Princesses, superheores and cuddley tiggers!

The cutest little tiger ever! Isn't he so adorable? Benjamin loves Halloween!

Superhero showing off his muscles! Kirk was one tough transformer!

Prettiest princess on the block! Kate was a darling Rupunzel this year!

The kids were very excited to pick out their Halloween costumes this year. Kate was once again a princess, Rapunzel to be exact. I was planning on making her a long wig out of yarn, but my visiting teaching partner was Rapunzel when she was a little kid. She still had the wig, and let me barrow it! It was absolutely darling on her. As you can see in the pictures this costume would not have been very conducsive to treat or treating. So she only wore the wig for photo's. Kirk had a hard time making up his mind, but in the end he decided on being a transformer. I found a cool costume on KSL for cheap. Finally Benjamin was tiger, that was the same costume Kirk wore a couple of years ago. It was nice to just pull it out of storage. He looked adorable in it. We celebrated it on Saturday. The kids were very excited about trick or treating, but it rained so Dan drove the kids from house to house. They did pretty well, and got a lot of candy. Benjamin has turned into a little candy monster. He knows the cabinet were I stash it, and points and grunts at it. It's pretty funny to watch him throw a candy tantrum. You have to understand that he NEVER throws temper tantrums, so that's why I think it's so funny. I told Dan that Halloween has brought out the inner monster of Benjamin. I'm not worried though. The candy will soon get eaten, and he'll hopefully turn into his normal sweet self again!

Halloween Parties

Halloween is such a fun holiday. I made it easy on myself this year, and didn't sew any of the kid's costumes.

I always take the kids out to visit my 98 year old and home bound Grandma. I like to call her the energizer bunny. She has had a couple of heart attacks, but she has just bounced back and keeps on going. She looked great yesterday. She was as sharp as ever. She's the only 98 year old I know who you can sit and talk sports. She keeps up with the Jazz, and BYU football. She can remember everything, She probably has a better memory than me. She also knows whats going on with current events, and keeps her mind very active by reading a lot. Here are some photos of her with the kids.

A good example of how responsible my oldest child is. I told Kate that she could bring her doll out to visit my grandma. As I looked back I saw this. She had seat belted her doll into the van. She is so sweet!

We also had a party last week with my parents and my brother's family. We ate sloppy Joe's, and roasted masrshmellows. My Dad told the kids a Halloween story around the fire. It was fun to get together. This is a photo of Kate and her cousin Alexandra.

Last night Dan and I attended a costume party. I love dressing up for Halloween, but usually I get so focused on the kid's costumes, that I end up just throwing something together at last minute for Dan and I. Example a few years ago Dan was a skier, and I often go as a cat. But this year I was determined to come up with a fun costume to coordinate with Dan's. We decided to go with Harry Potter since the new movie is coming out in a few weeks. We may even dress up for the movie just for fun. So here is my costume.

Going as Ginny seemed like the obvious choice because of my hair color. It was very convenient not to worry about a wig. The costume was easy to get together I already had a white shirt, gray sweater, and black skirt. I just had to make the cloak, and tie, and wand.

We found an old graduation gown for Dan's cloak. We already had the white shirt, and pants, and we borrowed some glasses from his parents. They were extremely cheap costumes. I bought the ties at DI for $2.00. I had some gold spray paint and I spray painted the stripes onto the ties. I made the wands out of paper and hot glue, and paint. They were so much fun to make. You roll up the paper from corner to corner, and tape it. Then fill in the hollow ends with hot glue. Then add detail to handle and tip with more hot glue. Then paint. I used black, white, and gold paint because that's what I had on hand, but I've seen some really cool brown ones online. No one could believe that I just made them out of paper.

Here is a ultra up close one I took by holding the camera in front of both of us. Dan had already taken off his tie and glasses, but you can see his lip gloss scar on his forehead! I'll get a picture of him in his full costume tonight. He's going to be taking the kids trick or treating, and I think he'll dress up again. This theme was so much fun to do, that I'm tempted to do a Hermione and harry costume for Kate and Kirk next year. I think they would look so adorable in little ties, and cloaks. Plus I think they would be all about the wands.

