Elf Yourself

Presenting Zack and Gavin and their two cousins Tyler and Kairi doing a Hip Hop dance as Elves.

Sorry for the lack of posts since Halloween. I promise I'll try harder :)

Halloween 2011

Well  figured I better get my Halloween post up before it's Thanksgiving.

We had a really fun Halloween this year.  Zack is old enough to understand Trick or Treating and he even helped pick out his costume.  I love making the boys their Halloween costumes.  It will be a very sad day when they want the store bought stuff.  Yes I know it will be easier but the store bought costumes are so cheaply made... blah!  Oh well. 

Zack wanted to be a Zombie.  How does he know what a Zombie is you ask?  I blame Disney Chanel.  Okay I don't blame them but I think he saw a episode of Shake it Up with some Zombies on it.  But when we were looking through Costumes.com to get an idea what he wanted to be he always chose the Zombies.  He even had me print them for him. Ughh.  I had huge moral issues with having my three year old son dress up as a Zombie.  All the costumes had blood and gore on them.  Eww, I know I'm such a Mom and a Girl!  So I convinced Zack to be Frankenstein.  Come on he's the ultimate Zombie!  Plus I found some really cute ideas on pinterest on how to make a Frankenstein hat.  Plus I like having the boys dress up as a theme and I figured if Zack was Frankenstein; Gavin could be Igor! 

So Zack was Frankenstein

And Gavin was Igor

Our Halloween Activities:
Ward Halloween Carnival.  This year the Young Women were in charge which meant I was involved.  Zack had a good time, Gavin still wasn't 100% on board but he did get candy so that was a plus.  The Carnival was nice because it was on the Tuesday before Halloween so we didn't have to do Ward stuff then try to fit family stuff in as well.  It was also nice to change from the Trunk or Treat to just visiting a few rooms and playing games.   Yes less candy but more fun... right?  I hope people enjoyed it, I know it was a change but change is GOOD.
I didn't get any pictures because I was involved in the whole thing.  I'll try to find some pictures from anyone who had a camera.

Family Halloween Party.  Deanna hosted this year's Halloween party for our family.  It was fun!  We ate super yummy food.  Deanna totally was a rock star with the desserts.  Played a really fun Scavenger Hunt (even though it was suppose to be in the daylight but ended up being in the dark it was a blast).  And just hung out with family.  Which is really is truly the funnest part. 

Our Family of Monsters




All The Waldo's. 

Yummy Food

Gardner Village with Friends.  It's becoming a tradition to go to Gardner village with our neighborhood friends.  This year we went right before Halloween.  I had to work and others had things to do in the afternoon so we met at 10:00am.  It was nippy so we didn't dress up.  By Noon when we left it had definitely started warming up.  It was fun walking around looking at all the witches.  We have a fun group of friends, and I'm so glad that all our kids are close in age and get along so well. 

And finally Halloween.  At 4:30 we visited Bob's parents at their house to show them the kids costumes.  About 5:15 we visited my Dad's to trick or treat and show off the costumes.  About 6ish we got home and ate Dinner.  About 6:30 Bob took the kids trick or treating.  About 7:30 we headed to my mom's house to show off costumes and trick or treat on her street.  About 8:30 we visited my Grandma to show off the costumes.  By the end of the night we were EXHAUSTED.  Sorry family but next year we may just stay home and trick or treat in our neighborhood.  If anyone wants to see the costumes they'll have to come visit or wait for pictures.  Love you all but dragging those two around was a lot of work. 

 Trick or Treating has begun!  Mom almost forgot the camera, had to run home to get that photo-op.



 Pictures aren't in front of our house but as mentioned I forgot the camera and ran back home to get it.  So this the best I could do.  Love these little boys!

 I love this picture of  Gavin because it truly shows his hump.  He's not looking at the camera but one picture that he actually looks like Igor... I'll take it!

So that was our Halloween.  It was a lot of FUN!

Oh and for future reference, Halloween weather was AMAZING!  Didn't even need a jacket.  I believe the weather was in high 50 degree's could have been in the 60's.  Temperatures quickly dropped and we had snow within a week. 

The Great Pumpkin Hunt

Not sure why it's been so hard for me lately to update my blog but here goes a marathon post once again....

It's been a tradition for the kids and I to go with my Mom and Jolene to pick out a pumpkin from a homeowner that grows pumpkins in a field next to his house.  I really like the patch because the people there are really friendly, it's kid friendly and they usually have their yard decorated with cute little photo ops.  This year Bob was able to go with us.  It was fun and challenging all at the same time.  For the middle of October it was really warm.  Bob doesn't do to well in warm weather.  Poor Gavin missed his nap because we wanted to go around the time of his nap.  So we had two grumpy boys with us.  Luckily we got a wagon because it was pretty busy and at first we didn't have one.  But Jolene saved the day and found us a wagon to carry all our pumpkins.  I love the pumpkin patch because you get to search the field for the perfect  pumpkin. 

