Happy Birthday, Nate!!!

Happy, Happy Birthday, Nate!!!  We love you tons!

Nate is an Awesome Dad and Husband!  He is celebrating his Birthday by himself in Sunny California due to being out of town on a work trip.  While we are here in the frigid cold and shivering to keep warm.  Since he's not here to celebrate with us we decided to go out and celebrate a bit by ourselves in his honor.  So while he's out eating a great meal in Cali we're going to be out eating something here in Vernal.  We figured it was only fair since we wanted to take him out to celebrate and obviously can't do that today.  More about Nate...
He is a hard worker and full of it and loves to tease, which the Boys love!  He likes to read, watch T.V., and play the Wii which guy doesn't.  He is also into camping and hiking around nature and checking out wildlife.  Recently my Brothers and Dad got him interested in target shooting(guns) and drag races.  I think he really just likes the social aspect of it.  He has a long lost interest in Fencing(the sport) and someday hopes to get back to it.  Nate is a good support when I get stressed out and tells us often that he loves us.  I appreciate that!  He is currently working 2 jobs allowing me to stay home and raise our 2 crazy, cute boys that love their Dad and worship his every move.  I'm grateful to him and glad he is our Boys hero.  Happy Birthday to my Hubby and a great Dad!  He's the Best and we hope he has a great day and know he's loved!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year...ya I know I'm a bit late posting...

Christmas Morning.  Two very sneaky little Elves came in and woke up a very sleepy Mommy and Daddy.  Corbin and Aidan were so excited.  It is something I don't think I will ever get tired of watching.  They were very happy Santa remembered to stop.  After we did Christmas Morning at our house we packed up and headed to Grandparents homes which is a nice 4hrs away.  It was tons of fun!

While visiting family we went to Temple Square and Zoolights with my Parents and My Brother Jerry's Family.  We had tons of fun with grandparents, cousins and aunts and uncles.  The Boys and I still had lots of fun even though Nate ditched out on us and went to see the movie Tron with his Brothers.  I'm glad he had a fun time with them.

Corbin, Aidan and cousin Chloe.  Abbie was in the stroller.  They had so much fun with each other.  I'm glad they get along so well and are always excited to see each other.  We love all of our cousins!

So every time we go to Temple Square we have to stop at "The Spot".  "The Spot" is where my Dad proposed to my Mom.  I'm glad to see my parents still have the "Spark" they are such good examples to the rest of us.  Love ya, Mom and Dad!

Aidan just loves the lights.  Here he is looking at some blue and white snowflakes.  He was such a good Boy just walking, looking and singing when he felt like it.

Corbin got to spend a bit of time holding on to Grandpa's hand and pocket.  He was just too excited and stimulated at times to stay by us.  He was trying to be a good Boy and was for a good part of it.

Us infront of the Temple Doors.  I explained when we first got to Temple Square that this was the Temple Mommy and Daddy got married in.  So all the way through the Boys kept asking when we were going to see our Temple.  So we had to go right up to the front and take a look.

Here we are at Zoolights!  I'm still amazed at all the work my Aunt and Uncle go into to make these awesome creations.  It is a highlight for our family to come and enjoy each year at Zoolights and Fantasy at the Bay.  We all love it!  It helps keep the Season of Christmas magical.

We had a great Christmas this year, infact one of the very best I would say.  Our whole family seemed to take on the Spirit of Christ a bit more this year and we tried to keep that our focus.  I think it worked to take some of the stress off and to let us just enjoy all the Holidays.  I was very proud of our Boys they seemed to get a long better and were very excited and helpful with delivering Christmas goodies to our neighbors and friends this year.  They insisted on wearing Santa Hats and went as elves.  They were the cutest elves I know.  We had a ton of fun seeing our families too.  We hope you all had a Merry Christmas and  have Happy New Year. 

Our New Years celebration was pretty uneventful.  We made treats then Nate and I woke up from the couch long enough to give each other a kiss at midnight.  I know we're getting kind of lame but we had fun spending the weekend together as much as we could with Nate working part of it.  The New Year Fairy found our house and the Boys had lots of fun with that.   We popped some poppers and let the Boys do some snaps outside.  They don't work very well in the snow.  Well that's about all, Happy New Year to you all!

Happy Holidays!

This cute little Pilgrim came walking thru my door one day after school.  He had a great day at school learning all about the Pilgrims and Indians and they also made Stone soup.  Later on I found Corbin, Aidan and our neighbor Girls playing on the "Big"flower ship.  They had taken all my spare blankets, sheets, and pillows that they could find and spread then in a big pile on the floor to make their ship.  What imaginations!  I gently asked Corbin if he meant the "Mayflower" and that was the ship they had learned about in school.  He responded with "Oh yeah, that's what I meant, that's what my Teacher called it, I just forgot. So I thought it was the "Big"flower."  Too funny!  I'm glad they have so much fun learning History and he is still wearing the hat at random when he feels the need to be a Pilgrim.