Christmas Stockings

It started snowing this week, the mountains are covered with white,and it's getting me excited for Christmas! Yes, I'm one of those crazy people who start listening to Christmas music the day after Halloween. Don't get me wrong I HATE winter. I don't like driving in the snow at all, if it's storming outside, I prefer not to go out. But one good thing about the snow is that it gets me into the Christmas spirit. So last night I thought it would be fitting to start on my kid's Christmas stocking's renovation. For a long time now I've been keeping my eye's out for some really cute homemade looking stockings I could individualize for each of the kids. I just haven't found any that I liked, and would be in my price range (a $40.00 stocking x 3 ouch)! But this past summer Down East home was having a tent sale and I came across these adorable pottery barn stockings for three dollars each, seriously you can't get any cheaper than that!.

Initially I thought I'd just unpick the embroidery but that would have taken for ever, so last night I embroidered the each of the kid's names on their stocking onto some ribbon and they turned out like this.........

I actually think that they turned out cuter than the originals. I love this thick ribbon, and the look of the homemade stitching. I'm still trying to decide how to attach the ribbon. All you crafty readers do you think I should stitch the ribbon on by hand, or use a zig zag stitch on my machine?

My sister also picked up a few stocking's for her own kiddo's, hopefully this will give you some ideas for your own.

Benjamin's latest word "candy"

Fittingly this time of year I always buy Halloween candy. Somehow it always ends up getting eaten before Halloween! I recently ripped into a bag of mini recesses cups (my favorite!) and Benjamin all of a sudden learned quite quickly a new word "candy". It sounds so cute coming from him. He is such a little doll. He is just like his mother and already has a taste for peanut butter and chocolate together. Looks like he's going to be enjoying this holiday.

Tonight at dinner as usual Kirk started telling jokes. This one strikes me as really cute. "Knock, Knock"
"Who's there?"
"Darth Maul"
"Darth Maul who?"
"Darth Maul wearing a diaper on his head"!

Mountain walks, and Zhu Zhu pets

Kate and Kirk both went for a walk in the mountains on Sunday. I love fall, it's by far my very favorite time of year. Kate collected some flowers on her walk, and Kirk added to is rock collection which he keeps on top of his dresser (I'm wondering if he'll notice if a few of them disappear, their beginning to take over the dresser space). Here are a couple of pictures. Benjamin just discovered Kate's Zhu, Zhu pet this morning. He played with at all morning long. I wish I could have filmed his reaction when it started crawling on the wood floors. Once he discovered how to make it go he'd yell, yaaaaah, as it was crawling along. I think I have a Christmas present idea for him. You have to admit they are cute little toys. And since Dan and I have agreed that we aren't pet people, this is the next best thing!

I un-posted the previous post. I thought it was a little bit to much complaining to stay up. Everything with our rentals is actually going to work out just fine. I think I just needed a forum to vent too. I think Dan really appreciates my blogging, because after I had written about my frustrations I was a much happier Mom, and Wife.

Kate is Six!

Kate turned six this year. She wanted a mermaid themed party, cake, and cupcakes! It was a really fun party theme to plan around.

I made a mermaid cake for grandparents to eat on her actual birthday which landed on a Thursday. I already had a dome shaped cake pan, so I was glad to be able to use it again, (when she turned four I bought the pan for a princess cake). Luckily we already had the mermaid barbie too!

This cake was actually pretty simple. I had a lot of fun making it this year!

