**Our Halloween 2010**

I don't know how much more neglect my dear old blog can put up with. I hardly snap pictures anymore and then to have to sit down and put them on the blog. Well, that is almost asking too much! Who has the time?!?!
Here is our Halloween summary...You know cuz Thanksgiving is right around the corner...

On October 19, 2010 my brother Andy and his wife Kristin had their first baby. Crew Jacob. He is a darling little fella that we were excited to see. So, we planned on a trip down to see them and planned on spending Halloween weekend with my family. We did see the baby and I didn't even take one picture of my kids with him. How lame is that!?!? (I am having issues...) Anyway, CONGRATS to Andy and Kristin! We are excited for you and we really thought your baby was PERFECT!!!

The Costumes:

Brinlee with her homemade Rapunzel wig. It was a large pain. She wasn't sure about the make-up and so it wasn't my favorite costume of all time. Oh well.


Aidan borrowed this little costume from our neighbors and I was thrilled with it. Very warm and very cute. He actually won 3rd place in a costume contest. (Granted it was being judged by firemen so it may have been a biased judgement!)

Cambree was a cave-woman! We tied a dog bone in her hair so she was pretty nervous about trick or treating if there were dogs around. It POURED rain the whole time we were out and I mean POURED!! So, needless to say there were no dog threats!

Our pumpkins after the super fun carving we did for FHE!

It was a fun year carving with the kids this year. Cambree did her's all on her own and Brin did a pretty good job herself. Aidan just was happy to be there destroying and digging out guts!!

Two Birthdays and a Spud Harvest

Okay, so I am a bad blogger. I guess if I were getting paid to do it, I would be more diligent! :)

Two and a half weeks ago, we celebrated Cambree's 9th Birthday. Yes, you read that right. She is 9! This year she had very specific things in mind that she wanted to have for her birthday. She wanted the following gifts:

Sqwinkies (The latest fad in small toys...)
A sewing machine
New earphones for her MP3
...She was not disappointed.

She wanted the following done on her special day:

A crown styled in her hair
Pumpkin pancakes
Fun flower cupcakes for her class.
...It was all a wish come true! :)


Here are the pics from her big day:

Her cake:
Her cupcakes to share with her class:

Her crown hair:

Her nails after a manicure at the Paul Mitchell Hair Academy on her big day!

Ten days after Cam's birthday is MJ's birthday. This year we had no idea what to get him and he wasn't much help with that either... So, with the idea from my friend Rhonda, the kids and I made him a candy gram. They thought it was so fun and they also got a part of the present. :)
Right now the kids are in "Spud Harvest". MJ is driving truck for the Ashton's hauling potatoes from field to spud pit. We have been out for a week already and have one more to go... Last week while the kids were out of school, I was able to accomplish quite a bit with my BFF Mic. I canned chicken and potatoes and made freezer jam. It has just been non-stop fun. HA HA! But a successful week nonetheless... I wish the break wasn't quite so long, but what can you do? This next week Brin will get her cast off so we are on the big countdown and I am looking forward to a big celebration!!

The Tale of the Broken Arm...

*As told by Me*

There once was a girl named Brinlee who loved to play outside for recess. She would slide down slides, swing on swings and hang like a monkey from the bars. One day Brin was playing "secret agent" with some of her friends and fell from the "Spider Web" bars on the playground. She hurt her arm badly and was sent in to the secretary to wait for her mother to arrive. Her mother was on her way to lunch with her BFF and thought it would just take a minute to swing by and tell Brin she was okay and to have a great rest of the day. Now, this story gets so much more fun...
Brinlee was in a great deal of pain and could hardly wait for her mom to get there. When her mom finally arrived it was apparent that Brin would need to see a Dr. right away. Three x-rays and two Dr's offices later, she ended up with a bright pink cast and a sling.
Her older sister Cambree is convinced that Brinlee will be famous at school and isn't so sure that the attention she is receiving is that fair. How come all the cool things happen to Brin??
Cousin Jordan stopped by with treats and prizes for the poor little broken child but she shared those with her siblings...
Now you ask yourself where was Aidan during all this and what possibly could have happened to the lunch date? Well, it was a quick drive-thru window and Aidan spent the afternoon with Mic running errands. All this was happening during his 2nd day of potty training...Needless to say, this day was NOT a success. Perhaps it can wait a few more months??
Brinlee seems to be doing much better and is on the mend. But, while her arm appears to be less painful tonight, I am pretty sure her teeth are rotting out from all the treats she has acquired today! :)

Wrapping things up and calling it a Summer!

