On Hallows Eve….

What a fun Halloween! Our icy, frigid weather let up for a night and was just the perfect amount of warmth to let the kids stay out longer, and chill to keep the sweat off their brows during the workout that they experienced. We got to have Riley for this Halloween!!! Yay! We don’t usually get to have him when a holiday arises so this one was extra special.

We carved fabulous pumpkins, about which Riley said, “wow, we are REALLY good at this” lol. We all gutted, Jared drew the faces onto the pumpkins, and I carved them. It was a real team effort lol. We made a Halloween treat, Almond Roca Bars, that Riley said was “quite possibly the best thing I have ever tasted!” lol. We watched “The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown” and then wondered why we watched “The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.” lol It is a classic cartoon that teaches kids way too many fun “names” to call each other, like “stupid”, “idiot”, and “blockhead.” Which we get to hear constantly all throughout the film. Plus they just yell at each other the whole time, mercilessly tease each other, and are really mean. I don’t think that will be one that we watch with our kids every year lol.

We allowed the kids to steal the spotlight and look fabulous! Riley dressed up as Shaggy and I was completely SHOCKED at how many people knew who he was lol. Sammy was a gorilla and made me laugh every time I looked at his tiny hiney. We snagged a family picture and in it, you can see Sammy going crazy over the blinking, red, self-timer light on my camera lol.

Sammy didn’t exactly go “trick-or-treating” per say, but he did get dressed up and we joined his cousin Max for a walk to grandma’s which resulted in a dum dum sucker. I think Sammy thought he had died and gone to heaven lol. He had it in his hand (wrapper still on) and I turned around, took a couple of steps so that I could get a picture, and he had already put it in his mouth and sucked completely THROUGH the wrapper lol. After he tasted “sucker” it was all over lol. He refused to look at me for any pictures or pay attention to absolutely anyone around him. When he sucked the sucker right off the stick, he cried and cried that I wouldn’t let him keep sucking on the paper. It was so cute. So after a quick 45 minute neighborhood jaunt, Sammy and I came home, I peeled off his now-soaked-with-drool-from-his-sucker costume, and I snuggled him to sleep while dad took the first shift and set out with Riley on the longest Halloween night of our life. They took our neighborhood by storm and came back after a respectable 2 hour mission, only so that us “parents” could swap places and then go back out for another 2 hours lol. Riley came back with more candy than I have EVER seen a child get in one night. His bag must have weighed 25 pounds! You couldn’t wipe the grin off his face for a million bucks. He was beyond proud. But instead of racing home to “dig in”, he raced home to “count” his candy lol. Such a great kid we have! He carefully counted for what seemed like hours and then proudly proclaimed that he had a total of 275! Halloween sure is fun when you have kids.

Scarecrow Festival

Last week we checked out the Scarecrow Festival at Cornbelly’s (Thanksgiving Point) and it was so much fun! Definately recommend worthy. All sorts of activities for kids and ample carnival food for the dads.

They had what was called “the giant pillow” that all the kids could jump on. Riley and dad took their turn and then Sammy wanted to join them so dad took him up there as well. He smiled cautiously the whole time but then when dad brought him back to me, he immediately threw up all over himself and me lol. Poor little guy.

We got to watch piglet races, baby goat races, fall down slides with our legs crossed lol (we all laughed really hard that Riley was crossing his legs the whole way down), find our way through the corn maze, eat the biggest hot dogs I have ever seen in my life (I opted out of that one ), and take a hayride out to find the perfect halloween pumpkins that we could take home with us. All in all, a great day! I just LOVE fall!!!!

"And it came to pass that the Lord commanded my father, even in a dream, that he should take his family and depart into the wilderness."

Ok, so we didn’t exactly go into the wilderness. It was more like a tent in our living room but for FHE this week we donned our biblical wardrobes (thanks to pillowcases and mom’s headbands), and settled in with figs, goat’s milk, and olives as the scriptures came alive. lol For those of you who know Jared well, you know that he doesn’t sit indian style lol. He was such a trooper but I couldn’t stop laughing as he “tried” to keep his legs crossed without falling over or crying out in pain. Moral of the story: Goat’s milk is gross!

