Halloween!

Would you look at that...Can you say, "Excited to be doing this?" I don't think I've ever seen a more thrilled group of young people getting ready to start trunk-or-treating. So, in case the costumes were way too good, Adam is a mummy, Spencer, a dead hunter, Max a fireman monkey (again with the mixing of themes, he's driving me CRAZY!) and my most excited participant, Daniel, is a boy with marks under his eyes. Great job, buddy. Nice effort. Happy Halloween!

Max's 3rd Birthday!

It's Finally Here! Max has been asking if it is his birthday since Adam's in September. It gets a little old. So is Max by the way. My baby is three already! Can you tell he was a little excited to get Toy Story stuff this year? He had a hard time deciding on a theme, so everything is a little too jumbled together for my ocd self, but what do you do when you've got that Adorable face looking at you and wanting dinosaurs with Thomas and Woody? Exactly...you have a very random party to make him happy.

And happy he is. We ran into an old neighbor of my mom's at the party store where we were getting plates and balloons for Max's party and she offered to buy him a happy birthday blinking button! He wore it with pride all day and would take off his coat to show every passerby. Although I have conquered the fondant, making hard Rice Krispie Treats is not one of my talents. I created this amazing cake out of super soft and yummy Rice Krispie Treats, but my strengths have become my dinosaur's downfall. Literally. Nothing I could do would make this dinosaur stay upright without completely unedible support. So for the first time in the history of kids birthday cakes....

I bought a cake. And he's still happy. Note to future self: avoid all the painstaking effort you go to to make them happy and feel special on their birthdays, and just buy a dang cake from Wal-Mart.After cake and icecream (another note to self: not a great idea when it's already freezing outside, maybe hot chocolate would be better?) everyone who wanted to headed to the Haunted Dinosaur Park. We did some trick-or-treating, had fun walking around the spooky place, and played until we were too cold to enjoy it anymore.

And then came the post-birthday crash. Couldn't even take off his button.

Happy birthday indeed!

Adam's 6th Brithday!

We had a blast at Adam's 6th Birthday Party! He wanted a snake cake so once again, I attempted the previously unconquerable rolled fondant. I CONQUERED! Life goal #265 checked off the list. Then we went to the Kangaoo Zoo with his Wilson cousins. There was plenty of jumping going on in that place!

He had a great time! And so did everyone else.

Sometimes being a mom is worth it

Occasionally, Daniel and I help out some neighbors by taking their paper route. He had helped me for a couple of days, so this particular morning, I asked Spencer to help. When we got back, this was on the kitchen counter waiting for me. Daniel had made me breakfast and a card that told me how much he loves me. Coming from Daniel that means a ton!

And he even arranged my pancake into a smiley face! He's so cute!

I found these pictures on my phone from earlier this year and knew I had to put them on here. This was the day of the Father and Sons' Campout. All of the boys were super excited to spend some time with dad, and they were busy getting their camping backpacks, snacks, flashlights, and hiking boots. Max was no exception.

Unfortunately, it was still pretty early in the spring and super cold, so we didn't think it would be a good idea for Max to go. He was upset. In an attempt to make him feel like he was doing something cool, I took him to climb a mountain. We went up to Frog Rock and climbed the boulders, ate dinner on top of the mountain, and had a great time exploring together.

So funny!

This is some pretty funny stuff!

Football Rookie

We've gone and done it...our first boy started tackle football this year. I actually had to force Daniel to do it since all he wanted to do was soccer, but being the wise mother that I am, I have once again created a monster. I actually cried when I took this picture. He is SO handsome and grown up! When he started the season, his coaches made it very clear that rookies don't get a lot of playing time until they prove that they get it and for the first few games, Daniel didn't play a whole lot, but by the end of the season, he was on the starting line and played the majority of the game. He got 8 tackles, returned a kickoff and ran for 20 yards, and (I think) got a fumble recovery (but the ref's called it incomplete). I couldn't have been more proud of him. One of the other boys on the team was getting frustrated that he wasn't playing very much and he kept getting yelled at in practice. That boy's mom told me that Daniel told him that "I don't know what I'm doing either, but I'm going to listen to what they tell me to do and try to do better every day!" Every game, he would tell me what he was going to focus on and every game, he would do what he pictured himself doing. It was certainly a busy few months, trying to balance soccer and football, but I think it's just something we will have to get used to because it's worth it to see him playing his heart out and doing so well for his first year! Go OGDEN!

Camp Henrie

The Henrie Family Trip this year meant roughing it in the beautiful Uintah Mountains. We camped at Fish Lake and spent 4 days hiking, fishing, swimming, playing games, and doing crafts like tye-dye T-shirts. I even mastered corn on the cob over a fire which is something I've always been scared to do but found it to be the absolute BEST way to cook corn!

The boys spent lots of time fishing (really Chad spent lots of time untangling fishing line, attatching new hooks and bait, and not a lot of time catching anything- but hey, they're together, right?) And it looks like they are enjoying it!

Max brought his monkey chair with him everywhere and usually he had someone else's candy or soda that was left of the table which he promptly claimed as his own. He was absolutely FILTHY and even though he has been potty trained for a while now, he refused to use the outhouses because they smelled bad. Little did he know, he smelled just as bad. Amazingly...still cute.

