Lately...

We had such a great Thanksgiving dinner (or more like luncheon, because we always do it early). We had tons of food and fun at my parents house with all the family. I have never had such good turkey. My mom has got it down! Then something I want to make a tradition that we did this year is to go on a walk after the meal. It isn't always nice weather for Thanksgiving, but we lucked out. Then we came back and ate pie. My mom's coconut cream, and Amanda's buttermilk and tollhouse pies were a BIG hit. Yum, Yum!

Ty showing off his new trick, Uncle Grove taught him.

I thought I would post a picture of our Christmas tree. Ty gets so excited about it. Every morning and after his nap, the first thing he wants to do is to see the tree. He was extra excited when we put our first presents under the tree. We will see how long they stay wrapped for. I remember last year it was so hard to keep Ty from pulling the tree down or undecorated it. This year it is Austin. Fortunately the treee hasn't fallen, and we just decorate the top half of the tree.

My dear sweet husband risked his life putting up our Christmas lights. When we moved into our house, the owners had them professionally wired. They said that they were the kind that you can leave up year round because you can't see them. Ha. It was the first thing I noticed when we drove up to see the house. So because I am so picky we have to take them down and put them back up again. Maybe I will take a picture of them sometime.

A couple weeks ago, Ty got invited to his first Bday party. It was for one of his friends in the ward, named Jens Cutler. It was so fun, because I got to go as well. Holly did an incredible job on decorations and planning the party around a theme. She is so dang creative. She did a construction theme. She had plastic yellow hard hats and yellow lunch pails for each of the boys with their name on it. You can see in the pictures the dump truck brownies and little orange cones (made out of ice cream cones, graham crackers, and chocolate frosting, with skittles inside).

A couple days later we went to another party. It was Ty's cousin, Ethan's party. I didn't take many pictures at this party but Amanda did a fantastic job as well. I am always in awe of people's creativity! I have a picture of all the kids with Ethan's awesome birthday cake, a treasure chest! They played one of the best games that I need to do with Ty again at home because he loved it so much. Amanda got 500 pennies and scattered them in the grass. Then all the kids went on a treasure hunt to find them. Whatever "treasures" they find they keep. The kids looked for about 20mins and didn't even get them all. This reminds me of a joke my father-in-law tells. If your kids are driving you nuts, you throw 99 pennies outside and tell them not to come back inside until they find all 100 of them. I will have to try this one when Ty can count higher than 10 and not skip 5 and 6 everytime.

Way too much writing, not enough watching my kids.

Last week I did something I have never done before. We went to a cave, or spelunking as the pros call it. (It was actually an old mine)

I don't think I can call myself my husband's wife without having done this. Austin loved it most of all.

Very possibly child abuse. He doesn't look amused, but trust me he was.

In order to get to the cave we had to cross a creek. It was only knee deep, but the water had ice floating in it. So, Troy, being the best brother-in-law that he is carried not only me...but Austin across. See movie below. I don't know whether to laugh or feel bad for him.





Not only did he do this for me, but he did it another 2 times for his friend, Brooke, and then for my niece and nephew, Kendall and Lily. Tyler and Cannon climbed across a cable to avoid the freezing cold water.

Our Halloween

We had such a fun halloween. Even though Tyler had class that night, we still got to be with him for a little bit. We went to Tyler's work and did trick or treating at the offices. Then, we went to our ward's trunk or treat, and just incase we didn't have enough candy we went to my parents and inlaw's ward for another trunk or treat. Ty loved it! However, he wanted to eat each piece of candy when someone gave it to him. He couldn't quite get the concept of saving it for later.

That night I knew that we weren't going to be home the whole night so I put out a bowl of candy. I went to our ward trunk or treat for about 45 mins and came back and realized all the candy was gone. I thought at first that somehow there must have been a lot of trick or treaters, but in the next 30 minutes we didn't have anyone. So...one lucky person got a bunch of candy in one stop. Not that I am going to miss it or anything. I am thrilled to have it gone. But..sorry to anyone that came by and didn't get any.


At Tyler's work. Yes, Tyler did dress up. If you want to count the skeleton shirt his work gave him.

My cute lion and pumpkin.

This picture doesn't necessarily reflect their personalities 100% of the time. Only about 90%.

I dressed up as a cowgirl, my default costume when I am not feeling creative.

Enjoying the nice Halloween weather.

He was mistaken as a carrot a few times. But for the record, he was a pumpkin. (see front of costume)

Ty with his cute friend, Nakota.