We went home for Thanksgiving even though that wasn't our original plan.  We felt guilty for planning not to go so we caved.  We spent Thanksgiving and a few days with Nate's family this year.  It was fun!  We were glad to get to see everyone together.  Then we went and saw my Parents for a few hours before B-lining it back home before all the big storms came in and made it harder to travel.  We have this same dilemma every Holiday Season.  This year since we are trying to Adopt, we were trying to be more conservative and save more and spend less thinking we would be able to spend more time home with family at Christmas time if we stayed home for Thanksgiving. We love to see family and love to go home, it just ends up costing us a ton because we end up driving all over after we already drove out to get to see all of our family.  Then we drive home broke again.  Who knows the right solution, it's the price of being with family I guess and I wouldn't trade that.

 Oh Christmas Tree! We went up the Mountain with our good Friends and Neighbors the Anthons.  It was tons of fun and we're so glad to have such good friends to go with!

 Here's all the Kiddo's!   They had so much fun rolling and playing together in the Snow!  They were all good little Troopers for all the hiking around we did to find the perfect trees!

 My Aidan!

 My Corbin!

 The finished tree!  It was way fun and we all helped deck out the tree.  It's one of my many favorites!

 My cute little Elves!  They discovered the Hats and still haven't taken them off!  They wear them every chance they can.

 Aidan built the North pole with elves, Santa and Mrs. Claus; the whole thing out of random toys.  The car wash is the Workshop and the Ark is Santa's Sleigh.  I love it!

 Corbin's school Christmas program.  He sang his heart out doing the actions he could remember!  He was so excited to see us and we to see him! 

 Letter's to Santa!  Letter's came back from Santa himself!  The Boys were way excited when they got special letters from the North pole after they had sent off their letters to Santa a few weeks earlier.

 Piper turned 1yr old!  Yep, she is officially not a puppy anymore, but still acts like it.  We celebrated by singing to her and giving her a few special treats to chew on.  She didn't seem to notice it was her special day but she sure liked the treats!  Even if our dog is obnoxious, we still love her and are trying to appreciate her more.

Well this is our Holidays up till now and we hope to celebrate some more as Christmas is very fast approaching!  Merry Christmas to all of you and we hope you have a very Happy New Year spent with those you love!  We love you all and are very grateful to have family and friends to be with!

Happy, Happy Halloween 2010!

 For Story Time at the Library this last week they had a Halloween Walk Trick or Treat through the City Building that is next door.  Aidan was estatic about getting to dress up in his costume and getting to go Trick or Treating.  He has been so excited about Halloween and all the decorations and festivities.  It's been so fun to see he so excited about it all!  He had a great time and had all the candy eaten with in an hour of getting home.  Can we say huge sugar high!

 Carving pumpkins!  The Boys did most of the carving and cleaning out themselves with us just supervising this year.  They did such a great job!  They even came up with their own drawings for what kindof faces they wanted on their pumpkins.  We had lots of fun and even yummy roasted pumpkin seeds at the end.  They love this part of Halloween and get crazy excited about carving their pumpkins into scary Jack o Lanterns!

 We are the only ones in Vernal with such a cool lighted Pumpkin for decoration in our yard.  This cool pumpkin came from my Aunt and Uncle who put on the Christmas Light Park at Willard Bay every year.  I love putting this cute pumpkin out each year because the Boys love it and it's pretty unique compared to all the other yards in and out of town.

 Meet Mario!.....

 And Luigi!

 I have to say we had the cutest, coolest Mario and Luigi this year!  The Boys and their Dad picked Mario and Luigi as their costumes and lets just say it got pretty tricky to find costume pieces like the right color hats and gloves and even shirts and overalls.  Mom and Aidan spent a lot of time driving around town from store to store to get all the pieces.  I was getting scared we weren't going to pull it off.  I didn't want to just go pay $20 for a cheap crappy costume they wouldn't ever wear again so we decided to get creative and make our own again this year.  It was worth all the stress and running around and searching the internet to find everything.  Better yet everything they can wear and use again and again....for a very long time until they get our moneys worth out it. 

Happy Family!  We had a lot of fun festivities going on for Halloween.  We started out our day with going to the walking park and collecting leaves and running around to get some energy out.  Then we came home and the Boys played at our little playground for awhile why I cleaned up the house a bit and made some lunch for them.  Then we started getting ready and all costumed up.  Nate took the Boys around our neighborhood before we went to the Church and had a Chili dinner and Trunk or Treat with 2 other wards that go to our building.  Then we came home and finished the night off with Pumpkin Ice Cream and a lot of candy overload and a spooky movie.  It was a ton of fun and excitement!  Great memories made.  I have to say my cute little Mario and Luigi were the most unique we saw all night so we are pleased with the results!  I love my Boys all 3 of them!  Thanks for making it a Happy Halloween!  I hope you all had a great night too!

Fall Outings!

Here are some fun things we've been doing this Fall.

 We love to go up the Canyon and picnic.  We try to get up there at least once to see the leaves before they fall.

 Here are my little Indians/Cowboys/Soliders.  Corbin and Aidan love to run around out in the open and use their great imaginations to come up with fun games to play.  They play so well together!  I love to just watch them and see what they are up to next!  They usually have Nate and I involved before they are done.

