Trick Or Treat

Happy Halloween! The kids really enjoyed their costumes this year. They all looked great! I have to say this was one of the least stressful years. Yay me! Matthew patiently waited for this group picture, and then he was off to spend the evening with his friends. It helps my nerves to know that he has a fantastic group of friends and that we live in a wonderful and safe neighborhood. He had a blast! The girls had so much fun trick-or-treating...their bags got heavy quick. It lightly sprinkled on us at the beginning, but that didn't stop us. The temperature was so nice! We didn't have to bundle up this year! After 2 hours and hitting just about every house in the Ward we called it a night. The kids are already talking about what they want to be next year. I'm glad I have a year to plan. We love Halloween!
Punk Dirt Biker

Dorothy and Toto
Doctor
Minnie Mouse

Trick or treat, smell our feet...

...thanks for giving us lots of candy to eat.

School Halloween Parade

The kids had a Halloween Parade at their school this morning. It was awesome! They set up rows of chairs in the gym, back to back. Each class walked up and down the rows, and every parent had a front row seat! I really enjoyed seeing all of the fun costumes, but of course my kids stood out the most!:)

Karley was a Doctor. She loved it and looked so adorable! Kynlee was the cutest Dorothy. She loved her sparkly red ruby slippers! Matthew was a Punk Dirt Biker. He looked so cool! We were able to make a huge blue mo hawk.

Pumpkin Masterpieces

Nothing like waiting until the night before Halloween to carve pumpkins! Oops! Matt and I scraped the insides out today while the kids were at school. We thought it would save some time so that we could just design and carve them with the kids. They had so much fun and I think they turned out great!

Kenzie's Happy Ghost.
Karley's Freckled Smiley Face.

Kynlee's Winking Face. Matthew's Ode To BYU.

Grandma Slider bought a Haunted Gingerbread House kit and had the girls help decorate it. I think the "thumbs up" signs mean they had fun and did a good job. It looks yummy enough to eat!

Little Miss Snaggletooth

Karley lost another tooth! She is missing 3 on top, soon to be 4, and 1 on the bottom. She has one front tooth in and the other is FINALLY breaking through. Karley has had a toothless grin for quite a while now. When she was about 18 months, her big sister, Kynlee, was helping her out of the street. Sadly, they crashed on the sidewalk and Karley bumped her front teeth. As time would have it, the teeth both died, and one at a time, they were pulled. For years she has not had her front teeth, and we have just gotten use to her cute smile. Slowly but surely they are growing in! It will be so fun to see her with a mouth full of teeth, but for now, I love her beautiful snaggletooth smile!:)

A B-Ball Birthday Party

We finally had Matthew's Birthday Party! It seems like it has been the Birthday that never ends. To no surprise, it was a "Basketball" party. We hung orange and black streamers and blew up a bunch of orange balloons for decoration. When the boys got here, we headed to the Church building to play a couple of games of basketball. It was fun to think that they might be playing High School ball together someday. After pizza, soda, and gifts, Matthew blew out the candle on his orange doughnut (he didn't want a cake). Then we watched the best basketball movie, "Hoosiers". After a couple of rounds of "Ghost in the Graveyard", I took the boys home. I considered it to be a success. Matthew and his friends had a good time laughing and being goofy boys!

Playing basketball at the church. They got moves!
What a fun group of boys!
They had way to much fun pretending to be pregnant with the balloons! The looks on their faces crack me up!:)

Costume Party

Matt and I got invited by some friends in the Ward to attend a Halloween Party last night. Neither of us ever dress up for Halloween, so I was a little stressed about finding something to wear. Luckily, I talked to my sister-in-law, April, about it and she was able to hook us up with some costumes. Thank you! Matt went as Hillbilly Bob and I went as a Japanese Geisha. As can be seen in the pictures, Matt played the part really well. It was hilarious! April and her friend, Meredith, excitedly applied my makeup. They are pros! We had such a good night visiting with friends. So fun!

Passing The Sacrament

As I have written before, Matthew loves basketball. He pretty muchs breathes the sport! He knows teams and their players, especially the Suns team. Well, I laugh all the time, because when he is just walking around the house, he is dribbling a pretend ball, or shooting a pretend ball, or laying up a pretend ball, the list is endless. I kid around with him by asking, "Did you make that shot?", but mostly I just say "STOP!". A couple of weeks ago, I asked if he was going to "pretend" when he is passing the Sacrament. He replied by pretending to hand someone the Sacrament tray and then spinning around and making a jump shot. I laughed my head off! He countinued to pretend doing different moves after handing the tray to someone. It was so funny! We have all been really excited around here for Matthew to start passing the Sacrament. He came to me last night and said that he was nervous. I hugged him and then reassured him that he would be fine and that it was O.K. if he made a mistake. It is tradition in our Ward that when a Deacon passes for the first time, his Dad gets to pass with him. Matt is amazing! He worked a 12 hour NIGHT shift, got home, showered, slept for an hour, got ready for church, and went to Sacrament meeting, to participate in this stepping stone in Matthew's life. I know that Matthew was comforted to have his Dad sitting next to him before the Sacrament. Their assignment was the long middle benches. Matthew did wonderful! I was such a proud Mom...I watched him the whole time! Hopefully people knew that I wasn't staring at them!:) I am happy to say that there were no pretend basketball moves going on!!! He really enjoyed passing the Sacrament, and looks forward to passing it every week. He is growing up too fast!

