Halloween

Halloween 2010! This year we haunted as the "brain", a sassy witch, a soccer playing mummy, and a very fierce skeleton. As Kellie joined the party we added a devilish devil.

Soon we added Jack Skelington to our ghoulish group! As the "brain", the soccer playing mummy, and the skeleton went trick or treating, the witch and Jack Skelington scared all those daring enough to come to the door to trick or treat. Some were daring enough to climb the stairs into the tunnel of spider webs and giant falling spiders while haunting sounds and lights were their to scare. Others did not even make it up the stairs, but screamed and ran away crying with the terrifying sight of Jack opening the door!
































































Kelsie also had her first experience trick or treating, visiting two neighbor houses for fun tricks and treats!

Happy Birthday Pickles!

In our tradition of celebrating birthdays months later, we finally had Dylan's birthday party in August. We rented a giant blow up water slide, add about 18 beach balls, and as many kids, pizza and cupcakes and you've got yourself a party!

We have grass! and trees!

We now have grass and trees and the makings of a yard! I got flower pots for mothers day and got to plant them as well. It's all coming together. I few more years and we might be completely landscaped with a fence! Loving the grass and trees though, they make a huge difference.

Dead End

This road is in deed a "dead end". On the other side of it is a cemetery!

Oh the joys of being a boy!

Poor Dylan fell off his scooter and scraped his ankle. My children do not think band aids are an acceptable form of covering a small injury and insist on wrapping themselves up as if they've been in some major accident. So, Dylan dragged his scooter up the stairs and sat in the hall wrapping his leg. What a classic look on his face!

And the winner is. . . ETHAN!!!!

The makings of the all important father/son competitive event, the pinewood derby car! Ethan had a specific idea in mind and he and his father set out to make his dreams become a reality. In the beginning it was supposed to be a shark. With Grandpas help they cut out the basic shape and from then on the sanding, painting, and weighing began.

Ethan picked out a shiny blue spray paint and did most of the painting himself.

After a month long delay, the pinewood derby finally arrived, and boy was Ethan excited!

The competition was fierce. Jeff had talked to some of the other dads and they were going on and on about all the stuff they did to their cars to make them go faster. We didn't know what we were doing and so had stuck to the basics. Nerves were high as we went to the race hoping to just not come in last! There were a lot of really cool cars and a lot of hard work went into making them. Ethan's car is the blue one with the silver stripe.
Then the race began! Each car was raced down the track four different times and then the times were averaged. No car raced against the same car twice. The computerized system kept track of times and averages. The first time Ethan's car went down the track, much to our surprise, he came in first place. Ok, so we weren't going to lose! As the race continued, his car kept winning and he had the record for the fastest time.

Much to our amazement Ethan won!!!! Good job Ethan! What a great way to start out our many years of doing pinewood derby's, but a high expectation has been set. What are we going to do next year??? Apparently sticking to the basics worked. Ethan was happy to win a trophy and a certificate for the car with the coolest racing stripe!

It costs how much for that????

In my quest to find a new wreath for my front door I came across a wreath that I LOVED at Tai Pan. It was covered in yellow and red poppies wrapped around a metal frame, but as soon as I looked at the price tag I was shocked, $220!!!! Seriously! Nope, not going to happen. As I continued to walk around the store I found a similar wreath on grapevine rather than metal. You would think that it would be reasonably priced, there wasn't much to it, but looking at the price tag revealed a different story. A few fake flowers wrapped around a grape vine wreath and the cost was a very reasonable $180!!! What!!!! So I found the same flowers and wreath and made my own for under $12. Looks pretty similar if I do say so myself.

AHHHH so handsome!

The boys are so cute in their new easter suits. They love wearing suits to church for some reason and this year ended up with mostly matching outfits. Their jackets are close to the same, same pants, and same shoes. The only thing they chose different was the shirts and ties. Don't they look so handsome!

Happy Birthday Ethan, oh wait isn't it April 17th?

I know, I know, it's been over a month since Ethan's birthday, but with soccer, illnesses, Easter, and Conference, we just haven't had a saturday available to have Ethan's birthday party. Last year on his birthday we were moving and it was his year to have a party, so we had to have one this year. So after many weeks of asking "Are we haveing my party this week?" and "Am I going to have to have my party with Dylan?", we finally had a free saturday to have a party. This year instead of haveing a bunch of friends over, he wanted to go and see "Diary of a Wimpy Kid". So we allowed him to invite two friends and we headed out to the movies. I went in with really low expectations and the movie didn't turn out half bad. The kids on the other hand LOVED it!

After the movie, we got pizza and went to the park. The boys ate tons of pizza, except for Ethan who ate maybe half a piece, and guzzled sprite and root beer. Kaden was certain he could eat a whole pizza, so we challenged him to do it and he only made it through a measley five pieces.

After the pizza we had cupcakes. I got these really cool sparkler candles, I was so excited for them, but it was a little bit windy so they didn't even light.

This is Ethan pretending to blow out the candles for the sake of a picture.

Then it was present time. Dylan got him a frisbee and a sky ball catcher, Kaden got him a baseball bat and some balls, and Hunter got him a lego set. When we got home Ethan put the lego set together in under and hour.

Once all the food was eaten and presents opened, they went and played on the playground. We were at one of the only parks that has a merry go round. Some one was spinning them really fast and they soon got off litterally ready to loose their lunches!

Once everyone was feeling better, they tossed Ethan's new frisbee around.

Hunter was sitting in the middle of the game. I was shooting pictures trying to get some good ones and got this one where he got hit right in the head with the frisbee. Great shot for me, not so great for Hunter. He was ok though.

The boys had a great time for Ethan's birthday. Hopefully next time we'll get it done closer to his actual birthday. For us it didn't seem much different than a normal saturday going to the movies and dinner at the park. Happy late birthday Ethan!