 Here we are on our imaginary boat.  It's actually an octagon shaped boat dock that has benches and places to fish off of.  To our Boys it's always a boat of somesort.  And yes, Piper got lucky and was invited along on this trip.  She loves to get out too.  So we try to take her places we can let her out to run and get all her energy out.

 We had an opportunity to go to some Monster truck races and the Boys loved it.  (not the best picture of Aidan.  I think I caught them a bit by surprise.)  The Boys loved it and were screaming and being crazy.  Their favorite was probably the Transformer Trucks at the end it was a pretty big production.  I was loving every minute of it because it reminded me of many fun outings with my family as a child to go see Monster Trucks or Drag Racing.  There is just a thrill and excitement that is there when at these kind of events.  Thanks Nate for getting us free tickets...it was a blast!

 More Trucks and some racing.  These were for my Dad and my Family...all night I thought about how my Family would have enjoyed being there to enjoy the show.

 For a Primary Activity recently we made doggie bed out of pillowcases and fleece strips.  We let all the Kids color their own pillowcase then let them stuff it and sewed off the opening.  We made over 60 doggie beds for the local Animal Hospital.  They all had a great time and it was a great easy project for them to do.

 Vegetable Creations!  Every year Corbin's school does Vegetable Creations and they have to write a story about their Creation.  Corbin loves it and so does Aidan even if he doesn't get to take his to school.  All the Creations are on display at the School for the day for all the families to come and see.  I like to get rid of a few extra veggies before they rot so it works out great!  This year we had Super Hero Romainan Cucumbers.

 So I got the blessing of teaching Aidan's Primary class a few weeks ago since we were out a few Teachers and had used up all our Substitutes.  I had about 2 hours before Church started to come up with the lesson.  Luckly it was on an easy subject "Being a Good Example".  So I made little star headbands for the class to color and it said "I can be a Good Example" around the band.  The Kids loved them, what Sunbeam doesn't love to wear a headband that draws them tons of attention.  Well Corbin saw my extras when I got home and wanted in on it too.  So I let him make his own and he wore it all the rest of the day.  When I went in to turn off their pumpkin lights after they had went to bed this is what I found.  Corbin was so proud of his headband he had gotten up and put it back on and fell asleep in it.  Too Cute!

Here's my Aidan...I mean my "Itsy Bitsy scary Spider Boy".  We often go to Story Time at the local Library and while there they always do a fun craft that the Kids just love.  A few weeks ago this is what they made since Halloween was coming up.  We love Story Time and Miss Julie is so cute and good with the kids.  She remembers their names and does a song and dance or stretching exercises with them as well as reads them several books on a different subject each week.  Then they finish with a craft that goes with the Theme of the week.  It's a nice outing out for both Aidan and I and I like to sit and watch him being so interactive and so excited about everything.

Corbin's New Adventure.

Corbin has taken up a new interest...Rock Climbing.  He loves it!  It came as no surprise that he kind of has a knack for it.  We have taken him and Aidan twice now and Corbin has asked us everyday since if he can go to the Rec. Center and try it again.  It's a good way for him to get all his energy out and it's free with our membership to the Rec. Center so we can't lose with that.  Maybe Nate and I will get brave enough to try it...maybe.  Actually I would love to try it because it's always intrigued me but I'm afraid of how stupid I'm going to look when halfway up the wall I get stuck and can't get up or down.  At least it will be something to laugh at, right? 

Here is Aidan trying it for the first time.  He did really well.  He climbed about a third of the way up and froze.  The Instructor and I tried to help him to keep going up and then tried to help him go back down, but he wasn't telling us what he wanted or what was wrong.   He was just frozen on the wall.  So I went over and put my arm around his waist and he burst into tears and fell into my arm.  I was so sad for him.  I think it scared him somehow because that's all we got out of him was that it was scary.  And now he has no interest in trying to climb the wall again.  So when Corbin climbs, Aidan goes up and slides down the spiral slide at the top of the rock wall and shares a treat or pop from the vending machines with Me.

And here is tooth #2 pulled out by Mom.  I may not be as good at pulling teeth as Grandpa but after a few tries we got it and I redeemed myself.  I can't believe I was brave enough to do it.  It made me squeamish at first and then Nate gave it a try and nothing happened.  So I tried one more time and out it came.  Corbin loves the Tooth Fairy and is already working on the next tooth just in case it's wiggly.  He's too funny!  He lets them get so wiggly he could pop them out himself if anyone could get a hold of those tiny little buggers.  But he likes the idea of having someone pull it out with the string.  They come out way easy as soon as we can get the string to stay tight around those small little teeth.  Funny thing is Corbin lets them get so wiggly that by the time they come out the next one breaks through the gum with in 48 hours.  So he won't have holes for very long.

Here's Aidan all grins and smiles!  He is proud to have all his teeth still in his mouth.  Though he is curious about the Tooth Fairy.  He likes to pull funny faces and is always trying out a new smile when I ask him to look at the camera for a picture.  What a cute funny Boy!

I Love My Boys!  They are so fun and cute and make each day so exciting and fun!