Ho Ho Ho!

This year was a big year for us ... every year we sit our kids on Santa's lap at the ward party and every year they burst into tears. This year no one cried! And Owen thought it was fantastic!! Hurray!

That's my Owen baby.

A yummy tradition

Thanks to my cute mama for the fun gingerbread house tradition. No graham crackers here ... we love the smell of baking house pieces, even though it takes all day. Here is this year's lineup:

Brent went for the classic Necco shingled, gumdrop hedged, M&M bordered look.

Jana's has a Santa in the chimney, and lots of flowers blooming despite the snow (my favorite part is the window boxes).

I was very impressed with Sam's doorknob (it took him awhile to get it stuck on there). It was also important to him to plant flowers in his yard, too.

Owen's (below) was created for him by his loving sister Becca who wanted lots of cute baby color mints on the roof and flower boxes like moms.

A blizzard struck Nathan's house (he plastered the walls with snow as well as the roof and ground).
And Miss Becca just didn't know where to stop with the candy ...

Unsuccessful photo shoot.

All I wanted was four smiling children at the same time, is that too much to ask? Last minute Christmas card photos are not easy.

Potty-trained haircut boy & his bike-wreck brother

Above is a shot of the old Sam, very hairy, and wearing a diaper while napping in a baby walker (taken last week). Below is today's Sam including big-boy underwear and a nice short haircut (we tried that Cookie Cutters haircut place ... it was very fun for him as opposed to the temper tantrum haircut experience that we usually have).

And here's poor Nathan. He had a pretty horrible bike accident on Saturday. He hit his mouth so hard that his tooth was stuck in his lip and we couldn't get it off (I say "we", but I mean Brent. I was in the next room trying not to throw-up and pass out at the time ... it looked pretty bad all swollen up and bleeding). Instacare took care of that for us and now we just have to wait for all his battle wounds to heal. Nathan has had his fill of medical attention lately, eh? Good to see him

smiling.

How sweet!

What a sweet little baby boy! Okay, he's not so little, but he is sweet. Here's some shots from last Sunday when Brent was playing Primary songs on the guitar for the kiddos. We love the peaceful moments like this.

Sorting candy!

This year's Halloween line up ...

Harry, I mean Nathan, had a lovely Halloween, beginning with a fun costume parade at school. Jasmine, I mean Becca, enjoyed her party at Tecia's preschool. Aladdin, I mean Sam, was jealous of both of them but he and Mommy had a fine time constructing him a hat from some red fabric and a sour cream carton. Peapod, I mean Owen, was just plain cute all day.

Brent and I put on the only costumes we have ... sorry to not be more original.

Happy Fall!

Happy fall, everyone! This is my favorite time of year. I've been doing a lot of canning. Today we got some material to make Halloween costumes ... check back to the blog in a few weeks to see how they turn out. Yesterday we picked the pumpkins from our garden ... not a bad harvest, eh? One of the little orange balls in the center back is actually Owen, not a pumpkin (he's just wearing an orange shirt).

Choo choo!

3 cute kids riding the train at Cornbellys ...

Cornbellys

We visited Cornbellys last weekend ... the corn maze (and stuff) that Thanksgiving Point puts on each fall. Here are a few highlighs. First stop, the giant rocking chair.

What makes a little girl happier than dressing like a princess and sitting in a big pumpkin carriage with red velvet seats?

Cute farmers!

There's a little boy somewhere under all that chocolate pudding.

The ZOO!!!!

There is one very nice thing about spending time at Primary Children's Hospital. You get a free pass to go to the zoo whenever you want. We did this on my birthday a couple weeks back.

You can't see the elephant in the above picture, can you? Well, if not, here's three cute little monkies to look at.