fall & halloween FUN

We had quite the run of Halloween festivities!

It all started on last Friday back at the pumpkin patch.  I arranged a group outing for our ward and it was pretty fun.  The kids always have a good time even though it’s HOT every year!

We ran home for Ryan to take a nap and as soon as we woke up we headed to Abbie’s Elementary School down the street for the Harvest Festival.  Luckily Wes got home just in the knick of time and was able to come with us.  We took Abbie & Daisy around with a group of our friends we ran in to while Ali ran the dunk tank.

On Saturday night we went to the Haunted Harvest at Springs Preserve with a few friends for trick or treating & carnival games.

Tuesday started with Nate’s preschool Halloween Party.

And it ended with our ward’s Trunk or Treat.  I was 1 of 4 ladies in charge of this Trunk or Treat and I have a new appreciation of any big ward activity.  Holy smokes!  I think it turned out rather well . . . we had dinner outside, trunk-or-treating & games and a Spook Alley inside.  I chased Ryan around from car to car – he really got the hang of the trick or treating this go-around.  And Nate played and played and had a blast.  Oh, and lucky for Wes but the trunk-or-treat was on his birthday so my friend Jamie brought him a cake to the trunk or treat!

Looking forward to Halloween night tomorrow!

PBR 2011

We had another great trip the PBR Finals last night! 

Nate is a cowboy at heart so my dad thought it was time to include Nate in this tradition.  Prior to going, I told Nate that he would get to come with the grown-ups out to dinner and then to watch some bull.riding.  He really had no clue what he was going to see but he was excited to get to be a cowboy for a night with his boots and hat. 

Nate was soooo good the entire night.  He was great at dinner and had a blast watching the bull riding.  Our seats were pretty close and we were right by the edge where they take the bulls in and out of the arena so he got to watch the bulls close-up all night long.  Even at the end when you could tell he was really tired he didn’t want to leave.

This was probably the best year of bull.riding as far as how many cowboys rode the bull for 8 seconds.  There were 19, I believe which is really high.  The night before there were only 5!  Unfortunately, one of the bull riders got hurt pretty bad.  The first injury seemed to occur as he was thrown from the bull because he was lying on the ground motionless and then the crazy bull stepped right on him.  Needless to say the poor guy was rushed to the hospital but he’ll be alright.

It was a great night out.  We love this tradition – thanks dad!

it was one weird week.

We had a bizarre week in our house last week. 

. It all started on Monday [October 17th] . . . I worked that day so I was driving home after picking up the boys and Ryan just started screaming but his seat is behind mine so I didn’t turn around.  Screaming in the car isn’t anything new.  But the smell of vomit sure was!  He barfed ALL over.  It was disgusting.  And up until this point he was acting totally normal [other than right before we left my parents and he wanted to just lay on me] and he was totally fine after so I thought he just ate something that didn’t agree with his big tummy.

. Wes flew to California on Thursday morning for a meeting.  He called me as he was walking through the Ontario office and he sounded awful.  Worse than awful . . . totally disoriented.  I’ve never seen/heard Wes like this.  He was having extreme pain and was calling me to see what I thought he should do.  After I realized how bad it really was I told him to get to an ER.  So he jumped in a taxi where he about passed out and made it to the ER where he started throwing up everywhere.  It wasn’t until he got the morphine that the pain went away.  They say it was something with his stomach.  But don’t worry, my trooper of a husband made it to his 1:30pm meeting that he flew in for.  Luckily the extreme pain never returned.

. Thursday night at around 8:30pm, while I was at a church meeting, Nate threw up all over his bed.  So after Wes’ extremely long & painful day he got to clean up more puke and get Nate all situated.  Nate was just like Ryan – no signs before or after puking of him being sick so I didn’t think much of it.

. Starting Saturday night I got hit with something awful but I never threw up.  My stomach has never experienced anything like that but the weirdest part was how much my bones and joints hurt and how tired I was.