September 2nd is her actual birthday which landed on a Thursday this year. That day she opened her present from Mom and Dad first thing in the morning and ate breakfast on our "you are special" plate. (I always ate on a similar plate growing up and it was a fun tradition. I came across one at walmart and had to get it). After school we took her out to dinner. She chose Applebees and ordered chicken strips and fries (her favorite). Afterwards we headed back home to have cake and ice cream with the grandparents. She was very lucky this year and got some accessories to go with her American Girl doll, a beautiful picture of ballet dancers for her bedroom, and some new clothes for school. Friday we were able to score some free tickets to see Pirates of Pensance at Hale center theater. Kate had been asking us to take her to see a play, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity. We also took Kirk since he is obsessed with pirates. The play was very well done. Kirk loved watching the pirates, and Kate enjoyed the Victorian ladies dressed up in their beautiful gowns and umbrellas. It had just enough comedy to keep the kid's attention. Then Saturday was the long awaited mermaid birthday party. Kate has been planning this since Kirk had his Birthday back in March. She really wanted a swim party and I thought a luau would be a logical and easy theme for a swim party. She vetoed that idea. She really wanted to do a mermaid dress up party. I knew that this idea would be alot of work for me, but she could not be swayed. So I ended up making 10 mermaid costumes. They really were not hard at all, but when you have to do it ten times, it does become time consuming. Luckily I started back in June. I found the fabric for super cheap, and also found some Luau decorations on line for 75% off. They had these really cute flower head bands that worked as mermaid flower crowns. We did the party in the back yard by our deck. It was perfect because right now we have a big pile of sand back there. We are in the process of making a sand box beneath out deck. It looked like a beach. I made a fish sea mural on our deck out of butcher paper. I also decided to hire a company who does character appearances for birthday parties. Ariel came to the party, and entertained the kids for the first part. We took pictures with her in front of our waterfall.

(Here's a picture with all of the girls, sorry Jennie, I didn't realize Izzy was in the back. I'll e-mail you an individual shot I got. Kirk just made my day when he said "you look pretty in that picture mommy", I'm thinking it's because of the hair.

I thought Kate would be a little more excited about it, but she was being very shy. She didn't want to sit by her, and didn't really look at her alot of the time.. It was kind of expensive so I was hoping Kate would have been a little more excited about it. She probably was inside, she just doesn't show her emotions alot. I would still totally recommend them. The girl did an amazing job, her costume was beautiful, and she sang, and told the girls her little mermaid story. Most of the girls loved it! Then we had cup cakes, opened gifts and went swimming in Kate's grandparents pool. It was convenient since our home is right behind theirs. The girls just walked right back. It was a wonderful day for her, but I do think it's time to just start doing birthday's every other year now. I'm glad I did this one for her since this is probably the last year she'll enjoy dressing up, and all of the little girl stuff. She is growing up so fast now, that I feel like I need to really savor the next couple of years before she becomes a tween. Not that the tween stage is bad, I'm just trying to savor every stage she goes through. I hope that as she grows, we can become really good friends.

Week of many firsts!

Well two weeks ago Kate started Kindergarten. I know I know two weeks is forever ago, and I'm such a slacker. But this was a big milestone in her life. She enjoys her class. There are a few boys in our neighborhood that are in her class with her. We have decided to try the new french immersion program at her elementary school. This is definitely something I really mulled over. I didn't like the idea of her getting behind in her other subjects just to learn french. But after reading alot about the program I decided that in the long run after she's completed all of her elementary grades she'll be better off. Kate only let me take one picture of her. The first day was only an hour long, and then they do kindergarten testing the rest of the week, so it was a little anticlimactic for Kate. She was expecting a little more from her first week of school.

I think the most exciting part of Kindergarten for Kate was riding the bus to school. After all kindergarten is still only half of the day. I still get to have lunch with her. But riding the bus was a totally new experience for Kate. She jumped right on and didn't look back! I'm so proud of how well Kate is doing. She loves school, and is always excited to learn. We love you sweetie. Kirk will be starting his preschool class in the afternoon on Tuesday. I'll post some pictures of him then.

Benjamin's new toy

Benjamin's new favorite toy. Benjamin discovered my mirror. He carried it around saying "Hi, Hi" to it. He thought it was so fun to see himself in the reflection!

Kate looses her first tooth!

