Plane, Decorating, and Fishing

Well we've been back about a week now from our trip out to Utah. It was so fun to be there in the Fall...it has been a long time since we've seen the mountains with fall colors on them!

The plane rides went ok. The boys had both woken up the day before we left with runny noses, so I was worried we'd have super cranky kids, but it was ok. We pulled out the DVD player for the boys and thought we'd be free to watch something on the iPod, but Tommy got bored real quick.

Grandma and Grandpa met us at the airport and once we got our things together, we headed home. Tommy couldn't keep his mouth shut. He kept yelling, "Grah-ma! I ride horsies!"(we're not sure why he was talking about horses) and "Biiiiggg Rocks!"(while seeing the mountains)
Grandma saved some of the decorating for the boys to help. She had lots of fun window clings that the boys loved.


Ainsley and her baby showed up later in the evening. It was good to finally meet that sweet baby girl! Tommy and Baby Cailin had a special little love. She would light up when he was around and most of the time he loved giving her toys and hugging her. There were a number of times where he would say, "no baby!" or throw toys at her though.

Sunday dinner was so good. We had two different kinds of salsa, ribs, twice baked potatoes, cookies, and lots of other yummy things. Grandma and JaVan came and Megan. Damon stuck to Quinn and Megan like glue...especially since they had the iPod.


Grandpa took Damon to buy new fish to fill up the fish tank. Damon talked him into getting a little Fiddler's crab too. That sucker tried to escape a couple times! He would climb up the plants in the tank and hang out at the top and one time we found him in the filter read to leap! I think he watched Nemo too much:)

One day we went up the canyon so Damon could learn to fish and for lunch. It was so beautiful! After awhile, the guys got smart and took the hook off so Damon could practice casting. He was pretty good. Tommy just loved throwing rocks in the water and feeding 2 ducks pretzels.

BYU Game

Our last full day on vacation, we were able to go to a BYU game. It started raining on our way down. We hung out under shelter eating hot dogs,then finally ventured out 20 minutes before the game started. The boys used garbage bags for ponchos and I was lucky enough to have a real bright yellow poncho. Barrett was in heaven even though the weather was wet and cold. It finally stopped raining a few minutes into the game. Ainsley, Paul, and Cailin met up with us and we received news that JaVan had 2 extra tickets to the loge. Cailin, Ainsley, and I headed up there to get warm and watch the game. It was so fun and we felt pretty special. At half time we went to see the boys and ended up staying for the third quarter. It was so fun to be at a BYU game and see the gorgeous mountains, temple, fall foliage, stadium, and fans. Barrett can't wait to take our little boys some day! Thanks JaVan for the awesome tickets!!

Halloween Projects and more

Here's what we did the second week of October...

Puffy Ghosts (idea from No Time For Flashcards)

Damon's Puffy Ghost and the handprint ghosts we made at the library

We have been doing lots of drawings lately. This is how Tommy holds his writing utensil...I try to correct him, but he always goes back to this. I've also discovered lots of drawing on things other than paper...Tommy has drawn on the floor, tables, and wall.

Damon's witch made out of shapes. I think it is adorable!

Halloween Treat cups. We painted the pumpkin and Frankenstein cups and Damon loved making the faces.

Pirates! We were at the Dollar Store and saw pirate garb...Damon spent all afternoon playing pirates.

We had to dress Tommy up too:)


We also:
-canned 5 or 6 jars of applesauce
-made these yummy things
-made chocolate chip pumpkin bread
-danced to our Halloween CD
-went to playgroup at the park
-played outside
-got ready for vacation!

Pirates and more

Friday afternoon Damon was drawing pictures of pirates, pirate ships, and gold. I told him his cousin had a pirate party a couple years ago, so we went to look at the pictures on our family website. Damon loved it! He told me he needed a hat, so I made the boys hats out of newspapers. Then, he said he needed a patch, so I found some black felt and yarn for his eye patch. He had already confiscated a paper towel roll for his telescope and found a sword. He told me he needed a hook, but all I could come up with was a pipe cleaner shaped in a hook. We found him a box with coins in it for his treasure...he now wants a real treasure box with gold coins and a crown and bags of gold. He drew himself 2 different treasure maps and told me he needed a boat. My idea of using the couch wasn't good enough...he said he needed a real boat. It was fun to see him get creative...sometimes he needs a lot of prodding to be creative.
The boys are saying, "ARGGHHH" in this picture:)



I was pretty lazy Friday afternoon and never ventured outside...not even to get the mail. My mom had sent a little Halloween package for the boys. Barrett brought it in when he got home. The boys got cute little jack-o-lantern balloons and loved playing with them!! I wish I had gotten the mail a lot earlier!

