Halloween

YAY for Halloween! We hadn't had a chance to decorated pumpkins and remembered that i had these stick-in thingies JUST IN TIME! So right before dinner we decorated our pumpkins. The one that i had gotten for Amy was not intended to be decorated, but it looked so naked. So, we made it work. I love AJ's face in the little picture. He was DETERMINED to get that ear into that pumpkin! They looked pretty cute on our steps. (And i love how you can see the scarecrow's shadow in the pic-so festive!)

So we had a quick dinner and headed out. I felt too un-festive so i threw on my back-up-plan baby costume quick and we headed out. We hit all the town homes and i figured since we still had time we should go hit some of the houses a couple of streets over. The kids were cracking me up because half-way down the street they were SO done!! We were headed home and we would walk past a house across the street. I would ask if they wanted to go there and they would just sigh and say "no!..too tired!" they slept good that night though! :)

Oh the memories. I remember LOVING this part as a kid... inventorying the LOOT!!! I showed them how we used to sort all our candy and trade what we didn't like. AJ was all over this, but Julia just dug in! Julia gave all her sweet tarts to AJ because they are "too spicy" and when I asked AJ if there was anything he didn't like, his response was "not really" (with a big grin).

Amy was AWESOME during this event! I has put her on the floor in her boppy while we were sorting candy. She started fussing and squirming around. Before i could get over to her, she had flipped herself over so she could pull herself over to the pile of candy and she was grabbing at it the best she could. She was SO proud of herself when she wrapped those little un-coordinated fingers around a twizzler. What a cutie!!! As long as we let her swat the candy around and occasionally get that wrapped twizzler back into her mouth, she was happy!

What a fun night, and the kids were only slightly bug-eyed and hyper when it was time for church the next day! :)

Family Home Evening

Tonight For Family Home Evening, We were playing "Seek and Ye Shall Find". It is a Mormon version of "Go Fish". The cards are cartoon character-pictures of Book Of Mormon people. So, out of nowhere, Julia says "Do you have the guy with the Boobies?". Brandon and I start laughing hysterically! When i get a grip enough to check out the card she was looking at, sure enough, It looks like Captain Moroni needs a bra over that chest plate of his! HAHAHA!! WE TOTALLY lost it at that point. That girl keeps us laughing! Love her!

The Mascot Bowl-September 28th

We think we have found a new tradition!!! The mascot bowl was SO much fun. The kids had a blast and it was a GREAT family night!!! The mascot bowl is a charity football game where a bunch of different mascots form a team and play against the Lehi football team (I think they were middle-school kids...i forget! :)

They have a meet-the-mascots thing before the game when you can get autographs.
Here are the kids with "Holly" the Orem Owlz mascot. (minor league baseball)

The "pre-game show" included a guy parachuting in and landing on the field. The kids thought this was pretty impressive. It really is crazy how fast they are going when they come in to land!!!

This picture sums up the night...AJ watching the game, and Julia watching EVERYTHING ELSE! :) she is so easily distracted, but she had a blast!

Are we feeling the love?!?! AJ is such a good big brother. They were so cute watching the game and going together down in front of the bleachers to watch. They thought they were hot stuff going "alone"...(as if we couldn't see them the whole time :) !!!)

Barney turned out to not be a very talented football player! He was injured playing football and had to be taken out of the game!!!

Luckily, the injuries turned out not to be serious and he was able to rejoin the team on the sidelines. He wasn't looking so good though!!!

On our way out we were able to catch another picture with
"Big Blue" (from Utah State) and get a couple more autographs.

It was a great night!!! Can't wait till next year! :)

Crazy Spaghetti Dinner-September 21st

So the Jenson's have some fun (and a little weird) traditions that we have decided to carry on...one being a "crazy Spaghetti Dinner".

First, Mom and Dad have to get bags of "stuff" together for each person to use to eat-no real utensils allowed! Each bag is given a number. Then, after everyone get their stylish newspaper bib-like-thingies on, each person picks a nimber to see which bag they get.

Then you get to see what you get...and figure out how you are going to use it. AJ wasn't so sure.

Then you dig in, or at least try!