It also hit Ali & Abbie . . . and poor Sam flew to Oregon to be with a dear friend of hers who unexpectedly lost her 7 week old baby this week and she was puking all night in a hotel room & has the same bone/joint/tired issues I had.  The weird thing is that we all got a form of something – but I rarely saw my family this week other than 20 minutes at Yogurtland for a quick celebration for Wes’ birthday so I haven’t a clue as to how this all got around.

Lets just say it made me appreciate my normally healthy little family!

I can’t get enough of my elephant.

His big ol’ cheeks and smile make for the perfect little elephant if you ask me.  His face lights up every time you say . . . “where’s the elephant?”  He knows we’re looking for him!

The latest on Nate.

A few random ones of Nate from the ol’ camera . . .

I love this 4 year old of mine.  Yes, he drives me bonkers sometimes but he really is a good little guy. 

His excitement for life is contagious.  He gets so excited over the big and small things of life.  He’s got a genuine love for things & he’s absolutely one of the quirkiest kiddos around.

. He LOVES all sports . . . one of which is tennis.  He asked my dad [who is still a great tennis player] if he’d teach him lessons and it’s been great.  They’ve only been twice but both of them love it.  Nate catches on really quickly and surprisingly totally listens to my dad and tries really hard.  On Saturday, Wes & I told him Papa was on his way to pick him up so he needed to go get his tennis shoes on and this is how he came down: soccer socks, shin guards & rain boots.  And he was 100% certain this would work for a tennis lesson. 

. He is still my yardwork buddy.  We planted and cleaned up the backyard last Saturday and by the end, I was SOOOO hot so I decided to jump in the FREEZING cold pool.  Nate jumped in too and we had a good time. [Don’t let the hot tub bubbles fool you – it was NOT heated and quite cold but felt so nice after being so sweaty!]  Nate even learned how to do a handstand in the water.

. Nate is a collector of extremely random objects.  He loves keys, string, hooks, binder clips, rope, etc.  He ties everything together constantly.  He had stuff all over and he was always asking where everything was so Wes emptied out a tool box and gave it to Nate for him to keep all of his stuff in it.  There’s a lock on it and everything!  It’s been a lifesaver.

. Speaking of random stuff – Nate’s been working on this “trap” for a while now.   [He’s very in to superheroes so he’s setting a trap for the bad guys].  It used to be a double-trap with a web at the bottom of the stairs but now he’s just working on the top.  He has a blast with stuff like this & can occupy him for quite a while.

It’s fun to watch Nate use his imagination!

Tennis Champions Series

I come from a tennis family.  Both my parents and my sisters and I all have a period of our lives where we played tennis.  Tennis happened to occupy about 8 years of my life so I definitely have a love for the game.

Growing up, tennis was always on tv at our house.  It usually was accompanied by my mom yelling at the screen at our favorite players – four of which we got to see on Saturday night.

The Tennis Champions Series came to Vegas this weekend so it was no surprise that my parents would arrange for us all to go. [Nurse Sam, we missed you while you were saving lives at the hospital].

It was a fun night out.  We started with dinner at Bahama Breeze and ended with some pretty entertaining tennis.  The four guys we got to watch were Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Jim Courier & John McEnroe.  McEnroe was definitely showing his age physically [he’s 53] but the rest of the guys still played pretty well.  They all had a sense of humor and had some fun entertaining the crowd. It was fun seeing Agassi play in his hometown – we all love Agassi in Vegas.  He ended up winning the whole thing.  Go Andre.

Speaking of Andre, his lovely wife Steffi was there with their kids.  And she happened to walk by the empty row RIGHT in front of us to get to the top.  What a classy lady.

Thanks Marz family for a fun night out.

eyeball soup & the pumpkin patch

We had a last minute festive night tonight.

I made monster eyeball soup for dinner.  Ryan wouldn’t touch it [what’s new?] but Nate eventually ate his whole bowl once I started dumping the extra green olives in there!  He loves green olives & he thought the eyeballs were pretty fun. [it was simply tomato soup with mozzarella balls turned in to eyeballs with the help of a green olive cut in half!]

Then we made a somewhat last minute run to the pumpkin patch!  We’ve driven by it a lot and Nate’s been wanting to go.  Wes has been gone a chunk of every week lately so we thought a fun family outing on a Monday night was in order.  Luckily our friend Tristan who had the kiddos tonight could join us!

