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.

Parting with an Old, Dear Friend

2 years ago when we were at Disney World my flip flops broke. I was so bummed...I get attached to well-worn-in flips flops, but had to get over it quickly and get the only thing you can find there....Mickey Mouse flip flops!


Yeah they were cute there when I was just all about everything Disney, but outside of the park it's kind of like I was wearing kid's flip flops.
Needless to say, I was still wearing them over 2 years later. I could feel everything on the ground through the not-so-new flip flops but just could never justify spending money on new ones....that is until yesterday.
Wal-mart had their "clearance" on clearance and I walked out with these beauties!


Still not the most stylish, but what can I say, they had me at "a buck-fifty." Maybe tacky flip flops will be "my thing."

Morning Walks

My boys have gotten pretty into our latest routine of walking Seth to work and then around the lake. The lastest is James crying at the back door until we leave. It's pretty dang cute, especially when his tears and frowns turn immediately into smiles and giggles when he gets in the stroller.
Here's my little men all bundled up for our morning fall walk! So cute!

Look who's "UNO"

We had such a fun day planning and having James' first birthday. I think the best part about it was how Sam "got it" and knew we were going to have a party! He was very much into the decorations, presents, and especially the cake.


These are the fun invitations we sent out to the family. I just love how they turned out.





Here's the over-all look of the party. We had UNO cards hanging from the ceiling. I loved the look that it was so hard to finally take them down today.



I love the center piece. It was kind of a last minute thing because I wanted to use as many cards as I could, but it turned out pretty cute.





The napkin holders are toilet paper rolls cut up, painted with a card glued on. It worked really well, was a nice little touch, and didn't cost anything.



I made this shirt for James using my cricut, fabric paint, and freezer paper. I was SO pleased with it. It was so cute. He will defiantely be getting a lot of mileage out of it this year!

There are my "UNO cards" cupcakes. They were fun to do and for some reason cupcakes always taste a little better than just plain old cake!




And here's the big guy enjoying his first birthday cake. It was so cute how he didn't even bother picking it up at first! It was just lean over and dive in!





I can't believe that James is 1! I know he's been huge for a really long time and has been wearing 2-T's for months now, but at least me was still my baby! I guess I should have seen this coming with the walking, how he learned to tease his brother, the climbing of the couch, the animal sounds, the words....it's such an amazing processes, and fun to watch, but it just passes in a blink of an eye.
We had an "UNO" party for James. It was a fun theme, and the whole party cost me less than $10. It's amazing how far one deck of cards can go! We had my brother and his family over for the little party, dinner, and family night. We started with the presents and cake because our cute little birthday boy had to get to bed (After a hard day of playing, shopping with mom, and a McDonald's lunch he was tired).
Here's some shots of the fun!

And here's a video of sweet James' raising to new heights...


Here are some of my new favorite shots of the boys. Sam was giving James some "Loves". So adorable!

Labor Day Weekend...NO Labor Allowed!

We headed up to Bear Lake for a long Labor Day Weekend and loved every minute of it. It was one of our most enjoyable weekends up there. Seth got to relax (not as much as he would have liked, he was still a little sick), play his games, watch Lord of the Rings....I got to craft and sleep in, Sam and James got to play, watch shows, swing, go the the park, swing, go on walks, swing, go on 4-wheeler rides, swing, and go on their first boat ride....and Grandpa M got to provide all the fun, food, and entertainment. (yep, that sounds about right!) :)
It was a blast. The boys loved the boat....well, that is after they got all bundled up in sweatshirts, socks, blankies, and mom....oh, and let's not forget the tools they found in the glove box! What a life saver! We always teased Seth's dad about the old blue boat that just sat in the garage up there telling him he needed to ditch it. Well, I take it back. It was so fun to just "go boating" as they say here in Utah. The cute little boat tried it's hardest and it was just enough for our little family.


Here's about what I looked like the entire time...covered with children...as usual!

Here's what Seth looked like about the entire time...

And of course, no trip is a trip without a little Seth humor...

I love this shot of Grandpa M and James...

It was a fairly cool weenend which was nice....a lot less people there...just the way we like it. We got to see lots of deer. Here they are on the lawn right outside our porch. It's so fun to see.




Sam and Grandpa M got to see deer one night on the 4-wheeler and a water snake on one of their day trips. Sam thought that was just about the coolest thing ever.







We found a new fun game on my laptop. "Spider Solitare." Don't play. It's so additing. I had to take a picture of when I won because it's only happened once!



And here's some more fun shots from a great weekend of just pure family fun....