Ballroom

When Eryn found out that her school had a ballroom team, she wanted to join! I didn't say "yes" at first, because I didn't know how we would fit it into our crazy lives. She decided she would NOT play basketball, and after much negotiation, we gave in. It means I have to make an extra trip up to the school twice a week, but she has enjoyed it so much. I think it's been really good for her. We were super excited last night to finally be able to see her perform.


She is on the Level I team, since it's her first year, and they got to dance while Alex Boye' sang "Are you gonna go my way?" He did a concert, and sang a ton of songs, but shared the stage with a few other people for some of them. Eryn's team, and the Level II team both got to dance, as well as some other dancers. Jared's good friend served his mission with Alex Boye', and Jared thought he better get a picture with him. He was hilarious and very entertaining.

Here are a few pictures that I grabbed from the video I was able to take while they were dancing. She did so great! It was fun to finally see her in action :) I only wish she could have been in the front so we could see her a little bit better, but it was still fun seeing her with a big smile on her face and having such a great time.

Happy Birthday Jared!

Last week was Jared's birthday. Neither of us wanted a big deal made of our birthdays this year, and it was really hard for me to keep that promise, but I did manage to keep it fairly low key. He didn't want anything, but I did get him some new pants for work... and I planted a couple of hints to my mom of things I knew he'd like :) All he wanted was fried chicken and rice for dinner (I'm not sure how good it actually was, but I made it anyway). And he said NO CAKE... BUT he didn't say no ice cream!! So I called my family and said "Come over for ice cream." It was fun, and I think Jared enjoyed having a little bit of attention on his birthday.

One of the ideas that I gave Mom was the movie "Wolverine." Jared LOVED this movie. He rarely says he wants to buy a DVD, but this one he said he'd love to own, so Mom and Dad gave it to him. I think he was pretty happy about that!


All ready for Ice Cream! Happy Birthday DADDY!


And even with no cake, ya still gotta blow out some candles. Jared turned 37 this year, so I put 3 candles on one side, and 7 on the other... it looked a little more organized from above. Vanilla is his FAVE... but we added chocolate syrup and sprinkles to make it more fun :) Happy Birthday Jared. I love you!

I'm Thankful For My Family

I have so many things I'm grateful for, and of course Thanksgiving time makes me really sit back and think about it. One thing I'm SO, SO thankful for is my little family. I'm married to the best guy ever. He works so hard for our family and truly wants the best for us. He treats me like a queen, even when I definitely don't deserve it! He is definitely my best friend and we love hanging out together, working together, ANYTHING together! I have the four cutest, most amazing kids, too. They seem to love me in spite of my imperfections, and they've truly taught me so much about what real love is. I love how different they all are, and the great relationship I have with each of them. I've been meaning to post these pictures for a while. I've posted a couple, and I'm sure you've noticed the new one in our blog header, but I thought I should add the rest as well. We went out at the beginning of October to do our family pictures. I wanted to make sure it was still nice fall weather, with some pretty fall color left. It was a little chilly (we went on a Saturday morning) the ground was nice and wet, but we had fun. Our kids are old enough to be quite cooperative, and it makes it so much easier! I set up my camera on a tripod, and used the timer - which I'm sure made things very entertaining for my kids since I had to run back and forth and get into position quite quickly. And with the light blinking, the kids had something to look at... especially with me saying "watch the light... get ready!" They did great! It was so fun to hang up a bunch of new pictures in my living room. That way I can always look at these people that I love so much :)

Costume = Toy!

When Hayden asked me if he could be a "backhoe" this year for Halloween, I laughed. First of all, I thought it was hilarious that he knew what a backhoe was... second, this was not the first time he has wanted to be something unusual. I started formulating ideas, and when I really started putting it together, I knew he was going to want to play with it. I had to keep it up out of his reach until after Halloween, but as soon as November 1st arrived, it was fair game. He could do whatever he wanted with it. Of course it was the first thing he wanted to play with that morning, and he did. It continued every morning for the next several days... until it got pretty much destroyed. He didn't mind. It just became something different. He has quite the imagination, and I love it. Here he is playing with it (I think this was actually on my birthday) before the front scoop got completely ruined. I love this crazy kid! He was scooping up Hotwheels and other cars, as well as blocks and even food.

You're Only As Old As You Feel

Well, I had a birthday. It came and went without too much fanfare, and that's fine by me. I turned 35 this year, which seems so strange, because I remember when I thought 35 was SO OLD! I remember something my Grandma told me, though. I think I asked her how old she was... she told me her age (and I'm sure I thought it was REALLY old) but then added "You are only as old as you feel. And often I feel like I'm only 25!" I love my Grandma... I miss her wonderful stories and words of wisdom. Well, guess what!? I only feel about 22 or so. So I guess that's how old I REALLY am, right? HAHA! It was a very low-key and nice day. The weather was lovely... the way fall should be (trust me, I remember many snowy birthdays!) I was able to go to lunch with some fun friends, and I came home to a fun and festively decorated kitchen, complete with streamers and cute letters (made by my kids) that spelled Happy Birthday Mom! That totally made my day :) Later, Jared took me to dinner, and we had a fun game night with some friends. (The day before was my sister's 30th birthday, so we had a little family cake and ice cream night that night. Thanks Mom!). The best part of having a birthday, is knowing that I've had another great year with people that I love. Here are some of the people I love most - my hubby and kiddos (a little preview of our family pics, I guess.)

