Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Happy Halloween!

We hope everyone had a fun Halloween. We sure tried here. In the morning, I got to go to Caleb's school with him and watch him in the parade and help out in his class. He got to do lots of fun games, make a mask and eat some yummy nachos. And as you can see, he chose the Utes over Toy Story for the day.
 
 


After I was done there, I got to pick up the twins from preschool. We went to McDonalds for a little lunch date together and then went to Toys R Us to check out some stuff.

When we were done with that, we picked up sister from the sitters house and came home for a little rest until it was time to go back and pick up Caleb. Then we were off to Dad's work to visit with everyone and show off our costumes and since they aren't accustomed to having trick or treaters, we handed out treats instead to everyone. Caleb called it a "reverse trick or treat."

Then it was one more long drive home where we whipped up some sloppy joes for dinner and then after they couldn't take the waiting anymore they went out trick or treating with Dad. Mom and Faith stayed behind to man the trick or treaters stopping by here. Dad brought the twins home after about 30 minutes and he and Caleb went back out for some more.

We only got about 30 trick or treaters at our house which is way lower than we got at the other house so we were kind of disappointed with that. But we're still new here and our house is at the end on the corner so I guess it's to be expected at least a little.

Overall it was pretty good day.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

A Toy Story Halloween


 The twins are currently obsessed with the movie Toy Story and Zaden has been telling me since about April that he was going to be Buzz Lightyear for Halloween. So we went with it. Mike and I went back and forth about dressing up this year since we really didn't have anywhere to go and had opted not to. Then at the last minute (Thursday) he changed his mind. We ran to the costume store and he came out with a fun Where's Waldo costume. It's not exactly the "theme" but since it is a kids toy/game, I think it kinda works. Maybe? Ok maybe I'm stretching it a bit, but I still think he looks too cute in it. I made them all get dressed up and put them in the back yard for some pics.

Here's the group. And I must ask, Where's Waldo?
The real Toy Story gang
 
Caleb really wanted to be one of the aliens. He now wants to be a Utes player for his school party next week thanks to his new set from Papa and Grandma. But at least he's humoring us with these pics and wearing the alien for trick or treating.
 
Here's Miss Faith being a baby Jessie.....too cute.
 
 
And Buzz Lightyear himself
 
 
And here's the cutest Woody ever
Waldo!
 
It's going to be a fun year and I took the day off on Wednesday to run kids around and help at Caleb's school party.

The Toy Story obsession is not letting up either. As you can see they also picked Woody and Buzz for their pumpkins and when asked what they want for Christmas, It's Buzz and Woody toys all the way. I guess if they had to be obsessed with one movie, that's a pretty good one (one of our fav's as well) so I really can't complain. A Toy Story year? Bring it on!

Carvin' 2012 style

After Grandma and Papa left on Saturday, we returned home for a while and decided that we wanted to get those pumpkins carved. So I ran to the store for a couple of necessities and decided to make a night of it. It was a little hard to do since Mike and I were both tired and a little cranky by then, but we pushed through and upon my return from the store, I went to work making dinner. We had mummy dogs with fries and I made us some homemade root beer.
 
Then it was time to carve, carve carve.
 
 
Faith helped by putting the seeds back into Zaden's pumpkin after he would scoop them out.
 
 
The twins both decided after about 5 minutes they were done and tired and went to bed early. I finished gutting theirs and Mike put the patterns on for them which I later carved. Caleb only needed a little help here and there with his and Mike took on Faith's. Here are the results.
 
Mine
 
 
Faith's
Zaden's
 
Zaric's
Caleb's
 
And a group shot
Mike's work is having a carving contest this year so he's waiting to do his until closer to then. It turned out to be a nice night even if Mike and I did 90% of the work.

Papa and Grandma Visit

We got a fun surprise visit this weekend from Papa Ringo and Grandma Judi. We knew we were going to get to see them for a little bit, but it turned out that we got to have them all to ourselves for a day and a half since their concert plans got changed for them. It started on Friday afternoon when they wanted to check out the new Scheels store. Me and the boys met them there since Dad was still at work and explored the place a bit. They ended up buying Caleb his Utes helmet and uniform he's been dying to get as a reward for his good grades. Here are some fun pics we took in the store. 
 






Only my family will get this reference. Hehehe
After the store Mike was off of work. We met him at the costume store so Papa and Grandma could look for their costumes. Papa found one, but Grandma wasn't able to find something she liked. We then enjoyed a dinner at Chili's and came to the house to unwind a bit. We then piled in Papa's car to check out the Halloween house in our new neighborhood. These people put together a pretty fun show. It's about 25 minutes long all together and fun songs, both Halloween ones and some just fun party ones. Here's a phone video I took of one of them.
 
