It is beginning to look like Christmas........

 Not sure I could get any further behind in my blogging.

My last post was Halloween

and now Christmas if fast approaching. Just a little over a week away.

Even though the house has been decorated and ready for Christmas for over a month

the outside is just barely starting to look ready........

but with snow the last couple of days, and a couple more days of expected snow,

I think it will be a white Christmas.

 Bobby was up last night and he knows how much I hate the snow,

but he kept talking about how beautiful it was.

I took the above pictures today and have to admit that yes it is beautiful,

I just wish it would figure out a way to stay off of my driveway!!

If the only thing I had to do was sit around and enjoy it's beauty I would be good!

If I lived anywhere else I would be the biggest fan of snow!

But as it is, I am referred to as the "Snow Grinch"

But, in the Spirit of Christmas,

I am going to try to change my attitude for a week or so and try to enjoy it!!

The tree is up!!

I got a new tree this year!  Noah picked a flocked one!

It is 12 feet, and I love it!

Mostly because all of the lights work and none of the branches are broken!!

The Stockings are all hung! We do not have room for too many more.....

Love seeing all of these stockings as we add new members to the family!

Would not mind making room for a few more grandchildren............

Nearly every shelf in the family room is filled with Noah's Nativity collection!

It seems we add a couple every year!

I love the Eskimo Nativity!

There are too many to take pictures of but these are favorites.

The above nativity I found in Hawaii last year,

and below is my favorite.

I got it a few years ago in Mexico.

It is completely made out of leather. I love, love, love it!

Loved it so much, when I bought it I gave them exactly what they were asking for it!

No bartering..............

Every year I try to get a new Children's Christmas book.

This is the one I got this year.

I have always loved hearing this story from when President Thomas Monson

was a boy. So fun they made it into a picture book!

Got this picture for Noah this year and am using it for a center piece!

So sweet..............

Love the Holiday Season.............

It will be gone before we know it, so I am just trying to enjoy it

and not be so busy and stressed trying to get ready that I don't.

So far, so good.........We will see how I hold out though with just one week left!!

Halloween

 

 This year for Halloween Noah combined his Pumpkin Morph suit with Autumns Replacement Ref Uniform to get the look that he wanted to wear out Trick or Treating.

Being how he is 10 years old and all grown up now, he no longer needs his mom to take him out

Trick or Treating any more.  How sad is that?

Anyway, he went out with his friend Bridger and got tons of candy.

I stayed at home and handed out candy.

I was surprised at the amount a trick or treaters we got this year.We had a little over a 100.

It was a pretty warm night which might have made the difference,

because the last few years the numbers have slowly dwindled. But not this year.

As I do every year I handed out full size candy bars.

I figure if someone is going to make the trip all the way to our house and then walk up the driveway they deserve it.  I had a  lot of out of breath trick or treaters!!

I was rewarded for my generosity though,

 by someone or someones who thought it would be fun to smash my pumpkins all over the road though! 

A little irritating to say the least!

When I went down to clean it up, some nice person had already done it for me.

Not sure who it was but Thank You!!

 Aspens Princess Pumpkin!

I think Noah would have to say it was his funnest Halloween yet!

Probably because he got to go without his mom, 

like most of his friends have been doing for years ...............

Happy Birthday Summer and Noah!

(38 candles on the cake.  28 for Summer and 10 for Noah)

Just like we have done for the last several years,

we celebrated Summer and Noah's Birthdays with a 

family Halloween Costume party!

This year I thought everyone did a great job with their costumes.

 Summers family

Summer and Scott were cavemen.  Bridger a very smiley Dinosaur!

And Dakota a scary Vampire!!

 Bobby was James Bond, so of course Rachel was a Bond Girl!!

I loved Autumn and Matts.

They were replacement Refs in the NFL.

And if you are at all familiar with the games in the beginning of the season

that were officiated by the replacement refs

you will totally understand why this is so funny!

McKenzie and Josh were Zombies.

McKenzie is actually wearing Noah's costume from last year!

The three boys............

Hunter is a guy called Slender man.  Never heard of him until Hunter decided he wanted to be him.

