Trunk or Treat

We had our ward trunk or treat last night. The kids had fun...

Miss Kyla dressed up as Fancy Nancy. It was the perfect costume for her, she kept adding things, "oh mom wings too and my boa..."








John has been telling me for weeks he wasn't going to wear a costume. He wanted to be just a boy for Halloween. Even though I knew better I still tried to get him to dress up, it lasted 30 seconds... maybe.




Our little monkey... Thanks Mel for the super cute monkey suit!








A happy Johnny in his "red boy costume"... which is just his fireman hat on backwards. What a silly boy!

PUMPKINS!!

Our annual pumpkin carving night with our friends, the Goodman's. We had a few more pumpkins and a few more people this year, it was lots of fun. My kids have been so excited to carve their pumpkins!

Kyla choose this little pumpkin and named it Tiny. She drew the face on and made sure he is a "nice pumpkin" not a scary one!


Johnny wasn't too sure about all the slime inside. He thought making the face was cool though, he wanted, eyes, a nose, and a mouth with lots of teeth so it can talk to him.


Johnny with Big Big and Kyla with Tiny.



Steve's pumpkin friend.



All done and lit up.



Beave made this cat. I think Ky choose the pattern, she is really into kitty's right now!



Big Big, Tiny and the cat at our house.



Leo with Tiny.

the neighbor...

You have to look close to see our new neighbor... apparently he moved in over the weekend.




Here is a close up, Steve got the job to relocate him.
In case you can't tell, its a tarantula! They are natives to the forest here, it is only the 2nd one I've seen in 4 years of living here...

Bruiser

How about some road rash on your face?! Kyla was walking home from the neighbors, who happen to be at the top of the hill, she and her friend decided to run, the big brother who was walking with them told them that probably wouldn't be a good idea about the same time Ky fell... OUCH!!

U2

So when Steve was in Scotland this summer U2 was playing there, when he told me about it, I said something like, "You should go!! U2 is one of the only bands I would pay money to see..." He couldn't get his schedule to accommodate going but that is all it took, the concert green light was on! Steve LOVES music and used to go to a lot of concerts, "shows", before we had kids and moved to Flagstaff. So guess what I got for my birthday?! U2 concert tickets! They came to Phoenix yesterday and Steve and I were there. I was a little hesitant (Steve says a lot hesitant!) to leave my kids, especially little Leo for so long but Leo takes a bottle so thanks to an amazing friend who took my three kids even though her husband was out of town... we got to go.
U2 did not disappoint! It was a great show! AND we didn't know until 2 minutes before but Black Eyed Peas opened for them, not quiet U2 but still a fun show.
Things I love about U2:
Larry Mullen Jr. the somewhat shy drummer.
The lack of profanity, not one naughty word the whole show!
Bono, I think it takes a special talent to command an audience of 90,000 for 2 hours!! A little too over the top at times, but that makes him Bono.
I can sing along to 99% of their songs, and they have a lot!! 30 years is a long time to be making music.
The Edge, who doesn't love the beanie wearing lead guitar!
The band's appeal to ALL ages... Steve and I were a little surprised to see so many kids, little kids at the show, I think Steve was calculating how soon he can take our kids...! And then there was the grandma and grandpa, not like old worn out rocker looking people, a cookie baking grandma type. Steve leaned over and asked, "can that be us?!"
Not to leave Adam Clayton out, every band needs a good base guitar I guess.

Thanks Beave for a GREAT b-day present. And thanks Mari for making it possible, by the way Kyla and John both told on themselves this morning... "I kept and kept and kept getting out of bed... and John followed me...!"

One more thing...

So when we did the basement remodel last spring we left one tiny thing to do... the tile behind the wood stove. It has started to get cold and we decided we couldn't put it off anymore. Steve basically did the job in a day, you have to let things dry between coats so it takes a few days but the big mess and work was all done last Saturday. I love how it turned out and despite my love hate relationship with the wood stove, love the heat hate the mess, I am happy to have a fire again.

Happy Halloween!!

We (ok I) really like Halloween and fall fun things. We made "pumpkin pumpkins" for a fun Halloween treat!

Johnny says, "Happy Halloweeeeeeen!!"

Giggle Man Leo!

We all love that Leo is ticklish. He is the perfect baby for two rambunctious siblings. He laughs when they tickle him and doesn't complain too much when they jump on him. He has learned a trick or two from them... he squeals and YELLS. He is especially ticklish under his arms, so even just changing his shirt can be a giggle fest. He is a lot of fun!

Scotland

This is more catch up, Steve had to go to Scotland in August to work for 2 weeks and his dad went with him. Here are some pictures of their trip.

St. Andrews Castle


Steve's dad, John, at Edinburgh castle.


Steve golfing St. Andrews golf course. For those of us who don't know why that is cool... St. Andrews is the oldest golf course. Steve and John were excited to be able to golf there.


The monastery at St. Andrews.


Glams castle


The North Sea near Aberdeen.


This waterfall is the run off from one rain storm!


St. Andrews grave yard.



They had a great time, Steve's dad was the perfect travel companion for this trip. Steve worked all day and his dad went out on his own sight seeing and he also came up with things for them to do in the evening. It is a beautiful country, maybe I won't have a newborn baby next time he has to go... :)

Fall

I love fall, I used to love it more when I liked what follows, I am getting to be a pansy about winter... now fall also means winter is on its way... despite that I still love fall, the colors, the smell, Halloween, all of it! We took a drive between conference sessions today to check out the colors, we were a little early but still had a fun drive.