I got to eat spaghetti from a Tupperware lid using a ladle.

Brandon had to eat from a glass pot lid with tongs.

AJ had a pan of spaghetti and a wooden spoon and whisk as "utensils".

...and Julia had an egg separater and the lining of a lunch bag.

AJ was nice enough to let her borrow the wooden spoon when she had given up on the egg separater. :)

Drinking can also be a challenge...

-I had a vase (which would have been pretty easy except for the scalloped edge on top, water kept escaping!!)

-AJ had a measuring cup

-Brandon had an ice cube tray (which prooved to be the trickiest)

-And Julia was quite amused that she got a bottle!

It was a really fun event, but we all had a little cleaning up to do after! But, it was all worth it!!

If nothing else, a face like that makes it all worth it-That is true munchkin joy!!! :)

YAY for silly but memorable family traditions!

Our little Amy!!

I have been feeling so guilty because if the "third-child-syndrome" that my child has truly been cursed with! I haven't taken her baby book out if the plastic yet, i feel like i don't get enough pictures of her like i did with the other kids and i certainly have not sent enough pictures to family far away to see her grow!!! GUILT!!! so her i am FINALLY making a post and it HAD to be about her!

We really just love her to pieces. Although she has not been as well documented as i would like, she has had PLENTY of attention in other ways, usually in the form of being nearly smothered by siblings! :)

She is really a good baby but is the biggest mama's girl out of the 3 kids. But, she has been with me more than the other 2 were at this age, too. She loves to smile and her favorite things to smile at are AJ & Julia.

I have tried really hard to get a good picture of her ADORABLE smile, but i have really struggled to get one that is centered, she is looking and she isn't doing "big-eyes"...

She LOVES the bath and is usually smiling a lot. This one is pretty good too, but it is so funny how different she looks with her hair wet! Usually it isn't so drastic at this age but with that hair, it is!

Oct. 6th ..this one is pretty close, but not the whole effect.

Oct. 8th..this is what i usually get when i take a picture. Our camera is slow and it flashes first so by the time the picture is actually taken, she is making one of these faces...

although "big eyes" makes me smile every time, i really wanted her real smile!

So, i took her outside, laid her on the grass, and TA-DA!!!!

A cute smile,

And a giggly girl!!

So there she. We just love her and i will try to show her off on the blog more often! :)

Baseball "season" ?

UGG!! I think it is time that we all need to accept that i am not a good blogger and will ALWAYS be behind. But i will keep trying! I have had these pictures ready to go for a while now but haven't been able to find the time to type anything (It's a lot harder to type with a baby in my arms).

Anyway, So AJ played Baseball (Coach-pitch) for the first time this year. He LOVED it and, I must say, was pretty good too! The weather was less than cooperative and his baseball "season" was not very summer-like. I think he had one game and maybe one practice that was warm and sunny...ohh well! But we were at all the games (we had to tag-team a little because of Amy) with blankets and sweatrshirts when needed! :)

Here is his first practice. He was all decked out in his baseball gear-GO SOX! :) Julia was happy about the playground. AJ just jumped right in and was the first to bat. We were so proud of him. He was really involved and excited to learn and practice.

(Bottom right pic:)

When "Grammie" came to visit she took the kids to the store to pick out a prize. AJ chose a bakugan and a batting helmet! (That is dedication!) He thought he was pretty cool that he had his OWN helmet at the games!

Here are pix from his first game. He was SO excited!
He had some nice hits and my friend got a great action shot of the ball up in the air. (Top right) We were so proud. It was so fun to watch him and cheer for him!

Ok, this picture CRACKS me up! If this isn't true baseball form, i don't know what is! :)

So, the season has been over for about a month now, but at least it has been documented! He loved baseball and has been playing at the park with friends and practicing with Daddy whenever he can. We are so proud of how well he did and we all had so much fun going to his games and practices as a family!

HAIR!!!

ok, after i had already finished this post, i realized that most of these pix were already on here, but, oh well, i figure better some duplicates than nothing at all...and these are in fancy little collages too! :)

Amy has had a TON of hair since she was born. They had it all styled when they brought her to me, but it didn't take long to discover what it was really like...CRAZY!!!

