Halloween Week 2010

We have been celebrating halloween all week long! Max has participated in two trunk or treats, a halloween party and parade at school, three trips to pumpkin patches, painted pumpkins for our front porch and ate a yummy scary pumpkin pancake for breakfast this morning! Here are some pictures of all the adventures!

Pancakes with Halloween Faces ... yummy whip cream & candy corn

Beautiful Fall Flowers & Pumpkins

Maxs' ghost face!

Pumpkin Faces!

We saw some pretty interesting looking pumpkins


VERY BIG pumpkins!

Still with the ghost face ...

Really unattractive pumpkins...

White pumpkins ...

Blue pumpkins ...

Having fun climbing all over the pumpkins

Scary tunnels to climb through

And the scariest of them all .... "The Master" otherwise known at Darth Vader!

Tonight we are watching The Nightmare Before Christmas to finish out our scary week! Happy Halloween to all and enjoy eating your kids treats!!

Easter Weekend

Max came down with a fever on Thursday night ... no appetite, etc. By Friday afternoon we decided to take him in to our instacare ... as the fever was up to 101. Diagnosis, strep throat and contagious for at least 24 hours, med's for 10 days and no neighborhood easter egg hunt! Huge bummer! But, we still managed to have some fun today while watching General Conference. Max also had an incredible nap just under 3 hours ... love it!

Easter bunny arrived with new clothes, more trains (these ones for the bath) and of course chocolate. We had several egg hunts, one outside and several inside the house! I got Max into one of his new spring sweaters and shirts for a minute ... took quite a few pictures and here are some from today's events!

An egg hunt amongst the rocks & Grandpa's garden!

Here is the conversation that Max and Mark had on the phone this morning around 6:30 am....

Mark: Are you excited for the Easter Bunny to come?

Max: Dad, the Easter Bunny is not real!

Mark: He isn't?

Max: No, he's stuffed up! He's a fake animal!

Mark: Who told you this?

Max: I told myself!

Happy Easter ... This Weeks Craft

I have been lookin online at different easter projects and came up with this one on our own. The galvenized tub I got at our local thrift store for a $1 ... everything else from Walmart. For some reason the little eggs that I bought (because everything is in storage) had little tiny holes in them in the ends which made it quite easy to string the floral wire in to them. I twisted the wire inside the egg, and made various lengths to create the bouquet. Down inside the wires are dropped into styrofoam and them I topped it with crinkled green grass and a ribbon. Max had a blast and of course loved playing with everything while we were making this. Our left over eggs will be used for an egg hunt here amongst the rocks at Grandma's house and some will be sent to Dad in Afghanistan.

Christmas Morning ...

Christmas morning of course was exciting for everyone! The kids were so excited and as soon as Max heard Justin and Mark standing outside his door saying, "Come on - let's go see if Santa got here!" Max had no problem rushing down the stairs! (at 7 am - not bad at all!) Once again we were blessed to celebrate the season with gifts and I am so thankful for so many things this year. The blessing of employment brings tears to my eyes and probably will for the rest of our lives. Mark and I always sit together on Christmas Eve after the kids are in bed and reflect on the year gone by and the upcoming year. We are thankful for our families and friends who mean so much to us. Here is our little 4' tree ... and some images of the morning.

Family Fun - Christmas 2009

Mark's Homecoming

Hooray! Mark finally made it home on December 22nd at 10:30 pm! What a crazy nightmare it was for him and for us! I was so happy when we found him in the airport. Mark's dad and brother drove down to the airport with Max and I to pick him up. Here are some pictures of his homecoming. Might I add the wind was blowing SOOO hard on the way down to Vegas and at the airport. It was a bit crazy to drive in but, as you see we made it!

Part II ... Journey Home & Santa

Marks flight was cancelled again today at 4:30 am this morning. I spent 2.5 hours on hold at 4:30 am waiting to speak with a United Airlines customer service representative to work on getting Mark a new flight. The NEW CURRENT plan is to have him fly out on 12/20 at 10:40 am through Charlotte, NC and in to Las Vegas to arrive around 3 pm. Please oh please let it stop snowing in Virginia!!!

To pass the time, I took Max over to the mall here in town. I think this was one of his first trips to the mall without a stroller (we sold it this summer at one of our garage sales). Anyway, of course he LOVED the freedom to go see everything, run, touch, play on all the "rides" they have in aisles for .50 cents. But, we did get to see Santa which I was trying to hold out until Mark and Justin got here but, I had to do something! I'm going nuts!! Then we headed over to Costco for lunch and to pick up a couple more things.

Max loved seeing Santa ... gave him high 5's and knuckle knocks ... Santa is soooo cool!

Family Night - St. George Temple

Tonight we drove down to see the lights around the St. George Temple and Visitors Center. We were excited to get out and see the beautiful Christus statue, the lights, the manger scene, see the temple, "touch" the temple for Max, and of course to remember the reason why we celebrate Christmas. I will put this on list of things to do once Mark and Justin get here. While there are not nearly as many lights as there are in SLC or Washington DC ... it is still a fun evening and Max had a great time too!