**School is now officially in session!!**

As promised, I am recapping the past couple of weeks...
This summer went by so FAST!! One minute we are shoveling snow and the next we are sending the kiddos back to school. I really feel like I blinked and summer was over. Ah well...
So, at some point or another this summer, 4 of my old college roommates made their way through town. I was able to meet up with two of them for a fun lunch and it was great!!
This is Nicole. She has two darling little kids and they were so much fun to meet and play with!
This is my roommate Chanelle, whom I was roommates with the longest. She has 4 super cute kids and my kids really hit it off with them. Brinlee and Karissa were BFF's after about 20 minutes!

It was fun to reunite with these girls and I hope to do it again sometime! :)

We had one last summer hoorah and met my parents in Logan...where we lived for a couple of years while my dad finished school. It was fun to visit the old stomping grounds. We went up to USU campus and we visited an old park that we lived by. It has been 20 years since we lived there and it was so crazy to see the changes. We stayed the night in Logan and the next morning we got up and went to Bear Lake where we met Emily, Sean, Andy and Kristin. We spent the day there and then everyone went their separate ways. It was a great way to end the summer.

And, finally....SCHOOL HAS STARTED! The girls are thrilled with their teachers, classmates, and everything else! They love school (so far) and it has been interesting just having Aidan at home. He feels ripped off because he wants a backpack and he wants to go to school too. Someday all too soon.... :(

**A Summer's Tale**

This is a story of three children, a mom, a dad and their super summer adventures...It has been some time since we last checked in with our family, so this is a long chapter in their book of life. It is a tale of swimming, hiking, boating, traveling, happiness, tragedy, and other novelties. Here is our story...

The kiddos spent 2 weeks in Utah. The first was spent being spoiled by their aunt and grandpa. The next was spent in swimming lessons...

We were in Utah for the 24th of July so Grandma and Gramps bought up BIG sparklers for the
festivities!
We went out one day in our canoe and the girls swam in a lake among lily pads. We went to Cave Falls and on the way home stopped off at a swing we found last year that is huge and goes down the face of a mountain.

We went to a nearby lake with our friends the Ashton's. The sand was a great entertainment and it was a fun way to spend an afternoon.

Last week we drove up to Yellowstone (no pics from there...sorry.) And then went down through the south enterance into Teton National Park and into Jackson Hole. We got there in time to see the nightly "shoot out" and it was also the same night that there was a 4.8 earthquake 25 miles away. I didn't feel a thing, but some people next to us mentioned it. The kids loved the shoot out!

We waited in the "town square" park for about an hour. Judy and Gene went with us that day and I am sure they are still recovering from the long drive that it was. This summer we got ourselves a little kitten. It was from a litter that the Ashton's cat had and my kids were so excited to get a cute little pet. We named him Thunder. Unfortunately, our cute kitten was not so lucky when I was backing out of the garage. I am experiencing some trauma over the situation and even though we only had him for about 4 weeks, he is greatly missed. (Even by me a very NON pet lover!) Another addition to our house is this AWESOME tandem bike!! We inherited this beauty from my aunt Tammy and uncle Paul who we LOVE very much!! It has been so much fun to work on and get fixed up. Mike has put in a lot of work. (It used to be bright yellow, but MJ didn't like it so much and we painted it blue. Whatever floats your boat I guess.) It is the funnest bike around and we are so appreciative for our inheritance!!

We took the kids bowling one afternoon. It was Aidan's first time and he loved it. He wanted it to be his turn every time. Cam and Brin realized that Wii bowling is so different from real bowling, but had fun anyway.

(Brin just got a strike!)

Well, this concludes the chapter of "What We Have Been Doing This Past Month". Please check back for more thrilling recaps of 12th anniversaries, roommate visits, school starting and more!

**Water Park with the Ashton's!!**


We were invited by our best friends the Ashton's to go to Ross Park last Thursday. It was a really nice day to go and the kids had SO MUCH FUN!!!!!

Cambree and Sadie got to have a water slide wrist band and they did a really good job going down it alone.
The boys were pretty good for the most part...is it ever fun to take a 2 year old ANYWHERE?!? Here they are sharing and enjoying snacks together.

Brinlee and Tess got to go around the lazy river a few times alone and they were feeling pretty big. Little Piper was my big helper for the day and she helped me babysit Aidan. I paid her a whole quarter...that she ended up leaving in my car...

It is quiet around here this week. My kids are "vacationing" in Utah with my sister "Mi-Mi" and my dad and brother. (My mom is at Girls Camp and I am going to our Girls Camp tomorrow.) I am enjoying the quiet and freedom that is mine this week, but I sure do miss C, B and A!!