I took these pix after a bath. At first, when it is wet, it looked like it might curl a little and stay down. But, NOPE!!! As it dries it starts to pop up until it is all sticking straight UP into the air! it is pretty funny, but I love it!! :)

SO I am OBVIOUSLY not a very good blogger! I was just looking at a friends blog and saw us on her list that it had been 4 weeks since our last post! I was horrified. i knew it was bad, but come on!!! SO here we go! (note: i am starting this Tuesday at lunchtime!)

Ok...5/18/09 Coming home from the hospital.

Here we all are ready to go. That day was so busy for me. I should be a low-key day, but come on, if you know me, we all know that isn't likely! So we ended up staying at the hospital for a few extra hours because we were waiting for the lactation consultant to come in. I wanted to meet with her one more time before i went home. I don't really know what happened but it took FOREVER. So we finally met with her some time after lunch, finished getting everything rounded up, and headed out.

Amy was so tiny in the carseat. She was quite stylin' I must say! :) She actually had a headband to match the outfit and bracelet exactly, but it was too big-I made it beforehand but obviously had forgotten just how tiny their little heads are at first! AJ and Julia we GITTY to be bringing "baby Amy AND mommy" home.

We left the hospital and headed over to DeAnn's place. Brandon's mom was in a nursing home and had been able to come to the hospital to see Amy be born, but hadn't had a chance to hold her yet. We stayed for a little while and then headed home. Unfortunelaty, our timing sucked and we got stuck in the ridiculous traffic that happens on the road on the way to our house.

But, we made it and once we got home, of course, Murphy had to investigate. I was trying to hold him back enough so he didn't christen her with his slobber, but let him get close enough to feel like he could really sniff her. And Julia had to hold her too. She just can't get a hold of her enough...still!

Because of the traffic, we didn't get home until dinnertime. Our friends, Brian and Heather, had called and offered to come by and bring us dinner. So they (and their 3 kids) got there soon after we got home. So we had a big Subway picnic in our house and they hung out for a while.

It was a good day, but i was TIRED! But it was really good to be home with my WHOLE family again! I can't believe we have 3 kids!

(note: I finished this Thursday after Lunchtime! :) UGG)

Baby Amy!!!

Well, Amy Maria Jenson has arrived! And since i am not a great blogger, she is now a week old!  But she is doing great and is has been so fun!  Here are a few pix...I will try to post more info/stories soon! 

Birthday: May 6, 2009

Time: 6:22 pm

Weight:  7 lbs. 10 oz.

Length:  20 inches

This is the "one week old" pic!

...and i have to give you a close up so you can really see just how much hair she has!  it is CRAZY!!!

 This is what she looked like when they broguht her to me for the first time after she was born...the bows were all the nurses doing, it was PERFECT!! :)

And here is the FRO that happens after the bath.  There is just no controlling it! :)

The Final Countdown!!!!

I get to change my little countdown...to LESS days!  I had my doctor's appointment this week and we decided that unless Amy comes sooner, he will enduce me a week early!  So if she hasn't come by MAY 6TH she WILL come on May 6th! :) 

It is a little weird to pick our child's birthday, but because 

1. we live so far away from the hospital (45 minutes thru crazy construction zones) and 

2. Brandon works so far away (45 minutes through crazy construction/traffic and in the other direction from the hospital) and 

3. we have to get our other kids somewhere and 

4. Julia was born within 4 hours of my water breaking...

i have been a little worried about making it all work (and making it all work fast enough) whenever "It's time".  Although this may still have to be worked out if she decides may 6th is too far away, (which i would be ok with ) I feel a little better knowing that the insanity of getting to the hospital might be avoided. (Plus having a for sure date that is earlier than planned makes me...and my WHOLE body REALLY happy!!!)

so that is the update...as of today...11 days to go!  WOOHOO!!!!

Easter!

So here is the Easter Run-down! 

1. First, when the kids wake up (as was tradition in the Lantz household) The kids have to hunt for Jelly beans.  Each kid has to find a specific color and the amount of jelly beans for how old they will turn in this year (AJ-7, Julia-4) So here is the hunt! 

