The time has come. I have filled up all my memory space on this blog in regards to pictures. In my opinion, pictures are what make a great blog post. Plus, I think the grandparents would be sad if new posts didn't include pictures of some of their favorite people in the world. Our new blog address is brandonandnatalie.blogspot.com. Make sure to update our new address on your links and blog rolls.
Hryum recently celebrated his fifth birthday! I can't believe he is five. He had been eagerly anticipating his birthday.
To start the day off, he request Mickey Mouse pancakes (the same thing he wanted last year). Brandon had already left for school, so the task fell to me. He enjoyed them. After he finished the Mickey Mouse pancake I wrote the number five on another pancake for him to eat.
After breakfast it was time for Hyrum to go to school. He couldn't wait to share his cool cupcakes he picked out for his birthday. He picked Nemo, Football and Curious George cupcakes to share with his friends.
Originally, I had plan to take the kids to McDonalds on Hyrum's birthday for lunch. However, Ben and Emmy were sick so we decided to pick-up the food through the drive-thru and have a picnic at home. 
For the most part, Hyrum still takes naps. However, on his birthday he got to stay up instead of going to bed. After Ben and Emmy went to bed I took Hyrum outside to do a little photo shoot. I think I got a couple of cute shots that capture Hyrum's fun personality.
After we were finished taking pictures, I told Hyrum to pick whatever games he wanted to play with mom. One of the games he picked was the Lighting McQueen Memory Game. If I remember correctly, we read some books too.
When Brandon came home from school that day we planed on going to Chuck E. Cheese for Hyrum's birthday. However, since Ben and Emmy were sick, Brandon took Hyrum to the store to pick a frozen pizza out.
When the boys got home and while the pizza was cooking Hyrum opened his presents.
Hyrum received a cute card from Grandma-Great with some money to go along with the fun present she sent with my parents for him back in October.
Hyrum received a fun card from Grandma and Grandpa T. with a gift card to Target.
Aunt Lorri and family gave each child a card for their birthday with a gift card to Target.
Hyrum received a cool superman shirt from Grandma and Papa Van. 
They also gave him books and a backpack which he received when they were visiting us in October.
Earlier in the day I took Ben and Emmy to the dollar store to pick out a present they wanted to give Hyrum. It was so cute to watch them pick out what they think their beloved Hyrum would like. Ben and Emmy love Hyrum so much and they were so excited that it was his birthday. 
Ben picked out some race cars to give to Hyrum.
Emmy picked out some army guys to give to Hyrum.
Emmy gave Hyrum many hugs during the day telling him Happy Birthday. It was so cute. 
Brandon and I gave Hyrum a cool sea puzzle and the Bumblebee Transformer.
For whatever reason he loves Transformers. He always points the Transformers out when we pass by them in the store. He was so excited when Brandon figured out how the Transformer worked. 
He has loved the Transformer.
We had pizza and rented the movie UP to watch as a family. We stopped the movie after a little while to sing Happy Birthday to Hyrum and have him blow out his candles. 
Happy Birthday handsome Hyrum! I hope you had a great birthday!
One thing that I love about my husband is that he brings me home flowers just because he loves me. 
Valentines and our anniversary are not the only days I receive flowers during the year (it helps that there is a CHEAP flower shop by his school). The flowers remind me of when we were dating. I feel giddy when he brings me home flowers. The flowers remind me of our love for each other. I have come to realize that for him, when he gives me flowers it is a way in which he shows that he loves me. I have a wonderful, thoughtful husband who I am so grateful he picked me to be his wife.
Another reason why I love this man. 
He picked a flower for Emmy out of my bouquet. Brandon makes a big deal anytime he gives her a flower. Emmy loves it! I am pretty positive Brandon does too. When I get flowers she gets a flower.
We are both very lucky to have such a great man in our life!
The kids loved Halloween music this year. Every time we were in the car they would request the spooky music their grandma gave them (Wee Sing Halloween).
One of my favorite things from the month October was listening to them do their own version of Five Little Pumpkins. They all do a little bit different version of the song. I am sure it doesn't help that Ms. Tami taught Hyrum who taught the twins a different version of the song than the one I sang to them at home. Here are my cute little monkeys singing one of their favorite Halloween songs.
On October 17th we had a birthday party for Ben and Emmy. We had a jungle party. I can't take the credit for the idea, my sister-in-law did a jungle party for my niece. I thought it would be the perfect theme for Ben and Emmy's party since the theme is gender neutral.
For the party we had to special guests! We did the birthday party on the Saturday my parents were in-town visting us.
Before the party I took some fun pictures of the birthday buddies.
You can find the other pictures here. Of course, I had to take pictures of Hyrum too!
My mom bought the kids pins for their shirts that said it was their birthday. They loved them. Ben's pin said, "Its My Birthday."
Emmy's pin said "Kiss Me Its My Birthday."
The kids were really excited for their friends to come to their party. When the guests first walked through the door they got to pick out an animal hat to wear. Most of the hats for the kids to pick had jungle animals on them. As luck would have it, Emmy picked the duck hat. Emmy loves ducks. Ben picked an alligator hat.
After the hat was chosen, each child decorated their goody bag. As you can tell in the picture below, Emmy likes stickers.
When the bags were decorated, the kids were separated into two groups, boys and girls. The boys started off at the monkey toss. Brandon drew a monkey on a cardboard box and cut out the face. The kids were given a little monkey to use as a bean bag. The object of the game was for the kids to throw the monkey through the hole.