Well we have many firsts coming for Kate. She will be going off to her first day of school in one week, and today she announced that her tooth was loose. I figured it would come out in a few days, but it was more like a few minutes. It popped right out, she pulled it out herself! She was so excited. She just kept telling everyone how excited she was to loose her first tooth. I was pretty excited too, and I wanted to make this moment special so I made her a little tooth box with a pillow so her tooth wouldn't get lost. Of course the tooth fairy came tonight, I'll be excited to see her reaction in the morning. I was asking Dan what I should do with the tooth, he suggested that we throw it away so she wouldn't see it and suspect that we were the tooth fairy. I sat and stared at this tooth for a minute, and realized that I couldn't just throw it away. I actually started crying. This was her baby tooth. It might have been the very first one. I still remember the night I discovered that she had broke her first tooth. We were sitting in her rocking chair, and she was fussing. I rubbed her bottom gums, and there it was, her darling little baby tooth. She wasw such a darling baby. I can't dispose of something that was part of her. So I've tucked the tooth away in a safe place, but I really don't know what to do with it. I can't hold onto it forever, but I won't throw it away either. If anyone has an idea of what to do with tiny little baby teeth please let me know. Having a box full of old teeth sounds kinda yucky to me. I was trying to think of some cute way of storing it. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. I feel like I'm entering a new phase of life. Now that Kate's about to start school, and she's growing into such a beautiful little girl. It's strange how they go from being a little baby bouncing on your knee, to a school grade child loosing their teeth! I swear she's not old enough to be loosing her teeth yet. If I'm crying over her loosing a tooth, I don't even want to see me taking her to her first day of Kindergarten. It's like taking this big step into a whole new chapter of her life. She's no longer going to be here at home with me being my little helper. She's so much help with Benjamin, and she's incredibly patient with Kirk. I love her so much. She truly is such a special little girl.

Okay just a few more shots I did in front of our waterfall. I'm loving the RAW images. It almost makes picture taking fool proof. I can alter the exposure, saturation, lighting, and even make the photo apear cooler, or warmer. It's awsome. I think I enjoy editing the photos more than taking them! I loved this one of Benjamin.

First time editing photos in RAW format

So I finally decided to try doing a serious photo shoot and attempt to develop my images from RAW format. I decided that getting a perfectly crisp black and white photo is a lot harder than it looks, especially when your subject is a rambunctious toddler. I am quiet pleased with the two that turned out to be in focus. Please let me know what you think!

This is my Baby boy! Benjamin's looking more boy and less baby everyday! He's actually thinned out a lot since he started walking. No wonder, he's everywhere! I wish I had his energy!

In this picture he seems to be a good mix between Kate and Kirk. All of our kids look alike, but none of them have their parents coloring. Kate and Benjamin get their blue eye's from their Grandpa Mower.

I like this shot because of he light reflecting in his eyes. His skin looks a bit pale, I hate the pale vampire look. I'll have to play around on photo shop to see if I can fix it. His hair almost looks red in this photo. Maybe there's some hope that he'll turn into a strawberry blond!

This photo isn't very crisp, but you can't beat the smile! This is one I snapped of Kate. Still not as focused as I'd like, I can't believe how hard it is to keep a steady hand, I think in low light with a higher ISO setting you almost need a tripod or something. Anyways if anyone has some tips to get a more crisp focused portrait let me know. It looks fine when it's mini like this, but It's really out of focus when it's full sized on my computer monitor. I love the expression in this one, She was not very happy about me doing a photo shoot on her. My kids are getting pretty fed up with getting their pictures taken. I think the wedding a couple of weeks ago ruined them. They never want to pose for another picture again.

Lucky Seventh Anniversary

My favorite wedding picture of Dan and I. I love this one because of the Temple shot in the background. I Always call it my Ensign picture, because the temple looks so stunning that could could have been a temple picture,( if we weren't in the middle of the photo of course).
I was just looking through our old wedding pictures, and we looked so young. It's amazing how you can get older together, but not feel any older at all.

