It's about time to:Pay It Forward

Well a year and a half ago I commented on a friends blog to join this trail of fun. Well here I am finally getting to making good on my part in getting my gifts to those who commented on my blog. SO SORRY IT TOOK ME FOREVER!!! Rereading what the original post promise said I laughed/felt tremendous guilt. I've reposted it so Wendy, Vickie, and Deb can copy it to their blogs.

I'm participating in a Pay It Forward Exchange. Want to play? I will send a handmade gift to the first three people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this Pay It Forward Exchange. You will receive your gift within a month from leaving your comment-- Promise! When you receive your gift create a post on your blog and Pay It Forward. Apparently this has been going on for over a year. It sounded like fun so I am helping to keep it going!

Spooky Dinner '09

This year we invited the Spencers over for our traditional Spooky Dinner. We carved our cheese slices, drank our glowing green witch brew(thanks Wendy), and ate orange pumpkin sugar cookies. Then we carved our pumpkins. I thought for sure the boys would be more excited this year about cleaning out the pumpkins, but they're not interested yet. They were anxious to hack away with knives at the pumpkins. That was fine until Clint about sliced his hand open. Thank goodness he was using a pumpkin carving knife that has rounded teeth.

Trunk-or-Treat

The trunk-or-treat was a hit. The boys were so excited to get candy and then to PLAY GAMES INSIDE!!! They had a fish pond, baseball throw, cupcake walk, and hand stickers. The boys LOVED throwing the baseballs. They were just throwing it into a net but they were so excited about it. We ate dinner and then they wanted to throw one more time before we left.

Vampires!

Yikes, we've been invaded by vampires. Kade got vampire teeth at the carnival and I had another pair that we're giving out for Halloween so I gave them to Clint. The boys have loved them. They jokingly say they are going to eat with them but I know they're just joking about it in hopes that we'll tell them they can try it. They love to walk around the house saying, "I vant to suck your blood."

Thanks To the Wind

The wind conveniently blew all our leaves against our house in the back and in the front it blew them into the corner against the fence so we took advantage of the winds help and raked the leaves today. Of course we had to play in them before we bagged them, however, the boys had more fun bagging them. They would scoop them up with the snow shovel and dump them in. The whole time they had a great commentary about feeding, and loading the garbage truck(the trash bag). They also had fun just using their arms as dump trucks. I love when they find entertainment in simple things.

Umm?!.

It's not what it looks like. A long time ago a friend (Jenny Rowser) blogged about putting food coloring in the bathtub. Such a fun idea. I have to admit I was nervous things would get a little colored the first time we tried it. Every once in a while I'll let the boys choose a bubble bath or colored bath. Surprisingly they usually choose the color baths. It's educational too--Kade learned what you need to make purple, green, and orange. They love to choose which colors we'll use. This time the water looked so gross I had to snap a picture. Typically they choose lots of green and blue so it looks somewhat ocean-like, but this time it just looked gross. The boys didn't see the humor in it but just thought it was another fun colored bathtub.

Bunco Day!

I love Bunco day. It was even at my house this month and it was so great. I just love getting together with fun people and just talking and playing a mindless activity. I thought I'd take some pictures but it didn't happen. This time I didn't stress out about anything(ie. excessively clean house, tons of fabulous food, spectacular gifts). I just cleaned what needed to be done and as much as I could get done and I was really okay with not getting to it all. The food-- I was going to make some fun pasta dishes but decided to just go the super easy route and do 'Sunday dinner' (roast, potatoes, corn, etc.). For gifts I went shopping once and what I could find is what I got and it was done. I think this pregnancy made me much more lax about hosting this year. Hopefully the gals didn't think that I slacked off too much. In the end it was a great catch-up-with-the-girls night for me-- a night I need every month. Darryl and the boys had a great night too. They all went to Chuck E. Cheese. The boys have been wanting to take Darryl there ever since I took them. They would tell him he'd love the "bowling game" (skeetball). Clint was so funny. He would say, "Oh and the singer people too. They go like this." He would then barely move his head from side to side and slowly blink his eyes, just like the mechanical band members on the stage do.

