Halloween 2012

 We had such a wonderful Halloween this past year (yes I am still trying to catch up...).  The boys had a great time at school with their parties.  The parade is always fun as well.  Their principal always picks something great to dress up as.

 Hunter was the cutest police officer.

 Lincoln was Harry Potter.  He was Harry Potter last year, but this year he was the quiditch playing Harry Potter :)

 Palmer was a character from Star Wars first, but his teacher asked them all to be a character out of one of the books they had read for a book report.  Palmer chose to be Babe Ruth.

 I got to help with Lincoln's class party.  We made gak and read Halloween stories.  It was so much fun!

 I made these little treats for the boys to give their friends in their classes.

 I gave each of the boys a fun orange Halloween lunch.  It was a little heavy on the sweets...

Because I was in Lincoln's class for the parties, I couldn't help in Hunter's class, but I helped by making these wands for the kids to decorate at one of the stations.  The tutorial is here.

 The night of Halloween we headed to the Palmer side of the family for trick or treating and a party with the cousins.  It is always so much fun!

 My brothers Mark and Nate are always hilarious in what they dress up as.  This year was no exception.

 McKay was so excited to be Mickey Mouse, but when the time came for him to actually put on the costume, he wasn't too sure what he thought about it.

 Fun cousins!

My niece loves Minnie Mouse and McKay loves Mickey, so my sister and I coordinated their costumes.

 Josh and I were Where's Waldo (obviously).  I am always trying to find things that aren't too much work to put together, this one was perfect and Josh was such a good sport.

 My mom always plans fun things for the kids to do.  This was pumpkin bowling.  I don't know why I didn't take a picture of the other end of the bowling lane.  The pins were soda bottles.  The kids had a ball.

 The traditional group picture.  We were missing a couple family members and sure missed them!!

 The crazy shot.  We all LOVE Halloween.

 One more of these crazies!

 I have always wanted to do bobbing for apples and my mom planned it into our party this year.  I was so excited!

 It was hilarious to watch and the boys did a great job!

Halloween is always so much fun and we had a great year!

Arizona Days 3 and 4

Day 3 in Arizona was Sunday.  We woke up and went to church with my cousins and their families and said goodbye to everyone and then headed back to Phoenix for the rest of our family trip.  We couldn't go without stopping by the Snowflake Temple before we left.  This temple really is a miracle.  These towns are so small that I am sure they never dreamed they would have a temple so close.  It really is so beautiful.

Josh wanted to get a picture of us all in front of it and we couldn't keep McKay in the picture.  I love this one :)

Once getting to Phoenix we went to the Claim Jumper restaurant for dinner.  This is beginning to be a tradition for us every time we go to Phoenix.  It is really good and the kids loved all of the animal heads everywhere...

This is usually what goes on when we stay at hotels...

Monday we headed to the Arizona Science Center.  It was so neat, the boys were in heaven.

There was these water displays that the kids could play with and learn at the same time.  The favorite was throwing balls into this whirlpool.

The light in this little outside room was pretty awesome.  I loved how all of the pictures turned out.

There were so many exhibits.  We really could have stayed here hours longer.

This is a heart slide...(as in the heart in your chest.  Very educational :)

After the Science Center we headed to watch the movie "Brave."  I wasn't sure how the boys were going to react, but they all loved it.

Then it was on to the Arizona Diamondback game!  Josh and I strategically picked the teams we follow.  We picked the D-backs because Josh goes there a lot on business so we knew we would have lots of chances to see them play.  This was the boys' first game and they were so excited.  Josh has been bringing them home D-back gear from trips for a long time and they were all decked out in their clothes.

Of course we had the traditional Cracker Jack and hot dogs at the game.

The boys really did well watching the game.  Our seats were so close and I think that helped them a lot.  At then end McKay started to be done and I tried to get him back into the game.  I told him to say "go D-backs"  Instead he yelled "go puppies"  everyone around us thought that was pretty great so he continued to yell crazy things for the rest of the game.  It was pretty great.  

We has so much fun on this little adventure and are planning to do it again soon!

Arizona Day 2

 In the midst of me posting about our Arizona trip, my computer died with my pictures on it.  Thanks to my talented BIL I now have my pictures back, so I thought I would continue with our trip.  The second day of our trip was spent in Taylor Arizona.  In the previous post I might have mentioned my Dad is from Taylor and we went to visit the town he grew up in for a family reunion.

It was so much fun to take my kids to the same places that I used to play at when I was growing up.  We got up early and headed to the Taylor 4th of July parade.  It is actually everyone in town getting in a truck, car, wagon, etc and driving around the town with a band and an anvil that is continually being shot together with gun powder.  It was pretty fun.  We had breakfast and then the kids spent the day chasing lizards, fishing in the pond, riding horses (none of which I got pictures of!!) and riding 4-wheelers.

 It was honestly boy heaven.  The boys played so hard and got SO dirty!  They had a ball.

 Later that night we went to the rodeo.  This was the one that started our family going every year to a rodeo. This one was so great, it had some great riders in it (that isn't always the case :)

 My cousin was in this awesome group of gals displaying the flag.

Seriously there is nothing better than the Fourth of July in a small town.  They definitely know how to do it right!

 I loved the patriotism that was displayed everywhere we went.

 Honestly, our family LOVES rodeos.  They are so much fun!

The day was finished off by an awesome fireworks display.  Such a memorable day!