Stake 50th Anniversary

This last weekend we celebrated our stakes 50th anniversary with a lot of fun activities. We attended the mini carnival they had on Saturday with our friends, the Heiselbetz's. The boys loved it because it was a lot like the Pioneer Days party they have every year, just a little smaller, not as hot, and everything was free.

Jaedyn spent most of her time relaxing in the stroller because we didn't want to chase her all over now that she's walking.


There were a few different blow up slides for the boys to play on, one was a regular slide, one was a mini obstacle course before the slide part, and the other was a bounce house with a slide attached. They spent most of the day on those and it wasn't too crowded so they got to enjoy a lot of play time.

They love these things...





While the boys played on the big kid toys, Jaedyn got to play in a "little" kid area. It had mini slides and cars for the younger kids to play with and not be bothered by big kids running by. Jaedyn mostly played on the slide...


..and tried to climb up it (a bad habit she's learning from her brothers).


There were also some mini games for the kids to play, but Jaron only wanted to play on the slides, so it was just Jantzen and Dallin that played the games. They got candy as prizes because the toys were all gone. Jantz was funny about it and said, "I don't care about the toys, I just want the candy"...what a funny kid!

They played mini golf and Jantz almost made a hole in one...


They played "Plunko" and it was pretty much a tie between the two of them...


The last game they played was balloon darts. Out of three darts, Jantz hit one balloon and popped it, he was so excited...


After games, we all enjoyed some yummy root beer floats and snow cones (yes, it was still 80+ degrees here).


Even though Jaron didn't hang out with us that much, I managed to snag him long enough to get a picture of all of us together. We all had a fun time at the anniversary carnival with our family and friends. It's so nice to have a stake that gets together to do fun things like this.


At church yesterday we had a special stake conference with talks from past leaders in our stake. I didn't get to hear much of what was said because some of my kids were having behavioral issues, but I did get to hear the wonderful singing by our stake choir (which my awesome friend Lara and her husband are a part of) and they did a really good job. I'm glad I got to enjoy some part of the conference.

Thank you family for another fun weekend together.

My Poor Bloody Nose Girl...

A couple days ago when I went to get Jaedyn up for the day, this is what I saw...


...my poor little princess with dried blood on her nose and blood spots on her sheets. For some unknown reason she got a bloody nose during the night. I'm not sure if it spontaneously happened or if she somehow picked her nose while she slept and caused it to bleed (the air is really dry here).

In any case, she didn't do any complaining about it, she's still the happiest little girl I know, and how it happened will forever remain a mystery.

Halloween Cookies & More...

I know this is a lot of pictures for one single holiday, but we had a very busy weekend celebrating Halloween. So here it goes...

On Halloween the kids and I made sugar cookies. This time I let the boys help me cut them out, they thought that was pretty cool. They each had to cut out a haunted house, a pumpkin, a ghost, a bat, and a cat. The cats didn't always turn out that great because the legs would break off, so we didn't do many of those. I loved how the boys worked together on this and that they had fun doing it.






After the cookies were baked and cooled off, it was time to frost them. I think the boys love this part more because they get to lick frosting off their hands and, according to Jantzen, they get to eat the sprinkles if they pour too many out on the table. I think he does that on purpose.


Here's the cookies the boys frosted (Jaron's on the left-his cat's missing a leg and Jantzen's on the right-his cat's missing the tail), don't they look so yummy? They did such an awesome job on them and, yes, they have been enjoying eating them. Jaron, however, has been a stinker about eating the candy corns off his pumpkin, he hates them. I'm not sure why, the rest of us love them.


And here's some of the cookies I frosted...I'm not as creative when it comes to frosting cookies like the boys are, but they did taste good.



Here are some more Halloween pictures of the kids...because I don't already have enough!

Jaedyn and Rylee just chillin' in their strollers...


Jaedyn holding onto her trick or treat bag with a death grip. She wouldn't let go of that thing the whole night. She obviously has got the Halloween thing down...


The silly boys (Jaron, Dallin, and Jantzen) posing as if they were really Harry Potter and the Super Mario Bros...


And lastly, the kids playing around in front of our neighbors house. He had it decorated so awesome, but I couldn't get the kids to cooperate all at the same time, so this is the best I got...



I think Halloween was a fun one this year because Jaedyn could be more a part of it, next year should be even better. Even though it was super busy and kind of crazy at times, we all had a good time. I love celebrating the holidays with my family.

