Whatever Have We Been Up To Lately?...

First off we took a trip to Escalante over UEA weekend with my Parents to close the house down for the Winter. My Boys love it down there and I have lots of fun memories of family time down there too. Corbin and Aidan also don't mind getting spoiled-rotten by Grandpa and Grandma the whole time they were there.One of their favorite things to do when we go to the Escalante House is to play in the dirt and the yard is full of fun places to dig and build in the dirt! We recked about 3 huge ant hills before they were done digging! This trip we didn't venture out very far to explore the many fun activities Escalante and the surrounding areas have to offer. We did go to the Elementary School playground for a few hours one day, played in the dirt at the house, and went "crazy" with Grandpa a lot. Going "crazy" is a tradition my parents have done with us kids since we were born. When you "go crazy" with Grandpa or Dad you get to go get a treat usually at the local Gas Station or Grocery Store. Thanks Mom and Dad for loving us so much and taking good care of us!
Another fun thing we did after our trip to Escalante we went home with my Parents and Nate met up with us for a School class he had in SLC. So while we were in town we made a trip up to Logan to Jensen Farm and met Katie and Chloe. It was so much fun and so cold! Not once did I hear any of the kids complain, they were so busy seeing everything and running from place to place to care about the cold! During the Month of October Jensen Farm has a huge Corn Maze, and all sorts of other fun Halloween activities for the family. Also my Aunt LeAnn and Uncle Sonny who do the Light Parks decorated the whole farm with spooky lighted scenes and characters, it is really a sight to go see!
One of the many things to do! Chloe and Corbin had a ball posing for the camera.
Aidan had fun riding the horse!

What a cutie! He was so curious about what was going on on the other side of this sign. He loved Wilbur when he walked around to see it!
Straw Jump! Corbin and Chloe when off this with a parent of course! But I think they both took some extra jumps by themselves too! They loved it! One of my favorite pictures! These cute and silly Kids sticking their tongues out with these cute little trick-or-treaters! These are some of the lighted things my Aunt and Uncle do. It's amazing the detail they get into them. The Kids just loved the lights and kept going up to the really scary ones and yelling "Boo" in hopes of scaring them. Unfortunately none yelled back. Both my Aunts LeAnn and Ellen were there also in the Cook Shack. By the time we left we were so full of good, good food and treats too! It was a Great night! We had a lot of fun and it was great to watch the kids having so much fun too and being so excited for Halloween!

Yep, Aidan finally got his cast off last Thursday! Yeah!!! As you can see as of the evening of, he was still babying it a bit. But he uses both arms and hands for everything now and there doesn't seem to be any problems! What a blessing! For all the scare and pain, it sure could have been worse and we are so blessed and happy it wasn't! He was beaming with a grin all the way home from the Doctor office in relief of having that big clunky and heavy cast off....finally! He has one more check-up to make sure all is still well and then we are home free until....I hate to even think it...probably the next big ouch! Yes, my Cute Boys are very active and we all keep saying we're so lucky we haven't had any more big owies for how active they are! I'm counting our blessings everyday!
Last Sunday we had our Dad home! It's rare, because he is one of the few that has to usually work at Holiday Inn on Sundays. So we cherish the few Sunday nights we get with him! So we decided to carve our pumpkins and the Boys went wild! They were so excited all day to get to do this! Nate and Corbin carved Corbin's and Aidan and I carved Aidan's.
We had a lot of fun and a good night being together! The Jack-o-Lanterns turned out great! Corbin and Aidan have checked them out everyday since to make sure they are doing o.k. and nothing is wrong with them. It's cute, they go out and take the tops off and check inside for the candles then put the tops back and tell me who's pumpkin is who's. I'm glad to see they enjoy this Holiday as they should having fun and loving all the spookiness about it!

On Monday night we made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and delivered them to our neighbors for Family night. Yes we actually had Nate home 2 nights in a row and on 2 very rare nights! We were so happy to have that time to spend together! The Boys thought it was so neat to ride in the wagon and go knock on our neighbors doors and yell "Happy Halloween"! One funny thing was Corbin forgot what he was suppose to say at one house because it took a while of knocking before they actually answered the door and said "Trick or Treat" instead. We all got a good laugh!

We also went on a Halloween Parade today put on by the City Library and it went through the City building were we have a lot of offices and businesses. It was great and I was pretty proud of my Boys for remembering to say "thank you" without being reminded every time, to all the nice people who were passing out candy. It was another fun adventure and Corbin and Aidan loved getting to wear their costumes and of course all the attention and candy! Well, HAPPY HALLOWEEN to you, all! I hope you all have lots of fun and make great memories!

