Happy Halloween-Better late than never!

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. My birthday is the last day of September, so as a kid I would be excited all month long. The day after my birthday was October 1st and I would tell myself to get excited about Halloween so I still had something to be excited about. This works very well until about January (which is still my least favorite month and I don't even have to go back to school anymore)!

I use to love dressing my brothers and sisters up for Halloween. I actually looked forward to dressing up my own kids one day (I know I was a weird kid)! The hard work of child bearing has payed off and my poor children now endure my fun. Even my husband lets me have a little fun with his costume. We were Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. Tanner was Elmo (which I made myself and I do not suggest sewing fuzzy red material- unless you want your whole house fuzzy and red).

Tanner loved the bean-bag toss and made poor Kyle work hard all night at the ward party!

He also liked the cake walk, once he finally got a cake that is.

This is my proudest Halloween creation. Jackson was "Jack-Jack" from the incredibles.

Check out that spike!!
I was going to be Elasta-Girl (Jack-Jack's mom, for those of you that don't know your Disney/Pixar movies), but I just didn't think our ward would appreciate seeing me in a red, spandex, super-girl suit! I am sure it is a sight that would cause nightmares for many individuals. We had a great time. I am already planning next Halloween- it takes a whole year to come up with this kind of genious!

We flew out to Alabama on Sat the 18th to get ready for a weekend and down-home fun and family. Here are some pics to recap the family fun.

Tanner and Daddy, Ucles James with Carmen, and Autumn with Jackson

We love getting to hang out with cousins since Tanner and Jackson rarley get to do that! Here are a couple more...

Jackson and Mommy (never mind the crazy lady in the back), Michael and Laura

Watch out kids-Uncle James is cop now (oh wait, I meant licensed officer :).

It isn't a party without food.

This would be Nolan- What a face!

The reason we went out to Bama is for Randi's wedding. It was going to be a lovely outdoor wedding, but it rained so we moved the festivities inside!

Laura (Mike's wife), Steph (my sis), Me, Randi (other sis), James (bro), Michael (other bro).
The kids are Autumn and Carmen

Tanner though the reception was great!
We love you Aunt Randi and Uncle David Silva-Ambrocio! Congrats!

Got milk...and other fun moments!

For those of you who know Tanner very well, he has never liked milk or formula. Since I have weaned him, he just quit milk all together. Just recently he has decided that chocolate is good stuff after all. We were excited to get him drinking any milk. I have to agree with Tanner that the chocolate milk mustache is far superior to the ordinary stuff!

Here Jackson is getting reading ready to go on a walk in the stroller. It was a cool day, so we got our the bear outfit that my mom had given Tanner. I had to take a picture becuase it was funny to see him bundled up.
Can you guess which bundle of joy is Tanner and which is Jackson?

My cuties!!
While I was fixing my hair one morning, I heard Tanner say..."More car shoe baby?" I turned to see this, and I ran for the camera as fast as possible. I got a picture just in the nick of time!
Not really a good fit!

We went to a Halloween play group party, and instead of doing the craft, Tanner wanted to play horses with Preston (a friend from down the street).

I spent countless hour sewing an Elmo costume, and as soon as we get to the party, Tanner trades his Elmo hood for a pink cowboy hat. Go figure!
I'll post some nice Elmo pics when I do Halloween. Naptime is over, so I had better go!!

These are hiking pictures. I didn't have time to put them on here yesterday, but it was so pretty that I wanted to share with those of you who do not have a true appreciation for the Uintah Basin- YET. We were up in the Uintah Mountains, on the top of Petty Mt. This is how you hike with two kids under two!

Kenny is the king of hill, well at least until I took a picture and came to join him!
The view from the hill! We hiked down into the medow and were shocked how wet it was for the fall!
The Aspens were goreous!
Almost to the medow!
We hiked for about three hours. I was having a tough time for the last hour or so, but we had a great time, and saw some really pretty spots.

I also have a piece of bragging info! My little Tanner said his prayers by himself for the first time. I can't believe how old he is...almost 2 already!! All the hard work during the day feels worth it when you experience those precious moments.

The Reasons we love camping!

We went cmping for my birthday this week and had a blast. Sleeping in a three man tent with two little boys is difficult, but at least we got enough sleep to fuction (and lets me honest- what more can a mother of an 11 week old baby ask for?)! Here are the reasons we love camping...

Tanner gets to sit back and relax,

Jackson gets to sit back and relax,
Mommy gets to sit back and relax,
Daddy gets to do all the hard work!

Daddy does all the cooking and there are no dishes to wash!

Sticks eveywhere!
"Stick Mommy!" -Tanner

We also love hiking! I will put those in the next post.

Things every child must learn!

We took Jackson on his first tractor ride. It was a really cool day for September, but we all decided to venture out into the tractor.

Notice that Kenny and the boys are sitting to the side so that means yours truely was driving. I always feel pretty proud of myself when I can use the tractor.

Gotta love the du-rag! When you have short hair it is a necessity to keep the hair out of your face.

Anyone who lived with me during or after my mission will appreciate this one...

"Children, why do we eat bread?""So, we can have butter!""And Children, why do we eat cake?"

"So we can have frosting!"

I had started setting the table and when I went to put something else there, I caught Tanner eating the butter straight out of the tub. I guess I taught him well! When I gave him a cupcake the next day, he ate the frosting off and asked for another one.

This picture just goes to show you that amiss all the chaos, there are some perfect moments in our home of boys!

Jackson's Blessing

Jackson was blessed on Aug 24th by his Dad. It was such a wonderful day. A lot of planning went into the occation, and it was all worth it. I am so grateful to be his mom, even if I don't get very much sleep these days.












Some of my family got to come into town for the celebration. My Mom and step-dad flew out on Friday. We had a fun time together. Tanner loved his cousin Autumn. She was so good to play with him. She even taught him a thing or two about fashion. Notice the new picture of Tanner to the right as well!

My mom, and husband are such good sports. I came up with a great idea to make a cake to celebrate Jackson's big day. It didn't really go as I planned, but they sat up half the night helping me fix my mistakes. I love you guys!!

Jackson is a lucky boy. He was blessed with amazing Grandparents. He is really soaking up the attention here. My step-dad missed picture time. Sorry!

One of the things that made this weekend so special was getting to spent time with some of our family.

Tenise (Tanner calls her Neece) - Aunt Lauri - Aunt Brittany (funny picture, but Tanner really does love Brit-Brit)

Uncle Gary and Aunt Debbie - The Ewells (Tanner calls them all Morgan-she is the little girl on the right hand side in the picture.) - Cousin Autumn

Thanks to all who made this day extra special. We love you all!! We also missed those who couldn't make it. Jackson espially missed Aunt Kim, Uncle Ryan, Aunt Stephanie, Aunt Randi, Uncle James, Uncle Michael, Aunt Laura, Brendon, Carmen, Nolan, Aria, Little girl #3, Riley, Hailey, Sydney, Carley and all his great-grandparents!

We will make lots of fun memories in the future though!