Our Halloween

Just popping in to share a few pictures from Halloween this year.

A shot of my boys' favorite Halloween decor.  They just love looking at all of these old pictures from past Halloweens.

This was Jack at the Elementary school Halloween parade. He was Batman again this year.

Drake was a wizard.

Tad is only in preschool, but since his dad is the principal, he got to walk in the parade with the big kids.  He was Thor this year.

Thomas was the oh so cool  Hawkeye (from the Avengers).

I didn't get an individual picture of Dallin, since he is getting to the point where he is a little bit over dressing up for Halloween.

All of my boys in their Halloween finery.

And one last picture so you can see Dallin's full costume.  Not many 12-year-old boys would be willing to dress up in a coconut bra and grass skirt, but Dallin is about the most confident kid I know - so he pulled it off and enjoyed all the laughs.

Another Random Post

All of my posts seem to be pretty random lately.  But I guess that is real life - lots of random moments all strung together, and I love it.  So - here are a few more random snippets from our real life. . .

Twin Day for Homecoming week.  Luckily I had these two matching shirts for my two boys at the elementary school.  They had fun being twins for a day.

I am such a softie when it comes to my boys, especially my baby.   So - - when he asks if we can make cupcakes with sprinkles - we make them.  Thankfully, he doesn't ask for these very often.  And it is very weird that my kids won't eat cake, but they always scarf down cupcakes.

They will also scarf down this pumpkin coffee cake with hot chocolate that I make once a year.  It is delicious.

On a side note - do you think my table need to be refinished?  It is on the oh so long list.

A little Sunday afternoon Play Doh time.

Tad helping Jeremy make the concrete hearth for our fireplace.

The first fire of the season.  The boys had to gather round it.  If you take a look, that concrete hearth that Tad and Jeremy were working on is in place on the fireplace.  Rock goes up next.  I can't wait to show it to you when it is all finished.

That's it for this time around.  I'm sure another random post will show up here again soon.

End of Summer

Well, Fall has finally arrived here in Taylor.  This week, the mornings have actually been cool enough to send my kids to school in jackets.  Of course, by the time they get out of school they don't need them anymore, but still, it is nice to have those crisp mornings.

I was going through recent pictures today, and thought I would share some random pictures from the end of our summer. . .

Jack made himself this lunch.  Looks good to me!!

A little pillow fort in the entry.  Yes, Drake is wearing nothing but his underwear.  All Summer, he would strip down as soon as he got in the house.  Now that it is cooler, he comes home and immediately changes into his pajamas.  What can I say?  The kid likes to be comfortable.

Playing with the kitties.

Playing in the irrigation.

 A new Lego creation by Tad.

The temple in the early morning fog.

Good times around here!!

Twelve

Dallin had a birthday a few weeks ago.  He is officially twelve years old!

He asked for a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.  I tried and tried to talk him into something else, since I knew it wouldn't get eaten, but he insisted.  After he did not even have one piece I swore I would never make another birthday cake.  We are just not cake people at our house.  Next time I will just fix a yummy dessert that will be sure to get eaten.  Sorry guys!  Enough is enough.

When I talked to Dallin about what he wanted for his birthday, he would only tell me two things - - a PS4 or a guitar.  Obviously, I went with the guitar.  He was happy!

In spite of Dallin not even trying a piece of his chocolate birthday cake, he is really a great kid.  He is a huge help to me and to Jeremy.  He is a great big brother.  He is super fun to be around - as evidenced by his 500,000 friends.  Most of all he is a super good person who tries his hardest to do what is right. We love Dallin so much and are so grateful for him.

Back to School

It has taken me a couple of weeks to get to this post - but I have to keep up the tradition of sharing pictures of my kids on their first day of school.

 Now please don't judge the quality of these photos.  My boys were so excited to get to school that I could barely get them to delay leaving long enough for me to get a picture.  I also want to mention that I do wipe down my door from time to time - but our yard is not landscaped yet, so the dirt is a constant battle I am fighting right now - both on my door and in my entry. I can't wait to get some grass.  Anyway - - on to the real reason for this post.