Fun With Company

(I have 3 slide shows in this post. For some reason I couldn't get them to play on the post. Just click on VIEW ALL IMAGES and then click on ORIGINAL VIEW. It will show the slide show how I created it.)

This was the best weekend! We had some really special visitors. My Dad and Debbie came, and also my Mom, Natalie, and Brigg. They flew up here to support Matthew in receiving the Aaronic Priesthood and becoming a Deacon. Thank you for sharing this special time with us. We were able to do lots of fun things and make some wonderful memories. I love you all! Matthew got this Phoenix Suns jersey from Grandpa and Grandma Debbie for his birthday!
It is just what he wanted! The Suns are his favorite team! He loves basketball!
Kynlee was so excited to have Grandpa and Grandma Debbie at her house!

Arctic Circle shakes are yummy even when it's cold outside!
I went to pick-up my Mom and Natalie from the airport. I was so excited to get them and then they surprised me by bringing up my nephew, Brigg! It was his first flight, and he was so excited to be in Utah with his cousins. We decided to have Brigg ring the doorbell by himself. The kids were so surprised and excited to see just Brigg at the door. Thanks Karissa for letting Brigg come! We loved having him here!
My sweet sister, Natalie. I was so glad to spend some time with her. Love you!
The whole gang!

Saturday we went and saw "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" with Grandpa and Grandma Debbie. So cute!
The grand kids outside of the movie theater.

It was suppose to be storming all day on Saturday. After the movie, the weather had cleared up a lot. We decided to take our chances and head up to the American Fork Canyon for the evening. We loaded everything up, stopped and got some pizza, and got to our spot right as the sun was going down. It was freezing! Even though we were bundled up, it was miserable until we got the fire going. Then we could enjoy the evening. We had such a good time visiting, laughing, drinking HOT chocolate, and hanging out!

Sunday morning we woke up to SNOW! Everyone, especially those from Arizona, were so excited! Unfortunately, we have 9:00 church, so we weren't able to play in it right away. The poor kids had to wait until we got home, and by then it had melted except around the edges. There was still enough to make some good SNOWBALLS! They had so much fun! Later in the day, before my Dad and Debbie had to catch their flight, we took them and Natalie to Kennecott to see the pit. As we were driving there, it started snowing. Because of the elevation where the pit sits, it was a blizzard! Bummer! They really weren't able to see the enormity of it. They got their picture next to the huge, beloved Haul Truck tire and we went inside the Visitor's Center to look around. I think they still enjoyed themselves seeing the many wonders of Copper. It's quite the operation.

We loved having Grandpa and Grandma Debbie up here this weekend! Thank you so much for spending lots of time with us. We love you! Grandmama spent time teaching Karley our famous "Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater" medley. She got it down! They sounded so good together.

Grandmama brought up a bunch of card games. The kids had fun playing with her!

We went swimming in our neighborhood pool. It's heated all year round from a natural hot springs. Love it! It was 40 degrees outside and 94 degrees in the pool! There was steam coming off the water. This picture shows how bundled up my Mom had to be to survive the cold while we were swimming. You look cozy!
Aunt Natalie doing her perfect form dive.
Aunt Natalie and all the kids trying to keep all but their heads in the water to stay warm.
Kenzie loves jumping off the diving board. She jumped to Aunt Natalie and made her go under!:)
Brigg had so much fun swimming in the warm water.

We headed up to the park by our house a couple of times. It gives such a beautiful view of the mountains and lake. When we went on Monday, the wind was blowing, which made it freezing. We stayed long enough for the kids to roll down the hill a few times. They had fun! The weather was much nicer on Tuesday. Grandmama got some Silly String for each of us. It was war!

Matthew, Kynlee, and Karley enjoyed staying home from school on Monday. This shows them getting on the bus Tuesday morning. Brigg is waving bye to them...he thought it was cool that they get to ride on a bus. With the older kids gone, it left just him and Kenzie for a little while.
Brigg loved playing video games with the kids while he was here. I love this picture! While the kids are at school, Brigg is patiently playing video games with Kenzie. I heard him say, "Kenzie, quit shooting me!" and "Kenzie, don't push that button!" It was so funny!:) It didn't last too long. My Mom, sister, and I had a Girl's "Day" Out. I was really looking forward to this day. Matt had the day off and kept an eye on Brigg and Kenzie. Thanks honey! We went shopping and had lunch at Olive Garden. Yummy!
We also went and saw the beautiful Timpanogos Temple. It's in American Fork, which is the nearest temple to us. I love the gorgeous, snowy mountains in the background! Natalie cracks me up! She is so goofy in this pose!

Natalie, you are so cute! I love you sis! Grandmama with her cute grand kids! They love you Mom!
The kids went with me to drop off Grandmama, Aunt Natalie, and Brigg at the airport. They were having so much fun in the van...and then we had to say GOODBYE. My Mom is smiling, but this was actually a very sad moment. All of the kids were bawling as we gave our final hugs.:( It was very tender. Thanks so much for spending time with us. We loved every minute!