Zack wanted to find one that was just his size.  And he did find one that was small enough for him to carry.  He loved it!  Gavin was having fun just picking up pumpkins and moving them to a different location.  Surprising... not really that is just SO Gavin!

I loved watching Bob and Zack walk through the field looking for a pumpkin. I hope that Bob will come with us more often, the Boys needs these fun outing with both mommy and daddy.  The family that owns the pumpkin patch also has horses so Zack was very excited to go look at the horses (unfortunetly I didn't go with them because I was with Gavin and Jolene lost her memory card in the field... Boo hoo). 

We did find a great assortment of pumpkins and it only costed us $7!  It was a great deal and it helps a local farmer.

Sunday Hike/Walk

This past Sunday (beginnig of October) Bob and I took the kids up to the mountains to go for a little hike.  We went to Brighton Ski Resort where during the summer there is a beautiful lake circled by a boardwalk.  The lake is called Silver Lake.  It is an easy hike especially for children, and we can take our stroller so we don't have to carry the kids.  The boys loved running on the boardwalk.  Zack made sure to stop at each sign so we could talk about what was on the picture and to read about each animal.  We saw ducks which made the boys very excited.  Zack was disappointed that he didn't see any fish but it was hard without polorized sunglasses (which Mommy and Daddy had).  We also saw a lot of squirrel's so that was fun too.  Gavin would yell Duck or Squirrel everytime he's see an animal.  It was fun to get out with the kids and enjoy the beautiful mountains.  Sometimes we take the beauty that is around us for granted.  We get so caught up with work, church calling, and everything else that we have packed into our week.  It was nice just doing something with the family.

And what's a post without pictures...

On the boardwalk to the lake

They love to run

Looking for the duck and trying to see fish

I love our little family!

Playing in the water on one of the docks



I took this picture!!  Beautiful Panarama of Silver Lake if I do say so myself!

PS... this post was actually written a week after our drive but because Blogger hates me and it was so hard to get pictures uploaded it's been sitting on the back burner for over a month.  I'll try harder to get more things posted

Oh and one last picture, as we were leaving Brighton I saw these trees and made Bob go around the loop again and stop so I could get a picture.  It was a perfect example of the changing colors.







Can you see all the different colors...Green, Yellow, Orange and Red.



Silly Boys

In no particular order below are some random pictures taken of the boys in August and some of September.  I have to admit I'm loving the ages of Zack and Gavin right now.  Zack is at an age where he talks up a storm and never stops making me laugh.  Gavin is at the age were he is just learning how to talk and I'm enjoying all the new words that he is learning daily.  Also Gavin is such a funny little kid, when he's not having to fight for toys or attention he's his own little man.  Bob and I both agree that he completely shines when Zack is in bed.  His personality totally comes out.  Gavin is such a great listener and he actually does what I say.  Zack on the other hand enjoys testing our boundaries to see what he can get away with. 

And here are some pictures with descriptions below.

Zack and Gavin getting ready to head to the store with mom.  Nothing says I'm cool like a binkie and a blanket.  Oh and Zack is dressing himself so he went to Target in 98 degree weather wearing a fleece jacket... that's just how he roles.

While watching Kairi one afternoon we decided it was a great time to swim.  Zack was showing his brother and cousin how to properly jump into a 3 inch pool. 

If you don't behave in our house you have to go to jail.  Not really but Gavin crawled under the chair and Zack had to as well.  And yes my boys were both in their diaper/underwear... again just how we role.

At the Baseball game with some friends.  Quinn is Zack's best friend.  Everything we do or go he asks is Quinny going to be there? 

In the afternoon we sometimes watch Phineas and Ferb on Disney channel.  Zack decided that he wanted a mustache like Major Monogram's.  (Go ahead and google this is you totally don't understand what I'm talking about... LOL)  Anyways I made him a mustache.  This lasted all of 2 minutes before it was ripped to shreds, at least I got a picture.

Gavin loves to play in the dirt.  Bob has been working on rerouting some sprinkler lines and getting the side of our house ready for some sod.  This is just a hole that was dug and later filled in.  But Gavin sure did love it while it was around. 

Zack decided he needed to try on all of daddy's swim trunk one day.  I'm going out on a limb, but I think he has a lot of growing to do before fitting into daddy's pants.



While in Colorado Zack's Uncle Russell was trying to teach him how to go underwater.  I've been trying to teach him for months.  But all he needed was a weekend with his Uncle to realize it's pretty cool.  Now he's practicing in the tub to stick his whole head underwater.  Today I found him floating in the bubbles.  All I could see was his little face.  It was adorable!



