Halloween on Christmas

It looks like we are getting ready to trick-or-treat. Santa brought Hulk and Clone Trooper paraphernalia to the boys. It was a lot of fun and also very wild.

The boys are trying to figure out just how Santa gets up and down the chimney. They decorated sugar cookies to leave for Santa with some milk.

We decorated a gingerbread train earlier in december. Each night I would pull it down and let them attack it. They didn't mess with their hands....mouths are more efficient.

Happenings during the holidays

We have had fun during this holiday season. It started by getting bunk beds over Thanksgiving weekend. The boys have loved being in the same room together. So far there have been no injuries...just a lot of late nights with tired kids in the morning.

We went to the Festival of Trees to see the Plummers tree that they do in honor of their daughter, Lucy. Our Young Women had made one too. The boys loved it.

The first day it snowed the boys were so excited. They squeezed into boots and snow suits from last year and had a blast. Why don't they make gloves for little kids? I have only found mittens. Their little hands freeze.

All dogs go to heaven

Sam's preschool was cancelled this morning because his preschool teacher's grandfather died and she was attending his funeral. Sam has never thought about death or funerals. This is the first person he has had to think about in those terms. He knows he gets in trouble if he says "I am going to kill you."... Darn those superhero cartoons. But I don't think he really knows what death is. All day he has been asking me why people die? why do people get old?It is a lot to process for a 4 year old. I have told him we will all die eventunally and get to go back and live as families with Heavenly Father. He then said "will Molly die?" This Katherine and Ryan's dog who he bonded with on our treat to Ouray. Boy, those wheels are turning.

My 8 Things Post

8 TV shows I watch:
1. Little People Big World
2. Oprah--yes, I still watch her
3. Without a Trace
4. Eleventh Hour
5. Lost--when its on
6. Battle Star Gallactica--when its on
7. Pushing Daisies
8. Daily Show/Colbert Report

8 of My Favorite Restaurants:
1. The Melting Pot
2. Thai Garden
3. Cafe Trang
4. Tomacitas
5. Chili Works
6. Paradise Bakery
7. Bennihanas
8. Chili's

8 Things that happened Yesterday
1. Picked up James' contacts
2. cleaned my house
3. took a bath
4. took my boys to get their hair cut
5. went to Costco
6. Put Laundry away
7. Went to YW
8. watched Get Smart with James

8 Things I am looking Forward to
1. the Holidays
2. My kids being able to get up (quietly), get dressed, and get themselves breakfast
3. Jodi and Mike moving back to Utah!!!!!
4. Going to Spring in the Spring
5. Having my backyard finished and fenced in
6. Obama as president
7. Next months book--I finished Into Thin Air and loved it
8. My ten year anniversay--hope we do something fun and without kids

8 things on my wishlist:
1. Honda Odyssey
2. Basement finished
3. Trip to Hawaii with James for our 10 year anniversary
4. Living closer to my family
5. Complete a triathalon and marathon
6. road bike
7. Lasik
8. More affordable healthcare that is accessible for more Americans

8 Things I love:
1. My husband and kids and family
2. The Gospel
3. My country
4. my church calling
5. a good book with a diet coke while soaking in the tub
6. traveling
7. exercising in 50 degree weather
8. listening to NPR

8 things I can't stand:
1. being woken up in the middle of the night
2. Adult Swim and any other cartoon that james' records
3. Racist jokes told to me thinking I will find them funny
4. plantar fascitis
5. people biting their nails
6. Ignorance
7. Running in the winter
8. Tomatoes and Milk

8 People I am tagging:
1. Julie McKeon--Please update your blog :)
2. Jodi
3. Gina
4. Danni
5. Aunt Julie
6. Hillary
7. Sarah
8. Melissa

History has been made

I don't want to get preachy about politics, but regardless of who we voted for and what issues sent us to vote, we all have to sit back and acknowledge the many great things that have happened this past election. As James and I sat and watched Obama give his acceptance speech (if you didn't hear it check it out http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_pl135) James commented that the first president that Sam will probably remember will be an african american and how cool that concept is. We are truly seeing the ideals that my generation has been taught come to pass. It was amazing to see how many people voted for a man based on the content of his character and not the color of his skin. It was interesting to see how many firsts we had in this last election.

Family Fun this Fall

Enjoying the fall leaves while mom and dad are out raking them up.
Thanks to Heidi our boys were some awesome lookin' Jedis this year.

We stopped by to see Sierra and Savannah on Halloween

Grandpa Chief and Eeler stopped by to check out the Jedi's before we went trick-or-treating

On Halloween afternoon we went up to James' work for trick-or-treating. They had icecream "monster mush" sundaes to assemble at the end. Nothing like a pile of candy to go on icecream. This went well with the candy the boys had been shoveling in all day.

My fun purchase of the summer was a bike trailer. These are the best. The boys love it and mom gets a good workout. With all these nice fall days we have gotten some good bike rides in.

We had a family night with three other families in our ward the monday before Halloween. We decorated sugar cookies and carved pumpkins. This is Sam's buddy Josh.

We decided to try out the trick-or-treating at Hogle Zoo this year (along with 24,000 others). It was a madhouse. The kids had fun with their cousins Ike and kaitlyn, but we will not be adding this to our "things we must do again next fall"list.

One of our favorite Halloween time activities is visiting the Garden after Dark at Red Butte Gardens. They even had light sabers that actually glowed. Those are spider hats on their heads if you are wondering.

Ouray-- "The Switzerland of America"

We went to the prettiest town in Colorado over UEA. It is this quaint, little town completely surrounded by tall mountains. It is about 90 miles south of Grand Junction. We were expecting to be cold --its 78oo ft and its the middle of october-- but we were spoiled. The weather was warm and sunny. We spent the weekend exploring ghost towns and waterfalls, playing at parks, hot tubbing, and enjoying the fall leaves and good food. We went with our good friends, the Jones. We always have a great time with them.