New toy!

We bought a new trampoline and Ry set it up while the kids were at school.

He had some pretty cool tricks.

We had a bet to see how long it would take the kids to notice it after coming home from school. We were both way off. It took less than 30 seconds.

They love it and have had a BLAST trying out new tricks and games that their daddy's teaches them.

Final Halloween post

Wow~what a fun busy week we had. I am the Ward Activity's Leader and so I was in charge of our ward Halloween party. We combined with another ward and the spanish branch. We decided to have it the Wednesday before Halloween and had 600+ people. We did a pot-luck chili and bread dinner. Then we had carnival booths put on by all the different auxilaries as well as a big bounce house and ended with trunk or treating. I do LOVE throwing parties so this calling is perfect for me although planning for 600 people was a little nerve wracking but ended up not being so bad.

Our Young Women leaders had this cute ghost bean bag game

The Young Men did a fishing booth and some of the kids won...

real fish. boy oh boy was K ever excited!

we also had a put put golf game

face painting, a duck pond, basketball shoot and a cake walk to name a few. It was so much fun and I appreciate all of the ward members who helped me pull this thing together.

B definately has him wrapped around her finger

Daddy's little princess!

On Halloween we went to Tom and Amy's trunk or treat in our old ward. It was so good to catch up with some of the people I haven't seen in a while. Afterwards we went trick or treating in the neighborhood. Here is our group. R and I didn't dress up I honestly never had the time to even think about a costume for me. K was superman, J a ninja turtle B a ballerina Justin and Dallin Thomas the Tank Engine Isaac Mickey Tom a nerd and Amy a witch.

B loves purses and thought it was great that people were putting things in her "purse"

going for more candy!

R and I playing around with the camera

all three kids were zonked out within minutes of loading up. Looks like B enjoyed her chocolate.

Halloween Family Home Evening.

I LOVE Halloween. It's such a fun holiday to have with kids. I love all the traditions that come with it so for Family Home Evening last week we headed over to this cute little pumpkin patch. There was only one other family there and boy did we have fun!

The boys loved all of the HUGE pumpkins.

J found his.

B loved her ride in this cute little barrell train pulled by a tractor.

so did the boys.

Sheeesh! If looks could kill. This picture totally cracks me up. I kept calling to Bso she would look at the camera. She thought I was trying to get her out and she kept saying "no bye-bye, no bye-bye"

J loved riding this little bike around the hay bales.

The boys didn't understand exactly why we were trying to get lost in the corn maze but we had fun walking talking and letting them pick which way to turn.

We made it!

The boys had a blast racing on these little cars.

here we are about to see the animals

B loves all animals, however she calls them all puppies. Here she is saying Hi puppy, hi puppy!

Woah, this guy got a little close. Glad Daddy was there to make her feel safe

B loved playing peek-a-boo at this sign

and it didn't matter what side she was on.

teeter tottering around the boys go up

Dad and B go down

After the pumpkin patch we came home and had chilli. This is definately one of my favorite halloween traditions. R and I had so much fun watching the kids excitement with each activity. We were talking about what a fun age the boys are at. They are developing these adorable little personalities and are so fun to just chit chat with and hear what's going on in their little minds. I am so glad I get to be the mommy of such wonderful sweet little spirits. I am definately very blessed.

Vegas trip continued

After the triathlon we took the kids to Circus Circus. We all had so much fun.

Here are the boys on the carousel.

Look how wrapped around her little finger she's got her daddy. I LOVE IT!

There weren't many rides that B could go on, but she loved all the ones she tried.

She also had fun watching the boys go on their big scary rides.

waiting in line for another fun ride.

It amazes me how my kids are able to turn anything we are doing into starwars. They loved this ride and decided to pretend that they were flying in their own starwars spaceships. Soooo cute.

I got a little nervous watching my "babies" on this ride, but they had no fear!

For dinner we went to one of the famous Vegas buffets. It was so yummy and we all got stuffed.

Mom and B at dinner.

