Halloween '09

We had a pretty fun and busy Halloween this year. To start it off, we carved pumpkins on the Wednesday before Halloween. (Well, Terry and I carved ours, the kids drew on theirs.) Then on Thursday we went to a family costume party that our friends, The Highs, put on. We all dressed up, and there was a ton for the kids to do. They bobbed for apples, did a cake walk, decorated cookies, and also had a pinata. There was a ton of food too! Thanks Ashley and Cameron for the fun party! The next night we had another family costume party that our friends, The Daniels, put on. We put our costumes back on, and played a bunch of Halloween themed games, while the kids played their own games with a couple of teenage girls. It was nice to have the kids busy so that us adults could socialize without the kids bugging us. Thanks Angela and Tyson, it was fun! Then on Halloween night we went to our church for a "trunk or treat." The kids got a ton of candy, though I personally enjoy the "traditional" trick or treating. It is way more fun going door to door for your candy. Oh well, maybe we will do that next year. We had alot of fun and look forward to next year! Here are some pictures taken from all of the fun...

Ashlyn showing off her beautiful pumpkin.
Blake with his.

Me carving mine.

(Enjoy the prego shot, cause its the last one your gonna get!)

All of us posing under our pumpkins. Notice the baby's tiny pumpkin on the end.

(If Terry loved me AT ALL, he would have told me to sit up or something, cause I look HUGE in this picture!)

These 2 pictures are from Blake's school. This was at their costume parade.

Ashlyn dressed as batgirl.

(She wanted to be batman, so we settled on batgirl!)

Blake as Darth Vader

Our whole family. Terry and I are rockstars.

Ashlyn wearing "billy bob" teeth. How ugly is this!!

Terry's parents stopped by the house to show the kids their costumes!

Baby Names...

Now that it is getting cold, I feel like the time is getting closer for the baby to come. I only have a little over two months left. I am getting really excited and anxious to meet the little guy. The only problem is, I cannot think of a name!!!! I have a million little girl names, but boy names are just tough. One name that I really like is Ryan, but Terry has vetoed that name because he says he has multiple cousins with that name. Also, I would really like to use my dad's name, Mark, as a middle name, so it needs to flow with that. Here are a list of some of the names I am considering, but I just haven't fallen in love with any of them yet, and some of them I can tell that either friends or family does not like. So I need your HONEST opinion. The fate of a child being picked on for the rest of his life depends on this name. If you can't be honest than it doesn't help!!! LOL! Tell me from the list which names you like, and which names you do not like. And if you can think of any other names not listed, please share. I'm not one of those people who like to wait til the baby comes to see if the name fits. I like to have a name picked out ahead of time. So here they are... and be honest people...

Jesse

Lance

Drew

Kyle

Dylan

Benson

Davis

Bennett

Justin

Dustin

Some of these names sound good by themselves, but when you put it with Mark or Olson, it doesn't sound as good. What do you think? Please help me pick a name... I'm begging you!!! Thanks!

What's in that sippy?

I was recently looking through some old pictures and ran across these. I'm not sure what we used to feed the kids, but from the looks of it, it must have been laced with something! Here are the kids passed out at the table, Blake on one occasion and Ashlyn on 2 separate occasions...

Summer 2009

This summer we had alot of fun. There were a few things that I have yet to blog about because I really have not been in the blogging mood. So I figured I would make one big blog to highlight a few of the things that we have done. So here goes...

We made it to one Chukar's game this year. And only because it was free!! Our friends, the Daniels, had some free tickets so they invited us, and the Nelson's, to a game with them. It was pretty fun. This is the first game that we have been to that the other team didn't "blowout" the Chukars. We left after the 7th inning while the Chukars were winning, and I believe they won the game. We actually enjoy going to the games but it is just way to hard to go with the kids. They get bored pretty easy. So maybe when they are a little bit older we can be regulars to the game. We will see...

Here we are at the game.

Blake and Terry hoping to catch a foul ball.

