E's newest nightmare

On Thanksgiving we introduced the kids to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. They LOVED it. It really made it fun to watch and brought back a lot of childhood memories. This cracked me up though, as we were watching it Mr. Peanut went by on a float...

E: Who's that waving?
Me: Oh that's Mr. Peanut
E: Mr. Peanut? Aghhh!! (Covering his eyes, crying, and cowering on the couch)

I guess we all have our own greatest fears. Poor kid!

Yesterday...

Yesterday while carrying around a toy lightsaber and being a jedi...

E: Try and punch me in the face!
Me: (laughing) tempting, but I don't think this is a good idea.
G: I'll do it!!
Me: No, because then E will get mad and hit you back.
E: Yeah I will get mad and punch you back.

5 minutes later they were playing jedi and E smacked G in the head with a lighsaber and fighting ensued. No surprises here. 

G's Birthday and a party!

This year for the first time ever we decided to throw the boys a party with friends. It was fun and the kids loved it, but I sure learned a lot. It was a lot of work and too long! Next time we are keeping it to an hour or an hour and a half tops! 

We did the doughnut game and broke a pinata--no pictures because it got broken so quickly.

We ate pizza and made rockets.

The neighbor boys did a weird little song and dance that made everyone laugh.

We shot off our rockets in the cul-de-sac.

 Finally the kids just ended everything by playing in the grass and rolling things down the hill.

After the party, I passed out on the bed and Hubs went and raked leaves and let our kids play in them.

They had a blast. Sadly, you couldn't even tell he had raked by the next couple of days. Poor guy--I felt bad since I was the one who kept asking him to do it. Lesson learned! He was a good sport, though, and said that it was nice that the kids had such a good time.

On G's actual birthday, we opened presents in the morning.

I made him a snake cake.

He had a basketball game, then we all went to Cornbelly's which is a big play area and corn maze that Thanksgiving Point sets up every year. This year is the first time we've gone because it's a little expensive and totally overwhelming. It was actually really fun and we ended up going twice--once with my sister in law and her little boy and once as a family. 

Here is a horrible picture of me, but I'm pretty sure it's the only one that was taken. :-)

Bounce houses

Giant jumping pillows

Trike racing areas

The kids got to go on a ride in these little cow carts

a giant slide that the kids went down over and over again...

The corn box, a big house filled with corn. I like the idea of this better than a sandbox. They came home with some corn kernels, but a lot less dirty.

We actually did another kiddie maze in the taller corn too, but it had trick or treating that day so all you did was follow the line of people ahead of you. Hubs was very disappointed. He was so glad when he had to figure this one out by himself.

Basketball hoops, football throwing areas and baseball. This particular station ended when hubs hit G in the face 3 different times with a ball. G wasn't a happy camper.

We ended with a hay ride and our kids begging to be done. You know you've have fun when the kids are so tired and hungry they are willing to leave a place with bouncy houses.

We stopped for Panda Express--the kid's unanimous vote.

Speaking of which, our kids are all starting to eat more. We almost polished off a whole family sized panda feast. Sad day when we go out to eat and don't have any leftovers anymore. It scares me for the teenage years. :-)

We finished up the day with a visit from our Grandma H and cake and candles.

I can't believe that we have a seven year old in our family. Though it makes me feel old to say that I've been a mom for seven years, I am so grateful that G is the child that made me a mom. He is kind, sensitive, fun, and so intelligent. I went to his parent teacher conferences the other day and all his teacher could do was rave about what an incredible kid he is--G was so embarrassed he didn't know where to look. I feel very lucky to be his mom and know that most (ok all) of the amazing stuff he does is just because of who he is. We love you G!

E's Birthday

We did our first ever friend's party this year, so on the boy's actual birthdays we took things kind of lower key. E requested a robot cake. I wasn't super into it at first, but it ended up turning out pretty cute. 

 E's 4 year picture with the bear. He refused to open his eyes. Whatever.

 Opening presents, cowboy gear from Grandma H

 Angry birds from Grandma and Grandpa B

 Thomas from us. We also got him a bike this summer but told him it was an early birthday present. For some reason he didn't see it that way by the time October came around. :-) 

 He insisted that we had to wear party hats before we could sing and blow out candles. I thought it was pretty great--though I'm not sure how that became a tradition somehow it has. 

 I think this is actually from dinner the next night. He is getting so old but at the same time is such a little boy still. 

E is such a fun and important part of our family. He is strong willed and stubborn, and sometimes I just don't know what to do with him. He is also funny and fun and energetic. He is sweet and sometimes can surprise you with his intuitiveness and generosity. I have learned to not underestimate him. He will grow into an amazing man someday (if we can keep him from breaking all of his body parts before he gets there). We sure love E and can't imagine our family without him. 

This morning...

E and G bust into our room this morning.

E: Wake up, It's Halloween day!! Time to wake up. Look the sun is almost up!!


Ahhhh, the life of a parent with young kids. You at least have to appreciate their enthusiasm.

We've got grass!!

The title of this post says it all. We have grass!! Yeah!! Here are some pictures for anyone interested. 

Trenched and installing sprinklers

Curbing 

 Laying the sod. I was so scared no one would show up to help us. It was conference weekend, we are new in the ward, and we couldn't get any solid answers from people willing to help. We had probably 20ish pallets of sod to lay for the front and back and I was so worried that it would be hubs out there doing it all himself, but we had so many people show up to help us they had the back done in three hours. It was amazing and I felt so grateful for so many people being willing to come help people they don't know very well on a cold Saturday morning.

Backyard all done--complete with leaves falling all over it!!

 Side of the house and trampoline hole (we haven't put the springs and mat back in). 

 Front yard

 Front yard