It was fun to slip a way for the weekend and have a mini family vacation.

For Labor day R we had a small little BBQ

R grilled corn on the cob, and it was YUMMY!!!

We had a nice relaxing day but B was happily "laboring" away in the kitchen on labor day.

Family vacation part 2

I know it has taken me forever to get the rest of our vacation blogged. But here it is.

After spending a week in Utah with R’s fam. we along with 6 of my siblings and their families journeyed out to S.D. for a big family reunion. My parents got released from serving their LDS mission in Rapid City which is where we grew up. So we decided to go “pick them up” from the mission and go see S.D. one last time in a big huge family reunion.
R and I met and fell in love in Rapid so it was extra sweet for us.

Here we are at one of the MANY pit stops. Our 12 hour trip ended up taking 18. Although it honestly flew by rather quickly. He had two way radio’s and kept each other entertained. It was fun.

FINALLY we got to see Grandma and Grandpa. It was sooo wonderful to finally be reunited with them.

Here are some of the cousins chillin. We rented a lodge that was big enough for all our family. We were out in the middle of no-where all by ourselves. It was lots of fun.

Here we are eating luch one day inside the lodge.

Before the reunion my parents sent all of the grandkids an invitation for a birthday party to celebrate each birthday they missed while out serving. They rented out the party room at story book island (a super cute park in Rapid) and my mom surprised all the grandkids by showing up in costume and putting on a darling show.

My mom is a professional clown and it was a fun surprise. Most of the grandkids had never seen one of her shows, only heard about it. Boy was it ever a treat. She is also a vantrilaquist and let K hold her Uncle Sam puppet.

Nose to nose with Muffin the clown. It was cute, when my mom was introducing herself she said that she is muffin the clown. She is a Grandma clown. She use to have bright beautiful vibrant RED hair, but now it's turned pink. ha ha.

J loved being Muffins helper. It was cute, one of my little nieces asked my sister where Grandma was. :)

Grandpa passed out b-day gifts to everyone and we ate pizza. After the party the kids ran through the park.

B had grandpa wrapped around her little finger

Can you tell where my kids are?

Yep you guessed it, the famous yogi bear picnic basket.

Home of the 3 little pigs (and K in the window)

And of course the big bad wolf.

The kids LOVE Cat in the Hat and little B was so excited she was about to burst!

Some of the cousins inside little boy blue's house

The next day we had an outdoor carnival for the kids that my sisters put together. They had all kinds of games that you could earn tickets at and then the kids got to pick prizes from the prize table. I didn’t get any pictures of the games (I was running a booth, but here is the prize table)

We went and saw the home I grew up in (out in the middle of no-where) and hiked around to some of our favorite spots like…

Sandy caves, They really aren’t caves, but we all hung out there with our friends at one point or another. This pic. is of Ryan (my brother) and Chelsea

We use to come to this tunnel that goes under the highway and explore. R and I came here a lot as teenagers. It was funny to come back to it.

I do miss the black hills, it is such a beautiful place to live.

J and his cousin on the Fourth of July

We watched the Mt. Rushmore fireworks at an old friend of ours private lodge. It was incredible and we were alone. It was so nice to not have to fight the crowd and still get such an amazing show.

There is this BIG hill in the middle of Rapid City that splits the west and east side of town. Well they put these huge life sized dinosaurs on top of the hill and you can see them from where ever you are in town.
We had a picnic there one day. I made huge dinosaur eggs (out of paper mache’) and had chips, fruit snacks and a Capri sun inside. Each kid had to hunt for their egg and break it open to find their lunch. We served it with subway sandwhiches. I didn’t get any pictures of the eggs because I was too busy hiding them. :)

We also went to the famous big blue water slides. I have so many fond memories there I just had to take the kids. This picture of B’s hair cracks me up. She had a blast in the water.

Home at last. The kids traveled so well. I was worried, but they were little angels. It was great. We had such a fun time and it was awesome to see everybody again. Can’t wait for the next one.