Halloween Fun

Do you know that Halloween has become one of my most favorite holidays during the year. I really enjoy it. I like dressing up and I like the decorations. I like spooking people and I love having boys at Halloween - they get to dress up so scarey - I really, really like it.

Here's some fun things we did for Halloween this year

CARVED PUMPKINS

Dressed up at work and took the kids around the office trick-or-treating. FUN

Went trick-or-treating with great friends.

Moab UEA Weekend - Most Outrageously Awesome Best-time - Utahns Escape to Arches :D

Okay so this last UEA Weekend we were invited to go to Moab with the Petersons. We had a blast. The first day we got there we went to Pot Ash and looked at all the Pictogliphs and played in all the "hobo houses" (at least that's what the kids called them) then went up and searched for fossils. It was a lot of fun.

The next day was spent at Arches. It was a lot of fun again. The kids had a blast climbing all over EVERYTHING and hiking out with us to the Arches and then again climbing all over EVERYTHING.

Then the following day we went to Canyonlands. Jeffrey got sick the night before and couldn't make it with us :( we were sad but tried to have fun still. He was so nice he didn't want to ruin the Peterson's vacation. I told him I felt like I should stay with them but didn't think it would be good to send the kids with the Petersons or keep them here. So. . . I hesitantly went without him. We had a fun time and when we got back in the afternoon he was feeling much better.

We had a blast ! ! We were very happy we were able to go.

Lasik Eye Surgery

Jeffrey got Lasik done on Monday July 13. He couldn't believe how easy it was. He said that he wished he had've done it a long time ago. And to anyone wondering if they should get it done, he would say, "Go do it!!! Go do it!! GO DO IT NOW!!!" He has been so cute. He is constantly saying - I can see better than I've every seen before. He can see the detail of someone's face when they are far away - often even better than I can. He keeps saying, It's so weird to think that I can see this good without any contacts in. Almost every night without fail, he looks for his contact case or thinks to himself, okay I've gotta get these contacts out and go to bed. LOL I don't have any contacts in.

It's truely amazing the things that can be done today. I am amazed at the things people think up. I believe that they are inspired by a loving Heavenly Father and am truely grateful for Jeff's new exciting blessing of sight.

For anyone curious of the process - come on over - he has a CD of the procedure. WOW it is amazing. I would advise you to watch it when you are feeling your best. I didn't eat much that morning and almost did a "rubber larry" in the waiting room. Poor Jeffrey I wasn't very supportive for about 15 minutes - almost missed the whole thing. I couldn't watch it.

A Weekend With Bubs, Beans & Squishy

We had a fun weekend with cousins. Mandy and Steve were so lucky to go on a trip to Europe and we got to watch their kids for the weekend of the 24th. I was a little nervous to have six kids in the house, but it turned out to be so much fun!! It was lots of fun having more girls around here. I got to paint toe nails & curl & braid hair this weekend too.

The Alfaro's, our fun neighbors, invited the kids over to play on a totally cool, home-made, SUPER COOL slip-n-slide the first night - wow it was so much fun!!

The next day got sorta cloudy in the morning so we just hung around the house for a little bit, but that didn't stop them from having fun. Look at this cool fort they built - I LOVE it when they do that!!

Then it cleared up a bit so we headed to the park.

I was a bit nervous about how Sunday would go. We normally don't play video games on Sunday, but this Sunday we sorta cheated and let them play games to help keep them quietly entertained ;)

Then we had Grandma & Grandpa over for a quick BBQ and our weekend was over.

Seven is Super!!

Yesterday was Hayden's 7th Birthday!! Tried to make it a fabulous day!! He woke up to his door decorated - thanks to a neat tradition from his aunt Mandy.

Then he got to go shopping with the whole family at lunch time and got take out from Chic-Fil-A!!! YUMMMMYYYYY!!!

And to top it off we had some great friends over for a BBQ Dinner. I think he had a fabulous day.

Hayden you are such a sweet boy. You have a kind and BIG heart. You are very thoughtful at such a young age. I am trying to learn from you. You never want anyone to be angry at you and you are quick to say sorry if that happens. You like to keep up with your brothers but you're just fine being the youngest too.

Here are your birthday abc's. You are Affectionate, Benevolent, Creative, Darling, Energetic, Friendly, Giving, Helpful, Inspiring, Joyful, Kind, Lively, Marvelous, Nice, Optimistic, Personable, Quizzical, Rowdy, Super, Thoughtful, Unique, Valiant, Whimsical, Xstreme, Youthful, and Zesty!!

We love you and are so glad you are part of our family!!

Raingutter Regatta

So. . .this was a first for us. Our cub scouts had a raingutter regatta instead of a pinewood durby this year. So. . .Jeff created a boat for Josh instead of a car. It was sorta tricky, but he did a great job - don't you think?

Josh wanted to make sure and have his boat be #1. So that's just what we did.

Then it was off to the race. . .sitting with anticipation. . .

It was tricky for Josh to get the hang of it - the first time he raced he came in second. He said blowing all that way was making him super dizzy. He was a little bit disappointed that he came in second, but all he needed to hear is that he got another chance.

He kept his hopes up and had a positive attitude.

And at the end of the event. . . . . .

Josh took first place!!!! It was so exciting!! Good job captain Josh -

and a big thanks to his engineer (dad) :)

Then he had to race against the scout master's boat . . . I missed a picture of it but it was not regulation and the scout master won :)

Then he had to race against the Primary First Councilor's boat - isn't it pretty - Josh won this race - hands down :)

He can't wait to claim his prize in August. What a fun event.

Temple Celebration

For the past three months Zac has had the wonderful opportunity to participate and practice for the temple celebration. He had two options: Choir or Dance. He chose to dance. As the practices started, he found out they needed a few boys to be part of the couple dances and he said yes. He practiced every Wednesday night and several Saturdays. He was out until after 9pm each Wednesday night. Then he had three practices at the Conference Center downtown. They were long practices from 5 - 10pm, 3 - 11p and then the final performance from 3 - 10p. He said he had fun at each practice. He did the Charleston. It was fun to watch him do his dance.

It ended up that I was asked to take him to the stake center before he went downtown and I was so glad. Usually there was a team captain that came to pick him up and take him to the last few practices downtown. Because I got to take him this time, I was able to see him in his "costume" and take a few pictures. There was a lot of excitement there and it was fun.

On Saturday (the performance day) I got two tickets, so Paula and I went. It was exciting to go to the conference center to see him perform. We got there with plenty of time and were able to see their coaches talk to them and give them pep talks and also share their testimonies. What a neat experience it was. It started with a neat video of the practices for all of these youth. There were over 7,000 youth who participated in this event.

We were able to hear from our Prophet. I felt his strong spirit as he spoke to these wonderful youth and thanked them for their hard work. He has such a powerful spirit about him, this spirit touched my heart. There was also such a strong spirit during the whole event, what a powerful experience this was.

I hope Zachary will never forget his experience here, I know I won't. I feel newly inspired that we need to get to the temple again. There is a lot of work to be done.