Trip to Idaho while Kids vacation at Grandma's.

First off here is what kept my Boys entertained during Conference. I made edible playdough and they loved it, ate it, and were quiet for a while. It helped so we could all listen to the speakers or at least try!

This weekend we went to Idaho to attend Nate's, Grandma Jo's Funeral. We left Corbin and Aidan with Grandma and Grandpa Haws(my parents) this time because it was such a long trip for them. We took them to Grandpa Jo's Funeral and they did pretty good, but we thought they would have a bit better time at my parents this time.

Grandma Jo was a neat Lady! It was nice to hear of her younger years and what a good Mom and Wife she was. It let us see a different side of her that most of us maybe didn't know as well. Grandma Jo was 93 years old and not in great health. It's comforting to know she is now probably a lot happier and healthier. It was also nice to drive up with family and spend time with Nate's family while we were there. We don't get to see a lot of his cousins very often, so it was nice to see everyone!

Here is Aidan with his new found friend Pooh Bear riding on "his" horse(he doesn't like to share toys at Grandma's house)! He wouldn't let it go the whole time he was at Grandma's house and he took it everywhere even home with him! He is also wearing one of my old Halloween costumes that my wonderful Mother made for me when I was younger.

My Mom grows pumpkins every year mostly for the Grandkids to come and pick for Halloween! She is pretty generous with them and gives any extra's to anyone that visits her house. She also send home extras just incase you want extras. By the time Halloween comes she hardly has any left to decorate her own house. Thanks Mom! This is how the Boys claimed theirs they just sat on the pumpkin they chose until Nate came and cut it off the vine. By the time we were done they had tried them all out.

Aidan was having a blast pumpkin sitting! He just hopped from one to the next and ran all over the patch. He was the one that thought they made such a nice stool first. He's a cutie and looked so cute sitting on his pumpkin kickin' back taking a rest!

Corbin was loving the pumpkins but thought the near by field with dirt clods was even better! He did try out the pumpkin stools for a minute before returning to throw dirt! I love it when he gives us a real smile and you know he's having fun!

We couldn't resist posing for a Family picture since we hardly get any good participation when we try, we try all we can! We were all having such a good time out there and it was so blasted cold! Corbin and Nate were making scary faces and loving the attention! Aidan was just bothered he had to sit still when he wanted to run and play! It was just plain fun! Thanks again Mom for the pumpkins, and Mom and Dad for taking good care of our Boys! They love to go to Grandma's and Grandpa's house because they know what fun they will have! Love you!

Oops!....Cheesy mistake!

Have you ever grabbed a product at the store that you were thinking you got a really good deal 'cause it was quite a bit cheaper than the rest. Then later you discovered it wasn't exactily what you thought? Maybe not as good of a deal or just something nasty not the real thing? Warning: Don't ever mistake this crap for real cheese! It's not even close!

So here's the story on how we ended up with this crap. And believe me it doesn't taste anything like real cheese, it's salty, mushy and just plain gross. We mixed it with mozzarella cheese and it made it edible, sort of. Anyway, I went to the store to get a few groceries and some things for dinner. My dinner idea was for French Bread Pizza and Green Bread(I'll explain later). They both require cheese. So as I'm looking at the cheese I notice that the 2 lb. bag of shredded cheeses are the same price as the 2 lb. blocks of cheese. I'm then thinking well that will save me some time, but they are so expensive for either type! Of course at this point Corbin is going crazy and getting Aidan going too. Corbin was being a "Rough and Tumblin' Cowboy" all through the store. Then Corbin saw a bucket of store tags an employee must of left to come back to and he dumps them and starts playing with them. By then I'm pretty frazzled as always after a few minutes in any store with my Boys. Then I spot it....a 2lb. bag of cheese for 2 dollars cheaper than any of the rest, so I grab it thinking I got a deal and we're off to finish our shopping and get out of there fast before I really go crazy! Well later at home while making dinner we discovered I'd bought lactose free, cholesterol free, 0 trans fats, but melt able alternative cheese! Yuck! So I'm an idiot and didn't really read much of the package before I grabbed it. All I saw was Cheddar/Jack Cheese. Anyway we laughed about it and will read the labels more closely next time I dare to buy shredded cheese.