UVU Carnival

Tonight we went to the UVU Halloween Family Night. It was pretty much exactly what it was like last year just with half the people(which was SO nice). I would have loved to have seen everyone there(don't get me wrong) it's just that last year it was so packed you could barely move. We probably wouldn't have gone again just for that reason but Kade hasn't quit talking about going to the "carnival at your work" since we went last year. The boys had a great time and it was super fun to have Dad with us this year. They liked the fish pond, ring toss, dry-ice bubbles, decorating cookies; and loved the cake walk (for popcorn and a toothbrush). Kade was so excited when they called the number he was standing on. You need to click on the picture of Kade at the fish pond to see the EXTREME smile he was sporting. We went to the thrift store to see if there were any great costumes this year and found this Blue's Clues costume. Kade had to have it and instantly said that is what he wanted to be for Halloween, and suggested Darryl and I be Mr. Pepper and Mrs. Salt and Clint could be Paprika. Clint announced he wanted to be Steve-- so it was my job to make a green striped shirt. I painted it because other attempts failed(long story) and with all the paint it is as stiff as metal armor. I kept cracking up just watching Clint move. It was hilarious. As far as other costumes at UVU there were a ton of little boys dressed as Superman this year and your typical variety of witches, fairies, etc.

Honey Time!

This year we harvested our honey later than usual because we just haven't had a day we could do it until today. Darryl split one of his 2 hives this spring so there wasn't as much honey to harvest this year. We spun about 16 frames and got about 7 gallons, plus he did his friends hive-- 4 frames for about 1 gal. This year went SO much better than last year. I can't believe what a difference it was. Last year it took us at least a week to get all of the equipment cleaned and put away-- this year we had everything cleaned and put away that day! With the exception of the wax crockpot. We did have a mess with that. We didn't let the wax drip for days and days like we did last year so there was a lot of honey in the wax and the hone boiled out of the crockpot splattering thick honey and wax all over the garage floor. Oops! Other than that it was super slick and great this year. We forgot to take pictures this year. The Roberts family came for awhile and then left Seth to help. Chris Hummer likes to help Darryl so he came to help with the work. He actually started his own hive this year and was hoping to harvest it with us but his bees all died-- maybe next year!

A van, and 2 pumpkins later

Well today we saddled up and headed out on a mission to purchase a new vehicle. We've been looking at getting something new(new to us that is) since we found out we were expecting since our Allero doors won't close with 3 car seats in the back. Well after looking at crossovers and mini-vans we settled on a mini-van. We had found a few we thought we'd go look at today in Salt Lake at dealerships but ended up just buying the first one we went to see. We figured it was the best package/deal so why bother dragging out the day. We like it a lot-- it's very different than a car but my goodness to mini-vans have a lot of bells and whistles. We got a white '08 Toyota Sienna. The boys first comment was, "Look at these cool places to put our sippy-cups! This van rocks!" They love the button for the automatic sliding side door as well. After that we were on a mission to find a pumpkin patch. I've always wanted to go to one. Darryl and I have never experienced the pumpkin patch scene since our parents would grow their own in their gardens. Since we've been married we've just bought them at the local store and called that good. Well our pumpkin patch experience was pretty much the equivalent of going to the store-- except for the fact that we paid twice as much as we would have if we bought them in the store. We went the "Historic Wheeler Farms." It sounds fabulous but it was a let down. The pumpkins were just piled behind a guy and we dug through 20 pumpkins looking for 2 unique pumpkins. There was a small spot where they had little pumpkins spread out and you could walk through and search those pumpkins but they were tiny. The boys couldn't have cared less. There was a small maze made from bales of hay that they were running through. Technically we should have payed extra for them to be in the maze but the pumpkins were at the entrance of the maze so they ran in while we were getting the pumpkins and we kept trying to coax them over to help us look for pumpkins but they were not interested-- 2 min. later we had pumpkins and Darryl headed to the car with them. We took the boys to see some of the animals they have there but it wasn't all that exciting. I was expecting this fun magical experience and it was that at all. :( Maybe next year we'll find a neat pumpkin patch with the displays, wagons, and a field filled with pumpkins.

2nd Generation Zip Line

Today Kade had a great idea, "We can play sunitjump-it-trum." [I can't really remember what he called it but it was obviously just random syllables.] I said, "Hm, I've never played that before. How do we play?" "We need a straw, string, blanket . . ." He was rambling on and to be honest I was doing something else at the time so I really wasn't paying much attention to him. He ran and got a straw from the drawer and brought it to me, so I put away my project and started playing sunitjump-it-trum. I remembered we needed string so I went and got a small ball of yarn. Kade started describing what we were going to do. The blue print was basically a zip line down our stairwell. He said, "We need to put this straw on here (the string) and then tie it here (top of the stairs) then I'll slide down the string." Hold on little buckaroo! I told him we'd need a better rope for him to slide down so we'd just have to use one of his toys. He decided it would be okay for Lightning McQueen to slide down the string. It worked rather well and kept the boys entertained for days. I say it's a 2nd generation zip line because when Darryl was younger he and his cousins built a zip line for them to ride on too. The ride didn't go too well.

Baby Shower--only way!