Jack-o-lantern Teeth!

What a perfect time to lose a tooth. Right before Halloween, B's loose front tooth became REALLY loose. He worked on it for days... and finally, the day we carved our pumpkins, he let me pull it out. Usually Daddy is the tooth puller, but I had a trick up my sleeve. I tied a piece of floss loosely around it, and then pulled it tight. The tooth shot right out! Our little nephew, Justice, wanted to watch, and I think he was seriously amazed. The best part, is that our usually duddy tooth fairy actually remembered to come that night. Miracles do happen! And now we have a real, live Jack-o-lantern at our house :)

Trick-or-Treat!

I still can't believe Halloween has come and gone again. At the end of September, we told our kids that we needed to know what they wanted to be for Halloween by the beginning of October. Hayden was the first to decide. He wanted to be a Back-hoe. What? First of all, what 4-yr-old knows what a back-hoe is (as opposed to just calling it a tractor), second of all, how on earth was I going to pull that one off. I started getting ideas, and gathered up some boxes and spray paint. I got one coat of paint on, then we got some seriously cold, snowy weather. I finally was putting on the last coat on the Thursday morning before Halloween, because he needed his costume for preschool that day! It was so cold, that the paint cracked a little, but he didn't mind.

Bryson had decided quite a while before that he wanted to be a superhero, but he was having a difficult time deciding which one. Finally he settled on Iron Man. I usually like to make their costumes (as much as possible) but I knew this one would be a challenge, so as soon as I saw it at Walmart, I quickly scooped it up. It was hanging in his closet from the very beginning of October. He got to wear it to a Costume Birthday Party quite early in the month, so it got used enough to make it worth it! :)


Kaitlyn didn't take too long to decide what she wanted to be. She wanted to be Frankstein's monster, yet a girl version. EASY! I was so excited that she chose something so easy. We just went to DI and picked up a black skirt and blazer that were cheap enough to not care about, and cut the bottom of them to look ragged. The rest was just makeup and black hairspray!

And here's one that we took Friday morning before school... just playing around :)

Eryn was the one who struggled the most. In fact, she didn't decide on a costume until just a few days before. The unfortunate thing is that she wanted to be a bag of jelly beans. Cool! Too bad the stuff I bought didn't seem to work. We just couldn't figure out a logical way to do it where she could wear it to school. She ended up not even going on Friday, because she was sick, but we decided to just have her be a vampire (she did feel better on Saturday). We just used whatever we had on hand. She did mention that she was starting to feel a little old for trick-or-treat, so this was her last year for sure! She's just getting too grown up.

Here's my "Clark Kent" and my little monsters. So cute!

I had to dress up too, so I was "Harriet Potter." HEHE

Here we go!! Time for some trick-or-treat fun.

Eryn went with us to a few houses, then met up with her friends to do the rest. It was such great weather. I was grateful! I was really afraid it would be nasty, after the week we had with snow and wind! The kids definitely got WAY too much candy, but they had so much fun.

After hitting our entire street, we headed over to see Grandpa Grace. He was looking great, and it was fun to visit for just a little bit before heading over to my parents' house for a few more houses and some yummy Taco Soup! It was a great Halloween!

And poor Hayden. He was completely worn out. He fell asleep on the way home.

Carving Pumpkins

I love carving pumpkins. I remember when I thought it was disgusting and I would make my dad scoop out all the guts... it stunk, too! Well, thankfully I've grown up, but I have a daughter who was gagging and plugging her nose through much of the pumpkin carving this year. And who ended up "gutting" and even finishing carving hers? That would be me! I do have to say, she wasn't feeling really well anyway, so the smell of pumpkin wasn't helping, but hopefully one day she won't think it's disgusting anymore :) Also, I did enjoy carving it for her. She designed it (drew on the face she wanted) and I followed her lines. I messed up the nose, but that's ok. The other three "designed" theirs, too. Jared did a lot of carving and scooping. I love watching him, because he really concentrates! Here are some pictures of the fun!


Poor Eryn... She really wasn't feeling all that well, and she even ended up staying home from school the next day. Thankfully she was feeling better by Saturday.



Kaitlyn... she did her entire pumpkin on her own (I may have scooped out a little bit that she couldn't get out, but that doesn't count!)



Crazy little Bryson... he had a blast. He drew a very elaborate face for me to carve. It ended up being pretty cool :)


Hayden... he actually had a bigger pumpkin, but chose to have his smaller one carved. Daddy helped him. He was quite proud of his little jack-o-lantern! And if you notice, he still has his "facial hair" from his earlier preschool party. He was a construction worker :)



I love watching Jared help the kids with their pumpkins. I think he has as much fun as they do.


The kids loved how their jack-o-lanterns turned out. We did forget to set them out and light them on Halloween, but we lit them a couple of times inside, and they thought it was fun to see the cool light shapes on the ceiling. Too bad they start to shrivel and stink after just a few days. They will be going to pumpkin heaven later on today! :)