Green bread is garlic bread with spinach mixed into the garlic bread spread. It makes it healthier and my kids will eat it so hey why not! It really does taste good! You just mix 1 cube butter, couple cloves garlic, a handful or couple sprinkles of mozzarella and/or Parmesan cheese, 1 pkg. baby spinach, dash of oregano, basil, and parsley, then pulse together in a food processor until blended together and spread onto of 2 french bread halves and bake @ 350 degrees for about 10-15 Min's. I got this off of an episode of Rachel Ray's 30 minute meals for a healthy Halloween meal.

The Boys veggin', Jo's Parents Visit, & Birthday Fun!

I often find my cute Boys snuggling together on the couch, recliner, or floor while they are watching cartoons. I think it's funny how many funny positions I can find them veggin' in. They love this bean bag and they are usually lounging on it together, at least they are sharing and being nice. They are pretty glued to whatever they were watching, must of been interesting!

This last weekend my Parents came to visit and we had a blast! It just so happened I had my 30th Birthday while they were here! I found out you can not wish away, hope away or ignore away a Birthday no matter how much you don't want to get older it comes anyway! As most of you know I had a very hard time turning 30 and I'm not sure I've come to terms with it, yet. But, I now at least have accepted that I am now the big "3-0"! Yikes, I said it! Anyway if my next 30 years of life are a good as the last 30, I think I'll be just great! On Saturday we went for a drive up the Canyon, and took a picnic up to Red Canyon Lodge. We went exploring around a few lakes and took a break to feed the fish. We all had a wonderful day! I loved having my Parents and Family with me and doing one of my favorite things driving up a Canyon to see the beautiful Fall leaves changing colors! The Aspens were just gorgeous gold, yellow and orange, mixed in with the Pines and Furs! I have to admit this was one of my best Birthdays I've had in awhile for the fact that I had so much fun with my Parents and my Family and I felt so loved by them! Thanks for making "30" not so bad!

While out on our picnic all the Boys when exploring and of course found sticks for sword fighting

Corbin sword fighting or playing like he's a Jedi or Pirate, his favorite things lately!

Aidan found the dirt clods and his favorite thing is to throw them to watch them break all over!

Here we all are overlooking the Gorge. The views are amazing from up here! Corbin and Aidan weren't very interested in posing for pictures they were busy playing and exploring. Everywhere we went they collected sticks to play swords.

Here we are again overlooking the Gorge.

Corbin and Aidan had a great time feeding the fish and the ducks! It was a highlight for them.

More feeding the ducks and fish. They just couldn't get enough!

Aren't they so cute? These cute little Love Birds are my dear Parents! I Love Them to Pieces! They spoiled me and my family royally rotten while they were here visiting! My Dad fixed our Jeep window and then they brought it back out to us this weekend and had lent us their car while he fixed it. My Mom cleaned my house and did all my dishes for me at least 2 times a day all weekend. She even got my Boys and Dad helping! They spoiled me with a radio, and Birthday cake( I don't think I've gotten a Birthday cake since before I was married) and my Birthday money. They helped tend Corbin and Aidan everywhere we went and made sure they were having a ball! We got tons of treats all weekend! I'm one lucky Girl! Thanks Dad and Mom! I Love You! I hope I can live up to your good examples! Thank you Family,for all of you that called and sent a card! I really appreciate my Family and all your love! I have to also thank my cute Boys for all their hugs, kisses, "I love you, Mom"s and singing me the Happy Birthday song all weekend long! All these things made my Birthday just awesome! Thanks again!

Aidan's Final Outcome.....

So my worst fear from Aidan's accident came true today. Yep, his wrist is broken or fractured along his growth plate to be exact. So Aidan is now sporting a neon green cast and not to happy at the thought of that. He has decided it can be fun to scare people by tapping them on the head with his "green arm". But mostly he is just aggrevated about the whole ordeal and I think ready to be done with having weird clunky things on his arm. I've been amazed at the fact he hasn't tried to take the splint or the cast off, just walks around swinging his arm for all it's worth. As Mothers I think we have certain instincts that we don't even realize we may have all the time. I've had the feeling that Aidan's arm was hurting him more than we thought and afraid we'd find out more than we'd hoped for on Monday when we went to the Doctors. I wanted to believe that everything was just fine and he just sprained it, or tweaked it a bit. The thing that made me fear it was worse and really broken was the way he favored his arm so much from the start and how much pain he seemed to be in. Then thru-out the weekend he seemed ultra sensitive like he felt more pain than usual at different moments. But then he'd just go on playing like nothing was wrong at all. I'm just happy that he's finally alright and on the road to getting better! He has been a real Sweetheart during all of this...not always happy...but putting up with it all!