Damon loved the mummy sucker from Grandma!

This is how the boys read books with Daddy before bedtime. For some reason, Tommy always has to lay on Daddy to look at the pictures. It is pretty cute:)


Today we went to the Apple Scrapple Festival. We rode a school bus from the parking lot to the festival. Damon was super excited to be riding on a real school bus without seatbelts!

Damon saw this huge display of candy for sell and asked me to take his picture with it. I thought it was so funny! He kept asking to look at the picture too. When we put the boys to bed, we talk about our favorite thing of the day. Damon told me his was getting a picture with all the candy:) He is obsessed with candy and treats. I wonder who he gets it from?

Still here

So, we're still here...in case anyone missed my awesome blogs (Quinn). A week or two ago I tried posting some pretty great video clips of Damon singing...it was hilarious! I couldn't get the videos to load and so I gave up on blogging...plus Seminary and 2 little boys basically consume our lives. I hadn't even downloaded pictures from my camera in over a week! And, I only had like 15...almost half were of Tommy taken by Damon:) So, here's some random things we've been doing.

Tommy was just chillin' one day in the purple Dora chair on the couch. Damon took the picture.

Before we took our September calendar down, we took a picture. It was Damon's idea to color the apples in different colors to make a pattern. We are still doing "school" while Tommy's napping...one day we tried including him and it was a disaster...he's getting such an attitude and personality!

This last weekend was amazing and couldn't have come at a better time. First off, it was General Conference weekend which is always an uplifting time. Second, our really great friends drove an hour to spend time with us on Saturday. It was so good visiting with them, seeing their sweet girls, having Damon play with friends, picnicking in front of the tv, watching conference, and being introduced to some pretty inexpensive yummy pizza. It was just what we needed!

In between sessions on Saturday, the kids frosted cookies. I gave each child too many candies in their own bowl to decorate cookies (plural). I knew better, what was I thinking? They put all their candies on one cookie and were done. Damon couldn't wait to dive into his cookie...notice the chocolate on his teeth!

Sunday was a pretty great day. The weather finally cooled down...way down! It was a perfect day to snuggle up and watch General Conference. The boys did really well and Barrett and I felt like we were able to listen to more than we have the last few years. Damon had a new box of crayons just like his friend had and I copied off a few coloring pages for him to do. I also got out a new notebook and we basically drew pictures and colored the entire day. It was good to have some quality family time and be reminded why we have to go through the craziness and difficulties of raising children...it makes the good, happy times that much better.

Tommy is so fun lately. He's talking like crazy and saying more new things all the time. One day we went to Sam's Club and we saw some boys from church selling popcorn for Boy Scouts. One of the boys is a really sweet boy and loves babies...he always comes up and talks to my boys. Well, to make the story short (something I'm totally not good at), we bought some popcorn from them. Each time we would pull it out to munch on, Tommy would say "pah-tohn" and then the boy's name. It was so cute. The next time we went to Sam's Club, he was asking for his friend...I had to tell him he was at school. Tommy said, "no stool, (boy's name)." I just love that this 12 year old boy treats Tommy like he's such a special kid, enough for Tommy to remember him and ask for him...and associate places and things to him. Tommy is also really into slipping shoes on his feet...they have to be bigger than his own. Today he was walking around with Damon's shoes on...on the wrong feet.

This week in school, Damon's been working on shapes. He really already knows his shapes, but we've been creating things with shapes and he has been loving it!
He's so funny about things on his hands, though. He can only take so much glue stick on his hands and then he makes me do the rest...I've been trying to push him a little more:) Yesterday at the park he dug in the dirt looking for worms with another little boy. I couldn't believe he would actually get his hands dirty and enjoy it and hold a worm. He asked me to get him books about worms at the library today...Tommy kept running around and escaping, so we only got one. Damon is really into drawing pictures lately. Mostly pictures of pirate ships with treasures of gold and crowns. I'm not sure exactly where this fetish came from, but it is pretty funny. We bought the Wee Sing for Halloween CD and it has been awesome! The boys love it and it is so fun to have some different music around. I highly recommend it (for those with kids).

So, that's that. I'm sort of caught up with my blog...I know I'm leaving out tons of important things I'll want to remember later...but that's how it goes these days:)