do that for me and to let me stay at her house. We went to the outlet stores to shop for the shower and we got to stop by at Phyllis & Jerry's place, it was so great to see them, I only wish that I had a picture with them too. Mary and I had to get our picture with the beach in the background...it was such a beautiful day!!

At the Shower

Debbie, Nic and Kayla...I love this shot! We had so much fun at the shower...especially little Kayla, she loved climbing the stairs and taking toys away from other babies...she's got Le Bel in her for sure!! I couldn't get over her smile and cute little rolls...they are everywhere!

The traditional toilet paper baby shower game. Suzy wears pregnancy very well and I can say that it was very difficult to get this one right even after Cindy gave me her "expert advice".

Nicholette and Kayla...that little girl was the life of the party and I loved getting to know her better.

Okay so here is the deal, when I heard about the "drinking" game I knew I had to volunteer to participate. It's the drinking apple juice from a baby bottle game and the three sis-in-laws were up against each other (some people don't know this but I can be a little competitive). I did NOT realize how hard it is to suck that juice out of the bottle. Suzy cheated and took the lid off in the beginning and automatically disqualified (pregnancy can cause a girl to be impatient...especially in the last month with having to wait for the darn baby to come) too bad for her, but great for us, it was down to Cindy and Me...

Look at this shot!! Cindy is pausing to smile for the camera and yet she still wins...amazing. I can tell you one thing that I am sure of, Cindy sucked more than I did...I love you anyway.

Opening presents, it's always a highlight for the mom-to-be, checking out all of the fun new stuff for the new little one.

Kayla was the official toy tester...thanks Kayla!

Me-n-my sisters!

Cindy

Suzy

Nic

Debbie

All the girls!

left to right: Debbie, Nicholette, Kayla, Cindy, Suzy and me

I stayed with Jon and Suzy my second night, we had a lot of fun, we ended up going to Mazatlan for dinner and we took Cold Stone back to the house to visit until late into the night...thanks guys for the fantastic time, I can't wait to see you all again at the camp out!

Booty Boy

For Christmas this year Ethan found big boy pants (a.k.a. underwear) in his stocking. Ethan is excited about the Potty, but doesn't quite get the idea yet. Ethan has a hard time pronouncing big boy and it comes out booty, so Ethan wears booty pants...fitting I'd say.

What a cute Booty Boy!

This cracked me up!! Ethan was throwing a little tantrum at the bottom of our stairs this morning so I decided to ignore his fit. After a while there was silence and I came down to see him fast asleep in this position on our hard wood floors...ouch, that can't be comfortable he must have been really tired!!

came across this and thought it was funny:

GOD CREATED CHILDREN

Whenever your children are out of control, You can take comfort from the thought that even God's omnipotence did not extend to His own children.

After creating heaven and earth, God created Adam and Eve.

And the first thing he said was 'DON'T!

'Don't what?' Adam replied.

'Don't eat the forbidden fruit' God said
'Forbidden fruit? We have forbidden fruit?
Hey Eve, we have forbidden fruit!'

'No Way!'
'Yes way!'

'Do NOT eat the fruit! ' Said God.

'Why ?'
'Because I am your Father and I said so!' God replied, wondering why He hadn't stopped creation after making the elephants.

A few minutes later, God saw His children having an apple break and He was ticked!

'Didn't I tell you not to eat the fruit?' God asked.

'Uh huh,' Adam replied.
'Then why did you?' Said the Father.
'I don't know,' said Eve
'She started it!' Adam said.
'Did not!'
'Did too!'

'DID NOT !

'Having had it with the two of them, God's punishment was that Adam and Eve should have children of their own.

Thus the pattern was set and it has never changed.If you have persistently and lovingly tried to give children wisdom and they haven't taken it, don't be hard on yourself. If God had trouble raising children, what makes you think it would be a piece of cake for you?
THINGS TO THINK ABOUT!

1. You spend the first two years of their life teaching them to walk and talk. Then you spend the next sixteen telling them to sit down and shut up.
2. Grandchildren are God's reward for not killing your own children.
3. Mothers of teens now know why some animals eat their young.
4. Children seldom misquote you. In fact, they usually repeat word for word what you shouldn't have said.
5. The main purpose of holding children's parties is to remind yourself that there are children more awful than your own.
6. We childproofed our homes, but they are still getting in.

ADVICE FOR THE DAY:

Be nice to your kids.

They will choose your nursing home one day;

AND FINALLY:

IF YOU HAVE A LOT OF TENSION AND YOU GET A HEADACHE, DO WHAT IT SAYS ON THE ASPIRIN BOTTLE:

'TAKE TWO ASPIRIN' AND 'KEEP AWAY FROM CHILDREN'!!!!!

no thumb

Okay, I think this is the funniest thing. I know other kids do this too, but Ethan is the first of ours to put socks on his hands ALL THE TIME. In fact he will remove them from his feet and put them on his hands. Today he insisted on eating his lunch with a sock (clean mind you) on one of his hands, it made the task of eating his pb&j sandwich very difficult considering he had no thumb to use.

Baby Malinda

Yesterday we went to Brian & Elaine's to see the baby. Isn't she so beautiful...not a surprise.

Brian & Elaine tell us that she is doing great and she was able to leave the hospital early because her recovery is going so well. She is also quite big considering her first two weeks of life. What an angel!!