Aidan's Trip to the ER!

Yes, Aidan made his first trip to the Emergency Room! It was very traumatic for him, Me, Nate, and Corbin! Aidan took a dive off our couch early, early yesterday Morning. As a result he landed funny on his arm. He had tons of x-rays taken of both arms but they didn't find any breaks. He seemed to favor his left wrist a bit and it looked a little bit swollen, so the Doctor splinted it. Monday we have to go see a Orthopedic Doctor to have a second opinion. They think he may have torn some cartilage or pulled something in his wrist. We feel very blessed that it isn't broken and worse. As a Mother I have never felt worse than when my Children are seriously hurting and I can't make it better or take it away for them. I knew instantly from his screams of pure pain and terror that he was really hurting and scared to death about it. All I could think was he needs a blessing for comfort and then let's get him to the ER as fast as we can so he didn't have to go through any more pain. I knew the ER experience wouldn't be fun but I also knew he would be helped and taken care of. That's what I wanted more than anything was for him to feel better, and be happy, safe and healthy! He didn't appreciate the help of the Nurses and Doctors, he just screamed at them, and cried"ouch, ou, ouwie" if they even attempted to touch his arm or anywhere else on him. It made it kind of hard to determine where the pain was actually coming from for awhile. Aidan was most content being held in my lap wrapped in his blanket and being rocked and read books to. That is the only time he wasn't crying or screaming, so I tried to just hold him as much as possible.
Part of the story I've left out was when this happened Nate had gotten up with the Boys when they came in for our Saturday wake-up call and had been dosing on couch with Corbin and Aidan while they watched Cartoons. Nate had let me sleep in since I'd had lots of late nights during the week getting up with little Boys that wouldn't stay in their beds through the night and canning some vegetables after they went to bed. While watching Cartoons, Corbin took a trip up over the sofa like he does so often when he's doing his stunts and Aidan has figured out it's kind of fun to follow Corbin around and do the same stunts. So they both took a trip up over the couch and apparently Aidan got stuck, so Corbin tried to help him over the top but instead Aidan went crashing to the floor while Corbin was trying too pull him over. Corbin was very sad for Aidan and worried about him and his arm the whole time Aidan was gone. When I started blubbering and bawling 'cause my Baby was hurt Corbin started to cry and asked if Aidan was going to be o.k. Nate started to cry while giving him a Blessing before we rushed off to the ER. And of course Aidan was screaming and crying too! After it all I realized how blessed we are to be a Family and to have each other during scary and traumatic times like this. I truly love my Family and am so happy to have My Nate, My Corbin and My Aidan! I wouldn't be the same with out them that's for sure! I also love all my the rest of My Family and Friends and am grateful for them!

This is after his trip with Mom to the ER. He thought he better stick to the pillows for a while......I don't blame him one bit......pillows are probably the safest thing for him!

Here Aidan is all decked out with a hospital bracelet, stickers and splint. He's happy to be home and have his trusty sipper full of milk! He has learned that his splint can be used as a sword, hammer, and various other good tools. He adapted almost instantly to figuring out how to keep using that arm even with the dang thing bandaged up! I Love You, Aidan and am so Happy You are feeling Better! Thanks for being my Brave Little Man!

Lately......

I feel like I've fallen out of the blog world for awhile. Life has just been going so fast that by the end of the day I'm just counting down minutes till I can fall into bed and to sleep. I just haven't had much time to sit down and blog or even get on a computer to see what's happening on everyone else's blog. But tonight I finally just said I'm going to update my blog even if I have to stay up till midnight to get a chance to.

We had our primer tinted with the same red we finished the kitchen in. It was worse than Barbie pink, but it really helped eliminate tons of extra coats of red paint.

Nate got stuck with the fun job of detailing, trim and high spots! He did Awesome! I just wasn't patient enough to stick with the hard stuff, I did good to roll the walls! Thank you, Honey!

Our Green wall! We really like how this accent wall turned out....it really warmed up the red kitchen!

We did the rest of the house in Tan or Sand or as Nate and my Parents call it "dirt brown," but I rather call it sand or tan. It really warmed up the rest of our house and defined all the different living area. I guess our house looks more like a warm cozy house instead of a long white boring rectangular box.