2. Once they find all the jelly beans then they get the baskets the easter bunny brought (that are hidden in a special hiding spots that only the easter bunny and the parents know about!) Here is the happinesss that Easter Candy brings...

3.  Then comes a little while of free reign over the candy until mommy can't stand it and makes them put it away for later! :)  This year Brandon made a YUMMY french toast breakfast for us!   

4. Then, for the REAL meaning of Easter!...We get to go to church and remember why we really have this day!  Of course, we have to get dressed up and i must say, i have some pretty cute looking kids!!! 

5. This year we didn't have a regular Easter event with all the Jenson's like we normally would because Grandma (AKA "Ma-mah") is in the hospital.  So we decided that we would bring some little Easter festivities to her hopsital room.  We brought some eggs with us and the kids waited outside while i hid them.  Then they got to come into her room and have a little egg hunt.  It was cute and "Ba-Pa and Ma-mah" had a good time watching the event!  Here is that event:

6. So it was a little different Easter than we would usually have, but it was a good one.  We got to eat candy, have fun, remember why we REALLY have Easter, and spend time with family...a successful day, i think! 

Firehouse Field Trip

Julia is in a little preschool/playgroup thing and each month we either have a party or a fieldtrip.  This month was a fieldtrip to the Fire Station down the street.  It was really cute, the kids loved it!  

Here is the little group learning all about the fire truck and all the cool tools in it.  I love the one in the top left where they are all so serious...they are looking at the jaws of life!

And here are my kiddo's checking out the firetruck and with the fireman all suited up.  

It was cool, they had him get all his gear on to show the kids and talked about how it is all to protect him and that it is still a nice man inside and not a scary monster!  They talked about regular fire safety and really focused on not hiding from the firemen!  It was really a good thing for them all to see and know!   

It was a fun little fieldtrip! 

Tha Jazz Game!

Brandon found some super cheap jazz tickets on stub hub so we could ALL go to the game on St. Patrick's Day!  (I think he was looking for tickets for just him and AJ to go, originally.) We wore green for the day and then all changed into jazz colors/gear for the game!

So we met Brandon at work and had dinner at Taco Amigo.    

We parked at his work and headed over to the trax station.  The kids were all excited to go on the "train".  Here they are-you can just see how happy they are!  SO Cute! 

Due to Brandon's NEED to be in seats for all sporting events well before the event starts, we planned plenty of time and were there really early!  So we got to go check out the statue of Stockton and Malone (and have a little photo shoot) outside the arena.  AJ and Julia got to compare thier hands to Karl Malones's hand prints...WOW!! 

So we had some time before the game started, but the kids did GREAT!  They both really watched the game and loved the whole atmosphere and event.  Seeing the Jazz bear (although he was pretty small from where we were sitting) was a highlight!

Around Half-time (which happened to fall right around their usual bedtime) they started to get a little antsy!  Luckily, i came prepared with some push-pops and that saved the day.  You would think that my children never got candy-they were so excited to have these things!  Julia was so funny.  She wanted me to hold her like "Baby Julia" and feed her with the push-pop like a bottle. Of course AJ thought this would be fun for hm too...i looked QUITE ridiculous with then on my pregger-belly lap feeding them push-pops!  HAHA hey-whatever keeps them entertained-right?!?!

Oh-and Julia's grumpy face...i don't even remember what that was about but it was so funny, i had to include it!  I'm pretty sure it was just plain old attitude!

So that was our St. Patty's day Jazz event!  It was super fun.  The kids had a blast and it was so fun to watch them soak in and enjoy the whole event!  Yeah for stub hub!  :) 

Family scripture study!

"Our Savior and Our Lemur"...

Ok, so for the background. We were doing family scripture study this morning. We have been having AJ read some simple versus here and there. Of course, whatever AJ does, Julia MUST also do. So i whisper the words to her so she can "read" a verse.

So this morning, Julia was "reading " a scripture that was talking about christ and ended with "savior and redeemer" Julia repeated it as "Savior and Lemur" HAHA it was really cute. But word lemur is more familiar to her than "Redeemer"-gotta love how those little brains work!