We also made it down to Rexburg's "splash park". This was also with the Daniels. Their little girl Ellie had her 3rd birthday party here and invited us to go. It looks like a really fun place for the kids. It has a bunch of water fountains that squirt up from the ground, slides, and at the very top of the structure it has a huge red bucket that is constantly being filled up with water, then when it is full the bucket tips over and pours all of the water on the kids heads. So fun and cute!! The whole time we were there I was wishing I was a kid again. Ashlyn didn't play that much, she just stood by splashing in the water. She hates getting water in her face so she refused to go up on the big toy. Blake on the other hand thought it was a blast, but the water was cold and he couldn't handle it for too long.

Here is Blake getting sprayed in the back with water.



My little chicken. This is all she would do.
(If you look at the top of the picture you can see the big red bucket I was talking about.)



Blake going down the slide.



Last but not least... during Labor Day weekend, we went down to Boise to be with my sister Jenna and her family to watch them be sealed to their newly adopted baby girl Sadie. They also had her blessing that weekend as well. Here are some pictures taken at the temple...

Our little family.

Here is a picture with my entire family.

(From the top left: My dad, mom, brother Ricky, me, Terry, Brother-N-Law Glenn holding baby Sadie, sister Jenna, Caitlyn, Caleb, Brother-N-Law Daniel, Joslyn, and sister Aja. Bottom left: Blake, Ashlyn, Baylee, and Jaedyn.)

My sister Jenna with her family.

All of the cousins.

(Baylee, Blake, Caleb, Sadie, Ashlyn, Caitlyn, Jaedyn, and Joslyn.)

We also made it to a "play land" called Wahooz while we were in Boise. I didn't get any pictures there because I didn't want to have to carry my camera around. There, we got to ride Go Carts, and Bumper Boats. There was a big "little kid area" with slides and things to climb on. Also batting cages and arcade games. The kids had alot of fun!

Little Man's Big Day

Blake had his first day of Kindergarten on August 24th. He was really excited to get started. His teacher's name is Mrs. Huntsman. Below are some pictures from his first day.

Giving us a goofy pose.

Notice how excited Ashlyn looks that he is leaving!

Hugging his sister goodbye.

Heading out the door.

His best bud Dallin is in his same class.

Sitting at his table. Dallin was also sitting at this table, but it sounds like that only lasted for a day. I'm not a bit suprised, they probably talked the whole day.

Blake didn't get to ride the bus for three days after starting school. The school was still working on the bus schedule. But finally on August 27th he took his very first bus ride. Man was he excited for that!! When he started walking up the steps I tried to take his picture but he turned around right as I took it, so I yelled wait, and had him turn around to take it again. Afterwards, the bus driver glared down at me and said, I am already five minutes late! I thought to myself... Blake's stop is the first stop! If you are 5 minutes late that is nobody's fault but yours! Looks like Blake is going to have a FUN bus driver!

Camping Trip

Lastnight we decided to take one last camping trip before Blake starts Kindergarten. So we quickly packed up our trailer and headed over to Rigby Lake. I know... Rigby Lake?? Why? Well, believe it or not we had a really good time. Everytime we go camping we think we have to make the drive all the way to Island Park, but we really wanted this to be a no work/easy going camping trip. So we just threw some over night stuff in the trailer and made the 10 minute drive. It was really nice. The kids were able to fish and play in the water, and the fish were biting like crazy! They both caught 4 fish each. We probably would have caught more, but decided to call it quits. It was really fun to get away with just our little family and enjoy eachothers company before the stress of school starts. We will definately be planning more quick trips to the Lake!

Wating for a fish.

She's got a bite.

Reeling it in.

Showing off her very first fish ever!

(as soon as they let the fish go Ashlyn yelled that she wanted to catch another one.)

Waiting for his turn.

(The boy in the back was just camping next to us.)

Thinks he has one.

Reeling it in.

(we somehow forgot to get a picture with his fish.)

And since I am never in any of the pictures, I wanted to make sure there was some proof that I do actually spend some time with my family!

(Please ignore how terrible I look. I am camping after all and pregnant and the wind is blowing! Lol!)