Happy Halloween!

Since Halloween was on Sunday this year, and the kids wouldn't get a chance to wear their costumes ON Halloween, I made them skirts and a bowtie to wear to church.

Daddy and my little man all ready to go:

Not too bad for my first time making something for my kids to wear:

P.S. I have written several posts tonight, so make sure you see all of them :)

Trick or Treating

We took advantage of 3 Trick-or-Treating adventures this year. Grandma had a Trunk-or-Treat at her church on Friday night. Then Saturday, there was trick-or-treating at a local strip mall, followed by a Trunk-or-Treat at our church. It was a BLAST!!


Our whole gang. We have Luke Skywalker, Padme the Handmaiden, Queen Amidala, Princess Leia, and Yoda. It was so fun to put together the costumes for everyone. I purchased Cerise's, dug Morgan's out of the dress-up box (and then made the "wig"), got Tyson's robe from Goodwill (and made the hat), and put Scott and I's costumes together from things we had around the house as well as a few items from Goodwill.

Cute little Yoda:

Ready to go!

Getting ready to head out:

Waiting for our pizza to be made:

Pumpkin Patch (again)

We decided to go back to the pumpkin patch with the whole family on Friday. We had so much fun! We went through the corn maze, took a hayride out to pick our pumpkins, ran through a straw-bale maze, climbed a straw-bale pyramid, pet the animals in the petting zoo, and finally, got delicious ice cream! I took about 200 pictures while we were there. Here are a "few."

My faorite pic of the whole day:
My little Brood:

On our way back after picking our pumpkins:

Gotta line 'em up just right:

My secod favorite pic of the day:

Close-ups!:

How Tall are You?

Tyson: about 2 1/2 feet

Morgan just barely over 3 feet:

Cerise: Right about 4 feet

Crazy Hair Day

Cerise's school does Crazy Hair Day for Halloween. Here's what we came up with. I think she acutally looked pretty cute. :)

Preschool Pumpkin Patch

On Wednesday, our little Co-op Preschool group went to the local Pumpkin Patch. The girls had tons of fun and found the perfect little pumpkins.

2010 Reflections

Cerise came home a few weeks ago talking all about some art contest. I found additional information about it and she drew a picture for it. The theme for the contest was "Together We Can." She drew a picture of our family planting flowers outside our house. We should hear the results of the contest in the next month or so.

Are you where you thought you'd be?

I've encountered this question a lot lately for some reason, and I've given it a fair bit of thought. Am I living the life I thought I'd be living? My initial response has been no. I never thought I'd be a stay at home mom. I never thought I'd marry a man as much my opposite as Scott is. I never envisioned that I'd have the personality that I have grown into. I don't know, I didn't see my life this way.

Then, as I was driving to Marching Band on Saturday, I realized: My life is pretty much the way I envisioned it with a few key differences.

How many times in high school and college did I say to myself and others that I wanted to work part time as an assistant band director, teaching marching band, and staying home with my kids part time. That is exactly what I am doing. Yes, it is a bit more part time than I envisioned, I barely get paid, and it only lasts during the fall (I'm not sure what I had in mind), but I am living my dream.

I have an amazingly supportive husband who doesn't complain too much about the fact that I spent more on gas and babysitting than I made this year. He doesn't complain about having to go to work at 5am so that he can be home by 4pm to watch the kids so I can go to rehearsal. He just supports me, and encourages me, and brings me water and snacks while I feverishly try to write drill. He is not the man I envisioned being married to, but he is the PERFECT man for me. I couldn't have asked for a better man.

My kids are awesome. The love so perfectly. They are so pure and sweet and smart and funny and kind and thoughtful and passionate and amazing. I love them more than I ever thought possible.

I have incredible friends. They have been more than willing to watch my kids when I need them to. They make me laugh and they share with me my joys and sorrows.

Although we don't currently own a house, we like where we live. We LOVE our ward, and we are saving our money so that we can build our dream house in the next few years.

Am I living the life I thought I'd be living? No. I'm living a better one.

This is what happens...

when you decide to run up the stairs carrying a huge candy jar:

You trip, knock out your slightly wiggly tooth, and bite a whole through your lip.

But then you get to look at this on the computer:


and draw this for the tooth fairy:

Pretty good copy, I'd say :)

No I am not an Idiot

I do in fact know that it is not SanD Diego. I have no idea why it showed up that way. And what is worse, is that I did it on both posts. DUH! More pics to come soon. I just need to get them off of Scott's computer.

San Diego The Part that Should have come before Part 1

On Saturday we ventured out to the Mormon Battalion Historical Sight. It was awesome!

My second favorite picture of the trip. The kids playing in the fountain outside.

Cerise and her temple that she built out of bricks

Panning for gold.

If you look closely, you can see a couple of pieces that she found sitting on the wood to the right of the bowl.
Checking out the water pump.

This picture makes me laugh. Scott was trying to get a picture of all of us. He even got a couple of good ones, but in the middle of it all, Cerise saw a bee on one of the flowers and pulled this face. I LOVE it!

San Diego Part 1

On Sunday, we decided to head to the beach for Father's Day. It was a blast, even if we did all get a little sunburned.

Quite possibly my favorite picture of the whole trip.


Chillin' in the sand. Literally.

Morgan being silly. I love this picture because it captures her true personality. She is so silly, but rarely does anyone other than our family see it.

Hangin' out.

Oooh, I love that sandy little bum!

Too bad there was nearly as much sand on the inside of the diaper :)

Cerise and Daddy in the ocean. Cerise LOVED it!

Anniversary Countdown

10 Years of Marriage
9 Nephews (plus one that was born before we got married)
8 Dwelling places
7 Nieces
6 Years of Parenthood
5 Jobs (between the two of us)
4 Vehicles
3 Amazing Kids
2 Universities
1 Incredibly Blessed Life!

Happy Anniversary Scott! You were the most amazing man I knew when I married you, and you are even better now! Looking forward to the rest of Eternity with you!!!

Sprinkler Fun

With the warm weather finally here, the girls begged to go play in the sprinkler. They were SO cute!

Picture Potpourri

I'm changing the name. From now on, you will no longer get monthly marathon posts, you get picture potpourri posts. Here's this month's:

Morgan looking cute at a T-Ball game.

Cerise had a little Kindergarten program in her classroom where they sang songs they had learned during the year. Here she is introducing the Pledge of Allegiance.

Look at that look of adoration. She really loves Mrs. Lipp.

This is how Tyson spends much of his awake time: Watching the girls out the window.

Cerise's "invention": a two person scooter.

Held together by about 40 rubber bands.

Riding the two person scooter. It never did hold two people.

A Friday night sleepover in the living room with Mom and the girls, while Dad and Tyson enjoyed their own version of the "Father and Son's camp out" in their own beds upstairs.

Tyson REALLY loves pizza.

And dirt.