Krispy Kreme

FIRST OF ALL...We are SO excited to have our new camera and are finally getting a post up with some pix!

So, we were on our way home tonight and drove by Krispy Kreme and i happened to notice they were serving HOT donuts!!! YUM!!! of course i barely had to mention it to Brandon and he was in...so we stopped to get some. The kids thought it was SO COOL to watch them cook the donuts, and we just had fun watching them. Here are a couple of pix! (I had the new camera with me...i have to get back into the habit!)

I had to snap a few pics in the car as we enjoyed the yumminess that is FRESH krispy kreme donuts...Of course the kids wanted the ones with sprinkles instead of the fresh ones (they just don't appreciate greatness, i suppose!) but AJ is such a goofball when i take pictures these days! it still cracks me up just to look at how psycho he can look! but hey, at least he's happy...right?!?! And Julia's eyes are SO big, it is crazy!

Little People Conversations!

Ok, since we don't have a camera right now-it broke! :( -i don't really have fun blogs with pix to post...but i had to share this little conversation that was just happening in the kitchen...

The kids are eating dinner and i hear AJ telling Julia "When the baby comes out, not at first, but after a little while, she will eat all this food but all SMASHED UP!!! She will have squished greenbeans, and corn, and rice." (all foods they are eating) Julia just listens and says something to sound like she was knowledgeable about such things, and then i hear AJ say something like "I know all about babies, i have known lots of babies." Oh, AJ, my little expert! They just crack me up, I love these little conversations that happen!

Happy New Year!!!

SO, again, better late than never!!!

For New Years Eve, we went down to Tyler and Michelle's house to ring in the New Year! Melynda (Michelle's Sister) came too which we were really excited about...we haven't seen her in FOREVER!!! It was a BLAST!! (pun intended!)


We had a super yummy dinner and played games, the kids played tons until it was time for FIREWORKS!!!


First, we had to get bundled up! We weren't really prepared for the event, so Aaron and Krystal let AJ and Julia borrow some warmth! Thanks Guys! (look at Julia's hand...the gloves were a "smidge" :) too big!-but hey they worked!!!)

Then, we had to get all situated for the show! We were quite the crew huh?!?!

I HAVE to comment on the expressions on my kids faces!!! Brandon just happened to catch this pic of AJ at the exact time that one of the fireworks started to make some loud noise...haha!! (It was a DRASTIC improvement from the fourth of July to have our kids within 20 feet of the fireworks.)
And Julia...look at that face is she focused or what-i think her eyes almost popped out of her head!!!!




Then, the show!!!


Tyler did a great job! Michelle had these cute little bags makde up for everyone with sparklers, glow sticks, treats, and noise makers! SO CUTE!!!


And MIRACLE OF MIRACLES: MY KIDS actually held the sparklers...what progress!!!


So after the show, we came in and warmed up. We parked the kids in front of a movie and continued the game marathon! At midnight we watched the ball drop and celebrated with good ole' Martinelli's (Mormon Champagne!!).


Thanks for a great night! I hope this year is as fun as the start of it!!!

Temple Square (last month-haha!)

Ok so these are more than a month late, but they were so cute and we had so much fun, that i decided to post them anyway! On Jeremy's Birthday, our little fam went with their little fam to see the lights on Temple Square in Salt Lake. It was beautiful! The kids loved it!

It was QUITE chilly but the kids were troopers and we were able to get some cute pix! AJ was pretty proud of his shoulder ride, and of course whatever AJ does, Julia must do also!

These pix of Brandon and the kids were taken inside the visitors center around the big statue of Christ. Julia 's face just makes me laugh and the one of all 3 of them is so cute because they are just looking up into Christ's face!

OK, and how CUTE is the pic of Plonnie and Ty! Holy Cow, he is such a cutie!

YEAH for cute kids and good photographers!

We did our christmas/birthday pictures as we usually do...in the beginning of january (while just pretending it is still december! :) We went to Kiddie Kandids because we have finally accepted that fact that, although they are a little bit more expensive, it is worth it!! (and it helps that we get 2 free 8X10's-1 for each kid's birthday!) The kids did SUCH a good job. I think this is the FIRST time EVER that we did not have a crier or attitude to deal with!!! They just stood/sat up there, did what the girl said and ta-dah...how cute are they!!!

