My Boys and BYU

I know I'm a bit late on this, but here is Devon and Troy all suited up for the priesthood session of conference in October. Aren't they cute? I mean studly handsome :) Hard to believe he is 12. He enjoyed going to the session, especially out to dinner afterward with Troy.

In October the boys, along with all Troy's brothers, Glenn and 3 cousins all went to the BYU/Oregon State football game. They got a hotel and made a weekend out of it. They had a blast. After the game they watched it later that night, and Troy paused it on his iPad and took a picture when they showed up on TV. Pretty exciting stuff. You can see Devon standing with the brown sweater, a little of Cam sitting on the right of Dev. Ashlynn is on Dev's left, then Troy and Tyler. Nathans is behind Troy, you can see part of his hat. They rest of the crew were sitting a few rows back. Good thing no one was picking their nose.

And the highlight: One of the players before the game (Pendleton) gave the kids five. I love the smile on Devon's face, and I can tell Cam is smiling too. It was a big moment for them!

We have big BYU fans here in our house. They are trained young. Before football season, Troy actually puts all the televised games on the calendar, so I will know not to schedule any conflicting activities involving him. I have learned he is serious about that :)

Thanksgiving in St. George!

The guys had fun biking, golfing and shooting!
We did a great hike in Snow Canyon.
Parker and Hayley met for the first time.
Then there was the delicious food. Everything was yummy.
The weather was beautiful. Only thing missing were the Whittles.

Whittle Halloween

This post is a little unorganized...i lost a couple pics I uploaded, so I had to load them again, so things are sort of out of order. Scroll down to read about this Halloween post :)

Halloween was fun this year. Our ward didn't do the traditional trunk or treat, which I was a little bummed about. We had a chili dinner and the kids went from room to room for some carnival games. It was fun, but the downside was they got one or two pieces of candy for each game, and by the end of the night they probably went to 6 or 7 games...so that makes for a very small amount of candy. Which really, I shouldn't be bummed about, but let's face it, halloween is all about the candy. So the kids were bummed they didn't come home with much, so we took them around the neighborhood, which was really fun for them. We haven't really ever done that since we always had trunk or treat. To kick off our halloween evening, we had a spooky dinner with giant lips, mummy pizza's, creepy tendrils and a graveyard of fingers for dessert. Oh, and a beverage of witch's blood with skull ice cubes. The kids loved it. We had candles and halloween music too.

Cameron decided to stray from the usual Dracula and be a mummy, Audrey was a ballerina/fairy and then a Power Ranger. I love how Alex is showing you his 'muscles'!

Veteran's Day

Today I am thinking about all our veteren's and the sacrifice they and their families have made. I am so grateful for those who have served, are serving and will serve our great United States of America, including Grandpa.

Here's Rod at our ward variety show Friday! He was hoping there would only be a few families there...he was disappointed at the large turnout! He did awesome!

Also, I just posted a gazillion things. Scroll all the way down to our Halloween costumes to see everything! I never feel like I have time to post things during the week, so I kinda went a little posting nuts tonight...

We had a Ward variety show Friday night and Caitlin and Lizzie wanted to perform! They had no fear and just jumped up and did it. Love Lizzie's jumpin jacks! Rod played a number on the guitar and Haley just hooted and hollered from the back for her talent.

This is a nightstand Rod found on the side of the road! I painted it and modge-podged some fabric on the front and on the knobs. Then I used some chalkboard paint on the inside just for fun. Voila! Lizzie's very own nightstand!
I gave a "service shower" for my friend who is expecting baby #6. She doesn't need a thing, except a little help so she'll actually be able to enjoy her baby when it comes. So I thought a service shower would be fun to try (and economically friendly- the invites instructed to "leave the presents, and bring their planners". So no one brought a gift, but everyone offered up lots of service! It was a lot of fun putting it together! And very satisfying to see my friends come and make this service shower experiment work.

So, of course, first the food showcase:

These are delicious. They're brownies with an indent in the middle filled with a filling. This filling is made of white chocolate, milk, powdered sugar, cream cheese, and whipping cream. Amazing.

Pumpkin chocolate chip bread.

Veggie shakes made with my Vitamix (which I LOVE, by the way!)

Toasted pumpkin seeds! I also had apple cider in a crockpot. It's recently turned cold here and has actually started to feel like fall, so I thought it'd be fun to have fall-ish foods.

My inviations and favors. The invites had two fabric birds glued to the front and all the info on the back. The favors were envelopes I made from paper, filled with sunflower seeds from my summer's crop, and tied with embroidery floss. On the back I wrote "baby is blooming." The cool thing? I didn't buy a thing except food for this shower- I had it all!

The piece de resistance! Rod brought me home a big piece of scrap metal I painted with chalkboard paint. I drew a calendar on it and people filled it up with service for my friend! For each thing of service someone did, they got to write their name on a paper and put it in a cup to win one of three pieces of metal. I know that sounds wierd, but metal is so cool! So 3 lucky ladies got to take home some metal to put on their wall, or frame, or whatever! Then I typed up a calendar of all the service items. It was definately a success- the calendar was packed!

Halloween and other Happenings

Caitlin was the Wicked Witch of the west ($6 DI outfit that I altered and dressed up with some fabric I had), Lizzie was Glinda the Good Witch (made from a $10 DI skirt/shirt that was huge- big enough to make a dress for her in). But her Glinda the Good Witch is based off an illustration from a Wizard the Oz book we got from the library....so no one but her and us knows who she is! Abby is an adorable Indian (a costume I bought years ago for Lizzie when she was little), and Haley is recycling a cat costume I made for Caitlin when she was a baby (7 years ago!- WOW!). I'm an 80's girl (my girls did not get this) and Rod is Flava-Flav (is that how you spell it??)

