Family time

Last weekend my brother got married. Yeah!! All I can say, is it's finally over. All of that is a whole other post...

So because of the wedding we had some visitors...

My parents came home from their mission for a few days. And my sister and her girls came down. Talk about a busy week. And now I'm paying for it. My house is a disaster, and I got sick so I've been worthless.

We took off church on Sunday, [is that even allowed] Halloween, and drove to Vegas to pick up my mom. It was a family affair.
Monday, Lexie and I went with her to Minersville for the day to visit with her parents and sisters.
Tuesday we drove all over town trying to finish up buying last minute things for the wedding, and struck out on everything we tried to get done.
After 3 days in the car, I told her I was done running around. Makayla got here late Tuesday night, so Wednesday those two ran around while the kids all played at my house. My kids LOVE her girls so it was so nice to have them playing all day with absolutely NO fighting. At one point I went to check on everyone because I wasn't hearing anything, and I wasn't a hundred percent sure where they were. I went out back and asked Cutler if everyone was out there. He said yes, they were in the sandbox.

 When I came back in I could hear little voices. I walked down the hall ito Lexie's room, and found these two...

Kadence & Lexie walked around the whole day holding hands. And everyday for the rest of the week Lexie asked about Kadence. And Addi.

Thursday we had a rehearsal dinner, set up for the wedding, and then went home to my moms to finish the cake. Makayla did the cake, but she had a support group. I'm just really glad that's not something I've ever really cared to want to try. Thankfully, I have a lot of people around me who like to do that kind of stuff. And they're really good at it too.

Just to finish the week...

Friday was the wedding

Saturday we had Thanksgiving lunch with my family since it's our year and my parents won't be here.

Then Noah was baptized.

The wedding and baptism each get their own post.

It was a crazy, busy, don't know if I ever want to do that again week! But it was fun. And I'm so glad I got to spend some time with my parents and a lot of one on one with my mom.

This picture was taken Sunday night, when my parents made the rounds before they went back to Florida. It was hard saying good bye again, but I'm sure they're loving the peace and quiet they get to have all day...every day.





Award of Excellence

November 2

Halloween Friday, I got a call on my cell phone from Noah's school. [That's never a good thing. Trust me.] This time, however, I was surprised to hear that they were going to give Noah an award during an assembly at school.
I was so excited! They acted like he didn't know anything about it so I never said anything to him. I told Colby, so he would come, and my mom was here, so she got to come too.

Noah was very surprised to see us when his class filed in to the lunch room.

They were awarding some of the students for their excellence in different areas.

Noah's was for reading.

They never told me any of the criteria for the award or anything, but it made Colby & I feel like our efforts in making Noah read every single day are really paying off!

Way to go Noah!!

Happy Birthday...

Reagan

We hope you have a great one!!

Happy Halloween

Just because they're cute...

or funny.

 we were trying to take a picture to send to my mom but Lexie wouldn't let me put her down. I did not want to be in the picture so I was kind of trying to hide. Guess I didn't try hard enough.

 I love this picture. We were at Colby's parents and the kids were just playing. Lexie just loves her brothers and loves doing whatever they're doing. Noah was playing with some cars and she just had to be right in on it.



Halloween festivities

Can I just say, I really...really...don't like when Halloween is on the weekend. With kids in school, they have to celebrate on Friday, then because it's really on Sunday this year we all trick-or-treat on Saturday, and before you know it, it's a 3 day event! WOW! And now, for us, it's officially over. Phew! And Phew! So our weekend went a little like this...

Friday

Noah's school parade - 9:15 a.m. [that really started at about 9:40]

Then off to his class to get some more pictures. Only to find out their party wasn't until right before lunch. So I snapped a few more of him and bagged the rest of the class.

Cutler starts school at 1:00, but he had to take treats so we tried to get there a little early. Since that miracle happened we snapped a couple pictures outside his teacher's house.

As soon as school was over we rushed over to Skywest [cause it's the best place to trick-or-treat] and scored some major candy. When we left there the kids were priviledged to have a photo session with...Gramma Sherie!!

After the photo shoot, we ran over to Doug & Janet's.

He just had surgery and needed to be cheered up.

We can usually do that.

And from there we were supposed to go to the ward Chili cookoff/Carnival.

But we decided to miss that this year.

Colby had a little pumpkin carving contest at Jimmy John's

so we went there.

And were home and in bed by 10:30.

What a day.

Saturday

We got to sleep in - thankfully - but had a lot to do.

We did a little neighborhood party this year, that turned out to be not so little. It was fun. Hopefully we'll do it again. 6 of us had a little carnival type game at our house.

Stick the mouth on the pumpkin

An intense game of Bingo

Eating a donut from a string

or not

Treasure in the sawdust

Bean Bag Toss

Fishing

And a cupcake walk. Wow, I didn't know I even took that many pictures.

After the games we all congregated up to MacIntosh's for some hot dogs.

I was very impressed with all the people that came.

It was seriously a lot of fun!

Thanks Amy & Brandy for putting it on!

Once we cleaned that all up, we started trick-or-treating for real. It was only 5:00 but we didn't care. We wanted to get an early start so we could have an early end. Is that bad?

I'm Halloween-ed out!

By 6:30 we were done and back home passing out our own candy.   

We ended the night at Colby's parents for our yummy Halloween donuts!

And now I can honestly say...

I can't wait for next year to do it all again.

Except,

 all in one day!

Pumpkin Carving

10.25.10
I had almost convinced myself we weren't carving pumpkins this year until...
One night after dinner Colby took the kids to pick some out while I cleaned up.
Even then, I made cookies, they carved pumpkins.
I wouldn't want it any other way.

Look at 'em all just waiting to get their hands in those pumpkins

 Even Lexie got her hands in there.

Cutler didn't like that part so much.

And the one who really does all the work.

Thanks for letting us have Carved Pumpkins!!

Happy Birthday...

Reese!

We SO wish we could celebrate with you...

maybe one of these years.

Party!

Since Noah is getting baptized this year, {in just a couple of weeks}, I decided I wasn't going to do a birthday party + a baptism dinner/party. Thankfully, Sherie stepped in and threw a party!
Thank you!!

No, seriously. Thank you!

I contributed a little

Dinner was super yummy. Even though it sounded gross!

Seriously...the simplest, cutest cake ever!

And a few presents.

He gets to start Cub Scouts next month. I can't wait. He'll love it, and I'll love helping him pass things off. There's something about marking things off that get me. And I've been in scouts for the past 2 years. It's such a fun thing for boys to be involved in.

And before we could go home, grandma even had a game.

Dun

dun

 dun

Who can wrap the mummy the fastest?

I got done the fastest, but it obviously wasn't the best job. Colby's lasted longer,

and held together much better.

It was a fun little family party.

Thank you Sherie!!

8 is Great!!

Happy Birthday

Noah!!

Oh wow! I say this every year, but it's really true...

I can't believe he's 8!

In 2 weeks he'll be baptized and we are so excited

for him to take this big step and

make this huge commitment to the Lord.

Happy Birthday buddy!

Baptism picture sneak peak

Ok, seriously!!!....I can't believe we're almost to the date. I remember when Noah was 4, thinking he's half way there. I didn't think the day would ever come. And to think that in 3 1/2 weeks he will be a true member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

He got 2 photo sessions, cause that's how he rolls...and here are a few of my favorites.

Isn't he so handsome?

And the rest of my favorites are on the invite so you get to wait to see those.