We don't need no stinking forks!

Tate dropped his fork on the floor.

Saw Brylee's hair pik on the table next to him.

Solved the problem himself. 

Mmmm, waffles. 

Boo Bears Birthday

Brian's birthday was on the 14th.  He turned 33!! 

Holy moly.

He made a big change this year...

He chose a different kind of cake for his birthday!!!

Every birthday, since I have been making his cakes, he has had the same kind of cake. 

Red velvet with chocolate pudding frosting. 

Not my favorite, but it's not my birthday, so I always granted his request.

But this year, he chose red velvet swirled with a cream cheese and chocolate chip filling,

and some homemade chocolate frosting. 

It was so good. 

(I'll have to add this recipe to the food blog- yummy!)

Ice Skating

Brian's school put on an "End of Tri" party at an outdoor ice rink. 

So we got to take the whole family for free. 

The kids LOVED it. 

They could not get enough, and did not want to leave. 

Of ourse Tate was too little, so he had to stay off the ice. 

I think he still enjoyed being outside, and drinking hot chocolate. 

On the way home we played the quiet game and Tate won. 

I couldn't believe how long he was quiet for. 

Very out of the ordinary for him. 

Brylee loved the ice skating too, just no pics to prove it.

How about that smile though!!

Uh oh...

Tate is an aspiring artist. 

His medium of choice?

Himself...

I can't seem to figure out where he gets it......

Fall

We had quite a few leaves to clean up this fall. 

It was actually sort of fun to get to work with the kids, and luckily it wasn't too cold. 

Fortunately we had LOTS of help!

We also had to pick the rest of our tomatoes because a frost was coming. 

We had lots of tomatoes this year, but only 2 or 3 ever turned red. 

So here is our big bowl of green tomatoes, that we never ate...

Nails

Brylee is ALL girl.  She loves to wear princess dresses, and jewelry, and have lots of shoes, and she even enjoyed these press-on nails.  (at least for a little while)



She did eventually get sick of having to be so careful with her hands, and having to put the nails back on everytime they fell off.  So we put them back in their case and will save them for another time. 

Seriously, Brylee needs to take a vacation to see a grandma for a week or so... Pronto!! 

Silly Tired Tate

Fun Run

I find it hard to get the motivation needed to go running.  Tonight an old friend called me out on it, and gave me that push I needed to get moving... with all 4 kids. 

So I loaded up the stroller and made Dallin and Cody run with me.  It really was fun.  I think we will do this again! 

Hair today, gone tomorrow...

This is what Brylee's hair has looked like since she grew it.  She has never had a hair on her head cut, before today...

Yesterday I noticed a bunch of short hairs that weren't being held in by rubber bands and they were sticking straight up.  Even Brylee noticed them, she asked if her hair was 'poinky.'

So this is her, seconds before the cutting of the bangs. 

This is after.  Now, I'm not a fan of bangs, but in this case they were necessary.  And as much as I don't like bangs, I still think she is adorable.  I also think she looks about a year older than before. 

Anyway, hair grows back, no big deal. 

Everyone has to suffer through bangs at some point, right?  ;)

Halloween

A happy cat woman, not an everyday sight.

Scary cat woman, this is more like normal. 

Everyone dressed and ready for some trick-or-treating!

While trick-or-treating door to door, Brylee made a comment about one girl that was passing out candy.  "That's the prettiest baby sitter, ever!"  (We had never met this girl before.)

Camping

Holy picture over load, Batman!! 

Brace yourself, there are a lot of pictures. 

We went camping this weekend.  It was SO fun.  The kids had a great time. 

Brian asked Cody if he was liking camping. 

Cody said, "Dad, I like it so much I'm going to pee my pants." 

Brian then said, "Why don't you say you're going to cry instead?"

Cody replied, "No, I'm going to pee my pants." 

Here is our new tent.  Thanks Aunt Casey, this is what your Christmas money from two (or so) years ago bought us! 

 We had some cooler weather this weekend.  (Ok, it was down right COLD at night!)

Here is Brylee warming up with some hot chocolate and crackers in the basket of her bike. (Which got run over while we were there.  The bike, not her)

Tate, being a big kid and drinking from a water bottle. 

Cody, warming up by the fire.  

We camped at a place called the Johnson Shut-Ins.  About 5 years ago a dam broke and washed everything away in its path down the side of the mountain.  (Including the old camp ground.  They have since moved the location for the campers.)  We took a hike up the 'scour' path.  It was pretty neat.  Lots of rocks, some cool tunnels.  All the trees had been washed away.  They now have a siren system that will go off if the dam breaks again.  We found that comforting...

Our family on the scour path.

One of the tunnels the kids crawled through.

A crack the kids crawled up.  

Cody, eating a foil dinner. 

We camped with a few other families from our ward. 

Tate, playing with rocks under the truck.  That's what babies do when they go camping, right?



Our family at Elephant Rocks State Park.  These huge granite rocks were some of the highest points around.  They were fun to climb and play on. 

It was a great weekend. We can't wait for our next camping get away. 

Oh, and FYI, Cody didn't actually pee his pants.  :)

Trunk-or-Treat

We had our ward trunk-or-treat on Tuesday.  We all had a great time. 

Cody went as a ghost, and Brylee was Cat Woman.

 Tate was an Ewok, and Brian came straight from work so he got to be a referee by default. 

There were games set up in the gym and Tate LOVED this game.  Not that he really played it, he just like to pick the duckies out of the water and put them back again.  I think he played this for about 30 minutes out of the whole night. 

Dallin went as Luke Skywalker.  

More of Tate playing with the ducks.  

During the trunk-or-treat part Brylee must have thought it was supposed to be done the same way as an Easter Egg hunt, except the candy wasn't hidden.  She must have made 6-8 laps around the parking lot collecting candy from people.  Her pumpkin basket was FULL.  Thankfully, she was also very excited about sharing.  By the time we came home she had given away at least half of her candy. 

Tate just wanted to wander around during the candy collecting.  He did steal a fun size crunch bar out of the bag I was holding, and he ate right through the wrapper to eat the candy bar.  (I think he ate most of the wrapper, too.)