Bob decided to take the top of the Jeep and go on a family drive.  I didn't want my hair all over the place so I put on a scarf.  Well Zack needed to have one too.  So here is a picture of Mommy and Zack with our scarves so our hair doesn't get messed up.  Love this kids!

Okay so that's pretty much what we have been up to.  Really not too much.  Just hanging out at the house and having a blast.  I hope that kids have a good memories of their childhood.  Bob and I try to do things as a family, but with work, church responibilites and everyday life sometimes it's hard.  But family is our number one priorty and we hope that we are letting our kids know that.  I love our boys, I can't remember what it was like without them and I can't imagine life without them.  I've said it before and I'll continue saying it our boys are amazing and we are so blessed to have them in our lives!

What happens in Vegas gets blogged about...

A couple of weeks ago our group of friends headed to Las Vegas, NV.  It's been somewhat of a tradition for us for the past 4-5 years.  We didn't do it last year because of schedule issues and three of us were having babies.  So this year we were back!

One fun thing that we do is rent a house.  Vegas is getting harder to rent a house in though.  This year we had the largest group with 6 couples.  We found a house that was perfect and fairly inexpensive, only to find out that the sixth bedroom was also the gameroom/loft.  Which isn't very fun for anyone to have to sleep in.  So we found a second house that fit better for our needs. 

A few must have's:

• Obviously a bedroom for each couple.  We try to get bedrooms that have at least a queen in each room but that doesn't happen every year.  This year we had two rooms with Twin beds.
• Pool
• Hot Tub - perferably one that is connected to the pool.  This year we found both but when we got there the pool was HOT.  But really the temp was 105 degrees.  We still wanted to heat the hot tub but because of some lameness on the homeowners part it didn't happen.  But it didn't ruin our weekend!
• Pool Table

See we are pretty easy to please.  Anything else is just cake.  In rating this house compared to other homes the house was amazing.  The layout was really awesome and decorated very nice.  The pool was on the small side, and kind of weird because it was on the side of the house.  But it all worked for our group.  Whoever looks for the house and puts it on their credit card gets the master bedroom.  After that it's just luck of the draw (literally).

So what did we do:

Friday

• Arrived in Vegas about 3pm
• Got situated in the house (checked everything out and drew for rooms)
• Girls went shopping, Guys went grocery shopping (you heard me)
• Girls went to the Rio to see Parade in the Sky (see pictures below)  It was so much fun and only took us 3 years to see!



• Met the guys and headed to the Strip
• A couple of the guys went to pick up one of the couples that had flown in. 

• Once we were all together we went to MGM to have dinner at the Rain Forest Cafe. (ehhh)

• Shopped at M&M Store
• Walked the strip
• Headed home (went to bed about 2 or 3am)

Saturday

• Woke up way to early!
• Had breakfast
• Hung out at the house playing in the pool

• Guys brought us Virgin Daquiri's
• Played in the pool some more (layed out a bit as well).  It was an overcast day so temp wise it was perfect.  Didn't get a sunburn at all!

• Guys made us lunch (hence the grocery shopping).  Had: Chicken/Steak/Brats/Hot Dogs, Salad, Fruit, Corn on the Cob & Chips.  We totally get spoiled Vegas Weekends.

• Everyone got showered and dressed to head back to the strip (this is a 2 hour process... LOL)
• More shopping (H&M & Ross's)
• More shopping (Coke Store)
• Ate at a Mexican place near M&M Store something Cantina.  It was yummy.

• Then headed off strip to gamble.
• Played a little slots, Roulette and 21 at Wild Wild West
• Headed home (bed by 3:30AM)

Sunday

• Woke up a little bit later this time. 
• Ate breakfast
• Started getting ready and packing to head home
• Once we deemed the house clean we headed out.
• Stopped at the Silverton Casino to visit the Bass Store.
• Saw the Mermaid

• Headed home about 1PM
• Stopped to eat in Mesquite (which is beginning to look like a ghost town)

• Got home about 9:30PM

It really was an awesome trip.  We almost need to add another day!  Missed my kids terribly!  They were in Colorado with my mom for my cousin's wedding.  I feel horrible I missed the wedding but totally needed the break and the trip was already paid for by the time I found out about the wedding. 

Family Reunion - Montana

This past week we were able to go to my family reunion in Montana.  I'm not from Montana nor is anyone in my family from Montana, but my dad is from Canada which is near Montana :).  It was nice having the reunion in Montana because it was far enough away that everyone had to drive to get there.  You couldn't just hang out for the day and go back home to sleep.  The camping reunions are such a bonding experience.  I just love sitting around the campfire, laughing at silly things that happened that day and hearing about other people's lives.