 
 
 Then it was back to the house where the kids watched a movie in Caleb's room and us adults redboxed the movie, "The 5 Year Engagement." It was pretty funny, we enjoyed it.

After a nice sleepover, we got up and made some waffles for breakfast and played at the house a little bit then decided to go out somewhere. We ended up at Southtowne Mall walked around and did some shopping and had a little lunch at the food court. Then sadly, it was time for them to head home.

It was such a fun visit and we hope they do it again soon.

A Preschool Scream


Friday was the twins preschool program. They were awesome! It took a little persuasion to get them up there but once they were up there, they rocked it. We were so proud of them and the songs were so cute. Here are some pics and the program videos broken into 3 sections. Enjoy. 
 
 
 








Sunday, October 21, 2012

Boyless Weekend

After a very long week of no babysitter, Mike traveling and Fall Break starting for the boys we were all excited for the planned long weekend at Papa's for the boys. They were chomping at the bit all week to go and got packed almost 2 days early. Finally on Thursday afternoon, it was time to meet him in Provo.  Papa wanted to take Faith too, but I just couldn't part with her for 3 long nights just yet.

They headed off with Papa and Uncle Ryan and Faith and I returned home. Mike was still gone so we ordered us a pizza to be delivered, watched a movie and played together until she crashed. I stayed up to wait for Mike to get home and tell me about his trip then we both were exhausted and went to bed.

Friday Mike took the day off to be with his 2 favorite girls and recover from his trip. We got ready in the morning and headed downtown for some shopping a the City Creek center. It went great and we enjoyed a little lunch at the food court while we shopped. Then we decided since we were out and about, we should take our rings in for a much needed cleaning and inspection that we were way past due on and drove to Shane Co. While we were there, we started looking around and ended up finally finding some wedding bands that would go with the new ring we bought me 4 years ago. It didn't come with one and we have been looking for something that worked ever since. So Mike surprised me by saying he would buy it for my birthday/Christmas presents this year. So we left my ring there to get it soldered together. After that, we then came home for a little while for Faith's afternoon nap and to relax. Then it was off again. We have been needing to buy some new curtains for our new master bedroom since moving in and decided it was time. We set off hoping to find a quick score at Target, but came up short. That then led us to Bed Bath and Beyond where we were only semi-successful. Mike then took us out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse for some yummy prime rib. We then decided to make one last-ditch effort and stopped by Shopko. Shopko saved us on the curtains again. So far, that's twice they have been the only ones that had the sizes and what we were looking for in this house curtain-wise. So we came home to hang curtains and started a movie together....and well, I didn't make it and was snoozing within the first 30 minutes of it. Good thing it was one from our collection.

Saturday, lucky Mike got to spend with his girls again. We did more shopping. The chore-kind and not the fun kind though. We got the groceries bought and had a little lunch at 5 guys. Then we came home, I made us a nice dinner of stuffed pasta shells and brownies for dessert. We then watched Snow White and the Huntsman together. I hadn't seen it yet and he had borrowed it from a co-worker. I really enjoyed it. After Faith went to bed, I stayed up making a couple loaves of pumpkin bread. One for me and one to share with Papa and Grandma Judi as a thank you for watching the boys.

From what I hear, the boys have been having a blast. They got to go hunting and watch Uncle Ryan miss an elk. They partied for Papa's birthday. They got to go to Grandma Nette's Halloween party. And they got to play, play, play with their cousins and of course get spoiled.

This weekend was a nice break for us and the boys. Little girl has been so amazingly happy. I think she was ready for a brothers-break too. We are missing them today though and excited to go pick them up and hear about their weekend. Papa says no if, ands or buts...he's taking baby girl next time too....we'll just see about that. :)

Thanks Papa and Grandma Judi. We really do all love it when they get to go on these weekends with you! You are the best.


Hallo-Faith

Halloween is coming up fast! 10 days to go. We took this long weekend as an opportunity to make sure Faith wore all of her Halloween outfits at least once this season (yes, her mom got carried away and bought more than 1). She was being such a doll each day that we ended up taking multiple pictures of her in each outfit. I narrowed it down to just a few of each one from the almost 100 I took.

So here's outfit #1- The candy corn pillowcase dress. This one is not Dad's favorite, but Mom likes it.
And here's outfit #2- The Mud Pie black kitty outfit and tights. Mom's favorite. :)
And outfit #3- Skull bloomers and Halloween leg warmers. Can anyone go wrong with this combo?
I gave her some mini pumpkins to keep her busy while I took pics of the back of her bloomers and legwarmers. She was loving them so much and being so cute with them, I ended up taking a bunch from the front as well.
And because she's silly and thought she was teasing Momma by doing this...here's a cute shot of her showing off her bloomers under her dress.
She is so much fun these days and we are so excited to get all the kids in their Halloween costumes for pics soon. What a fun year this is going to be.