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!

Pumpkin Patch

 The Olsen's annual pumpkin patch party!

Here's the gang after hunting down their pumpkins

 Devin's worrier pose.

Had SUCH a great time!

4th of July

First off we went to the parade in West Jordan with Brian & Elaine, Dan & Bridget and the Broodsbys. Below is a picture of McCall with Malinda...isn't she so cute with her little Aunt Jamima look!

Two walking advertisements for Aeropostal.
Conner is so cool in his shades!! I think he thinks he's a movie star, check out that look...too cute!
Everett and Ethan were in heaven playing in the dirt behind us all...parade, what parade?

The girls

Bree & Everett

After the parade we went to the Brooksby's place for lunch. I just had to post these pics of the babies.

Conner is so photogenic, he's a natural in front of the camera. What a fun little guy, we really enjoyed having them down for the 4th and will miss them when we make the move...we love you guys!!

Everett & Ethan playing on the swing. I had to post these two pictures, they are the best of buds and every time Ethan sees a picture of Everett he asks to go to his house.

another cute pic

Malinda has the most beautiful eyes and she is just a darling little girl!

Malinda with daddy

just swingin' in the backyard...oh look it's Brennen on the left, I don't know how they did it, but he and Preston managed to dodge the camera the whole day.

Devin harassing the cook...be careful Devin he's making your food!

I really hope that was his plate!

Elaine had a quilt set up in the garage for us to work on, and check it out Debbie all those years of making your boys quilt and knit and sew is paying off. I have to say that Elaine was very impressed, she had been working on this project for...well we'll just say a while and she was VERY glad to see it done.

Bridget with Baby Conner...he finally sacked out, what a trooper he was!
Brian started up some flames for the kids to roast marshmallows...they had a blast!!

Roasting

Ari's marshmallow worrier pose...you will now be seeing this in your yoga class.

Family Traditions

Okay so I'd like to share some of our family traditions for the holidays.

Cookie making is at the top of the list not because I like to eat them (although I do have this great recipe for cream cheese-walnut cookies that's really yummy) but because I love to give them. Each year we have our "regulars" but we do like to try something new too...thanks Christine for the great cookie recipe! We also like to make fudge and peanut brittle, my mom would always make these around the holidays and it's a great memory I have. This year will be extra special because our family has "uncovered" a forgotten family recipe from my great grandma Poulton for Vanilla Fudge...can't wait to give it a try!

Christmas stories and songs, what is Christmas without stories of Jesus. Along with these stories we mix in some fun ones. One that I remember as a kid is a story called "Trouble at the Inn" by Dina Donohue, who knows if it is a true story but it always brings me to tears and it reminds me of children's innocence.

Christmas eve growing up we would go to my grandma Irwin's home and exchange cousin gifts and that was the only gift we could open before Christmas morning. We would also read the above story along with the stories of Jesus. In our family on Christmas Eve we have Clam Chowder in bread bowls for dinner and our kids get to open gifts from their grandma Debbie and she always makes them the cutest pj's to wear that night. We have added to this by giving the kids a book to read that evening too.

In Chris' family they would wake up Christmas morning to balloons covering the ground and they would always find that the gifts didn't have names but numbers...take a guess as to why and we have taken on this tradition as well. Christmas morning our kids can go through their stockings with or without parental supervision, but they have to wait to open anything that is wrapped and we do it one at a time...poor kids. Dad "plays" Santa and hands out the gifts to each child (Irwin tradition). This year will be especially hard because Chris works Christmas Eve and doesn't get home until 8:30 a.m. if we're lucky. For breakfast we have a couple of traditions, one from the Le Bel side and one from the Irwin side...neither one of us was willing to give in. Chris' family always has cinnamon rolls and my family has strawberry waffles, it actually works out well because if you make the dough for the cinnamon rolls the night before you can just pop them in the oven in the morning and start the morning off with the rolls and after exerting all that energy on opening gifts there are always takers for the waffles. This year we are planning on going to my brother's place Christmas afternoon so that the kids can all play together. Can't wait!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!