Both our kids did really well.  Bob gets stressed not knowing where the boys were every minute, but I kept my eye on them.  And there was a lot of Adults that knew where the kids were at all time as well.

It was a little stressful being near a river and the lake but for the most part the boys stayed nearby.  There was the few times we'd catch Zack sneaking over to the river to throw rocks or Gavin following people who were heading down to the lake.  But they are boys!

The beautiful lake we were near (picture by Janae Smith)

We tried to leave Thursday afternoon/Evening.  Bob got home about 2:30-3:00.  By the time we got everything packed, rearranged and picked up my dad; I think it was close to 5 or 5:30 before we were on the road.  We stopped at a Rest Stop near Brigham City because Zack said he had to go potty.  False Alarm.  When we headed back out on the road our car started to act up.  It would loose power but not die completely.  But by the time we made it to Tremonton, UT it was doing it on a regular basis.  We made the decision to head home and borrow someone's car.  We finally decided to borrow my Mom's car and had her meet us in Roy, UT.  When we got off the off ramp our car completely died at the light.  We barely made it to Arby's.  It just kept dying.  My mom met us and our car was finally not dying every time we turned it on.  But we had a roof rack on our car and it didn't fit on my Mom's car.  So it didn't work to use her car right then.  We made the decision just to head all the way home and get things so we could put the rack on my mom's car and unload everything and reload into her car.  And it was a good decision because our car would not hold the power.  Bob figured it out so when it did die we were able to get it started quickly and finally got home.  So we didn't leave for Montana until 3:00AM the next morning.

It was a good drive.  The boys slept most of the morning.  We stopped in Butte, MT to let the kids out of the car for little bit and have breakfast.  We then drove to Lakeside, MT and had lunch.  FYI, Flathead Lake is Beautiful!

We got to Whitefish about 4 or 5:00.  We quickly found a spot to set up camp and unloaded.  The day was spent catching up with family, and just hanging out.  My Dad and Kelly got lost trying to get back to camp when they went into Whitefish, MT.  Deanna and I were starting to freak out a bit.  Plus they had all the food for dinner and we were getting hungry.  Luckily they made it back safe and sound.  Our dinner may have been late, but it was yummy!  And we feed a lot of people.  And Deanna made Cobbler which was delicious!

Saturday was a very busy day.  We started the day with Breakfast. 
Volleyball Tournament
Lunch
Amazing Race
Swimming at the Lake
Dinner
Minute to Win it Game (which Deanna and I did)
and Campfire fun.

Everyone joining together to watch the Volleyball Tournament

2 of the Teams that played each other.  I think Bob was on the other side of the net
(Picture from Janae Smith's facebook album)

Minute To Win it Games - Chocolate Unicorn

Minute to Win it Game - Hanky Panky

It was so much fun watching Zack playing with his cousins.  They all got a long so well.  Of course there was never enough Volleyballs or spray guns for everyone but as a whole they did really well together.  Gavin also did well with his cousins, he just mostly watched.  But a few times he had to fight for the ball he was playing with. 

Saturday - Sunday night a wicked thunder/lighting storm rolled in.  It was amazing at how quickly it started and how fast it moved on.  At one point the lightning and thunder went at the exact same time.  Which means it was pretty close.  My Uncle Reed actually was watching the storm and said the lightning hit the mountain we were pretty close to.  SCARY!

Sunday we had a meeting with the family since we weren't able to make it to church.  We had most of the past missionaries share a missionary moment they had.  It was fun to hear all the places people in our family have served and a memory that stood out to them.  After our meeting a few people had to leave.  We had quite a few goodbyes.  But there was still a good amount of people who stuck around.  We had potluck lunch and Dinner.  It was nice knowing we had gotten ride of a lot of food!  We played/watched Kubb and  then sat around the fire and roasted marshmellows.  Again it was a wonderful night to just relax and hang out with family. 

The next morning we pack up camp and was on the road by 10:00.  We got home about 10:30pm.

The boys did amazing there and back.  I was really worried about them, but they were troopers.  We had so much fun at the reunion and can't wait until the next one in 2 years.  I loved that so many family members were able to attend.  I'm not sure on the exact numbers of people there but I think it was more then 150 people (I could be way off).  Oh yeah Gavin won a quilt in the Raffle.  It was so cute because when they called his name I took him up to get his quilt and he grabbed it right away.  He totally knew that it was his blanket.  And got mad if anyone tried using it.

Thanks to my Aunt Andrea for her hard work in putting together such a great reunion.  It was so much fun!  The place was beautiful even if we got eaten by misquito's.