Ally's 5th Birthday!

On November 22, Ally turned 5 years old. I can't believe she is already 5. She will go to kindergarten in the fall. She is just so little that it doesn't seem like she's "big" enough to be this old. She was so happy to be turning five and she was so excited for her birthday, and especially excited to have her first "friends" birthday party. She decided to do a My Little Pony theme.

Ally with her My Little Pony cake.


Playing pin the beauty mark on the pony.


Opening presents. This portion of the party is always so chaotic, I need to get better control here. Ally got lots of fun presents from her friends, thank you everyone for being so generous.


We even had some real ponies come to the party for the girls to ride. It was so much fun, all the girls loved it. Thank you Keri and Skyler for bringing them up.


Time for cake. Getting ready to blow out the candles.

Mmm..mmm.. everybody loves cake!

Pony Pinata. This is a ribbon pull pinata, great for indoors. Each girl pulled out a ribbon from the bottom of the pinata and the candy slowly started falling out.

All the girls: Paris, Kamron, Tenli, Keira, Ally, Gwen, McKinley, Ashlynn, and Ella. They got little bubbles in their party sack and I couldn't divert their attention away from them to get a picture.

Ally had a great birthday. While I can't believe she is growing up so quickly, she is such a good girl (most of the time), and so fun to have around. She loves to help me with whatever I'm doing. She loves girly things like make-up and fingernail polish, but loves riding motorcycles, and 4-wheelers, and playing in the dirt with the boys too. We're glad she's part of our family. We love you!

Happy Birthday Ally!

Halloween 2010

While I haven't been overly excited for the cold weather to roll in, the kids are making the best of it. They piled a bunch of blankets on the tramp and had a good time jumping and playing with them and then settled in to get warmed up.



Ryan actually fell asleep for real. It was a rare moment that Ethan was actually nice to him and laid quietly by him so he could fall asleep instead of pestering and making him scream.


We had a pretty fun Halloween this year. I didn't know if the kids were going to be able to hold out long enough for Javan to be home to carve pumpkins with them. They about drove me nuts, but they didn't want to do it without him. Our neighbors J.J. and Paris came over to help with the carving. (I actually ended up taking Ryan to the doctor so we weren't even there.)


Ethan pulling out the guts.


Ally wanted to color her little pumpkin all black first.


Ethan and Javan made this fancy Redd Mechanical worker pumpkin climbing up a ladder.


Ethan, Ryan, and Ally with their pumpkins.


Ally was a witch this year. She was super excited to have her hair painted green, and anything she touched after that.


Ryan was a cowboy. He was so proud of his hat and loved wearing it. He thought trick-or-treating was the greatest thing in the world. We walked around to people's houses, knocked on their door, and they gave us candy. It was awesome. After each house he would say "More canny in my basket." I'm pretty sure it was his best day.


Ethan was a motorcycle rider. That was easy cause he already has all the gear. He didn't want to wear his boots trick-or-treating though, he said they were too hard to walk in.


They had a costume parade and party at school. I had to work, but Grandma Shan went and watched. Thanks Grandma Shan for the pictures.



By the time we got home from visiting all the grandparents and trick-or-treating in our neighborhood the kids baskets were completely full and they were worn out, even asking to go to bed. So I guess it was a success.

Happy Halloween!

A Missing Tooth, Finally!

I can't believe what little blogging I have been doing. I used to be so diligent. Anyway, seems like we've been so busy and with Javan being gone to Moab, and me a single mother I just haven't found the time.

But, on September 19, Ethan lost his first tooth. He has been waiting soooo long. Even in Kindergarten when other kids in his class were losing teeth he was wondering when it would be his turn. Finally his first tooth got loose and he couldn't leave it alone. He asked me to help him pull it out. I tried a few times holding it with a tissue be couldn't get it and then he wouldn't let me touch it again. So a few days later I told him I just wanted to wiggle it and he let me, then I told him "On the count of 5 I'm going to flick it." So I counted 1, 2, 3,....flick. Out it came. He was kind of laying back so the tooth shot back into his mouth, I grabbed his head and flinged him forward so he wouldn't swallow the tooth. He was a little mad that I tricked him but super happy and proud that his tooth was finally out. That night he put his tooth under his pillow and was beyond happy in the morning to find that the Tooth Fairy left him $5! (The Tooth Fairy knows his mom likes teeth!) His next tooth is getting loose now so it won't be far behind.




Ethan also played flag football this fall. He really enjoyed it but was a little intimidated cause he was the smallest guy on his team. He had a good time though, and did a great job. (I could never remember to bring my camera so the pictures aren't very good.)