So yesterday we had a wonderful day all to ourselves. My awesome sister in law AnnieLaurie watched our kids for us. We started the day off by going shopping for Dan's scouting overnighter (that's where he is right now). Then we went to get some breakfast ( I guess it was more like brunch since it was close to 11:00 before we got to sill's cafe). After we ate we hiked up Adams canyon ( I really needed to burn off my scone and honey butter). I haven't done that hike since I was in seventh grade. Then we came back and watched clash of the titans (great movie). The house was so quite, and it was so nice to just relax, and take a much needed nap. Then we went out to dinner at the Olive Garden. After dinner we picked up the kids, and Dan packed for the scout trip he was leaving for the next day. I was just reminiscing on our early married life, and realized how much time has really past. Seven years is starting to sound like a really long time. It's crazy because it seems like we've always been together, but at the same time our married life has really flown by very quickly. Sometimes I think being a stay at home mom is really similar to how Dan describes his mission. He always said that the "days felt like weeks and the weeks felt like days". I think that is so true to my life right now. Some days feel so long, that I don't think they'll ever end, but the weeks just fly by. We had a wonderful day yesterday. The last seven years have been full of their ups and downs, but I wouldn't change a single thing. I'm so much of a better person for being married to Dan. He is so dedicated to our family. He works so hard to provide for us, and is always striving to be a good father and husband. Thank you sweetie for a wonderful seven years.

Wonderful Wedding

Yesterday was my brother-in law's wedding. It was such a wonderful day. I always cry at weddings. There's something so special about two people devoting to spend the rest of their lives together. I always think about the road that lies ahead of them. What bumps will they run into, what hills will they climb together. What will they be able to accomplish with each other. Dan and I were talking last night and we can't believe where the time has gone. We feel like we were just married, but now we have three kids. It's amazing changes time brings to ones life. It rolls on weather your ready for it to or not. I think that this thought hit me hard as I watched Michael dance with his mother last night. It made me reflect on the fact that someday that will be me with my sons. I'll be getting the last dance. Right now I'm the center of my children's world, but eventually I'll be sending them off to start their own families. I apologize for sounding dreary.

The wedding was absolutely beautiful. They were married in the Logan Temple. The sealer did a wonderful job, and the spirit was so strong. I think Micheal and Haley are a very special couple. We then had pictures taken. Each family wore matching ties, and dresses. The pictures turned out so cute. Here are few of our family.

The Mower family's good friend Greg Daich took this picture for us. I think he did a great job! I wonder if Benjamin's tie tasted good? If the Kate's dress looks familiar it's because be coincidence my little brother's colors were the same ones that Haley chose. The colors turned out beautiful. I love that orange!

I had to post this photo. The captures Benjamin's personality to a tee. He is so happy (most of the time).

Then we headed home to drop off the kids before going to the wedding luncheon. Big thanks to my Mom and Dad for tending the kids for us so we could just enjoy the dinner.

Then we hurried home to get ready for the reception. They had set up the yard and it looked beautiful. The weather started to go bad. We all hoped it would blow over, and the weather man predicted that it should. Just before the reception was about to start it started to pour. Everyone who was helping in the ward was so amazing and scrambled to get everything inside. They brought in the buffet table, and served the food downstairs in Micheal's parents gym (thank goodness they have the gym). Micheal and Haley greeted the guests inside. It all worked out. I felt bad that all preparations to have the wedding outside came to not, but it does go to show that weddings aren't about the flowers, or the table decorations. They are about two people sharing their day with their friends and family. Everyone still had a wonderful time, and the rain cleared up near the end of the night. Micheal and Haley were able to cut their cake outside underneath the beautifully lit trees. They also were able to dance and have a good time before they took off for their honeymoon. Here are some more pictures. I took tons, but these are the favorites.

Robbie is Benjamin's buddy. He helped us keep an eye on him during the reception. He loved walking around and exploring. I have to keep my eye on him, because he takes off and doesn't look back to make sure I'm following him.

Kate looked beautiful in her new dress. She was so excited to finally wear it!

I like this picture of Dan and I. I told him he looks like a Ken doll with his pink tux on! I've never seen him in that color before, and he looked really great.

Haley getting ready to throw her bouquet.

I really like this picture because it shows Micheal and Haley dancing with their Mom/Dad. I liked how it captured both of them in the same shot.