We're at the ward trunk-or-treat!

Haley is turning out to be one of the happiest babies I've ever met! And loudest- she has a lot to say!

My birthday! Celebrated with some pumpkin chocolate chip bread!

Happy Birthday Carrie!! The greatest Wifey ever, You rock!!

She's 3-0!!

Happy Birthday Carrie!!

Please forgive me Carrie, but these are the only recent pictures I have of you :) I love that they all are revolving around food! Although that's pretty much what our girl's trips revolve around. I love you sister! You are funny, witty, compassionate, patient, creative, and beautiful! We love Carrie!! again-sorry about some of the pics. but they had me laughing so hard. we need another trip!

Happy Halloween!

Emily and Brett home from their date on the scooter!

We babysat Parker. We went to the ward party,

Parker loved it, and looked cute in his pea costume!

Travis was very proud of his pumpkin he carved!
He did a great job, all by himself, I might add- a first!

I'm looking forward to seeing all the costumes

my grandkids wore! Hope everyone got lots

of candy!

He's 12!

I can't believe I officially have a Young Man! For his 12th birthday, Devon invited 6 friends and they all came. They are a good group of kids, half are non-members. I was so happy to see him having fun with his buddies, sometimes he is not very social & struggles to makes friends. I think he feels more comfortable with one on one friendships, and sometimes feels overwhelmed with lots of kids. But he had a great birthday party. He had a Wii Olympics, projected on a big screen. I'm so glad Troy was able to be there to run the tournament. They all had fun. Devon requested Chicago style pizza, which is bascially lots of meat. Sausage, chicken, bacon, pepperoni...piled high and deep with lots of cheese. One slice is all I can handle. Anyway, I am slowly getting caught up in the world of blogging. Just a few more to go :)

Cinnamon Rolls have become Dev's bday replacement for cake

Everyday Life

Just some random pics of everyday life...

Audrey loves playing with the animals. She is always creating pet palaces and loves bringing her bedroom outside. I don't like that part too much. I'm always washing her blankets and telling her not to take them out. She's getting better...I think.

I love watching Alex and his buddy, Gunnar, play together. They are such boys. They put on their capes, grabbed some sticks and were getting the 'bad guys' by stabbing the bushes. Gunnar has 3 sisters, and he calls Alex his brother. It's cute.

This kids spent several hours one day doing a draft for all the the matchbox cars. They made about 40 of these, one for each car, then we all had play money to 'bid' on our cars. The cars we 'won' were then raced against each other to find the champion.

My new ride!

Say hello to my Madsen Cargo bike! We've been looking at cargo bikes for awhile, they have a gazillion different kinds. But they are a little expensive. So when we saw this one, used, for sale outside a bike shop in Boulder City we knew we had to pick it up. I love it! We've had it for 5 days and I've already used it to take Lizzie to school, pick up Abby from a playdate , get groceries, go yard saleing, and get Caitlin from the bus stop. Everywhere I go people ask me where I got it, or say how cool it is. And they are so right. It is so cool!

There's a bench on one side (newer models have a bench on both sides with belts) that can come out, and the seat belts are similiar to car seat belts and anchor into the bucket itself. This week's task is jimmy-rigging an infant car seat I got at a yard sale to fit into it so Haley can come along, too! I believe there's even a canopy we can buy to go over the bucket for when it's yucky outside. We're also rigging up the Specialized to be our "courier" bike, a cargo bike on a smaller scale. Just with a few pannier bags and things, so Rod can use it for scouts and things like that.

A title of one of the many biking blogs we've been checking out lately is called "Everyday Adventures". This has sort of become a little mantra for us! Taking this bike around really flips the switch from mundane errand to fun outing!

p.s. Fun cargo bikes links:

My dream cargo bike, called the Shuttlebug, handmade in Portland, OR by Joe Bike: http://www.joe-bike.com/cargo-bikes/the-shuttlebug-handmade-in-portland/ (but waaayyy expensive, so it will stay in my dreams)

Our other favorite is the Yuba Mundo, google it- it's sweet!

School

I just have to say that the end of school and the beginning of the school year must represents thousands of trees in paper. It is ridiculous! This is a picture of all the papers I had to fill out the first day of school. Emergency contact info., school policy, medical stuff, etc. and times it by 3 kids. AAAGGGHHH! I am scared when Alex starts in a couple years. It is crazy.

First day of school picture. They hate taking this every year. And every year they look a little less cute :) And there's ALWAYS one who won't look at the camera. Oh, and one who won't smile.

This is what they came home with on the last day of school. And this was just Cameron and Audrey's stuff. I spent hours just going through all their papers.

Cameron's backpack was sooo heavy!

Cameron got to go to a couple weeks worth of practices and their jamboree before he broke his pinky finger...it was so sad because he was so excited about playing quaterback. Just this last week the dr. told him he didn't have to have it taped up anymore, but to take it easy. So no sports for him until baseball in the spring.

Wow, two posts in two days! I kept thinking about all the things I needed to post, and how long it was going to take. It's definently easier to do a lot of smaller ones. Hope I'll get some this time in this weekend to post. Our primary program is on Sunday, gulp. Wish me luck. Tonight is the high school Homecoming football game and bonfire, so everyone is excited for that. Oh-also just to let you know we are a real Mormon family now. We have a piano! The district was selling some of their stuff in storage, and they had a couple pianos they were selling for $50. One looked nicer but was out of tune, the other needs refinishing but sounds good. We went with the one that sounds good. I hope we don't regret it. Devon said he is not looking forward to Cameron constatlly playing his compositions. Brace ourselves.