HALLOWEEN 2007

The "idiot" mime, (SHE chose that, not me!), "Luigi" from Mario bros., and a tiny army dude.

School parade.........

Josh was so excited, he said a lot of big kids LOVED his costume and made comments like, "Oh cool! It's Luigi!". I witnessed this interest as well while we were out trick-or-treating, Josh just loved the attention!

"The Idiot Mimes"


By the end of the parade, Eddie was through and very fussy. I was bouncing him while he was crying and rubbing his eyes. Next thing I know, the crying stopped, he was in the middle of a fussy eye rub, and he was OUT. His little hand was kind of stuck to his face for a few mins, but started to fall while I had my girlfriend, Carly, take this picture. It was pretty cute.

Trick-or-treat!!! Cheyenne, Alyson, and Josh.

On our way out......

It's hard to see, but I had a punk-mohawk-thing goin' on. It was fun.

At the end of the night, Josh got into PJ's, and he and Alyson squished into his "hideout" under my art room shelves and watched Spiderman until Carly was ready to leave, (or found her keys she lost out in the neighborhood)

Poor Josh, as I'm typing this, I just realized I forgot to wash off his mustache before he went to bed, I just got right to blogging! At least he brushed his teeth!

busy, fun day

The day after my friend's Halloween party, (next post), we had Joshua's buddy, Josh over to make some "gloop" and "goo". He is on his way home with his experiments, a bag of chocolate doughnuts, and a rubber snake he used to play in the goo. Josh still has some residue "mustache" from his Mario costume from the party. :)
Jade and Morgan decided they wanted to earn some money, (inspired by Jade and April's venture the year before in Vegas), so the girls have been raking leaves in the neighborhood.

We LOVE the colors around here, I can't imagine ever getting tired of the season changes around this place.

Great party!

Monday night was my girlfriend, Jennifer's, Halloween party. She invited our good friend Jen Myers and myself to join her. We were all in the same ward in Vegas and became good friends, then we all moved up within 40 mins of each other here. We still have a few girlfriends left in Vegas, but we are hoping at least one of them moves up here in the next few years. :) It was a great night, I got my "girlfriend" fix. :)
Jen Myers has this ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS baby boy Jackson. (I don't know how else to describe him, you just want to pinch and kiss his little chubby cheeks!) Our boys are 6 months apart, (her husband is tall too), so we will have a couple big, romping boys in the years to come. :) haha

By the end of the night, Eddie was wiped out, I love this picture of Jen holding him.

Fall cut-back

I thought I would take some pictures of our rose bush before I trim it back to nubs, and as Joshua pointed out, would be a great time to take some pictures.

I actually had fun trimming back EVERYTHING in our yard, it felt good, cutting back always feels good.

Proud Josh

Josh is SOOOOO proud of his soccer trophy, we had to take (only) "several" photos at different angles, with different smiles and different poses. Ya, he is hooked on the whole sports thing.

He has a decent shinner doesn't he?

JADE IS BACK TO BLOGGING!!!

I sent out an email, but for those of you I didn't reach, Jade is getting back into the swing of things with her blog. Her new goal is to journal more of her life there. She just did a few random things tonight, since it's late and she needed to hurry off to bed, but it's still a cute come-back. :) Check it out when you get a chance, her link is the on side "Jade's blog". :)

P.S. she is a typical 10 yr old which means she probably loves comments more than any other blogger I know. just FYI :)

Quick note on Lindsay

Some of you know my brother Enos, he married quite the amazing gal, Lindsay, a WAY talented animator. She just did a series of sketches for Halloween. She usually posts her sketches on her blog, and they can be quite interesting, comical, lovely, or disturbing. If you are interested in viewing creative takes on life, check out her blog when you get a chance.......http://penguinstandsalone.blogspot.com/ (Love you Lindsay!!!)

btw- she is the one who drew our blog header :)

We are back!!!

Get comfy people....... I have a lot of pics to post!

I'll first mention the things I do not have pictures of, (yet), that have contributed to my lack of posting over the past week......

*We painted the inside of our house, 3 different value shades of a nice brown, I will have before and after pics soon.

*On our weekend trip home to Cali, we had another wonderful family reunion on my grandmother's side, it was a blast to be with family, as always.

*We have been super busy with holiday preparations, church activities, school projects, and sports.

*and one last side note, we are keeping Wayne Sushi, as he seems to have figured out that it is easier to just walk away from Eddie than it is to bite and get kicked out. :)

Now for the picture report......

IRA IS HOME!!! WHOOHOO!!! We made a trip down to see him and it is just wonderful to spend time with family. :)
My sweet little brother, (not so little anymore!), just came home from his 2 year mission in Washington. He is a very talented violinist, and I was able to sneak one picture of him playing with my baby brother, (again, not so little!), Joseph. It was beautiful music for sure!