Trunk-or-Treat

On Saturday night our ward had it's annual Trunk-or-Treat. Jaron and Jantzen were so excited to get all dressed up in their costumes again...Jaedyn, not so much. She threw a fit as I was getting her dressed and then she was a little difficult for pictures.

I did manage to barely get a picture of all three of the kids together with their pumpkins, but I was farther away than I wanted, so I took individual ones.


Here's my little "Harry Potter" with his "Boba Fett" pumpkin...


And my little "Luigi" with his "Mario" pumpkin...


And then here's my little "Snow White" with her "Snow White" pumpkin...


Jaedyn kept taking off while I was trying to get pictures, which was slightly frustrating, but I did get some. Here she is getting into her carriage to go get some candy...doesn't she look so stinkin' cute in her costume? I love having a girl to dress up on Halloween.


Here's one final picture of all the kids together before we piled in the car to head to the church. The boys had to hold Jaedyn so she wouldn't run off.


We met up with our friends the Heiselbetz's and the Foisy's in the church parking lot and headed out for some Trunk-or-Treating with the kids (Josh stayed back at the car to hand out candy).

Here's Jantzen with his best friend, Dallin. I think they both look so stinkin' cute as "Mario" and "Luigi". They got a lot of comments about how cool they looked from a lot of people there.


Here's Jaron with his best friend, Jace. They didn't want to hang out and trick or treat with us because that's not cool to hang out with your mom, so they went off on their own. Normally, in this town, I'd never let Jaron do that, but we were at the church so I was fine with it.

**Not that I'm biased or anything, but I think Jaron makes a super cute "Harry Potter".**


Here's my little character with Avery and Dallin. I don't know why he's always posing like that, but he does know how to make us all laugh.


It didn't take us long to go around getting candy, but the kids had fun. After we were done we just hung out at our cars and chatted with our friends before heading home.

Since I'm always the one taking pictures and am rarely in many of them, I made Josh get one of me with our kids plus one (Jace). I love how Jaron gets into character, he just loves that wand. Too bad it doesn't really work!


My little Jaedyn is such a doll. She was loving the glow bracelet she got very much. She didn't let go of it all night.


I can't forget to get a picture of Josh with his little princess...


And the rest of the guys with their girls...Neil & Rylee (Tinkerbell), Josh & Jaedyn (Snow White), Erik & Avery (Punk Rocker).


After hanging out for a bit while the kids ran around and played we went home. As soon as we got there Jaedyn had to explore through her ladybug bag to see what treasures she had inside. She quickly discovered the wonderful things she could eat inside. When she was done chewing on one wrapper, she would go for another one. Luckily she can't open them yet.



We had another fun night of Trunk-or-Treating this year. I'm glad that we have a safe way for our kids to still be able to enjoy Halloween. Things are definitely different from when I was a kid. Sometimes it gets a little stressful, but when it all comes down to it, the kids have fun and that makes me happy...and seeing my kids all dressed up puts a big smile on my face, they are so cute!

Pumpkin Carving Fun!

We did our Halloween pumpkin carving on Friday night. We had to get them done before our ward Trunk or Treat on Saturday, so we waited until the last minute because if we do it too early they get rotten and stinky really fast.

Before we started carving I had to get our annual pictures of the kids with the pumpkins. I got some really good smiles this year...




After I got the pictures we started gutting the pumpkins. At first Jantzen was excited to help me do this, but it quickly turned into something that grossed him out. I think his exact words were, "This is so disgusting!" He's a funny kid! He wasn't too happy when I told him I was going to cook the seeds and that's what we were going to have for dinner (Not really, I think they're gross).


I love his face in this picture, he was absolutely grossed out when he touched the pumpkin "guts".


Jaron had Jace over, so they both worked on a pumpkin together. As you can see, they had fun doing it. They laughed the whole time, one day Jantzen will too.




Josh finished cleaning out the last pumpkin, then we were ready to start carving the patterns we chose this year. As always, Josh and I were the ones who did all the carving since we don't do easy patterns. So, while we carved away the kids went and played.


After a couple hours of carving and some sore wrists, (Josh and I both have carpal tunnel), we finished the pumpkins. Here's what we did this year...


Jaron's pumpkin is the "Boba Fett", Jantzen's is "Mario", and Jaedyn's is "Snow White". We tried to find a Harry Potter and Luigi pattern to match the boy's costumes, but we weren't able to. Jaedyn was the only one who had her pumpkin match her costume. I think they all turned out pretty cool anyway and the kids loved them, so that's all that matters.