November News....

The month of gratitude. What can I say? My life has been blessed in immeasurable ways. I am so very thankful, mostly for the people in my life. They are my true source of happiness. My family and my friends are my heart.How grateful I am to be a mother and wife. I know how important the role I play is in the lives of my family, and I am thankful for this special purpose and responsibility. My heart is full of gratitude for the many blessings I recieve each day from good health, my warm home, groceries, vehicles, the great outdoors, a funny husband I can laugh through life with, and moments with my sweet and very special children.

May they always know how much I love them.

Violet's preschool Thanksgiving party...

Violet had a preschool thanksgiving party, here she is pulling kissy faces with her good friend Hannah. You gotta love their cute pilgrim hats they made!

 Making treats with Ryker and Claire. Rykes was off track so he got to tag along too.

 Cute Ryker and Jonah sharing an apple and popcorn while watching the charlie brown thanksgiving movie.

 Look for my little pilgrim! These preschoolers are so sweet. We love having our parties with preschool friends!

 First time cutting down a real live christmas tree! These kids were so excited to search the forest for the perfect christmas tree. I was too, what a fun time it was! I don't think i'll be able to go back to my old fake again. This might be the beginning of a new christmas tradition.

 Jonah had fun running through the forest...

 We got to pick any tree we wanted, there were alot to choose from. Big fat ones, skinny tall ones, dark green, light green, the possibilities were endless!

 We felt like this beauty was for us. Tall, skinny, not too perfect and a wonderful shade of blue-green. So then Gary begin to saw it down!

 We had so much fun decorating our real live, too tall for our star to fit on top tree!

 THANKSGIVING

This year we hosted Thanksgiving at our place with Gary's side of the family. It was so much fun eating, relaxing, talking, and playing games all day. The cousins played non-stop and the food was amazing! I didn't try one thing that I didn't like. Homemade stuffing, triple chocolate creme pie, mashed potatoes, gravy, homemade rolls, yummy salad, and much more! How wonderful it was!

 Violet was too excited for all of these yummy goods. Ryker ate a great deal of turkey and chocolate pie. Jonah bugs took a long nap after his feast!

 Grandma Andi with Vi and Jonah. Ryker was busy playing with cousins. I wish I could have gotten more pictures but I was too lazy after all my eating. Now to hit the gym on Monday!

One snowy weekend...

There's nothing more magical than waking up to a yard full of freshly fallen snow.

My kids could hardly contain their excitement. We got out our snow boxes, found the mittens, hats, and headed outside to play. Ryker and a couple of neighbor boys were trying to build a "stylish" Bigfoot snowman. Here is the project in making.

 There was actually enough snow sticking to the ground to go sledding! Rykes tried snowboarding too and he was pretty good. I think it's time to hit the slopes with this little guy.

 Miss Vi in her snow gear so smiley and happy.

 She tore up those sledding hills! As soon as she got to the bottom of the hill she scurried right back up to have another go. She chose to go face first on her belly, it was too funny.She was my cute little, feisty snow kitten.

 Jonah bugs took a minute to warm up to sledding. He decided to go down a couple of times right before we left and he kept on saying "gain" when we got to the bottom, so he must have liked it!

 I couldn't have dreamed of a better day with my cute family.

 I hope we get more snow soon so we can play in it.

Here's to snow!

Amazing October!

FRIGHTMARES

October went by in a whirl wind! We tried to soak up every bit of adventure we could get our hands on. We got to experience frightmares this year. The last time we came Ryker was only 2ish, Violet and Jonah weren't here yet. So this was fun for all of us! Ryker got to ride the big rides with his cousins, while Gary and I enjoyed watching our toddlers squeal in delight on these little rides. The whales were a favorite.

Aunt Summer came too. She was a good sport to ride all of the little kid rides. My kids have a pretty good Auntie Sum Bum.

This kids face is priceless, he got so excited on every ride. It was so much fun just watching him giggle every time he got on a new ride.

Sweet Violet and a frightmares character. This one wasn't as scary as some of the others. Vi loved Lagoon she called it, "The Goon" which was adorable.

We got to watch the Monster Mash clan perform and meet some of these characters afterwards.

Ryker and the Mad Scientist with their spooky hands!

We got to try some of the haunted houses. Mostly they were a good laugh.

Ryker went into 3 of the haunted houses available. He was very brave, and he wanted to walk through them. He also went on Wicked and the Colossas. He was one courageous boy.

TRUNK OR TREAT

Every year our ward hosts a trunk or treat. It is so much fun, we get together and have crock pot soups, doughnuts, and the best part, we get to see everyone dressed up in costume. Ryker's costume this year was a werewolf. I painted his face and sprayed his hair black. He made the perfect werewolf boy. He is such a character.

Jonah the frog, Violet the dog, and Ryker the werewolf boy

I was a wicked witch and that hot dude next to me was Gary in his sweet banana costume.

The Trunk or Treat as always, was good times. Gary got lots of giggles at his costume and Ryker ran around like a wild man with his neighbor friends. Violet and Jonah made out pretty good with some sweets and treats.

KARATE

Ryker got an upgrade on his belt. He is an official yellow belt now! He worked so hard for almost one whole year. We are so proud of him! He is the cutest little yellow belt I know.

Here he is with Master Robb getting his new belt!
Way to go Ryker!

My little ninja. He couldn't keep that smile off  of his face.

WITCHES NIGHT OUT

It was my Mom's birthday this month and so we made a night out of it. We went to Witches night out at Gardeners Village and to the cheesecake factory. It was fun seeing everyone and getting together for a night out!

 My Grandma Joy, Aunt Jill, Cousin Drew, Sister Summer, and my Mom.

My Aunt Adelle, and cousins Angela, Jess, and Jazzlyn came too but I was unable to snap a shot of them. What a fun ladies night out!

HORSE RIDES

The kids got to go on some horsey rides at the cute little place on Flint Meadow Drive. Violet of course was in heaven.

Ryker had fun on this big horse!

and Jonah bugs didn't want a ride. He was happy just enjoying the sunshine.

HALLOWEEN

Here are our carved pumpkins.

Mine is the kitty, Gary's is the Glowy, Violet had me carve her painted pumpkin into a Jack-o-lantern face, Jonah painted his, and Ryker's is the little guy on the end with the beady eyes.

WA-LA!

Vi had a preschool party. I got to help with it. Here she is making Witch hat cookies and decorating her "Halloween Juice" at my table.

Can you spot my cute little brown Dog?

Ryker as the wolf on Halloween night!

Vi my cute little puppy on Halloween eve.

My Little Lion had so much fun trick or treating in our neighborhood!

We made monster mouth apples, and mummy dogs for dinner.

We got to visit our favorite house to trick or treat at The nightmare before Christmas house!

And we got to spend time with people we love.
It was definitely a spooktacular Halloween!