Auntie Lindsay with Mia and one of the cutest babies in the world!

Bill's little sister, Becky, and her family, (Carlie, Eli, and Elisha), came over sunday night to see us. I wish we lived closer. She married a super great guy recently and this is the gang. She is pregnant, so we had to take some pictures of her holding Eddie to get an idea of what she will look like with a baby. :)

Isn't he cute, even when he is covered in mushy zwieback toast? (btw- the worn out walker he is in, my mom used with Joseph, maybe even Ira! It's so old!)

Jade and Josh having fun with their Aunties.

This wrestling match is becoming a tradition between Joseph and Bill at every visit, and so far, Bill always beats the pants off Joseph. But my baby bro is getting bigger every year, (he is 16 now), and he likes to remind us that he will soon be full grown, Bill will be an old man, and he will finally have the upper-hand. :) 2 meters is hard to beat, but the "old-man" factor might play to Joseph's advantage soon. :)

A cute pic of Mica and Eddie, with Joseph hiding in the back. :)

Sisters, sisters...... we always have such a fun time together! And we usually go through 30 or so shots trying to take funny pictures..... I was laughing SO hard I was crying in most of these.

Getting in some "girl time" with my sisters always tops off a great little vacation. :)

Eddie's Quest

Poor, sad little baby, with a blanket stuck to his bum, and no one to help him get his binky......
Got it...... now to just get it in the right way.......

Ahhhhh, that's better.......

more pics from conf. weekend

Just a few more I found from Mica and Matt's visit.........

I think Matt looks like a sacrificial offering in the middle of us. :)

He is so sweet with Eddie.

Some silly, some weird, some not.

Some mad, some sad, some not.

Sunday Night Fun!

After conference, my brother Enos, his wife Lindsay, Lindsay's parents from Texas (they are AWESOME people, wish they could have brought Lindsays sister and family as well!), our cousin Jon, Mica, and Mica's (what do we call him?), Matt, all got together at our house for dinner. It was SO much fun!
I have to make mention of a few other family members we were missing, our cousin Angelina, and Matt's family, his brother Rob and his wife, and his younger sister. Sometimes it's just hard to get EVERYONE who is in the area at the same time! But there is always the future, and we can shoot for that "everyone" goal again. :)

This is my cousin Jon, from Hawaii, (my dad's twin brother's son). He lives in Salt Lake City. It's so fun to have him close!

It was a busy, but fun weekend. Bill had to skip out after dinner to finish studying for his final certification test, (which he passed!), but it was still a great evening together, wish we could do it more often!

Flashback Friday

My sister, Mica, myself, and my brother, Enos.

We got together last night with our significant others and had a blast! I can't wait for Christmas when we will all be together, completely, since Ira will be home from his mission. I love my family!!!!

Our new "G.E.M." Max

"G.E.M." stands for "Genetically Engineered Mouse". Josh named him Max.

We are trying to find a home for our sweet Wayne Sushi, due to the fact that he does not like babies and bites them. We had heard that Lhasa's are not great with tiny children, but we got him when Josh was 3, and we did not think we were going to have any more, so it's wasn't an issue before. It is part of their breed, they are nippy with small kids. He does not like Eddie AT ALL, and gives a threatening growl if Eddie gets anywhere near him. So that is the newest drama happening at our house and the kids are trying to deal with it.

Back to Max. My brother, Enos, works at a research lab at BYU working with lab mice. I won't go into all the gory details of what he does, except that he "created" this "zebra" mouse. Half it's DNA came from actual "mom and dad" mice, the other half was genetically engineered by my brother and his team. This guy did not come out with full stripes, but close, zebra splotches I guess, and he is sterile, so they were going to destroy him. We saved his life, and he is now our Max. (Joshua's favorite cousin's name is Max) THANK YOU UNCLE ENOS!!!

The kids love him already, now we just have to find a home for poor Wayne.

Mica and Matt

Don't know why my camera took such fuzzy pics, but you get the general idea of the photos. :)
Matt is such a sweetheart, he got along great with Eddie, and the rest of the family for that matter.

He is pretty good-lookin' too, so I guess you could say he fits well in the environment? :)

My cute little bug!

LOVE his dark eyes!
This is what happens when it's child number 3 and you don't have any crib bedding!

( I did go to the fabric store and bought some super cute fabric to make a bumper, and I actually spent money on real sheets!)

FINALLY! He now sleeps in his crib, we have officially put the baby hammock away, it was great while it lasted. :)

* * * *Our First SNOW!!!!* * * *

Our first snow since we left Tokyo, no further explanation necessary :) ...............

Here is "Freddie"..... the first. :) Josh loves Freddie, (he told me to write that)