We had a baby shower for my niece today in Aurora. It was the best baby shower I've ever been to. My sister-in-law and my mom had this great idea to have it Open House style and have all kinds of scrapbook stuff to make pages for the mom-to-be. Bobbie, my sis-in-law, made a few holiday packets that they could take and put together a Halloween page, Easter page, 4th of July page, etc. or they could just choose from all the other paper and supplies and do their own theme. In the end my niece, Jordan, walked away with a scrapbook that will take her new little guy through his first year and all the pages are SUPER cute. It was great because every person(scraper or not) put so much effort into their page. When I scrapbook the first page I do is super fun and then they all become the quick plain page. Every page is so different and fun. I definitely think it's the way to go with a shower. Plus there were no games or awkward talking to a room full of people you don't know moments. Everyone just did their thing and Jordan was able to just sit and talk to everyone and really spend time with them. Great time. I'm mad I didn't take any pictures it would have been fun to get one of me and my niece showing a baby bellies. Maybe we'll see her before she has little Carver.

Enterprise Mentors Gala

Tonight was the annual Enterprise Mentors Gala. It was so fun to be there with all of Darryl's siblings(except for Ann and Greg, wish you guys could have come). It was quite the family reunion. The entertainment was the 5 Browns. I don't know what is more amazing their talent or the fact that one mother has 5 kids that LOVE to play the piano. She didn't have to fight with them to practice and play. I really want to know how she did that so I can use her techniques on my guys.

Chuck E. Cheese

Well tonight was one of those spontaneous nights. We started our trip at Rod Works in Springville-- bad idea. If you've ever been in the store you know what I mean when I say the store is crowded without anyone in it. Well tonight was girls night due to Priesthood session of General Conference and holy cow. There was NO room to move. Those waiting to pay were taking up every ounce of 'isle' room and so it was impossible to even think about shopping. I finally found a worker and asked her where their fall stuff was and she showed me a few things that didn't excite me so I quickly took the boys and bolted out the door. I should have taken advantage of the 50% off offer and got something super cute for our house but with two boys, breakable stuff all around, and being crammed with people for at least another hour-- no thank you. The line wasn't even moving because everyone was buying big items that were displayed up on their walls so when they would get up to pay the workers would have to go pull the item from the back and fight the crowd to get back to the counter to ring it up. Yikes. Next, we headed to Ladies Night Out at Roberts Crafts so I could get some great deals on Bunco gifts. We found things that will do. I was hoping to get all fall decorations but there wasn't much to choose from. Afterwards I couldn't resist doing something super fun with the boys and I took them to the store next door-- Chuck E. Cheese. My naive little guys had no idea what Chuck E. Cheese was, and I use to find myself relieved when a Chuck E. Cheese commercial would come and my boys, not knowing what they were missing, wouldn't care about the commercial. Well I think those days are over. I'm sure they will be begging to go again often and when they see a commercial they will surely say, "I wish we could go there."(One of Kade's most common phrases.) The boys had a blast. We played until our tokens ran out. The whole time I kept asking them if they were hungry and wanted something to eat-- nope, no time for that when you've got games, rides, and a jungle gym! So when the tokens were gone I loaded in the car and they both became desperately hungry and I knew it would be a LONG ride to Heber so we marched back into Chuck E's for round two. We ordered a personal pepperoni pizza and breadsticks and when the order came they brought us a huge pizza half Canadian Bacon, and half Pepperoni. Yikes-- a little wrong. Well they felt so bad they gave us a cup of tokens to go use while we waited for our correct order. So the boys played every game again-- except for skeetball, they played that again, and again, and again, and again . . . Darryl and I would do the same, they must be our kids. Clint couldn't roll the ball hard enough so 95% of the time the ball would come back and he'd get another shot at it. He thought it was all great though. After every roll he would jump spreading his legs out and put his arm in the air and say, "Yesss!" Kade reminded me of kids on drugs. He was so distracted and just bouncing with excitement from place to place so mindlessly. It was like his little brain didn't work at all-- he was so overwhelmed with amazement. They both loved to watch the characters show. Kade kept asking if there were real people in the costumes. I told him no, but I don't think he believed me because he kept asking questions like, "When are they going to take off those costumes?" and "Why don't they move their legs to dance?" What a fun night. It would have been better if Darryl would have been with us; He was at a show in Canada. The whole ride home the boys talked about how they would have Dad play the squirt game, and bowling(skeetball). Kade gave a play-by-play of how it would all go. Then he said, "But he can't ride the robot. That would be too scary. It's not scary for me, but Dad and you [Mom] and Clint would be too scared." It's just a little ride that you set in and it turns back and forth like a robot. I don't think he knew it was going to move so it scared him a little. He watched The Incredibles recently so daily he says "That's totally wicked!" and according to Kade everything at Chuck E-Cheese is "Totally wicked!!!!"