Fall, Football, Fun

It's fall and for my boys that means football.  This year Jason signed them up with Twin Falls Park and Rec.  So we spent a ton of time driving them to and from practice and to games.  I actually only went to one game.  I am not a real fan of football, but I did get some pictures.  

 It is always cold and early, I used those as excuses not to go.

 Trumans age group is still a crack up to watch. 

 It's more about getting your picture taken.

 Dillon's coaches were a bunch of high school kids.  It was a pretty tight operation.

 Dillon did really well. 

 He was like the only one his age in the flag football.  Most of the other kids are playing regular football in pads.

 Jason wanted him to have one more year before he does that.

 Okay so when I came back from NC my vacuum cleaner was broken in like 4 places I swear the kids must have thrown it down the stairs.  So I decided I could fix it myself.  I took it apart and ordered all the broken parts.

It worked.  I won't pretend that I didn't have help (the fact that I didn't write down where the wires go to the circuit board, or couldn't figure out where 3 screw went) because I did.  But, the important part is that I fixed it.  I am really proud of myself, just so you know.

Halloween 2012

Halloween was crazy this year and that is saying something.  I got back from NC late Monday and Halloween was Wednesday.

We seemed to have gotten ourselves into a crazy mess of driving the kids to and from Twin.  Between school, pre-school, football practices twice a week for two different teams and the games, we are taking at the least two trips a day.  Finding the time to carve pumpkins in between all that and homework was a challenge.  But you know us, if it's not a challenge it is someone else's life, right. 

 Elleree and Truman really worked hard on getting the holes poked in theirs so that I could cut them out.  Truman even tried to cut some of his out.  Jason had all the pumpkins cleaned and ready to go by the time I came back from practice so.... no vomiting stories this year.  Dang it all.

 Beckett randomly poked holes and caused problems, his usual. 

 Dillon wanted to do everything on his own this year.  He got a bit frustrated (lack of sleep) and started crying.  Being the awesome parents we are Jason took pictures.  Dillon informed Jason he was the worst dad ever.  Jason said sweet I can call my dad and tell him he has lost the title. We laughed and laughed.  We are the best parents ever!  (Dillon now says this is his favorite of all the Halloween pictures).

 Final product, I know you can't see them.  By the time they were all done, I was so over taking pictures okay.

 Halloween Dillon was, well you can see for yourself. 

 Beckett was a bulimic Scooby Doo.  Don't ask why when ever the camera comes out he tries to gag himself with his finger.  The world may never know.  Elleree was a Dino (this costume just keeps on giving).  I had to time for costume shopping.  I am the Lion.  We had to go to a Church Halloween party at the neighbors house and I hadn't showered all day (that tells you what kind of a day it was).  The Lion was my best bet.  Unfortunately Truman came back from scouting the party early and said masks were not allowed.  Why me?

This is Truman as the Grim Reaper without the mask.   I'd like to say the party was great.........Next year maybe I will have my own Halloween Party again, I hope! 

First Visit to the NC

My sister sucks! Just kidding, well kind of. She moved so far away that I don't get to see her very often.  A couple of months ago I found a great deal on a ticket to see her.  Little did I know that it would be right smack in a the middle of a crazy month.  Between Disneyland, moving and Halloween having to make sure there was someone to watch the kids and deal with their schedule seemed really stressful.  But thanks to my Jason, my mom and Jason's mom I was able to go and life somehow went on without me.

 This is Allison's amazing house.  I looks like the perfect dollhouses I always wanted as a kid.  I love it.  She says it looks purple, but I think it is just beautiful, and all the houses in her neighborhood are like this.

 This is the view from her side yard.  Wouldn't it be horrible to wake up everyday and look out the window at this?

 There is a little water pond/lake thing behind their house.

 It's trees, trees, and more trees.  My parents went to visit her a couple of weeks before I did and my mom decided that they are going to go live with Allison.  My mom loves it there.

