Next to Joe's office is a green house with one room filled with colorful birds, turtles and fish. Joe ran to the office for a few minutes on Saturday and took Hyrum with him. This time Hyrum got to hold one of the parrots. Joe said he must have loved Hyrum because it took almost twenty minutes to get him off Hyrum's shoulders and onto Joe's finger...( which he ended up biting several times)

We had the kids draw straws to see who got to put on the star. Rebekah was the lucky winner.

Grace woke up from a nap in the middle of our decorating festivities. She did her part playing with things on the floor and watching. She is still not crawling...but maybe the tree with all its dangling toys will be her motivation.

Christmas is coming the goose is getting fat...

I don't know about the rest of you but Thanksgiving weekend is more then just celebrating a beautiful holiday with food, family, and Thanks giving, its also about the start of the Christmas season. Growing up my family always went the Friday after Thanksgiving to the mountains to cut down our Christmas tree. The rest of that weekend was spent putting up decorations, and trimming the tree while listening to Carpenters Christmas music. I have gladly taken that tradition with me. True to form here we are decorating the Christmas tree.

Here are the kids enjoying some turkey. The weather was beautiful and only a little chilly. It reminded me of my years growing up in New Mexico, where Thanksgiving is still a great time to play a game of football outside in a jacket. Here are some of the older cousins eating outside in the backyard, seriously beautiful weather.

The kids did a few fun Thanksgiving activities, making candy turkeys and paper plate teepees.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

This year we headed down to Utah for Thanksgiving at my oldest brother Matts house. We had a wonderful day full of food, football, and more food. The kids love to play with cousins and pretty much disappear every time they are with them.

Behold the goodness...just the memory is making me drool all over the keyboard

HALLOWEEN!

We had a great Halloween this year, carving pumpkins, putting together costumes and of course trick or treating. This year we had two ninjas, a black cat and a chubby pumpkin. Though the kids came home with a pretty decent amount of candy, I cannot help thinking I used to get so much more as a kid. Does anyone else think that? Maybe it's because my Dad, (a die hard trick or treater) always had us walk for hours, "how bout one more neighborhood guys" Thanks Dad, good memories:) Still we ended up with three healthy mounds of goodness. Joe and I being responsible parents made sure to sort through the candy and make sure it was all safe... and edible. We even double checked after the kids were in bed. :)

HYRUMS BIRTHDAY!

Yup, our little Hylo isn't so little anymore. The day before Halloween Hyrum turned 7. I cannot believe it. We had a fun birthday with spider and pumpkin cupcakes, pizza and of course presents. Check out his Captain America costume... his body language is near perfect.

TOUGH MUDDER!

A few weeks ago, Joe and I took the kids down to Utah for a little family trip to watch Joe run the Tough Mudder race. For anyone who is wondering what the heck that is, its a half marathon with about 30 obstacles thrown in. Most of them include, mud and water. We had such a fun time cheering on Dad and running from obstacle to obstacle. He did amazing and had a blast doing it. In fact it looked like so much fun I think we are going to do it together next summer... we love company... any takers? - some of the obstacles; crawling through mud, jumping in freezing cold water, crawling under electric wires (yup, for real), monkey bars, tunnels, climbing hay stacks, climbing up and out of muddy pits, balance beam, running with a log over your head... to name a few

More of the photos...

More pictures...

Here are some pictures of what the kids were really doing doing the photoshoot;) * I am showing the kids my awesome karate kicking skills... not abusing them

New Family Pictures!!

It's about time right? Yes, we finally had some new family pictures taken a few weeks ago. Who are the talented photographers you might ask? My kid brother, sister and her roommate took my bribe of homemade treats and came with phones ready to snap away. I think they turned out pretty darn good. Thanks Scott, Erin and Lexy!!