Halloween 2009

Halloween has come and gone and what a great year! I LOVED it landing on a Saturday! Friday the kids had their parties and parade at school. Later that evening we had our ward party. I admit the ward party ended up stressing me out more than it should have. The biggest stress was the cold front that whipped through at the beginning of the week. I wanted it to be nice weather badly. Luckily, the weather was beautiful! Halloween was even nicer. We woke up, cleaned the house, went to the boys soccer games, and came home a snuck a nap in! The kids didn't even wear jackets as they trick-or-treated. Easton hung out with me while Bailey and Caleb decided they were too old for that and went with their friends. The pair ended up at the Orton's house and from the sounds of it had a great time! Easton dominated however, with twice as much candy as the "older" kids.

I love this part! The kids gather all their candy and sort it. Easton's stash is in the middle.

Three out of the four costumes were homemade this year. Bailey borrowed hers from a "friend" who happens to be a boy. She swears he's not even cute! Haha!

I love this shot. My parents house is the first house the kids trick-or-treat to every year. Easton fits the old man look to a "T". (He's just picking his seat for later.)

Reflections 2009

Caleb has wanted to enter reflections every year. He loves drawing and painting. He can sit for hours on end concentrating on one thing. (He certainly doesn't get this from me.) This year Bailey informed us that 5th graders were required to enter. Of course we kept meaning to take a night out to work on their projects but alas, found ourselves the night before they were due staying up late to finish them. Bailey and Caleb both worked very hard on their paintings. Caleb was especially excited to show his amazingly talented, Grandma Wilson his painting. Easton tried to make a boat out of bamboo with Mat that didn't quite work out. At 10:30 at night Mat took Easton outside to snap some photos so that Easton would have an entry also. We were a bit surprised on Monday night when we got a call saying that of all 3 kids, Easton won 1st place for his photo of a lizard he'd caught. Of course our hearts were heavy knowing we'd have to break the news to Caleb and Bailey. This is Caleb's bird. He draws it over and over. He wanted to paint a tarantula and web but Mat encouraged him to paint his signature bird. When he found out he didn't win there were MANY tears and he was quite angry that we hadn't let him paint the tarantula. Hopefully he will still enter again. He really is talented.
This is Easton's winning photo. The comments left on the judging sheet were very nice and all mentioned the contrast between the red and the lizard. Who knew a lizard in a bucket could look good? :)

This is Easton accepting his award. He didn't know he had won until his name was called out. He was BEAMING! We're so happy for him!

Cheer :)

Bailey had her first cheer performance on Friday. Her team performed most of their routine at Desert Hills high school. It was so fun to break out the uniform and get her all sparkled up. Even funner was watching the routine. She got a new "base" and is the only "flyer" minus a "front spot" but unless you were her fanatical mother you wouldn't have noticed the extra caution she took in her stunts. Overall she did great! We're so excited for competition season to begin. Love it!

Love her!
I taught her that. Haha!

To add icing to the cake. We took Bailey to the park on Monday for FHE and she shocked us all with the confidence to do a round-off, back handspring, back tuck, completely unassisted! I love that a few months ago we were working on the back handspring. She has really come a long way in a short time! Love you Bailey!

11 Years and Counting...

So it's our 11th anniversary today!!! Wohoo!!! I'm pretty sure I married the best guy around. I still can't believe we actually tied the knot. I have nightmares every so often that he hasn't asked me yet, we still have four kids and all, we just "live in sin" apparently in my dreams.

I can't seem to find my absolute favorite wedding pic but here's a few to enjoy.

Arriving at the temple in Manti. My parents thought we had plenty of time to get there so my makeup isn't quite finished. In fact it isn't even rubbed in! Haha!

Little smooching...

These were delivered yesterday as we are heading to Vegas in a few hours. We're going to tear it up with Lance Burton and some roller coasters. Heehee.