Happy 2nd Birthday Ryan!

On September 3rd Ryan, my baby, turned two. I can't believe he is already 2, it has gone by so quickly.

He is such a funny boy, he keeps us laughing all the time. He is such good boy, and talks non-stop. He LOVES candy and treats, and anything sweet. He also loves pretzels, and nuts, I guess he loves to eat anything as long as it's not dinner. He loves to ride bikes and play outside in the sand box, trampoline, or swinging. His favorite toys are motorcycles, 4-wheelers, trucks, and tractors. His absolute favorite thing to do is GO. No matter if it's riding in Dad's truck, the 4-wheeler, or Rhino, riding on the tractor, or lawn mower with Grandpa Craig, or the skid loader or mini-ex with Grandpa Mike. As long as he's "going" he's happy. He gives really good squeezes and kisses, and I just can't get enough of them.

To celebrate Ryan's birthday we went for a ride in the Rhino. So we got some Subway sandwiches and headed out.


We stopped at a little stream. Ethan and Ally wanted to build a bridge all way across.


Ryan showing Javan the spider on the water.


I was just taking some pictures of my surroundings as we were sitting by the stream.


Not sure what they were looking at.


Back on the trail, and soon they were all asleep.


Cute little Ally.


I made Ryan a tractor cake for his birthday. He was so excited when he saw it. He didn't want to wait for the party.


We had a little party/cookout with Grandpa & Grandma Halls, and Grandpa & Grandma Redd and Grandma Patsy. We had a yummy dinner, then let Ryan open his presents. Once he figured out that he was supposed to rip off the paper, he was all over it. He was so funny too, because he was so excited to open each present and would say "ooohhhh" with each one. Then we had to take each one out of the package and play with it for minute before he would let us move on to the next.


Javan and I gave him the wiggle bike. He's been riding one over at Grandma Shan's and was a little confused that we had one at our house. He loves his wiggle bike and is very protective of it.


It was finally time for cake.


Ryan loved blowing out the candles.


Singing Happy Birthday!


And finally he got to eat the cake. Yummy!


It was like, just as soon as Ryan turned 2 he started terrorizing our house. First, he dumped out an entire bottle of Ally's nail polish. Thank goodness it was on the kitchen floor, and not the carpet so it could be wiped up easily.


Then, he dumped his cup of pink juice in Ethan's frog/snail tank and sprinkled them with salt and pepper. We were kind of worried about the snail and salt combo, but we changed the water real quick and they survived the assault.


Then, he got into Ally's make-up and made himself and a few thing around him really pretty.


He's quite a whirlwind for such a little guy. But he's so cute, it's hard to be mad at him for too long. I love him to pieces.

Happy Birthday Ryan!

Petting Zoo

This post is a little out of order, oh well. The weekend before school started I wanted to do something fun with the kids. We didn't have time to go somewhere far so we headed to Moab to spend the night with Javan. On Friday night we went to the movie "Despicable Me". It was hilarious. Ryan did great as long as we kept him supplied with popcorn, soda, and candy. Then we went to dinner, and back to Javan's house, where Javan and I slept cozily in his twin bed. Then next morning Javan made us a yummy breakfast and we headed for home.

On the way home we stopped at the Hole n''the Rock store. They have a little petting zoo, that was actually really fun for the kids.


We bought a bucket of food to feed the animals. First we fed the deer.


Then the goat.


There were two huge bull-things (they had some crazy name) that were fighting over the food.


We were hoping the camel would spit or something.


The birds were hilarious. They would walk around normally and then I guess when they felt threatened or wanted to show off they would puff their chest up and walk around like the owned the place. Look how far back their heads are. Crazy birds.



The horses were fun because if you walked by without feeding them they started kicking the fence until you came back. So we thought it was pretty funny to tease them by walking away until they started kicking and then go back and feed them.


Ryan tried to feed the ostrich a carrot and it about ate his whole had. It scared him to death, and me too a little. Once the scariness wore off he was fine, no lasting damage.


The turkey was the last animal and Ally was feeding it the last of our food when it nipped her. She screamed bloody murder and I thought for sure one of my children had lost a finger this time. But, after she calmed down, and saw there was no blood, she was fine too.


We decided not to take a tour of the house but walked around the grounds a little. The kids liked the "dead guy" up in the mine car.


But were pretty disappointed that this old ride didn't work.


We had a pretty good time on our little "staycation". Next time you're near Moab check out the petting zoo.