Apparently he is very scary and steals children who are never seen again!

Noah is a Pumpkin!  His face really creeped me out!

Daniel was walking around in his underwear trying to find his Super Man costume

and decided at the last minute to be Captain Under Pants!

I loved it!!

All of the guys..............

All of the girls...........

We are so out numbered right now!

 This year we decided to do Pumpkin Bread Bowls for soup

and witches finger bread sticks.

Summer came up with the idea that everyone should bring a soup to share

and make it a contest out of which soup was best!

They were all really Tasty.

Summer brought a Tortellini Soup.

Autumn did an Enchillada and Chicken soup. My personal favorite!

Rachel brought a Potato Soup.

McKenzie a Sausage Gumbo,

And I made a Chicken Chilli Soup.

All were very, very good, and I am sure everyone ate way too much trying to sample them all!

Another tradition........

The Cake from Dippidy! Yum!

This year I just told her to do something fun and scary, so she came up with this

spider cake with webbs and spiders all over as well as eyeballs!

So fun!  And so, so delicious........

The below picture shows why it is so good and why I am so fat!

Noah got some fun presents.

His dad got him a bb gun which he loved!

I am pretty sure he will shoot his eye out!

He also got some new Legos.  The Monster fighters Train.

Which is totally fun and appropriate for a Halloween Birthday.

McKenzie and Josh gave him the Jazz shirt!

He got a lot of other fun things and was totally spoiled by his brothers and sisters!

I got Summer a really great watch and James got her some new Running shoes

that had to be ordered but had not come in yet but I know she is very excited about them.

It was a really fun family get together

and a great Birthday for Summer and Noah.

I know that Noah thinks he has the greatest birthdays ever!

Can not believe he is 10!

Summer and Noah have celebrated their birthdays together ever since

Noah was born!  Summer actually celebrated her 18th Birthday

at Timpanogas Hospital 

(the same one that she now works at)

with Noah on the day that he was born!

It has been a tradition ever since...............

 Some fun things of Noahs........

His Haunted House he made.  Halloween Duct Tape of course!

And his Skeleton Pumpkin!

Below is a Princess Pumpkin we made for Aspen and will be taking to the cemetery

for Halloween.

After the party the "Big" boys retired to Daniels game room for some "Band" Practice!

These guys crack me up.  They take it so seriously.

They were seriously down there for a couple of hours!

Great, great day with the family!

Thanks to everyone for making it happen!

Happy Birthday Summer and Noah!

Summer is 28........

  How is it that I have a daughter who is 28?

Ouch!!

Hard to believe.........

I am so proud of her though for all she has accomplished in her 28 years.

She is a registered nurse working in labor and delivery.

She runs marathons, does triathalons, and did her first 1/2 iron man this year,

and finished in the top of her age group.

She is very driven and hard working.

And I think one of my favorite things is to sit back and observe the wonderful

mother that she is to her little boys.

Happy 28th Birthday Summer!!!

Halloween Fun

 I love that the kids still like to come home and carve pumpkins!

And that they still like to out do each other with their creations!

 Last Saturday night I tended the little boys and we made

Ginger Bread Haunted Houses.

I thought they both turned out really cute!

 

Soon...........

  

Soon, I am going to catch up on my blogging.

Not sure why I have been so lazy lately.

I have so much to blog about,

most importantly McKenzies wedding that happened on September 19th!

I am still waiting on pictures from our photographer.

We have just had really bad luck with our wedding pictures.

All of the pictures I took on my camera did not turn out because the setting got bumped

and I did not realize it until the reception was nearly over..........

My thought was that it was ok because I knew that Dan, our photographer

had taken amazing pictures and all would be well.

That was until I got a message from him saying his hard drive had crashed

with all of our pictures on it.

He has now sent his hard drive away to some place that is trying to recover our pictures...

last I heard they were quite hopeful.............

Well, lets hope so!

It was a beautiful day and McKenzie and Josh are extremely happy!!

I will go into more details when I post............

Heading off to Oregon today to visit family and hopefully once I get back

life will slow down and I can play catch up!

Highly doubtful, but for now I am going to hope for that!!