It was cold and windy... by the time we got to the top we were "in the clouds." Ky and John thought that was so cool, we got out of the car so they could touch the clouds!


The happy cloud touchers. Leo stayed asleep in the car and avoided the cold cold wind! (He does others things besides sleep, someday I'll get another video of him up, he is hilarious!!)


We stopped again half way down, where we could get out and see some color, just the early yellows, but still gorgeous.
Kyla kept telling us all day that she is "stylish!" We say, YEP!


Johnny cracks me up, even his little run makes me laugh. Oh and there are some pretty aspens in the picture too...

Beave's Baking

I am sure most of you know, I do the everyday cooking at our house and Beave does the gourmet. He is pretty adventurous in the kitchen.
So this is Steve's latest in the kitchen....
Strawberry chocolate cheesecake!!





Not only does it look pretty, it tastes delicious too!!! How may can say their first attempt at cheese cake turned out PERFECT?! And to rub in his superiority a little more this master piece follows my banana bread mishap on Friday, I left out the sugar... kind of important in banana bread... Beave made french toast with it Saturday morning, YUM!!

Kyla turns 4!!

Kyla asked for a butterfly birthday this year... actually she was going back and forth between butterfly and fairy. Butterfly won because I could figure out how to make a butterfly cake... :)!! Ky and John helped make the cake, Johnny did frosting quality control (sticking his finger in the frosting every couple minutes) and Kyla was the artistic consultant. And Leo played the part of the good baby and slept through the whole thing!


Ky and I were happy with how it turned out!!



Butterfly friends!



Blowing out the candles.



The little brothers hung out with dad, Paul and Mari (thanks guys!) during the party.



It is hard to believe that four years has gone by since that LONG day in the hospital when Ky was born. In some ways it seems like forever, we have had a FULL four years! We are super lucky to have Kyla in our family and are so grateful for the beautiful sweet girl she is.

John and the stairs = nap...

LABOR day

So our Labor day was really a day of labor... We have been putting off painting the house all summer, Steve kept saying he was going to hire our 16 year old neighbor to do it, Steve really didn't want to do it. We finally just did it, it looks so much better with the house all one color... :)

Steve, the man the mystery...

I haven't been keeping up with Steve's stuff...
His annual trip with his dad and brother (and whoever else they can talk into going) was to Lake Powell. It was in May... I'm a little slow! They had a great time. It is so beautiful, I would live in Page! Too bad Wal Mart is the only employer in the town...

Cliff jumping, I think it was a little game of one up until they ended up at the tallest point of this cliff...


Beave and Brian


Beave on the wake board.







Beave's dad.

Running just as fast as we can...

Which by the way is not too fast... After a 5 year sabbatical from running I decided to take it up again. I no longer feel the need to take my kids, a triple jogger does exist but really am I going to push 80 pounds of kid around my neighborhood?! Nope! I tried to run a little when I first moved to Flag and was just pushing one kiddie but even then I didn't really get into it. I finally decided to get a babysitter and run on my own, I'm just not a stroller runner. Today was my first day; Leo fed, movie on, babysitter here and off I went. I'd like to say it was wonderful but when I looked at my watch 4 minutes into it and thought, REALLY?!, I remembered again how much work it takes before running is "fun." I finished 15 minutes later with a 19 minute first run under my belt, it will get better right? I have to stick with it long enough to be able to just take off for a 1/2 hour and not be sucking wind the whole way. Not too lofty of a goal?! I may even do a road race again someday, my 10 year old race t-shirts are getting rather holy!!
Even though it was not an easy run, I still enjoyed my 19 minutes of alone time and I can imagine how great it will be when I can think about something besides putting one foot in front of the other....

Kyla counting

Steve had a hand full of treats tonight and asked Kyla to count them, she counted 1, 2,3. Steve added a few more and asked again, Ky looked at them a minute and said, "Oh, that's a lot!!"

Please Bless...

Kyla's prayer at dinner tonight included a request to "please bless us not to listen to the bad manners."

Being 2...

I love the wisdom of a 2 year old...

At dinner the other night Steve asked Johnny to eat his dinner to which Johnny replied, "No, no, its too tasty!!"

Bed time is always a bit hectic, one night while in Utah I told Ky and John they were melting down and it was time to go to bed. Johnny came back with "I'm not melting down mom, I'm growing up!"

On the way home from church last week Kyla was telling us about her sunbeam lesson on eternal families. She told us she would be our daughter forever, Johnny joined in with "me too!" Steve tried the rest of the drive home to convince John he isn't a daughter, he is a son. Steve finally gave up when Johnny disputed his best argument, that John is a son because he is a boy, with, "I'm not a son, I'm a boy daughter."

When Johnny is finished at the dinner table he tells us he is all done because his "hands are full."

Johnny was reading scriptures last night and apparently the Lamanites were having a hard time in the shower... And he swore "and he swore" in his wrath "in his bath"

This stuff makes laugh out loud, we love a little comic relief around here!

Kyla's first day of PRESCHOOL!!

I know it is only preschool and only two days a week but it was still a little hard for me to drop Ky off at school. She loved it though and only cried once... when I told her it was time to go home...

Tired

John is a little worn out for our trip, this is where I found him after searching the house and checking with the neighbor. I had to do a double take to figure out the lump at the top of the stairs was my sleeping boy.

Kyla's Photos

Kyla got a hold of the camera and went to town, she took 50 or so, here are just a few...

Leo Blessed

We blessed Leo while we were in Utah so we could have family there. We are 3 for 3 now, all our kids have been blessed at grandma's houses in Utah...
It was a nice day, thanks to all the family who came!