Just for the record...we don't love Julia more, we just didn't do AJ's "birthday" pix like we have in the past because he had school pictures this year!

Julia was LOVING doing the girly thing. She was doing all the right poses and thought whe was pretty hot stuff. I love that her little attitude still shines through...

Look at that face! I see trouble!!! haha!

Happy December Birthdays!!!

WOW! Do we have a busy month!!! (Which is why these are all getting posted now!) This year we had a party for each of the kids (seperately!)

HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY TO JULIA!!!

December 11, 2008

We had her Dora party on the morning of her birthday. She had a couple of the neighborhood kids and her cousins come. We played pin the tail on swiper, went on a Dora scavenger hunt, and played a backpack and map game. It was really fun!!! We ate Diego cupcakes too YUM!!! Baby cousin Ty was a BIG fan of the frosting!!!!

The party was so much fun that it totally wore Julia out! She fell asleep that afternoon and, when Daddy got home, we tried to wake her up. I don't think it would have happened for any other reason except to open presents!!! We had dinner and then had a little family party with a Dora Cake. YUM!!!

HAPPY 6TH BIRTHDAY TO AJ!!!

December 20, 2008

The morning of AJ's Birthday, we gave him the presents from us. He got a hotwheels "Trick tracks", a football with a tee, and the Kung Fu Panda movie. Hurray for Presents!!

We had AJ's Puppy party the afternoon of his birthday. We didn't have as many guests as we had hoped or expected, but we still had a lot of fun! I think a highlight was playing "Doggy trainer says". Daddy was the doggy trainer and had the "puppies" beg, sit, roll over, and chase their tails HAHAHA!!! We also played pin the bone in the Doggy's mouth, hunted for paw prints, and ate cupcakes with Bones on them! FUN!!!

That night was the BYU bowl game. (no further comment!!!) We went to the Jenson's for that and at half time we had AJ's bone and Puppy cake! It was good, but i think we were pretty "caked out" at that point! :)

PHEW!!! We made it. They both had fun birthdays and that was the goal. Mommy was a bit EXHAUSTED, but will recover and it is ALL worth it for these faces!!!

Merry Christmas...FINALLY

So here are some pix from Christmas morning! We had a great day. The kids did pretty good as far as wake-up time...Julia woke up first (no surprise) around 8:00 and AJ soon followed. Santa leaves our stockings on our beds so we can check them out first. Santa was SO silly this year and put the wrong stockings on the wrong beds...HELLO SANTA!!! I think he was a little sleep deprived when he got to our house this year! :) But we got everything straightened out and we were good to go!

SO....Stockings first!!!


THEN...we get to go check out what Santa brought!!!
How 'bout these action photos of the kids' first look at the tree and ALL the gifts!!!





OPENING PRESENTS!!






Poor Murphy had to wait till all our presents were open before we remembered to let him check out his stocking...it was worth the wait! I love his WHOLE face in the stocking trying to get the goods!

I love this one of Julia with her baby...Note AJ in the background, that just cracks me up!

Our big gift from Santa to the WHOLE family was the Wii...we have all loved it and I love it because it is something that we can all do together!!!

To anyone needing a laugh who also LOVES BACON!!!!

I couldn't make it fit full size, so I had to shrink it down, which made the writing to small to read, so you'll have to click on it to see it full size...... that's what she said :)

A little laugh therapy to help us get over the loss to the Yewts!!!!!

Did you hear that Max Hall wasn't allowed to pass the sacrament in Church on Sunday. The bishop was afraid that he'd get intercepted.

The teacher tried to give me a Hall pass, but it was intercepted.

Did you hear that BYU has officially filed a protest with the NCAA regarding the Utes cheating during the BYU game. They were playing with 12 men on the field!!!

Anyway, I hope we can all get a little chuckle and move on with our lives, and begin counting down the REMATCH in less than 365 days when we can POUND THE YEWTS!!!!!!

