12 and 10

Brennan and Tyler are constantly asked if they're twins! They're not, but their birthday dates are only 14 hours apart! Brennan's is Dec 15 at 8:20 pm and Tyler's is December 16 at 10:13 am! I love that they are such great friends and share a room, friends, and most especially great brotherly advice. They are so good for each other and I love them both so much!
Happy 10th Birthday Ty-Bug! You have always been pretty tough! You started out with some rough times, but pulled through and now you still fight through things and excel! Some things we love about you....your kindness and tenderness to your brothers and sisters, your intensity in everything you do, your thoughtfulness, and that you love life and work hard!!! We love you!!!
Happy 12th birthday Brennan! I can't believe you're going to be a Deacon at church and almost be a teenager!!!! Time goes so fast! Some things we love about you are, your personality: you love to tease and joke and sometimes be sarcastic, but always loving and kind. You think of other people and are always the first one to ask to help. You are responsible and do well in school, sports and everything you put your mind to! We love you!!
We had a WAY COOL party! A big Semi came full of video games for the boys and 16 of their friends to play. Inside were 4 big screen TV's, and every video game and console out there. They had such a blast! It was fun to see them have so much fun! Happy Birthday to my two middle boys, WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!

Let me explain

This is what all the girls decided to do on Thanksgiving dinner AFTER it had all been cooked, cleaned, washed, swept, put away, bathed, folded, de-germatized, you get the general idea. We were tired so we went in my room, put this sign on the door, and watched sitcoms for an hour on my bed. It was wonderful!!!!!!!!
This is how the daddy's behaved.................while we were doing the afforementioned various "Thanksgiving duties"hence.............the sign on the door and the mommy "time-out"
32 people is a heck of a lot of people to feed turkey to. My arms are about falling off here, while Jon tried to take a "not blurry" picture. It actually was pretty gosh dang yummy if I do say so myself.........just call me Martha. HA HA HA!Here is the crazy lot of us. It really is insane when we all get together. We have a lot to be grateful for. I'm grateful they all came, that we had a blast, and that they all have homes to go to after the festivities are done!

Gracie's 5th bday!

We had a lot of fun celebrating our big 5 year old's birthday! (pink cupcakes, build a bear, and Color Me Mine....so much fun!)

I am having a very hard time believing she is really five. We are so grateful for our sweet Gracie and love so many things about her!

Here are some of the things we love about Gracie Ruth.

-she still can't say her F's or V's so she says "S" and "Z" for them, and I am adamant that no-one corrects her because I love it! She also calls Family Home Evening, "Has, hasning" and I will also kill anyone who dares try to change it!

-she loves to sing and dance and does so regularly all over the house!

-she is through and through ALL girl. Loves pink, loves purple, loves dresses, loves bows and frills, loves her dollies and is sugar and spice and everything nice!

-she loves salad more than cookies and chocolate, which is wierd, (being that she's my daughter) but so so cute.

-she gives big hugs regularly and tells us all she loves us soooooo much all the time.

- We LOVE that she is such blessing in our home, we are so grateful she chose to come to our family.

Happy birthday sweet girl!!!

Trick or Treat!

Start the day off right, ghostly pumpkin pancakes, orange hot chocolate with ghostly marshmallows floating in it!!!
Josh was Shaggy, (well actually, we took these pics the day before Halloween because he left for Washington DC the next morning early) so he wasn't really anything, but being a nice kid, he dressed up for pics anyway!!! Jen was a gypsie, Brennan, a jester skeleton, Ty, a jailbird, Jaemon the mad hatter (which was my favorite costume EVER!!!!) and Gracie, Alice in Wonderland. Next year they're all going to be Cheshire Cats cuz I think he's way cool.
Quite the jack-o-lantern artistry, I do believe!
It was a torrential downpour about 1/2 hr before trick or treating was supposed to begin, and then it suddenly stopped and a beautiful double rainbow came out! It ended up being a perfect night for tricks and treats!!!! Happy Halloween!!!