 I specifically told Alli that I didn't want to do anything.  I was stressed enough and I just wanted to sit and relax with her and her family.  So that is what we did.  We painted her bathroom, which she ended up being disappointed in.  Nothing to do with me I assure you.  This is Eli having a picnic on her front porch. 

 I completly enjoyed myself and am so happy I was able to go.  I hated saying good bye because we used to be able to say "I'll see you in a couple of months"  now it is "I don't know when I will see you next".  I hope we get to see them within the next year.  I hate saying goodbye to them.  The kids grow up so quick and I am missing it all.  

I had to keep telling myself that I was blessed to be born at this time when air travel is so affordable, and available.  I am also blessed with a husband that allows me not only to spend the money to see my sister, but takes care of the kids while I do it.  I am blessed with a mom and a mother in law who are willing to come and help out as well.  So really life is not too bad, even if I don't see my sister and her family as much as I would like.

New House!!!!!!!!

It's offical we are moved to our new house!!  I love it.  If for no other reason, than it is ours.  It is in Jerome, which you all know I was not a fan.  But like most things if it is meant to be it will be.  This was just one of those times.

 Before we went to Disneyland Beckett started playing with all the Cars, cars.  I kept thinking that some were missing, I looked everywhere, but for the life of me could not find them.  Then during the move we found them.

 He had taken all these toys and put them in the base speaker.  I honestly don't know how they all fit, but he managed to make them. 

 Elleree's contribution to the move were these beautiful pictures.  She drew on almost every box.

 I had to make her refrain from drawing on the top, considering we needed some place to label them.  I am so thankful to all the people who came and helped! My parents and Jason's parents were the best.  They can still make things happen.

We appreciated Kristy's hubby Matt,  Jason said that it was fun to be able to have a brother in law now.  My parents said they approved of him, and "he was a hard worker."  

Thanks everyone.

This is our new house.  I can't tell you how much I love it.  I am so grateful to finally have a home of my own, it makes me cry.  I don't think it will ever be something I take for granted again and I guess that's probably a good thing.

The Big D Vacation (part 2)

We spent basicly a whole week in California so there are tons of pictures for me to blog. Sorry, but I have to get this all done before we move.  Yes, I said move, to a house of our own, not renting but owning. I know you can't believe it, but more of that in my next blog.

  

 We started off the third and last day in California Adventures.

 The first few hours the boys went on big rides and we went to Bug Land with a few more photo opps.

 Then we all got together and went to Cars Land again.

 We stayed there almost all day riding the rides over and over again.  They really do kinda kick.

 Beckett really loves these guys.  I love the middle one he is like having a moment with McQueen.

 After Cars land and a quick couple of other rides, we ate dinner.  We did a character dinner.  Jason and I decided that Elleree was just at the right age for all the princesses at Ariel's Grotto.  She liked them enough, but didn't seem too impressed, for that matter neither were the rest of us.  So it was decided we didn't need to do that again.  That night we went to the World of Color.  Goodbye Disney.

 Next day the boys headed to Universal Studios.  

My aunt Carry came and drove me and the two munchkins to Ports of Call in San Pedro.  We used to go here when I was a kid and I haven't been in a million years.  It was funny to see things as an adult.  It always felt huge, but it is not actually that big.  Anyway it was a good relaxing day with no rushing to get anywhere and lots of resting.

 Our last day we spent at the beach.

 This is another thing I loved doing as a kid!  Now I love body surfing and playing in the water with my kids.  Elleree and Beckett didn't like it much.

 Jason is always a sport about playing with them in the sand.

They buried Truman and found lots of seashells.  I realized that I didn't get any pictures of Dillon at the beach I basically ROCK as a mom.

 We drove home that day and decided to drive all night and just push through until we got home.  About 3:00 a.m. as Jason says, an Elk hit us.  