Halloween Fun

Our halloween festivities started on Wednesday when we had a halloween party with Julia's preschool group. So, off i went with my little puppies..how cute are they! At the party we played a wrap the mummy game-Julia opted out so Aj was up-he did great!


They also had a pinata which was fun. AJ felt like quite the stud that he was the oldest boy there-he definately helped to finish it off! :)

Then Friday came...We had a blast at AJ's school-so much fun that i didn't really have a chance to take any pix! I organized and ran AJ's class party and thought i was tired when it was done...until the halloween parade around the school. They went in and out of the different classes and Aj's class was the last class and kept getting distracted and split up. I was at the end of the class trying to keep everyone in line and moving-THAT was a workout! So by the time we cleaned up the classroom and got home, i was ready to sit for a few minutes before we had to get ready to Trick or Treat...BUT, Julia decided that her costume was "too itchy" and she didn't want to put it on, so my "sit and do nothing time" turned into "Julia's costume plan B prep". WE tried on EVERY costume in her dress up box and decided on snow white because it was the least "itchy"

SO..... FINALLY we were ready to trick or treat! We went around our neighborhood and the kids got a TON of candy just in our little neighborhood!

After we hit all the townhomes, we headed out to Orem to to the Jenson Halloween event! How cute is "Ba-Pa's" face when he saw the kids at the door! :)

Here is our little family in our costumes!

So after eating chili and decorating some cookies, all the cousins headed out to trick or treat around the neighborhood...How cute are these kids! (Kyle was so proud of his "la-la" costume)


And Julia was killing me- she kept right up with Aj and the boys-she was running from one house to the next and yelling "happy halloween" or "i'm ready to go" while she ran! -she has a BLAST!

Here are the boys..Ryan wasn't there so the Mask made up the fourth spot in the usual "brother" picture! :)

Halloween was such a fun day.....

...and then on Saturday we had a party at church. They had a chili cook-off, a cake walk, decorating cookies, and OBVIOUSLY, face paiting. AJ was so patient and sat to get his face painted the way he requested-VENOM! Not to bad!



So What a week!! It was fun and tiring but all in all a GREAT week!!! and now we will be working on the candy for a while! :)

The Zoo with a Crew!!!

So on Thursday of the UEA break, My friend Heather and I decided to take our kids, with a few extra (her neice and nephew too), to the Zoo. Basically, we are crazy-as you can see with these pictures of 7 kids (ages 6, 5 1/2, 5, 3, 2 1/2, 2, and 2)! YEP-we had our hands full!!!

Even with our crew we rally had a good time. Animals are just so much fun to watch!! The Rhino was a favorite, as well as the Tiger which was totally pacing in front of the window, right in front of the kids. he also got in the water and swam around right in front of the kids. It was really cool.
(And why do i not have pictures of all this cool tiger stuff, you may ask...that would be because we were trying to locate the 2-year-old nephew who wandered off in the 2 seconds that we were gathering the kids...we went the wrong direction the first attempt to find him so when i went back from where we came from to get him, he was down the hill where someone saw me looking and probably my almost-frantic looked and pointed him out! PHEW!!!)

AJ and Julia were sportin their BYU gear because we were going to watch the game at "Ba-pa and Mah-Ma's" after the zoo. So i couldn't resist the BYU-gear-with-the-cougar picture!! (The cougar is above Julia's shoulder-kinda hard to see) And Aj took this great picture of the Cougar. He's pretty good huh?!?!



Another Higlight, of course, is the mural of the gorilla's arm span. All the kids wanted their turn to get a picture (except the youngest who didn't really know any differently!) Here's the gorilla-arm photo shoot!!!


And i just couldn't not put this one in-is that a happy kid or what!!! This was in the playground at the end of the day. -and let me tell you-Heather and i were not looking this chipper and energetic at this point! :)

Beside the trauma of the wondering child, it was a really fun time. The kids had a blast seeing the animals and just being together-it was a fun day!!!

Good thing for "K" cousins!!!

So, AJ sits down to do his homework-a K page-and then he had to think of 3 things (or people) who start with K.