Nate and Ryan loved this thing . . .

The kids had a good time and the weather was fabulous.  Can you tell we’re just enjoying being outside without sweating to death?

Ryan LOVED the rides.  He charmed the “ride lady” over and she let him stay on the swings for a few extra turns while the big kids jumped in the bounce house.  After a while I could hear him yelling “all done” . . . he was slightly dizzy. :)

If you are about Ryan’s size [or sometimes it doesn’t even matter how big you are] – you’re going to get a big bear hug from Ryan.  Poor Blake is used to it.  After about five big hugs Blake has usually had enough.

It was a fun night out!

our weekend.

Being in primary is pretty fun.

This year the theme is: “I know the scriptures are true.”  In January, we challenged the kids to bring their scriptures every week and they DID!  They filled up their “scripture jar” with beans and so they earned their party.  We passed around a little questionnaire to see what kind of activity they wanted and the majority was a movie night.

So we took it one step further and did a Radiator Springs drive-in on Friday night.   Most of the kids built their own box car and arrived to the drive-in in style in a car.  They walked in the church on a road and parked their cars to watch the movie.  The biggest hit of the night was Sally’s Snack Shack where they each had 3 tickets to buy their treats.  And when they got wiggly – there was a car themed game room that 3 of our fabulous Beehives ran for us.  Overall, the night was a hit.

 

 

Nate and I went as Lightning McQueen and Luigi.  I can see now that my “headlights” were a little much. :)  Nate was surrounded by some of his favorite friends but he kept coming to find me to watch the movie with him.  I figured the day will soon come when he won’t want his mom watching a movie in the middle of all of his friends so I obliged.

After a long week [my main client was at the biggest gaming show of the year this week – enough said] and a big primary activity to finish planning – I was glad for a “must do-less Saturday” where there was nothing we had to get done. 

Our Saturday was pretty nice . . .

- Wes installed a new radio in his car that has bluetooth so he can obey the “hands free while driving” law that kicks in in January.

- Nate and I went to the nursery where we picked out a few things to plant.  We ended up with an orange bush, some fall flowers, cilantro & basil and it’s all in the ground.  Nate is my nursery/gardening buddy. He’s great with the wagon at the nursery and he wants to be involved in every step of the planting.  And the weather was FABULOUS.

- Speaking of planting – Nate & Ryan were out in the side yard this morning that is all dirt and rocks [a little boy’s dream] and I could hear Nate teaching Ryan how to plant things. :)

- We braved Costco on a Saturday & enjoyed a little Chipotle.

- Watched football. [it’s on every Saturday’s agenda].  Go Cougars & Bulldogs.

- Had some Halloween fun.

- Made pumpkin brownies.  They were basically pumpkin choc chip bread in a thinner form but I liked them & they were easy.

- And I got ambitious somewhat late on Sunday night and made a batch of caramel/chocolate apples.  I’m determined to master these one day!

It was nice to have a Saturday just to do whatever we felt like.  We need more of those.

halloween lunch & crafts

I’m the queen of saving fun ideas but I hardly act on them.  Some friends from my old ward had the same thoughts so we got together for a Halloween lunch & craft afternoon on Friday at my house.  It turned out pretty well!  The kids [lets be honest, mostly my child] got off to a rough start but once they got all of their emotions and craziness out of the way we had a blast!

For lunch, we made mummy pizzas as the main dish & I attempted a few new Halloween treats.

Jen, Kiley & Brittany brought the crafts and they were really fun!  We started with decorating pumpkin sugar cookies.  Lets just say you could tell which cookies were the boys and which were the girls.  Hadley & Ellie’s were nicely decorated and they were gentle with their cookies.  Jake and Nate piled on as much goop as possible and could have cared less what it looked like!

Then they made paper plate spiders.

We finished up our Halloween date with painting pumpkins.  It was pretty cute – Jake loved his wet, painted pumpkin so much he gave it a big hug.  I’m sure they all left with a few more colors on them than how they came!

I have some fabulous friends from my last ward & it was great to get together.  Hopefully that will happen more often!