It was pretty scary because we were all sleeping and all I heard was this huge Thud and Jason swore (which he never does) so I braced myself to flip, or smash into something.  All we did was stop.  I was so relived that it was just an Elk.  Jason was upset, but I was just happy no one was hurt and we could still drive the car. I don't even think it did that much damage.  Mostly I was upset about the smell.  Elk really, really stink and we had to smell it all the way home yuck!

The Big D Vacation (part 1)

We have been planing on taking the kids to Disneyland, for awhile now.  We finally realized it was one of those now or never kind of things.  We left Twin on September 30 and returned October 6.  It was a wonderful trip, even if we did have a few hiccups along the way. 

 The first day we stopped off in Vegas to visit some of my family.  We got to have dinner with my grandma and a few of my cousins. 

 As always my grandma cracks me up, but she is doing really well and I am glad of that.

 We headed out to Cali the next day.  About a half hour before we got to our hotel Beckett started throwing up.  Now we all know it would not be a vacation for us if one of our kids was not vomiting in the background. So our vacation had officially begun!

 Jason got us an awesome suite.  It was a little further from the Disney than we would have preferred, but whatever.  The bus rides to and from the park were an adventure.

 This made me laugh so hard.  Jason was picking up our tickets, so the kids and I were waiting near another window.  Pretty soon I see Beckett fishing out his "monies" out of his pocket.  He piled them all on the counter.

He then walked around the corner and pointed this picture. He wanted that.

 He never cared about the "Cars" cars that I had before, but we watched the movies for the 12 days of Disney, and he fell in love.  He couldn't get enough of them.

 We then headed to Downtown Disney and checked out the shops, and ate dinner.  The kids got some fun balloon shapes, and Beckett threw up in the bushes.  All in all a wonderful dinner.

 We had to stop at the Lego store.  They have some of the coolest structures.

 Who builds these things?

They have a fun play area for the kids.

 Next day we got up and headed to the park.  It took the kids (who am I kidding and me) awhile to get used to standing in line for everything.

 We stood in line to see Rapunzel, and Elleree decided that she didn't need to see any other princesses as long as we had to stand in line to see them.

It's hard because there are lots of rides that the boys didn't want to go on because they were for "little kids", but Elleree and Beckett couldn't ride on certain ones because they were not big enough.

 The day heated up to be a whooping 100 degrees, and we were melting.

 Surprising as it was though no one threw up.

Even when they exerted themselves.

 The best places to be were on the rides duh.  Not because they were fun, but because they have air conditioning.  Everyone was exhausted when we got back to the Hotel.

 The next morning we got an early start.  This gave us some photo opps.

Funniest thing happened while we were standing in line for one of the pictures, I looked over and saw some friends of ours that we knew in Idaho Falls.  It was so good to see someone you recognize, and they are a very cute family! Such a small world.

 Elleree and Beckett's favorate ride was the carisel.  Luckly the line was never very long, and they have one in both Disneyland and California Adventures.

We checked out Toon Town and Jason had to ride Splash mountain one more time before we headed over to California Adventures.

While they rode that ride we got to talk to Jack for a while.

There are even fewer rides that these two could ride in CA, so they spent lots of time like this.

 These pictures are to prove that I don't just put embarrassing pictures of my kids on here.  We decided to ride the Farris Wheel, no big deal right.  Wrong, I hate roller coasters, so if you are planing a vacation that has them and you need someone to just hang with your kids, I'm your woman.  So this Farris Wheel has seats that, well I don't know how to describe them.  They roll, it didn't seem to be a big deal from the ground.  It was a huge deal in the air.  Jason and the boys just laughed and us (Elleree and I) and took pictures.  When I saw them I had to admit it was kind of funny.

Beckett and Elleree loved these two rides.

 Our last stop of the day was Cars Land.  Beckett nearly died of the awesomeness.

 They have three rides there and all three were really fun.

When it is lit, it looks just like the movie.  I loved Cars land!  It was super cool!  

Then we headed back to the Hotel.