The girls started at the "Pin the Nose on the Lion"
After everyone had a turn, we rotated the groups. The girls went to the "Monkey Toss" and the boys went to the "Pin the Nose on the Lion"
When the games were finished, we had a small lunch for the kids of cheese, apples and other tasty healthy treats. While Brandon, my mom and I were getting the food ready my dad had the kids make different animal sounds. The kids loved it!
Back Row L to R Tucker, Elle, Emmy, Maggie, Noah, Lexi, Austin
Front Row L to R Ben, Lincoln, Hyrum, Lainey, Ben and Corban
Hyrum and Ben M.
Emmy and Lexi
Corban, Lexi and Emmy
Next, came the Jungle Safari. Before the party Brandon hid various animals in the backyard. The kids were sent out to find all the animals in the yard. Ben and Emmy loved it!
After the Safari, Ben and Emmy opened their presents. All their friends gave them such great gifts. They have really enjoyed them all!
After the presents were opened we played a game called "Hippo in the Mud." I made mud puddles out of paper grocery sacks for the game and laid them in a circle. When we played music, the kids would walk around the circle and when the music stopped the kids would hop on a puddle.
Brandon made an awesome turtle cupcake cake for the party. I think he did a fabulous job! He is officially our cake decorator for birthdays now.
Brandon put three yellow candles and three pink candles on the cake. Ben's favorite color is yellow and Emmy's favorite color is pink. However, when he put the turtle down for the kids to blow out the candles the kids were in the wrong spots. Emmy blew out the yellow candles and Ben blew out the pink ones. 
Oh, well! Ben and Emmy were too excited to have everyone sing Happy Birthday and to blow out the candles to notice. The party finished with eating the turtle cake.
Overall, I thought the party went really well and all the kids seemed to have a great time. I know Emmy and Ben were quite pleased to have their friends over to celebrate their birthday.
The Thursday before Halloween Hyrum had a preschool Halloween party. I am sort of the room mother this year for his class. As a result, I was worried about having everything ready for the party and left my camera at home. I didn't get any pictures of Hyrum doing the fun activities the other moms planned (the moms were very creative). Hyrum had a fabulous time at the party. I think he was pleased I came to his school. Right when we were leaving the party I remembered that my phone takes some decent pictures. The picture below is of Hyrum and his beloved Ms. Tami.
On Halloween night, we were invited to a fun Halloween party at Ms. Tami's house. 
Shortly after we got to her house I realized that I was missing the memory card to the camera. At first we were taking pictures with our cell phones, but soon realized that the quality of the pictures were not as high as I would have liked. Being the good husband that he is, Brandon drove the 20 minutes home and the 20 minutes back to get the memory card.
The Halloween party started off with some fun games for the kids to play. I know that my kids enjoyed playing games; they had a great time.
After the games, the kids did a costume parade around the cove. It was so cute to see the kids marching in their costumes.
Top LtoR Emma, Hyrum, Kelsie, Hailey, Lexi, Tucker, Chloe, Boo, Maggie
Bottom LtoR Eli, Emmy, Noah, Wes, Ben Savannah and ?
Since the people who provide a hayride for kids weren't ready to start giving rides we went back to Ms. Tami's. We had a wonderful dinner of soup and bread sticks. It was so yummy!
Brandon dressed up as the friendly neighborhood milkman and I was pregnant. 
Brandon went Halloween morning to Goodwill to find the pants, hat, and the milk bottles. I had to add my throw-up bucket to my costume because it made my costume more realistic.
Below is a picture of our friends Emily and Brandon.
I was so bummed I didn't get pictures of the other couples. There were some great Halloween costumes. Our friends Nick and Whitney dressed up as a leprechaun and a pot of gold.
After dinner the kids went on a hayride. There is this nice family who every year give hayrides around the neighborhood to the kids. The kids loved it! I told Hyrum to hang on to Ben. As a result, he put his arm around Ben and held onto him during the ride.
Emmy got to ride with daddy. Someone else volunteered to hold her, but she thought the costume of that person was too scary.
When the fun hayride was finished we went trick-or-treating. The kids loved trick-or-treating.
Our big group of friends split into two groups after a little while. The older kids who went trick-or-treating quickly and the younger kids who enjoyed the slower pace. I went trick-or-treating with Hyrum and Brandon stayed with Ben and Emmy. Hyrum loved trick-or-treating with his friends.
When people would open the door Hyrum would say trick-or-treat and thank you in one breath.
He seemed content to hold my hand for awhile and walk from house to house.
Hyrum especially had a fun time trick-or-treating with his friend Hailey. 
For some of the time we were trick-or-treating they would hold hands and walk together. It was too cute.
Ben and Emmy loved going trick-or-treating. They were nervous at the houses with "scary" decorations. One house was too spooky for Ben, he wouldn't even go to the door. Emmy wasn't a big fan of the houses with dogs right next to the door when she went to get her nummies. Ben and Emmy did both enjoy the "nice" houses as the called them.
Emmy cracks me up, yes her costume came with heels and she wore those suckers all night long. She knows beauty is pain!
After trick-or-treating, we went back to Ms. Tami's. The kids watched a movie and enjoyed some candy while the adults played the card game Spoons!
We had such a great time that night. The kids have been so much fun this Halloween season. The loved and insisted we listened to the Halloween music when we were in the car every day (I was mean and didn't let them listen to it on Sundays). The kids enjoyed reading all the Halloween books, looking at Halloween decorations on peoples' houses, the pumpkin patch, carving the pumpkin and other Halloween activities. They loved wearing their costumes and looked so cute in them.
The kids were bummed when I told them that Halloween was all over. The magic of the holidays comes back in full force when you have little children.
