Tressa's Rugby Game

We had so much fun yesterday at Tressa's Rugby game. She is playing rugby on the BYU women's team and she is really good.
We got there right on time and by the time we had unpacked the kids and got situated she had already scored a "try".
In the first half (which is all the kids lasted through) she had already scored 3 times. She was awesome. It was great to see her in the scrum, run, catch, and throw, and tackle who ever had the ball on the other team.

Here's some pictures and videos of her playing. I wish they were bigger. You can click on the pictures to see them better. Tressa is number 8 and has a big gray head band on. (In the top picture she is the one with the ball!)
It ended 59-0 and Tressa was made player of the game! Go Tress!

Tressa is the back player in the scrum

Here's one of her scores

Listening to the coach


Here's Tressa scoring from the scrum.


Here she takes down a girl toward the end of the clip. It's great!


Sam was very happy to just curl up in a blanket and hang out. It was so cold. We had a ton of snow at our house, but lucky there wasn't any in Provo.

James and Seth playing on the sidelines.

Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures...

Things we hear often when we are out:
Oh, twins?
How do you do it with them so close together?
They can't be more than a year a part...

So, I thought, I'm going to make them shirts...

although the picture of them kind of proves why so many people say those things....

We love our boys...short, skinny, tall, chubby. We take them as they come!

Tired.....

We all feel like we have been running 100 mph and haven't had a chance to stop. This is how we woke up Monday morning after all that has gone on....

James found some cookies for breakfast


Sam eatting a tootsie roll


Seth finishing the punch after a good work out

Makiah's Baptism

We have had the priveledge of having the missionaries in our home to teach a part member family. Melynn used to work with Seth and he, being the great missionary he is, would talk to her about the gospel all the time. As he likes to call it, he wore her down slowly! :) He told her that she had to ask him "one mormon question a week". She would come back with great questions that got her really thinking about her life.
Well, the time was finally right and we had her and her kids over for the disscussions. Kaden, 12, we found out was baptized, but Makiah, 9, wasn't able to. Melynn didn't want her to be baptized until she was 18. Kaleb, 5, would come in some times for the lessons, but was more of a firend for Sam during our lessons.
The lessons were great. It was the first time Seth and I have been a part of the new disscussions. We both served our missions before the change. It was a wonderful experience and we learned a lot.
Elder Lloyd and Elder Keller were great teachers that brought a great spirit into our home. Elder Lloyd was able to share some amazing stories from his life that were able to really touch Melynn.
Melynn was able to feel the spirit and remember believing when she was younger. Her heart softened and wanted her daughter to be baptized. She was able to be baptized this last Sunday, just a few days before Elder Lloyd finished his mission.
We had a great party for Meylnn and Makiah at our house after the baptism and most of Melynn's family was able to be here. It was overwhelming to meet and talk with here parents and see their gratitude to Seth for helping their daughter come back to the church. I will never forget their faces and their spirits. It was one of the most special times for me and especially Seth.

Trick-or-Treat

We had a great Halloween. It was fun to see Sam really get into it and understand. I loved how he would say "trick-or-treat", get his candy, and then go to the next house. He loved his "Thomas Box" even though he couldn't reach his hands around his front to reach his candy bucket! :)

Here's Sam trick-or-treating


James loved it too and got into it. He knew we were going from house to house and would just go up and take a candy. He wanted all the treats in his hands. He couldn't say "trick-or-treat" but he did give a few people a really good "BOO". It was so cute. He slept really well that night and took 2 naps the next day! It was great.

Here's the little cutie giving me a really scary "BOO"


And they're off...

James would have to pause and check out people's decor...

Fun getting treats from Sunny

We had some of my family over to dinner and trick-or-treating. It was fun. The kids love going out with their parents and then coming back and really go at it with Seth. He is so great. He takes all the kids out running for as long as they (or the candy at the houses) last. They always come back home bragging about how heavy their bags are, or how many "king sized" candies they got! My favorite time of the night is the candy trading. We did really well this year and were able to stock up on skittles (the boy's current favorite).

Sam asked the next morning if we could go do more trick-or-treating. I had to let him down easy and let him have a few treats fro breakfast....after all, it's tradition! :)

Pumpkin Patch and other long winded posts about how cute my boys are...

We finally did it on Monday. (And it's a good thing we did because it snowed Tuesday) We went to the Pumpkin Patch close by our house for Family Night. I've loved the idea of Pumpkin Patches since they first began and I've always wanted to go, but couldn't justify going just for me. But now that I have kids as an excuse, I get to do things like this all the time! :)
This pumpkin patch was the best. All the fun goodies are free, you just buy the pumpkins, which I must say were dirt cheap! They had a long row of about 10-15 trackers that the kids could get up and play on, a hay ride, and a little corn maze. The boys (and I) were so enthralled with the whole thing. We couldn't get them off the trackers, then we couldn't get them off the hay ride, then we couldn't get them away from the pumpkins, and then we couldn't get them out of the corn maze, and then we couldn't get them off the trackers again, and then we were finally all ready to leave as it got colder.

