Just because...

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!

Happy Halloween-2009

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.

Ward Trunk or Treat

Our ward trunk-or-treat was on the 28th of October. It was on a Wednesday which meant that Brandon would be late to the party since he has clinic on Wednesdays. Also, the party started ten minutes after Hyrum's swimming lessons were over for the day. We did a quick change in the car before we left swimming lessons and got everyone in their costumes. Hyrum was a football player(He would tell you he was on the Cougars), Ben was Spiderman and Emmy was a sweet princess.

All the kids were excited about their costume. Emmy was especially excited to be a princess. She loved wearing her shoes, her pretty dress, the crown and wearing make-up. She was in heaven. You can't really tell from the pictures, but I put curlers in her hair and curled her hair with a curling iron to make her hair really curly. She looked so cute!

Ben's costume came with a mask and gloves, but he did not want to wear them. I was okay with that and thought he looked so cute in his Spiderman costume.

Hyrum loved being a football player. He loves to wear his costume. By the way, this is the same costume my brother, Sean, wore for multiple Halloweens.

Can you tell in the picture below that Hyrum was ready to go in the gym, and Emmy and Ben look a little nervous about everything?There were tons of people at the ward party. As soon as we walked in the room Hyrum was off finding his friends and fun things to do. The first booth Hyrum went to was the dart booth. You were supposed to throw the dart at a balloon and make it pop. After a few tries, the people running the booth had Hyrum take the dart up to the balloon and pop it.

After the dart booth, Hyrum went to the fishing booth and spent a good amount of time there (He has been wanting my dad to take him fishing on the brown boat for awhile now).Also at the party, Hyrum got his face painted and thought it was pretty cool.
The first booth Ben and Emmy went to was also the dart one. Ben was willing to let the boys help him. Emmy on the other hand wanted me to help her.While Hyrum was at the fisihing booth, I took the Ben and Emmy to do the cake walk. Ben did it for a little bit, but soon lost interest. I think he was to busy taking in the all the sights and sounds (which some of them made him nervous) to play. Emmy was quite happy to have a yummy cupcake when her number was called. Even though Ben watched while Emmy did the cake walk, the people running the booth still let him pick out a cupcake. Ben wanted one with chocolate on it.By this time, we met up with Brandon and I had him help the twins with their cupcake while I did the cake walk with Hyrum. Hyrum was excited to pick a cupcake which had a spooky ghost on top when his number was called.

After the kids finished their cupcakes it was time for the costume parade around the gym.When the parade was over it was time for the trunk-or-treat. Brandon took Hyrum outside and got the car set up to pass out candy to the kids.

After everyone left the gym, Ben wanted to go and do the the fishing booth before we went outside. I think that once things calmed down a little bit with everyone gone and tall the spooky costumes he was ready to play the games. Emmy was also happy to go fishing with him.

It took much convincing for to get Ben to go outside and do the trunk-or-treat. Once he realized that he was going to get candy he was okay with leaving the gym.

Hyrum ran with all the other kids from car to car. Ben and Emmy loved going to each car saying trick-or-treat. They said it so cute. After they received their candy they would say thank you. Ben, Emmy and I finally caught up with Hyrum towards the end of the trunk-or-treat. The kids loved getting all the candy and playing with their friends. Below is a picture of Ben with two of his friends. All three were Spiderman for Halloween.
The picture below is of the kids with some of their friends in the ward.At the end of the trunk-or-treat, Ben wanted to go inside the church and participate in some more activities in the gym. I tried to tell him that everything was all over and it was time to go home. He wasn't convinced until I took him inside and showed him that people were cleaning up and putting things away.

We had a great time that night!