Queen of Halloween

I have been told on numerous occasions that I am the "queen" of the haunting holiday in October. Whether or not that's true, I dunno, however, I do love it.......a bit excessively, here are some of the annual festivities!Our annual Halloween party this year was an 80's party. It was SOOOOO fun! We played fun games, ate pac man and rubiks cube cookies, and laughed and laughed! All our friends are such good sports as you can see, and rose to the occasion for this shindig!
I had to literally bribe Josh to drive all the way home from Salem in between activities and practices to participate in our annual big leaf playing afternoon, he had all of about 20 minutes, but he came and indulged his crazy mom. I LOVE this tradition though, the smell and crunch and color of the leaves...........so fun!
Gardiner Village and the witches is something I look forward to every year, they are women after my own heart!
My wonderful sister in laws come and have a witches lunch, some of them refuse to dress up, but they come for the food and the FUN that we always have together!
Food is an ENORMOUS part of our traditions on Halloween, I made this monster cake for my witches lunch.......................oh my, 5 layers of chocolate pistachio heaven, Frankenstein would be so proud.
Witches lunch bunch, love these girls. We have so much fun together!
Witches brew, and other yummy treats!
One of 5 pumpkin patches we visited this year, this one was down in Central with the Chisholm gang! It was fun to go with grandpa (check out his happy, goofy little face!!!!!)
We always go to Cornbelly's and the corn maze. I want the big kids to love it as much as the littles, sadly for me, they go now just for the kettle corn, throwing corn, and again......to indulge their crazy mom. I hope someday they'll take their kids and thank me for "forcing "them into these silly things. I love it though, and I think secretly they do too!!!!
Love this, THRILLER by the Odyssey dance co. Jen was totally freaked out! It was so SUPER fun!! One of my favorite things!
Oh my, more treats, candy corn cupcakes, sugar cookies, caramel apples, pumpkin cheese ball....all favorites!
Another very very fun party. Jon is amazing......how many husbands you know would dress up as a puppy at their staff party where he's the BOSS?? So much fun!
Another punkin patch, at the Red Barn, we love the hay ride, donuts, ice cream and the biggest pumpkins we can carry!!!!!
Halloween nail painting, this year we got cool decals and the girls spent the afternoon painting each nail a different color (orange, black, white, green and yellow!) so cute!
Our haunted halloween house. Which, admittedly gives me a headache. They always fall apart, the little nerds fly all over the room and we slip on them, the frosting is black and stains.......but the kids really do love this tradition and it always ends up being so cute.

So, maybe I am the queen, maybe I'm looney, I don't know. I do know that there is just something about the fall that I am in love with, leaves, crisp air, the first snow fall, sweaters, the hint of things a little creepy out in the shadows. OOOOOH, I love it! Bring on the trick or treaters and last BIG party!!!!!! Happy haunting y'all!!!!

Disneyland!!!!

It's not a big secret that our family loves, loves, LOVES Disneyland, and this year we went at the start of Halloween time.............oh, it couldn't have been better!!!!!
This about sums it all up!
Face painting was a huge hit!

Josh loves Disneyland, but he REALLY REALLY loves the beach!

Sea World was lots of fun, the kids especially love playing with the star fish!
Space Mtn or Ghost Galaxy......OH MY GOSH.........I absoloutely ADORE this ride, all the time, I could ride it all day. It's my favorite, and with Halloween fun added to it, wow, I just don't have the words to describe my addiction to this ride. (I know it's an illness)
Pumpkins, decorations, Halloween treats everywhere. Good times.
We went with my sister, Rachael, her hubby Jared and their kids. It was a lot of fun. Hot.....113 degrees one day..............(which is completely and utterly ridiculous!) but still, at the happiest place on earth, WHO CARES?????? It was a blast! We love it!

Jaemon's General Conference Birthday Weekend!

Jaemon's birthday always falls on General Conference week. I remember bringing him home to the sounds of MOTAB on the tv, and dosing off through most of it! It's always a nice, relaxing, rejuvenating weekend! Here is the birthday boy with his very much anticipated present, a remote controlled Big Foot...it sleeps on it's head, rolls around the floor and grunts a lot. Wow....it doesn't get any better than that!
He wanted Halloween cupcakes with green, OOZY frosting. So there it is.
Blow it all out buddy!
A great big wish!!!!
This is the general mood while watching conference, balloons and vampire teeth.
Listening intently........
It's been tradition forever to make a fresh apple pie, (as in pick the apples this morning, fresh) and now pumpkin (well, cuz it's October, and Josh's favorite to make and eat) so we must have them for a delicious treat!
Jen with her notebook, taking detailed notes about every single talk. I tried something new this year and had them write down what they learned after each talk in a little notebook I made. They got to pick something out of a grab bag if they could tell me three things about each talk. (thanks to my friend Tara for the idea!) it worked great and they had a great time.......you can tell from the vampire teeth and balloons above!!!We all stayed in our jammies, ate cinnamon rolls and caramel popcorn and listened to our prophet and other leaders. What inspired people. We learned a lot and I hope we can do better day to day because of their counsel and advice.

And to my little Conference Weekend birthday boy...............I hope ALL your wishes come true! I love you little buddy!

She's SO big!

Today Gracie started preschool! She thinks she's so big, and I guess she's right!
She blew me a little kiss and told me that she'd be fine and that she'd make lots and lots of "swends" (friends) and play with lots and lots of toys and do all her homework, and not talk to strangers, especially boys, and that she'd say please and thank you. So, I guess I shouldn't worry at all with that list taken care of! (of course all this made me cry, but also laugh!)
I know it's inevitable that even my baby girl will grow up, but that doesn't mean I have to like it! I'm glad she's ready to be big, and have lots of fun, but I will miss my little buddy. Thank goodness it's only a few days a week for a few hours, it's just the right amount of time! Have fun Gracie!!!

(just a side note, the little backpack she's holding, I made for her. She wouldn't take it to school though, she wanted to take her cool Target one, but we compromised and just took pictures with the one I made to appease me! The Target one was much much more suitable for school, and not so "silly!" She did say she'd MAYBE take it once next week!)