Here's my cute boys picking their very own pumpkins.


Sam is so optimistic, just like his dad. I love how excited he is about getting his pumpkins and pushing them around.



Sam chose very carefully!







James found just the right one.




I just LOVE the face James puts on here. Priceless! (You'll have to click on it to see his face bigger.)

Big man Sam on the tracker!


James was fine with whatever tracker you put him on. Just let him be...









Sam loved every minute of the trackers too. It was from the green one, to the white one, to the red one, to the yellow one...


I love the face Sam gave us as we tried to make him pose with James for a "Brothers" shot. A picture is worth a thousand words, or just one bad one! :)

SNOW?! You've got to be kidding me!

October 26th. Need I say more?!...okay, I will...gross!

Words

Sam loves to hear us say animal sounds. He will be reading a book with me or by himself and want me to say the sounds of every animal on the page. The other day he came up to me and said, "Mommy moo?" So I did a really great, "MOOOOO!" He was giggling his little head off and said, "Look Dad, mom a cow!" He kept saying it over and over. Oh yeah, I thought, that's a great thing to go around saying!

Piano Duo

Sam and James love to tickle the ivories together . It is just so cute. Sam definitely has more of the "touch" while, James pounds out his daily composition with all the force he can muster. It really is adorable, but hardly ever ends without tears and territorial claims.

Morning Car Rides with Dad

Every once in a while Sam has a really hard time saying "bye" to Dad in the morning. To help him let Dad go we have developed this little routine that James has now joined. Seth drives them around the block and then drops them off to me in the front of the house. They absolutely love it. It is cute to watch as they beg to go in "Dad's car". Who needs the rides at Disneyland when you can just jump in a car and go around the block! :)


I love that they do this. I remember when I was a little girl that we would run down the hill to our mail box when we saw our dad come home from work and he would let us get on his lap and "drive" up the hill with him. I used to love it so much!

Conference Weekend Crafting

For Conference weekend we had my parents here and my niece Tressa. It was a blast, but we are definitely tired and worn out now.
Us girls got into crafting. It was a blast. It was a mess every where, there were always at least five crafts going, and we didn't stop until they were all done! Here are some of the results. I am very very happy with them.
This was my favorite one. I took old Christmas ornaments, mod podged them with newspaper and then painted them. The jars are just covered with tissue paper and mod podge. I put candles inside and at night they are the coolest looking lanterns!
I love how many Halloween tree turned out so much....

that we had to make one for Tressa!

These metallic pumpkins turned out really well. I pull a little of my black jewelry on them for a little sparkle. They are just ceramic pumpkins painted silver and splattered with bronze. I sprayed some leaves and garland too.

My mom showed me this from a magazine. She made a pattern and so I of course needed one too. It's just a stuffed fabric boot with some garland and twine tied around it.

This is burlap, twine, and painted letters. So easy, yet so cute. The Boo banner was so cute...

that I had to make an Eek banner too.


My mom has these fun binders she keeps with all of her favorite little seasonal crafts and treats. Here are some of my favorites I got from her. We made some of these and loved them.
We had a great October dinner of...
worm burgers (Cut up hot dogs in barbecue sauce...actually quite tasty!) :)

a hand in our potato salad

and "thing" treats!

Things are always more fun when you go all out. That dinner was amazing.

Count Your Blessings....Name them One-by-One

I've counted my blessings one by one and here they are.
I love my sons. They bring me such happiness. They crack me up. I love ruff-housing with them, reading to them, singing them songs, cleaning with them, crafting with them, discovering with them, going on walks to the park with them, bath time, cuddling with them, learning with them, restraining them during family night....

I am so blessed and I am grateful to my Heavenly Father for my Eternal Family. What love He has for me to bless me with the gospel. Because of it's restoration I know who I am and what I need to do to return to live with Him. Because of the gospel I have an amazing husband who worthily holds and uses the priesthood, an eternal family, and knowledge of my Savior, and the peace of mind that if I keep the commandments and my covenents me and my family can be together forever.

We had a co-worker of Seth's over for dinner tonight with the missionaries. She has a part-member family. It was such a blessing to have a discussion in my home and share my testimony with them. It brought back so many memories from my mission and all the lives I was able to touch, and it allowed me to reflect on how really blessed I am.

I am so grateful!

Sam's First Official Play Date

Sam had his first official play date this last week and it went really well. He had his friend Harry, from across the street over to play. Harry is in his primary class, but is almost a whole year older than Sam. Harry was a good sport and when his mom came to pick him up said, "He didn't even take any toys away from me." I guess his wise mother told him how Sam is.
This video is to die for. Sam asks if he can "watch Harry" all the time now, so we play it for him and he just giggles.