Corbin was insistent on a red room for his and Aidan' s bedroom. Since I thought it was probably to much red to do his whole room, I came up with this idea. We measured off a invisible wide stripe on their walls and took cups of 2 different sizes and dipped them in paint and made these circles. I saw the idea on a home decorating show on t.v. it's suppose to look like it could be wall paper, only they did the whole wall in interlocking circles. I just made it a bolder pattern, kind of went by the seat of my pants and tried it. After we fixed all the drips from the runny red paint, I think it turned out alright. Corbin is happy about it even though he did try and get us to make a big red stripe to go with the circles. We've talked him out of it for now. Aidan was just excited for the change in scenery in his room!

Anyway.....Corbin and Aidan spent a week up with Grandpa and Grandma Haws while Nate and I attempted to paint our house. We got most of it done and we are pleased with the results! We painted the Kitchen(red), dinning area(green), family room, boys room, hall, and their bathroom(tan). It has really made the house seem warmer and not so much like the model home that was the same floor plan.


We went up and spent the weekend celebrating Peach Days with my family and picked up the boys. They had a wonderful, great time playing and being spoiled rotten all week! I wasn't sure they would want to come home. I was also glad to hear what good boys Corbin and Aidan had been all week! I missed them like crazy! I was happy they were visiting my parents and having such a good time with Grandma and Grandpa and Uncles, Aunts and Cousins! It is just hard for me as their Mom to be away from them that long and not get to see all the fun and cute things they were doing.

Corbin is all siked up for his first day of Tumbling Class! He is rocking with his air guitar. He wanted to do silly things in his pictures so we just went with it! I've been so happy to watch him try something new and am glad he is succeeding at it and enjoying it so much!


Corbin in the middle of a somersault on the air mat. He loves to show off! Sorry the lighting was terrible 'cause they were right in front of this nice sunny window and Aidan was sitting on my lap not budging for anything so I couldn't get closer. Aidan had had a serious melt down in the daycare at the Rec center where we go to Tumbling and wasn't letting me out of his sight. I thought he'd like to go play with some toys and the kids since he didn't exactly like having to sit with Mom and watch Brother last time we went to Tumbling. He had wanted to either join in the Tumbling or run around anywhere he could escape. It turned into Fit Throwing 101 with Aidan as the Instructor when I wouldn't let him.

Luckily they loved their "new" room when we came home. Corbin started Tumbling, Monday after we returned home and he loves it! He is a natural and has been trying out his stunts way before we started the tumbling class. His "no fear of anything" and "let me see if I can do that too" attitude and his stunts is what inspired looking for a Tumbling class in the first place. We figured we should teach him how to do things the right way and how to keep himself safe and protected as he does somersaults and flips on the trampoline and where ever it is convenient for him. He is in the "Tiny Tumblers" class, perfect for the fact that all six kids are 4 year olds and very tiny and seem to have minds of their own when it comes to doing tricks! I was glad to see there were 4 boys(counting Corbin) in the class and not only girls. Since we had such a hard time finding any reasonable Preschools out here this is sort of taking it's place, and I'm working on academics with Corbin at home.


Aidan discovered or figured out how to get out of the play-n-pack(this is were he slept) at Grandma's house. After he did it once he turned into a Master at it and got out anytime he pleased day or night! Well, when we got home he decided to try the same routine on his crib and soon discovered he could scale the crib wall with little problem too! So after several days of having a frequent visitor thru out the night, we decided to change his bed down to the daybed. He is still a frequent visitor and has become our early, early morning wake-up call. He is proud as punch to have this new independence, and absolutely loves his "new big boy bed"! We are just glad that neither Corbin or Aidan has had a bad fall from the top of their Crib walls, since they have both been good climbers since their toddler days! We have since fallen back into the routine of laying on the floor in their room to keep them both in bed(now mostly Aidan) until they finally quit yakking and giggling at each other and have dozed off to sleep. Well I'm sure I'm not the only Mom that has had to do that, right? It's just part of the job of Mom. I can't say I mind too much, I get a much needed break and a little rest too! Mostly it's just fun to hear those cute little Boys of mine yakking back and forth and doing silly things! Corbin is usually asking lots of questions to me and telling Aidan to "Go to Sleep, Aidan! Right Now!, or You're going to go to times-out!" or "That's Enough Aidan! It's time to go to sleep!" " I'm trying to sleep, Aidan.....Be Quiet!" Aidan just laughs at him and makes funny noises just to keep Corbin going! Anyway that's about all we've been up to lately. It doesn't sound like a lot but it sure has keep us busy and that's probably a good thing!