Dallin is in sixth grade.  His teacher is Mr. Brinton and he is loving being in his class.

Thomas is in fifth grade.  His teacher is Ms. Thatcher.  She is a new teacher this year, but she teaches in the same room that Jeremy taught in when he taught at that school, so Thomas can already say he has spent more time in his classroom than his teacher has.  How many kids can say that?

Jack is in third grade.  His teacher is Mrs. Birtcher.  Thomas had her for second and third grade since she moved grades with her class.  She is Thomas's all time favorite teacher, and I know that Jack will love being in her class too.

Drake is in first grade.  His teacher is Ms. Zinn.  She is a seasoned teacher and really nice.  Jeremy says she does a fabulous job, so we are excited that Drake is in her class.  He is loving being at school all day.

Tad started preschool last week.

He is going to the same preschool that all his big brothers attended.  I know he will love it as much as they did.

After I dropped Tad off at his first day of preschool, I headed straight to the walking path and took a walk on it by myself for the first time in twelve years.  It felt really weird to be alone with no stroller to push.  I am not sure if I liked it.  I miss my little boys!!

Here's hoping for another great year guys!!

Utah Trip and Family Reunion

We just got back from our annual trip to Utah.  It also included a family reunion/50th wedding anniversary for my parents.  I took a ton of pictures on this trip (over 300), but don't worry, I am only including a few in this post.

On our way up, we were going to go to the north rim of the Grand Canyon - but it was on fire, so we drove through Zion National Park instead.

I hadn't been there in years, so it was fun to see it again.  Don't you love how happy my youngest two look in this picture?

We stopped and saw a few temples on this trip.  Starting with the Cedar City temple that is currently under construction.

We also saw the Draper temple.

And we saw the Provo Temple.  We also drove past the Provo City Center temple, but didn't stop for a picture, since we had just taken a bunch when we were there in February.

Jeremy took the boys up to Franklin, Idaho to see some family history sites.  Unfortunately, I did not go with them since I was attending my cousin's funeral that day.  I got the news that he had died on my way up to Utah.  It was so terribly sad.  He was only a couple of months younger than me and his sister was my roommate and best bud while we were both single gals living in Phoenix.

Our family, including my parents, siblings, in-laws, and nieces and nephews had a big reunion at Bear Lake to celebrate my parents' 50th wedding anniversary.  It was great fun!!

This was the great view we had of beautiful Bear Lake from the home where we stayed.

Since the fires had moved away from the roads, we were able to go to the north rim of the Grand Canyon on our way home.  We hadn't been there since Dallin was a baby, so I felt morally obligated to take my kids - especially since we could get in free with Thomas's "Every Kid in a Park" pass.  It was spectacular - as always.

We were so grateful to be able to visit our family and to enjoy so many fun activities on this trip.

Life Lately

Just a few pictures of what has been keeping us busy lately. . .

A Summer sleepover in the family room.  My boys love to do this.  I spent all this money building a bigger house so they wouldn't all be crammed in one room anymore, and it turns out they are having separation anxiety.

Drake got a mosquito bite on the top of his ear and it swelled up so big, I have never seen anything like it.  He looked like Dumbo.

It took about three days for the ear to return to its normal size.

We finally painted the last batch of baseboards and trim.  We have most of it up, but this will finish all of the odds and ends that we have to do.

We poured a new section of driveway.  The driveway ends at our property line and then we have all that space between us and the road.  Jeremy says we will gravel it, since he doesn't want to pay for concrete on city property.

The rock for the front of the house and the porch columns finally arrived.  It was a bit of a headache getting the stuff we wanted, but it is looking good.  Very worth the headache(s).

A close up of some of the stone.

And another close up of another pile of the stone.  I know these photos are riveting.  Honestly - will we ever be done building???

Finally, I want to share a picture of the Snowflake Temple.  I feel so lucky to have a temple just five minutes away from my house.  It is so pretty. I took this picture just the other day.  In our Primary, we give each child that is baptized a picture of the temple that was taken on their baptism day as a special keepsake. So, I get to take this shot quite often, but thought I would share what our beautiful temple looks like in the Summer.