queen bee

Blue had a halloween party at preschool today. I volunteered to help out. While I love halloween, I normally don't dress up. But last night I got a bee in my bonnet and came up with a costume for me. I went as a queen bee. Notice the beehive and little bumblebees buzzing around it.



Blue's party was so organized and the kids loved it! They ate the cutest cupcakes that my friend Amber made, went trick or treating with the coolest little candy buckets(super easy-plastic black cups with googlely eyes all over it), and sang the funnest halloween songs. Way to go Miss Juliette!

Mr. Jack-O-Lantern

The other night the boys and I headed over to the Woolf's for some pizza and pumpkins. We ate the pizza and carved the pumpkins. I only bought one pumpkin for my boys to share. I did this because I figured I would be the one who had to clean out the pumpkins. Reed and Blue stuck their hands in the pumpkin but weren't to gung ho one the idea of having to clean it out. Luckily, Kason was willing to help us out with the task. Once the inside was clean, we moved on to our face. I put Blue in charge of the eyes, Reed in charge of the mouth and I would do the nose. Blue wanted angry eyes so we put eyebrows on our jack-o-lantern. Reed wanted a silly mouth so we added a mustache. We didn't do too shabby, if I do say so myself.

I'm no weatherman

Okay, so maybe I jumped the gun a couple of weeks ago when I thought we wouldn't get any more warm weather. This past week has been perfect! I took the boys out for, probably, the last photo shoot with warm weather this year.

learning the art of borrowing money

For those of you who follow my blog may remember that back in September when we went to Lake Powell the boys caught a horny toad. We kept it for a couple of weeks, but because it eats ants and those are hard to come by up here, we took it down to Chea's house and let it go. I didn't realize how attached Reed and Blue had become to their pet until I told them my plan to let it go. Both of them were devastated and started sobbing. I explained that it was better to let him go than to keep him and have him die. They seemed to be okay with that explanation. Now bringing you back to the present day...
Last weekend Colby took ALL of the boys scouting with him to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Not only did he take all of them for the day but he also took them over night! Woo hoo for me. I got to do whatever I wanted without any little rugrats around. I didn't really do anything exciting but it was a great break! Thank you Colby.
Sorry I got a little side tracked from my first story, let me get back on track. While they were up at Jacob Lake(where they stayed) they were checking out the little store there and Blue happened to find this oversized ceramic horny toad. He begged Colby to get it for them but Colby told him that it was too expensive and he wasn't spending that much money on a fake horny toad. They walked around the store for a bit and found a few other souvenirs. When they were checking out Blue asked Colby if he could borrow ten dollars. Colby wanted to know what for and Blue, with a sneaky little smile, said he was gonna buy that horny toad. Even the cashier couldn't help but laugh. Needless to say we now have a pet pretend horny toad.
How about that? Blue is already learning how to weasel money out of his parents.

gone are the days...

of barefeet in the grass. It's happened. It is fall. The trees have changed colors and most have lost their leaves. The wind has picked up and is now a biting cold force. We have packed away our shorts and flip flops and brought out our hoodies and flannel pajamas. The cold weather doesn't seem to bother my boys though. Thank heaven! They still wanna play outside and can't figure out why I make them put on real shoes and a hoodie. I tell them it's 'cause I'm a mean mom.

vampire for your blood sugar

Monday night we had the Woolf family over for dinner. We made these cute vampire bats afterwards. My boys have been begging me for the last week, wanting to know when we were going to make something for Halloween. Of course, once they finished making them, they gobbled up the little vampires almost before I could get pictures of them. Not more than fifteen minutes later, they wanted to know what else they could make. While I did have another project for them, I told them it would have to be for another day. We need to pace ourselves with these projects, for the sake of our blood sugar.

the next michelangelo

Yes, that is the wall in my front entry. Thank heavens for the magic eraser!

slide rock

On Monday we took a family drive down to slide rock. It is less than 20 miles away but on a very winding road. Nevertheless, it didn't take long to get there, which is always a good thing with young 'uns in the car. I envisioned a photo shoot with my kids at the state park where there is a small apple orchard and some amazing old buildings(see Chea's blog for proof of this). Instead we stop at the trout farm, not as appealing for photo opportunities but certainly more appealing to three little boys. I was definitely outnumbered. My boys loved it! I think Reed and Blue might have enjoyed getting the fish food out of the candy machine more than actually feeding the fish.

