Halloween 2011

I'm generally a Halloween scrooge. It's just not one of my favorite holidays. But the kids were so excited this year, it made it pretty fun.

Ally and I were invited to a witches party. We had a good time hanging out with a bunch of scary witches, and eating some delicious food.
We made these cute Q-tip skeleton's for some Halloween decorations.
The kids had a costume parade at school.

Their favorite part: carving pumpkins. I got some huge pumpkins this year. I could barely lift them to get them into the shopping care.

Javan helping Ally scoop out the guts.
Ally popping out the eyes.Everyone working hard on their pumpkin.
Ally trying to help me decide how to carve in some hair. And Ryan doing a little side work on the pumpkin.
All done.
Our pride and joy, made by Javan. (We got the idea from his brother Mike.)
The costumes. Ethan was a tough ninja, Ally was a very scary vampiress, and Ryan was a super buff spiderman.
Ready to head out trick-or-treating. Maybe this is their favorite part. Ryan was so pumped for trick-or-treating this year. After each house he would turn and run back toward Javan and I yelling "I got a treat", like it was a big surprise everytime. They got so much candy, their buckets were overflowing.

Happy Halloween! (I guess) (Just kidding)

Deer Hunt 2011

We had a very successful hunting season this year. Michael and my dad hunted during the muzzleloader season. They had both shot, hung, and cut up their deer before I even knew they both got one. We didn't get a picture of Grandpa's deer. And had we not just happened to pull up as Michael was getting ready to leave we wouldn't have seen his deer either. He shot this pretty nice 3-point.
Austin, Payton, Dave, and my two cousins, Brad and Colby all shot their deer on this one evening. We had quite the meat factory going.
One night while we were out hunting my dad and Javan spotted some "big" deer. So Javan and I jumped out of the truck to try and get in front of them. Javan was so excited he just grabbed his orange vest and threw it on. I was busting up laughing while I was trying to keep up with him from behind, while taking a picture. When we turned around and saw me taking his picture he was quite disgusted that I wasn't taking the hunting seriously.
We did get in front of the deer, only to realize that the "big" deer they had seen were a bunch of 2-points. My kids were so excited and kept asking "Mom, are you going to shoot it?" "Mom, can you shoot it?" So I went ahead and took him down. The kids were fascinated with the whole process of gutting and cleaning out the deer. We had a pretty indepth anatomy/biology lesson.
So proud of Mom.
Steve shot this crazy 4x2. This was Cole's first deer hunt, so he was super pumped that they got a deer.
Davis shot this little spike on the last day of the hunt. Sure made some yummy jerky. Thanks Davis.

Way to go everyone. Until next year.

Fall Fun

Just a few pictures from some of our activities this fall.

Ethan and Ryan all tuckered out from some serious Lego building.
Ryan loves dad's new iPad. It's amazing that a 3 year old knows how to navigate and operate it.
Ryan and Ethan constructing something (?) in the sandbox. Again, too cool for shirts.

We had crazy hair day at school.

I was quite proud of Ally's hair. She won a t-shirt for her this masterpiece.

Ethan played flag football. He was so fired up when I told him I signed him up. He did not want to play. But once he got started, he really liked it.

He loved it when he got to hike the ball.


Running the ball. He even scored the winning touchdown on the last game of the season. What could be better than that. He scored one other touchdown earlier in the season.
In the huddle.
The team. Go Blue!
Great job BUD!

4 Months

Since I've been such a huge slacker on blogging, I thought I ought to mention that we are pregnant with baby #4.  This is something I have wanted for quite awhile now and had a bit of a hard time talking Javan into.  But now he's completely on board and we are both super excited for our new addition.  

I am also ecstatic to announce that we are having another girl!  While I love my boys to pieces.  I couldn't be happier for Ally and I that we are going to have another girl around the house.

I love being pregnant and my pregnancies have always gone really well. But this time around has been a lot harder on my body.  I guess I'm just not as young as I used to be.  And I hate admitting it. We are so excited to welcome a new sister into our family.

Dolores River

We took a day trip with Grandma and Grandpa Young and Bayley and her family to the Dolores River to play in the water and have a picnic. The kids found the mud in no time at all.
Grandpa Glade relaxin' and watching the kids.
Playing in the river.
The big boys made a crawdad prision.
Poor Willie fell face first into the mud. This was after a little cleaning, but he had mud in every oriface on his head. Poor kid.
Ryan found a caterpillar.
All the kids raiding the candy stash in the car.

Happy 3rd Birthday Ryan!

Ryan turned 3 years old on September 3. We were actually in Manti at the wedding that day so we didn't celebrate until we got back home. I had one of my friends from work make Ryan this super cute dragon cake and we picked it up in Monticello on our way home from the wedding. Ryan was so excited to see it. It was dark in the car and he kept asking me to turn on the light so he could see the cake. Aunt Michele had given him a flashlight for his birthday earlier that day so he pulled it out and shined it on the cake the whole way home. It was pretty cute.

The birthday boy showing off his awesome cake.

Ethan and Ally didn't want to be left out.
Opening presents.
Playing with his new toys.
I got the ice cream out to soften before we cut the cake. Ryan snuck in for an early taste.
Blowing out the candles. We had to relight the candles about 5 times so all of the kids could have a turn blowing them out. Ryan wanted several turns.

Happy Birthday Ryan!

WE LOVE YOU!

Labor Day at Arch Canyon

On Labor Day we loaded up all the kids, a couple of Rhino's and some Subway sandwiches and headed to Arch Canyon for a day of fun. We explored some different trails and went on a couple small hikes.

Everyone getting ready to hit the trail.
Ryan checking out the rock.
The "other" rhino.
Cole and Ethan were too cool for their shirts.
Amber and I in the stalagtite/stalagmite cave.
In the cave.

Fun day guys. Wish you lived closer so we could hang out more often.