Luckily, he had 3 cousins that fit the bill...here are their pictures-pretty good replicas-huh?!?! :)

CORNBELLY'S-finally a new post!

For Julia's preschool group field trip, we all took the kids to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving point! Everyone split up so we pretty much just explored the place-just me and the kids, it was fun!

How Fun is this chair?!?!


My little piglets (This is what AJ looks like when he sounds like a pig!)

After our little photo shoot, the kids spotted this cool climbing hay structure thing and off they went. Julia, of course, following right behind AJ like she had been climbing these rope things for years.

They were really cute coming down the slide together. I think Julia was a little nervous about it so AJ was there-The big brother to save the day!!! They can get along so good sometimes...I just LOVE it!!!




We did the corn maze and were pretty successful the first time, in "phase 1" (we went in the entrance and came out the exit fairly quickly) but AJ was ambitious and wanted to do "phase 2" and we weren't quite as successfull (it took us twice as long and we went in and out the entrance!) but we had fun!!!

Julia would run ahead to where there was a turn, whip her head in both directions, turn and say "which way should we go" and then just take off in whatever direction she wanted to! She was so excited-it was really cute! AJ would force his way through every once in a while so he could lead the way!


Here we are on the hayride-so fun! (Doesn't AJ look like he is having a BLAST!! So, not his greates picture ever :)!!)


AJ was the brave one (that's a swap :) huh?) and went on the Cow train. Julia was ok with it until she found out i wasn't going and she bailed!


Julia opted for the stationary cow while AJ was on the go!


Before we went home the kids got to go to the pumpkin patch and pick ANY pumpkin they wanted! They found some good ones!


...and home we went and, OF COURSE, those pumpkins were decorated before Daddy even got home! Pretty goofy HUH?!?!?!



(Do you love the rocks for eyebrows that AJ added this morning!?!?)

Ty and Jers, this ones for you!!!!!

I tried to upload this video, but I couldn't remember how to do it, so here is the link. ENJOY!!!!!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSAXLayoMKI

Aj and I at the BYU game!!!!!

Ok, So obviously it's been awhile since we've blogged, cuz here are the pictures of the BYU game (Now this is the Northern Iowa game, ya know week 1, almost a month ago!!) I'm just so excited about BYU this year (I guess it's just their turn to go undefeated in the regular season, unlike the Pats this year. Hopefully it ends better for them than it did for the Pats last year!!)


Here we are all ready to go. Aj was so excited when I told him it was time to go he hopped up from the computer and ran to the car. He didn't have his hair done or anything, he was just to excited.



AHHHH: Here is the LOVELY Lavell Edwards Stadium, I'll tell ya, it sure was a sight for sore eyes. (Even sitting as far away from the field as we were, It was a gorgeous sight to see!!)

Here is AJ checking out the cheerleaders......Er I mean checking out the action on the field!!!!! (Right next to AJ was our typical BYU co-ed at the BYU game. OHHHH look theres Rob, he's so cute. Theres Tom, what a cutie, Oh my gosh, he's looking at his watch now, what's he doing that for. (Gag me!!!!!!!)

Here we are in our seats, notice the wall that signifies the back of the stadium right behind us!!!

Here we are after the game. What a perfect day. BYU wins, I was at the game with my son, It was extraordinarily hot that day and we didn't really get sunburned.

OK, I've been tagged!!!!!!

My AGE ( In a week) :)







My First name (Ya'll remember Punky Brewster doncha?)









My Middle Name (This is ROBERT the bruce from Braveheart fame)





My Last Name ( I tried really hard to find a more uplifting picture, but you can only search for so long ya know)




My favorite color (do you really need to ask)








My favorite animal

Favorite past time: Again, do we really need to ask (and my most favorite past time is when BYU beats Yewtah).

my favorite food: A nice Porterhouse steak, with corn on the cob and a nice baked potato on the side :)




Favorite Vacation: Pretty much any beach I've been able to go to.









Where i would like to visit: (It never said where on Earth i'd like to visit), I would also like to visit hawaii.






What I'm doing now: Watching Football on my primitive non-HD 21 inch TV screen :)



I give a slacker tag to Tyler, Jeremy and Jen.