Beau wanted to get as close to the edge of the water as he could, actually he probably wanted to get into the water but Colby hung onto his jacket the entire time(this did not please Beau).

The boys discovered that by throwing in all of your quarter's worth of food at once you can see alot more fish than just tossing in a few at a time.

After $4's worth of fish food,that is sixteen trips to the fish food/candy machine, it was time to go. Definitely cheap entertainment.

daddy duty

Whenever Colby is in charge of the boys, he will always do something fun- something the requires effort on an adult's part-something that I usually dread doing because of the effort required. This past weekend I attended a baptism, while Colby entertained the boys. He set up a tent in the front yard and put a sleeping bag in there. He could have stopped there and the boys would have been pleased as pie, but no, he told them to go get some books and he would read to them while hanging out in the tent! Definitely an overachiever dad! I love him for it!


Notice the hoodies, it was freezing on Saturday and the wind was atrocious!

b is for beau

Poor Beau! He definitely gets the shaft being the youngest. Our morning routine consists of dropping Reed off to school and then dropping Blue off to school. After they are both gone, Beau just whines to pick them back up. Once, while dropping off Blue, Beau ran into the preschool room and was playing with all the toys. I started walking to my car, not even realizing that I didn't have Beau with me until the teacher asked if I was missing something. For a second I had no idea what she was talking about. Then it dawned on me that Beau was still inside. Much to his dismay, I had to wrestle him out of the preschool room. He kept calling for Blue to help him out- as if preschool was where he belonged and I was in the wrong for trying to take him home. Beau loves his older brothers and wants to do anything they do. He chases after them on their bikes since he can't figure out the pedals yet. He gets just as excites about Star Wars as the other two do. Beau calls it "saw waas". I'm glad that Reed and Blue are nice to him and let him play with them-sometimes:)

eight is enough

okay, if Channy and Chea can do it, so can I. Eight is way more than enough info to give out but here goes anyway.
8 shows I love to watch:
1.psych
2.monk
3.burn notice
4.bones
5.paula's party
6.what not to wear
7.backyardigans(my kids like this show too, but even if they didn't it is pretty cute)
8.magic school bus(with my kids

8 things that happened yesterday
1.visit teach
2.did laundry
3.took reed to piano lessons
4.took dinner to a family in the ward
5.reed's soccer game
6.reed threw the BIGGEST fit at his soccer game
7.became more frustrated, furious, and embarrassed than I have EVER been
8.sent the boys to bed early(really early)

8 favorite places to eat
1.IN'n'OUT
2.Outback
3.Sakura(sushi)
4.Gyros(sushi)
5.PF Changs
6.Little Caesars(i like the breadsticks and colby likes the pizza)
8.Cinnabon

8 things I look forward to
1.spring
2.summer
3.warmer weather(I'm not a big fan of winter here in Flag)
4.wearing cute jackets/coats(the only bonus to cold weather)
5.getting a new camera
6.no more peeing the bed-my boys, not me, then I wouldn't have to do so much laundry
7.selling our house in queen creek
8.going to thrift stores

8 things on my wish list
1.grass in my backyard
2.a bigger pressure canner
3.get rid of Beau's pacifier
4.a personal chef
5.better organizational skills
6.a clean house
8.world peace

I am usually a dead end to other chain things, soooo, true to fashion, I will not tag anyone else.

a few of my favs

What a trip! Thanks Chea!

where to begin

I hate it when I don't blog for awhile because then I feel like I can't ever catch up to the present. Here is the beginning of my feeble attempt. Let's begin with the beach! It has been a couple of years since my boys have been to the beach and to my surprise they loved it. Well, actually, I knew they would love the sand but I had no idea that they would dig the water (figuratively speaking).




Reed discovered the second day that salt water and cuts don't mix. He fell earlier in the day and scraped his knee and then went in the water. This is how he felt afterwards:

I was able to coax him out of his "shell" with a rock hunt, all the rocks he could possibly find for his rock collection.

Beau liked to practice his sweet moves on the boogie board while at the hotel, but once we got to the beach he really wasn't that interested in the water as much as he was the sand.



Of course, Blue was his easy going self, loving the water and the sand equally.