Our Big 4th Grader!

Our little guy is not so little anymore. In July he will be 10 years old! TEN YEARS! Jared and I always have an easy marker to know how long we have been together because Riley was 1 year old when we started dating. It makes life a little simpler when you have a child to measure your anniversary by. Wow has time flown. His 4th grade school pictures sent me tumbling down memory lane as I remembered the first time I met our little Riley. He was sitting on the grass outside of Macaroni Grill with his daddy. I didn’t know either of them. We were being set up on a blind date (courtesy of Courtney). Jared had told her that it was his weekend to have his little boy and she told him that it would be totally ok to bring him and that I wouldn’t mind at all! Only… she forgot to tell me. lol So my first date with Jared was also my first surprise date with Riley.

Those of you close by will remember Riley’s famous crab scoot: a bizarre method of transportation that he opted for over crawling. lol When he was first learning to talk, he loved the word “light.” Only he would always get so excited when he said it and it would sound more like an out-of-breath… “LIE!…. LIE!….. LIE!” When our little guy would find a long stray hair on the carpet he would pick it up between his chubby little fingers and say, “Tory hair”. Very matter-of-fact like but always looking for positive confirmation. He never ceased to impress us. When he was about 3 years old, we were driving in the car and Riley hadn’t said a word the whole time. Then a fed Ex truck passed us and out of the blue, Riley’s little 3 year old hand shot up out of his car seat and he said “Fed Ex!” lol Jared and I burst out laughing. He could shoot a basketball (and make it!) before he could walk. He either didn’t like, or couldn’t chew, meat… so he would just store it in his cheeks until we noticed it (sometimes hours later lol). Eventually we caught on and stopped giving it to him. He loved seeing horses, jumping on the bed, wrestling with dad, trying to chew on ice (to imitate me), and pointing out trucks.

When I am telling someone a story that I was startled in… I have always relayed it like so: “That scared the crap out of me!!” Like most sayings, they are just passed along and adopted as a way to express a thought, feeling, or occurance. I had never ever paused, even for a moment, to think about and understand the literal translation of this saying. That is, until our 4 year old brought it to our attention after shouting, “That scared my crap out!” lol. I have never laughed so hard. Jared’s steady glare at me only spurred it on. I laughed so hard, I cried. There were tears. Lots of tears.  

Riley is such a wonderful boy. We love him so much. He doesn’t have a mean or dishonest bone in his body. He tries to always do what is right and has such a good head on his shoulders. He has always had a strong natural talent for sports. It is amazing! ANY kind of sport. Going to his coach pitch games a couple years ago was the start of the official team sports. And last year he was finally old enough for Little League! Jared and I got to go to his games as cheerleaders, and his other dad was the coach. He got the best of both worlds! We love supporting him in anything that he loves to do. Dad and Riley get in LOTS of practice in the backyard during the summers and they are VERY patient with mom as they try to teach me how to throw a football, how to throw a baseball, how to kick a soccer ball, and how to bat lol. I have to say proudly that I have finally learned how to throw a football and kick a soccer ball, but for some unknown reason, throwing a baseball in a straight line is physically impossible for me to do lol.  

Riley loves hanging out with friends but it has always warmed our hearts that more than anything he loves it when we do things together as a family. No matter what he is doing, he would always rather do it with Jared or I. We are so proud of him. He absolutely adores his new little brother and sets the perfect example. Our family just wouldn’t be the same without him. xo

Brotherly Love

* Click on each thumbnail to enlarge photo

Merry Christmas!!!

Our little Sammy just didn’t want to cooperate for a family photo. We took a couple with him wailing in them and then took a couple without him. So just imagine a happy Sammy curled up on dad’s lap and there you go! Presto: Family Christmas Photo 2008! lol We wish all of you a very Merry Christmas this year, full of heart warming memories and wonderful opportunities to serve and love those around you. xo