Boys Monthly Letters

The boys have posted their monthly letters to their blogs.  You can access them by clicking on their pictures to the right.

Trick-or-Treating

We had some serious pirates, out to get some serious candy tonight!!

We all started out together and I had planned to take Kyle around a little bit and then when he got tired I'd take him home and he and I could hand out candy at our house while Dave trailed Brandon & Eric as they ran all over the neighborhood, filling their pillow cases with candy.  But Kyle just kept on going and a lot of the time he was the one leading the way.  I kept saying, once we get around this corner I will take him home but he was having so much fun and didn't want to stop so we kept going.  He stayed out the whole time until his little pumpkin bucket was so full it was bending under the weight and I thought for sure the handle was going to come off! 

Dave & I have some observations about Halloween now vs. Halloween when we were kids.  First, we would plan out our route in advance to ensure we hit all the best neighborhoods.  And we would seriously trick-or-treat for 4+ hours, staying out as long as we possibly could to get as much candy as possible, running the entire time!  Kids these days go for like an hour and then they complain that their bag is getting heavy and they want to go home, or they are getting cold.  We think that kids these days are just so used to having things given to them that they don't want to have to work for it.  And I know that my kids get plenty of treats on a regular basis so it wasn't like it was for us when we were kids and treats were not so readily available at our houses.  The other thing that we noticed is that kids come away from trick-or-treating with SO MUCH CHOCOLATE!!  When we were kids chocolate was super exciting to get because most of the time we got little Dum Dum suckers, Smarties, Milk Duds and Dots (Yuck!).  Kids these days are so spoiled!!

But despite all that, our kids came away from the night with far too much candy!  And to make matters worse, I had so much candy to give out to trick-or-treaters and wasn't home for most of the night like I had planned to give it out so now we are just inundated with treats at our house.  Thank goodness I am at work during the day and not at home being tempted by all this yummy chocolate!!

Family Halloween Party

Tonight we had our annual Family Halloween Party at our house.  It was a great party.  We all went as pirates.  We even picked up a fog machine and some spooky music to make the party even more fun which the kids especially loved. 

The kids got to bob for apples, play outside some since the weather wasn't too cold and of course ... eat doughnuts off a string which they look forward to each year.

And as always, we celebrated Brandon's birthday as well.  He loves that bit of the party the best I think! :)

Thanks to everyone who came!  We had a great time!

"Punkins" & Apples

Not only did we get to pick "punkins" at Uncle Ryan's house today but we got to pick apples from their great apple tree.  Thanks Uncle Ryan & Aunt Alisa!!

After picking our pumpkins we did some carving.  Brandon even carved his own Jack-O-Lantern this year!

Brandon's 9th Birthday!!

Can you believe it ... Brandon is NINE today!!  He had a party with his friends today and had a blast!!

They had fun whacking at a pinata ...










And decorating cakes with silly faces!!








And of course opening presents which where mostly Lego sets ... surprise surprise!! 

And then after all the fun with friends we went out to dinner at The Mayan with Grandma & Aunt Amy!!

Happy Birthday Brandon!!!

To the Zoo with Dad

Dave is such a great dad!  The weather has been so nice lately and it's been forever since we've taken the boys to the zoo, so today, while I went to work, he took the day off and took the boys to the zoo.  They had so much fun.  This was Kyle's first time being there and he said his favorite animal was the Elephants.  Eric loved the Scorpions and Brandon loved the Golden Monkeys.

Witches & Pirates

In keeping with our annual tradition, we went over to Gardner Village to see the witches and took pictures of the boys in their Halloween costumes. Aren't they the coolest pirates ever!!!

Work

Today I started back to work at my old job as a computer programmer.  My boss from my old job at ADP wanted me to come back to work to help them through their busy season so I will be working about 6 hours a day, while Brandon & Eric are in school for the next 10 weeks or so. Kyle is going to play at a couple friends houses while I work which I think he will have fun doing. This works out perfect for me because I am not ready to go back to work long term since Kyle is not in school yet so the short term contract is really exciting for me. I loved working, loved my job and love the people that I worked with so I am excited to get to do some work again. And Dave certainly isn't complaining about having his "Sugar Mama" back again. :)

Hunting Camp

We spent the day up at Strawberry Reservoir today where Dave will be hunting elk next week. The boys had fun 4-wheeling and shooting the BB gun.