Halloween 2016

I wish I would have gotten more pictures of the Halloween party my parent threw for all of us and Joni's family. Man they know how to celebrate. My Dad and Brothers put on the coolest spook alley in the "haunted Hallows" and took everyone on a ride through the woods in his golf cart. Oh my heck it was awesome. EVERYONE loved it. There were eyes glowing throughout the forest, werewolves, skeletons, owls, zombies chasing us. It was hilarious really. So fun. We ate donuts from a string, ate yummy food and had a fantastic night.-  At the last minute Jamie and I decide to dress the little boys up as Linus and Charlie Brown. That was funny. Kemp was SO ridiculously cute on Halloween night. He REALLY got the whole concept on knocking on a door, saying Trick or Treat, and the people would give him a piece of candy. WHAT THE?!  He just kept yelling" Candy" all night and seriously didn't want to be held. He did an amazing job of walking the whole neighborhood and keeping up with everyone. It was incredible. Super fun night. I love my kids. 

That first picture was from the night Josh and the girls, Jordan and Kristee, Jamie and Jace, and Elle and Cash and I decided to go to Sundance to the haunted Ski lift. They put on all these little skits and things going on below you as you ride up the mountain with spooky music. It was pretty fun. We got hot chocolate and of course more suckers, and had a great time together. 

MONTANA and YELLOWSTONE

So this has been one of my Dads Dreams. To have his whole family together in one of his very favorite places in the whole world. Usually this trip to Montana is just for the boys but this year we all got in and the party. Seeing as how it was October it was pretty cold up in Montana and Yellowstone but that didn't stop us from a wonderful time. We stayed in a really nice time share that had a big nice pool and two hot tubs. Some of the family stayed across the street at a hotel and so sometimes we'd go swimming over there too. We played lots of games, ate good food, and traveled into Yellowstone to see the animals. I can't believe how lucky we were on one of the days we went into the park to see a GRIZZLY Bear! That would be our second time this year! This older man was pulled off to the side of the road and had his telescope out. When we stopped to talk to him he showed us what it was. Incredible sight. Driving into Mammoth was one of our favorite things too. I LOVE being so close to the elk. Such a cute little town. Elk just walk around everywhere right NEXT to you! While we were in the park we went fishing down on the Lamar River. Funniest story there: Toby had a caught a fish yet (we fished the day before on the Madison River…which was awesome wading up and down that river with all of my siblings, and I caught a fish there;) so he was hoping to get one here. He and I were fishing right next to each other, Jordan and Kristee and Jamie and Jace were up a ways and Josh was right next to both of us. Toby feels something on his pole and looks over Josh and gives him a funny look but doesn't want to say anything because he'd been fooled before. At the same time I'm all "I've got one! I've got one!" We ended up reeling in our fish within seconds of each other! haha. Pretty darn funny. - On Sunday we went to the only ward in the near vicinity and then after we went to this awesome place where the kids got to "feed" the bears. They ring a bell and these huge Grizzly bears go back into a caged area and then they let the kids go into this other caged area and literally hide the bears food under rocks and stuff so the bears have to sort of look for it. Then they come around the enclosures and watch the bears find it. Tate wasn't old enough to go but he was so enthralled with the whole thing he didn't seem to mind observing too much. The main bears name was SAM. Tate had gotten a button earlier at this place with SAMS name and picture on it so as Sam came out it was so cute because he just kept yelling "Sam! Sam! You are on my button!" So adorable. It was so nice being together and enjoying this gorgeous place. My Dad became really emotional as we were all pulling away from the Lamar Valley. I know how special that place is to him and to have all of us, well most of us, together there was like I said earlier…a dream come true to him. A very very special trip. We hope to be able to go there again together someday.

Tate's Surgery

This time it's official! It happened! Ha! After months and months of talking about it and one failed attempt Tate finally got his sugary on his teeth done. Man I stressed about doing this. First of all it's never fun to send your child off to go under anesthesia. That really is difficult for me and I hated thinking of having to do that. The other is the fact that he would have to have FOUR teeth pulled! That's crazy! All up front too. How do you just get 4 teeth pulled and just have them missing for like the next 3 or 4 years. Anyway, as far as how Tate handled it this time he was much better this round. Since he thought he had it done before by just going to the hospital for a little bit and changing into a gown  he started calling this time his "BIG surgery." And since he somehow still talked his mother into a small box of legos last go around he put two and two together and figured this time he'd score a BIG box of legos. This is one smart kid. He was so brave and so sweet and still looked quite frightened. Handing him off to the anesthesiologist is the worst. He started crying out "mommy! mommy!' and I just had to watch them walk around the corner. So difficult. It was nice though…I ran into an old friend of mine, Jessica Galke, at the front desk area who works there in post op and so she kept tabs on him the whole time and let me know how he was doing. We weren't a 100% positive he was going to need all four teeth pulled but the infection had spread to 2 teeth and they said if the front and side tooth were going to be pulled in their opinion they'd take the other 2 by them too. I agreed but it was hard to do so. I wish Toby could have been there. - He looked so angelic when I went back to look at him in post op. He hadn't woken up yet and his poor little mouth was so swollen. Everyone kept commenting on how handsome he was and how incredible his hair was. haha! He actually had a pretty hard time waking up as in he was so AWNRY. Lots of tears and asking to go home. He didn't want anything to drink and wasn't super nice to the nurses either. That's okay though…hard to blame him as I'm sure he was in a lot of pain. They finally were able to let us go home and I ran him in target quick to get a big box of legos and then he just kept saying I want to show Cashy boy I want to show Cashy boy. So being the responsible mother that I am I went and checked Cash out of school and let the boys put the set together at home. Tate was still pretty out of it for awhile and just wanted to lay in my lap or on the ground. Kemp kept walking over to him, bending down and giving him kisses on his face. So cute. And would you look at the SMILE??! I mean, c'mon. Have you ever seen a more handsome little 4 year old in your whole life. Also I might mention he made a killing with the tooth fairy.

Halloween Festivities 2016

I'm not sure what the reason was really but I just didn't feel like my heart was into Halloween this year. I don't know. I just didn't decorate as much as I normally do and didn't put as much thought into the kids costumes either. That's okay though because obviously the kids are at that age where they really want to pick their own costumes and luckily for me my Mom and Dad pick up the slack big time for me. They always make all of the holidays so fun. We went to their "cottage in the woods" to make spider cookies and watch Halloween movies. The kids just love that stuff. We also went up to the Farm for the annual Wimmer Halloween Farm party. Another of the kids favorites. She always makes it so much fun for them and it's wonderful to catch up with everyone.- Next Halloween activity we did was the infamous Peterson Farms Pumpkin patch. Wouldn't be halloween without the kids being able to go pick out their own pumpkins. Kemp was so cute this round and kept trying to pick up all the pumpkins on his own and the way he said "Punkins!" Just melted my heart. I have lots of video of him running out the patch.  - And the last activity here is the riding down the "haunted Provo river." This was a first for us but definitely not the last! It was a blast. My parents didn't make it or Joel and Tessa's family but the rest of us drove down to provo and went on the cutest little boat ride down the provo river. It was short and sweet but super fun and after we went to Culvers for a burger and fries and had a great time.