The Christmas Spirit

This month has been crazy, and I'm way behind on my blogs.

So hopefully I'll have a little time over the next few weeks

to catch up.

But until then,

I hope you all have a very

Merry Christmas!!

Check out this sweet little video on the true meaning of Christmas:

The Christmas Spirit

It's a...

So it's official!

It's a................

And I was so sure it was a girl! :)

(According to the poll most of you thought it was a girl too--

10 voted it was a girl, and 2 voted it was a boy.)

The ultrasound showed that everything looks great.

He's measuring about a week ahead of my due date,

but they said that if it's within 10 days that they don't change the due date.

I guess we can start buying boy stuff!!!

Ultrasound tomorrow!!!

So what do YOU think we're having?

I added a poll over on the right,

feel free to vote...

or just leave a comment!

One reason we love Fall...

Check out our huge pile of leaves in the front yard!

Raking the leaves is work, but jumping in the leaves is pure fun!

Happy (late) Halloween!

So I totally slacked off on taking pictures this Halloween.
These are the only ones I got all day!


And this isn't what Ethan wore to school.

In true Ethan fashion he couldn't wear the same costume to school

and for trick-or-treating.

He went to school as a Ninja, though different than Julia.

The pictures I usually take at the school's costume parade

never turn out very well,

so I didn't take any.

Too bad since that was the only time he wore his original costume!

I didn't love either of their costumes,

but at least they were easy!

Ethan as a Death Eater, and Julia as a Ninja

Hope you all had a great Halloween!

Derek's costume

Derek has a twin in our neighborhood!

Well, at least some people think so.

Introducing Derek and Ty!

Every single Sunday someone gets Derek and Ty confused at church.

So for our ward Trunk or Treat Derek and Ty went as each other.

What do you think? Do they look alike?

Go answer the poll over on the right ------->

(Poll is now closed.)

Poll results:

1 vote: Yes they look exactly the same
8 votes: Yes, they look similar enough that I might get them mixed up
10 votes: They look alike but I wouldn't get them mixed up
1 vote: They look nothing alike, I don't know what everyone is thinking

Happy Birthday Ethan!

OK, so I'm a couple weeks behind on my posts, but I had to post about Ethan's birthday!

For Ethan's party we decided to take the kids to the movies to see G-Force.

Between our 2 cars we can fit up to 8 extra kids.

We sent out 10 invitations figuring that at least 2 kids probably wouldn't come.

Wrong!

Every single guest came, and 2 brought siblings!

We were SO glad that the weather was nice enough to have lunch outside!

The party started with pizza in the backyard.

And wow, those boys can eat!

Ethan received lots of fun gifts.

And we ended with brownies (Ethan's choice instead of cake) and ice cream.

We then loaded all of the kids into the cars.

Luckily my friend Alisha was able to drive too-- we just barely fit everyone.

Our group had 17 people!

We took up 3 rows of seats at the movies!

But everyone stayed put during the entire movie,

and they were all entertained.

It was an ideal movie for this age range.

It was very fortunate that we had counted everyone before the movie,

otherwise we would have left one boy in the bathroom when we were ready to leave.

Everyone ended up having a great time,

and it was a fairly easy birthday party.

The next day we had Ethan's family birthday party

at Grandma's house.

This time he had an actual cake,

and his choice of dinner-- lasagna.

He was very excited to get the new Far World book.

And he was also excited to receive money for his birthday!
He'd been saving his money, and he finally had enough to buy a PSP.

All in all I think he had a wonderful birthday.

Happy Birthday Ethan,

we love you!

Stacation, part 2

Among all of our other activities during Fall Break we were also able to go see

Where the Wild Things Are.

The kids really liked it.

Derek did too.

I liked it but I didn't love it.

But it was still worth it.

And it didn't really feel like we were on vacation... until we spent the night at a hotel in Bountiful.

The kids had tons of fun swimming!

Our last day of Fall Break was spent at a place where we've never taken our kids:

LAGOON!

They've been to Disneyworld tons of times, but never to Lagoon. We thought it was about time!

We were there for Frightmares, and the Halloween atmosphere was a lot of fun.

Julia on the carousel



A family shot near the entrace to the Spider!
(No, I didn't go on this ride.)



Derek and Julia on the Sky Tram

Julia had lots of fun running through the fountains,

and happily she didn't complain about being wet!

Julia loved driving!

And they both liked the Puff the Magic Dragon roller coaster.

We all got to ride on the train together-- one of the few rides I could go on.

(Ethan being a smart aleck)

We, of course, had to visit an occasional Spook Alley.

Some were especially scary for kids!

The kids had so much fun together!

But by the end of the day they were done with big rides.

Derek rode on the Colossus by himself.

We ended the day with these fun souvenirs.

They changed colors, made great sounds, and weren't a bad deal at $5.

I think we'll probably have to take them to Lagoon again next year,

they're already asking!

Staycation, part 1

The kids had fall break last week, so we decided to have a staycation!
It ended up being a little shorter than we had planned since
Julia was still recovering.

We started at Gardener Village.

Julia enjoyed a pony ride (Ethan wasn't interested), and the kids played hide and seek in the hay maze.

The Halloween witches and decorations are so fun!

We stopped by Naborhood Bakery (owned by my Uncle)

and of course ended up at the candy shop!

Derek checking out the BYU blue hot chocolate

We finished up our browsing at Gardener Village

and ended up at Pei Wei for dinner.

YUM!

We then headed to downtown Salt Lake to visit Temple Square.

We went to both Visitor's Centers,

we haven't been there in years!

And we were able to listen to the

Tabernacle Choir's rehearsal.

We had so much fun doing things that

we normally don't have time to do!