Two very different emotions going on here...one says "aaaahhhh" the other says "grrrrrrrr"

The question on everyone's mind: Is grandpa frustrated at having to carry sleeping Max up the mountain, that Max is drooling on his head, or that I'm capturing it all on camera?

This was by far the best part of the trip: cliff jumping into Trial Lake! Most everyone participated-well, the super cool ones at least. And speaking of super cool...check out my Spencer who once again surprised everyone. I don't know why, we should totally be used to things like this from him.

Yep, you heard him right, he asked to "just throw me". Sorry about your face, Spencer. I guess Dave doesn't have much practice throwing little boys off of 30ft. cliffs.

Summer Fun Part 2

I'll just jump right in to part two of our summer by posting the most funnest part of it- LAKE POWELL!! It's gotta be a good majority of my favorite memories when I was a kid and I hope to make some of the same for my boys. This year, Chad went with us which just makes it SO much better for all of us.

Can't get much better than that!

The boys (well, most of them...Max couldn't come because of his ears and his selfish/paranoid parents) had a great time. Water+dirt+lizards/spiders/fish+endless supply of soda and things to throw= Little Boy Heaven. They spent their day doing all kinds of boy things and I spent mine laying in the sun reading a book (which equals my heaven by the way).

Chad was there to entertain them and they loved the uninterrupted time and between you and me, I think Chad had a pretty good time too! He was climbing, jumping, swimming, shooting, and playing just as hard as the rest of them. I had to tell him that it was time to get out of the water now, the sun has gone to sleep and so should you.

We had a great time as usual and this year I experienced for the first but certainly not last time the thrill of a wave runner! Now THAT is something I could get used to! We skiid, went to the Indian Ruins, climbed the Moqui Stairs, ran down the Sand Hill, explored all the nooks and crannies in the super fun wave runner, sat through a few thunderstorms and then enjoyed the unparalleled beauty of a waterfall coming off the cliff you are beached under. It was nighttime, so we couldn't take any pictures, but the sound and occasional glimpses we got as the lightning struck was simply AWESOME! Definantly a trip to remember, THANKS TEYA!

Definition of Summer: Too much fun to spend time updating my blog

I know it's been 4 months since I last worked on this thingy, but I have good reason...We were livin and lovin life, baby! So much happened this summer

We started it off with a family trip to the Lagoon!
That was just WAY too much fun to handle and Max finally collapsed right there on a bench. Daniel and Spencer were finally big enough to go on the real rides and were overwhelmed with giggles and fear. It was great to see. The kids can only take so much, though, and they went home with Grandma (love her) so Chad and I could tear the rest of that park UP! And that we did, right up until the power went out. Totally sucked, but happy ending: we got free return passes so we did it all again a few weeks later!

The boys gave me these mother statues for Mothers Day this year. While I was cleaning this summer, I noticed that my statues had been collected from around the house and arranged like this to show our entire family surrounded by Christ in the background. No one will confess to moving things around but I'm willing to be that Spencer is the culprit. If it were Daniel, he would have fashioned underwear out of something and put it on one of our heads...Needless to say, I have kept my statues arranged like this to remind me of our eternal family and the constant presence of the Lord in our lives. I know He is watching over us, protecting us, and guiding us towards becoming an eternal family. I love Spencer and his strong spirit. He never forgets what is most important. I only hope I can take the time to pay attention to his little clues.

Max had the mixed blessing of getting tubes in his ears and his adnoids taken out in July. You can see how much he liked that.

Although, you can't hold this kid down for long! The next day, he was playing at the Pineview Dam beach and boating with Aunt Teya!

Here's cousin Troy and Adam modeling the beautiful mermaid tails I made for them.

And here's Daniel being eaten by a huge crocodile!!AAAAHHHH!!!

And me- skiing! If only...

I could get on...

The dang ski!

Maybe I'll just stick with the knee board:)

The boys had a ball too! They jumped/rolled/fell off a sand cliff which entertained them for a long time and showed me what a bunch of drama queens I have.

Here's Max's attempt at being as big as his brothers...falls a tad short.

Here's what it looks like on video for all of you who do not get the privilege of being around boys all the time and therefore cannot picture in your imaginations what the heck I'm talking about. Love you all and feel free to borrow a few of mine whenever you need a jumpstart to your creativity or need a good laugh.

Spencer's 7!

Spencer turned 7 this week and we had a great time. Chad was able to be home for the big day ALL DAY which is a present in and of itself. We took treats in to his class, he had a reward for reading day where they could ride horses at school, grandma took him shopping (which is always highly rewarding), then we went to a movie with all the Henrie's, had dinner (spaghetti), and cake...what a day! He's totally worth it!

As for this cake, I was planning on taking it easy this year with the cake, but around 9pm Thursday night, I realized that I just couldn't do it. After a detailed search of the internet, I decided to go with R2D2. It was my first attempt at fondue, and that part was pretty frustrating, but after I finally gave up at 3am and tried again in the morning with good old buttercream, he turned out pretty well. He is a total of 4 cake mixes and 5 tubs of frosting, plus the lame amount of fondant that actually made it to the cake before I gave up. Bottom line, Spencer was happy, so it was definantly a good day- I'd do it again tonight to make him smile:)

See what I mean?

And this kid NEVER ties his shoes, so we're expecting a trip to the orthopedic surgeon soon for his broken leg.