Mat checks every year to see what the appropriate gift is for each anniversary. This year was steel. It took me a minute to get why on earth he would buy me "Still" by Jennifer Lopez. Included in my gift was a DVD of "Steel Magnolias", steel weights, etc. The best was the "filler". Of course he had all of my gifts arranged cute and wrapped in tin foil, but instead of plain ol' shredded paper he used steel wool! I LOVE that guy!

Autumn Leaves

We wanted to check out the fall leaves with the kiddos last week. We figured if we were going to be up there we mine as well snap some photos with the autumn background. Here's some of the favorites that we took.

Bailey looked so grown-up in all her shots. :(
One of our favorites of the kids.

Another favorite

Mat and I had Bailey snap a few of us. 11 years!!!

My guy Easton.

Caleb was so good about smiling. Of course there's not many teeth to smile with. :)

Darling.

This is the best shot we got from an uncooperative Peyton. She's still cute.

Fashionable.

The boys.

:)

A young couple dating saw that we were taking pictures and turned around to offer their help. I was so happy to get a great shot of my cute family!

The best looking guys around!

They really do grow up too fast...

So Mat is gone to Vegas working and I don't sleep well without him. I've been passing the time looking though old photos of my older 3 kids. Since Easton was 6 months old we've been a digital family. These photos are all from discs though so I don't get them out to look at very often. I am totally sad about how young they all look. It just can't be that long ago that they were like this can it? I still get a kick out of the fact that I had 2 babies in diapers and both drinking bottles at the same time. You can't necessarily wean one baby from it when there's another in the house with one. I love looking back at our old house and find myself missing it badly. Since we still live so close I drive by often. It's so fun to see how the yard looked back then and how much everything truly changes.

This is Easton's 1st birthday. He was one of my sweetest little babies.

Always being held. :)

Caleb playing in the old sandbox.

I love this kid!

It breaks my heart to look at these pictures of my little girl. I thought she seemed so grown-up then! Can't they stay little forever???

The Honey-Do's are becoming Honey-DOES!!!

Okay so the other day I was feeling very sleepy and thought since the house was clean, baby was nappin', and Mat wasn't around to see, I would take a quick little power nap. I was pleasantly surprised to be woken up by the sounds of possibly someone attacking my house. :) I followed the lacquer smell up the stairs to find this! I got a base cabinet in my upper laundry. Miracles do happen! Not only did he do it, but I only waited a few days (we will pretend that I didn't ask him to do it when we built the house and he told me it wouldn't fit).
For my birthday (which was only last month) I asked for somewhere, anywhere, to hang all of my necklaces. I get pretty frustrated untangling them in the drawer every time I go to wear them. Go figure. Anyways, he made me this awesome board for all of my bling.

This is also a birthday request. We have this little flat-screen in our bedroom. When we originally built the house we had the t.v. connections wired in a different spot. So we may have put a few (unfixed) holes in the wall when we decided we didn't like that spot. I've been wanting something to cover up the holes desperately and finally have a cute little frame for the t.v.. Now if I could just clean it. lol

This is the BIG thing that I've ached for since we built! When we talked about our house Mat asked me to cut out things in magazines that I liked and start a folder with everything I wanted to incorporate in the house. Who needs a folder when I remember EVERYTHING? One thing I really wanted was wood windows with grid. When we priced out the windows I wanted they were going to be 3 times the cost! Needless to say we opted out. Mat however, had reassured me that I could have grid on my transom windows along the back of the house and on the front door. After being in the house a year I threw a small...okay BIG fit that the windows needed to get done. Mostly because they still had the raw wood exposed. After 2 years in the house half are completed. My front door however has been a sore spot for me. There was no tint on the windows so we were quite exposed to the outside world (not good for someone who likes to hang out in their skivvies in the morning) also, the wood in the front entry has become drastically bleached. Not to mention that I love the look of grid! This week Mat finally got around to installing (at least the front part) the grid on the doors. I seriously LOVE it! I smile every time I walk by. It also works pretty good when the "doorbell ditchers" (aka the boys that are in love with Bailey) come around. Now we can stand right inside and watch them come up the walk, jump out and Bailey can chase them doused in her perfume yelling at them to stop. (She LOVES it by the way).